Anthony DiPierro wrote:
On 3/11/06, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
And honestly, you should know me well enough by now. No amount of political, financial, or legal leverage in the entire universe would persuade me to do the wrong thing by our mission. We have, as a community, principles and integrity. This is what we are all about.
You've changed a lot from the early days. What started out as a laissez faire "let the community decide for itself" attitude has grown more and more despotic over time.
Anthony
Whoa. Despotic, you say?
Given the history of Wikipedia, Jimbo's been the most hands-off project leader in the history of the Internet. Indeed, the community has been left to decide almost everything for itself; and this has proved, in almost all cases, to be the right thing to do.
Perhaps some of the current problems, such as the userbox nonsense and general culture wars, are partly due to this -- without continual intervention from above, many people may be unaware, or have forgotten, that the Wikimedia Foundation and its corporate structure even exists (and, in some cases, may also have forgotten about the whole "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia" mission thing).
Somebody's got to deal with these problems when they happen. Who would you prefer?
-- Neil