[WikiEN-l] Jimmy Wales should reconsider

[Andrew Gray]

On 22/04/07, Matthew Brown <morven at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/22/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The problem is that doing lots of OTRS leaves one with a ridiculously
> > distorted view of the content of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is HUGE.
>
> I agree.  Just as police officers have a distorted view of society
> through dealing with its worst elements constantly, OTRS volunteers
> are constantly subjected to the worst, most problematic articles on
> Wikipedia.  It's easy to start thinking these are representative,
> rather than outliers.

These articles are indeed outliers, and we do know that - we do
actually edit the rest of the wiki, on occasion, too!

But we have one point seven something million articles as of the time
of writing; the absolute number of "outliers" is very, very large. And
we can't simply dismiss a problem by saying "well, relatively
speaking, it's a small problem" - it's still a problem. Being exposed
to it continually makes you more alert to it, but that doesn't mean
it's being confabulated.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk