[WikiEN-l] Scott McCloud on Wikipedia
Michael Snow
wikipedia at earthlink.net
Mon Feb 26 01:38:41 UTC 2007
Philip Sandifer wrote:
> Yes, the system is succeptible to the clueless and the crazy.
and
> If we do not assume that our userbase is primarily comprised of
> reasonably competent people who will follow the principles described
> we are screwed.
I find these two statements to be in considerable tension with each
other. The latter is not something I'm willing to assume, although it is
certainly something we should strive toward. In fact, most of the
community's social problems arise because people are too "clueless" or
"crazy" to recognize the limits of their competence. We need to figure
out how we can better push for more competent contributors.
Wikipedia's best contributors are those wise enough to know their own
limitations. They hardly ever cause a stir because they don't overreach
these limitations, or else they put the necessary effort into overcoming
them. Unfortunately, far too many people lack either the self-awareness
or self-control to respect their own limitations. That means we have to
apply external controls. This may range from deleting content that is
not helpful at all, to mercilessly editing poor-quality but salvageable
content, to evicting contributors who are an overall detriment to the
project. The proper uses of such remedies are tricky issues that require
an abundance of good judgment. The community's ability to cope with that
problem, the constant need for good and careful judgment, has not scaled
very well.
--Michael Snow
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