[WikiEN-l] Scott McCloud on Wikipedia

[Gwern Branwen]

On 2/27/07, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> on 2/26/07 9:57 PM, John Lee at johnleemk at gmail.com wrote:
> ....
> >
> > The reason I mentioned that we may have to resort to a software fix is
> > because I am very skeptical about the possibility of changing our
> culture.
>
> But wouldn¹t that be like replacing the electrical system of a car whose
> engine is shot?
> ....
>
>
> Marc Riddell



(To be utterly pedantic, the problem with the engine might be that all its
problems are because the circuits are being messed up by an irregular flow
of electricity.)

But seriously. When it comes to a wiki, code is law. Of Lessig's four
pillars (see [[Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace]]), only two are really
active. The marketplace rarely affects us - it trivially affects in so much
as it is possible to pay for hosting and other tech costs - and only late in
the game does the market become interested in us as something which can be
productivized. The law does affect us some more than the marketplace, but we
generally run a clean shop and are doing something fairly normal and
obviously productive (we aren't an illegal pedopedia operating through
Freenet, for example), so we generally just have to worry about copyright
and libel. The two most important pillars are the community and the code.
The community can work around the code to a limited extent, but if the code
says no pictures, then there's little that can be done (except fork, and
there are all sorts of reasons why a fork can't really replace Wikipedia).
If you want to force the community in a direction, then code is the most
effective way. It is not very polite or considerate, but it certainly works.
For example, I gather that quite a few people and possibly a significant
part of the active community isn't convinced that turning off anonymous page
creation has had any salutary effect, or a effect more salutary than the
negatives of that decision, but nevertheless, the code still stands and
prevents anon page creation.

--
Gwern