[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia as a cult

[Gabe Johnson]

On 6/24/07, michael west <michawest at gmail.com> wrote:
> Other places have drawn analogogies about Wikipedia as being akin to a
> cult.  I think it does have aspects of that. The same has been said about
> Trotskyist groups.  I think that a better analogy would be that Wikipedia
> looks like a Trotskyist group (though obviously not in any political sense).
>
>
>    - Wikipedians value themselves on the amount  "counts" they are at.
>    - Wikipedians spend more time discussing policy than actually writing
>    articles.
>    - Wikipedians don't respond well to critism from outsiders.
>    - Wikipedians have an Uber Mentor (Jimbo Wales).
>
>
>
>    - Trotskyists value themselves on the amounts of "newspapers" they
>    have sold.
>    - Trotskyists spend more time discussing policy that actually doing
>    groundwork.
>    - Trotskyists would rather die than have a kind word for somebody who
>    has left the movement.
>    - Trotskyists have an Uber Mentor (Leon Trotsky, James P. Cannon,
>    Gerry Healey, Posada, Tony Cliff, Ted Grant etc. etc).
>
> Perhaps, many groups could be included not just Trotskyists (I have been a
> Trotskyist for 18 years, and been part of various schisms within even small
> groups), but use it as an example of how ordinary editors do get bogged down
> in changing perception of policy and guidelines, which many, many editors
> only get to hear about when they actually contribute.
>
> Perhaps a closed Wikipedia is the way forward, we all know that Wikipedia is
> not the encyclopedia everyone can edit.
>
> There was much criticism of Esperanza and it ended up just being a clubroom
> and block vote.  A New Esperanza type project would be helpful (wikilove is
> too crass though) but as a way of helping new editors or editors who tend to
> write new articles not get so fed up with process that they leave.
>
> Would welcome any comments.
>
> Mike33

It's true! Wikipedia *is* communism!

(I'm thinking we should have a pageg about that. [[WP:COMMUNISM]].)

Also, someone mentioned editcount. See [[WP:COUNT]]. ~~~~

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