[WikiEN-l] Just what *is* Jimbo's role anyway? - personality cult

[Zoney]

On 24/03/07, Seth Finkelstein <sethf at sethf.com> wrote:
>
> And more
> importantly, why do they *stay*, doing free labor? Stark coercion, of
> the sort if-you-leave-we'll-hunt-you-down-and-kill-you, is extraordinarily
> rare. Much of the process is about manipulating a psychological need.
> Transcendent purpose, internal status, external dangers - these are
> all deep human triggers.

--
> Seth Finkelstein
>

To be honest, my own opinion is that a lot of people are just addicted to
Wikipedia and "wiki-fiddling". I'm a former addict myself. I genuinely got
hooked adding content on Irish-related topics, because it was information I
knew about and I was happy increasing the country's profile on Wikipedia.

However, now looking at it objectively after essentially quitting for
several months, and then coming back as a casual editor, there is no way I
can justify spending my time on Wikipedia rather than putting it to better
use (even if just relaxing in order to concentrate on my studies better the
next day)!

I have serious issues too with licencing your content free of charge, I do
not think this will in the long run be good for anyone. I'm happier having a
non-profit organisation pursue it, but it is worrying in that it means
people are less careful about letting other organisations make profit from
one's work (with one seeing any payback). Citizen journalism is an example;
we will just end up without professionals, and the really proficient people
won't be able to make money from their skills.

Mind you, if there was even a normal form of author attribution (not just
page history) that would be a start!

Zoney
-- 
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