On 13/05/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I've been involved in plenty of online
communities, but none quite
like Wikipedia. Even if the basic problems are the same, the standard
solutions often don't apply.
Yes, that's the dilemma.
For example, in most online communities
its not a problem to have admins (or the equivalent) taking charge of
things as opposed to just doing janitorial work as they do on
Wikipedia. Wikipedia admins giving orders would be very unpopular.
Also, there is the simple matter that Wikipedia is much bigger than
most online communities. Whenever I've been involved in an online
community that was too big for true consensus driven decision making
to work there has always been people (usually paid staff) in absolute
charge. Wikipedia doesn't have that (the foundation don't intervene in
the day-to-day running).
Indeed. We have old problems without new solutions.
But that they're old problems suggests it's not simply someone being
negligent or malicious.
- d.