[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia has PR Problems

[Tony Sidaway]

2008/5/15 Mark Nilrad <marknilrad at yahoo.com>:
> If someone uninvolved with Wikipedia was following the news on Wikipedia, what kind of headlines on the news articles about Wikipedia would he see? More or less, he would see: "Jimbo Wales Financial Troubles/Philandering" (and...sexual exploits, and some troubling issues with his ex's article), "Village in Englad falls to Vandalism (about vandalism, which was immediately reverted after the story came out, to a page, which is now significantly improved, about an English village)

etc.

Actually I run a small rss news aggregator that focuses on news about
Wikipedia.  In my experience our press is overwhelmingly positive.
Even the gossipier stuff seems to make a much bigger splash within the
community and on its peripheries than it does outside--exactly the
reverse of my expectations.

Most of the debate outside Wikipedia circles, in the mainstream press,
focuses on the reliability of Wikipedia and its appropriateness for
various uses.  Those are very appropriate topics for debate and we
should take it as a huge compliment that a project built completely by
untrained volunteers is regarded as comparable in any way to the works
of highly educated specialists.  We shouldn't lose sight of that
utterly remarkable and unexpected achievement.

The fact that we're criticised (and often rightly so) isn't
surprising.  The fact that we receive so little criticism and have had
so few problems, given the open parameters and huge scope of the
project, is one of the most amazing facts of Wikipedia's existence.
Wikipedia doesn't have any significant PR problems at present.