[WikiEN-l] FW: [Foundation-l] "antisocial production"

[Amory Meltzer]

Well I for one don't like it!  *HMPH!*

That being said, the roughtype article kind of sensationalizes the
results.  Matching test subjects simply by internet usage doesn't
really cut it.  Picking 69 wikipedians will likely inherently skew the
results.  The researchers would have to specifically find users who
will

1. Respond
2. Comply
3. Give an easy way to contact them

These users are for more likely to be involved in perhaps the more
Wikipedia-esque aspects (AfD, NFC, all the other Three-Letter
Acronyms) and are probably yes, inherently more likely to be more
comfortable online.  Compare that to 70 students who spend their
comparable time downloading "Single Ladies," movies, and porn, and the
results almost laid out for you.

Moreover, the result was that Wikipedians scored low on "scored low on
agreeableness and openness."  Well... those aren't exactly the traits
Wikipedia needs or wants.  Useful, yes, but not necessary.  Wikipedia,
operates on consensus, not unanimous voting.  I may still hate your
idea, but it's going to happen if there's consensus for it,
agreeableness or not.  It DOES seem to indicate that Wikipedians have
at least normal conscientiousness and neuroticism, which would
certainly lend well to working on an encyclopedia.

~Amory



On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 18:20, Marc Riddell<michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Very appropriate to this discussion.
>
> MR
> ----------
> From: Eddie Tejeda <eddie at visudo.com>
> Reply-To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
> <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:57:44 -0700
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: [Foundation-l] "antisocial production"
>
> 'Forget altruism. Misanthropy and egotism are the fuel of online social
> production. That's the conclusion suggested by a new study of the character
> traits of the contributors to Wikipedia. A team of Israeli research
> psychologists gave personality tests to 69 Wikipedians and 70
> non-Wikipedians. They discovered that, as New Scientist puts
> it<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16349-psychologist-finds-wikipedian
> s-grumpy-and-closedminded.html>,
> Wikipedians are generally "grumpy," "disagreeable," and "closed to new
> ideas."'
> http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/06/the_sour_wikipe.php
>
> I wonder how the mailing list will react....
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> WikiEN-l mailing list
> WikiEN-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
>