[Foundation-l] WSJ on Wikipedia

[Jiří Hofman]

What we really need are highly skilled encyclopedists doing their highly demanding work.

>What we need is an Office of the Editor Advocate.  Any arrested person has the right to an attorney, provided free of charge by the state.  That is what we need.  Advocate-attorneys who are on the side of the arrested editor.

I would like to know (or rather not) how Linux kernel would look like if its development would be more interested in giving advocacy to around going programmers than actual code. Yes, we do have programmers too. They just do not write code in C but natural languages. Both works require skills, both require enthusiasm, both require ability to accept critique of own work.

Like programming operating system kernel, writing encyclopedia is not for everyone. Everyone can become encyclopedist. Unfortunately, just very few people are able to achieve it in reasonable time.

Advocacy does not help. Wikipedia is not a society. Wikipedia does not need to have a growing number of editors. Wikipedia is encyclopedia. Wikipedia needs improving content. Only 100% focus on our goal can make it possible.  We do have to be nice to newcomers. However, we do have to be strict to them as well. There is nothing wrong if newcomer's text is several times rejected before it is accepted. There is nothing wrong if a certain newcomer becomes offended and leave the project. Most probably he would do it anyway later, not writing a single usable line and leaving angry editors who spent time to help him, behind. This is encyclopedia. If anybody likes to be afraid of offending somebody he should go to some social network sites. Less "social" work means more time for work on encyclopedia.

If somebody wants to think what we can improve, I have a tip: we need schools for encyclopedists. There are many schools teaching programming. I don't know about any real or virtual institution which would provide education our newcomers desperately need.

Jiří

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