Nathan
Yes, the environment is full of toxic people. This has
always been true,
and yet it exists. You want a revolution to make Wikipedia a friendlier
place? It isn't going to happen. There is no such place, at least not with
the critical mass of human participants that this project needs. Have you
been to a city? Have you seen Reddit or 4chan? Participated in a national
election? If so, do you really think that the WMF is going to institute
some sort of culture program that will solve problems inherent in human
nature?
Nathan
I think we in agreement that people en masse rarely organise
themselves effectively to achieve a common goal. The examples you
cite, together with Wikipedia and the other projects demonstrate that
well. The solution, then is not for some attempt to tweak the culture
so that the desired effective organisation happens spontaneously, but
for an external structure to be imposed. There are models for
organising tens of thousands of people to create, curate and
disseminate knowledge -- universities, schools, libraries, academies,
leaned societies, ...
The Turnip