Dmitry Borodaenko wrote:
If it was really the case that Wikipedia moderators allowed to present right-wing opinion about anarchism as a neutral fact and dismissed Chuck0's objections, that would be a clear example of excercise of power, i.e. something anarchists oppose.
Wikipedia promotes the idea that individual entries are the collective wisdom and writing of many smart individuals. Wikipedia claims that, more or less, articles get more accurate with more eyes (and edits). The problem is that contentious topics are not just the target of mischief, but are battlegrounds for partisans with differing opinions. Traditional reference materials addressed this problem with something called "authority," which is related to the concept of "neutral point of view." Wikipedia has no effective mechanism to draw a line in disputes on contentious topics, which is why I find it hard to fully support.
As for the original question, I share Chuck0's concerns about Wikipedia: I also noticed that its NPOV tends to favor mildly right-wing opinion. However, I see this problem as something that can be and should be dealt with: if anarchists and Indymedia activists can get an equal voice over moderation issues (through sufficient transparency and accountability), that would be a great improvement over commercial media who misrepresent or in best case quietly ignore our efforts. It is not a problem that our position is labeled as "opinionated" -- as long as the opposite position is also labeled as such.
Frankly, I think Indymedia needs to develop its political principles before it undertakes big partnerships with other projects. Right now across the network, there is this problemmatic liberal belief that our newswires should be total free speech zones. Right wingers are allowed to attack leftists, activists, and independent media people. This doesn't just alienate potential participants in Indymedias, but we are providing our enemies with the rope to hang us. These fucking bastards control the media, yet we allow them to crap all over the little media that we've fought hard to establish. Indymedia really needs to get its own shit together before it undertakes new partnerships.
Shit, we can't even keep our servers online after minor attacks by right wing attacks. We've got lots of basic shit to take care of right now.
Chuck