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