Elisabeth Bauer ti 2004/11/24 EP 02:22 sia-kong:
Evan Prodromou wrote:
I think the big thing to understand is that each wiki takes time, effort, and money to maintain. Each wiki is a security risk, both technically and legally; an active community can offset this risk as well or better than fancy technological security measures.
I fully agree with Evan here. But I want to add some other points which are largely neglected so far. Maintaining a wiki is not only about getting some people to work there, we also need to ensure that local communities get to know and share the fundamental values and principles of wikipedia: neutrality, openess, freedom of content.
Indeed, that is the struggle on every WP, isn't it. i.e. Striving for NPOV, fairness, content-centered open discussions, etc. is on-going on numerous pages. But a bit of context here would be useful: what Evan is talking about is the undesirability of leaving inactive wikis unattended (what he calls security risk). What Elizabeth is talking about pertains to active WPs that may be deemed NPOV in a systemic way because of demographics. (For comparison, see en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias.) I will controversially (and tentatively) say that what is communally judged POV or NPOV is likely subject to the values and experiences its members bring to the table. This is a situation likely present in all WPs -- even older, more mature ones -- albeit in different degrees and manifesting in different ways. That does not mean I don't see a problem with it, just that problem is perhaps widespread.
There's a lot of knowledge about wikipedia customs and processes needed to get a new wiki started. So far we let people find out on their own - or not.
I think the knowledge is acquired communally _as_ a wiki grows and matures. Knowing the principles of, say, the statement on NPOV still requires lots of practice, and even then opinions differ.
Yesterday a friend translated a sentence on the main page of the tatar wikipedia for me: "Tatarlar Böyek! Yäşäsen Törki Dönya!" - "Die Tataren sind groß! Es lebe die türkische Welt!" (in german, since I don't know how to translate this in english). But the equivalent would be the french putting "Vive la France" on their main page. All three sysops there edited the page later, noone removed the sentence.
I recall the Welsh WP (which I rather like) has a large Welsh flag with its red dragon prominently and (I imagine) proudly displayed on the main page. This could be interpreted in NPOV and POV ways. I would not hazard a guess, but I personally am fine with it. This is related to my claim that we bring values and experiences to the table which influence our judgement.
~~~~