Wikipedia Sells Out... Again
So, Jimmy Wales told CNET that the German Wikipedia is going to experiment with a plan to prevent the many problems that supposedly plague the Wikipedias.
Now, the Germans propose, an edit to an article must be accepted by a "trusted" member of the de Wikipedia community before the article is actually updated. This is exactly the opposite of what wiki is about, in addition to being a ridiculously stupid idea.
The plan is completely unwiki because it proposes a layer in Wikipedian bureaucracy that stifles the one thing that is most important to Wikipedia: The freedom to edit an article and join in discussion. What if the "trusted" user has some sort of interest or bias about the article topic, and rejects the edit? It will probably just be lost forever. The only other option is a system of appeals or second opinion demands, which would just be too chaotic.
Another source of chaos would be heavily edited articles. A trusted user would need to monitor an article continuously and accept edits as they come along, otherwise, edits would quickly build up. What is the policy if two major edits are proposed to an article that can't possible compliment each other?
Wikipedia is supposed to be a self-correctiong open-source project, not a site of monitored and filtered submissions. The fact that this new system is even be experimented with on the de Wikipedia is nauseating. Why didn't Wales and Wikimedia learn from the Enciclopedia Libre fork? I personally think this new program just as offensive, if not more, than supporting a Wikipedia with advertisements.
To obey Godwin's Law, I'm now gonna go ahead and say that the new de Wikipedia proposal is more in line with Nazi Germany than it is with actual wiki philosophy.
Now, the Germans propose, an edit to an article must be accepted by a "trusted" member of the de Wikipedia community before the article is actually updated. This is exactly the opposite of what wiki is about, in addition to being a ridiculously stupid idea.
The plan is completely unwiki because it proposes a layer in Wikipedian bureaucracy that stifles the one thing that is most important to Wikipedia: The freedom to edit an article and join in discussion. What if the "trusted" user has some sort of interest or bias about the article topic, and rejects the edit? It will probably just be lost forever. The only other option is a system of appeals or second opinion demands, which would just be too chaotic.
Another source of chaos would be heavily edited articles. A trusted user would need to monitor an article continuously and accept edits as they come along, otherwise, edits would quickly build up. What is the policy if two major edits are proposed to an article that can't possible compliment each other?
Wikipedia is supposed to be a self-correctiong open-source project, not a site of monitored and filtered submissions. The fact that this new system is even be experimented with on the de Wikipedia is nauseating. Why didn't Wales and Wikimedia learn from the Enciclopedia Libre fork? I personally think this new program just as offensive, if not more, than supporting a Wikipedia with advertisements.
To obey Godwin's Law, I'm now gonna go ahead and say that the new de Wikipedia proposal is more in line with Nazi Germany than it is with actual wiki philosophy.
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