An Interview with Wikipedia's Jimbo Wales

Raul654 writes "The Wikipedia Signpost, Wikipedia's weekly in-house publication, is this week featuring an interview with Jimbo Wales. The questions, which were submitted by Wikipedia regulars, hit on subjects related to the Foundation, the budgeting and legal issues, the blocking of Wikipedia in China, as well as where Jimbo sees Wikipedia in the future."

Comments

Balkanization Risk as Wiki Grows

[JehCt]

Hey Jimbo, missed the interview... How will you prevent Wikipedia from becoming balkanized, just like ordinary society, as groups of users with differing views form up their own projects, and start slinging mud at each other and calling each other "trolls"? Won't additional restrictions on editing, in the name of "quality," drive potential contributors to other pursuits? How will you prevent Wikipedia from turning into a collection of cranks, slackers, and trolls?

Re:Balkanization Risk as Wiki Grows

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Wikipedia has had policies that strive to prevent this for a long time. So far, they seem to be working very well. Here are some of them:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral point of view
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_personal _attacks
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Civility
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiabili ty
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Assume_good _faith
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipe dia_is_not

There is no indication that Wikipedia is turning into a trollfest. Of course, some subjects like the Muhammad cartoons cause a great deal of debate, but for the most part it is focused on writing an Encyclopedia, not a debate club. As it should be.

Cool!

[Black Parrot]

Can we edit his interview?

Re:Why Wikipedia isn't working

[gowen]

Now, I don't disagree that that's a badly written sentence, and, interpreted literally, wrong for exactly the reason you say.

But, even though that sentence is rubbish, it's also abundantly clear what is meant. High cereal prices exacerbated the food shortage caused by the drought.

So, there are two responses :
i) correct the sentence so that it reflects the intended meaning [needless to say, someone has already done this].
ii) generalise from this mistake into a lengthy diatribe about the inaccuracy of Wikipedia, pretending there exist infallible sources of information elsewhere.

I would suggest, that exactly one of these would not constitute an enormous waste of your time.