Slashdot Mirror
Secret Mailing List Rocks Wikipedia
privatemusings writes "Wikipedians are up in arms at the revelations that respected administrators have been discussing blocking and banning editors on a secret mailing list. The tensions have spilled over throughout the 'encyclopedia anyone can edit' and news agencies are sniffing around. The Register has this fantastic writeup — read it here first." The article says that some Wikipedians believe Jimbo Wales has lost face by supporting the in-crowd of administrators and rebuking the whistle blower who leaked the existence of the secret mailing list.
Yeah, cause only "experts" can do good research.. they're never biased and discard work unfairly that they disagree with. Summarizing all the opinions on an issue is not exactly the forte of the expert, and yet it is exactly what an encyclopedia is supposed to be about - knowledge without bias.
How we know is more important than what we know.
The way the WikiClique works can be seen here. A Wikipedia editor, Ashibaka, has a legitimate concern about the copyright status of an image (one that was ultimately vindicated when the image was deleted later), but is ganged up on by SlimVirgin, Jayjg, and FeloniousMonk, all fervent supporters of the clique (and probably members of the secret "cyberstalking" list). At one point, FeloniousMonk has the chutzpah to say "What I've seen here is very one-sided bullying and intimidation of SV over a petty, contrived issue, and it's going to stop, Kelly included." Yes, it was a one-sided bullying and intimidation, but it's by him and his buddies. "Kelly" here is Kelly Martin, then an administrator (who was trying to step in and stop the fight in a fair and balanced way); she's since become a Wikipedia critic with a very incisive blog.
Another interesting Wikipedia-related blog
--Dan
Web Tips
IRC is not private. If you've got a problem with people posting chatlogs, go home and cry to your momma. Maybe she'll slap some sense into those who need it.