Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Secret Mailing List Rocks Wikipedia

Posted by kdawson on from the transparent-in-limited-frequency-bands dept.

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.

2 of 531 comments (clear)

  1. Iron law of oligarchy by eMago · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy
    "Bureaucracy happens. If bureaucracy happens, power rises. Power corrupts."
    It has always been like this, will always be like this ...

    --
    --- censored
  2. Re:If I were still in the eighth grade... by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's not "secret" at all. Durova is infamous on wikipedia- everyone hates her and anyone that openly opposes her is getting landslide votes in the ongoing arbcom elections. Everyone knows what happened with !! and the "secret" mailing list is no secret- the arbitration committee does meet in private and they're allowed to have communication independent of the rest of wikipedia. Not only that, but this mailing list specifically is known to me and I'm not even a sysop, just some guy who's been hanging around freenode #wikipedia lately. If people would log onto IRC for 5 seconds, this wouldn't be such big news.