Slashdot Mirror
Contributors Leaving Wikipedia In Record Numbers
Hugh Pickens writes "CNET reports that the volunteers who create Wikipedia's pages, check facts and adapt the site are abandoning Wikipedia in unprecedented numbers, with tens of thousands of editors going 'dead' — no longer actively contributing and updating the site — a trend many experts believe could threaten Wikipedia's future. In the first three months of 2009, the English-language version of Wikipedia suffered a net loss of 49,000 contributors, compared with a loss of about 4,900 during the same period in 2008. 'If you don't have enough people to take care of the project it could vanish quickly,' says Felipe Ortega at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, who created a computer system to analyze the editing history of more than three million active Wikipedia contributors in ten different languages. 'We're not in that situation yet. But eventually, if the negative trends follow, we could be in that situation.' Contributors are becoming disenchanted with the process of adding to the site, which is becoming increasingly difficult says Andrew Dalby, author of The World and Wikipedia: How We are Editing Reality and a regular editor of the site. 'There is an increase of bureaucracy and rules. Wikipedia grew because of the lack of rules. That has been forgotten. The rules are regarded as irritating and useless by many contributors.' Arguments over various articles have also taken their toll. 'Many people are getting burnt out when they have to debate about the contents of certain articles again and again,' adds Ortega."
thats what happen when you let jews and scientologist control your shit.. dont forget pedophile admins!
Wikipedia has become a bunch of little fiefdoms run by despots who jealously guard their own little world to preserve their idea of reality.
Just look at the history of the Barbra Boxer entry and see how the editors repeatably excise deleterious references, despite the fact the statements are irrefutable.
Reminds me of the global warming fanatics, they are the keepers of the Truth, facts be damned.
I can imagine what someone who uses the phrase "Zionist persuasion" considers a "neutral" viewpoint on Hezbollah. I'm not crying for you.
If the Scientologists were running it, Jesus would be listed as a space alien.
Geeze!
And the majority of all editors are mouth breathing, mother's basement dwelling, no friends, left wing ideologues.
Allow ads!
Yes, that's definitely very insightful. For the past few years, in November and December, wikipedia does its annual scrounging for more money -- and oddly there's been a rash of wikipedia-related articles at the same time. Sometimes pro, sometimes negative. But bad publicity is still publicity and still part of the marketing machine.
Hmmm... no wikipedia articles for weeks, if not months, and as soon as the begging cap comes out, out come the articles. Yep, Jimmy Wales may be many things, but sure he knows how to make a buck.
1. Blind adherence to demonstrably useless and vile ideals like those of Ayn Rand, one of the greatest ideological jokes in the history of modern thought. She was a waste of meat and ideals. Wikipedia in any capacity embracing those ideals was like giving birth to a newborn child with multiple cancers already in place.
2. The rather stupid "Ignore All Rules" rule that too many take as gold. It leads to all decisions and policies being overseen on a case by case basis. This leads to absurd political gamesmanship to ensure that "preferred" text remains in the public's view.
3. Elevation of personality over content. Entrenched users can get away with relative murder. This needs no explanation of why it's a "bad thing". You need to basically create something on the level of a United States Supreme Court case to actually get some "senior" members restricted, let alone tossed, from the website.
4. The fact that people are allowed to remain as editors on the site that are useless bags of mostly water, who contribute nothing but politics, rather than those who focus on content.
There are other reasons beyond this, but those to me are the core four. The stupidity of how the site is ran is what is going to inexorably tilt it ever further into the abyss. Remember how we just mourned the passing of Geocities? 10-15 years from now, that will be the English Wikipedia project. I think the other projects may thrive in different ways, but the main donation cash cow--English Wikipedia--is fuxxored. Like the Titanic, it's been doomed since it was first hit. In this case, it was Jimmy Wales foolishly applying his apparent Randian worldview onto the project (he used to either frequent or admin some Randroid newsgroup).
I like a lot of the contributors and actually consider some small number friends from when I used to edit, but I'm absolutely glad I gave it up cold turkey (I was once an admin on several projects there) and utterly don't miss it.
Dude, where's my packet?
Ugh. It was bad enough reading your crap on Fark. Here on /. people can punish you for being a paranoid, ignorant twat.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
What the fuck are you talking about?
I think "Jews" are the second best example of a granfalloon in the world. IE: a meaningless category. In the Vonnegut book Cat's Cradle, a vapid woman latches on to the protagonist because they are both "Hoosiers." She spends the whole book making reference to the fact that they share some kind of imaginary similarity because they are both from Indiana.
People who claim to be Jews, well, what of it? If you meet someone on the internet and they claim to be a Jew, you have learned absolutely nothing about them. You don't know where they live, you don't know what they eat, you don't know what they believe religiously, you don't know how they spend their Sundays. You don't know what their ethnic heritage is or what other language they may speak. You have not learned anything about them as a person.
Hitler bought into the granfalloon of Jews just as foolishly as "the Jews" themselves have. "Jew" is an artificial category and an external identification for someone who doesn't have enough of themselves inside themselves to fill themselves up with themselves.
You say "Jew," I say "So what?"
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
We should also contact the surviving members of Hitler's inner circle or anyone else that can shed light on the words of the senior leadership on their motivations and agenda and include it in an article on their organization.
Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that deliberately targets innocents, including their own children, for death in a greater war against everyone who is not a Muslim. That's not bias, that's a fact.
--
When a true genius appears, you generally won't notice. Because the smarter someone is, the less they talk about it.
People like you are killing wikipedia.
You think you are contributing, using the delete button, but you are just putting a filter that will put the obscure / not popular information out.
You are blind, so you obviously don't see what we will lose with this.
-Woof woof woof!
I keep my /. and Wiki identities separate, so you are not going to get a link.
Probably most people who get blocked deserve it -- but the exceptions result in alienating people from Wikipedia. In my case, I can assure you that the facts were exactly as I presented them, had the admin that blocked me taken 5 minutes to look at my editing history, he would have seen that.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
This is what is repeated by Western media outlets ad nauseum, that is correct. I, for one, do not believe the vast majority of the things I read and hear. As for you, your sources are obviously Western mass media.
As for me, I read Ynet. I read Haaretz. I read Al Jazeera. I read Al-Manar. I read PressTV. I read Russia Today. I read McClatchey. I read UrukNet. I read the Army Times. I read Lebanon Star. I read several blogs, especially the Angry Arab.
You are repeating shit you heard on the idiot box and absorbed through cultural osmosis. I read dozens of sources and piece together my own narrative from opposing viewpoints. I do not believe these ridiculous, self-congratulatory stories about why it's a sad tragedy when Western nations kill Muslim civilians but it's demonic freedum-hating evil when Muslims kill Western civilians.
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
Having a bunch of us show up at temple for services, wishing each other "shabbat shalom" evokes a wonderful feeling than most of the folks here simply can't appreciate
Awww, how special! Please, get over yourself asshole!
Yeah I feel like, at some point it has to end. I mean the amount of information is endless and it is going to get tougher and tougher to moderate. In the end the idea was brilliant and I think everyone benefited from it in some way shape or form... www.pacificofficedesigns.com
But why should real people care what a deletionist thinks?
I'm sure they've got something they'd call a reason, but it's probably closer to stomach gas.
Shut the fuck up. You are marked for deletion.
Why would anybody on slashdot give a rats ass about providing you with evidence of something so blatantly obvious? Oh yeah, you are one of the asshats we are complaining about here. Go back to wikishitia and lord over your domain.