Ancestors

Written by Molly White on 2025-02-05 at 15:47

https://slate.com/technology/2025/02/wikipedia-project-2025-heritage-foundation-doxing-editors-antisemitism.html

[#]Wikipedia #HeritageFoundation

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Written by Derrick Oswald on 2025-02-05 at 16:37

@molly0xfff

It's sad, but the experience that many occasional Wikipedia contributors have is there is a cabal of "in editors", that seem to orchestrate the deletionist movement to automatically remove any edits or new pages, to preserve an archaic view that Wikipedia should mimic a page-bound and somehow printable version of an encyclopedia.

I assume this is because there is no mechanism to support a bifurcated or multi-furcated reality in the Wikipedia/Wikimedia software.

So, IMHO, Wikipedia is stewing in it's own broth, by truncating the long tail of possible well meaning contributors, and thereby allowing focus groups, with possibly malicious intent, to hold sway in edits and arbitration.

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Written by Molly White on 2025-02-05 at 16:56

@derrickoswald it is possible for “wikipedia must be improved” and “wikipedia must be defended” to both be true

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Toot

Written by maybenot on 2025-02-05 at 17:19

@molly0xfff @derrickoswald

i'd even argue "it must be defended" precisely so it can "be improved"

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Descendants

Written by Derrick Oswald on 2025-02-05 at 17:29

@maybenot @molly0xfff

Yes, Wikipedia "can be improved" and "can be defended" can both be true, but by alienating the long tail of contributors using gatekeeper policies, it has also eliminated the number of people with "skin in the game", so it becomes an almost-equal numbers struggle between a small number of Wikipedia editors and a small number of people in advocacy organizations.

By limiting participation from a broad segment of the interested public, Wikipedia has made support just a monetary issue and not a philosophical or justice issue, forgoing grass-roots public interest in favor of the closed-door quasi-democratic process.

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Written by Molly White on 2025-02-05 at 17:56

@derrickoswald @maybenot why do you speak as though alienating contributors is a part of Wikimedia’s express goals? Wikimedians throughout the movement, including myself, are working to improve this, and it’s frustrating to hear people suggest that “Wikipedia” is a monolith looking to limit participation

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