QUOTE(Jon Awbrey @ Thu 11th June 2009, 9:30pm)
I think it's kinda weird that you guys can't figure out where this is going — after all this time observing the Wiki-Wiles of Wiki-Wales.
Going back to the 'Cult Theory of Wikipedia Involvement' ... most if not all cults are financial pyramid scams where a few at the top gain all the benefits of the money and free labor donated by the massed followers. Sauce for the goose is not for the ganders.
In pyramid scams, generally a few carrots of "success cases" are dangled to encourage on the drones ...
"you too could be in on this tomorrow, if you kiss our asses today and don't challenge the status quo" ... but basic arithmetics, and social entropy combined, ensure that in the 'numbers game' it is only a tiny minority can or will ever make it into the power, money, free sex or whatever else it is they are are into.
It works this way for gurus and it works this way for multi-level marketing outfits. Who else remembers the "airplane scams" back in the 1980's? I am thinking right now that for many, as in other cults, the 'hook' in the Wikipedia beyond merely acting out are the "free drugs" ... the adrenal or endomorphin rushes involved in.
So the hamsters on the wheel now want free drugs AND the right to be sponsored by corporations outside of the cage for running on their wheels ... Good heavens, what is the world coming to!?! It is the Wiki equivalent of athletic doping. Luckily for the Wiki Pee Foundation, most hamster-drones are genetically pre-programmed by generations of serfdom and bound by fatal idealism to the degree that they would never consider expecting a payback.
(Free) Work makes free.
Is the Wikipedia, even as an "amateur sport", a level playing field as it is ...? No, of course not. Time is money is power and the more you have to invest, the more you get. Its level is already determined by finances, (e.g. class, race, access to IT equipment and internet), where irresponsibility (a life without serious responsibilities) is more highly rewarded ... as in most cults. Don't cults mostly divide families and split partnerships demanding increased involvement to reach higher levels?
But no one seems to have raise the issue of more subtle "payments" ... e.g. PR sponsorship, professional advancements etc. I suspect the "under table reference" refers to dick sucking on knees ... or do I just have a dirty mind?