Vanity of Article Writers, ...a time to cast away stones Options

[GlassBeadGame]

I have been struck lately by the growing smugness of "article writers." Those who avoid wonkery and administraton for the creaton or "improvement" of articles on Wikpedia. To hear them say you would thing they were creating some great works of literature. I got to tell you I don't see it. Even among our FA artistes. They use this activity much in the same way "vandal patrols" or policy wonks use the stuff they do for playing the game that is Wikipedia.

At best I'd say is "Well pretty good for a sand painting made in a sandbox surrounded by pre-schoolers flinging rocks and spraying down the place with pressure hoses...but come back tomorrow." Wikipedia articles, even FAs, are no great shakes. Certainly they don't justify the sense of self-entitlement these prima donnas pretend. Nor do they make up for the many levels or irresponsibilty directed at people outside the project that results from their work.

The only thing of any value in Wikipedia is it partially functions in the the same task Wikia Search fails at, collecting a list of manually generated sources (very imperfectly vetted) and indirectly returning them on the top of search request. You don't need article writers for this task at all.

[Jon Awbrey]

And if only Hitler had been a 3rd rate painter instead of a 4th rate painter —

Well, then, all would be forgiven.

Jon (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/hrmph.gif)

[Luís Henrique]

And if only Hitler had been a 3rd rate painter instead of a 4th rate painter —

Well, then, all would be forgiven.

Well, in that case he could maybe make a carreer as a mediocre painter, instead of the first class [insert your prefered cussword here] he became. To quote Nero, "what a mediocre artist the world lost!"...

Is Wikipedia a collection of 4th rate pictures, or an holocaust in which knowledge, good will, and decency - among others - are being "genocided"? Or perhaps the later, ornamented with the former?

Luís Henrique

ETA:

If we had Wikipedia in the twenties of the XX Century, would Hitler be Hitler? Or would he waste his youth making up half baked articles, and them owning them against all opposition?

Think of it, perhaps Wikipedia is saving the world, by turning potential first-class criminals into petty page vandalizers. Who knows?

This post has been edited by Luís Henrique:

[Bottled_Spider]

And if only Hitler had been a 3rd rate painter instead of a 4th rate painter —
Well, then, all would be forgiven.

Well, in that case he could maybe make a carreer as a mediocre painter, instead of the first class [insert your prefered cussword here] he became. To quote Nero, "what a mediocre artist the world lost!"...

In Frederic Mullally's 1975 alternate-history novel "Hitler Has Won" he becomes Pope. I shit you not.