QUOTE(sarcasticidealist @ Mon 14th July 2008, 12:33am)
But you've identified the fundamental problem: it's not that Wikipedia's run by a cabal, or that Wikipedia's run by a mob, or that Wikipedia's run by 14 year old admins. It's that Wikipedia is neither run nor runnable.
Yes, but the absence of
systematic "runnability" (to use your term) leads to factionalism, i.e. the fact that certain groups of editors ("cabals", for lack of a better term) run certain
parts of Wikipedia. As you well know, attacking animal rights articles, Judaica, or articles about Israel-Palestine trigger a powerful immune response, whether it is centrally coordinated or not. I don't pay attention, but I'm told the same is true for Pokemon articles.