QUOTE(Malleus @ Fri 7th May 2010, 11:13pm)
An interesting and informative account of Wikipedia's history. Thanks for taking the time Larry.
Agreed. Speaks volumes.
The interesting thing I took from it was the intent at the beginning to run adverts ... knowing it was going to be unpopular. It makes me think that Wales's interests were, in the first place, entirely capitalistic and that all the "save the world" stuff is just showman guff ... that, really, now it is just all about keeping the shit look good to outsiders who nothing about it to sustain his five figure speaking fees - which he pockets for himself.
Five figure speaking fees which, in my opinion, are earned off the backs of 1,000s of unpaid laborers who make the Porno-pedia the "success" some elements of media thinks it is. Nice comment about "not devaluing one's own professional labor".
If it is any consolation, my guess is that your own rate for speaking appointments has just gone up.
Would your Southern Gentleman be interested in starting the fund for an officially established "Wikipedia Watch Foundation"?I am not pitching for the work ... but what we really need is a PR/researcher. Perhaps not full-time PR, perhaps we could just retain a professional company, but someone dedicated to sit down, document and present all this stuff.
I think there is little doubt that such a foundation would in the future become recipient of many other donations and support from Wikipedia roadkill and other abused individuals and entities.
As you say, root of the problems was the lack of governance and a citizens' charter. I have often raised here the need of independent and paid for 'external ombudsperson' type services. Others, such as Glassbeadgame, have put forward a strong argument for using the some of the $ 10,000,000 for professional editorial staff. Change is not going to come from within now as you have a structure with, as someone else wrote, has a powerful immune system to repel all change on the outside ... but no structure at all on the inside.
You and Wales created a monster. It is bigger than a city. It has a more powerful media position than more nations. It is pushing its own propaganda and values across the world. It is impacting upon generations and each new internet community that arises internationally. And, as others have shown, is damaging and destroying real encyclopedias.
What I am talking about is not vindictiveness against the Pornopedia but a defence of the rest of society from the chemistry within it. For us, it is not so much the porn etc, it is the deeply sociopathic and inconsistent nature, of which the extreme sexual politics are only one symptom, which is the real danger.
It is about "Reclaiming the Encyclopedia".