People who are not the beneficiary of a "Received Truth" (myself included) seek truth, or at least an ever improving approximations of the truth, through various self correcting systems. These system include political democracy, free speech/press, science and market economies (not my personal favorite, but in fairness it belongs on the list). They each have mechanisms, (elections, discussion, experimentation, and value exchange) that provide an ever increasing level of information and the opportunity to use that information to improve the process in the next iteration of the process. A wiki, just not WP, but the content management technology itself, has many attractive features to people attracted to self correcting systems.

All self correcting system function in the context of community. The generation and refinement of "truth" is a social activity. All of these system can be distorted and even rendered useless by the creation of centers of concentrated power and influence. Undue influence can be viewed in self correcting systems as uneven distribution of 1)access to information and 2)the ability create new information accessible to other members of the community. Political democracies are undermined by restricting minority viewpoints and the ability of the rich to buy elections. Free speech/press is distorted by money and celebrity, until becomes a vehicle for obsessing over pop culture and selling crap. Science can be warped into the servant of corporations and a tool of a war machine. As for markets, well, after 6,000 years of slavery, pillage and theft you want play nice now?

For any self correcting system to work it needs over-sight to assure the free access and distribution to information. If any wiki based project to succeed (including successor projects as WP fails). We need to identify what has made WP so dysfunctional and could undermine other similar projects. What do you think these centers of undue influence are?

This post has been edited by GlassBeadGame: