An Ethnography of WP?, An attempt to not hijack the welcome thread Options

[victim of censorship]

Here is, what is written on a brass tablet at the door of the Wikipedia hive -

*************************************

Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon ye who enter here. (Italic mine)
Such characters in colour dim I mark'd
Over a portal's lofty arch inscrib'd:
Whereat I thus: Master, these words import.

<Dante Alighieri>

This post has been edited by victim of censorship: Sun 29th November 2009, 2:16am

[Kelly Martin]

I don't believe Ms. Julie here has claimed to be a "serious ethnologist" - rather, she's claimed to be a student of cultural anthropology and psychology, meaning not a degree-holder. So that isn't really an assertion of formal credentials, is it? I'd say that as long as she doesn't start asking other people for their identifying info (bearing in mind that she hasn't claimed to be working on a treatise or dissertation about WP, not yet anyway), we should try to avoid asking for her identifying info, at least publicly.

In the past when I've dealt with undergraduate students doing similar research for class projects full names have been offered, not only of the student but also the advisor, along with email addresses for both and a link to a disclosure regarding privacy rights and informed consent to be the subject of research. If "Julie" is a "student" it's not at any legitimate, accredited institution.

Ban the troll. And move on.

[everyking]

In the past when I've dealt with undergraduate students doing similar research for class projects full names have been offered, not only of the student but also the advisor, along with email addresses for both and a link to a disclosure regarding privacy rights and informed consent to be the subject of research. If "Julie" is a "student" it's not at any legitimate, accredited institution.

Ban the troll. And move on.

I propose that if we're going to ban trolls, we should start with the self-admitted trolls and then move on the arguable cases. Is that fair?

[Somey]

In the past when I've dealt with undergraduate students doing similar research for class projects full names have been offered, not only of the student but also the advisor, along with email addresses for both and a link to a disclosure regarding privacy rights and informed consent to be the subject of research.

But she's saying WP (and by extension WR) are not subjects of any sort of formal research, and no mention has been made of a class project... I agree that if she wanted to make WP and/or WR the subject of a Master's thesis or doctoral dissertation (i.e., something that could conceivably be disseminated), she should identify herself. But until it becomes something like that, I don't see any reason to insist on it.

I'm still wondering about that "Ravelry" mention, though...

[Kelly Martin]

But she's saying WP (and by extension WR) are not subjects of any sort of formal research, and no mention has been made of a class project... I agree that if she wanted to make WP and/or WR the subject of a Master's thesis or doctoral dissertation (i.e., something that could conceivably be disseminated), she should identify herself. But until it becomes something like that, I don't see any reason to insist on it.

In her initial post she said that information given to her would only be shared with her "Advisor". That strongly suggests a class project, senior research project, or similar situation.

[wjhonson]

Julie your initial post is a bit rambling but I'll give you this quote, "The entire Internet is one vast dehumanizing experiment."

Once we are all totally dehumanized or dehumanizers or dehumani... then the evil alien overlords can be assured of our complete obedience to their design.

Write that up as your thesis and I guarantee you will get an A.

[EricBarbour]

[the fieryangel]

Obvious Troll is Obvious


PS. I vote for Kelly's elegant solution...

[Trick cyclist]

I don't know how much Julie is learning about Wikipedia Review and its leading contributors from this, but I'm learning one big hell of an amount. And if she set out to deliberately obtain such a reacttion as this, she's succeeded brilliantly.

[Jon Awbrey]

For those who read …

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and in an exercise of full disclosure explain my rationale for joining this community. First of all, my name is Julie and I am studying the psychology of subcultures. What does that mean exactly? I study subcultures that exist within imagined communities found on the internet.

I have no association with Wikipedia or the foundation except that I find the WP subculture to be incredibly fascinating and I think that it can be a valuable tool to helping me better understand the dynamics of imagined communities.

One of the hardest things about observing subcultures is that I have to find a way to distinguish the signal from the noise and that’s very hard to do that when most of the noise is disguised as signal. The most effective, but also most difficult way to develop an ethnography is through a combination of observations and self-reporting techniques. The Wikipedia subculture is far too cloistered and insular to be able to accurately observe them and I think that we can pretty much all agree that most self-reporting exercises will be incredibly slanted. I have been reading the forums on Wikipedia Review for about three weeks and finally decided that the only way for me to get an honest view of the Wikipedia subculture is from people who have no vested interest in maintaining a public perception. In other words, I am going to another tribe to learn more about the tribe I really want to study.

Cultural anthropologists must be unbiased, but all that means in regards to this community is that I am not here to judge the Wikipedia subculture.

I will make a few promises to this community and I hope that you will accept them, even if you have no reason to do so. I will not reveal any information that I gather to anyone except for my advisor. If I think that my observations may be of any assistance to this community, I will hand them over to you all (the community as a whole) to use as you see fit. That all being said, I am an incredibly opinionated individual and will probably find myself in a situation where I want to post and just might do so with the understanding that those opinions won’t find their way into my observations. I hope that eventually, after I have earned your trust, you might feel comfortable in sharing some of your experiences with me so that I can better flesh out my ethnography.

If anyone who is part of the Wikipedia subculture wants to contact me, they can do so through this forum and I will be more than happy to incorporate their views as well.

So with that, thank you in advance for letting me tag along with you on what might just turn out to be a ride more wild than Mr. Toad's.

[CharlotteWebb]

For those who read …

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and in an exercise of full disclosure explain my rationale for joining this community. First of all, my name is Julie and I am studying the psychology of subcultures.

If she is "studying" the subculture of anyone here, I'd guess the generally over-the-top reaction (to what few disclosures she did make) has corrupted any potentially useful data she wanted to collect.

On second thought, I'm not sure any of the data here is useful, but still…

[Lar]

One of the biggest problems with online communities is that there is very little money in it. Corporations tend to still look at communities as part of marketing's domain, and online communities like WP or Ravelry are still very young. How do you filter out the truth from the lies? Is there an ethical responsibility to the well-being of community members? Or is the responsibility ultimately to showing success. Facebook, MySpace, WP, and Ravelry are perceived to be successful ventures and yet I believe that we can't even begin to conceive some of the problems that these communities encourage and how they will play out in society.

Having said what I said above, why mention Ravelry? You do know that's what Durova is into, right?

I was wondering about that. It's like if she mentioned LUGNet (as an example of an online community)... everyone would think she's me.

But she's not me, so I'd at least know something was off, (unless it was an amazing coincidence... that she was a LEGO fan too) but no one else would be sure, they'd have to take my word for it. Blind and double-blind.

Maybe she just really is into textiles. Like some people are into ... leather.

[A Horse With No Name]

Maybe she just really is into textiles. Like some people are into ... leather.

Julie's into leather? Grrrrrrrrrr!

[Somey]

I was wondering about that. It's like if she mentioned LUGNet (as an example of an online community)... everyone would think she's me.

That's sort of the problem with everyone getting all on her case right away - if she never posts again, we'll never know if it was because we were overly suspicious, or because we picked up on the subtle clue almost immediately.

Which reminds me, I just used the word "clue" in the traditional sense of the word. I worry sometimes that WP'ers will read that sentence and think I'm trying to say "we picked up on the subtle uncritical devotion to the WP rule-structure and overall vision almost immediately," which isn't what I meant at all.

[bambi]

In her initial post she said that information given to her would only be shared with her "Advisor". That strongly suggests a class project, senior research project, or similar situation.

Or worse...

My advisor

[RDH(Ghost In The Machine)]

I mean, yeah, she could be Durova or Jonas or even Jimbo for all we know, but until we have a better reason to want to know for certain, I don't see why she shouldn't be treated in a reasonably privacy-respecting sort of way.

My Spidey sense says it's ElonkaDonkDonk.
But I agree.

Remember that whole Fred Nietzsche caution about fighting monsters.

As for the Ethnography of WP-
It's over 80% middle class, Caucasian, computer geek.
That's really all one needs know, the rest flows from there
Ok, maybe that's a bit of demographic reductionism...but it's true.