Wiki-Induced Kognitive Insufficiency (WIKI), Enough Symptomatics! What Is The Cause? Options Rating

[Jonny Cache]

"In order to learn you must desire to learn …"

"Ay, there's the rub …"

What is it, then, about Wikipedia, if not indeed about the whole wiki paradigm, that is proving to be such a massive failure in promoting the sharing of information, learning, knowledge, wisdom, all that good stuff — at least once that critical threshold is passed, in the direction of increasingly uncritical thought?

Well, I know the dynamics of our own sweet Etopia well enough to know that nothing so meditative will compete with the Main Distraction on the Midway this week … or the next … but I thought I might leave this note to self, just in case things get dull toward the Ides.

P.S. I was going to call it Wiki-Induced Learning Disorder but the acronym WILD might have made it sound like a good thing.

Jonny

This post has been edited by Jonny Cache: Mon 3rd March 2008, 2:01pm

[whatever]

Okay, third time may be the charm.

So anonymity seems to be an accepted cause. Unlimited account creation may also be another cause, it allows too much manipulation.

I'd add to that the lack of structure on Wikipedia. There's no clear definitions of anything, everything is open to interpretation and there is no ultimate decision-maker or visionary sitting at the centre. That doesn't have to be one person, but the factionalism that currently exists on Wikipedia is symptomatic of the absence of any one body which can say "this is the direction we are going, rightly or wrongly".

The "promotion process" also creates problems, because there is no real test of a user's ability to use the tools granted adequately. And the distribution of the tools is also questionable.

The ability to make unlimited edits would also be a contributing factor. Articles can exist as battlegrounds in perpetuity, because there is no limit to how many edits can be made by an editor or to an article. The only recourse you have is an appeal to either block an editor or protect a page. This only postpones the battle. It rarely solves it.

Those are a few initial thoughts.