[Web4lib] Wikipedia vs Britannica

Drew, Bill drewwe at MORRISVILLE.EDU
Thu Dec 15 15:36:04 EST 2005


Under what conditions were you banned?  I have edited several for
corrected content without any problems.

Wilfred (Bill) Drew
E-mail: mailto:drewwe at morrisville.edu
AOL Instant Messenger:BillDrew4 
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
> [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Chuck0
> Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 3:31 PM
> To: James Jacobs
> Cc: Web4lib at webjunction.org
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Wikipedia vs Britannica
> 
> James Jacobs wrote:
> 
> > Let's get back to the wikipedia discussion shall we? 
> There's no need to 
> > scrub the archive of this one article. The fair use/listserv debate 
> > would make a fertile panel discussion at a future conference or on 
> > liblicense (http://www.library.yale.edu/~llicense/index.shtml). I'd 
> > certainly be willing to sit on that one ;-)
> 
> If people enjoyed my opinions on fair use and copyright, perhaps I 
> should share my Wikipedia bullshit detector with the list. 
> I'm currently 
> banned from posting to Wikipedia. The fact that Wikipedia has 
> banned a 
> librarian at least twice for trying to correct factual 
> misinformation on 
> articles ought to bother a few of you.
> 
> There are many things I like about Wikipedia, but currently 
> it is being 
> trashed by its own fans, who I call "Wiki-zealots." There was 
> a comment 
> on Slashdot today urging scientists to contribute to 
> Wikipedia to make 
> it more accurate. What the Wikipedia newbie may not 
> understand is that 
> Wikipedia is run by a set of zealots who enforce their guidelines in 
> some rather arbitrary and roughshod ways. Thus, if you know something 
> about a topic--indeed, if you are publishing a book on that 
> subject--you 
> will find your edits "reverted" and labeled as vandalism.
> 
> Granted, there is much awesome content on Wikipedia, because 
> many people 
> contributed content generously. But Wikipedia has some 
> serious problems, 
> as evidenced by recent news reports. Most of those problems stem from 
> these "zealots," but also the people who run Wikipedia need 
> to show more 
> responsibility and some new insights on how to lessen these problems.
> 
> Chuck
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