Talk:Wikipedia

Article Checklist for "Wikipedia"

Workgroup category or categories	Computers Workgroup [Editors asked to check categories]
Article status	Developing article: beyond a stub, but incomplete
Underlinked article?	Yes
Basic cleanup done?	No
Checklist last edited by	John Stephenson 21:31, 16 May 2007 (CDT)

To learn how to fill out this checklist, please see CZ:The Article Checklist.

---

How to handle our point of view?

Hope you don't mind my starting a talk page here. Thought it would be better to comment than directly edit. Given the institutional setting, it seems to me that we should bend over backwards to be/sound balanced and neutral. That said, I would point out that many sentences are structured like: "It seems good but...." Left-handed compliments etc. For example, quoting from the current draft:

• Wikipedia allows anyone to edit, unless...
• While contributors are encouraged to create accounts at Wikipedia, [BUT] people may edit anonymously.
• ... history for every Wikipedia page is available, [BUT] exceeding
• Wikipedia grew exponentially in its first 4 to 5 years, thougharticle growth slowed...
• While the English Wikipedia boasts well over one million articles, [BUT] many articles are on relatively trivial ...

I recommend giving them a nice, clean description up front, composed of unqualified (true) statements. Then a separate section with criticisms. Make the criticisms crisp, not nitpicky, and cite credible outside (non-CZ) critics, and that's not hard to find! (I've got some links if you need them...) Overall, the upfront description should be longer and more thorough, the criticisms would be the most significant but not overwhelm the look of the entire article. You may not like Wikipedia, but it's one of the most successful computer ventures of the decade. David Hoffman 18:50, 11 May 2007 (CDT)

I agree completely--although I'm not sure about the heading; is it really "our point of view" that we care about, or the neutral truth?

Anyway, there's room for negative information that's not weasel-worded, and for positive information that's not immediately negated by back-handed quasi-contradiction. For example, it's worth mentioning that MediaWiki is used by a variety of other projects, and it's worth talking about the Brittanica-vs.-Wikipedia study; it's also worth mentioning some of the controversies (as well as the criticisms of Wikipedia that are listed on Wikipedia itself).

Also, it's not true that "... the editing history for every Wikipedia page is available." (Doesn't Larry Sanders' blog talk about this?) --Andy Barnert 02:56, 17 May 2007 (CDT)

Part of the weasel-word problem is that those statements are generally true of Wikipedia, and are related to principles by which Wikipedia runs itself, but there are exceptions. Anyone may edit, unless they've so abused that privilege that they've been banned. WP has banned somewhere around 100 people, but anyone else can edit. Etc., etc. The problem is how to fairly indicate that certain things are mostly, but not entirely, true. Anthony Argyriou 09:32, 17 May 2007 (CDT)

You're right. The challenge is to give a neutral picture of the overall situation when our own project aims to capitalize on some of the liminal problems. Or, even if we think the problems are significant, not to allow our POV to overwhelm the article. David Hoffman 11:16, 17 May 2007 (CDT)

We could even have a section where criticisms of Wikipedia are listed, including those criticisms of Wikipedia which Larry is trying to correct in Citizendium. By reporting the criticism, it's easier to be neutral when describing the thing. Anthony Argyriou 12:20, 17 May 2007 (CDT)

Criticism section

The "criticism" section merely listed some characteristics on Wikipedia, which may be undesirable according to some but good according to others. I think the "criticism" should focus on true negative aspects of Wikipedia, such as vulnerability to vandalism, libel, and such, and maybe give some mention to the Essjay incident and the Kennedy assassin libel incident. Yi Zhe Wu 17:01, 20 May 2007 (CDT)