Re: Anarchopedia etc.

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

Well, there is peer review on Wikipedia. Trouble is, unless you go
through the history of the article you're looking at, you don't know
which peer did what when, and what said peer may have been snorting when
said peer last edited. I'd say the problem wasn't peers but lack of
overriding editorial control. There will always be someone with a
sense either of mischief or malice to goof up any given state of an
article. One of the greatest problems with Wikipedia is that it appeals
to one of man's basest instincts: to have the last word. For indeed,
while editing, you are the one with the last word. Just until
someone comes along and trumps you. Trivial example: I subtract ten years
from my wife's age. What happens when her daughter sees that she was born
to a 14-year-old mother? Will she change it back? And then will I?
Another example: there was a typeface designer whose entry listed way too
far into the advertorial, and every couple of weeks, I would rewrite it
with an embarrassing number of actual facts. And each time, he'd rewrite
it. Finally, we reached a compromise. He would leave out the most fluffy
claims (which were only harming him anyway as they were well below the
threshold of credibility) if I would leave out the most humiliating
facts. Furthermore, just imagine how frustrating it was for this fellow
that he never knew who his antagonist was? Because of course that's the
other thing about Wikipedia. You can edit anonymously, or under a
completely fake identity, and most, apparently, do. For something so
open, there sure is a lot of sub rosa in it.


At 12/10/2008 09:18 PM, you wrote:

> flash wrote:
> > Wikipedia is the ultimate
> > edition of what the Enlightenment wanted to achieve by publishing all
> > known facts
>
> But how do you distinguish facts from opinions from downright balderdash
> if you have no peer review? Not that peer review has always worked as it
> should, but I haven't heard of anything better.
> --
> Patricia M. Godfrey
> priscamg@xxxxxxxx