Comments on: Science Fiction Authors, Revolt from Wikipedia!

By: Science Fiction writers want out of Wikipedia « Sf-Fandom’s Blog

Science Fiction writers want out of Wikipedia « Sf-Fandom’s Blog — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:34:05 +0000

[...] David Slusher (the guy who used to do the “Reality Break” radio spots in the 1990s) sort of agrees with her on some points but is not yet ready to make a full break from [...]

By: fritz freiheit.com » Friday link dump

fritz freiheit.com » Friday link dump — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:37:51 +0000

[...] Science Fiction Authors, Revolt from Wikipedia! | Evil Genius Chronicles [...]

By: dave

dave — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 20:20:06 +0000

Mike, it seems to me like the balance they have struck is less satisfying than the free-for-all. The people with agendas willing to work through proxies (ie, scumbags with patience and/or resources) will still get their way but this prevents knowledgeable people of good will from responding in kind.

Hey there, Mary! Can you drop a citation in the entries pointing to the puppetry wiki? You situation is another bit of anecdotal evidence that the core story of WP – “eventually everything tends towards the best article” – doesn’t necessarily hold. It seems like over time anything of any activity tends towards a level of blandness and lowered common denominator and that is valued above correctness.

Bill, very very interesting that. The only problem there becomes a jurisdictional one between them and ISFDB. Having three places, WP, ISFDB and SciFi all jockeying to be definitive is way worse than having one. I will definitely check that out.

By: William Shunn

William Shunn — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 17:23:23 +0000

SciFi.com of all places is tackling this very problem head-on. They have their own wiki, Scifipedia, where authors are encouraged to write about themselves and people they know:

http://scifipedia.scifi.com

John Douglas is the editor.

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:42:19 +0000

Puppeteers reacted to the sheer mass of misinformation on wikipedia by forming a puppet wiki. The problem, of course, is that no one goes to it.

There’s nothing quite like correcting an erroneous entry and then seeing someone change it back. Just saying–don’t trust the puppetry stuff on wikipedia.

Now, I tend to use Wikipedia for the links to outside sources sections at the bottom. I’ve always preferred to get primary source information where possible anyway.

By: mike dunn

mike dunn — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:50:11 +0000

concur dave (and kathryn) – i think wikipedia is incredibly valuable, however – having been raised by a historian myself, who always preached seek out “multiple, knowledgeable sources”, the desire to exclude anyone w/ first-hand knowledge from contributing is just wrong and seems to have stemmed from an overreaction of the braintrust behind wikipedia to folks w/ personal bias and self-serving agendas (adam curry comes to mind) who were erroneously mucking up the pages important to them…

btw – “officious trolls” has a nice ring to it, fitting of a punk band