Wikipedia Review

The Wikipedia Review is an Internet forum for the discussion of Wikimedia projects, particularly the English Wikipedia. As of July 2008 the forum contains over 100,000 posts.

Wikipedia Review is unusual among web forums in that member signatures are invisible to unregistered users. The moderators claim that this is an anti-spam measure.

Background

Wikipedia Review was originally founded in November 2005, by a person calling himself Igor Alexander (this was merely a screen name), on the forum hosting site ProBoards. It is now located at its own domain name, which was created by the user Blissyu2. Selina was the first user on the site, and was a prominent member at the old ProBoards forum, along with Blissyu2. Blissyu2 is now banned from the site, and the user Somey, who was not one of the forum's original members, is now the operator and administrator of the site. The forum is run by Invision Power Board (IPB) software.

The site requires registration using a valid, non-webmail, e-mail address to post and claims to discourage the operation of multiple accounts by a single user.

Criticism of Wikipedia includes plagiarism, discussions of the validity of pseudonymous and "amateur" (or layman) editing, abuse of administrator tools and other corruption, and of the influence of Jimmy Wales. As well as criticism, the site has also been cited for its discussion and evaluation of wiki-editing.

The Aims of Wikipedia Review

The aims of Wikipedia Review were never clearly articulated, agreed-upon, or posted as a Mission Statement that everyone understood and subscribed to. Here is the most succinct statement of the aims of W-R posted by one of the moderators, which appeared only briefly, when the site was down for a few days.

WR: NOT
Wikipedia Review is not a conspiracy, a team-building exercise, a role-playing game, or an experiment in collusion. It is not meant as a resource or training ground for those who would instill fear and misery in others. It does not exist to corrupt, but to expose corruption; it does not exist to tear down institutions, but to expose the ways in which institutions are torn down; it does not exist to hate, but is meant to expose hate in others. To expose these things is not evil. It is not a monolithic entity, nor the sum of its parts. Like-mindedness does not imply singularity of purpose; respect for the rights of one group does not imply disrespect for the rights of another. It is not intended to be predictable, consistent, or dull.

Imagine a world in which human beings are not user accounts, are not programmable, and are not mere words on a display screen. That's what we're doing...