Difference between revisions of "Directory:The Wikipedia Point of View"

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: "If there’s one thing I hope people take from this sort of issue, it’s that there really is a “Wikipedia perspective” on almost any controversial subject. As you’ve recognized, that perspective is extremely insular and values “civility” – which translates to '''“avoidance of all negative reactions to, or personal criticism of, established Wikipedians”''' – above almost anything else, including morality, accuracy, and fairness. Meanwhile, Jimbo & Co. realized a long time ago that drama and controversy are just another recruitment strategy. Jimbo in particular won’t step in to try and quell it unless his personal interests are threatened". ("Somey" of [http://wikipediareview.com Wikipedia Review]).
 
: "If there’s one thing I hope people take from this sort of issue, it’s that there really is a “Wikipedia perspective” on almost any controversial subject. As you’ve recognized, that perspective is extremely insular and values “civility” – which translates to '''“avoidance of all negative reactions to, or personal criticism of, established Wikipedians”''' – above almost anything else, including morality, accuracy, and fairness. Meanwhile, Jimbo & Co. realized a long time ago that drama and controversy are just another recruitment strategy. Jimbo in particular won’t step in to try and quell it unless his personal interests are threatened". ("Somey" of [http://wikipediareview.com Wikipedia Review]).
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: Encyclopedias are compendiums of ''settled'', ''broadly-agreed'', and ''largely non-controversial scholarship''. They are not newspapers, they are not research journals, they are not book reviews, they are not giant rubbish heaps of every possible theory on any given topic. This is why Wikipedia is either: a) not an encyclopedia at all; or b) the world's worst encyclopedia. (Gomi of Wikipedia Review).
  
  

Revision as of 11:06, 7 February 2010

Welcome to The Wikipedia Point of View.

Pretty much any subject you search Google for – let's say 'Neurolinguistic programming', the article about it in Wikipedia comes first in the ranking. That makes Wikipedia an attractive target for determined groups of individuals who want to present their idea or product in a global market, free of charge. Join the encylopedia that anyone can edit, write an article about, let's say, Neurolinguistic programming, and you have as much free advertising as you want.

Wikipedia has a Neutral Point of View policy. This requires you to write not what you believe to be true – not even if you know it to be true, in the philosopher's justified true belief sense - but only what is verifiable. The theory is that any overtly biased article on NLP, crystal healing, or whatever, will be overwritten by someone else who will come along and edit the article to a more 'neutral point of view'. He, or she who can cite reputable, authoritative peer-reviewed research against the many strange and idiosyncratic views we encounter in real life, in quack medicine, from proponents of 'alternative sexuality' viewpoints, and so on.

But it has become apparent that the NPOV policy has failed Wikipedia in many areas. This has happened for many reasons, to be documented in The Wikipedia Point of View.

"If there’s one thing I hope people take from this sort of issue, it’s that there really is a “Wikipedia perspective” on almost any controversial subject. As you’ve recognized, that perspective is extremely insular and values “civility” – which translates to “avoidance of all negative reactions to, or personal criticism of, established Wikipedians” – above almost anything else, including morality, accuracy, and fairness. Meanwhile, Jimbo & Co. realized a long time ago that drama and controversy are just another recruitment strategy. Jimbo in particular won’t step in to try and quell it unless his personal interests are threatened". ("Somey" of Wikipedia Review).
Encyclopedias are compendiums of settled, broadly-agreed, and largely non-controversial scholarship. They are not newspapers, they are not research journals, they are not book reviews, they are not giant rubbish heaps of every possible theory on any given topic. This is why Wikipedia is either: a) not an encyclopedia at all; or b) the world's worst encyclopedia. (Gomi of Wikipedia Review).


Plagiarism

Pseudoscientific topics

History

Conflict of interest

'Alternative sexuality' topics

Administrative corruption

Sceptics or scientists who have been blocked from Wikipedia

Other Wikipedian sceptics

See also Expert_withdrawal

Editors who are not sceptical

Guide to Wikipedia

Sceptics

Criticism of Wikipedia

Wikipedia Review

Strange or crappy articles

'Metaphysics'

Paranormal

Fancruft

Wikipedia and Academia

Amusement