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.

Background

Wikipedia Review was originally founded in November 2005, when it was hosted by ProBoards. It is now located at its own domain name supposedly created by Igor Alexander. The site requires registration using a valid 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 that Somey ever posted:

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...

The above notice appeared only briefly, when the site was down for a few days.