... For example, my Wikipedia page (which I didn't create) contains
partial truths while simultaneously infused with an obvious attempt
to frame me as somebody I am not. I once attempted to correct it
but my edits were reverted and I was, hilariously, sent a warning
about 'vandalising the page'. ...

Larry versus Wikipedia

He argues that Wikipedia has a dominant role in shaping public
opinion and that it has morphed into a tool that promotes
establishment narratives on most things, thus stifling knowledge.

Knowledge is power.
- Francis Bacon

He isn’t wrong.

It’s become a cesspit of ideological biases.

Thankfully, Wikipedia has an article on whether or not Wikipedia
has ideological biases and Wikipedia has determined that Wikipedia
does not have ideological biases.

<https://jermwarfare.com/conversations/larry-sanger-wikipedia>

# # #

As an aside allow me to note the quote attributed to the great
phrasemaker - science fiction author Francis Bacon - who wrote
_New Atlantis_ and also procreated scientism as an Anglo religious
belief centuries before Hubbard invented Dianetics.

<https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781138400122-8/francis-bacon-progenitor-scientism-1561–1626-1-bartley-stephen-kresge>

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

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Don wrote:

... For example, my Wikipedia page (which I didn't create)
contains partial truths while simultaneously infused with an
obvious attempt to frame me as somebody I am not. I once
attempted to correct it but my edits were reverted and I was, hilariously, sent a warning about 'vandalising the page'. ...

Larry versus Wikipedia

He argues that Wikipedia has a dominant role in shaping public
opinion and that it has morphed into a tool that promotes
establishment narratives on most things, thus stifling
knowledge.

Knowledge is power.
- Francis Bacon

He isn't wrong.

It's become a cesspit of ideological biases.

I have to challenge the term "no longer"! ;-)

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On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 18:02:30 +0000, Don wrote:

... For example, my Wikipedia page (which I didn't create) contains
partial truths while simultaneously infused with an obvious attempt
to frame me as somebody I am not. I once attempted to correct it but
my edits were reverted and I was, hilariously, sent a warning about
'vandalising the page'. ...

Larry versus Wikipedia

He argues that Wikipedia has a dominant role in shaping public
opinion and that it has morphed into a tool that promotes
establishment narratives on most things, thus stifling knowledge.

Knowledge is power.
- Francis Bacon

He isn’t wrong.

It’s become a cesspit of ideological biases.

Thankfully, Wikipedia has an article on whether or not Wikipedia has
ideological biases and Wikipedia has determined that Wikipedia does
not have ideological biases.

<https://jermwarfare.com/conversations/larry-sanger-wikipedia>

# # #

Gosh, I depend on Wikipedia for supplemental information about all
the SF I read about in this newsgroup. In that connection, I'm
curious to know how many readers herein have edited Wikipedia
pages.

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On 2/21/2024 3:59 AM, Charles Packer wrote:

On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 18:02:30 +0000, Don wrote:

... For example, my Wikipedia page (which I didn't create) contains
partial truths while simultaneously infused with an obvious attempt
to frame me as somebody I am not. I once attempted to correct it but
my edits were reverted and I was, hilariously, sent a warning about
'vandalising the page'. ...

Larry versus Wikipedia

He argues that Wikipedia has a dominant role in shaping public
opinion and that it has morphed into a tool that promotes
establishment narratives on most things, thus stifling knowledge.

Knowledge is power.
- Francis Bacon

He isn’t wrong.

It’s become a cesspit of ideological biases.

Thankfully, Wikipedia has an article on whether or not Wikipedia has
ideological biases and Wikipedia has determined that Wikipedia does
not have ideological biases.

<https://jermwarfare.com/conversations/larry-sanger-wikipedia>

# # #

Gosh, I depend on Wikipedia for supplemental information about all
the SF I read about in this newsgroup. In that connection, I'm
curious to know how many readers herein have edited Wikipedia
pages.

I wrote/rewrote dozens of Wikipedia articles in the mid-2000s, but
eventually gave up. Trying to keep articles accurate and coherent became
too time-consuming after a while and I decided to concentrate on the
ISFDB database.

Here is one example. Back in 2006 Richard Hershberger, who has published
books and articles on the evolution of baseball (https://sabr.org/authors/richard-hershberger/ and https://www.amazon.com/Strike-Four-Evolution-Richard-Hershberger/dp/153812114X),
wrote on rec.arts.sf.written:

"The [Wikipedia] article on "Minor league baseball" (not to be confused
with the article on "Minor League Baseball") started out life with two paragraphs on the history of the minor leagues. They were actually a
pretty reasonable two paragraphs. Gradually a third paragraph developed,
and it was a bit incoherent but still not awful. Then someone did a
complete re-write of the history portion, replacing the three paragraphs
with essentially a series of bullet points. Apart from any question of
optimal formatting, the actual factual statements were largely fantasy: someone's idea of how minor league baseball might have developed, not
having anything to do with what actually happened."

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Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:

I wrote/rewrote dozens of Wikipedia articles in the mid-2000s, but
eventually gave up. Trying to keep articles accurate and coherent became
too time-consuming after a while and I decided to concentrate on the
ISFDB database.

Me too. I would edit technical articles on electromagnetism and then come
back to find that they had been edited to remove technical information
which was replaced with information about how electromagnetism works
in the Superman universe. I just don't have time to deal with that.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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On Wed, 21 Feb 2024, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:

I wrote/rewrote dozens of Wikipedia articles in the mid-2000s, but
eventually gave up. Trying to keep articles accurate and coherent became
too time-consuming after a while and I decided to concentrate on the
ISFDB database.

Me too. I would edit technical articles on electromagnetism and then come back to find that they had been edited to remove technical information
which was replaced with information about how electromagnetism works
in the Superman universe. I just don't have time to deal with that.
--scott

I had a look at https://www.britannica.com/ the other day and the quality
of that article compared with the one on wikipedia was amazing! Wikipedia
for me is more entertainment, but I've made a mental note to check out britannica for more serious stuff.

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D <nospam@example.net> on Wed, 21 Feb 2024 15:27:01 +0100 typed in rec.arts.sf.written the following:

On Wed, 21 Feb 2024, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com> wrote:

I wrote/rewrote dozens of Wikipedia articles in the mid-2000s, but
eventually gave up. Trying to keep articles accurate and coherent became >>> too time-consuming after a while and I decided to concentrate on the
ISFDB database.

Me too. I would edit technical articles on electromagnetism and then come >> back to find that they had been edited to remove technical information
which was replaced with information about how electromagnetism works
in the Superman universe. I just don't have time to deal with that.
--scott

I had a look at https://www.britannica.com/ the other day and the quality
of that article compared with the one on wikipedia was amazing! Wikipedia
for me is more entertainment, but I've made a mental note to check out >britannica for more serious stuff.

Wikipedia is a reasonably good source for original sources.

Otherwise, it is crowd sourced term paper.
--
pyotr filipivich
This Week's Panel: Us & Them - Eliminating Them.
Next Month's Panel: Having eliminated the old Them(tm)
Selecting who insufficiently Woke(tm) as to serve as the new Them(tm)

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pyotr filipivich wrote:

D wrote:

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Ahasuerus wrote:

Charles Packer wrote:

Gosh, I depend on Wikipedia for supplemental information about all
the SF I read about in this newsgroup. In that connection, I'm
curious to know how many readers herein have edited Wikipedia
pages.

I wrote/rewrote dozens of Wikipedia articles in the mid-2000s, but
eventually gave up. Trying to keep articles accurate and coherent became >>>> too time-consuming after a while and I decided to concentrate on the
ISFDB database.

Me too. I would edit technical articles on electromagnetism and then come >>> back to find that they had been edited to remove technical information
which was replaced with information about how electromagnetism works
in the Superman universe. I just don't have time to deal with that.

I had a look at https://www.britannica.com/ the other day and the quality >>of that article compared with the one on wikipedia was amazing! Wikipedia >>for me is more entertainment, but I've made a mental note to check out >>britannica for more serious stuff.

Wikipedia is a reasonably good source for original sources.

Otherwise, it is crowd sourced term paper.

To answer Charles' question, I also wrote a couple of articles in the mid-2000s. They are too esoteric to be noticed. I also depend on
Wikipedia for supplemental information.

And, as reflected in this very thread, pyotr's crowd has dwindled in
size. Mostly because Wikipedia maintenance becomes a full time job.
And who can afford it?
Sanger's as practical as Putin in regards to Western intelligence realpolitik establishment narrative enforcement. "It's their job."

Beings bias is baked into everything, how do researchers compensate?
Sanger soon begins to answer the question during Jeremy Nell's
interview found near the bottom of the page at:

<https://jermwarfare.com/conversations/larry-sanger-wikipedia>

Long story short, Sanger recently created a work-in-progress called Encyclosearch <https://encyclosearch.org/> It's designed to meld
multiple non-paywalled sources: Wikipedia, Britannica, The Great
Soviet Encyclopedia ...
Sanger's "big tent" foreseeably includes blogs and personal
webpages. An easily embedded software hook alerts Encyclosearch to the existence of the material. Content creators can then focus on their own contributions, as they see fit, in a manner they prefer, without worry
of a Wikipedia gorilla fight for dominance.

My brief description probably raises more questions than it answers.
My best advice on this topic is to watch the Sanger interview in its
entirety.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's )\._.,--....,'``. https://crcomp.net/reviews.php telltale tall tail /, _.. \ _\ (`._ ,. Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' Make 1984 fiction again.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)