"The fragility of the system is based on the tensions between sucking in volunteers to contribute, yet not having conflicts tear them apart. In this regard, I think Wikipedia does much more poorly than is generally believed. But people have the impression that it does well, because it draws from an expanding pool of new fodder to replace those who it burns out or drives away. That is, it's not really good at conflict-resolution. In fact, it's arguably worse than average. But it can get by, because there's more than enough replacement (free) labor. However, from a lot of perspectives, that's not such a great thing."
Seth Finkelstein, 03:35, 9 December 2007 (UTC)
"Ed Chi of the Palo Alto Research Center is the creator of WikiDashboard, a social dynamic analysis tool created independently of the foundation that allows readers to analyze all of the edits made by their peers. In October, Chi discovered a huge drop-off in the number of edits, to the point that 1 percent of editors were editing 50 percent of the content. While Wikipedia remains strong in page views and overall ranking, Chi said the waning interest among editors does not bode well for the site or community."
"'The edits have leveled off and remained steady,' Chi said. 'We don't yet know a reason for the decline, but we suspect it is due not to the wisdom of crowds but to the increased level of conflict among community members. Often it is not the one with the right answer who has their say, but the one who sticks around the longest and is best able to argue his case.'"
San Francisco Chronicle, August 24, 2008
"Behaving politely toward fellow editors on Wikipedia, and then trashing them on Wikipedia Review, does not constitute what any reasonable person would consider civil behavior. Look at it like this: sure, you can have your own expectations of civility in your own home, and the guy next door can have his own policies; but even if the guy next door is quite polite when he visits you, if he puts up signs at his own house saying what a creep you are, you're not going to feel very good about working alongside him in any venue."
jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 21:44, 19 September 2008 (UTC)
