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He never will. Everything wrong with Wikipedia is because the masses don't realize the genius that is Jim Wales.

He can't admit the system is broken, ever. He's an investor.

He can't admit what's in front of his face, that much has been proven already.

Whenever on of his administrators does something attrocious, Jimbo Wales is like George W. Bush: He gives them a medal!

This quote is awesome enough to put a variety of it in my sig.

I think he was attempting reform with the "editors-certifying-their-credentials" thing after the Essjay scandal broke. But that was thoroughly rejected by the Wikipedia community. I don't think the plan would have changed things much (because many Wikipedia editors have no formal credentials), but that plan was rejected anyway.

Wikipedia is broken right now, of course, but alot of people are trying their best to fix it, like me for example, the main reason why I'm still in the project is that I'm trying to make the site better, (and it's better than myspace ). It wasn't as bad as a year ago though, but that's mainly because wikipedia gained alot of popularty, thus BLP and sourcing are important policys right now, not like in 2005, in which any article that claims any kind of notabilty or with a certain title on their names (school) survives AFD, even if it's libel, or so poorly sourced that it's a concern.

But I notice that AFD is becoming sort-of a vote counting process again and most of the active admins there only does the easy AFDs, "like 10 deletes and 1 keep" type of closers. There is only a few that does the harder ones (me included) and that gets backlogged easily. Several of the best admins the project ever had left or became inactive. (Zoe, Aaron Brennaman, Robth, etc.)

Another issue with wikipedia right now is a lack of admins who speciallise in one subject, a couple of them like Worldtraveller and Rama's Arrow left the project because of silly conflects, and that will affect the quality of wikipedia. Many of the FAs that are being promoted right now are articles related to pop culture, hurricanes, and sports, subjects in which anyone can write about, while our history articles are so weak. Sure wikipedia excels in some encyclopedic subjects like the solar system and we have some exceptional article specialistists like Cla, Tim Vickers, Marskell, Ceoil, Casliber, Yomangani, and a few others, but that's not enough. We need much more like college professors, etc. The Essjay scandal deeply affected wikipedia and like drove some possible speciallists out of the project.

Another reason why wikipedia is broken is RFA. RFA is getting tougher now, especially after Oldwindybear rfa in which it was found out that he nominated himself with a sock of his. It's good that RFA is becoming tougher but maybe too tough for users with alot of common sense to pass one right now. The only guarantees are pure vandal fighters (I have no idea how DerHexter passed with so many votes) and people who haven't been into conflect with any one. My main concern about RFA is that a certain group of admins, (not what you guys expect), is controlling that system, and because of that they are likely is heading to even more power (likely arbcom), and in my opinion I doubt they know much about policy.

Der Jimbo doesn't give a crap.

He's got what he wanted: fame, foreign trips, prestige in certain circles and a likely license to print money by putting his name to future projects. All on the backs of unpaid volunteers contributing in good faith.

It is our job to make people aware that Der Jimbo is not a positive influence, nor a decent chap. In fact he has unleashed an out of control, corrupt monster that is devouring the web as we speak. Playing fiddle whilst Rome burns. His name should become a by-word for internet disaster.

I in another thread taught people how you can make maybe 500 undetectable sock puppets if you're willing to spend about $100 a month. That many could go to the AFD page and together make every AFD that isn't speedy ended either always a keep or always a delete.




I like that name.





Wikipedia seems to only respect people if they slave away for hours each day doing unpaid labor on their site.

I agree with this view. Jimbo's big problem, however, is that Wikipedia is the proverbial tin can tied to his proverbial tail. It will always be clattering about behind him. It is his one and only claim to fame at present. Whatever his Next Big Thing™ is, it will have to be absolutely fucking huge in order to divert attention away from the sink of dysfunction that is WP. Would Edison have had a second act if the incandescent light bulb had proved an utter failure a few years down the road? I doubt it. WP has done much to reduce Jimbo's margin for failure.

Put a M-80 in the can.

Note: No animals where harmed in the making of this post.

I heard Edison stole all his glory from his employees like Nicolai Tesla who were the real inventors. Perhaps this can apply to Jimbo.

Realistically, how "broken" is Wikipedia? It's giving almost everyone involved what they want out of it, including most readers.

Realistically, it reminds me of a car owner by the father of a good friend of mine.

The hood is kept on with screws. Under the hood you'll find a few sheets of cardboard that help keep the engine warm, so it starts faster. There's no floor on the passengers' side and a garbage bag where a window should be. The trunk is held closed with a mastercraft lock. The only brake that works is the emergency brake. He keeps about 4 spare batteries in the trunk. The car has real problems.

He's been driving it since at least 2003. I understand it gets good mileage. He's not going to give it up, it does what he wants it to do. But - uh - for his sake, and the sake of everyone who rides with him, I believe fixing the car's problems would be a good idea, if it could be done.

This car is just like Wikipedia - it needs repairs, it needs fixes and it needs to be prettied up. Too many people get into it too uncritically. I *am* worried that it's dangerous. But Wikipedia isn't dead, and it isn't dying. It's getting stronger every day. Hell, there are already a number of editors who admit they aren't sure if they like Wikipedia, but realise that it's widespread and popular. Wikipedia *is* doing what it set out to do, even if it's having problems, growing pains and messing up a few things. Wikipedia has problems, serious problems - but few people believe it's broken, and I believe this is for a straightforward reason: It's not.

I've had beat up cars before. It costs less to buy a new one than to constantly pay the mechanic to repair all the engine parts so that they'll run. There's zillions of engine parts, things related to the wheels, things related to the electrical system, and things related to even holding the cat up (e.g. "engine mounts") that if they break you can't use pieces from the trash to repair it, it'll cost hundreds of dollars to fix. It's just easier to replace the car than to fix everything.

There are, of course, several attempts to do this - I've looked at them, none seem appealing at this time. In the car analogy, the guy fixes it himself, which what I'll charitably call garbage. Sure, it takes a lot of his time, but he seems to enjoy working on it.

AMEN bro.... Jimbo is not a nice man...

He has created a franknstine and it's walking, out of control,
destroying every thing in it's path.

Jimbo, as far as I'm concerned, is a internet war criminal.

The light bulb was invented by Sir Joseph Swann.

That was Tesla's story, anyway, and there likely was some truth to it. But Tesla came along some years after Edison took out his first light bulb patent. At least one big difference between Jimbo and Edison, though: Edison actually had a good deal of technical knowledge and skill of his own.

Indeed. Swan came up with a working incandescent light bulb as early as 1860. He invented a practical light bulb in 1879, several months ahead of Edison. Both were patented in the UK. Edison's invention was essentially an improvement on Swan's earlier designs. While Edison claimed to be the original and sole inventor in the US press, he had sense enough to make no such claim in the UK. In fact, he and Swan formed an electric company, with Swan in control of the company's UK operations.