Discussed at Wikbak here

http://www.wikback.com/forums/ubbthreads.p...r=2048#Post2048

and on wikipedia here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Raymond_...pert_withdrawal

A bunch of the pro-scientists are getting together to discuss moving out of WP altogether. Reminds me of the campaign I started some years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Expert_Retention

Also an interesting discussion at the Village pump on 'failure' statistics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Vil...dia_is_failing.

(URL doesn't work - go to Village pump and find 'wikipedia is failing')

Extraordinary quote in the last one



Sorry, what are the 'obvious cultural reasons' the Germans are the most elitist? What could they possibly mean?

I'm with you on this one. What makes Germans culturally more intellectually elitist? The fact that computer and web usage is statistically less significant among the general population (per capita PC ownership in Germany is about 50% that of the United States).

This would mean that you get fewer truck drivers and ignorami trying to hawk their wares (and bully tools) on the encyclopedia.

I don't know that this makes the culture more elite, to be frank.

As I recall, this movement started out as an Expert Rebellion, but the name got morphed into Expert Retention as they banned the lion's share of the Rebels.

The URL problem has to do with the way this board software handles terminal periods and question marks in url strings — you have to use the HTML ASCII Codes for them to make the link work, but don't preview the page as the preview converts them back again.

Jonny

The "Expert retention" essay deteriorated further when Jayjg and SlimVirgin arrived to start edit warring with others on it, and it became just another arena for their power games back in May last year. By around that time, the pair of them had seeped into almost all aspects of Wikipedia, and the whole site was quaking at the foundations.

Slim

Jayjg

Slim had fallen out with User:KimvdLinde. View the talk page to see how it played out.

At one point she chastised "experts", if I recall.

Germans are in my experience far more likely to defer to experts than Americans are. It is pretty unlikely that people would argue with a leading academic, say, on the German site.

Hmm that's how I first met 'Slim'. Always quite liked her, I have to say, though didn't know about the falling-out with Kim.

I live in one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse regions of the US, with a constant flux of international visitors who begin and raise families here while attending colleges and universities in the area or working for all manner of international corporations on "temporary" (= 1 to 10 year) assignments.

In my experience, cultural stereotypes of the sort that I've been reading on this thread and many others are all unequivocal BS.

My guess is that the main difference between the English Wikipedia and the German Wikipedia is that folks like SlimVirgin, Jayjg, and JzG don't spend a lot of time plying their wiles on the latter.

Then again, who knows?

Jonny

I wonder if the thought that we know very well both SlimeVinegar and JayJG have - "An expert is someone who agrees with ME!" - ever reached the level of consciousness for them when they edited the article.

The English Wiki no doubt gets more conflict because the US, for good or FOR BAD, is the top dog in the world and largely has its governmental actions guided by the general consensus (or sometimes lack thereof) of its people. It would be intellectually interesting if the German Wiki promoted some falsehood; when the English Wiki promotes some falsehood, it could contribute to bombs falling on people's heads.