QUOTE(FreiheitBaguette @ Wed 23rd September 2009, 12:01pm)
Wikipedia was once adored by the press. The web journalists began pouring out elegies to Wikipedia, just like they did with Google. They spouted wide-eyed admiration for this new, amazing light that shined within the dark tunnels of the web. However, these people completely ignored the immense problems that Wikipedia might initiate. Even after notorious incidents like Essjay, Taner Akcam, etc., the tech press continued praising Wikipedia, though not as much. The Essjay incident exposed Wikipedia as irresponsible, and it gained the attention of the mass media. However, the tech press, in addition to widely read blogs (which is not the same thing as journalism) kept showing their love for Wikipedia.
Now, it seems quite different. The mainstream media are reporting about what Wikipedia really is, and there have been efforts to expose it by the tech press as well. This is a new sign that Wikipedia is on its way to just going down in history as one of the most harmful, irresponsible, and useless sites to ever grace the web with its presence. Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?
--FB
Yes, but one has difficulty projecting the future of these things, knowing that the popular "buzz" for ALL putatively good new phenomena go through three phases after being introduced 1) Best thing since sliced bread 2) Actually crap, and should never have been loosed on the world, and finally 3) (Yawn) one more choice out there. You see this happen all the time to new celebrities in the tabloids, as time goes on.
In the drug development business (for example), these are called the P, PP, and PPP phases. New drugs are first
1) Panacea
2) Pandora Plague
Then finally
3) Perfectly Pedestrian Pharmaceutical (joining the ranks of all the others, a mild improvement in their place).
Or say, Longhorn--> Vista--> Windows 7.
Though I don't practice this pattern myself, I sometimes see people put others through the cycle of overvalued, hated, never-thought-about. They go from Divine Perfect Love--> Spouse From Hell --> One More Ex. Done in excess, it's a common symptom of personality disorder. But like most mental illnesses, it's only an amplification of the way we as societies and individuals treat all new things.