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There are many places, of course, on the internet where a utopian ideal of "here comes everybody" prevails, where the anonymous hive mind is fantastically curious and productive. A while ago I talked to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, about some of this, and asked him who his perfect contributor was. "The ideal Wikipedian, in my mind, is someone who is really smart and really kind," he said, without irony. "Those are the people who are drawn into the centre of the group. When people get power in these communities, it is not through shouting loudest, it is through diplomacy and conflict resolution."
Within this "wikitopia" there were, too, though, plenty of Lord of the Flies moments. The benevolent Wiki community is plagued by "Wikitrolls" – vandals who set out to insert slander and nonsense into pages. A policing system has grown up to root out troll elements; there are well over 1,000 official volunteer "admins", working round the clock; they are supported in this work by the eyes and ears of the moral majority of "virtuous" Wikipedians.
"When we think about difficult users there are two kinds," Wales said, with the same kind of weariness as Moderatrix. "The easy kind is someone who comes in, calls everyone Nazis, starts wrecking articles. That is easy to deal with: you block them, and everyone moves on. The hard ones are people who are doing good work in some respects but are also really difficult characters and they annoy other people, so we end up with these long intractable situations where a community can't come to a decision. But I think that is probably true of any human community."
Wales, who has conducted perhaps the most hopeful experiment in human collective knowledge of all time, appears to have no doubt that the libertarian goals of the internet would benefit from some similar voluntary restraining authority. It was the case of the blogger Kathy Sierra that caused Wales and others to propose in 2007 an unofficial code of conduct on blog sites, part of which would outlaw anonymity. Kathy Sierra is a programming instructor based in California; after an online spat on a tech-site she was apparently randomly targeted by an anonymous mob that posted images of her as a sexually mutilated corpse on various websites and issued death threats. She wrote on her own blog: "I'm at home, with the doors locked, terrified. I am afraid to leave my yard, I will never feel the same. I will never be the same."
Among Wales's suggestions in response to this and other comparable horror stories of virtual bullying was that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments altogether, and that they be able to delete comments deemed abusive without facing accusations of censorship. Wales's proposals were quickly shot down by the libertarians, and the traffic-hungry, as unworkable and against the prevailing spirit of free-speech.
Within this "wikitopia" there were, too, though, plenty of Lord of the Flies moments. The benevolent Wiki community is plagued by "Wikitrolls" – vandals who set out to insert slander and nonsense into pages. A policing system has grown up to root out troll elements; there are well over 1,000 official volunteer "admins", working round the clock; they are supported in this work by the eyes and ears of the moral majority of "virtuous" Wikipedians.
"When we think about difficult users there are two kinds," Wales said, with the same kind of weariness as Moderatrix. "The easy kind is someone who comes in, calls everyone Nazis, starts wrecking articles. That is easy to deal with: you block them, and everyone moves on. The hard ones are people who are doing good work in some respects but are also really difficult characters and they annoy other people, so we end up with these long intractable situations where a community can't come to a decision. But I think that is probably true of any human community."
Wales, who has conducted perhaps the most hopeful experiment in human collective knowledge of all time, appears to have no doubt that the libertarian goals of the internet would benefit from some similar voluntary restraining authority. It was the case of the blogger Kathy Sierra that caused Wales and others to propose in 2007 an unofficial code of conduct on blog sites, part of which would outlaw anonymity. Kathy Sierra is a programming instructor based in California; after an online spat on a tech-site she was apparently randomly targeted by an anonymous mob that posted images of her as a sexually mutilated corpse on various websites and issued death threats. She wrote on her own blog: "I'm at home, with the doors locked, terrified. I am afraid to leave my yard, I will never feel the same. I will never be the same."
Among Wales's suggestions in response to this and other comparable horror stories of virtual bullying was that bloggers consider banning anonymous comments altogether, and that they be able to delete comments deemed abusive without facing accusations of censorship. Wales's proposals were quickly shot down by the libertarians, and the traffic-hungry, as unworkable and against the prevailing spirit of free-speech.
I felt moved to leave a comment, which The Guardian may or may not publish, since I am apparently on a "premoderation" status:
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I find it very ironic (or, maybe it's hypocritical) that Jimmy Wales would play such a prominent role in an article about civility online. First, the author Tim Adams describes Wales as "the founder of Wikipedia", which itself is a deliberately disruptive fiction that Wales began to perpetrate a few years ago. Dr. Larry Sanger is the one who came to Wales, asking him to install wiki software on a server to provide a content platform for Wales' dying standard encyclopedia project. Sanger named this project "Wikipedia", Sanger issued the first public call for participation in Wikipedia, and Sanger spent his full-time career for the first year crafting and shepherding the very protocols and policies that still govern Wikipedia today. Because Wales's partnership owned the server and paid Sanger's paycheck, Wales was given a "co-founder" recognition along with Sanger. For years. Until Wales stopped paying Sanger and began rebranding himself as "the founder" or, even more ridiculously, "the sole founder" of Wikipedia.
Furthermore, The Guardian used to have a journalist named Seth Finkelstein. When Finkelstein began getting to close to the financial status of Wales' for-profit enterprise, Wales silenced Finkelstein publicly with the disparaging comment, "Seth, you're an idiot." That doesn't sound "really kind", to put it in Wales' own words.
So, here we have the mainstream media continuing its blind homage to the mythical Jimmy Wales, serving up his hypocrisy unfiltered to readers. No, thanks!
Furthermore, The Guardian used to have a journalist named Seth Finkelstein. When Finkelstein began getting to close to the financial status of Wales' for-profit enterprise, Wales silenced Finkelstein publicly with the disparaging comment, "Seth, you're an idiot." That doesn't sound "really kind", to put it in Wales' own words.
So, here we have the mainstream media continuing its blind homage to the mythical Jimmy Wales, serving up his hypocrisy unfiltered to readers. No, thanks!