Wikipedia

Categories: Wikipedia

The English '''Wikipedia''' is one of the world's largest online encyclopedia and a top-ten most popular website in the West.<ref>[https://www.lifewire.com/most-popular-sites-3483140 The Top 10 Most Popular Sites of 2018], Lifewire</ref>
The website is a process of outside non-active users writing most of the content of 5 million articles, and about 1,200 people who almost all know each other, doing most of the non-bot edits, or editorializing and mistake-fixing.<ref>http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia</ref>

==Meme cops==
[[File:Cop.png|thumb|200px|"Don't commit thought-crimes you dirty inkwell!" - Copper Penny]]
In the context of being deletionist, Wikipedia is the world's third most influential non-state editorial board (oligarchic thought police), not a democracy<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_democracy</ref> or "wisdom-of-the-massses" or "swarm intelligence" effort.

Wikipedia has used [[Womanosphere|babe.net]] as a reputable source, but will generally not allow [[A Voice for Men]] as a reputable source.

==Controversies==
===Love-shy, incels, GamerGate ===
The [[love-shyness]] article existed for a long time on English Wikipedia but was deleted after two AfD nominations.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Love-shyness_(2nd_nomination) Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Love-shyness (2nd nomination)], Wikipedia</ref> "Love-shy" now redirects to "[[Wikipedia Incel article|incel]]".
The current iteration of the English [[Wikipedia incel article]] was created in 2018 by [[GorillaWarfare]]. Her administrator permission allowed her to override the page protection.

In the wake of [[Gamergate]], the [[English Wikipedia Arbitration Committee]] imposed "standard discretionary sanctions, which are authorized for all edits about, and all pages related to, (a) GamerGate, (b) any gender-related dispute or controversy, (c) people associated with (a) or (b), all broadly construed."<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate#Discretionary_sanctions Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/GamerGate], Wikipedia</ref>

===Biographies===
One of the biggest controversies since its inception is the disparity on Wikipedia in the number of male and female biographies.


=== Citogenesis ===
[[File:GiraffeStapler.png|thumb|left|Wikipedia giving birth to new sources]]
[[File:Citogenesis.png]]

XKCD on 16 November 2011 highlighted perfectly in a 4koma how original research posted on Wikipedia was relied upon by outside sources which were then assumed to be reliable sources and cited by Wikipedia itself.

==Non-English Wikipedias ==
In addition to the English Wikipedia, [[German Wikipedia]], [[French Wikipedia]], etc. there also exist wikis such as the [[Esperanto Wikipedia]], [[Interlingua Wikipedia]], [[Simple English Wikipedia]], etc., whose purpose as far as [[incels]] and other dissidents are concerned is mainly so they can get politically incorrect work published that would get deleted from the English Wikipedia. The effort required to learn how to edit these Wikipedias effectively is enough to deter the dominant English Wikipedians from following dissidents there, which serves to create a mostly safe haven for the exiled to operate unmolested.

Meanwhile, it is possible for the reader to find these articles via a search engine and use, e.g., Google Translate to read the text. The main downside is that without the English Wikipedia's vast collection of articles, it is not as possible to take advantage of wikilinks to boost SEO.

==Criticism ==
===Larry Sanger===
{{Quote|''The Co-Founder's Lament''

There once was a {{W|Eye dialect|learnèd}} philosopher,<br>Who was hired as {{W|Nupedia}}'s first officer,<br>But over the years,<br>His hopes turned to fears,<br>"Expert must never lag amateur!"
<br><br>
But now the co-founder's lament,<br>Has hardened his heart to cement,<br>He publishes jeers,<br>He sees puppeteers,<br>"It's biased one hundred percent!"<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2021-07-25/Humour</ref>}}
In 2007, Wikipedia's co-founder, Larry Sanger, stated Wikipedia was "broken beyond repair"<ref>https://www.itnews.com.au/news/wikipedia-broken-beyond-repair-says-co-founder-78127</ref> In 2013, he stated: "Starting <nowiki>http://InfoBitt.com</nowiki> means I am finished with Wikipedia criticism. Quote this back to me if I happen to lapse."<ref>https://twitter.com/lsanger/status/311920835168436224</ref> In a 2021 interview, he said that he could "no longer trust the website [he] created".<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0P4Cf0UCwU Wikipedia co-founder: I no longer trust the website I created]</ref> It must be noted that all of Sanger's attempts at competing with Wikipedia since he left Wikipedia in 2002—one year after Wikipedia's launch—were utter failures, and that he may hold a particular grudge against Wikipedia.

It must be noted that Sanger's vision of neutrality was expressed in his failed Wikipedia competitor project, {{Wikipedia|Citizendium}}: to give as much weight to every ''type'' of argument in each domain. In practice, it meant giving for example as much weight and article space to climate change proponents than to climate change deniers, to religious fundamentalists than to {{Wikipedia|Religious liberalism|religious liberals}} and {{Wikipedia|Historical criticism|historical critics}}, to mainstream science than to various alternative medecines, whether considered proven or unproven.<ref>https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Citizendium</ref> In 2020, Sanger defended this vision once again in an article.<ref>[https://larrysanger.org/2020/05/wikipedia-is-badly-biased/ Wikipedia Is Badly Biased]</ref> By doing so, Sanger may try to bring [[alt-right]] affiliated people or "truth seekers" (ie people doubting mainstream views in general) in his current project, the ''Encyclosphere'', <u>but to no avail</u>{{Citation needed}}.

==See also==
*[[Mainstream media]]
*[[Advocacy (Wikipedia)]]
*[[Simple English Wikipedia]]
*[[Bans from Wikipedia]]

==References==
<references />
[[Category:Wikipedia]]