From Ben Yates’ blog, the most recent news/realtime mass collaboration article, the 2008 South Ossetia War. Some Wikipedians think this is a “bad thing”, I am firmly, vehemently, not in that group. Sure, it’s break-neck editing, and sure the article will look different in 10 years, but we will have editors then too. Today though, it gives a lot of good information to a lot of people, and acts as a clearing house for people who have that information and want to get it out.
People want information presented to them in a neutral way, by people who have standards. For a lot of reasons, Wikipedia offers this to people. Taking it away because it’s so far removed from what is in Britannica is ridiculous. Wikipedia is no more similar to Britannica than a wagon is to a bullet train.
Er. I should probably let you know that I didn’t actually encounter anyone who opposed the Ossetia War article, I just assumed they were out there. (I updated the post to make that clear.)
Yeah, I think it’s a minority view, but I’ve definitely seen people opposed to real-time newish articles in the mailing list etc. :)