The uselessness of Wikis

Bester

<font color=blue><B>Grand UberSoke, Sith-jutsu Ryu
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I'd heard about this "Wikipedia" thing, a global, editable encyclopedia that anyone could contribute to, and that was community built. So, I checked it out, and started digging into various arts.

I expected something useful, informative, and educational.

Sometimes, I even found it.

But, listings on a few arts, most notably Modern Arnis and those associated with it showed the problem with a place that anyone can edit, with no checks or balances to ensure accuracy or reliability.

The listings showed a battle, 2 factions, engaged in trying to get their views across. Entries to people would be added, deleted, readded, edited, reedited, round and round, pausing only when one side had left, only to resume once they got back.

In 1 entry, the same link was added and removed 8! times. A link to a site known to be very lax in accountability or reliability of it's content. (Or in other words, any ******* can make a claim and have no requirement to validate it.)

In another, an individuals credentials were added, removed, readded, edited in an insulting manner, removed, replaced, revised and eliminated.

In yet another, over 100 revisions in a single day indicated almost outright warfare as 4 of more individuals continually wrote blasting screeds against each other in what should have been a simple bio of a founder, now deceived.

What is the usefulness of such a tool?

There is none. It is simply another place for people to post their agendas, their skewed histories, and artificially inflate their egos. Like Live Journal, and the "Blogs", a noble idea has been corrupted and usurped by those who lack the moral fiber, the ethics, the internal character to stand on their own feet. Degenerates who need to tear down others in order to placate their own inadequacies of character and lack of achievement.

A pity. The idea was a good one. But even it's creators lament it's decent into uselessness.

There can be good information in there. One needs to shovel alot of dung though, before striking anything of significant value.
 

Dalum

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It's the same deal with forums and usegroups. As a matter of fact, I suggested a wiki for FMAs in specific and it seems that there may be one sourced from MT.

Go here to check out the thread I started - http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=457336#post457336

Hopefully, politics and agendas will be set aside and this wiki will be a true tool instead of a useless guide to whang measurement.
 

Bob Hubbard

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It's being discussed, but moving slow. We're not certain we have the time to manage both the forum, and a wiki. If we do one, we'd like to avoid the issues of game playing and pettyness indicated by AB on the main Wiki.
 

arnisador

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I like Wikipedia, but I cringe when I see it quoted as a source in a newspaper, as seems to happen more and more often.

The recent vandalism of the Modern Arnis web pages is just one of many examples. I imagine it was inspired by this story: Author of fake Wikipedia bio admits 'joke' .

Sadly, some people will view this great community resource as just another place to wage their battles and engage in self-promotion. But there is a lot of great martial arts info. on it. For example:
Branches of Wing Chun
Eskrima
Karate

The last two undergo continual revision, but it seems to be converging to something useful as a consensus opinion.

I like the site a lot. It's a great idea and a great tool. But it needs some way to control problem users.
 

Grenadier

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Take what you read on the Wikipedia with a grain of salt. Some pages are great, others are terrible, and some are nothing more than playgrounds for two factions to try to politely bash each other.

The admins at the Wikipedia do their best to patrol things, and if things get out of hand, they do step into the fray.

Fortunately, if someone vandalizes a Wiki page, anyone can revert the page back to its previous form. Those who commit vandalism do get dealt with eventually.

Right now, the admins probably have their hands full, trying to deal with the sycophants of one particular neo-ninja, who constantly tries to get his followers to sign up for more accounts so they can commit vandalism.

Just read the discussion pages here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ashida_Kim

rofl.gif
 
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Bester

Bester

<font color=blue><B>Grand UberSoke, Sith-jutsu Ryu
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I don't know. I think Mr. Kim is more useful than we give him credit for. I mean, if he wasn't there, the Power Ranger Ninjas wouldn't have anything to aspire to. :rofl:
 

Dalum

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Hey, you can't dis them all...
Jason Frank is pretty talented. I can't give anyone else any props though.
 
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Bester

Bester

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Would he qualify as an American Ninjitsu Master, I wonder?


In all seriousness though, what is it with these ethically bankrupt losers who feel the need to do this? I mean, can't they get by on their own merits? Is it simply that they are brainwashed little followers, who would drink koolaid for their questionably skilled, unable to hang teachers? Can't be for the fame as they usually do it all anonymous, like the incestuous little cockroaches they are.

These people are scum, and they really really really are a contemptuous bunch of piss poor losers. They are excellent examples of what is wrong with the arts, bordering on frauds. I bet they all hang out with "sokes", and "recognized grandmasters" who made up their own arts, and teach out of little private clubs, since the pap they teach to these mindless sheep would hardly hold up under the eyes of real martial artists.

I really hold them in utter contempt. They're scum, all of them.
 

arnisador

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Two recent articles concerning Wikipedia, about the fallout from the post about John Seigenthaler that cost a person his job:
Wikipedia's Chief: Don't Quote Us
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20051214/bs_bw/tc20051214441708

And about its overall reliability:
Science Journal: Wikipedia Pretty Accurate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051215/ap_on_hi_te/wikipedia_accuracy

Wikipedia, which boasts 3.7 million articles in 200 languages, is the 37th most visited Web site on the Internet, according to the research service Alexa.
 

bignick

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Although to some extent your claims on Wikipedia are true, wikis in and of themselves can be extremely useful when set up correctly and in the proper setting. For instance, a lot of times a team of programmers or techs will set up a wiki and as they encounter and solve problems they will edit and create entries giving how tos and examples to help the other people avoid similar problems.

There does need to be accountability, anonymous editing and creation just doesn't work on the large scale that wikipedia is reached. However, the idea is a good one in theory, and in practice, if practiced properly.

Also, if something is not useful, it'a a global community open to anyone....you can help fix it...
 

Dalum

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Not sure if anyone here listens to NPR at all but they did an interesting story on the whole hoax and legitimacy of WiKis in general. I wish I could remember the guy's name, but he was some prominent guy from Britain and with a team of scientists they scoured the areas concerning their areas of expertise. They found that when cross referencing between the data that is ever evolving on Wikipedia and what is available from Brittanica (online) that it was about the same. There were some shotty spots where they said that you can tell that whomever wrote the entry didn't quite grasp the content but it wasn't much better on the "golden source". Pretty interesting...
 

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