User:Korpios
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My frustration as outlined below notwithstanding, I miss working on Wikipedia. Damn it.
- Korpios 06:00, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
Eh, screw it; I give up. My enthusiasm for Wikipedia has given way to frustration, albeit not necessarily over vandalism, poor fact-checking, or the like.
I'm frustrated over the sheer lack of writing skill inherent in most editors.
Unfortunately, this is an artifact of our society at large; as Wikipedia increasingly attracts ordinary users, its writing quality approximates the ability of those users. Reality check: most people cannot write well, or even passably. It's maddening to improve an article, only to find that the tide of the unskilled has wrecked it. Again. Wikipedia should not represent an averaging of its users' quality; it should represent the very best of it, and nothing less.
Some might come to Wikipedia's defense, citing the success of open-source software projects and their natural tendency to improve. Comparing Wikipedia with most open-source projects is a joke; such projects typically have a vetting process with oversight by a core group. Yes, anyone can contribute — but that doesn't imply automatic inclusion and public display of one's contribution, especially if it's crap.
If Wikipedia is to succeed, it needs a two-stage editing process: "staging" areas for articles which anyone can contribute facts and citations to, and "production" articles which can only be edited by those who have proven skill with the written word.
Editorial control, baby. Wikipedia can't survive without it.
- Korpios 13:51, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
