Wikipedia sociology

This page is devoted to the sociology of Wikipedia — how it works as a community, and as a brave new world.

Structure

• Power structure
  • Explains the complex and distributed power structure within Wikipedia
  • Short description of different levels of hierarchy within Wikipedia.
• The Wikipedia Community
  • Description of the community

Ruling metaphors among contributors

• Collaborative work of art
  • Wikipedia is a collaborative work of art
• The art of Wikipedia weeding or en:Wikipedia:Wiki as fertile soil
  • Wikipedia is a garden
• Darwikinism
  • Wikipedia is an ecology of ideas
• Battlefield of ideas
  • Wikipedia is a battlefield of ideas
• Wiki is not paper
  • A negative metaphor to differentiate Wikipedia from the restrictions of paper-bound encyclopedias.

Patterns and processes at work

• Darwikinism
  • Wikipedia works as an ecology of ideas at the level of article.
• More heat than light
  • Describes how sometimes more heat than light is created when collaboratively producing an article
• Wikipedia Vicious Cycle
  • Explains the process where Vandals, sysops and Trolls interact to negative effect
• en:Linus's law
  • Many eyeballs...
• Consensus decision making
  • Largely speaking Wikipedia functions happily with consensus decision making.
• Edit wars
  • Simple explanation for a misnomer, and a modest suggestion
• Redlinkphobia
  • Wikipedia holds a collective consciousness of dead links as "unsightly".

Types or tendencies

• Faction
  • Describes various tendencies among contributors to Wikipedia
• A continuum between extreme Eventualism and extreme Immediatism
  • Eventualists value Wikipedia for its long-term value. Immediatists value its short-term value as a proper encyclopedia.
• A continuum between extreme Inclusionism and extreme Deletionism
  • Inclusionist values every article except obvious junk articles, while Deletionist only value 'proper' articles.

See also: Wiki personality type and Conflicting Wikipedia philosophies

Individual psychology

• Academic standards disease
  • Describes what happens when a contributor mistakes Wikipedia's goals for academic ones. Includes suggestions for cure.
• Wikipedia:Who, Why?
  • Describes the type of people attracted to contributing to Wikipedia and why.
• en:Wikipedia:Wikipediholic
  • Tongue-in-cheek description of Wikipediholicism.
• Wikistress
  • Often caused by Trolls
• Wikinoia
  • Paranoia in Wiki format

External Links

• Meatball
  • An online community devoted to how online communities work.
• Wiki Science
  • Help write the WikiBook on the Science of Wikis
• de:Wikipedia:WikiProjekt Selbstreflexion der Wikipedia
  • German Wikipedia project on studying the Wikipedia as a social experiment