User:Ocaasi/quotes

• "I call this Revolution 2.0. Revolution 2.0 is, is — I say that our revolution is like Wikipedia, OK? Everyone is contributing content. You don't know the names of the people contributing the content ... This is exactly what happened. Revolution 2.0 in Egypt was exactly the same. Everyone was contributing small pieces, bits and pieces. We drew this whole picture. We drew this whole picture of a revolution. And that picture — no one is the hero in that picture." Wael Ghonim on the peaceful protests in Egypt that lead to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak: [1]

• But the central point remains clear: Wikipedia is an exercise in argumentative, pedantic and often cantankerous ontology and encyclopediaphilia, which, by its very nature, is essentially male. Vide ut supra, it’s what we do. Just like we say things such as “vide ut supra” when we could equally well say “as I said before” or equally well say nothing at all, on the grounds that the reader is not stupid? except the assumption that the reader is stupid is another thing we do. worth reading the whole article [2]

• “I’m basically some guy on the Internet who spent the whole day today completely geeking out in my hotel room editing Wikipedia." Jimmy Wales [3]

• “The Germans are the most interested in geography. Just saying. Sex is in the top topics in every language here except for in French and Spanish, and I thought this was kind of puzzling until someone explained to me that it’s because the French and Spanish are actually having sex, and everyone else is just reading about it.” Jimmy Wales [4]

• “In the fall, Rochelle A. Davis, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, told undergraduates in her culture and politics course to create a Wikipedia page about a community they belonged to, then use that research to develop a thesis for an academic paper. 'Collectively, they were the best papers I’ve ever read at Georgetown,' Davis said. She said students benefited from vetting their ideas with a wider community — a practice that could help academics at all levels. 'This is where we are going,' she said. 'I think that’s a good thing.'" Washington Post, [5]

• "It was constructed, in less than eight years, by strangers who disagreed about all kinds of things but who were drawn to a shared, not-for-profit purpose. They were drawn because for a work of reference Wikipedia seemed unusually humble. It asked for help, and when it did, it used a particularly affecting word: “stub.” At the bottom of a short article about something, it would say, “This article about X is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.” And you’d think: That poor sad stub: I will help. Not right now, because I’m writing a book, but someday, yes, I will try to help. -- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/mar/20/the-charms-of-wikipedia/?pagination=false

• "And when people did help they were given a flattering name. They weren’t called “Wikipedia’s little helpers,” they were called “editors.” It was like a giant community leaf-raking project in which everyone was called a groundskeeper. Some brought very fancy professional metal rakes, or even back-mounted leaf-blowing systems, and some were just kids thrashing away with the sides of their feet or stuffing handfuls in the pockets of their sweatshirts, but all the leaves they brought to the pile were appreciated. And the pile grew and everyone jumped up and down in it having a wonderful time. And it grew some more, and it became the biggest leaf pile anyone had ever seen anywhere, a world wonder. And then self-promoted leaf-pile guards appeared, doubters and deprecators who would look askance at your proffered handful and shake their heads, saying that your leaves were too crumpled or too slimy or too common, throwing them to the side. And that was too bad. The people who guarded the leaf pile this way were called “deletionists.” -- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/mar/20/the-charms-of-wikipedia/?pagination=false

• "It worked and grew because it tapped into the heretofore unmarshaled energies of the uncredentialed. The thesis procrastinators, the history buffs, the passionate fans of the alternate universes of Garth Nix, Robotech, Half-Life, P.G. Wodehouse, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charles Dickens, or Ultraman—all those people who hoped that their years of collecting comics or reading novels or staring at TV screens hadn’t been a waste of time—would pour the fruits of their brains into Wikipedia, because Wikipedia added up to something. This wasn’t like writing reviews on Amazon, where you were just one of a million people urging a tiny opinion and a Listmania list onto the world—this was an effort to build something that made sense apart from one’s own opinion, something that helped the whole human cause roll forward. -- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/mar/20/the-charms-of-wikipedia/?pagination=false

• "Wikipedia was the point of convergence for the self-taught and the expensively educated. The cranks had to consort with the mainstreamers and hash it all out—and nobody knew who really knew what he or she was talking about, because everyone’s identity was hidden behind a jokey username. All everyone knew was that the end product had to make legible sense and sound encyclopedic. It had to be a little flat—a little generic—fair-minded—compressed—unpromotional—neutral. The need for the outcome of all edits to fit together as readable, unemotional sentences muted—to some extent—natural antagonisms. -- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/mar/20/the-charms-of-wikipedia/?pagination=false

• "So there was this exhilarating sense of mission—of proving the greatness of the Internet through an unheard-of collaboration. Very smart people dropped other pursuits and spent days and weeks and sometimes years of their lives doing “stub dumps,” writing ancillary software, categorizing and linking topics, making and remaking and smoothing out articles—without getting any recognition except for the occasional congratulatory barnstar on their user page and the satisfaction of secret fame. Wikipedia flourished partly because it was a shrine to altruism—a place for shy, learned people to deposit their trawls." -- http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/mar/20/the-charms-of-wikipedia/?pagination=false

• "What are we going to do tonight, Brain? Same thing we do every night, Pinky, try and take over the world." --Pinky and the Brain

• "Wikipedia offers an intoxicating brew of freedom, anonymity, recognition, collaboration, and purpose. Abandon your other pursuits, all ye who enter here." --Anonymous

• "When you die, if you get a choice between going to regular heaven or pie heaven, choose pie heaven. It might be a trick, but if it's not, mmmmmmmm, boy." --Jack Handey