6 ms·

At what point do minority groups become proportionally overrepresented because of this kind of behavior?

eru 10y ago
Depends on where you draw the lines around your minorities? Strictly speaking, Wikipedia editors are the only people represented on Wikipedia; and they are a weird bunch compared to the rest of the population, but they do cut through other lines of minorities.
- sevenless 10y ago
  > they are a weird bunch Weird, or WEIRD? http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/weird_psychology_social_science_researchers_rely_too_much_on_western_college.html http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...
SwellJoe 10y ago
I'm reasonably confident we have not yet reached that point.
PhasmaFelis 10y ago
I'm not sure there can be such a thing as a topic being "over-represented" on Wikipedia, only under-represented. (Though deletionists might disagree.) Historically, if a given subject is under-represented, the solution has been to either seek out experts in that subject or research and fix it yourself, not blame other editors for failing to cover topics outside their area of interest.
- PhasmaFelis 10y ago
  (That should be "or fix it yourself".)
205guy 10y ago
What does it even mean to be overrepresented in a searchable database? Seems like you're making up problems.
- tehwebguy 10y ago
  And they probably didn't read the article
- jsnsjsfnts 10y ago
  What does it mean to be underrepresented in a searchable database? Perhaps the author is making up problems themselves. Or you're wrong. One of the two.
cooper12 10y ago
That's not possible by definition since these are minority groups. The minorities and their views will always be outnumbered by the majority. Heck, Consider this: 8.5% of Wikipedia editors are women. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Systemic_bias#Women_are_underrepresented https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Systemic_bias#Women_...) That gender-gap is only widening, not closing.

eru 10y ago

Depends on where you draw the lines around your minorities? Strictly speaking, Wikipedia editors are the only people represented on Wikipedia; and they are a weird bunch compared to the rest of the population, but they do cut through other lines of minorities.

sevenless 10y ago
> they are a weird bunch Weird, or WEIRD? http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/weird_psychology_social_science_researchers_rely_too_much_on_western_college.html http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...

SwellJoe 10y ago

I'm reasonably confident we have not yet reached that point.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago

I'm not sure there can be such a thing as a topic being "over-represented" on Wikipedia, only under-represented. (Though deletionists might disagree.) Historically, if a given subject is under-represented, the solution has been to either seek out experts in that subject or research and fix it yourself, not blame other editors for failing to cover topics outside their area of interest.

PhasmaFelis 10y ago
(That should be "or fix it yourself".)

205guy 10y ago

What does it even mean to be overrepresented in a searchable database? Seems like you're making up problems.

tehwebguy 10y ago
And they probably didn't read the article
jsnsjsfnts 10y ago
What does it mean to be underrepresented in a searchable database? Perhaps the author is making up problems themselves. Or you're wrong. One of the two.

cooper12 10y ago

That's not possible by definition since these are minority groups. The minorities and their views will always be outnumbered by the majority. Heck, Consider this: 8.5% of Wikipedia editors are women. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Systemic_bias#Women_are_underrepresented https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Systemic_bias#Women_...) That gender-gap is only widening, not closing.