3 ms·

As things stand Wikipedia is pretty good. Non-contentious topics are free to edit by everyone, contentious/political/hotbutton/etc topics have restricted editor

As things stand Wikipedia is pretty good. Non-contentious topics are free to edit by everyone, contentious/political/hotbutton/etc topics have restricted editorship. I do not sense any specific bias. As usual, "freedom of speech" does not imply a right to be listened to. Also, I do not buy this dystopia claim. In 99.99% of all topics we know exactly what is true and what is not. The sky is blue, clouds are condensed water, the earth is a sphere, there is racism, there is poverty, wealth is unevenly distributed over the planet, hygiene helps prevent sickness, vaccinations have prevented a lot of suffering, social security is expensive, etc, etc. The facts are easy. We used to argue about consequences stemming from these facts and what do to about it. These days we tend to confuse our disagreements with "alternate facts". It's really not that hard to stay informed.

Manuel_D 4y ago
Bias definitely exists but it's on a page by page, or perhaps topic by topic basis. It can be fun looking at the talk page - and better yet, the archives of the talk pages.
rosmax_1337 4y ago
I hate to break it to you, but the facts are not easy. To take something which is far enough away that it hopefully doesn't come across as inflammatory to you, consider the 9/11 attacks. And how the opinions about what happened are incredibly split all around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polls_about_9/11_conspiracy_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polls_about_9/11_consp... Now, you can ofcourse dismiss all these opinions as "alternate facts". Probably similarly to how devoted christians dismissed theories about a heliocentric solar system as "alternative facts" only aspoused by lunatics.
mistercheph 4y ago
This is the style of thinking that is drilled into children from a young age. No one has ever discovered anything, mankind has not continually rediscovered the world and then forged dogmas and killed dissenters and then burned the dogmas and killed the priests of the former dogma. There is Capital T Truth and Capital F Factx. No one is responsible for those factx, they just exist and are delivered by God into the minds of men. Looking out my window right now, the sky is grey.
- linuxhansl 4y ago
  Oh come on. This was about Wikipedia allegedly sensoring stuff, and us entering some kind of dystopia of uninformed people. We'll follow the scientific method; and that is how we learn and continue to explore and learn more. Do really not a see a difference between that and convenient political alternate facts? And the grey sky? Seriously? You're looking at clouds, not the sky. Whatever, why am I even responding...

Manuel_D 4y ago

Bias definitely exists but it's on a page by page, or perhaps topic by topic basis. It can be fun looking at the talk page - and better yet, the archives of the talk pages.

rosmax_1337 4y ago

I hate to break it to you, but the facts are not easy. To take something which is far enough away that it hopefully doesn't come across as inflammatory to you, consider the 9/11 attacks. And how the opinions about what happened are incredibly split all around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polls_about_9/11_conspiracy_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polls_about_9/11_consp... Now, you can ofcourse dismiss all these opinions as "alternate facts". Probably similarly to how devoted christians dismissed theories about a heliocentric solar system as "alternative facts" only aspoused by lunatics.

mistercheph 4y ago

This is the style of thinking that is drilled into children from a young age. No one has ever discovered anything, mankind has not continually rediscovered the world and then forged dogmas and killed dissenters and then burned the dogmas and killed the priests of the former dogma. There is Capital T Truth and Capital F Factx. No one is responsible for those factx, they just exist and are delivered by God into the minds of men. Looking out my window right now, the sky is grey.

linuxhansl 4y ago
Oh come on. This was about Wikipedia allegedly sensoring stuff, and us entering some kind of dystopia of uninformed people. We'll follow the scientific method; and that is how we learn and continue to explore and learn more. Do really not a see a difference between that and convenient political alternate facts? And the grey sky? Seriously? You're looking at clouds, not the sky. Whatever, why am I even responding...