 | This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
A wise and funny man once said that Wikipedia's approach to experts is that experts are scum. It's true, but it's not the whole truth.
It would be more precise to say Wikipedia believes that experts are sour.
Episode I
Once upon a time, Wikipedia hired a few experts. It worked for a while, but experts are only humans; they take a long time to run, and they cost a lot of money. Especially in the post-dot-com era, Wikipedia couldn't afford experts, and it ended up laying them off. Having no more experts, Wikipedia said "Bah! Experts are sour anyway -- we'll replace them with unpaid Internet monkeys."
Episode II
And unpaid Internet monkeys did a lot of stuff that Internet monkeys tend to do when they're unpaid, and some of it was palatable. However, some of what the unpaid Internet monkeys did earned quite a bit of criticism. To critics, Wikipedia says: "Bah! Who are you to say we're not doing the Good Job? An expert or something?" And the sourpuss experts go away, and the unpaid Internet monkeys can toil further with no interference from those sneaky experts.
Epilogue
And they all live happily ever after.
| This is an
essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of
Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been
thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
A wise and funny man once said that Wikipedia's approach to experts is that experts are scum. It's true, but it's not the whole truth.
It would be more precise to say Wikipedia believes that experts are sour.
Episode I
Once upon a time, Wikipedia hired a few experts. It worked for a while, but experts are only humans; they take a long time to run, and they cost a lot of money. Especially in the post-dot-com era, Wikipedia couldn't afford experts, and it ended up laying them off. Having no more experts, Wikipedia said "Bah! Experts are sour anyway -- we'll replace them with unpaid Internet monkeys."
Episode II
And unpaid Internet monkeys did a lot of stuff that Internet monkeys tend to do when they're unpaid, and some of it was palatable. However, some of what the unpaid Internet monkeys did earned quite a bit of criticism. To critics, Wikipedia says: "Bah! Who are you to say we're not doing the Good Job? An expert or something?" And the sourpuss experts go away, and the unpaid Internet monkeys can toil further with no interference from those sneaky experts.
Epilogue
And they all live happily ever after.