Generally, we find most people out there on the Internet are good, says Jimmy Wales. It's one of the wonderful humanitarian discoveries in Wikipedia, that most people only want to help us build this free nonprofit, charitable resource.
Andrew Lih • The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
Wikipedia survives and retains its passionate community also becuase it is social. You never know whom you will meet, strike up a conversation with, and as a consequence, learn from. Every Wikipedia article has a discussion page, to encourage debate and the exchange of ideas with others in the community. Imagine taking an online bulletin board, dis... See more
Andrew Lih • The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
...it was decided early on that there could be only one version of each article presented at any single time. Participants had to work toward a single common article entry. Differng parallel versions of an articple would serve no one well - it would simply be too easy for factions to go off their own biased corners.
Andrew Lih • The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia
In the past decade, we’ve moved from Wikipedia being the butt of online jokes about unreliability to Wikipedia being one of the best definitions we currently have of consensus reality.