The Wikipedian Bias
The Wikipedian Bias is geeky folks from affluent countries.
Article on Ghana: 2780 words.
Article on the TARDIS: 8167 words.
Sure, when you add together the articles on Ghana’s politics and history, they come out to…
… about the length of the article on the TARDIS. (Which is a featured article, by the way.)
In all that, I’m also pretty sure that the articles on Ghana are at least decently equivalent to their print-encyclopedia cousins. That doesn’t mean they aren’t lacking. It’s just a barometer.
Why have I titled this post “The Wikipedian Bias” and not “The problem with Wikipedia” or any such similarly charged phrase?
The article on the TARDIS is unmatched in excellence.
That’s human civilization, folks: after you’ve personally conquered your struggles with food, water, oxygen, and shelter, create the best damn left-pinky-toenail cleaning widget anyone’s ever made. (Okay, that’s not quite fair: there are metaphysical meanings hanging out in there, and that’s why people are drawn to fan-geekery. But the 8000-word encyclopedia article? Not strictly necessary for comprehension.)
I am not too unhappy with this idea, although I think we’ve got to spend a little more time worrying about securing food, water, oxygen and shelter for people outside our cliques, too.
Bright shiny objects.