Wikipedia Declares War on Science Fiction Articles

You just have to love a good Wikipedia-bashing blog post. File 770’s account of Wikipedia’s war with Fred Pohl doesn’t disappoint. Once again we can read how the collective melted minds of Wikipedia’s “editors” have congealed upon the policy of NOT documenting various science fiction articles and events because “there are no credible sources”.

I could cite the post ad nauseum as it is filled with anecdotes about ridiculous decisions made by Wikipedia “editors” but, frankly, the Web is already criss-crossed with diatribes about the nonsense decisions made by members of the Wikipedia community. Their hypocritical policy against “original research” (which is exactly what every article on Wikipedia is) is just one of the most blatant examples of how the ideas behind Wikipedia are naive.

Now, moving on, let us consider the fact that in a world where wiki software is freely available for download and installation, no one seems to have created a really good Science Fiction Wiki — at least not one so good that everyone cites it as a source of information.

Of course, there are a number of science fiction wikis — all sporting ads and appealing to only a limited segment of fandom. The advertising may be tolerated by most people but frankly once you put ads on a Website a lot of people start assuming you are only interested in the money. I have experimented with advertising on Xenite.Org and though I keep it there I have tried to limit its visibility.

The “ads” you see on SF-Fandom are, in fact, Xenite network internal promos (with an occasional public service announcement). We’re not making any money off those banners.

So why doesn’t SF-Fandom have a wiki? Truth be told, I actually tried to install one last year but we lease a dedicated sever and it doesn’t have one component that we would need to support a good wiki platform. I decided not to go with the lower-end platforms and I don’t want the hassle of installing software and having to upgrade the server O/S and….well, SF-Fandom is not stepping up to the plate.

But despite the sensationalist eyeball-popping headline I chose for this article this really touches on an issue that has been bothering me for a while: the old style online SF fandom communities that first rose up in the late 1980s and early 1990s are sailing, sailing, sailing over Sea. They are leaving Middle-earth, never to return again.

Online fandom doesn’t rally round the cause the way it used to because there are so many causes now everyone is busy rallying dwindling numbers of troops to their flags. Science fiction fandom is fragmented because it has grown so much it has branched out into new directions.

We are no longer Indo-Europeans, we’re Greeks, Italics, Celts, and Germans. We’re no longer Celts, we’re Cimbri, Gauls, Cenomanni, Bituriges, and Parisi.

The process of growth and division is endless. It’s a basic part of human experience. And it’s a phenomenon that will continue without end, I am sure.

Today’s online fandom will probably express similar thoughts (and dismay) in 15-20 years because whatever they are used to now will evolve into an entirely new system. Hopefully, though, Wikipedia will have vanished by then. It remains today the biggest eyesore on the Web.

And you really have to wonder what their independent, authoritative source of information is for this article about Wikipedia.