Tonight I have requested my Wikipedia userpage to be deleted; I then mangled my account so it could no longer be used (since the option to delete it is, predictably enough, prohibited). Now, two years after I have stopped putting up new links to Wikipedia, I have decided to stop editing it. What more, I have half a mind to start sabotaging it, little by little, carefully, intelligently and surreptitiously. Why, do you ask? I've got a few good reasons.
Most importantly, I am tired, so tired of this bullshit that I keep talking about, again and again. In retrospect, Wikipedia turned out to be more dangerous than I could have ever imagined. What was I thinking, hoping to stave off its evils by contributing my own six hundred and fifty-four edits to it for four years, by carefully watching pages for vandalism, by putting the pursuit of knowledge above all things?
Here are the facts: Wikipedia is still the same shithole it was two years ago. It is still run by the same pack of raving bureaucrats who care more about covering their own asses (from the top all the way down) than providing as much information as possible to as many people as possible. They interpret the law (especially copyright law) so that it benefits their own narrow-minded, backwards policies. Common sense on Wikipedia has become something that now must be notarised by a few self-appointed "experts in the field" (whose only credentials are the assurances of higher-up administrators who vouch for them); it is then agreed upon by a rag-tag team of sticklers and zealots, ratified by a majority vote and, finally, posted and forgotten - until the next illegitimate-editor or blatant-inaccuracy scandal. Don't even get me started on the issue of everything contributed to Wikipedia belonging to it (this same bullshit is happening on Facebook, by the way - Web 2.0 my ass)... The whole system is rotten.
I cannot believe I actually cited a few of the articles in some of my 2005 academic essays, that I used to zealously maintain and clean up Wikipedia articles, that I have somehow believed that it all worked... Well, here's one more person who doesn't give a damn anymore; let it all disintegrate, piece by piece; let it fall into chaos. Too ambitious a project, do I hear you say? Well, there's some hope, considering the fact that the amount of mistakes (ranging from spelling and grammar to outright nonsense) on many of the present pages is staggering; add to this the edit wars (that the very form and function of Wikipedia necessitate, really), and you get a system where, no matter how many million articles it has, you're never sure which sentence is true, which is false, and which is, worse yet, somewhere in-between. Thus, merely not participating in this monstrosity would help accomplish small, yet effective, tasks of sabotage. May you live on, Wikipedia, in eternal mediocrity, for that is a fate worse than death.
But, perhaps, I should not be so completely negative. Could there be a future in accountable, peer-reviewed, wiki-driven encyclopædias? I doubt it, but it could be good for a laugh. ;)
I'll just stick with Uncyclopedia. Factual accuracy is very important to me, you see.
Heh. Fair enough, man. Long live Oscar Wilde! ;)
Hey, don't forget my article on Brachycera.
Ah, yes, by the elusive Dr. Paxl. By the way, why did you add "rel=nofollow" to the hyperlink?