1 Jul 2011 04:22
Re: It Is not Us
It looks like we understand the potential risks of adding social features, but I don't know that the merits have sunk in. ==Don't call it a Social Network, don't think of it as a revolution== Th first thing to do is banish the word "Social Network" from the discussion. "Social Network" evokes "Myspace and Facebook", which aren't exactly popular around here, a sentiment I share. When we talk about adding social features to Wikimedia, you must delete all your preconceptions about what a 'social network' is, and break it down into the most fundamental concept-- socializing on a network. Nobody here wants us to just become 'another' Facebook, shudder at the thought. We want to learn from social networks and keep the usable bits-- we don't want to literally become one. If that sound scary, remember changes around here are either optional or gradual or both-- never dramatic, unforeseen, controversial, and imposed. We wouldn't just make a facebook host on Wikimedia Instead, we'd start by little tiny things-- Extension:Wikilove on prototype's a great example. We saw a feature of social networks that WAS consistent with our values-- the per-user "thumbs up". We wouldn't just feed that global social space straight into en.wp, we'd put it on incubator and probably start off with very boring projects like "Copy your home-project user page here and we'll help you translate it". Rules might eventually loosen, but a good starting point would be 'the kind of content projects routinely allow in user space or meta space"-- but in one single unified space, the logical(Continue reading)
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