Jimmy Wales's Open Source Collaboration Tips 129
destinyland writes "In a new interview Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales acknowledges his debt to Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation and discusses his new open source search project. He applauds the way Open Source developers work around their ideological differences, acknowledges that he's an Ayn Rand objectivist who's skeptical of the wisdom of crowds, and blames Slashdot for his grandstanding comment that Wikipedia would bury Encyclopedia Brittanica within five years."
Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If you don't have the time, don't do it (Score:1, Interesting)
Based on what legal theory?
"You will be sued for negligence."
What did I "neglect" to do?
"You're obligated to support what you put on the internet, whether or not the GPL says "no warranty"."
Bullshit. I'm not 'obliged' (that's the word you are searching for) to provide anything for free) to do anything unless you pay me. That is called a 'contract'. You provide me something in 'consideration' for something else. If I give you something for nothing, that is all you expect to get in return.
Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer? (Score:3, Interesting)
Like you, I have to admit to a experiential distaste for her adherents. I have found that those espousing her philosophy are usually just selfish creatures trying to justify their own selfishness. Bleh...
Two more (Score:5, Interesting)
Claim that anyone who isn't in the groupthink (Score:5, Interesting)
Advocate banning "trolls" whenever possible, especially when they threaten to expose malfeasance on the part of your worst employees.
Call one of your detractors a "disease" in your IRC channels, then deny you said it (even though it was logged) and create an entire "biography" on the person devoted solely to libeling them, in violation of publication laws and your own "standards" for biographical entries.
Suggest in your logged, publicly available email lists for the project that "lone wolves" should start filing dishonest "complaints" with the hosting ISP against a site critical of your behavior.
Take the money donated for "the project" and build a new house with it.
Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why would Rand care about something done for this nebulous "everyone", especially when no one pays for it?
Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer? (Score:5, Interesting)
One project too many? (Score:3, Interesting)
Collectivism can be dangerous too (Score:3, Interesting)
Another quote: Pure democracy is kind of like three wolves and two chickens voting on what to have for dinner.
Most of us can agree that it is proper and even critical role of government to secure basic freedom. However, to move from securing basic freedom to redistributing assets, excessively controlling consumer choice, etc is a very dangerous and slippery slope. You totally ignore that there are many collectivist organizations in 20th century that have done great harm to the individual (e.g., Naziism, Communist Russia, Communist China, etc). There is no guarantee that a simple majority vote, even an overwhelming ones, delivers justice or freedom.
Re:Ayn Rand? The fan dancer? (Score:3, Interesting)
I love all those things up til you get to Ayn Rand. She's a poor writer, a hateful polemicist, and a shoddy philosopher. I don't find it the least bit inconsistent that her vile bilge is inconsistent with my own philosophies, even if they overlap halfway.
If you can't stand logical thought, think that every blade of grass on earth is more important than your own life, want a handout from the government, and think that all that counts is serving others, well, there's always Jesus or Karl Marx for you
Well hey, congratulations on your, uh, rational analysis.