At times I’m surprised at how formal and well-enforced Wikipedia’s community culture is. At other times, it seems very appropriate. Wikipedians serve a spectacularly valuable role, making Wikipedia one of the best resources and most popular sites on the web. I know the grand-poobah Wikipedians are trying to encourage the rest to be accepting of newbies, but it’s very hard to influence the behavior of volunteers, especially when you may never actually see them face to face. This is the fatal flaw of a volunteer workforce. In my line of work we say, “You get what you pay for.”

At times I’m surprised at how formal and well-enforced Wikipedia’s community culture is. At other times, it seems very appropriate. Wikipedians serve a spectacularly valuable role, making Wikipedia one of the best resources and most popular sites on the web. I know the grand-poobah Wikipedians are trying to encourage the rest to be accepting of newbies, but it’s very hard to influence the behavior of volunteers, especially when you may never actually see them face to face. This is the fatal flaw of a volunteer workforce. In my line of work we say, “You get what you pay for.”