Wikipedia’s editors and readers have a dangerous generational gap.
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Wikipedia’s editors and readers have a dangerous generational gap. Can it become something that serves younger audiences, or will it remain stuck in the past? https://spectrum.ieee.org/wikipedia-at-25?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Mastodon-Daily-Pipeline
@ieeespectrum As an IEEE member for 26 years, I'm embarrassed and saddened by the Spectrum editors publishing this half-ass hit piece against Wikipedia.
Do better, folks. Your decision to publish this brings no credit upon yourselves or to our organization. Maybe stick closer to topics like electronics.
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Wikipedia’s editors and readers have a dangerous generational gap. Can it become something that serves younger audiences, or will it remain stuck in the past? https://spectrum.ieee.org/wikipedia-at-25?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Mastodon-Daily-Pipeline
“Giving users agency over Wikipedia’s rules, as I’ve discovered in some of my own studies of Wikipedia, can lead an institution away ultimately from the needs of those the institution serves.”
Holy shit, this sentence got away from you. Did you even read it?
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@abucci @ieeespectrum i haven't forgiven them for their hit piece on louis pouzin and the OSI where the author cackled over IBM's ability to distort and break down the international collaboration. https://spectrum.ieee.org/osi-the-internet-that-wasnt they are a fundamentally immoral institution
@abucci @ieeespectrum IBM and the Holocaust was not yet published at the time
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@ieeespectrum/116059551433682789
> The volunteer community that built this encyclopedia has lately rejected a key innovation designed to serve readers.
this specifically means: they rejected covering WIkipedia in AI slop. This means a generational gap apparently. ok mate
@davidgerard @ieeespectrum
the fucking gall of evoking Elinor Ostrom's work (a lazy misreading of it, even) to suggest that Wikipedia should allow walled garden-erecting, anti-commons monopolists to poison Wikipedia with slop. absolutely, insultingly absurd. no notes. -
RE: https://mastodon.social/@ieeespectrum/116059551433682789
> The volunteer community that built this encyclopedia has lately rejected a key innovation designed to serve readers.
this specifically means: they rejected covering WIkipedia in AI slop. This means a generational gap apparently. ok mate
@davidgerard there’s nothing the kids crave more than LinkedIn-style chatbot slop pushed into one of the last usable websites by a professional engineering organization from 1963 they can’t afford to join
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@ieeespectrum/116059551433682789
> The volunteer community that built this encyclopedia has lately rejected a key innovation designed to serve readers.
this specifically means: they rejected covering WIkipedia in AI slop. This means a generational gap apparently. ok mate
@davidgerard
The author really needs to get in the fucking sea.
"But the volunteer base is aging. A 2010 study found the average Wikipedia contributor was in their mid-twenties; today, many of those same editors are now in their forties or fifties." -
RE: https://mastodon.social/@ieeespectrum/116059551433682789
> The volunteer community that built this encyclopedia has lately rejected a key innovation designed to serve readers.
this specifically means: they rejected covering WIkipedia in AI slop. This means a generational gap apparently. ok mate
@davidgerard come on IEEE, leave Wikipedia alone: if you dont like the truth then you can just go and use an already existing 100% private enterprise AI slop-ipidia; Elon Musk's very own Grokipedia (no I won't link to it).
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@davidgerard there’s nothing the kids crave more than LinkedIn-style chatbot slop pushed into one of the last usable websites by a professional engineering organization from 1963 they can’t afford to join
Gen Z and Gen Alpha readers are accustomed to TikTok, YouTube, and mobile-first visual media.
Ah, I love sweeping generalisations over how (il)literate young people are.
Tell me you don't know the youth of today without telling me you don't know the youth of today
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Wikipedia’s editors and readers have a dangerous generational gap. Can it become something that serves younger audiences, or will it remain stuck in the past? https://spectrum.ieee.org/wikipedia-at-25?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Mastodon-Daily-Pipeline
@ieeespectrum Counterpoint: It serves younger readers best by not allowing AI to fill it with garbage and lies.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@ieeespectrum/116059551433682789
> The volunteer community that built this encyclopedia has lately rejected a key innovation designed to serve readers.
this specifically means: they rejected covering WIkipedia in AI slop. This means a generational gap apparently. ok mate
@davidgerard although I agree on keeping AI out, I do think the article is a bit more nuanced.
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Gen Z and Gen Alpha readers are accustomed to TikTok, YouTube, and mobile-first visual media.
Ah, I love sweeping generalisations over how (il)literate young people are.
Tell me you don't know the youth of today without telling me you don't know the youth of today
@sitcom_nemesis @davidgerard I’m imagining the hell wikipedia they’re proposing, where the dreadful generative voice used for TikTok conspiracy videos narrates a slop video extruded from a prompt like “make a 2 minute video from this text” followed by the now-inaccessible last human-written version of the Wikipedia article for the topic at hand
this is hurting my head
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Wikipedia’s editors and readers have a dangerous generational gap. Can it become something that serves younger audiences, or will it remain stuck in the past? https://spectrum.ieee.org/wikipedia-at-25?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Mastodon-Daily-Pipeline
@ieeespectrum have you ever considered that the current generation did not ask for AI and according to any anecdotal and scientific evidence I have seen, is not benefiting from it?
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Wikipedia’s editors and readers have a dangerous generational gap. Can it become something that serves younger audiences, or will it remain stuck in the past? https://spectrum.ieee.org/wikipedia-at-25?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Mastodon-Daily-Pipeline
The reason Wikipedia doesn't have younger editors is because the onboarding experience as a contributor is equivalent to the question asking experience on Stack Overflow.
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Wikipedia’s editors and readers have a dangerous generational gap. Can it become something that serves younger audiences, or will it remain stuck in the past? https://spectrum.ieee.org/wikipedia-at-25?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fedica-Mastodon-Daily-Pipeline
@ieeespectrum Reported for misinformation.
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