Wikipedia:Wikipedia should not have users
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![]() | This page in a nutshell: Wikipedia should not have persistent user identities. |
Wikipedia's goal is to compile the sum of all human knowledge. In order to accomplish that Wikipedia should focus on two pillars and two pillars only:
- the inclusion of human knowledge onto Wikipedia
- the modification of said included knowledge
Everything done on Wikipedia should be driven by that. Persistent user identities —such as Wikipedia's user accounts— derail Wikipedia and its contributors from its goal. Wikipedia is not a social platform and there is no reason whatsoever as to why Wikipedia should publicly identify an inclusion or modification of knowledge on Wikipedia. By permitting so, contributors derail from including and modifying knowledge on Wikipedia, and spend time on social activities rather than on including or modifying knowledge.
The root cause of Wikipedia's dwindle on editors is solely attributed to Wikipedia's allowance of persistent user identities.
Background
The First Settlers were an extraordinary group of individuals that set forth the platform on which Wikipedia is based. They focused mostly on creating and polishing content. It seems today that most people on Wikipedia are focused on tagging, polling, voting, reverting, criticizing, politicizing, and bureaucratizing rather than on actually creating or polishing content. This is because of Wikipedia's nature of allowing its users to obtain, hold, and show a persistent user identity. Could you imagine how Wikipedia would be if we did not know who created or modified the content? Or if we were unable to know who's who on Wikipedia? Everything would stop being about who's doing what and it would instead be about what's being done. No more personal attacks; all focus would be on creating and polishing content and content alone.
See also
- 4chan and its administration process