Wikimedia Foundation refuses voluntary union recognition, hires union-busting law firm

This is bad.

…But I’m very worried about the future of Wikipedia.

Questionable leadership or not, it is a lighthouse in the information dystopia of the 2020s, which literally helps hold society together.

The far right wants it gone, and are not shy about screaming it, because Wikipedia is not compatible with fascism.

If it becomes hated by the left too, and ignored by the masses because of Big Tech blacklists it, I worry it won’t have the political support to keep its prominence.

And to be clear, I’m not worried about it dying. Wikipedia will stay where it is for decades.

I’m worried about it ceasing to be popular.

It doesn’t function as a uncontrolled source of information if no one sees it. Modern fascist censorship works by simply shifting attention.

Questionable leadership or not, it is a lighthouse in the information dystopia of the 2020s, which literally helps hold society together.

It pioneered a novel mechanism for collaborating on a project with minimal trust between contributors. But it was also riddled with bias and vulnerable to exploitation and as prone to cultivating disinformation as a universal source of truth.

Rather than fixating on the site as some last bastion of Web 1.0 nostalgia, we would do well to do better than Wikipedia.

Organizations like the Internet archive project have, imho, done as much or more than Wikipedia because of their commitment to accumulating primary source material. Managing that catalog and incorporating it into an encyclopedia of knowledge is much more than just stuffing a hard drive full of editor arguments and dead links from the old site.

Well, unfortunately, there is no project like that with Wikipedia’s critical mass. Most attempts with any attention are rather horrific. See: Grokipedia.

If Wikipedia dies, nothing good will replace it.

I know that’s a bit defeatist, but I really think its “the best we got.” Nothing better is coming with the state the internet is in now.

And I just want to emphasize that maybe a small community could build something better. I know.

But in terms of “keeping a healthy knowledge base for civilization,” that kind of project doesn’t matter if no-one sees it. Wikipedia is valuable because its a reasonably sane default reference for billions of people, that isn’t some megacorp or government.