Comments on: Wikipedia’s Nerd Bias

By: kmyrxwdber

kmyrxwdber — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:51:28 +0000

Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! lneiwbckcdqss

By: Ozh

Ozh — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:28:44 +0000

I’m not sure what’s most hilarious… the original article on SA, or the commenters replies here :))

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:50:44 +0000

That’s pretty awesome right there.

I never really thought about it, but yeah, by it’s very nature Wikipedia has a narrow userbase. I guess you can always make the argument, though, that the internet literati probably should be the ones in charge, since they tend to be the best-educated people.

By: Ravs

Ravs — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:35:53 +0000

so what, if ppl write about what they like

By: Biolovepulse

Biolovepulse — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:43:02 +0000

Wikipedia has opened the eyes of many. In the past, we have difficulty sourcing aritlces on some topics- for example, sex. These are topics which teenagers like me are interested about. With the existence of Wikipedia, I get more than the facts- but they are presented in a neutral, academic and healthy way.

Who would think of a community edited encyclopedia? Since the inception of this idea, learning has become so much easier.

By: dave mcclure

dave mcclure — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:00:22 +0000

i actually think that as much as Wikipedia talks about NPOV and about open source / equal access, the tools / process for participating in the service are still too hard to use & too complicated… which results in the nerdy having more power.

while i don’t necessarily think empowered nerds is a bad thing, i think Spock.com does a much better job of making “community-powered editing” a simple & easy process so that a much larger (& less savvy) audience can participate.

democratization & equal access are great aspirational goals, but if you don’t also make the path to get there an easy one, only a few folks can walk down it.

By: Varsovie Tallinn

Varsovie Tallinn — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:48:53 +0000

Wikipedia’s depth is it’s charm.

There’s always Wikipedia’s “Simple English” for those who want to keep it simple.

By: mathew johnson

mathew johnson — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:43:58 +0000

haha nerds like prime numbers, too!

Programmer: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 will be fixed in the
next release, …

By: Concrete Stain

Concrete Stain — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:58:59 +0000

I always thought I was a star ways fan …

- now I know Im a wanna - be

- I knew nothing of the 7 techniques

(I better get to practice)-RB

By: heri

heri — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:25:50 +0000

what would expect? the readers make the articles. so they write about what they most spent their time in. thats obvious.

By: Jono

Jono — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:14:37 +0000

Hahahahahahahaha. That was a good laugh.

By: King Gary

King Gary — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:05:31 +0000

Wikipedia’s information has a nerd slant? I think not….

Something Awful wrote an article talking about Wikipedia, discussing that if you take two articles that are similar (the example they give is Knight and Jedi Knight), then you would see that the article that is more related to nerds, which is the latte…

By: Ummagumma

Ummagumma — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:24:08 +0000

That’s pretty lame. The reason most of the “serious” articles are smaller is because they are split up into categories, the link for which you must follow for more detail on that sub-subject. If you were to expand each subject and put them all on the same page, it would dwarf the “nerdy” subject.

Pretty lame reach for comedy there, Something Awful.

By: Mike Abundo

Mike Abundo — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:47:23 +0000

Love, bathing — who cares about such mundane minutiae? The geek shall inherit the earth!

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:37:32 +0000

I thought this was absolutely hilarious. I’m a nerd so I had to build a site for it. Check it out - its pretty darn fun!

http://www.wikigroaning.com

By: Alex Yakima

Alex Yakima — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:41:45 +0000

Nerds are mostly contributing - that’s true. Even if not creating the thread, they are most likely post editing content. Actually nerds need less of motivation compared to us, mortal. Though it still works. Somebody’s always motivated to do something for others. And those others (as the consumers) are happy/unhappy of what’s been done. Different needs and motivation makes this world possible!

Thank you, nerds!

By: n2000

n2000 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:19:25 +0000

If you dont like nerds you dont have to read wikipedia… there is a really cool encyclopedia made for you: http://www.britannica.com/

By: TechCrunch Japanese

TechCrunch Japanese — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:17:37 +0000

Wikipediaはオタク寄り…

「Something Awful」に、Wikipediaがオタク寄りであるという、（前置きは長いが）かなり笑える記事が出ている。問題になっているのはWikipediaの記事が不正確かどうかではなく、項目によって注…

By: Michael Arrington had ZITs at 16

Michael Arrington had ZITs at 16 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:47:12 +0000

people can’t grow zits at 26-90 years old

By: People lie too much

People lie too much — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:41:53 +0000

Computers can’t create virus itself. Some people write computer viruses to stop bullies others want to seal money. Bible said same thing God can’t create virus. Only scientist can write DNA to create new viruses. AIDS, Birdflu…

Birds can’t write birdflu virus. There is no such thing bird hospital.

So nerd are smart…

By: Wes

Wes — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:46:30 +0000

I think its down to who contributes the most. So in that case, nerds are the winners.

By: Gary King

Gary King — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:24:33 +0000

The unfortunate thing is that Something Awful’s conclusion is wrong. Most, if not all, of the articles that they CLAIM are shorter than the ‘nerd version’ ones, actually have even MORE links to OTHER articles that expand on that one topic.

By: brett

brett — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:45:42 +0000

to associate acne w/ nerds is like associating AIDS with black people…the fact is, is there is no relationship w/ a skin disease and individuals, and in that respect/point you are dead wrong.

think about it. otherwise, i see a few relationships.

By: dunk

dunk — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:18:24 +0000

ahh..so painfully true.

How’s does this relate to Calacanis’s new venture then?

Presuming the nerds are doing the editing / updating (which I think is a fair assumption) then he might have the best starwars / WOW / Acne centric fat tail search engine around?

By: Sergei Shelukhin

Sergei Shelukhin — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:16:02 +0000

Modern warfare vs lightsabers is not a valid comparison, modern warfare article is mostly moved to sub-articles (see “Main article: blah” in every section) with only summaries present whereas light saber article is all there.

As for video games and girlfriends, well, duh, you cannot say a lot about girlfriends.