User:Patelurology2/Diplomat, The RKCian

Wikipedia becomes more impressive all the time. Once it was a free alternative to commercial encyclopedias - now it surpasses them in its scope, depth, and currency. For any who have doubts about how truly comprehensive the collection has become, try editing the most obscure articles requested in WP:AR1 - as often as not you will find an entry under a different name that merely needs a redirect. In politics and current events, Wikipedia editors often succeed, where for decades American journalists have usually failed, to pull together all of the information available into a consistent, balanced, and understandable form that allows people to make informed decisions.

Obscure topics are often interesting; Wikipedia can work like a notepad for storing interesting information, with possibility of future expansion in the hands of capable editors or at least there's always the History.

The site is a social experiment in mass collaboration. The site creates an experimental record of the strengths and weaknesses of interactive writing; policies can be tested and their impact determined. Wikipedia is not without problems - too many people are willing to revert edits even though they state that they have a problem with only a portion of the text. The deletion of articles or the removal of material has taken on political overtones, and in some cases it has been found that historical versions of an article from a year or more in the past are preferable to that currently provided. Even so, the material is there in some form, and one hopes further developments will reverse such trends.

Editing the site is an opportunity to learn the tools and mores of a new kind of Internet communications protocol. Although Wikis look like other web sites, their public nature makes them truly a new type of forum, as fundamental as e-mail, Web, Usenet, and chat formats. Expecting great potential for Wikis in classroom exercises, the writing of large scientific articles with many authors, interactive fiction writing, and many other applications.

Attributes: RKCians, Diplomats, WorldReady

English Literature: Excellence via usage, dramatics, recitation, speeches, writer's league.
Leadership: Command and Control