_Uh, you do know that wikia doesnt run wikipedia, right?_ Bennett Haselton wrote: > [sent recently to WikiEN-l, but perhaps this is the more appropriate list > since it's more about a proposed relationship with Wikia Inc. than about > day-to-day Wikipedia stuff] > > Re-greetings, > > A few months ago I was here [which, for this list, means I was on the wrong > list, but I was here, too] for a very interesting discussion about > Wikipedia vs. Citizendium and in particular about the idea of having teams > of identity-verified "experts" who could take custody of articles to help > prevent errors and vandalism. This time I'm asking about something less > controversial. Well, maybe :) > > Peacefire runs a network of proxy sites like > https://www.StupidCensorship.com/ for getting around Internet filtering; > unlike most proxy sites which are widely known and get blocked quickly, we > encourage people to sign up to receive e-mail updates whenever we create > new sites, and since it usually takes a few days for newly mailed sites to > get blocked, most of our users are usually able to use the latest one we've > mailed out. One of the most frequent comments from our users is that > they're glad that they can get on Wikipedia through the proxies. So how > can we help get the word out to more Wikipedians -- many of whom are > undoubtedly not aware of the easy methods for accessing Wikipedia from > censored networks? (That is, they probably know about proxies, but may not > know how to get an unlimited supply of proxies so the latest one is always > unblocked.) Our organization's whole purpose is to help people get around > Internet blocking, so every time we help someone gain access to Wikipedia, > we're achieving our mission and, presumably, helping Wikipedia achieve > theirs as well. > > We're willing to spend the money on the hardware and the bandwidth for the > proxies to help people get access, so how can we do it in a way that > benefits Wikipedia users the most? (Disclaimer: we do get some money back > from the ads that runs on our site, but not at a profit; we just barely > break even on the ads right now. So there may not be quite the same "halo" > around these services as there is around the bandwidth and hardware that's > donated outright to Wikipedia for free :) However, to be constantly > setting up new dedicated sites to help people get around Internet blocking, > requires creating new accounts with different hosting companies all the > time, and it would be impractical to try and get each of them to agree to > provide pro bono services each time we set up a new site, which is why we > have to spend money for that and why the ads help to pay for it.) > > Since Wikipedia does have articles about subjects such as sexuality that > are often blocked in schools, I recognize there might be a minority of > Wikipedia supporters who nonetheless feel that the site *should* be blocked > from students, but I'm hoping that the vast majority of Wikipedians would > not feel that way. First of all, most blocking programs claim not to block > sites that deal with those subjects in an "educational" context, which > means the vast majority of articles on Wikipedia, even those about topics > like sex, should not be blocked, by the companies' own stated > criteria. Second, I think most reasonable people would agree that > virtually every teenager could read almost everything on Wikipedia without > "harm", and that the educational benefits are enormous. (Well, they would > be if you had experts sign off on the articles. *ducks*) > > So, what can we do to help? If we had an unlimited budget for > circumvention services, how could we best use it to help > Wikipedia? (Whatever the answer to that would be, there's probably a way > we can achieve some part of it, even on a limited budget.) In addition to > just providing the sites, there might be times when if a new Wikipedia > feature is being released, for example, we could do cross-platform testing > to see if it's compatible with our proxies so we can alert users to any > issues. What do you all think? > > -Bennett > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.peacefire.org > (425) 497 9002 > > _______________________________________________ > Wikia-l mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.wikia.com/mailman/listinfo/wikia-l > >
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