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Wikipedia as Emerald City, vs. smaller wikis
Wikipedia is like an immense Palace, Emerald City shimmering in the distance. As you approach, you see that the shimmering is the fuzziness of swarms of nanobots, working feverishly everywhere to make it ever larger, visibly expanding as you watch. But the closer you get, the more you see that actually as fast as it is being built, it is being dissolved and re-built -- in fact, many of the nanobots spend most of their time directing, herding, or attacking or distracting or mis-directing others. (Vandalbots everywhere trying to cover every surface with graffiti. Adminbots setting up courts, holding trials, and passing sentences: throwing each other into dungeons or ex-communicating.)  From a distance, an incredible accomplishment. From close up, do you want to get drawn into the maelstrom? *** Most of the other, smaller wikis, seem like an office/library/warehouse complex under construction. A large ambitious project, mostly just a framework skeleton at this point, or even just stakes in the ground with orange flags... As you wander the mazes of corridors, trying not to fall through, trying to get the Vision, occasionally you see completed/furnished rooms. Mostly it is spooky, eerily empty, semi-abandoned. Occasionally you meet workers, perhaps industriously engaged in their own little project, not always with an obvious good fit with the larger enterprise. They usually act friendly at first, but if you stick around you'll find that they are characters, perhaps odd-balls or cranks. If they have been around a while, things are likely not as they would first appear to a newcomer. You can stay and try to "help" with their special project -- you'll soon learn (usually the hard way) whether they are actually open to what kinds of help. There is tons of room for you to go off and start your own special projects, either from scratch or building on all sorts of partial projects abandoned by others. But if you want to actually be part of a team working together on something, yet not bogged down in conflict and bureaucracy -- that will be the hardest of all to find -- a true Quest. — preceding unsigned comment added by 69.87.204.76 (talk) – 01:34, 24 February 2007 (UTC).