M. C Mykel's List: AFM Newsletter

The Wikipedia community has a certain attitude toward knowledge, Reagle found. They actively work to maintain neutrality, even if that's sometimes nearly impossible. "Wikipedia is not the place to argue about what's right and what's wrong, what's true and what's false," Reagle said. "Wikipedia is just trying to say what's out there."

And the community also has a specific approach to people, which Reagle contrasts with Godwin's Law, which (humorously? tragically?) states, "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." Wikipedians, instead, promote basic civility and consensus decisionmaking. The number one rule? Assume good faith. The rest of the site's rules are largely extensions of kindergarten etiquette, but the idea that to find consensus, you must see your opponents as people like yourself is important.

"Something has to resist the tendency of our online conversations to the lowest common denominator, and the tendency to see each other as Hitler," he said. "I taught conflict management and a lot of this stuff is relevant and germane to conflict management."