Factionalism
| Wikimedian philosophy |
|
Community Measuring Accuracy The Wiki Process Power structure Encyclopedia standards Notability Collaboration Overall structure Article length Social Miscellaneous |
| +/- |
Factionalism is an aspect of life itself. Each living cell is part of a faction - a liver cell is part of a liver, which is part of an endocrine system which is part of an organism. That organism in turn has factional interests that ally it with other organisms (like its own gut bacteria) against other organisms again. There is no escape from factions: you are made out of them.
For those who seek peaceful resolution of disputes "there is no alternative to multi-party representative democracy" - Les Campbell, The Democracy Project.
Factions, or parties, serve the purpose of making terminology describing issues and disputes simple enough for mass participation, and the pooling of a great number of people's ideas. A bureaucracy, which practices antifactionalism, always fails to be comprehensible to the layman, who always has the freshest perspective - thus only factions can bring the ability to compete, and other political virtues to bear.
Wikipedia is an inherently competitive process. Get used to it. Revel in your time. Prepare for edit wars of attrition. There is no community. All is content, forking off a static deliverable once in a while as the dynamic process continues (see eventualism).
