Wikimania Takes Over Online Shopping?

from the feel-free-to-edit-this dept

Overzealous marketers have been using the phrase "it's the Wikipedia of ______" to describe products for a while now, and wikis have had "all the cool kids are doing it" status for a while, so it's not surprising to see people try to shoehorn wikis in all over the place. The latest victims are shopping sites, but it's hard to see how wikis are preferable in the space over the tried-and-tested product review, mainly because the inherent ability of wikis to be edited by anyone leaves the system open to abuse, particularly by less-than-scrupulous vendors or retailers. With reviews, typically they can't be erased by any user, so any inaccurate or false reviews can be outweighed by other ones. But the ability to simply delete content with which one doesn't agree is pretty powerful, and somehow the sites' rebuttal that any user can then restore the content doesn't seem to do much to help. The original article quotes Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, who's probably as much a fan of wikis as anybody, but understands they don't fit every situation: "You're seeing a lot of people throwing up a wiki and saying 'Oooh, now we'll magically get all this stuff.' But it's not about the software."
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  1. identicon
    Jimmy Z, 24 Apr 2006 @ 2:21pm

    I'm not sure why, but for some reason I hate the word wiki. It makes me want to stab my computer.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    denfro licious, 24 Apr 2006 @ 3:33pm

    Agreed

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    denfro licious, 24 Apr 2006 @ 3:33pm

    Agreed

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2006 @ 3:55pm

    Re:

    I don't know, every made up word seems to get loads of hate for no reason. I mean wiki definately means something so it's fine.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Apr 2006 @ 4:09pm

    i think the idea of it is good but it is overused and being killed. certain wikis are fine like wikipedia and online references but for something that revolves around money it should never be used because it isnt accurate and can cause someone to lose money by listening to advice on a faulty post.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    ZOMG CENSORED, 24 Apr 2006 @ 4:09pm

    Re:

    "A collection of websites of hypertext, each of them can be visited and edited by anyone. “Wiki wiki” means "rapidly" in the Hawaiian language.

    www.cpsr-peru.org/english_version/privacy_ngo/part4"


    Maybe you'll want to stab it quickly...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    anonymous super hero, 24 Apr 2006 @ 8:08pm

    i thought wiki stands for 'what i know is'... i guess it can be applied in commerce for price deals and things of that nature

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Myself, 24 Apr 2006 @ 8:39pm

    They have their place...

    But the salesdroids at Radio Shack certainly seem irritated when I start telling their customers what they *really* need. Will there be censorship by the retailers against useful, legitimate, but unprofitable advice from contributors?

    The retailers' vested interest is entirely contrary to the good-advice spirit of a wiki. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Louis, 25 Apr 2006 @ 4:22am

    Re:



    by Jimmy Z on Apr 24th, 2006 @ 2:21pm
    I'm not sure why, but for some reason I hate the word wiki. It makes me want to stab my computer.




    As an amateur psycho-therapist with absolutely no training whatsoever I believe your loathing of the word "Wiki" has to do with your subconscious fear of Will Smith´s rapping from the semi popular movie "Wild Wild West"

    Where the phrase:

    ..Wiki Wiki WAH... Wiki Wiki WAH...

    was coined and has led to many a man slicing his own eyeballs with his fingernails.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Jimmy Z, 26 Apr 2006 @ 12:36pm

    Re: Re:

    Brilliant!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
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    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    devshope, 23 Aug 2018 @ 2:25am

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