AnonymousWiki

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From SerialIdentity...

: It shouldn't be held that SerialIdentity is necessary to build a communal work, however, as certainly anonymous ... interactions can lead to EmergentBehaviour? through IncidentalCollaboration.

but ... has anyone ever tried a wiki where everyone is truly anonymous? What would happen?

That would be very interesting. How do you share CommunityExpectation""s, though, if there is no community?

Well that's why this would have to be tried...

: How would you enforce the anonymity?

I think that CommunityExpectations could develop with an AnonymousWiki. Imagine a wiki much like MeatBall but with no names. Upon visiting that wiki, you would still find instructions like "this is ontopic and this isn't" and "please organize your posts like this", etc. I bet they'd be followed as much as here. Changes to the rules could still be discussed and people could feel part of a group as they enforced or promulgated the rules (but they may become worried about BallotStuffing?). Now of course you may say "without names there is no community and without that there are no CommunityExpectations". I think that there may not be a "community" but there is a group of people and there are certainly expectations of some sort which would behave similarly to "CommunityExpectations".

Now, over time, though, I'd expect such a place to be more unstable than a wiki. In such a place, I wouldn't respect rules laid down by others as much because I would be afraid that BallotStuffing? would distort consensus.

MetaBaby has more independent variables than just anonymity. The CommunityExpectations are that the site be an art project; upon visiting it, I distinctly get the impression that the founder doesn't really mind the "graffiti" (so why should I fight it?). In addition, there is no mechanism to easily rollback undesired changes.

-- BayleShanks

Case Study: MetaBaby

While it isn't a wiki, MetaBaby is an editable collection of web pages where everyone is anonymous. There doesn't seem to be any CommunityExpectations. -- StephenGilbert

And while I appreciate what happens on MetaBaby as an interesting experiment, it doesn't seem to build anything. Or am I missing something? -- MarkDilley

That's my assessment of it, too. I see MetaBaby as an art experiment more than anything. -- StephenGilbert

The thing is, though, just the other day people were [organizing] to fight against a goatse.cx poster. So, maybe you're downplaying the MetaBaby community just a little. -- SunirShah

I don't mean to downplay it. I visit the site once in a while and nothing has ever intrigued me to want to visit regularly. -- MarkDilley

That's why I used the word seem. I don't have a good knowledge of what goes on at MetaBaby, since I've only looked at it briefly a couple of times. -- StephenGilbert

AnonymousWiki

Case Study: MetaBaby

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