 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Wikipedia is neither a forum, nor a blog, nor a social networking site. We are here to produce an encyclopedia, which has meanwhile become the seventh most important website in the world. Our discussions are a means to that end. |
Wikipedia is not a "forum". It does not have "moderators", but it does have administrators. Wikipedia is not the chat page of the web site of an interest group, nor is it the message board of an alumni association or a pub darts team. It is not a social or business networking site such as MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, nor is it a free personal web host. Discussions at Wikipedia are centred around getting a job done, and all users have wide-ranging powers to maintain the quality of articles, discussions, and to develop and maintain policies - more than they would ever be allowed to do on their favourite local fishing-club forum.
Wikipedia is more comparable to an open-source software undertaking such as Linux (a computer operating platform), phpBB (Internet forum software), or the Mozilla Foundation (Firefox browser, etc.), where the end product is developed in a public, collaborative manner. It is similar to a company (in our case, a Nonprofit organization) that manufactures, produces, or publishes an end product (in our case, an electronic encyclopedia). That product is distributed free of charge to clients (our readers) either through the internet – developed to be a pool of human knowledge and culture – or on other media. Virtual meetings (Requests for comment) take place among the staff (our volunteers), and other discussions take place in product development departments (our article project management), in some other places, including the offices of individual co-workers (our users' talk pages), article talk pages, and in dispute resolution and disciplinary departments (our noticeboards).
Unlike most companies, Wikipedia has a very flat hierarchy for the vast majority of decision making, everyone is involved in its running, and no one has more than one vote on its various debates. All discussion is open to the general public who can also take part and vote.[1] Some "after work" discussion takes place either online such as in Skype, chat rooms, e-mail or in a real local pub or other venue at Wikipedia face-to-face meetings; however, there is generally far less actual socialising either online or offline among the thousands of regular contributors, than would be expected to be normal in a company of equivalent size. Except for its small executive and development core of salaried employees at the headquarters of the WMF that operates several wiki projects that include the Wikipedia, all collaborators are voluntary telecommuters or homeworkers.
- ^ Depending on their user status.