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 | This page in a nutshell: Wikipedia should not have persistent user identities. |
Wikipedia's goal is to compile the sum of all human knowledge. In order to accomplish that Wikipedia should focus on two pillars and two pillars only:
- the inclusion of human knowledge onto Wikipedia
- the modification of said included knowledge
Everything done on Wikipedia should be driven by that. Persistent user identities —such as Wikipedia's user accounts— derail Wikipedia and its contributors from its goal. Wikipedia is not a social platform and there is no reason whatsoever as to why Wikipedia should publicly identify an inclusion or modification of knowledge on Wikipedia. By permitting so, contributors derail from including and modifying knowledge on Wikipedia, and spend time on social activities rather than on including or modifying knowledge.
The root cause of Wikipedia's dwindle on editors is solely attributed to Wikipedia's allowance of persistent user identities.