My current challenge in the 23 things is the Wikipedia/Wikimedia/Wiki wiki wild wild west challenge. I decided I wanted to pass up Wikipedia itself as I am sure there will be a number of takers for delving into that great and noble repository of man’s knowledge, culture and crackpot conspiracy theories.
My focus would be Wikiquote
Wikiquote in short is Wikipedia if it were nothing bu quotes from famous people, books, films and more. It has sections on epitaphs, famous last words and even a section on famous misquotations, such as this absolute doozy from Spider Man:
“With great power comes great responsibility.”
- This is often erroneously assumed to be the quote of Ben Parker dating back to the original Spider-Man origin story as depicted in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15. This statement appears as a caption of narration in the last panel of the story and was not a spoken line by any character in the story. In most retellings of Spider-Man’s origin, including the 2002 film, the quote has been retconned (the alteration of previously established facts in the continuity of a fictional work) to depict Uncle Ben’s final lecture to Peter Parker prior to Ben’s tragic death and as the words that continue to drive Peter as Spider-Man.
- Also, the correct Amazing Fantasy quote is, “With great power there must also come great responsibility.”
Basically, Wikiquote is fascinating fun and you can quote me on that!
Wikiquote in terms of its user base and editorials practices is as good as the rest of Wikipedia etc. It is generally excellent with the occasional pocket of people trying to cause nuisance or push an agenda. That Wikipedia is worthy of people’s donations, time and effort is without doubt, but as it becomes more comprehensive it becomes harder and harder for the “common person” to be able to add more detail to a topic, slowly eating away at that potential base of additional contributors.
Wikipedia is very much a part of the internet these days and one people would love to see carry on a lot longer, but as with any organisation with longer term ambitions it needs to ensure that it looks to the future of its culture, to avoid generational decline.