learning from flaming fuckwads

"People will play World of Warcraft for 80 hours a week.
There's no difference between that and playing Wikipedia
for 80 hours a week.  It's even more fun because of none
of the characters in World of Warcraft think they're what
they are.  People on Wikipedia, some of them think "hey,
I'm contributing to the sum of human knowledge."  You can
fuck with those people, that's extra bonus time.  So, 80
hours a week on Wikipedia, who cares, that's pretty cool,
that's pretty neat.

So it's not a waste of time to these people, and they're
right.  If they're able to successfully screw with an
article, a lot of people will see it.  I'd buy entirely
that the Penny Arcade theory, which was normal person,
plus anonymity, plus large audience, equals flaming
fuckwad.  That's the mirror that Wikipedia is presenting
to us, and I think that we can learn quite a bit from
it."

-Jason Scott, The Great Failure of Wikipedia
(audio)