How to prevent ideological capture of sites like Wikipedia, HN

4 pointsby hagbard_c2개월 전2 comments

Someone submitted a link [1] to an article on Wikipedia's whitewashing of Mao titled Wikipedia Whitewashes Mao – The Anatomy of Ideological Capture [2], a topic which in a more generalized form is of interest to the current average HN denizen given the prevalence of Wikipedia in LLM training data. It did not take long for the flaggers and down-voters to take down the article which has only managed to get a few comments, the top one claiming the article to be 'a pretty political take on a Wikipedia article'. I think the subject deserves more discussion since it points out a clear problem with sources like Wikipedia but also because of the way this article was quickly flagged to death. The flagging and down-voting mechanisms make sites like HN vulnerable to the same type of ideological capture as what is discussed in the linked article in that a relatively small group of motivated users can suppress 'unwanted' subjects while boosting those which fit some desired narrative.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48287775

[2] https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/how-wikipedia-whitewashes-mao

2 comments

swhiffen2개월 전

You can't 'prevent' ideology. That itself would be applying your ideology to the problem. Just don't do anything; and you've got yourself a melting pot. Notice the UI on this site? that itself is an ideology. One that ironically aligns with the dissolution of ideology.

bigyabai2개월 전

HN is funded by VC. It's been captured since it's foundation, it's only a question of if you agree with the captors.