Behind the curtain

I like Wikipedia. I enjoy browsing random pages like an vitamin-deficient Ethiopian ruminant in Greener Than You Think. And unlike the GB, I trust what they say. Pretty much. Usually.

But the real fun is behind the curtain. Every single Wiki page also has a Discussion page where the editors talk about ... well ... darn near anything, although they are supposed to confine themselves to changes to the page content. I've seen it all: Respectful requests. Shrill complaints. Arcane discussions. Uncalled-for epithets. Misplaced criticism. Life stories. Lugubrious toadyism. Prim reproach. Righteous indignation. Shameless self-promotion. Wanton vandalism. Abject apologies. Disgusting profanity. Edit wars. Monotonic pedantry. Duologic sentences.

The main page is what most people see. It's the facade of the grand hotel. It's the parlour where you entertain your guests. It's the debutante at her Quinceañera. It's the web page of the semi-private government agency that makes no mention of the fact that they lost their only customer and therefore their reason for existence (I mention no names, but if a random link falls into this posting, I can't help it).

But the discussion page is the interesting place to be. It's the alley out behind the hotel with stinking dumpsters, tired working girls sneaking a ciggie, steam rising from the manhole cover, and don't look in that doorway cause you might not like what you see. It's the kitchen of a fourth-floor walkup where a stubble-faced dock worker in a wifebeater backhands his kid for talking back. It's the same debutante forty years later, sixty pounds heavier, centuries wiser. It's the agency that lost its funding in a strapped economy because it hid too many of its problems -- I can dream, eh?

In short, it's the classic Heinleinesque bar scene consisting of the worst refuse of humanity, but the more you read it, the more you find the tortured Unmarried Mother, the fun-loving-in-a-grizzly-bear-wrestling-way Korax, and the free-living but ultimately self-sacrificing Sam Anderson -- the people who make life exciting and worth living, the ones who ultimately improve mankind through their mistakes instead of just settling for what they have.

Go read a discussion page, particularly for a controversial subject. As Friday said, you'll find "it's the liveliest, most exciting and dangerous place you can visit, and be sure to get a blood test afterwards!"