Clinamen

CmdrTaco at Slashdot writes of Citizendium. S/he says that Citizendium could become what "Wikipedia almost was":

The main difference is that Citizendium articles, after initially being built up through the same collaborative process that Wikipedia uses, will go into an editor-approved stage, at which point an editor (publicly identifiable on the article's history page) signs off on the accuracy of the article, and further edits also have to be approved by an editor.

Interesting. Wikipedia has talked about this in the past - having a semi-stable version of an article. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this. I understand the need for stability, but it also seems that such an impulse to stop is not in line with what wikis are meant to do. How does J.L. Austin say it?

"To feel the firm ground of prejudice slipping away is exhilarating, but brings its revenges" (61).

I can't help but think that the exhilaration is slowly leaving wikis...open wikis seem destined to close. I'm not always sure that's a good thing, but I'm also not sure it's a bad thing.