And now they’ve bailed out Wales（注2）
而現(xiàn)在眾人幫忙，Wales先生“保釋”了
IT MAY not stir up international outrage like its semi-namesake WikiLeaks, but Wikipedia sparks debate. The free online encyclopedia, which celebrates its tenth birthday on January 15th, is a symbol of unpaid collaboration and one of the most popular destinations on the internet, attracting some 400m visitors a month. It also faces serious charges of elitism.
維基百科跟維基解密半同名，它雖未像后者那般觸怒全球，卻引發(fā)了爭(zhēng)論。這部免費(fèi)在線百科全書，將于1月15日慶祝十周歲生日，它是無(wú)償協(xié)作的象征，還是互聯(lián)網(wǎng)最熱門站點(diǎn)之一，每月吸引4億人到訪。而它，也面臨著精英主義的嚴(yán)厲指控。
Wikipedia offers more than 17m articles in 270 languages. Every day thousands of people edit entries or add new ones in return for nothing more than the satisfaction of contributing to the stock of human knowledge. Wikipedia relies on its users’ generosity to fill its coffers as well as its pages. Recent visitors to the website were confronted with images of Jimmy Wales, a co-founder (pictured), and a request for donations. The campaign was annoying but effective, raising $16m in 50 days.
維基百科提供的條目超過(guò)了1700萬(wàn)，涵蓋270種語(yǔ)言。每天都有成千上萬(wàn)的人，編輯舊條目添加新條目，報(bào)答無(wú)非是一種為人類知識(shí)庫(kù)添磚加瓦的滿足感。維基百科依靠用戶賣力填充網(wǎng)頁(yè)，也依賴其慷慨捐資。用戶近來(lái)訪問(wèn)該網(wǎng)站，會(huì)跟創(chuàng)辦人Jimmy Wales的照片（如圖）打個(gè)照面，并碰到一則捐款請(qǐng)求。活動(dòng)煩人，但很有效，50天就籌到了1600萬(wàn)美元。
With its emphasis on bottom-up collaboration and the broad dissemination of knowledge, the online encyclopedia is in many ways an incarnation of the fundamental values of the web. But Wikipedia also reveals some of the pitfalls of the increasingly popular “crowdsourcing” model of content creation. One is maintaining accuracy. On the whole, Wikipedia’s system of peer reviewing does a reasonable job of policing facts. But it is vulnerable to vandalism. Several politicians and TV personalities have had their deaths announced on Wikipedia while they were still in fine fettle.
這部在線百科全書強(qiáng)調(diào)自下而上的協(xié)作，重視知識(shí)廣泛傳播，在諸多方面，體現(xiàn)了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的基本價(jià)值。不過(guò)，維基百科也暴露出日益流行的內(nèi)容創(chuàng)建“眾包”模式的一些缺陷。其中之一，是確保準(zhǔn)確性?？傮w而言，維基百科的互相審查體系，在條目真實(shí)性監(jiān)管方面差強(qiáng)人意。但它容易為故意搗亂所傷。好幾位政界名人跟電視明星，就曾在維基百科上宣布自己翹了辮子，盡管他們?nèi)陨埢罨ⅰ?br>
Some observers argue the site should start paying expert editors to produce and oversee content, and sell advertising to cover the cost. Problems with accuracy “are an inevitable consequence of a free-labour approach”, argues Alex Konanykhin of WikiExperts, which advises organisations on how to create Wikipedia articles. (The very existence of such outfits hints at Wikipedia’s importance, as well as its susceptibility to outside influence.) The encyclopedia’s bosses retort that such concerns are overblown and that taking advertising would dent its appeal to users.
一些觀察家表示，維基百科應(yīng)開始向制作并監(jiān)管內(nèi)容的專家編輯們支付報(bào)酬，開銷用廣告費(fèi)支出。準(zhǔn)確性問(wèn)題“是無(wú)償勞力方式必然會(huì)產(chǎn)生的結(jié)果”，“維基專家”小組的Alex Konanykhin如此表示，該小組的任務(wù)就是建議各種組織如何創(chuàng)建維基文章。（正是這些組織的存在，暗示維基百科十分重要，也反映其極易遭受外部影響。）這部在線百科全書的老板們反駁說(shuō)，上述種種擔(dān)憂夸大其實(shí)了，并且，承接廣告也會(huì)削弱網(wǎng)站對(duì)用戶的吸引力。
That still leaves the site with another, bigger, headache in the form of declining engagement. The number of regular contributors to Wikipedia’s English-language encyclopedia dropped from around 54,000 at its peak in March 2007 to some 35,000 in September 2010. A similar trend has been visible in some foreign-language versions of the encyclopedia.
用戶參與度日益下降是另一個(gè)問(wèn)題，更令其大為頭痛。維基英語(yǔ)百科全書的固定編撰人數(shù)，已從2007年3月巔峰時(shí)期的約5萬(wàn)4千人，降至2010年9月的約3萬(wàn)5千人。而某些外語(yǔ)版百科全書也顯現(xiàn)出類似趨勢(shì)。
Wikipedia’s leaders say this reflects the fact that the large majority of subjects have now been written about. Perhaps, but some evidence suggests that neophytes are being put off by Wikipedia’s clique of elite editors. One study by researchers at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre looked at the number of times editorial changes were subsequently reversed. It found that roughly a quarter of the edits posted by occasional contributors were undone in late 2008, compared with less than 2% of those posted by the most active editors. And it noted that this gap had widened considerably over time.
維基百科領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人稱，這反映了一個(gè)事實(shí)，那就是絕大多數(shù)條目主題現(xiàn)在已編撰過(guò)了。事情或許如此。但某些證據(jù)顯示，維基百科的精英編輯圈子正在排斥新手。施樂(lè)帕洛•阿爾托研究中心所作的一項(xiàng)研究，著眼于維基百科上編輯性修改后來(lái)被改回的次數(shù)。該研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，2008年底，那些不常來(lái)的編撰者發(fā)布的條目，大致有四分之一
被改回了，相比之下，由最積極的編撰者發(fā)布的條目，則只有不到2%
被推翻。且該研究還注意到，這一差距隨時(shí)間推移，急劇擴(kuò)大。
Mr Wales dismisses the notion of a clique as “silly”. Sue Gardner, the head of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation that operates Wikipedia, notes that people have reason to be protective about high-quality content. Still, the organisation seems concerned. Ms Gardner wants to learn from sites such as Yelp and Facebook that are good at encouraging users to contribute. She hints that in future, contributors whose changes are undone may receive a message urging them to remain active on the site. Time, perhaps, to consult Wikipedia’s entry on motivation—though it turns out to be one of the articles flagged as needing expert attention.
對(duì)維基百科存在精英圈子一說(shuō)，Wales先生嗤之以鼻，認(rèn)為“荒謬可笑”。Sue Gardner是運(yùn)作維基百科的非盈利組織Wikimedia Foundation的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，她注意到，人們理應(yīng)確保內(nèi)容高質(zhì)量。但即便如此，該組織仍貌似憂心忡忡。Yelp及Facebook之類的網(wǎng)站擅長(zhǎng)鼓勵(lì)用戶貢獻(xiàn)內(nèi)容，Gardner女士想跟它們?nèi)〗?jīng)。她暗示在未來(lái)，
那些條目修改被推翻的編撰者，可能會(huì)收到維基百科發(fā)的一條短信，敦促其積極上該網(wǎng)站編撰詞條。
或許，是時(shí)候請(qǐng)教一下維基百科“動(dòng)力”一詞的詞條了——不過(guò)查到的結(jié)果，只是標(biāo)記為需要專家關(guān)注的眾多條目之一罷了。注1：Wikipleadia
該詞脫胎于Wikipedia，即“維基百科”，形音相近，是一種文字游戲。這里的pleadia相當(dāng)于plead，意思是“借口；為...辯護(hù)；托稱”，理由源自1、The encyclopedia’s bosses retort that such concerns are overblown and that taking advertising would dent its appeal to users.2、Wikipedia’s leaders say this reflects the fact that the large majority of subjects have now been written about.3、Mr Wales dismisses the notion of a clique as “silly”.等等句子，表示維基百科引發(fā)了一些爭(zhēng)議，而其領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人為之百般辯護(hù)。字里行間，本文作者對(duì)這些辯護(hù)之詞，似并不贊同，語(yǔ)帶譏誚。
因此，綜合上述分析，再考慮到標(biāo)題的機(jī)巧，將之翻譯為“維基百辯”。
注2：And now they’ve bailed out Wales
譯為：而現(xiàn)在眾人幫忙，Wales先生“保釋”了
bail out的意思有：幫助擺脫困境；保釋；紓困等?？紤]到本文提到維基百科出現(xiàn)種種危機(jī)，引發(fā)爭(zhēng)論，而其領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人不停為其辯護(hù)，形同上庭，另從這一句Recent visitors to the website were confronted with images of Jimmy Wales, a co-founder (pictured), and a request for donations. The campaign was annoying but effective, raising $16m in 50 days.可以看出，crowdsourcing content（也就是本句中的they）的提供者用捐資幫助Wales先生暫時(shí)擺脫了困境，也就相當(dāng)于“保釋”了，體現(xiàn)了TE一以貫之的幽默俏皮。
