It seems that 2019 for OGF has gone off a rough start, with this forum sparking controversy whether the wiki has undermined OGF's purpose, and whether it should have existed or otherwise.
First off, what is actually OGF purpose? It isn't stated explicitly on the About Page, but it states that 'the most important factor for (the) success of this project (OGF) will be the readiness of all participants for cooperation wherever that's necessary'. What's more on the FAQ, it says 'different users view OGF in different ways. For some, it's an exciting creative adventure, a challenging construction puzzle, or an epic tapestry of interwoven stories. For others, it's a relaxing meditation, an immersion in imagination, or perhaps the largest piece of artwork ever created — equal in size to the Earth itself.'
Is it now OGF has already assimilated to one sole purpose - to map a fantasy world? Should we all stop writing about our own nations, its history, its relations to the outside world (wars or whatever, should we even discuss about the world war?), its culture etc? Or never write these at all in the first place? As far as I remember, the wiki is a platform for us to share information of our own nation publicly (at least to all OGF users). Have we already reached a point when writing gets too much and now meaningless? Well, I have to say that I doubt many OGF users also bother browsing through the wiki to know about other nations beyond their region or continent. Should we even have the wiki in the first place, write good articles with nicely photoshopped pictures in the hopes people will bother reading them?
I have to agree though that the wiki is largely a failure, but I am not too sure if removing the wiki altogether (plus the world news thing) solves the problem of people thinking this is a role-playing website. I also have to admit that I also do role-play in the diary entries and PMs sometimes, but this is out of general fun. Isn't OGF supposed to be where we relax and enjoy? Ok, I get the part when mapping as a hobby takes the primary role here in OGF, but still, we have various interests and hobbies besides mapping.
Besides that, the wiki now has too many stubs, incomplete pages etc, which makes me wonder whether we should really have a low-quality wiki around.
I do not believe in delegating the wiki, because that is not useful as well. We already have people monitoring newbies, checking the coastlines, and deciding what will be the featured article of the day and watch out for copyrighted content. Delegating the wiki isn't that easy as you think, and you need to be at least 100% free to do so, which compromises your mapping duties. (@Chazeltine the list is Isleno's, search 'OGF:Teams and Projects', but it isn't supposed to be live yet...)
By the way, stop making too many sarcastic or negative comments at each other as well. This is a community; we also have various perspectives and expectations, leading back to the part of what people thinks of OGF. Maybe somehow we should also watch out for each other for the year ahead. Meanwhile, I think we better suspend all role-play elements for a while, such as the 2020 Geolympics, whatever league in the FSA right now, building embassies in other nations etc. (I had wanted to discuss about Antigo's ties with other nations today, but since that forum was created, I decided talking about it. I think my suggestion of Ardisphere-Antigo ties must have instigated this, so I must apologise.)