Clay Shirky on social software

[David]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tim Regan" <timregan at m...> 
wrote:

> I've just read an interesting article 
> <http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html> on social software 
by 
> Clay Shirky, one of the popular O'Reilly speakers / writers.

Fascinating article.  The quote that *really* stuck out for me 
(among many memorable ones) was:

"The people using your software, even if you own it and pay for it, 
have rights and will behave as if they have rights. And if you 
abrogate those rights, you'll hear about it very quickly."

I have a few questions, though.  Can anyone explain to me:

what is forking?
what is a wiki (and the Wikipedia - if it's what it sounds like it 
is, it's my vision of several years of what the internet could be)?
What is e-bay's 'reputation system' (I have never used e-bay)?

I think it's interesting that as the scale problem suddenly hit us 
really hard, people spontaneously started discussing here issues of 
how to run the main list and regulate its discussion.  Refreshing.

David, who thinks he knows what a Rolodex is, and never wanted one