"People who suddenly find themselves with really huge audiences often start writing more cautiously, like politicians."<p>This happens way to much, and it causes an echo-chamber of mediocre ideas to be propagated across the web. This is why I don't always trust the wisdom of crowds. Just because 10,000 retweeted an article, doesn't make it interesting. The same goes if X thousand people bought a book. But they'll get exposure, and more reads/sales.<p>Another area where the "wisdom of crowds" can perform poorly is in democracy, for example where a majority takes rights away from some other minority.
" . . . in democracy, for example where a majority takes rights away from some other minority."<p>That's the Tyranny of the Majority.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_the_majority</a>