Anyways, you’re certainly right. Even in things like Linux and Open Source, there’s still a hierarchy where experts fulfill certain roles. If you want to add code to Linux, it’s going through 2-3 people who certify it before it stands a chance of getting into the main branch. Just like here your contributions go through 1-2 editors before getting into an approved article.

At any rate, it is *very* useful to see these categorized like this.

Newspaper reporters are hardly experts on anything, and most magazine reporters aren’t a lot better. There’s something called the “sportswriter test” - does a reporter know as much about the subject (s)he is covering as the sportswriters for the paper know about the sports they cover? Most newspapers will fail badly at that test for most other subjects. The Wall Street Journal’s business writers pass, and many papers will have one or two reporters who know all about one of the areas they cover, but overall, newspapers are more around level 3.5 - semi-experts or even interesed amateurs are able to participate, but there are non-expertise-related barriers to entry.