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While the question of what should constitute a community wiki remains open to debate, I do think that maybe the process should be a little more democratic. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that moderators have marked certain questions as a community wiki very early on, in some cases even before the question had any answers.

In my opinion, this serves as a disincentive for other users to answer the question and could actually hurt the original poster by preventing them from getting answers they would otherwise have gotten if the question wasn't marked community wiki. (In fact, I would be very interested to see a comparison of the average number of answers a question marked community wiki early on receives versus a non-community wiki question.)

Yes, community wiki questions do still earn badges, but badges have decreased importance and visibility in comparison to reputation points. While a subtle difference, the first thing that I think most people will look at is the reputation number rather than the number of badges. The reputation is listed first for all profile snippets. Even on the user profile page itself, reputation is large and prominent at the top, while the badges are relegated to the very bottom of the profile. Most importantly, users are ranked by reputation by default, not the number of badges. Ranking by the number of badges isn't even an option, thereby minimizing their weight in terms of social proof.

As it stands, reputation, not the number or type of badges, is the chief currency of social proof on all StackExchange sites.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. Moderators, don't be too quick to mark a question as community wiki, especially while we're in beta. Leave a comment suggesting that the question should be a community wiki first and see how many votes you get on the comment or if the original poster is willing to mark it as such or edit the question to make it more specific. If the comment gets 5+ votes, then mark it a community wiki if it has not been already. An exception to this would be questions that are obviously posted with the sole intention of gaining reputation, questions like, "What's your favorite version of Flash?".
2. Feature request: We vote on closing questions, reopening them, and marking a question as spam or offensive. Why not vote on whether or not a question should be community wiki as well? I would suggest a one-way vote, otherwise people who have answered already will automatically vote to un-wikify the question.
3. Feature request: Allow for the ranking by the number of badges on the leaderboard. This will give users more incentive to answer community wiki questions.

While the question of what should constitute a community wiki remains open to debate, I do think that maybe the process should be a little more democratic. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that moderators have marked certain questions as a community wiki very early on, in some cases even before the question had any answers.

In my opinion, this serves as a disincentive for other users to answer the question and could actually hurt the original poster by preventing them from getting answers they would otherwise have gotten if the question wasn't marked community wiki. (In fact, I would be very interested to see a comparison of the average number of answers a question marked community wiki early on receives versus a non-community wiki question.)

Yes, community wiki questions do still earn badges, but badges have decreased importance and visibility in comparison to reputation points. While a subtle difference, the first thing that I think most people will look at is the reputation number rather than the number of badges. The reputation is listed first for all profile snippets. Even on the user profile page itself, reputation is large and prominent at the top, while the badges are relegated to the very bottom of the profile. Reputation, not gaining badges, is also the key that unlocks more privileges across the site. Most importantly, users are ranked by reputation by default, not the number of badges. Ranking by the number of badges isn't even an option, thereby minimizing their weight in terms of social proof.

As it stands, reputation, not the number or type of badges, is the chief currency of social proof on all StackExchange sites.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. Moderators, don't be too quick to mark a question as community wiki, especially while we're in beta. Leave a comment suggesting that the question should be a community wiki first and see how many votes you get on the comment or if the original poster is willing to mark it as such or edit the question to make it more specific. If the comment gets 5+ votes, then mark it a community wiki if it has not been already. An exception to this would be questions that are obviously posted with the sole intention of gaining reputation, questions like, "What's your favorite version of Flash?".
2. Feature request: We vote on closing questions, reopening them, and marking a question as spam or offensive. Why not vote on whether or not a question should be community wiki as well? I would suggest a one-way vote, otherwise people who have answered already will automatically vote to un-wikify the question.
3. Feature request: Allow for the ranking by the number of badges on the leaderboard. This will give users more incentive to answer community wiki questions.

While the question of what should constitute a community wiki remains open to debate, I do think that maybe the process should be a little more democratic. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that moderators have marked certain questions as a community wiki very early on, in some cases even before the question had any answers.

In my opinion, this serves as a disincentive for other users to answer the question and could actually hurt the original poster by preventing them from getting answers they would otherwise have gotten if the question wasn't marked community wiki. (In fact, I would be very interested to see a comparison of the average number of answers a question marked community wiki early on receives versus a non-community wiki question.) Yes, community wiki questions do still earn badges, but badges have decreased importance and visibility in comparison to reputation points. While a subtle difference, the first thing that I think most people will look at is the reputation number rather than the number of badges. Users are ranked by reputation by default, not the number of badges. Ranking by the number of badges isn't even an option, thereby minimizing their weight in terms of social proof.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. Moderators, don't be too quick to mark a question as community wiki, especially while we're in beta. Leave a comment suggesting that the question should be a community wiki first and see how many votes you get on the comment or if the original poster is willing to mark it as such or edit the question to make it more specific. If the comment gets 5+ votes, then mark it a community wiki if it has not been already. An exception to this would be questions that are obviously posted with the sole intention of gaining reputation, questions like, "What's your favorite version of Flash?".
2. Feature request: We vote on closing questions, reopening them, and marking a question as spam or offensive. Why not vote on whether or not a question should be community wiki as well? I would suggest a one-way vote, otherwise people who have answered already will automatically vote to un-wikify the question.
3. Feature request: Allow for the ranking by the number of badges on the leaderboard. This will give users more incentive to answer community wiki questions.

While the question of what should constitute a community wiki remains open to debate, I do think that maybe the process should be a little more democratic. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that moderators have marked certain questions as a community wiki very early on, in some cases even before the question had any answers.

In my opinion, this serves as a disincentive for other users to answer the question and could actually hurt the original poster by preventing them from getting answers they would otherwise have gotten if the question wasn't marked community wiki. (In fact, I would be very interested to see a comparison of the average number of answers a question marked community wiki early on receives versus a non-community wiki question.) 

Yes, community wiki questions do still earn badges, but badges have decreased importance and visibility in comparison to reputation points. While a subtle difference, the first thing that I think most people will look at is the reputation number rather than the number of badges. The reputation is listed first for all profile snippets. Even on the user profile page itself, reputation is large and prominent at the top, while the badges are relegated to the very bottom of the profile. Most importantly, users are ranked by reputation by default, not the number of badges. Ranking by the number of badges isn't even an option, thereby minimizing their weight in terms of social proof.

As it stands, reputation, not the number or type of badges, is the chief currency of social proof on all StackExchange sites.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. Moderators, don't be too quick to mark a question as community wiki, especially while we're in beta. Leave a comment suggesting that the question should be a community wiki first and see how many votes you get on the comment or if the original poster is willing to mark it as such or edit the question to make it more specific. If the comment gets 5+ votes, then mark it a community wiki if it has not been already. An exception to this would be questions that are obviously posted with the sole intention of gaining reputation, questions like, "What's your favorite version of Flash?".
2. Feature request: We vote on closing questions, reopening them, and marking a question as spam or offensive. Why not vote on whether or not a question should be community wiki as well? I would suggest a one-way vote, otherwise people who have answered already will automatically vote to un-wikify the question.
3. Feature request: Allow for the ranking by the number of badges on the leaderboard. This will give users more incentive to answer community wiki questions.

While the question of what should constitute a community wiki remains open to debate, I do think that maybe the process should be a little more democratic. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that moderators have marked certain questions as a community wiki very early on, in some cases even before the question had any answers.

In my opinion, this serves as a disincentive for other users to answer the question and could actually hurt the original poster by preventing them from getting answers they would otherwise have gotten if the question wasn't marked community wiki. (In fact, I would be very interested to see a comparison of the average number of answers a question marked community wiki early on versus a non-community wiki question.) Yes, community wiki questions do still earn badges, but badges have decreased importance and visibility in comparison to reputation points. While a subtle difference, the first thing that I think most people will look at is the reputation number rather than the number of badges. Users are ranked by reputation by default, not the number of badges. Ranking by the number of badges isn't even an option, thereby minimizing their weight in terms of social proof.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. Moderators, don't be too quick to mark a question as community wiki, especially while we're in beta. Leave a comment suggesting that the question should be a community wiki first and see how many votes you get on the comment or if the original poster is willing to mark it as such or edit the question to make it more specific. If the comment gets 5+ votes, then mark it a community wiki if it has not been already. An exception to this would be questions that are obviously posted with the sole intention of gaining reputation, questions like, "What's your favorite version of Flash?".
2. Feature request: We vote on closing questions, reopening them, and marking a question as spam or offensive. Why not vote on whether or not a question should be community wiki as well? I would suggest a one-way vote, otherwise people who have answered already will automatically vote to un-wikify the question.
3. Feature request: Allow for the ranking by the number of badges on the leaderboard. This will give users more incentive to answer community wiki questions.

While the question of what should constitute a community wiki remains open to debate, I do think that maybe the process should be a little more democratic. It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that moderators have marked certain questions as a community wiki very early on, in some cases even before the question had any answers.

In my opinion, this serves as a disincentive for other users to answer the question and could actually hurt the original poster by preventing them from getting answers they would otherwise have gotten if the question wasn't marked community wiki. (In fact, I would be very interested to see a comparison of the average number of answers a question marked community wiki early on receives versus a non-community wiki question.) Yes, community wiki questions do still earn badges, but badges have decreased importance and visibility in comparison to reputation points. While a subtle difference, the first thing that I think most people will look at is the reputation number rather than the number of badges. Users are ranked by reputation by default, not the number of badges. Ranking by the number of badges isn't even an option, thereby minimizing their weight in terms of social proof.

Here's what I would suggest:

1. Moderators, don't be too quick to mark a question as community wiki, especially while we're in beta. Leave a comment suggesting that the question should be a community wiki first and see how many votes you get on the comment or if the original poster is willing to mark it as such or edit the question to make it more specific. If the comment gets 5+ votes, then mark it a community wiki if it has not been already. An exception to this would be questions that are obviously posted with the sole intention of gaining reputation, questions like, "What's your favorite version of Flash?".
2. Feature request: We vote on closing questions, reopening them, and marking a question as spam or offensive. Why not vote on whether or not a question should be community wiki as well? I would suggest a one-way vote, otherwise people who have answered already will automatically vote to un-wikify the question.
3. Feature request: Allow for the ranking by the number of badges on the leaderboard. This will give users more incentive to answer community wiki questions.