On Thu, Jul 3, 2014 at 1:50 AM, Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Moriel and others,

Do you have a list of "realistic changes" in mind for the community?

I hear almost no one say that the typical state of (in)civility on wiki or on Wikimedia-l is good enough or that people are being hypersensitive, so I get the sense that there's a lot of agreement that we have a cultural problem. Ideas for solutions seem to be in short supply, so any "realistic changes" that you can suggest would be good to hear, either on this list or in IdeaLab.

The problem on en.wiki at least is that a vocal minority effectively prevent any enforcement of the civility policy. This includes a significant group of admins that are willing to overturn blocks for all but the most blatant violations of the policy. And because of the wheel warring loophole (undoing a block is allowed, but reinstating a block is wheel warring, which is prohibited), there is nothing that anyone can do about it. ArbCom (or the community) could close this loophole, but so far have not shown interest in doing so. The single action that I think would be most useful on en.wiki would be for someone to shepherd an RfC to create a policy statement that "unilaterally overturning a block is wheel-warring". I know this sounds very far removed from the issue of making en.wiki more civil, but I actually think such a change is realistically possible and would go a long way towards shifting the balance of power away from the trolls and misogynists.

Alternately, the board or ArbCom could step up and declare that civility is not to be treated as a second-class policy, but I doubt that would ever happen.

Ryan Kaldari