[WikiEN-l] Admin meeting

[Geoff Burling]

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006, Puddl Duk wrote:

> > > How about an admin only IRC channel and mailing list?
> > >
> > > Fred
> >
> > No we should try and keep things as open as posible.
> >
> > --
> > geni
>
> I would support this idea as long as the mailing list archives were public.

Two good reasons such a mailling list should be kept private:

1. Admin A posts to the list "User X is being disruptive. What do I do?"
2. ADmin B posts to the list "I need a sanity check. User Y has done
this, & I plan on acting thusly. Comments please."

Reasons:

* No one wants to admit in public that they're clueless.
* People are more likely to admit that they'rewrong in private.
* Sometimes a person just needs a vote of confidence to handle a
troublemaker.

I don't see any of this happening if such a list were archived in public.

As for the worry that an admin list might be abused to form a cabal to
gain control of Wikipedia for its own nefarous ends -- I dunno what those
would be, maybe enforce a political litmus test on articles or replace
all uses of BC/AD with CE/BCE -- this could be accomplished right now
with an offline, private mailing list.

And if this hasn't been attempted yet, then I'm wrong in thinking that
there are some people out there smarter than me.

Geoff