[WikiEN-l] You Really Don't Get It

[Stan Shebs]

Newyorkbrad (Wikipedia) wrote:
> What I view as the other top priority issue facing the project is the
> extraordinarily high rate of turnover and burnout that we seem to suffer
> from, especially among top-level administrators and leading contributors.
>   
My answer is easy - the neverending cr*pflood in one's face. Whether 
it's anon vandals or psychotic editors, it just never stops, the only 
way to escape it is to leave the project. I've reduced my watchlist to 
the most obscure articles imaginable, the freaks are still trying to 
trash them every day. The mantra is "anyone can edit", and we are 
definitely learning firsthand what *anyone* means, such as the millions 
who are quite literally not intelligent nor literate enough to make any 
useful contributions. On top of the stupid, there are the nutjobs - I 
don't care if the term isn't PC, that's what they are, and they take 
pride in doing as many crazy things as it takes to get what they want. 
I'm all for assuming good faith, but we're so afraid to get rid of  
those who are proven to be unhelpful that the good editors' only option 
to get away from them is to quit.

To contrast with another project with which I've been involved, GNU sets 
a high bar to entry, and a very high standard on behavior. Junior people 
have to run the gauntlet of code reviews just to get anything in (and 
ironically, there is a perpetual backlog of submissions). Behaviorwise, 
the occasional cross exchange is tolerated, but anything resembling the 
typical WP talk page diatribe would get the complainer kicked out 
permanently. There are people who've been actively working on GNU 
software for nearly 20 years now, nearly as long as it has existed.

Stan