[WikiEN-l] Civility poll results

[Steve Summit]

Thomas Dalton wrote:
> 2009/8/11 Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>:
> > on 8/11/09 4:13 PM, George Herbert at george.herbert at gmail.com wrote:
>>> 0. It's a problem.
>>> 1. We're not enforcing consistently at all, and that's hurting us.
>>> 2. We're BITEing new users.
>>>
>> Is anyone really surprised at this? On this very List people are constantly
>> bragging about how wonderful Wikipedia is; focusing exclusively on how big
>> it is. Yet completely ignoring how screwed up the culture is...
>
> Wikipedia is a project and a community but, above all, it is an
> encyclopaedia. It is an encyclopaedia that a lot of people find very
> useful. Our system is working. There is certainly room for
> improvement, but I don't see this disaster you speak of.

And this sort of attitude is precisely why there *is* a problem.
(Sorry, Thomas, but you've managed to espouse the prevailing
attitude marvelously succinctly.)