[WikiEN-l] Civility poll results

[Emily Monroe]

> It's a basic reality of life as an adult that employees with perfect  
> work product but terrible attitudes are often terminated; their own  
> work is fine, but their presence disrupts the work of others.

I agree. I sincerely believe that civility blocks are necessary. Not  
as a punishment, or a chance to "cool down", but as a way to say "Your  
attitude is disrupting Wikipedia, and preventing it from improving.  
Come back in [12/24 hours/a week/a month/whatever] and we'll give you  
another chance, and not many more."

Emily
On Aug 11, 2009, at 9:31 PM, Nathan wrote:

> It's interesting that Marc assigns the blame for the myriad conduct  
> problems
> to leadership (the executive suite, though I'm not sure who this
> represents). I might argue the opposite. The lack of leadership  
> makes it
> impossible to maintain consistent standards of behavior. The  
> amorphous and
> unstable crowd can't consistently agree either on what these  
> standards are
> or how they should be enforced.
>
> It's a basic reality of life as an adult that employees with perfect  
> work
> product but terrible attitudes are often terminated; their own work  
> is fine,
> but their presence disrupts the work of others. Yet firm behavioral
> expectations and consistent enforcement are made possible by stable
> leadership. This is an obvious concept proven by thousands of years  
> of human
> history, but Wikipedia is committed to an approach closer to  
> anarchy. What
> we need, then, is a solution that provides for fair and consistent
> enforcement of fair and consistent standards in a community that  
> lacks any
> normal facets of social stability.
>
> Unfortunately, people far brighter than I have been ruminating on this
> problem for years without arriving at such a solution. Perhaps the  
> most
> credible proposals involve a reorganization of the decision making  
> processes
> on Wikipedia, but these have all been shot down by some of the same  
> people
> who complain most strenuously about cultural degradation. Until  
> folks come
> up with more than complaints and minor tweaks to existing policies,  
> I think
> its unlikely that significant progress is possible.
>
> Nathan
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