[WikiEN-l] IRC Group Contacts Surgery, August 2009

[Jonathan Hall]

On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 12:38 PM, Kwan Ting Chan<ktc at ktchan.info> wrote:
> WJhonson at aol.com wrote:
>>
>> Yes I'm reminded of that lack of accountability in this exchange:
>> A: Why did you, as an admin, do action X within Wikipedia?
>> B: Well I asked on IRC and they told me to do it
>> A: Who told you to do it
>> B: I can't remember but I'm sure it was someone who thought I should do
>>  it.
>> A: So you yourself have no reason to, as an admin, do the action you  did?
>> B: Yes I asked on IRC.
>>  This is a true story.  Which is why IRC should be shut down.   There is
>> no accountability, and no transparency.  And yet things which pass  on it,
>> are then imposed in-project with no back-trail.
>>  Will Johnson
>
> The problem here is not the existence of IRC. The problem here is the admin
> doing something without good reason to and using what someone said off-wiki
> as an excuse. Admins is suppose to take responsibility for their action,
> heck all editors are supposed to take responsibility for their edits. If an
> admin take admin action just because someone told them to, then the problem
> is that that particular person shouldn't be an admin.

The problem seems to be that IRC is treated with more officialness
than it should be. If everyone treated it the same as meeting up with
your wiki*dian mates in the pub, there'd be no need for public logs
and no concerns about accountability etc.
>
> Are you honestly telling us you think shutting down semi-official IRC
> channels would stop a big online community such as Wikimedia's contributors
> to stop using non-wikis method of communication? The most likely result is
> the same group of people who would be using IRC's to just carrying on where
> they are unofficially. The next most likely result is they would move
> elsewhere in terms of either location or technology. The least likely result
> is they would stop altogether.
>
> KTC
>
> --
> Experience is a good school but the fees are high.
>    - Heinrich Heine
>
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-- 
Jonathan Hall <sinewave at silentflame.com>