Would it be that hard to keep track of users'
contribution levels, and
Yes. It actually would be.
1) you need to program bots to be aware of "users' contribution levels"
2) You need to write, maintain and translate multiple levels of messages.
Boils down to my main point (don't worry David Gerard did not read it either):
We do not have the resources for that.
It's vaguely insulting
when some noob's first bot gives me a long lecture about Commons policy,
apparently unaware that I had a hand in formulating it in the first place!
How should the bot know? Sorry, but you ''chose'' to be insulted...
...by a machine!
Even if it had been an actual human who had put the message, I would
argue that again the problem is the lack of resources. Right now the
focus is on keeping commons on track of its mission. That means zero
tolerance for unfree files.
Do i think the situation is ideal. No, of course not. But a few people
jabbering around on a mailing list, making demands and essentially
dispatching non existing resources, will not change a thing.
This is a bit like politicians trying to improve the education system,
but trying to do so without budget increases.
And I'm not talking about money here (in fact I think Gnangarras
"paying the admins" suggestion is the worst possible approach
possible, but thats an entire other mail).
The fact of the matter is commons has a bad reputation on the other
projects, that's why we don't get more active contributors. That's why
we don't have the manpower to cater to the emotionally sensitive among
you.
However the bad reputation does not come from cold harsh bot
templates. It comes from the fact that people are "just not getting
commons". Wikipedia contributors see files being moved to commons by
well meaning people and deleted because they do not fulfill our free
licensing requirements. Contributors from foreign language (i.e.
non-english) projects then feel unable to participate in the process
involving the deletions. Just like that commons gets a reputation as
content destroyer and local uploads get tagged with ''don't move to
commons''. Seen it a dozen times on de.wp (maybe i'm generalizing...)
It is a vicious cycle, but you guys are trying to break it at the
wrong point. it reminds me of overworked and underpaid wallmart
cashiers that are mandated to greet customers friendly... or they will
get fired, or the flight attendants who have mandatory smile-training.
I'm all for being nice and friendly, but when there is work to be
done, and the question is "writing a personalized message and taking
care of one copyvio" or "pasting five templates and taking care of
five copyvios" the answer seems to be obviously #2 for me.
Breaking the cycle should start at firmly educating users about how
commons works, what we do, and where our priorities lie. Add a page
about bot and how the truly and honestly do not mean to hurt your
feelings.