On 5/16/11 8:21 PM, Cary Bass wrote:
We need an active group of contributors who
represent at the very least
some cross-section of not only Commons contributors but of interested
re-users of Commons content to actively monitor and maintain the POTD.
This is not the first time that something inappropriate for Main Page
content has appeared and I doubt it will be the last.
That is definitely a
practical solution. POTD are scheduled long in
advance, so that could solve the problems here pretty quickly. The image
in question is, IMO, unambiguously inappropriate for Commons, and this
shouldn't have been a difficult debate.
On the other hand it feels a bit wrong to me. In that case we're asking
groups that are relatively underrepresented in Wiki culture to take on
the role of policing. I feel like they ought to have some rights to a
welcoming environment as a baseline. That said, in a wiki context, it
seems to be impossible to achieve such baseline freedoms, as long as the
offenders have large amounts of free time.
So some people are going to have to make the sacrifices to change the
culture.
Another worry: if there's a "quality control board", officially or
unofficially, they can start to take that role too seriously or become
captured by various radical factions. But I guess we have to take that
chance.
Another board for decisions? Just leave the communities alone. They can
handle it very well on their own. Any board i know failed in so many
points. An good example from the German Wikipedia is the
"Schiedsgericht". This is the last call if some users can't be stopped
from offending each other. But this board isn't trusted at all and
constantly breaks down. Just because it is seen as needless.
What im seeing here is the construction of an government which isn't
even democratic, getting very close to a dictatorship. Or as we said in
the GDR: One party, elected by itself.
Tobias