I have lothed the day that this would be necessary, but Wikibooks has
now gone to a formal user arbitration situation.
For details, see:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Arbitration/Panic2k4_vs._SBJohnny
I have agreeed to step in here in terms of trying to resolve this
situation. Panic hasn't been doing blatant vandalism, but he has been
making it tough (apparently) to edit the C++ Programming Wikibook and
has made a few enemies and a few others who are upset over his editorial
style.
In an attempt to formalize this discussion and try to bring some order
here, and to keep this from spilling into areas like policy pages to
legislate the behavior of Panic out of existance, this has really turned
into a judicial situation instead. Both that, and this situation is
quickly approaching the level of blatant wheel warring, and I want to
nip that right away to keep it from happening.
Yes, this is perhaps a little more complicated than the Wikipedia
arbitration. OK, that is intentional in this situation, as I would like
to set this up in such a way that you don't want to go through this meat
grinder if at all possible. Arbitration is clearly the last and final
resort beyond trying to pull in people from outside of the project to
make very arbitrary decisions based on very incomplete information. I
certainly don't want to see Jimbo, Anthere, or Erik having to get
involved here being pressured to act when they won't know what is going
on in the first place. I know I have had to ask around a bit and work
hard to even see if there is a case to be made here at all.
It is my hope that these arbitration/mediation cases are very, very
rare. I'm trying hard to stay objective here as well, and am leaving
most of what is said to the discussion pages above.
Once all of this has been more or less resolved, I hope that we can come
up with the formal arbitration guidelines that have been discussed now
for more than a year on Wikibooks. I guess that until a situation like
this came up, there wasn't a percieved need to get this put together.
--
Robert Scott Horning
FYI
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rob Beezer <beezer(a)ups.edu>
Date: Dec 28, 2006 2:19 AM
Subject: [BP] Free mathematics textbook, TeX source with GFDL license
To: bookpeople(a)pobox.upenn.edu
This is an announcement of Version 1.0 of
A First Course in Linear Algebra
a free textbook that has TeX source available under the terms of the GNU
Free Documentation License (GFDL). The book's website is at
http://linear.ups.edu
This is a sophomore-level course typically for mathematics and science
majors who have finished calculus and plan to take further advanced
courses in mathematics. However, calculus is not really a prerequisite.
The book is notable for a careful approach and extensive hyperlinks to
previous definitions and theorems as new arguments are formulated. It
should be suitable for independent study.
I've published the book in a variety of formats:
* Downloadable PDF's with varying page formats (8.5 x 11, A4, etc),
some meant for printing, some meant for on-screen reading
* MathML/XML which will render very well in Firefox if you add the
suggested fonts for mathematics
* Print-on-demand through Lulu.com in paperback or with a coil binding
(split into two volumes) at a cost of about $25 or $30
If you maintain an online list of such books, adding a link to
http://linear.ups.edu will help increase the book's visibility and
hopefully lead to a community of contributors who will work with me to
add new material and correct the inevitable mistakes and missteps.
Feedback and suggestions welcomed.
Rob
--
Robert A. Beezer
Professor
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Puget Sound
1500 N Warner
Tacoma, WA 98416-1043
beezer(a)ups.edu
http://buzzard.ups.edu
Voice: 253.879.3564
Fax: 253.879.3522
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent via the Book People mailing list.
Posting address: bookpeople(a)pobox.upenn.edu
Admin. & unsubscribe address: bookpeople-request(a)pobox.upenn.edu
Charter & archive: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/bplist/
--
Peace & Love,
Erik
DISCLAIMER: This message does not represent an official position of
the Wikimedia Foundation or its Board of Trustees.