On Mar 7, 2007, at 6:18 PM, wikien-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
It is clear the WP culture needs work, care, and nurturing. But I still do not believe this can be accomplished by creating more RULES.
on 3/7/07 7:55 PM, Sheldon Rampton at sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
Are you kidding? The entire Wikipedia community only exists BECAUSE of rules.
No! The Wikipedia Community exists because people want to be in it.
Rules are how a community formalizes its understanding of how members should behave within it. It's a much better way of shaping a culture than arbitrary mob action or arbitrary, case-by-case orders from some dictator.
This is clearly your own personal POV.
What's your alternative?
Some truly creative thinking for starters.
A culture is created by the community, and it is going to take the Community coming together to do so.
But first, it is going to take the person at the top agreeing that a change needs to take place, then asking the Community to do the work. He cannot mandate a culture, he can only influence it.
Marc