The Cunctator wrote:
On 12/6/05, Martin Osterman
<stonewallgrant(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Perhaps my newness to the encyclopedia (member as
of March, 2005) has left
me feeling naieve. However, I'm inclined to give Jimbo the benefit of the
doubt. He says it's an experiment, so I'm inclined to go with that.
On what grounds do you suggest that this is a "permanent policy change" in
the guise of an experiment?
Primarily because experiments are better designed. I think part of the
problem is that what I'm thinking of as an experiment is different
from how Jimbo's using the word. He's probably just using it to mean
"I'm making a change and I'm not 100% certain of what will happen,
even though I'm pretty sure it'll be good."
There's a difference between "experiment" and "scientific
experiment".
The former is appropriate for speaking of "youthful experimentation"
for instance, which is rarely pursued in a properly controlled way. :-)
Tightening up of WP openness and process is very much akin to what
has happened to the Internet as a whole, in response to systematic
assaults on people's computers. It wasn't that long ago that a number
of idealists routinely made their passwords and other access info
public, in the name of openness (I personally logged in as RMS a
couple times, strictly for legitimate reasons! :-) ) Nowadays
machines will get pwned within minutes - a sad statistic on the
number of evildoers running rampant in the world.
Stan