On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 12:38 PM, Kwan Ting Chan<ktc(a)ktchan.info> wrote:
WJhonson(a)aol.com wrote:
Yes I'm reminded of that lack of accountability in this exchange:
A: Why did you, as an admin, do action X within Wikipedia?
B: Well I asked on IRC and they told me to do it
A: Who told you to do it
B: I can't remember but I'm sure it was someone who thought I should do
it.
A: So you yourself have no reason to, as an admin, do the action you did?
B: Yes I asked on IRC.
This is a true story. Which is why IRC should be shut down. There is
no accountability, and no transparency. And yet things which pass on it,
are then imposed in-project with no back-trail.
Will Johnson
The problem here is not the existence of IRC. The problem here is the admin
doing something without good reason to and using what someone said off-wiki
as an excuse. Admins is suppose to take responsibility for their action,
heck all editors are supposed to take responsibility for their edits. If an
admin take admin action just because someone told them to, then the problem
is that that particular person shouldn't be an admin.
The problem seems to be that IRC is treated with more officialness
than it should be. If everyone treated it the same as meeting up with
your wiki*dian mates in the pub, there'd be no need for public logs
and no concerns about accountability etc.
Are you honestly telling us you think shutting down semi-official IRC
channels would stop a big online community such as Wikimedia's contributors
to stop using non-wikis method of communication? The most likely result is
the same group of people who would be using IRC's to just carrying on where
they are unofficially. The next most likely result is they would move
elsewhere in terms of either location or technology. The least likely result
is they would stop altogether.
KTC
--
Experience is a good school but the fees are high.
- Heinrich Heine
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Jonathan Hall <sinewave(a)silentflame.com>