On 3/5/07, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
I'm not sure I've provided enough context to fully explain the proposal. The idea is not to _require_ anything, but to only ask for confirmation if people make the claim _themselves_, and then only for people in positions of trust, or those whose credentials have been called into question. Anyone is free to reach any level of trust without professional credentials.
Frankly, this proposal is impractical and unworkable. I am not about to go through all this nonsense to verify stuff - all it's going to do is to make people less willing to state things about themselves on their user pages.
For instance, I have a B.Eng. in Computing from Imperial College, London. I have stated this on every job application I've submitted throughout my professional career (thirteen years or so by now) and have NEVER been asked to verify it. To be honest, I'm not sure I could, easily; I don't know where my actual degree certificate is. I suspect my parents have it, actually. I guess I could phone up the college and ask them to fax something, but this is way too much of a pain in the behind to actually be worth doing for uncompensated volunteer effort at Wikipedia, especially since it's of complete irrelevance to what I'm actually doing here.
If we start requiring that admins must verify every single statement about themselves they make - or even if this is restricted to only claims of professional expertise - this is going to result in the following:
1. Admins will simply remove any statements that aren't worth the effort of verifying. Net gain for the project: zero. 2. People with expertise won't want to become admins, widening an already-existing gulf. The perception in some circles that people become admins because they don't write articles will increase. 3. Only those seeking greater authoritativeness than their writing and argumentative skills already command will find the cumbersome process attractive. Thus, the querulous, the trolls, and those with dubious qualifications will be the ones getting that 'verified' badge to wear to use as a stick in arguments.
I am, since I occupy a position of responsibility, quite willing to verify my identity to the Foundation/Jimbo in private - but verifying other stuff is frankly not worth my scarce time and effort.
-Matt