On 12/7/07, Wily D wilydoppelganger@gmail.com wrote:
On Dec 6, 2007 6:06 PM, joshua.zelinsky@yale.edu wrote:
Quoting Anthony wikimail@inbox.org:
This may be the most important question of all.
Durova has shown herself to be a good and honourable editor. There is a belief (true or not) that the block of !! was not an isolated incident, but the result of an atmosphere that simply mislead her into thinking things that were appropriate that weren't. While Durova seems to have realised her error (and certainly increased my esteem for her in the process), it remains worrisome that the circumstances that lead to this mistake are not being discussed so we can avoid it in the future, and that editors are actively inhibiting any honest discussion of how to keep good editors off that path in the future.
Individual blame is not particularly interesting, but what went on to lead up to this is. Ignore history, doomed to repeat it (and so on).
WilyD
I think WilyD is on the right path here. As a community, we have some responsibility for Durova's error, too. There had been a growing level of discomfort with the way some blocks were being carried out, but we as a group failed to distill this discomfort to the point where we provided the feedback to Durova and other admins that something wasn't quite right here. It was only when her process affected somebody who was widely seen as being exactly the kind of editor Wikipedia needs that the community reacted, and the reaction was swift and quite possibly excessive; more importantly, all that frustration got focused on one person (Durova) instead of the culture that had to that point permitted relatively undiscussed blocks without serious review of the reasons for those blocks.
There are some signs that this message is starting to get through; more admins are bringing blocks to ANI and AN for discussion. Everyone is becoming more sensitive to the fact that good editors and admins are perfectly capable of seeing only trees instead of forests, and that independent outside views really are of benefit. There are more voices at AN and ANI reminding admins that when they are involved in a dispute with another editor, it's better to bring in someone else rather than use the buttons.
These are good things. We need to continue to build on the lessons we all learned, otherwise the situation that harmed the reputation of three valued community members will have had no benefit.
Risker
_______________________________________________
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l