On 3/31/07, Gwern Branwen <gwern0(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
This is not a good idea. Haven't we learned
anything from locking
down *anonymous* page creation, and from the constant, and
people-pissing-off, mess that is Articles for Creation?
I agree. Volunteer effort is not transformable in that way. There is
absolutely no proof WHATSOEVER that shutting down article creation
will help our project at all. It's yet another manifestation of the
belief that if you stop people doing what they want, they'll instead
go off and do what YOU want.
This doesn't happen. If people can't do what they want, in a project
MOSTLY CREATED BY OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTORS, they'll simply leave.
The only people steerable in such a way are regular contributors. We
do need to find ways to encourage those deeply committed to the
project to waste less time dealing with crap that doesn't matter.
Encourage, not force.
-Matt
It's possible I missed something...but I thought the proposal was to
shut off article creation *for a while* while launching a major clean-up
effort. Of course, some people who like to create articles will not turn
instead to cleanup. But some of those who are currently doing cleanup,
including newly created articles, would be able to focus on other things.
I'm not sure it's a good idea. But it's not a suggestion for an
indefinite change, but for a temporary pause in new articles. Something
quite different.
-Rich