On 10/8/07, John Lee johnleemk@gmail.com wrote:
The question is: have we on Wikipedia reached a point where our community is too big that the negative friction overwhelms the positive value of our expertise?
I'm just throwing this out for discussion, but I think this hypothesis may prove to be true in some areas - namely those frequently discussed on this list. But in less high-activity areas, such as quiet (i.e. not [[George W. Bush]]) articles, then we have a sufficiently small group of editors who have space to think and bring their individual ability to bear.
As far as articles go I doubt that even [[George W. Bush]] has this problem (though for a few lesser known topics that have been directly or indirectly subject to arbcom rulings, the phenomenon could possibly be argued).
However, in the project space hot-spots (WP:ANI, WT:RFA, WP:CSN, WP:AFD, WP:RFAR, etc. etc. etc.) yes it's quite bloody obvious.
—C.W.