On 2/20/06, charles matthews <charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com> wrote:
"Death Phoenix" wrote
... there will likely come a time when we need
him to make a stronger
and more official statement on Wikipedia.
These discussions and evolutions are lengthy, for good reasons. We
operate
by consensus, not by unanimity, for one thing.
For another thing, the 'community' aspects of WP are the face we show
ourselves. The face turned towards the outside world - basically the
servers, software development and legal aspects - can throw up problems
that
are much more pressing.
The only reason I can see that the boxen are possibly a 'defining issue',
in
some people's minds, is that there is always likely to be a defining
issue.
The way this has come up seems to me to be largely 'contingent'. I'd be
surprised if Jimbo thought otherwise, that this was somehow a growing pain
that it was necessary for us to experience. It does feel as if after five
years the learning curve of how we live together suddenly has become that
much steeper. But it is nothing that the external critics have ever
raised.
Due caution in coming to judgement on it seems entirely understandable.
Of course we operate by consensus. I'd have it no other way. However, even
assuming that we reach consensus after months of discussion, it will likely
take no less than a direct statement from Jimbo to stop any further feudin'
and fussin'. There will always be people on the extreme ends of the userbox
arguments, and those folks are very unlikely to change their minds
regardless of any consensus. How they act (and how we respond) depends on
how much "muscle" is behind any userbox decrees. I'd argue that there is
nothing more "muscular" than a decree by Jimbo.
Uh-oh. We're going to see a photoshopped picture of Jimbo on Arnold's body
in [[User:Jimbo Wales/Funny pictures]], aren't we?