On 9/17/06, Matt Brown morven@gmail.com wrote:
It's a bit disingenuous for Stevertigo to write [[Wikipedia:Sidestacking and pinching]] himself, CLAIMING IT TO BE POLICY, and then invoke it as policy to try and get his way.
Look, I'm just trying to correct some misguided methods which only result in making articles unreadable. The only case in which sidestacked templates works, on even a 20 inch monitor, is with less than 12 point type. Which, IMHO is way too small for screen. Print, sure, if its within margins, but not screen.
Put in plain brown wrapper English, unreadability means the experience of reading Wikipedia has elevated vaccum retention levels. Which, IMHO goes against our implicit mandate to make the Internet not... do that.
-sv.
On 9/17/06, stvrtg stvrtg@gmail.com wrote:
On 9/17/06, Matt Brown morven@gmail.com wrote:
It's a bit disingenuous for Stevertigo to write [[Wikipedia:Sidestacking and pinching]] himself, CLAIMING IT TO BE POLICY, and then invoke it as policy to try and get his way.
Look, I'm just trying to correct some misguided methods which only result in making articles unreadable.
I agree entirely on your goals, just not your methods in this case. Wikipedia already has too many people making up their own policies and then using them as if they had broad agreement.
I'm not sure we need a New Policy every time someone does something stupid.
-Matt
On 18/09/06, Matt Brown morven@gmail.com wrote:
I'm not sure we need a New Policy every time someone does something stupid.
I am quite certain we don't.
Process is an embedded reaction to prior stupidity. When I was CTO of a web design firm, I noticed in staff meetings that we only ever talked about process when we were avoiding talking about people. "We need a process to ensure that the client does not get half-finished design sketches" is code for "Greg fucked up." The problem, of course, is that much of this process nevertheless gets put in place, meaning that an organization slowly forms around avoiding the dumbest behaviors of its mediocre employees, resulting in layers of gunk that keep its best employees from doing interesting work, because they too have to sign "The Form Designed to Keep You From Doing The Stupid Thing That One Guy Did Three Years Ago".
—Wikis, Grafitti, and Process, Clay Shirky, 2003-08-26
You can't cure stupidity or malice with instructions.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Instruction_creep
- d.
On 18/09/06, stvrtg stvrtg@gmail.com wrote:
Put in plain brown wrapper English, unreadability means the experience of reading Wikipedia has elevated vaccum retention levels. Which, IMHO goes against our implicit mandate to make the Internet not... do that.
How do I get an explicit list of these implicit mandates anyway? :-)
Thanks for making it 'plain brown wrapper English' but I still don't have a clue what you are talking about. And there seems to be a reason for that. :-)
Answers on a postcard, please Mr Troll!
-sv.