On 3/21/07, Jossi Fresco <jossifresco(a)mac.com> wrote: I worry about the poll thing. When you're dealing with policy, you have to know that the new proposal is consistent with other policies and guidelines, consistent in letter *and* spirit. A poll might attract 200 editors who know about the policies and have carefully considered all the implications, which is great, but what if it attracts 200 editors who've barely read them? Developing a content policy isn't like discussing an article for deletion, or a behavioral policy like 3RR. With the content policies, the bottom line is that people have to know what they're talking about, or else we'll end up with a dog's breakfast of pages that contradict each other in subtle ways. We can't afford to have that situation with pages that determine the content of Wikipedia. Sarah

Yeah, see, there's the pesky problem with polling (and with democracy) - unfortunately, sometimes the majority are idiots. So it comes down to a question: how much do you trust the teeming hordes? Until we can come up with a better way of gauging community feeling, I think we're stuck with !voting. Philippe ----- Original Message ----- From: Slim Virgin To: English Wikipedia Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 2:41 PM Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] WP:V, WP:RS, WP:NOR and WP:ATT On 3/21/07, Jossi Fresco <jossifresco(a)mac.com> wrote: I worry about the poll thing. When you're dealing with policy, you have to know that the new proposal is consistent with other policies and guidelines, consistent in letter *and* spirit. A poll might attract 200 editors who know about the policies and have carefully considered all the implications, which is great, but what if it attracts 200 editors who've barely read them? Developing a content policy isn't like discussing an article for deletion, or a behavioral policy like 3RR. With the content policies, the bottom line is that people have to know what they're talking about, or else we'll end up with a dog's breakfast of pages that contradict each other in subtle ways. We can't afford to have that situation with pages that determine the content of Wikipedia. Sarah _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l