On Mar 7, 2007, at 6:18 PM, wikien-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
It is clear the WP culture needs work, care, and nurturing. But I still do not believe this can be accomplished by creating more RULES.
Are you kidding? The entire Wikipedia community only exists BECAUSE of rules. Some of them look like the 3 revert rule, and some of them look like this:
$wgAllowExternalImages = true;
Rules are how a community formalizes its understanding of how members should behave within it. It's a much better way of shaping a culture than arbitrary mob action or arbitrary, case-by-case orders from some dictator. What's your alternative?
-------------------------------- | Sheldon Rampton | Research director, Center for Media & Democracy (www.prwatch.org) | Author of books including: | Friends In Deed: The Story of US-Nicaragua Sister Cities | Toxic Sludge Is Good For You | Mad Cow USA | Trust Us, We're Experts | Weapons of Mass Deception | Banana Republicans | The Best War Ever -------------------------------- | Subscribe to our free weekly list serve by visiting: | http://www.prwatch.org/cmd/subscribe_sotd.html | | Donate now to support independent, public interest reporting: | https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?id=1118 --------------------------------
On Mar 7, 2007, at 6:18 PM, wikien-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
It is clear the WP culture needs work, care, and nurturing. But I still do not believe this can be accomplished by creating more RULES.
on 3/7/07 7:55 PM, Sheldon Rampton at sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
Are you kidding? The entire Wikipedia community only exists BECAUSE of rules.
No! The Wikipedia Community exists because people want to be in it.
Rules are how a community formalizes its understanding of how members should behave within it. It's a much better way of shaping a culture than arbitrary mob action or arbitrary, case-by-case orders from some dictator.
This is clearly your own personal POV.
What's your alternative?
Some truly creative thinking for starters.
A culture is created by the community, and it is going to take the Community coming together to do so.
But first, it is going to take the person at the top agreeing that a change needs to take place, then asking the Community to do the work. He cannot mandate a culture, he can only influence it.
Marc
On 3/7/07, Sheldon Rampton sheldon@prwatch.org wrote:
On Mar 7, 2007, at 6:18 PM, wikien-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
It is clear the WP culture needs work, care, and nurturing. But I still do not believe this can be accomplished by creating more RULES.
Are you kidding? The entire Wikipedia community only exists BECAUSE of rules. Some of them look like the 3 revert rule, and some of them look like this:
$wgAllowExternalImages = true;
Rules are how a community formalizes its understanding of how members should behave within it. It's a much better way of shaping a culture than arbitrary mob action or arbitrary, case-by-case orders from some dictator. What's your alternative?
As you indicate, there are different kinds of rules. Lessig has explicated a lot of the differences and how they affect communities differently. Sometimes computer code is best suited; sometimes explicit rules are best; sometimes cultural norms are best.