2016-02-22 1:14 GMT-08:00 Yaroslav M. Blanter putevod@mccme.ru:
Absolutely. This is absolutely what happened. At some point I had to state that if FLOW gets introduced on all talk pages I would stop using talk pages. I was replied that they are sorry but this is my choice.
Our early communications approach about Flow was terrible, it is true, and I take responsibility for not handling it better. I saw some messages that made me cringe, but I didn't step in to say "This is not how we want to do things". I'm sorry. As for my own comms style when I was around the wikis, I think people have often found it arrogant and thereby offputting. I've learned over the years that folks who are external to the community are often naturally better at this. It's tempting as a (formerly very active) community member to draw on your own expertise and hopes to the point that you're no longer listening, or seen to be listening.
I believe Flow-related communications improved significantly later on, but by that time a lot of bridges had already been burned^Wnuked from orbit. I think this early history significantly impacted perception especially in the English Wikipedia community, to the point that raising the name of the project immediately triggers lots of people in that community. At the same time, the more proactive and careful approach later fostered some use cases, like the Catalan Wikipedia converting its entire Village Pump over:
https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:La_taverna/Novetats https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:La_taverna/Multim%C3%A8dia https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:La_taverna/Propostes https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:La_taverna/Tecnicismes https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viquip%C3%A8dia:La_taverna/Ajuda
I think a fair evaluation of the project's merits will need to look at what actually happened in those communities that adopted it, whether it's for wholesale usage on pages like this, or on user talk pages. And if the numbers look positive and there's something that can be done to heal the hurt that was caused in how the project was handled early on, I'm happy to help if I can, even just by saying "Sorry".
Erik