On 6/13/06, Anthony DiPierro wikilegal@inbox.org wrote:
Sure, there are systematic problems with building something of high quality using a wiki.
It's not a fault of wiki
But do you really think the board can do anything to fix them? Moreover, do you think a different board would have fixed the problem you've pointed out by now?
The foundation can help, yes. For example, we could direct our paid developers to create simple tools which help users review. Things like the ill fated 'reviewed revision' which actually work. If the community is unwilling to do this work even when made as easy and efficient as possible, which I expect, then we need to staff up for it.
I don't fault the current board for not doing this yet. I was specifically addressing the claim that the projects correctly manage themselves. They don't.
I have no clue why you attempted that blame the board angle here, because my post had nothing to do with that...
The foundation hasn't solved this yet, but things take time... and perhaps the foundation is somewhat hand-tied right now with this constant worry of having to work with the community for every little thing or suffer the wrath of the perpetually annoyed windbags.
I could fault a lot of people for a lot of things, it's pretty easy to assign blame.. but I wouldn't fault the board for Wikipedia quality problems, at least not directly. ... Faulting them for assigning too much importance to a community which has demonstrated a pervasive unwillingness to behave responsibly? perhaps :)
After seeing Wikipedia in action for so long people tend to forget just how amazing it is. Pretty much anyone can edit pretty much any part of it at any time. It's remarkable that the idea works in the first place.
That has nothing to do with Wikipedia and everything to do with human nature. I was mistaken about this at one point, but SJ clued reminded me of one of the lines Jimbo used to repeat a lot "People are basically good". This why you can park your car on a public street day in and day out and not come out and find it keyed or vandalized every single day.
So basically we've managed to do about as well as human nature would cause us to do as a default. ... and now we sit in awe of our success, and I think thats pretty broken.