phoebe ayers wrote:
I think the most helpful thing would be to not attempt to start wars, and particularly not on behalf of anyone or against individuals. We are all on the same side here: trying to make the projects (and the project interfaces, as a part of that) better. That includes, for instance, trying out a new way of viewing photographs.
I assume of course and as always that you send your message from a place of also wanting the projects to be better and more usable. But it is hard to see how anything you suggest above gets us there.
A few weeks ago, Erik reverted on the English Wikipedia and created a storm of drama in the process. Within the past few days, Erik hastily pushed through a new protection level on the German Wikipedia, without any consensus and as a means of inhibiting implementation of consensus. Due to the haste and the fundamental flaw of trying to restrict the admin group, Erik then had to double-down on trying to impose this feature on the German Wikipedia by having the core MediaWiki software altered and hastily deployed. He then re-reverted on the German Wikipedia.
If this issue related to online harassment or child protection or biographies of living people or the ability of users to edit or something else that matters, it might make sense for Erik to step in. But I'd be curious to read whether you think Erik's behavior has been acceptable, appropriate, or proportionate here.
It's easy, if not a bit trite, to call for peace and love on all sides and claim that we're all in this together. But when I look at Erik forcing supplementary software on a community that has clearly stated that it's not interested, wasting developer, system administrator, and translator resources in the process, I'm inclined to think that Erik is not looking to make the projects better. Erik is actively and perhaps permanently damaging the relationship between the Wikimedia Foundation and the German Wikipedia (and other wikis as well). Unelected Erik has a shiny new toy and everyone will experience it, or else.
Copied from Meta-Wiki:
--- Erik has decided to take a "might makes right" approach and I'm concerned to see responsible and clueful users like yourself endorsing his actions here. What do Erik's unilateral actions on the English and German Wikipedias say about him? What does it say about the features he's forcing on users? Users should want new features. Erik shouldn't be coercing employees to try to ensure that new features are active everywhere. ---
MZMcBride