"What *was* at issue here is how we treat new users; the discussion was
approached (on the part of our editors) either as a battleground/fight, or
in a quite patronising way. The issue here was that someone was put off
from raising the issues."
The "expertise" that is most valued at Wikipedia is expertise in Wikipedia
itself - its policies, procedures, technology, etc - rather than expertise
in the content. That's a fundamental cultural flaw if the project is to
succeed.
In a sense; though, as one academic pointed out to me, writing
an encyclopaedia is a skill in itself. And just because one is a topic area
expert does not immediately make them the most capable of writing the
article (in some respects it makes them less capable than an interested
layman).
In reference to other comments here about the
treatment of new editors,
there has been a noticeable (to me at least) shift away from the role of
administrators and "senior editors" from helping newcomers overcome the
challenges to finding them a nuisance.
I don't think this is an issue of sysops or "senior editors" - it is
ingrained in the vast majority of the community.
For example we know it is common in newer/younger editors to "bite" or
otherwise apply policy too strongly - because with regularity we have to
deal with the fall out (i.e. mentor them).
I see the same issues with content editors as well; with resistance to
anyone trying to add content to articles they've invested in (I don't just
mean subject matter experts).
Realistically *we are all part of the problem*. You, me, etc. because the
problem is the entire ecosystem. Even stuff we think is polite and sensible
might be incomprehensible to a newbie. Simple things like linking to, or
quoting, parts of policy instead of taking time to write a simple
explanation. The use of templates. The resistance to listen to arguments.
It all adds up into a confusing user experience.
This is not a new problem; many online communities suffer, and have
suffered, from it.
All of the things I mentioned are useful once your dealing with editors
aware of the workings - it's not "new and scary" at that point and acts as
a useful shortcut to streamline our interaction. The key thing to work on,
I think, is easing newbies into that process without bombarding them with
too much of it at once.
Tom