Bryan Tong Minh wrote:
On 10/21/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Having tried editing anonymously for a few weeks myself, I can assure you our treatment of newcomers - even those that understand things from a technical perspective - leaves much to be desired.
This has become one of our biggest problems.
"Our" as in "The English Wikipedia's biggest problem" or the biggest problem for all our projects?
"Our" as in _all_ the projects. They are most evident in the English Wikipedia, but that may be a function of its size as much as anything. In a tiny project with a small number of editors a strong admin is easily respected and followed. No immediate action is needed on these small projects. The descent into disfunctionality that has been so obvious in the en-wikipedia is not a development that comes overnight, and it will not occur at the same rate on all projects. Sometimes people use standardisation as an excuse for their behaviour, and a newbie who has no background on the particular standard being imposed is in a difficult position when he seeks to challenge what he sees as wrong.
Ec