On Sun, Aug 10, 2014 at 10:12 PM, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:
* Disabling editing and/or reading of the German Wikipedia, using a
variety of tools. Erik's declaration of war makes this option viable, but
it should likely be used only as a measure of last resort. If Erik is
truly hell-bent on damaging or destroying the wiki model, perhaps the wiki
should simply cease to be. Using the title blacklist, the AbuseFilter
extension, site-wide JavaScript and CSS, and other techniques, it's
possible to fully disable reading and/or editing of the German Wikipedia
until an amicable solution can be found.
My view is that this is a tempest in a teacup. Take a step back and look at
the stakes here - the implementation, or not, of a relatively minor change
in how images are viewed on a few websites. There is no need to use terms
like "declaration of war" in these circumstances.
There's a disturbing lack of reflection on the broader trends here; the
change aversion of the tech community, the desire of some to wrest control
from the WMF and to increase tension between communities and the WMF, and
the WMF's consistently disorganized approach to deployment and failure to
properly anticipate potential problems.
Instead of escalating individual incidents to the Wikimedia equivalent of
thermonuclear war (hijacking accounts and shutting down projects, which
will inevitably lead to the global permanent blocking of the offending
users and perhaps even referrals for criminal prosecution), let's focus on
process changes that can be made to reduce tension and conflict and address
the recent trends in development and deployment. A development steering
committee sounds like a good start.