On Sun, Aug 10, 2014 at 10:12 PM, MZMcBride z@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.