OK, so this is my first attempt at using a mailing list. I figured I would probably give that up by misusing it somehow anyway, so I supposed I'd get that out in the open, at least.

Dmcdevit wrote:

Dejan Čabrilo wrote:

...

We think of off topic conversation as a good thing. There is nothing worse than getting into a silent channel, asking a question, and getting the answer half an hour later, when you lost all the interest

Yes, getting no answer while US politics or furry fandom drown out the question is worse than that. I think your concern is exaggerated.

As may or may not have yet been mentioned on the mailing list, the last couple of days has seen an influx of spammers in the newly opfree #wikipedia. I'm sure that over time, as more ops are promoted, this problem will subside, but for the moment, only intervention from outside the channel has been effective in curbing the flow, since the remaining ops in #wikipedia are rarely around to monitor the channel.

Since, until about three minutes ago, I had no idea of how to use a mailing list, I tried contacting Dmcdevit with my query via IRC, instead. It did not go as well as could be hoped:

[06:34] <vaguerant> I'd respond to this on the mailing list, but like a lot of people, I don't know a thing about mailing lists, so you know. [06:34] <vaguerant> "Yes, getting no answer while US politics or furry fandom drown out the [06:34] <vaguerant> question is worse than that. I think your concern is exaggerated." [06:35] <vaguerant> I'm curious as to where people spamming the channel unrelentingly for half an hour stands in your scale of badness. [06:35] <Dmcdevit> If you are going to start this again I'm just going to have to put you on ignore. [06:36] <vaguerant> Start what again? [06:36] <vaguerant> I've never even spoken to you about this. [06:37] <Dmcdevit> You might be surprised to know that I don't approve of spamming. And it's hard to see that as an innocent question. [06:37] <vaguerant> Of course, but what was worse? [06:37] <vaguerant> People talking about US politics, or people spamming? [06:41] <vaguerant> Not meaning to prod, but have you ignored me, or are you thinking?

I'm still unsure as to whether I was being ignored in the conventional sense or ignored in the IRC sense, but as of 7:15, I'm still yet to receive any further response. Regardless, I pose the same question here. Of US politics, furry fandom (which, in my three-some years of visiting #wikipedia, has rarely come up), and wholesale spamming and trolling of the channel for up to thirty minutes, which is the worst? Was the decision to clear #wikipedia's access list truly a wise one, given its indirect results? One might make an argument as to hindsight, but surely increased misbehavior should have been predicted when the prospect of removing the previous ops' privileges came up. Is this lack of thought expected to be typical of the new administration of #wikipedia?

~ Vague