Ronald Chmara wrote:
Seriously though, 5,50, or even 500 people may create
a publicly
unknown mailing list, IRC channel, whatever, but in the end, they lack
the ability to effectively have more "control" over wikipedia, as a
group, than 5,50,or 500 independent people who have *no* participation
in private mailing lists, or chats, or whatever. In order for a group
to gain that level of control, they would have to have a consensus of
the community, in which case, where they discuss things, and how they
discuss things, is irrelevant.
Precisely. You cannot forbid people to form mailing lists and such. I
think that it's necessary that there should sometimes exist some mailing
lists that are private, because of the sensitive data that is being
conveyed. At the Serbian Wikipedia, from time to time, we use e-mails
with CCs to different people for some really private discussions and I
think that's clever, because sometimes, public discussions are not
welcome for some topics. Bottom line - no one can restrict it and god
knows how many private mailing lists there are and we can't do anything
about it. The consensus in the community will determine the outcome no
matter how many people were subscribed to those lists.
Filip