http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines The Wikipedia policy and guidelines pages says that one way that policies are decided, are by Jimbo himself.
Does Jimbo have to physically update the policy page himself for his word to become law, or do his mailing list comments on policy clarification carry equal weight, or does the community have to decide on his comments and have a consensus?
Regards, Ian Tresman
On 4/14/06, Ian Tresman it@knowledge.co.uk wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines The Wikipedia policy and guidelines pages says that one way that policies are decided, are by Jimbo himself.
Does Jimbo have to physically update the policy page himself for his word to become law, or do his mailing list comments on policy clarification carry equal weight, or does the community have to decide on his comments and have a consensus?
When Jimbo makes a public statement which is clearly a statement of policy, it is policy. The question of if it must be put on the policy pages is somewhat moot, because someone should just go ahead and do so as whenever he makes such a comment.
This isn't as odd as it might sound. The policy pages on the Wiki are constantly evolving, and it can be difficult for someone who isn't busy traveling around the world promoting Wikipedia to track where the appropriate place is... much more difficult for someone who is.
Here is an example of Jimbo setting policy without, as far as I'm aware, updating the policy pages: http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2005-May/023760.html ...
In may times, Jimbo's raw decision alone doesn't make for great policy language... so thats another factor why we should not expect him to always update the policy directly. It's fine for users to enhance the policy beyond his statements, so long as they remain true to his intentions... the standard practice of distributing editing and Jimbo's own ability to execute oversight should ensure that is the case.
Also I feel someone should note that in many cases Jimbo states a personal opinion, but does not seem to want it to be considered policy, for example when he voted for the deletion of [[GNAA]] -- that doesn't mean the article will automatically deleted because of his vote, obviously.
Usually though it is quite clear when he is making policy, and when he is expressing an opinion but doesn't want it to be made policy Because He Said So.
Mark
On 14/04/06, Gregory Maxwell gmaxwell@gmail.com wrote:
On 4/14/06, Ian Tresman it@knowledge.co.uk wrote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines The Wikipedia policy and guidelines pages says that one way that policies are decided, are by Jimbo himself.
Does Jimbo have to physically update the policy page himself for his word to become law, or do his mailing list comments on policy clarification carry equal weight, or does the community have to decide on his comments and have a consensus?
When Jimbo makes a public statement which is clearly a statement of policy, it is policy. The question of if it must be put on the policy pages is somewhat moot, because someone should just go ahead and do so as whenever he makes such a comment.
This isn't as odd as it might sound. The policy pages on the Wiki are constantly evolving, and it can be difficult for someone who isn't busy traveling around the world promoting Wikipedia to track where the appropriate place is... much more difficult for someone who is.
Here is an example of Jimbo setting policy without, as far as I'm aware, updating the policy pages: http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2005-May/023760.html ...
In may times, Jimbo's raw decision alone doesn't make for great policy language... so thats another factor why we should not expect him to always update the policy directly. It's fine for users to enhance the policy beyond his statements, so long as they remain true to his intentions... the standard practice of distributing editing and Jimbo's own ability to execute oversight should ensure that is the case. _______________________________________________ Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
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