The Cunctator wrote:

The original purpose of Meta was to balkanize discussion about the project from the Wikipedia Recent Changes page. It was clear to me that would inevitably lead (with the alternative of the mailing list) to the decay and disuse of meta-discussion in the WikiWiki Way. And it has.

This can be repaired by unbalkanizing it and by unbalkanizing the mailing list. Users should be able to include both meta and the mailing list updates into the Recent Changes functionality.

That's not an idea I would like at all. I go to wikipedia when I want to write or edit articles, or do mindless updates like on the year or country articles. I go to the mailing list expecting policy discussion or explanation of motives, etc. I go to metapedia expecting hopelessly POV essays which typically don't merit response.

In my eyes, wikipedia is the workplace, the mailing list is the lounge, and metapedia is the storage closet. I don't think that's a bad thing. When I want to work, I don't always want to chitchat, and when I want to chitchat, I usually don't want to work.

kq