Ed Poor wrote:

I like:

• what Jeronimo said about etiquette
• what Jimbo said about giving others some slack
• what Lee said about requiring rational participation
• what Maveric said about not bending over backwards to retain anti-social people
• what Toby said about a voting mechanism

I didn't mention the voting; that was somebody else (a fairly new person whose name I've forgotten) that was replying to a post of mine.

I actually don't like all these suggestions for voting mechanisms (this and the others that come up from time to time). When a final decision must be made in the absence of consensus, then it's certainly best to put it to a democratic vote. But it's better to avoid making final decisions at all when possible.

But now that I'm commenting: I think that Jimmy is saying the wisest things here (not that nobody else is saying anything wise either).

Because:

• when I was new, people were courteous to me and gave me some slack
• when I was new, people insisted I be rational instead of anti-social
• I like holding elections! :-)

I'm afraid that Wikipedia will someday evolve into the sort of place where Ed would have gotten banned shortly upon arrival. We're nowhere near that point yet, thank goodness, but I see a trend in that direction. But maybe I'm just paranoid, we'll see.

-- Toby