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From: Jimmy Wales jwales@bomis.com Daniel Mayer wrote:

...

Anybody of good intentions can be a sysop if they want to be. I don't think we should label people as having a particular status and thus imply that this status is anything particularly special.

I agree.

The ability for any random person to show up and edit any page at any time, on an equal footing with oldtimers, is the most frightening and appalling way to run a website that I can imagine. It's the secret of our success.

I agree totally as well. There's going to continue to be a tendency on the part of a few people (and, by the way, I certainly wouldn't accuse Lee of having this tendency) to want to designate a Wikipedia elite and an underclass. Ultimately, this would undermine the process, and I hope we'll keep nipping it in the bud whenever we see it.

By *highlighting* differences, we would *create* the impression of a political elite, when in fact none really exists. This would politicize Wikipedia--something I hope we can unite in opposing. But Wikipedia is an encyclopedia project that thrives on freedom and the common understanding that everyone is on the same footing, as Jimbo says. To remove this freedom and this common understanding is to undermine the very thing that has made the project work so well this far.

Larry

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