Can anyone think how to rephrase this better? Would it actually get through to anyone who needs to hear it? (I eagerly await all the people saying I should read what I wrote.) ==== Cultural expectations These are the things we do that aren't actually codified. The feel of the project. The social structure. This stuff is process too, but if you contradict it you'll really upset people. Breaking a rule is just breaking a rule; but breaking a cultural expectation is breaking people's basic assumptions about the fabric of this small world of ours. And upset volunteers fade away. If you think you're keeping to the fundamental rules and the sensible processes but repeatedly upset people in the same way, your approach is ineffective. If you are in fact right, and cultural expectations are getting in the way of writing the encyclopedia, you've got a hard job ahead of you changing them. But that's the trouble with vision. ==== - d. _______________________________________________ Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l(a)Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l

Can anyone think how to rephrase this better? Would it actually get through to anyone who needs to hear it? (I eagerly await all the people saying I should read what I wrote.) ==== Cultural expectations These are the things we do that aren't actually codified. The feel of the project. The social structure. This stuff is process too, but if you contradict it you'll really upset people. Breaking a rule is just breaking a rule; but breaking a cultural expectation is breaking people's basic assumptions about the fabric of this small world of ours. And upset volunteers fade away. If you think you're keeping to the fundamental rules and the sensible processes but repeatedly upset people in the same way, your approach is ineffective. If you are in fact right, and cultural expectations are getting in the way of writing the encyclopedia, you've got a hard job ahead of you changing them. But that's the trouble with vision.