On 25/06/18 07:46, MZMcBride wrote:
Wikimedia Foundation Inc. employees have blocked the
ability of new users
to report bugs or file feature requests or even read the issue tracker.
But yes, please focus on me calling Andre a troll for resetting the
priority of <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T197550>. My single comment
("andre__: Such a troll.") is clearly what contributes to an unwelcoming
environment for contributors, not blocking them from reading the site and
demanding that they be vetted first. Great work, all.
MZMcBride, a few years ago, a number of people were thoroughly fed up
with your behaviour in technical communication spaces, and there was
serious discussion of banning you. I spoke in your favour at that time
because, when I talked to you 1:1 about the issues, you seemed
contrite and willing to improve yourself.
Although I think you've improved since then, I don't think you've
improved so far that you can now glibly reject a recommendation from
the Code of Conduct committee.
If you ask me, yes it is better to temporarily block newcomers than
expose them to an environment where staff members are called "trolls".
You can unblock but you cannot unoffend. The damage caused by toxicity
is not reversible.
I know you're passionate, and we need passionate people, but you have
to express your views in a civil manner. There's no easy solution to
T197550. We need to welcome newcomers but we also need to prevent
vandalism. Phabricator doesn't offer as many tools for this as
MediaWiki. We're all aware that it's not ideal, and while you're
ranting about civility, smart people are trying to find better
compromises.
-- Tim Starling