Anthere-
Thank god I was there to avoid decisions being taken
hastily for other
people, without asking them their opinion :-)
The software is changed constantly without asking people from all
Wikipedias for their permission first. The MediaWiki namespace suddenly
appeared out of nowhere, some people probably don't like it, others love
it. Soon there will be image auto-resizing support. And so forth.
Compare the software development process to editing an article on
Wikipedia. When I want to make a big change to a controversial article, I
announce it on the talk page first. When I want to make a minor change, an
addition or a clear improvement, I just do it. If it turns out to be a bad
idea, it can always be reverted.
We should do the same with features: use common sense. And I think that
allowing sysops to ban signed in users for vandalism only is a minor
change that could have just gone through without discussion, provided
there would have been an announcement "Only do this for XY" to the mailing
lists.
I suspect it is potentially more risky on wikipedias
where there are few
editors, and only one sysop though.
I think there are enough places to run to in case something goes wrong.
It's tougher if you don't speak English.
But in any cases, I support dissolution of the
international mailing list.
Brion, are you following this?
That is why I mentionned the &bot=1.
It's an interesting concept. I hope you don't miss any edits. Note,
however, that in order to mark a user as a bot, you need developer
permissions -- again a dependency on Brion & Co.
It is even more frustrating for a vandal I guess, to
see that his vandal
contribution entirely disappear.
Indeed.
> A wiki-based digest service would surely be
helpful. If you want to write
> summaries of the mailing list for the wikis, you have my full support.
> Failing that, the mailing list is the place where policy decisions like
> that are made.
I think that my suggestion to do as you did the other
time (which was to
add a message to all village pumps, even in english, with a link to the
announcement) was more positive than this comment.
I disagree. I think a mailing list digest service, either on Meta or on a
newly created page on each Wikipedia, would be more useful than a "clog
the pumps" function, which, I fear, could be easily abused for spamming.
(Also, it would probably lead to discussions taking place on the pumps,
instead of on the mailing list.) Generally, every non-English Wikipedia
should have at least one ambassador who takes care of summarizing relevant
discussions in their native tongue. I'm sure if we organize a call for
volunteers we find enough people.
Regards,
Erik