[Commons-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] Friendliness

[Stan Shebs]

On 2/23/11 9:22 AM, Daniel Schwen wrote:
> For crying out loud, do we really need to sugar coat every
> informational bot message?

Yes, we do - because the bots are so very often mistaken, and because 
what is normal in some cultures is unspeakably rude in others.  I 
personally find the overall level of politeness just barely tolerable.

Would it be that hard to keep track of users' contribution levels, and 
gradually prune down bot messages accordingly?  It's vaguely insulting 
when some noob's first bot gives me a long lecture about Commons policy, 
apparently unaware that I had a hand in formulating it in the first place!

Another possibility is to send new contributors' bot messages to a 
welcoming commmittee volunteer, let them decide whether to forward 
verbatim, or take a more constructive approach ("no you didn't forget to 
license, you typed "GDFL" instead of "GFDL").

Stan