[Foundation-l] Would you consider being on the Board?

[Gregory Maxwell]

On 6/13/06, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> Sure, there are systematic problems with building something of high
> quality using a wiki.

It's not a fault of wiki

> But do you really think the board can do
> anything to fix them?  Moreover, do you think a different board would
> have fixed the problem you've pointed out by now?

The foundation can help, yes. For example, we could direct our paid
developers to create simple tools which help users review. Things like
the ill fated 'reviewed revision' which actually work.  If the
community is unwilling to do this work even when made as easy and
efficient as possible, which I expect, then we need to staff up for
it.

I don't fault the current board for not doing this yet. I was
specifically addressing the claim that the projects correctly manage
themselves. They don't.

I have no clue why you attempted that blame the board angle here,
because my post had nothing to do with that...

The foundation hasn't solved this yet, but things take time... and
perhaps the foundation is somewhat hand-tied right now with this
constant worry of having to work with the community for every little
thing or suffer the wrath of the perpetually annoyed windbags.

I could fault a lot of people for a lot of things, it's pretty easy to
assign blame.. but I wouldn't fault the board for Wikipedia quality
problems, at least not directly.  ... Faulting them for assigning too
much importance to a community which has demonstrated a pervasive
unwillingness to behave responsibly? perhaps :)

> After seeing Wikipedia in action for so long people tend to forget
> just how amazing it is.  Pretty much anyone can edit pretty much any
> part of it at any time.  It's remarkable that the idea works in the
> first place.

That has nothing to do with Wikipedia and everything to do with human
nature. I was mistaken about this at one point, but SJ clued reminded
me of one of the lines Jimbo used to repeat a lot "People are
basically good". This why you can park your car on a public street day
in and day out and not come out and find it keyed or vandalized every
single day.

So basically we've managed to do about as well as human nature would
cause us to do as a default. ... and now we sit in awe of our success,
and I think thats pretty broken.