[Foundation-l] Re : Where we are headed

[Ray Saintonge]

Kelly Martin wrote:

>On 6/4/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Could communications be improved?  Yes, of course, but this is something
>>we have all known for a long time.  I believe that the core problem is
>>not a lack of information flow, but excessive flow of raw information
>>which makes it hard for anyone to keep up with it all.
>>    
>>
>Yes, this is exactly the problem.  For someone like me, for whom
>Wikimedia is an avocation and not a vocation, there simply isn't
>enough time to read all of the huge morass of information that is out
>there -- spread out over a dozen mailing lists and a dozen wikis, not
>to mention other sources -- required to form a fully informed opinion.
> This definitely hampers my overall participation.
>
It's easy to agree on that problem, and at the same time it's only a 
very small segment of the community that is generating it all.  Getting 
literally everybody's opinion would be totally unmanageable. 

We each do best within a limited set of parameters, editing articles 
about the topics which most interest us.  A person who sticks to that is 
probably happy and has little use for long policy debates or reviewing 
technical "improvements".  If he does not participate in such 
discussions he is presumed to have consented.  If he complains when the 
policy or template is imposed he is told that he had an opportunity to 
discuss the matter at an earlier time.

Whatever happened to writing in plain English?  (or French, or German, 
or whatever language?)  The number of policies and templates could 
easily be cut in half, and very few of us would be missing anything.  
It's easy to concede that fewer of these would diminish the 
"professional" appearance of the site, but how many of us are paid 
professionals?  What's more important, the content or the window dressing?

Maybe the policies mean something.  I don't know.  I haven't got time to 
read them all, let alone absorb their meaning.  If someone comes to the 
mailing list complaining about being blocked, I've gotten to the point 
where I delete the whole thread.  His claim of admin abuse may be valid, 
but I don't give a damn. 

At one time Mav imposed upon himself the rule that each of his mailing 
list contributions needed to be offset by a real contribution to a real 
article.  That wasn't such a bad idea.

Ec