[Foundation-l] Adminship tools on Commons

[Ayelie (Editor at Large)]

On 4/14/07, Darko Bulatovic <mail at itam.ws> wrote:

> Ayelie,
>
> The GUI messages can't be edited on project online (at least I am
> unaware of that - it could be big flaw in system ), only trough php
> file, Titoxd has posted link to SVN repository of current files. He need
> to modify that file to make translation without  sysop privilege.
>
> Personally fact that he didn't do any translations, dose not mean he
> will not . Everybody need to start some ware, and those files are there
> for reason so everybody can participate in translation of thing they
> like not someone like. You should show more friendly approach, and not
> to sound that dictative - as I am sure that is not your intention.
>
> As I sad I understand that you don't wish to give sysop to anybody, but
> I think that you all lost to much energy on explaining that instead to
> look for solution that was there all time (and some  didn't know about
> it). And that all leaded to untrusty atmosphere, which is not good. You
> look to birocracy like it will solve all problems, but it will not. I
> think that you all lost focus in this.
> I so also that someone has talked about "earning trust". I think that it
> is not good to put people in negative position at start, specially that
> this is Internet and this form of communication leave lot of space for
> miss-understanding.
>
> Please don't judge harsh on me, I just tried to help
>
>
> Darko


Oh, no no, it wasn't just directed at you, Darko! No judging involved. I
admire your efforts to help resolve the situation and help  : )

I was just clearing up some things and summarising more lengthily the issues
at hand. I certainly didn't mean to sound dictative, but rather was as I
said outlining the issues at hand; this has been a rather long discussion
for us and the same issues seem to keep cropping up without being addressed
or understood by all. At first we did try to look for solutions and
suggested a few, but the issue of to admin or not to admin kept cropping up
and the solutions were more or less pushed to the wayside (or rejected
immediately and all together).

Yes, I took the time to explain, but that is 1) because I am not a
specialist in the wikimedia and tech side of things and so am more familiar
with our policies and process; and 2) because I have a fanatical and
arguably unnecessary urge to outline and summarise things when they get too
complicated or issues are mixed up/confused.

I don't believe I mentioned trust in my message, but that is something that
a user has as a whole, no matter where they come from. Obviously Yoni is
trusted on he.wikipedia and we have no reason on Commons to *not* trust him;
the issue is one of the work he has done on the Commons project and how he
has contributed there, as well as how he works with the community and his
understanding of our policies and guidelines. As adminship is not required
to translate what Yoni wants to translate, whether because some pages are
unprotected or because it can be done through talk pages, there is no reason
to give him admin privileges on Commons when he has not shown a need for
them beyond easier access to a few protected pages.

I don't think it is excessive bureaucracy; it is about the community's
decision on the candidacy of one person to be an administrator. We were not
negative at first, and explained, and voted based on Yoni's contributions
just as we do for every candidate - and Commons RfAs usually go quite
smoothly compared to en.wikipedia ones, for example. When issues were
brought up we made gentle suggestions and were patient.

Personally it is how long this has gone on for and the repeated bringing up
of things that have already been explained, as well as the refusal to accept
the consensus of the community, that has forced me to be more to-the-point
than I usually would be. I did not mean to offend anyone or sound harsh, and
please accept my most sincere apologies if it came across that way! I think
that Yoni would make a good administrator some day, as he is on he.wikipedia;
perhaps after working on translating some non-protected pages and getting
more involved in images and copyright (as that is what Commons is all
about). If we had partial adminship for one reason only perhaps he would
have been granted it, for editing protected pages. Unfortunately, though,
that is not the case and we must look at the entire package when deciding
who we will instate as an admin.

All the best,
Ayelie