[Foundation-l] Why is it...

[Andre Engels]

2007/4/26, Delphine Ménard <notafishz at gmail.com>:
> ... that every time community input is asked on a subject by a board
> member, little to none is given?
>
> And why is it that every time the same things that were put up for
> discussion are said "approved' or "official" suddenly everyone finds
> something to say?

Well, I'm not sure, I remember too few cases of either happening
(being asked for input or getting something approved) to make a
judgement, but I think it might have to do with the difference between
'vague' and 'concrete'.

If there is a request, it's usually quite vague (what should we do
about this?). When there is something approved, it's well-defined and
clear. And it's much easier to say what's good and bad about a
specific solution than to make good input on what a solution should
look like without any further specification.

In other words, people often have no idea what the solution should be,
not rarely don't even have a clear view of what the question is that
an answer is asked on, but when a given solution is proposed, it is
quite easy to see what one does and does not like in it, and how (in a
certain person's idea) it can be improved.

To get a hypothetical example:
"We want to streamline the decision procedures for sysops on the
various projects. Does anyone have a good idea how to do so?" will not
get you much input, useful or otherwise. But "From now on each project
should use this-and-this procedure to select sysops that we have
devised" will get very much reaction from people who either don't like
the idea of a single procedure at all or have problems with the
proposed procedure.

-- 
Andre Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
ICQ: 6260644  --  Skype: a_engels