[Foundation-l] Our values

[Ray Saintonge]

Florence Devouard wrote:
> It seems to me that "wikilove" is something most of us would like to see 
> as one of our value (a mix of respect for others, what they do, what 
> they believe in, and a desire to listen to them rather than just 
> straight telling them they are jerks if they believe in blablabla...). 
> It is a desire of empathy for others. For some of us, it is because it 
> is the type of environment they prefer. For others, very practically, 
> because it is *good* for the project to have a great diversity of 
> approaches and skills, and we can not have this diversity if there is 
> not a minimum of tolerance and trust.
>
> This said, we can not make wikilove a rule, a policy, but certainly a 
> guideline in how we expect editors to behave one with each other.
>   
Maybe this is what distinguishes a value from a rule or policy. 

We can envision a collaborative environment where empathy and mutual 
respect have clear constructive benefits, but those of us with that 
vision are still a minority.  The competitive model that favors the 
superior performance of one person to the exclusion of all others is not 
about to die easily. It has too long been a part of fundamental social 
structures, including educational systems.
> On some websites, the people are not expected to behave nicely with each 
> others. In some TV shows, you are even expected to be nasty and vicious 
> with the other people on the stage. 
Things haven't changed much from the time when people were put into the 
Roman Colosseum to fight with lions.
> I would hope that the majority of us 
> would prefer respect and tolerance at a minimum. Limits of tolerance are 
> very quickly reached when a very racist person, or a pedophile, or a 
> extrem-right wing person is editing. But still, we do not ban them on 
> the spot, right ?
>   
These extreme views may be the loudest, but they are not the most 
important.  They are blatantly obvious, and thus the most easily monitored.
> Wikilove can only be a guidelines, a hope.
>
> That does not mean that this guidelines is always respected. Yes, there 
> are edit wars, yes, there are personal attacks, yes, there is 
> cyberstalking etc... and yes the english wikipedia is not always very 
> friendly. But is this really the type of working environment we are 
> looking for ?
It's a work in progress with much to be done.

Ec