[Foundation-l] FW: [Wikinews-l] Increased incivility at wikinews [en] <warning: contains rant>

[Marc Riddell]

> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 9:32 AM, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>> When will you people finally acknowledge that there is something terribly
>> wrong with the deteriorating level of discourse occurring in the Projects?
>> And this trend is certainly not confined to Wikinews. Take a good, objective
>> look at some of the dialogue occurring on the English Wikipedia. The
>> atmosphere is becoming angrier and more hostile by the day.

on 2/5/09 9:40 AM, Andrew Whitworth at wknight8111 at gmail.com wrote:
> 
> Not all projects. I'd like to take this opportunity to shamelessly
> plug Wikibooks, which is as close to utopia as we get here in wiki
> world. We don't fight, there's very little hostility, and a relatively
> small number of hardworking users are producing a pretty impressive
> group of free textbooks. </shameless plug>.

There should be no shame in pride of one's work, Andrew ;-). I do
congratulate you and your editors in maintaining a workspace that is both
open and civil.
> 
> Projects are self-administering. If you feel the projects are not
> functioning properly it is the fault of the project, not the fault of
> the foundation. Get your admins to block your trouble users, and if
> the admins themselves are causing trouble then petition to have them
> removed. Everybody wants the WMF "hand of god" to swing down from the
> sky and deliver relief to various community problems. It won't happen
> and it can't possibly work anyway. Change and solutions have to come
> from within, or they won't come at all.

I have been trying for over two years to bring this issue to the serious
attention of the "powers that be" in the English Wikipedia. My messages are
met either with a "there he goes again" attitude, or are not acknowledged at
all. Where does one go from there if not the Foundation itself?
> 
>> And, Erik, when I broached this subject in a private email conversation with
>> you, you never even acknowledged receipt of that email. What would you have
>> done if we were speaking to each other in person - stare at me in silence?
>> That, alone, speaks volumes.
> 
> And what response do you want from him? This isn't his problem to solve.

In a professional setting I would expect an acknowledgement that the email
was at least received.

Marc