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

[George Herbert]

On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 2:32 PM, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:

> George Herbert wrote:
> > That it will probably take that long is unfortunate, but large online
> > communities become very unwieldy in some ways.  Having realism about the
> > community dynamics is a necessary step in engaging in them as an agent of
> > change.
> >
>
> The model for this kind of community has not yet been written.
>

I have to disagree.  Wikipedia is clearly not exactly like previous large
online communities, but it has a lot in common with Usenet and other large
online projects and social groups of the past.  Failing to heed history and
see the analogies where they apply is folly...



> > Jimbo would have to make it a major in-community priority of his, or
> Arbcom
> > would have to make it a major in-community priority of theirs, to make it
> > faster.  I think Jimbo's too busy and Arbcom is too unwieldy in one sense
> > and focused on more specific problems.
> >
> >
> >
> We shouldn't be looking for a panacea.  When everyone expects a detailed
> examination of his petty problems by Arbcom he becomes a big part of the
> reasons for its disfunctionality.
>

Civility, or more properly abusive editors, is not a petty problem.  If I
had Jimbo's God-Emperor powers several existing WP users would be walked out
the door and invited to not come back, on the grounds that they are
persistently abusive and disruptive to other users.  Even being a long time
positive contributor cannot overcome the damage done to the community and
other editors in particular when one problem abusive user persists.  The
damage is both severe in the acute sense and insidious in the long term
community values sense.

This is a real problem.  Take it seriously.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com