[Foundation-l] How to make unstoppable petty complaint afeature?

[Keegan Peterzell]

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 1:57 AM, Sue Gardner <susanpgardner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The trick is, I think, to create a healthy mix. Wikimedia needs experienced
> editors who have good judgment and can recognize patterns and coach and
> guide the inexperienced. It also needs a regular influx of new people who
> can bring fresh perspectives and new insights, and relieve experienced
> people of grunt work they're tired of doing.  Good newsrooms have a healthy
> mix of both, and we need that too.
> Thanks,
> Sue
>
>
For me, the issue is that I think we have an untapped healthy mix.   We have
continuity in new userbase that can't be quantified.  As I was saying
before, the human condition does not meet up with data.  While numbers have
dropped in participation and admin promotion on the English Wikipedia, it is
my feeling that several factors come into play, mainly bots and that there's
not much else to write about.

What I would like to see is the improvement of guiding new users.  I've been
a fixture in #wikipedia-en-help since I was a new user five years ago, and
I've jumped the hoops and watch others jump them.  I had a similar
conversation with someone this evening, Sue, and it is an interesting
mountain.

I suppose my point is that things sort themselves out with the wiki model,
but it does take interaction and integration.  Fancy models for article
creation or file uploading help, they do.  However, the flip side is when we
have consumers complaining because they followed the rules as outlined.  I
know that it is apparent to the volunteers on the English Wikipedia that
we've reached the self-evaluation point, it is a part of growing up.
 Hopefully, other projects can say "We already knew that" or "Oh, good
idea".  We'll see how that goes.
-- 
~Keegan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan