[Foundation-l] Criticism of employees (was VPAT)

[Christine Moellenberndt]

I am loathe to dive in here, since it was my post that kind of 
kick-started this whole thing and I certainly don't want to draw any 
more fire to be honest.  But I also feel loathe to stay away, partially 
for that same reason, but also because of a few other things I've been 
thinking about not just this afternoon and evening, but in general.

I feel like part of the problem here is that there's an expectation of 
perfection right out of the box for everyone.  One of the biggest 
complaints I've been hearing as we start figuring out why it is so many 
new editors don't come back to the project is, "I created and article 
and it was deleted a few hours/minutes later, before anyone even had a 
chance to expand it and make it better." It's often decided it's "not 
good enough," even though it wasn't given a chance to be "good enough." 
Other members (both editors and staff) are forever marked by one small 
mistake, either one that happened years ago when one was new and didn't 
know the rules or one small one that in the grand scheme of things 
wasn't really *that* important probably.  That blackmark, small as it 
may be, sticks around forever, dogging you every time you try and do 
something new.  Which is terribly frustrating.

We're all human. None of us are perfect by any means. I say that doubly, 
triply, quadruply about myself.  There's a saying I heard somewhere 
today that "Wikipedians are born, not made." I'm not sure I agree with 
that.  Wikipedian tendencies may be born, but Wikipedians are made 
slowly, over the course of thousands of edits, and hours of reading 
policies, procedures, guidelines, essays, and talk pages.  No one joins 
a project knowing all of the rules and regulations.  That takes time.  
And yes, they'll make mistakes along the way.  That's part of learning.  
Also part of learning is on the part of the other people around the 
learner, assuming good faith that the person making the mistakes isn't 
out to do harm, and is... just learning.

And even those who have passed through learning sometimes make mistakes. 
As my goddaughter says, "poo-poo happens." You're rushing to finish 
something, you forget what you're doing, you have a brain fart, any 
number of reasons cause that to happen.  Or, you just made a simple 
misjudgment.  That happens too because... well, we're human not robots 
(right? :)).  We're going to make mistakes.  It's what makes us human 
and makes our lives more interesting.  If we were all perfect... man 
Wikipedia would be boring!  That mistake doesn't mean the person is 
totally wrong, or bad, or out to get anyone.  It just means they made a 
mistake.

And when people make mistakes, it's fine to point them out. It's 
wonderful! It's how people learn, it's how they grow, and it keeps us 
humble.  But there are ways to deliver that criticism that work better 
than others.  That phrase "you attract more flies with honey than with 
vinegar" isn't just an old saying, it's pretty true.  I've always 
figured that's what AGF was meant to address.  A "hey, did you mean to 
do that?" or a "Hrm, why did this happen?" is probably better than 
insult hurling or questioning competence.  The latter does nothing but 
cause the other person to get defensive and learn nothing, and then 
leads to this giant brawl where everyone gets hurt.  The former can lead 
to good, productive discussions that help everyone learn something.  
Even phrasing can go a long way to saying things in a way that can be 
taken as a net positive instead of a negative.

Okay, this got long, and probably overly-preachy. Sorry, gang.  To sum 
the rest up: There are more folks reading this list than you see, every 
mailing list has a ton of lurkers (i've been on my fair share of them 
and then some; sometimes active, sometimes lurking).  Just because 
someone doesn't speak doesn't mean they're not there.  One thing I've 
learned through my time training in my discipline is that you can often 
learn more from the silences than you do from the voices speaking.  My 
hope is that through all of this we can perhaps bring down the rhetoric 
a little and tempt the silences to speak to us a little more.  They have 
valuable insights, too.

-Christine
(gets a little poetic when it gets late. sorry guys :))
(and by the way, this is just little me with a cat on her lap talking, 
not WMF employee talking)

---------

Christine Moellenberndt
Community Associate
Wikimedia Foundation

christine at wikimedia.org


On 2/16/11 10:43 PM, Jon Davis wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 21:00, MZMcBride<z at mzmcbride.com>  wrote:
>
>> Most Wikimedia employees don't post or subscribe to this list already,
>>
>>
> You might be surprised at the number that do subscribe.  Not that I've got
> an official count  (since people use their personal accounts, such as
> myself), but a majority of the staff _are_ subscribed to foundation-l.  In
> fact, during tech "orientation" (A process I'm still working on), I
> recommend to everyone that they sign up for Foundation-l.
>
>
>> Wikimedia employees are required to be subscribed to staff-l, but they're
>> not required
>> to be subscribed to this list (or any other Wikimedia mailing lists, in
>> general). Mailing lists are a goofy and foreign concept to most people,
>
> I do subscribe every staff member to our staff-l mailing list.  This is for
> everyones benefit, it's how the staff communicates vital (and sometimes fun)
> information to everyone else.  Additionally, for those who never previously
> have used mailing lists, it gets them familiar with the concept.  I can't
> think of one current staff who has _never_ posted to the list at least once.
>
>
>>   Personally, I think it's rather strange that
>> people working for an organization don't pay more attention to this list
>> and
>> the Wikimedia Foundation wiki, but that's their choice to make.
>>
>>
> I've been a community member a lot longer than I've been staff, even still,
> I only skim foundation-l about half the time. In my thinking, to really get
> properly involved with a thread (rather than throwing out random comments
> which might only be tangentially related) it can take a lot reading,
> investigating and writing. My salary comes from donations, and I don't want
> to spend that paid time on something that isn't necessarily my job (When
> Google Apps came up, I responded), some could see that as wasteful.   Now if
> the entire community feels that every staff member should read and respond
> to foundation-l, well then that would be a different story all together.
>
> I'm not trying to say anyone is right or wrong, or suggest what we do...
> just a few bits from someone who's spent time on both sides of the fence.
>
> -Jon
>
> PS.  I'm writing this on my own time.
>