[Foundation-l] retire the administrator privilege

[Yaroslav M. Blanter]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:57:37 -0800, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net>
wrote:
> There are huge flaws in the decision making process. The process of 
> proposal, considered favorable response, overwhelming negative vote is 
> common.  It repeats itself, and that too becomes a part of the problem. 

> There are always enough individuals to feel that their immediate rights 
> or prospective rights are threatened to come out and give a sufficient 
> vote to kill any reform proposal.  Those of us who would want a more 
> liberal and more flexible policy framework have become jaded. We see the

> pattern repeat itself, and can no longer be bothered when it comes up 
> again ... if we haven't left Wikipedia altogether.  We don't want to 
> wade through the entire Encyclopedia of Witlessness before showing our 
> support for a good reform proposal.  A single paragraph of explanation 
> should be enough.  But even more, when we have heard the arguments so 
> often, and have seen so many votes, we have no way of knowing that an 
> important vote is happening.  The reformers need to make a better effort

> of canvassing their support.
> 
> Ray

Actually, my experience, based on solely Russian Wikipedia, says that
making new policies becomes progressively different. Recently I tried to
summarize a discussion which aimed at removing the inconsistency of two
long-standing policies. I spent a lot of time trying to reconcile the
parties, but failed, and in the end had to state that there have been no
consensus reached to alter any of the policies, and the inconsistency will
stay as it was. (My summary has been disputed bu one of the users, but this
is a different story). Indeed, I feel that better and better explanations
are needed to get even the policies which have been long-needed to get
seriously discussed. And I do not think this is a matter of canvassing (in
Russian Wikipedia, we do not vote, we count and weight arguments, so that
the number of meatpuppets is irrelevant), it is just in my opinion the
community has grown beyond some critical point.

Cheers
Yaroslav