[WikiEN-l] A concept from Buckminster Fuller

[Larry Sanger]

On Fri, 22 Nov 2002, Jimmy Wales wrote:

> (I confess: I don't understand what should go to wikien-l and what
> should go to wikipedia-l.)

General Wikipedia discussion goes in Wikipedia-l, English-specific
Wikipedia discussion goes in WikiEN-l.

Never mind that there already exists intlwiki-l for general Wikipedia
discussions; basically, the non-English speaking crowd wants to muscle in
on the main Wikipedia discussion, and push aside the English-specific
Wikipedia discussion into a new list.  I don't have any objections,
really.  I think it would have been better to RENAME Wikipedia-l WikiEN-l
and leave the international discussion on intlwiki-l.

> When a wasp is in the house, most people try to shoo it out a window
> with a newspaper.  They open a window wide, and then take a newspaper
> or magazine and launch repeated attacks on the wasp to try to convince
> it to fly out the window.  This is a frustrating and usually
> impossible procedure.  It is contrary to the nature of the wasp.  It's
> exhausting and usually ends in the death of the wasp.  I would imagine
> that some people get stung in the process.
>
> Buckminster Fuller found a better way, a way that works with virtual
> certainty, with comparatively little effort.  Here's what to do: close
> the curtains and/or shades and/or blinds on all the windows except the
> open window.  Turn off the light in the room.  Make the room as dark
> as possible, except for the window where you wish the wasp to go.  The
> wasp will fly out quickly and voluntarily.
>
> There are lessons to be learned here.  In the design of proper traffic
> systems, it's important to not fight against human nature.  Rather
> than expecting and hoping people to behave properly at huge
> intersections, it's safer to build overpasses and ramps.
>
> In dealing with problem members, we should ask ourselves: are we
> shooing a wasp?  Is there a better way?

The upshot of this post is that the wise way (wise ways are made to seem
so with parables and the like ;-) ) is not to kick members out, and that
there is a better way.  (If your final question was not rhetorical, then
what was the point of the post?)  This means that what we just got done
reaffirming, that we should sometimes kick problem members out, is not
the wise way.

But goddammit Jimbo, yes it most certainly is.  Sometimes you gotta use a
nice big flyswatter and crush the wasp before it causes any further
ruckus.  We know this already, from experience.
-- 
"We have now sunk to a depth at which the re-statement of the obvious is
the first duty of intelligent men." --George Orwell