[[User:Pakaran]] did us a great service by retracting his statements. Upon
reading his apology, I immediately retracted my opposition to his adminship
on the votes for de-adminship page. Real sincerity and reflection was
evident. In the end, Pakaran did us all a service by putting his foot in his
mouth.
This major concern, after all, isn't really Pakaran's unfortunate comments,
but an over-arching problem that the statement epitomized. This episode has
alerted us to the prospects of "tyranny of the majority," which seems to be
festering and intensifying from my observations. To say the least, it's a
quite a banal and elusive danger. It crops up when well-meaning admins
engage in such oppressive behavior without even realizing it. Perhaps
Pakaran's statement to RickK was a nonchalant Freudian slip. Given the group
hysteria that Lance/Hector/Richard's presence has generated, this might not
be a baseless conjecture.
Regarding Lance/Hector/Richard, the charges of "vandalism" and
"trolling" do
not explain the root of the problem. Instead, his bad behavior is a symptom.
Since his view of the world starkly diverges - to put it in an understated
way - from those of the vast majority of users with whom he's been
interacting, joining the Wiki community of users becomes an impossible game
to play.
The "red faction" isn't a vandalism problem, but an example of mutual
misperception and misjudgment breeding conflict and hostility. On a more
practical note, the persistence of the "red faction" in regenerating itself
over and over again (almost like Lir and his many incarnations) makes it
clear that banning this user, or attempting to chase himaway and make him
feel unwelcome, are crude, self-defeating solutions. Since the Wiki mailing
list is libertarian country, I'll say that it's like slapping on price
controls to curb inflation. Or perhaps putting a bandage on a leaking dam.
In other words, it's an unworkable straitjacket that will only confound the
problem.
For the problem to subside, Pakaran, RickK, Adam Carr, PMA, Very Verily, Tim
Startling, and Robert Merkel (the most virulent critics of our Red user)
need to treat him with respect (or at least a facade of respect for the sake
of cooperation), allowing Lance/Hector/Riohard to meet his critics at least
halfway.
BTW, I know that a few cynics would dismiss these comments, accusing me of a
leftist agenda. If these charges crop up, I refer to the October 2003
mailing list, where I was the most ardent critic of banning [[User:RK]].
Recently, I also remarked to [[User:G-Man]] that we desperately lack elderly
contributors (giving us Gen-X and Baby Boom biases). I also noted the need
to promote more non-Western admins a while ago.
- [[User:172|172]]
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