Jimmy Wales wrote:
Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
Given the number of people who don't understand or don't care that what happens on Wikipedia can have real-world implications, a suitable degree of "HERE BE DRAGONS" /is/ needed.
So I agree with you about that... to a degree.
The problem is that far too often, when something is tagged WP:OFFICE it just sits there, for months, with everyone scared to do anything. This is the opposite of what is intended.
That's what I am unclear on (and I imagine some others are too). My original understanding of WP:OFFICE was that it was a quick-fix lockdown: while the Foundation is trying to sort out an imminent problem, the page gets stubbed or blanked and has a WP:OFFICE banner on it, giving the Foundation a bit of temporary breathing room to do the sorting out.
But it seems that's not what it's *actually* being used for, since the banner sometimes stays for months and there doesn't seem to be any of that "sorting out" activity going on in the meantime. So what is actually intended? That the article be rewritten cautiously from scratch? How long does the WP:OFFICE banner (and protection) stay on in that case? Basically I'm unsure what, as a normal editor, I should do with regards to such pages. My original understanding was that I should just leave the page alone for a few days, pending someone figuring out the situation and re-opening editing from a new starting point. But maybe that's not the process?
-Mark