On 1/22/06, Tim Starling t.starling@physics.unimelb.edu.au wrote:
Jay Converse wrote:
I disagree with this assessment entirely. I highly doubt the community would support secret decision making. A consensus would be immensely
hard
to reach simply because you and 15 people go "Well we discussed this and
we
have our reasons". I highly doubt the community would stand for that at all.
Here is the channel topic as it was for about 10 hours before I started writing my post:
"English Wikipedia Administrators' noticeboard, on IRC. Discussions are private and sometimes privileged. Do not repost without permission. If decisions are made as the result of discussions, the reasoning should be provided on-wiki."
Clearly they do intend to make decisions. Decisions are an unavoidable outcome of on-topic discussion. We've seen decisions made on #wikipedia and introduced on to the wiki in this way, but I don't mind that because IRC conversation is faster and more productive than wiki-based chat, and the forum is non-exclusive.
"If decisions are made as the result of discussions, the reasoning should be provided on-wiki." My point was not that decisions will not be made in there. My point is that without support from those who are not there and actively participating in the discussion, an arbitrary decision-making like that will go nowhere. One chat session does not a consensus make.
I see the channel as a way to quickly get help for administrative duties
that non-admins can't provide help on. As a relatively new admin, I run into new problems that I can't figure out myself on a semi-frequent
basis.
It'd be nice to have the availability of a dedicated admin group to
respond
in a much more immediate way than talk pages. I personally happen to
prefer
IRC correspondence to talk page correspondence for quick issues.
Try #wikipedia.
-- Tim Starling
I've given up on #wikipedia. There's either off-topic chat or some heated policy discussion going on, but every time I try to ask a question, out of all 150+ people in there, I don't get a reply. Maybe you have a different experience, but I never seem to be listened to in there, and in fact, that channel was a significant reason behind my wikibreak last year. Nothing like getting ignored to shoot your self-esteem in the face.
-- I'm not stupid, just selectively ignorant.