[WikiEN-l] Phone calls

[The Cunctator]

On 3/13/06, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
> On 3/13/06, Steve Bennett <stevage at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 3/13/06, The Cunctator <cunctator at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Furthermore this could all get wildly out of control if calling the
> > > Foundation to report errors in Wikipedia becomes an official route of
> > > action. So far as I can tell, though I've heard different versions
> > > from non-Foundation members, it's not an official route.
> > >
> > > And if it's not, it probably shouldn't happen.
> >
> > I don't see how allowing people to report errors by telephone causes
> > problems to anyone other than the person answering the phone: Danny.
> > When there are too many problems reported, I'm sure he'll come up with
> > a solution. His posts here seem to indicate a reasonable level of
> > cluefulness :)
> >
> > Steve
>
> Just allowing people to report errors isn't a problem.  The problems
> are acting on those reports without first verifying the true facts,
> and removing entire articles simply because some of the facts in that
> article are inaccurate.  Then of course there's the problem of
> protecting articles, though that one's probably arguable (now that
> semi-protection exists I can't personally think of a scenario where
> full protection is *ever* a good idea).
>
The argument is that since any form of protection is an unwanted
state, it's in certain senses better when it bothers more people -- it
motivates people to fix the underlying problems.

For a tortured analogy, I'd think of how cities deal with homelessness
-- some "solve" it by just making sure that the homeless aren't
allowed to be where "good" people go; whereas others try to confront
the causes of the problem.

Another thing to consider is that the vast majority of people who come
to Wikipedia are *not* registered users, so semi-protection hurts them
instead of the comparative few who are already inside the gates and
can ignore the lock.

Similarly, admins don't notice the minor annoyances of say, not being
able to remove a protection of an article that was accidentally left
on for too long. Because they can just do it.

If this doesn't make sense I can try to do a better job of explaining.