[WikiEN-l] Community Sanction

[charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com]

"George Herbert" wrote

> On 11/27/06, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> 
> > The profile of Wikipedia is now such that we have a significant number
> > of aggressively tendentious editors.  These go well beyond the
> > occasional "characters" like SPUI and cause massive wasted time and
> > effort.

> Having them is just an indicator of the scope of Wikipedia; if you look back
> at all the prior Internet interactive projects of note, they have all
> attracted malcontents of various sorts over time.  Success attracts them.
> 
> The question is what is done about it.  The best solution I saw was benign
> dictatorships where someone in power just booted troublemakers, and was
> trusted by the rest to not boot good guys, and where social pressure
> functioned and kept good guys having really bad days from becoming
> troublemakers requiring the boot.

>From where I sit, the issue is not about having some different kind of constitution. It's about whether you have the 'police' or the 'judiciary' on top.

It is clear that people in the past have wanted judicial solutions. Problem users get their day (month) in court. 

The current system of Arbitration doesn't go looking for 'aggressively tendentious editors'. It waits for cases to be brought. We hear quite a lot currently about possible vigilantism, by those without the time or the patience or the faith in the system of Arbitration to bring the cases it would need. 

I actually doubt we have proportionately more of the really disruptive editors than in the past. That doesn't mean that there aren't the annoying characters. Some of the most tiresome definitely have been removed or have left or have been domesticated in 2006. 

I think people should not be facile about this. Putting a problem editor out of circulation is worth the trouble of submitting evidence in a case. That's basic civics: be public spirited enough to go through the process.

Charles

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