[WikiEN-l] let's be honest then

[James Farrar]

On 01/04/07, doc <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> Matthew Brown wrote:
> > On 3/31/07, doc <doc.wikipedia at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> >> However, being realistic, our community is too large and impersonal for
> >> us to be in the business of reforming people - all we can do is change
> >> policies. But I get yelled at every time I suggest that.
> >
> > Because changing policies does no damn good.  Most undesirable things
> > are already prohibited.
> >
> So wikipedia is doomed to keep having its sordid downside? We're doomed
> to always be fighting a losing battle against libels and lies?

Yes.

> And there's nothing
> we can do about it? No way we can make the system even a little better?
> It isn't even worth the attempt?

Anything we do stops us doing something else; it's a zero-sum game.
Hence, given that it won't be possible to eliminate the problem
entirely, we have to determine whether the amount by which we can
reduce the problem is worth the effort that would be expended,
considering that the said effort then cannot be used to improve
Wikipedia in other ways.