[WikiEN-l] When Websites Attack

[Marc Riddell]

> On 26 Aug 2007 at 12:55:36 -0600, Todd Allen <toddmallen at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> So, there's my criticism for the day. I think, to far too large of an
>> extent, things are trying to be done in ways that -once- worked, for a
>> much smaller and more obscure project, but no longer work since that
>> project doesn't exist anymore, and it's been replaced by a
>> highly-publicized behemoth. Village council governance works great for a
>> village where everybody knows everybody, but it ceases to when that
>> village suddenly grows to the size of New York City. That doesn't mean
>> everyone who loved that openness and informality will give it up easily,
>> nor even that they should not insist that the best parts of that should
>> not be retained, but changes do have to get made.
> 
on 8/26/07 6:34 PM, Daniel R. Tobias at dan at tobias.name wrote:

> Although, I wouldn't classify the BADSITES policy as being "open" or
> "informal" in any way... nor does it fit very well into the general
> philosophical framework of the early, geeky, community; geeks tend to
> have "Information Wants To Be Free"-style positions in opposition to
> wanting tight control over the flow of information.
> 
> There wasn't likely to be any pressure for an anti-attack-site policy
> in the earliest days, anyway, since when it was a small geeky project
> it probably didn't have very many attackers out there yet.
> 
> That sort of policy is more of an artifact of the middle stage...
> when it's grown way beyond the tiny size of its early days, but some
> are desperately trying to keep (awkwardly and artificially) the
> cohesiveness and collegiality of those days, by forcibly shutting out
> parts of the outside world they find to disrupt it.

Daniel,

That "cohesiveness and collegiality" can certainly be maintained. In fact,
this is crucial to survival. A community at war with itself is the most
vulnerable to outside influences.

> 
> You're hopefully right that they'll outgrow that eventually, but what
> sort of structure will develop next?

We must begin by asking what type of culture it is that we want. Then,
creatively, build a structure that supports it - and is in harmony with it.

Marc