[WikiEN-l] drama and incivility

[Marc Riddell]

> Marc Riddell wrote:
>> [...] The fact that anyone would even try to rationalize and/or
>> justify saying to another person, "Go away, you trolling fuckwit" is
>> symptomatic of the cancer that exists in the culture. [...]

on 8/28/07 2:09 PM, Stan Shebs at stanshebs at earthlink.net wrote:

> This is just SO not true. Marc, as I believe you've said yourself in the
> past, you're not especially experienced with large collaborative online
> projects. Trolls and other disrupters will keep poking and poking and
> poking and poking and poking and poking and poking until even the most
> patient of saints lose their cool - by definition, that is the goal. It
> doesn't mean there is a cancer in the project, or that it's doomed, or
> whatever, it just means that everybody has a breaking point. Of the
> various online projects I've worked in the past 25 years, WP is by far
> the most tolerant of troublemakers; on serious projects like GNU or
> Linux, people won't even talk to you until you've proven yourself useful
> somehow, and if you even slightly irritate one of the project owners,
> you might as well as give up and move on to something else.
> 
Stan,

No matter what the medium, how large or how small the group, any
interpersonal communication requires a degree of self-control. Know your
vulnerable spots. If someone is pushing them, and you don't like what it is
doing to you - move on. You have that choice (unless you're a prisoner
somewhere). But know, if you push back, you have now escalated, and become
part of, the problem.

A great part of the cancer I refer to is the attitude of some persons in the
Community who not only condone, but actually encourage, the type of personal
attack statements that began this conversation. And, the practice of some of
calling names and labeling people they disagree with, rather than either
engaging them in the subject or moving on.

Both of the above behaviors are ones we are supposed to have left behind on
the playground.

The Project may be very large, but it is also very young. And its ultimate
survival is going to depend on the ability of its people to communicate with
one another effectively.

Also, the double standard that has come to light as a result of this
incident is a subject for a whole other thread.

Marc