[WikiEN-l] People, Admins & the WP culture

[Marc Riddell]

[To any & all,

I am doing some thinking about how the WP Community could help Admins who
are struggling with the work. My goal is to come up with a formal mechanism
that these Admins can turn to for help and support before they choose to
simply give up and leave the Community. It could serve as a form of
intervention before a burnout occurs.

What are your thoughts about this?

Marc Riddell]

                *************

Hello,

The above is the second of two similar posts I placed on the List.

In the days since the first of this inquiry was posted I have received just
one posted and one private email voicing any interest in pursuing this
issue.

Most of the posts on the first ³Admin burnout² thread seemed to reflect a
genuine recognition and feel that a problem does exist in how the WP
Community treats its Admins. Some of these posts came from Admins with
personal experience in this area. But what was, and still is, missing is a
seeming willingness to do something about it.

I am surprised and disappointed that so little interest seems to exist here
in helping Admins - who are, first, people. Rather, the focus seems to be on
following the rules, knowing your place, copyrights, images, being the
biggest, and countless other technical and administrative issues. There is
also a lot of talk about how to choose and discipline Admins, but virtually
nothing on how to keep them. Persons - and their struggles - at the core of
this community are being discounted and abandoned.

A ³society² is the ³who's who in the zoo² ­ a ³culture² is how the people in
that zoo treat each other.

The social structure within WP is quite clear, and the cultural ethic within
it appears to be, ³Be bold, take risks, but if you get into trouble you're
on your own².

If Wikipedia ultimately fails ­ and I sincerely hope it does not ­ it will
not be due to outside influences, but, rather, an indifference to its
people.

An organization can be held together for a while by paper clips, clear tape
and patching plaster, but the real bond that holds it together is its
people.

There is a cancer in the culture.

Marc Riddell


-- 
"The world is too terrible a place to live in, not because of the bad things
that happen, but because of the good people who stand by and do nothing."

                                                             Albert Einstein