On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:14:01 -0800, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
The problem I find with this analysis is that it's too one sideed. You outline three broad problems that do indeed happen, and take up a lot of admin time. Still another huge problem is the tendency of some admins to zealotry, or assuming that a small error by a newbie is a precursor to vandalism. The most desirable skill in an admin is patience, and we don't see much of that.
That's partly a consequence of promoting mainly vandal fighters, with a culture of immediatism, and partly the result of the cynicism inspired by the relentless onslaught of POV pushers, self-promoters and other types.
But yes, there are issues like you describe. One that particularly annoys me is the tendency to overdramatise supposed death threats and legal threats when the comments have no degree of credibility. A credible threat of harm is bad, and reducing the currency of such by saying that generic "Meh! I'll kill ya!" crap is a death threat (rather than just simple stupidity) does not help.
Guy (JzG)