[WikiEN-l] Moderation on this mailing list

[Matthew Brown]

On 2/22/07, William Pietri <william at scissor.com> wrote:
> For this to happen, I don't think there need to be malice on either
> side, just ordinary human nature.

A great post in general, but this part in particular needs to be
pulled out and held up by itself.

Most of the time, most people are not malicious.  Fact is, two people
can get into stupid misunderstandings and vicious disagreement without
any malice at all and only the best of intentions.  See [[Hanlon's
razor]], most commonly phrased as "Never attribute to malice that
which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

Misunderstanding is incredibly easy in an environment such as
Wikipedia, especially when at least one party is not familiar with the
terrain and is thus at a significant communications disadvantage (in
both directions).

-Matt