On Jan 25, 2007, at 2:36 PM, Stan Shebs wrote:
Although I think the formal policies may be overdoing it, we do need to make some effort to change the culture. Can Susan be so certain of her twenty-years-ago memory that she can just starting typing away with confidence? I would rather she make a library visit first, or simply leave a note on the talk page - several times I've been able to use somebody else's talk page note as a starting point for doing a bit of research of my own, or triggered somebody else's further research by asking questions. We would also have a lot fewer edit wars if people didn't just wade in and start adding/deleting based on their faulty memory or understanding.
That's the thing, though - Wikipedia was built by Susan. She did the heavy lifting to get Wikipedia to where it is today. We depend on Susan.
Now, we also depend on hardcore editors who deal with policy issues and edit wars and get long-term involved - admins and future admins, basically. These people clean up if Susan misremembers. As well as doing a thousand other bigger tasks that Susan isn't interested in.
But we need to adamantly resist letting this second pool of users set the rules in such a way that Susan gets squeezed out. Susan should be able to do any small task on Wikipedia.
-Phil