On 3/12/07, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
I have made this point in exactly this way many times
in person and
observed the enlightenment on people's faces. Perhaps it is something
that works better from face-to-face, but nevertheless, I'd be cautious
not to rely only on "insider opinion" as to whether this line of
argument "clicks" or not.
If you say so :)
My main point here is that people are often surprised
that we actually
have all those crazy policies & processes; they seem to often think
that Wikipedia is basically operating by some minimal Darwinian
ruleset, with anonymous editors assembling works quietly and truth
occasionally rising to the top unpredictably. In presentations, I see
a lot of surprise when I give people examples of AfD and FAC
discussions, etc.
Heh, sounds like your argument is "We actually do try and get things
right. Honest!" :) But yeah...it would certainly be interesting to
analyse Wikipedia's "approach to quality" compared with an ISO 9000
organisation.
There is definitely some lingering confusion and some
inconsistency
about this, partially due to Jimmy's past double role as Chair and
President of the Wikimedia Foundation (he is neither today). But
that's the present situation.
I am definitely lingeringly confused. To be honest, I don't have the
faintest idea what his role is these days. Perhaps someone would like
to enlighten me. And if he is no longer, benevolent dictator, who is?
And if no one, is that a problem? What does it mean when he tells the
press that we're going to implement a credentials model? Is that the
same as if I told the press that we aren't? Is this a popularity
contest?
The admin misunderstanding is definitely common.
There's probably an
equal or greater number of Wikipedia readers who've never heard of
admins in the first place, so I'm not sure it would make sense to
explain it in the context of a list like this one.
Who's your audience? The admin/editor thing seems to come up so often
in newspaper articles. "Wikipedia editor" seems to be used as a term
of respect or authority.
Steve