[WikiEN-l] WP:V, WP:RS, WP:NOR and WP:ATT

[Slim Virgin]

On 3/21/07, Jeff Raymond <jeff.raymond at internationalhouseofbacon.com> wrote:
>
> Slim Virgin wrote:
>
> > Okay, but this leaves us with a real problem. We're not psychic, so we
> > can't know who supports a policy or who objects unless they say
> > something about it. Hundreds of editors contributed to the debate
> > about ATT -- it wasn't a secret! -- and almost all (in fact, my
> > recollection is all) were supportive of the merge, though people had
> > different ideas about the details. But the merge of three untidy pages
> > into one page was completely supported. We had exactly the same broad
> > consensus that we had for BLP.
>
> But there's the problem - such a fundamental change, one could attest,
> WASN'T known.  I wasn't under a rock for the five months that this was
> discussed, and I had WP:V and WP:RS on my watchlist, yet I had no clue.
> How does that happen, exactly?

I can't say why you didn't know about it, Jeff. It was talked about in
many different places; around 170 editors had edited it by the time it
went live, and nearly 300 had posted on the talk page. Plus it was
mentioned several times on V and NOR talk -- e.g. when editors would
post with a complaint about the policies, someone would say check out
the proposal at ATT which deals with this. It really *was* widely
discussed.

But I have to ask you: you mentioned a "fundamental change." What
exactly was the fundamental change?
>
> We keep harkening back to BLP, which was really kind of rushed and kind of
> blindsided a lot of people.

No, it didn't. Quite the reverse.

I think editors to some extent have to be responsible for keeping
themselves informed. We   can post in all the right places, but we
can't ensure people notice it, read it, remember it, fully understand
what it means, and we can't be blamed if some don't. Hundreds of
editors *did* know about it, and they don't have psychic powers. With
the best will in the world, we can't expect volunteers to post over
and over and over and over to make sure that every corner of the
empire is covered and that every single editor has seen something.

Sarah