[WikiEN-l] Just what *is* Jimbo's role anyway?

[charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com]

stevertigo wrote

> Is the community *not to be trusted
> with certain policy changes? And is Jimbo therefore expected to take a
> more direct of formalized role in this area?

I don't think 'formalizing' anything helps. After all we spend a high proportion of this list's bandwidth on typical 'hard cases make bad law' objections to more formal formulations of well known WP principles, and that tends to be hot air.

We have had Bagehot already, the theorist of the stage machinery of the British constitution. I think another and more up-to-date analogy is the [[golden share]]. We have the "voting is evil" version of that. De facto things can happen on enWP that Jimbo really doesn't agree with; but de jure one can't call that a consensus. It is kind of indicative when a discussion about whether there is consensus on a policy page change turns into a massive debate ... 

Charles

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