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

[Marc Riddell]

on 3/22/07 10:24 AM, Zoney at zoney.ie at gmail.com wrote:

> On 22/03/07, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>> 
>> We have a group of friends working under "rough
>> consensus and running code" and decision-making is highly distributed
>> and what may appear to be lines of authority are often merely lines of
>> respect and thoughtfulness.
>> 
>> --Jimbo
>> 
>> 
> In my three years on Wikipedia, the latter two and a half as an Admin, I've
> seen this more often than not (and getting to be more so) devolve into the
> most vocal and participating contributors deciding things as they see fit
> (even if say, they see something as NPOV, it may not be). The most vocal and
> participating members may or may not be in the right, and where there are
> differences of opinion, those who are right will not necessarily be the
> majority (or even large/medium majority; "consensus" as that seems to be
> termed on Wikipedia).
> 
> Being right is not a subjective thing. As an encyclopaedia we are supposed
> to be in the business of truthful content.
> 
> It's a whole other world of messiness then when we aren't talking merely
> about Wikipedia's content, but formulating the principles and guidelines on
> which the content and project is created and managed.
> 
> Zoney

Catching up on some past posts.

Zoney,

This is an excellent message, and one I agree with completely. The
"principles and guidelines" we develop within WP make up a part of an
"ethic" we must develop and staunchly maintain.

This ethic is not something you choose from a list. Personally, our own set
of ethics evolve over time as our learning, beliefs, experiences and sense
of self reconcile and eventually merge. On a group level, the ethic is
established by the core individuals creating that group. Then, this ethic
becomes a part of the motivation for others to join the group.

As for Wikipedia, I came to it because of the work it was doing, but I came
too late to the group to really grasp what the core ethic was that helped
form it. I have since, by way of this List, been trying to grasp a sense of
what that ethic is.

I'm learning.

Marc Riddell