[WikiEN-l] Please change your passwords. > Leadership

[James Farrar]

On 12/05/07, Zoney <zoney.ie at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/05/07, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > For once, I feel that I am in complete agreement with Marc. Consensus
> > > doesn't cut it when you have a thousand participants in the discussion
> > > rather than a hundred, unless you want to resort to voting - which is
> > > effectively a tyranny of the majority.
> >
> > Is a single leader making the final decisions really better than a
> > "tyranny of the majority"? If the right person is chosen as leader,
> > then it could work, but it's very difficult to find such a person.
> >
> >
> Actually, the problem on Wikipedia is worse. Voting isn't tyranny of the
> majority, it's simply an exercise that allows those who can muster up more
> of a supporting group their way. And the "majority" is really some tiny
> group (relative to Wikipedia editors or more importantly the public). Then
> there's "discussion" (which is what people like to push on Wikipedia
> pointing out how voting is flawed if they think a vote won't go their way);
> i.e. the most vocal and bullying get their way.

That, and that any Administrator can close and rule on "votes" at any
point, regardless of whether the discussion/vote is fairly reflected
by the closing decision, after which there is often very little
comeback, no matter how bad the screwup is.