Ray Saintonge wrote:
William Pietri wrote:
Here's my proposal for making that work.
We find a collection of people who are willing to moderate wikien-forum. Say, a half-dozen to a dozen.
People write in proposing new threads. If any moderator thinks the topic is interesting or important, they can volunteer to curate the thread.
(Long description removed)
You must be kidding?! =-O
I think the only effect of this would be to give people more things to argue about, not to mention giving those moderators a quick ticket to the asylum.
Nope. Possibly wrong, possibly crazy. But serious.
Upon reflection, I still think it's workable. I think slowing things down would lower the temperature quite a bit. And the moderator burden is designed to be self-limiting; a moderator will only allow a thread to start if they're feeling like it's worth the effort.
As to the question of argumentation, the list I'm talking about ("wikien-forum" in my proposal) would be specifically biased against argumentation and direct replies to individual points. Most contributions would have to be able to stand on their own: thematically related to the thread, but no quoting, ranting, or kvetching. People who want to have direct discussions would be encouraged to do so, just not on the list.
Personally, I'd be willing to curate the occasional thread, which is what made me think this is workable. Even if it's twice or three times as much work to curate a thread as to follow it, I'd still come out ahead if the other threads were all carefully edited to maximize reader value.
William