[WikiEN-l] Arbcom

[William Pietri]

Marc Riddell wrote:
> On 10/14/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>>> Anyone can draft proposals - that's what the workshop page is for (and
>>> to keep idiots occupied somewhere relatively harmless, of course).
>>>       
>
> This is the kind of language that is destructive to the culture of this
> project.
>   

Perhaps generally, but in this case it's probably not so bad. It would 
be hard to deny that some of the people who show up are idiots. But 
David's unlikely to cause offense here, as all concerned will be sure 
that the idiots are those *other* guys.

Don't get me wrong; I'm a big advocate of treating any vaguely serious 
contributor with respect. But in trying to build open communities on the 
Internet, you have to be prepared for people who are looking to vent, 
who come with an agenda, or who are just so lacking in clue that they 
are unable to make any useful contribution. If you don't give them an 
outlet, they'll just cram their opinions into any input field or email 
inbox they can find, disrupting normal business. And heck, some of them 
will get a clue eventually, so it's best to involve them in ways that 
help with that.

But definitely be careful applying your off-line intuitions here. As 
many have observed, the Internet is, sadly, different. [1]

William



[1] E.g., Gabriel's Theory: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19