[WikiEN-l] [Wikipedia-l] Indefinite ban problem

[charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com]

 > Then, please, Charles, write and discuss what you see.
> 
> Marc

This is what WP:RFAR is for; or if that is excessive, the weekly summary at WP:POST in the Signpost. It happens that Arbitration takes in about 100 of the most serious disputes on enWP in a year. 

To summarize from an Arbs point of view: our caseload is harder, because more of the disputes are entrenched. Many issues are related to conflict of interest, nationalism, politics or religion. Akl one, really, from our point of view: people abusing the facilities of the site, to skew the content. More of this, every day.

Other problem areas:

- High profile admins throwing their weight around: something of a constant here, the names changing but the attitudes remaining. The half-life of such an admin is around nine months, I think. Attracts a disproportionate amount of attention. Our version of "canteen culture" meets office politics.

- Deletion has its share of bottom-feeders.

- The working environment of the average editor has probably not deteriorated much socially, given that there were always people around on the site wasting your time. Technically things are much improved.

Jimbo's influence is much attenuated, for better or worse. The constitutional monarch retreats to the palace, or even his personal Marly. 

On the other hand, the degree of external scrutiny of the site is vastly increased, and this has led to some jittery times. I recommend editing articles. Really, it all makes more sense if you look at the working enviroment in terms of the work.

Charles

-----------------------------------------
Email sent from www.virginmedia.com/email
Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software and scanned for spam