[WikiEN-l] WikiEN-l Digest, Vol 54, Issue 33

[Matt Jacobs]

I'm in agreement with Ned here.  Looking through ANI and their own
wiki pages, it appears to me that they made every effort to abide by
policies, and did not intend to create a disruption.  It was supposed
to just be a learning experience regarding online disputes, and they
got more experience than they bargained for.

They were polite and attempted to help us out with some current
disputes.  I think the rude comments some of our community members
have made regarding them were way out of line.
Matt Jacobs

> Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008
> Ned Scott wrote:
>
> I strongly urge people on the mailing list to also look at that ANI
> link. Here's a perm link, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents&oldid=183128095#Harvard_class_project_disrupting_Wikipedia_via_meatpuppetry_on_articles
>
> Unless we are changing the definition of a cabal, that hardly
> describes these groups of students. One group even self-identified,
> and stated that they were presenting opinions about a dispute, for a
> class assignment. The other groups might simply not have thought of
> this, or didn't think it was a big deal. They caused no harm, and
> actually provided us with many good solutions to some existing
> disputes, from fresh, neutral minds.
>
> They discussed things amongst themselves before hand, and carefully
> thought about how to present their ideas so that they would be best
> received. We do that on-wiki all the time, and not with the intent to
> manipulate, but simply understanding that how you present an idea is
> sometimes just as important as the idea itself. It's not much
> different than a micro-consensus being formed on one talk page, and
> then those editors going to a larger community discussion after having
> thought about what was discussed in the first discussion. It did not
> appear that any of them said anything they didn't actually believe,
> either as an individual or as a group.
>
> This dispute didn't happen from the students, but more from a fear
> that came after discovering that they collaborated off-wiki. As
> [[User:Gladys j cortez]] said:
>
> "I am of absolutely no consequence to this discussion, but the concern
> I see among the "regular" Wikipedians here is one of transparency. Had
> the participants announced their presence and intentions, as one group
> apparently did, I would imagine this would have been a non-issue.
> Gladys J Cortez01:42, 9 January 2008 (UTC)"
>
> -- Ned Scott
>
> On Jan 8, 2008, at 9:54 PM, Steven Walling wrote:
>
> > How natural for the Ivy League. Real life cabalists become virtual
> > ones.
> >