[WikiEN-l] Who monitors Wikipedia?

[David Gerard]

On 02/03/2008, David Goodman <dgoodmanny at gmail.com> wrote:

> It gets mostly negative when they try to thing that it all depends on
>  them, and if they dont make this particular  deletion )or this
>  particular save), nobody will ever catch it or fix it or restore it,
>  WP will progressively go down hill without them, and the  reputation
>  will suffer irrevocably. WP does encourage obsession that way, in
>  admin processes as well as writing. I',m back to my old hobby horse,


Yeah. Learning not to care - to clear the idea of ownership out of
one's own thinking about one's Wikipedia contributions - is important.

I abandoned my watchlist in late 2004 and haven't missed it ;-)

Having a baby daughter is also useful for this self-discipline.
"What's that? The wiki's going to Hell? I'm sorry, my daughter is
gurgling cutely, and that's *much* more urgently important. I'll get
back to you."


>  but i think the first step in getting admins to accept responsibility
>  is for them to all be  identifiable human beings. I accept the need
>  for anonymous contributiors; I do not accept the need for anonymous
>  people in authority.


Depends. With e.g. the psychotic viciousness shown by the people who
hang out on Wikipedia Review, I'd question that as a good idea for
everyone. You shouldn't need to be a seasoned cyber-warrior able to
deal with any ridiculous crap just to be an admin on Wikipedia. In
fact, such a requirement will I suspect lead to more burnout.


- d.