[WikiEN-l] Civility poll results

[Nathan]

It's interesting that Marc assigns the blame for the myriad conduct problems
to leadership (the executive suite, though I'm not sure who this
represents). I might argue the opposite. The lack of leadership makes it
impossible to maintain consistent standards of behavior. The amorphous and
unstable crowd can't consistently agree either on what these standards are
or how they should be enforced.

It's a basic reality of life as an adult that employees with perfect work
product but terrible attitudes are often terminated; their own work is fine,
but their presence disrupts the work of others. Yet firm behavioral
expectations and consistent enforcement are made possible by stable
leadership. This is an obvious concept proven by thousands of years of human
history, but Wikipedia is committed to an approach closer to anarchy. What
we need, then, is a solution that provides for fair and consistent
enforcement of fair and consistent standards in a community that lacks any
normal facets of social stability.

Unfortunately, people far brighter than I have been ruminating on this
problem for years without arriving at such a solution. Perhaps the most
credible proposals involve a reorganization of the decision making processes
on Wikipedia, but these have all been shot down by some of the same people
who complain most strenuously about cultural degradation. Until folks come
up with more than complaints and minor tweaks to existing policies, I think
its unlikely that significant progress is possible.

Nathan