[WikiEN-l] NY Times article on gender gap in Wikipedia contributors

[Fred Bauder]

> On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:18 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 31 January 2011 15:30, Charles Matthews
>> <charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I have stated my views on site politics on this list not so long ago.
>>> Basically the "reform" party comes over as the "complacent" party as
>>> far
>>> as the gender gap is concerned (sadly). So I'd like to see people
>>> standing for ArbCom being asked what they intend to do about it.
>>
>>
>> It's January. ArbCom could start enforcing civility amongst admins
>> now, bring it off successfully and have huge success to talk about by
>> voting in December.
>>
>> (I outlined a version of this to FT2 and Chase Me Ladies at the 10th
>> Anniversary bash and neither shrieked in horror. A complaints
>> procedure would be a crank magnet. Keep it to "going forward", nothing
>> past; require asking the admin nicely first; vexatious complainants
>> told to go away after. Admin behaviour will rapidly modify as they'll
>> do *ANYTHING* to keep the bit. Admins get more crap than they deserve
>> from the querulous, but this is hardly an onerous proposal. Anyone
>> feel up to pushing it through? Arbcom could start this now based on
>> WP:NPA and WP:BITE as policies, but will probably prefer to get at
>> least a little explicit buy-in.)
>>
>>
>> - d.
>
>
> They could but they won't; anyone on this list knows that it's been
> tried before. Making admins the "civility police" as some folks like
> to call them is too difficult a nut for the Wikipedia community to
> crack. Either the admins are bad, the rules are bad, or the whole idea
> is bad - many prominent, longtime 'pedians would argue all three are
> true.
>
> Nathan

Mores are an expression of community values; even the most vigorous
policing cannot succeed without community support. Wide participation in
a friendly atmosphere is better. Thus everyone needs to be friendly and
supportive if we are to maximize the value of our project.

It is not a matter of getting after bad apples but of being friendly and
supportive yourself in interactions with both new and established
editors, of focusing on encyclopedic issues, the work.

(After Wilfred Bion)

Fred Bauder