[WikiEN-l] Developer/Wiki relationship (was: Deployments today)

[Thomas Morton]

Hey All,

This new feature has caused a bit of flack on English Wikipedia; which gives
me a bit of a platform to bring up some issues that have been rolling round
in my brain recently. A lot of the criticism on Wiki has been overly harsh -
so I want to try some constructive feedback here on the mailing list :)

Firstly, congrats to the developers on putting together a nice, easy to use
tool. It's not to my taste (FWIW) but there is effort and care put into the
tool - and whatever anyone says or moans; kudos for that. I'd *love *to see
those involved consider tweaking and improving the Wiki interface/theme/UI
to make it more modern and nice :)

The second point to make is that this is also a somewhat "misguided" tool.
It has been pitched as a way to promote inter-editor friendship and increase
editor retention. The issue here, of course, is that WikiLove does not
really address the problem that affects new editors (or experienced editors)
and drives them away. Those problems are to do with editor interaction,
poisonous atmosphere, lack of communication - but not the sort that can be
solved by slapping a "template" on the page. No, that problem is really only
solvable by going the other way - to make a determined effort to leave
personal and thoughtful messages (I hope I am not preaching here; I make a
huge effort to do this myself).

The way that this ended up appearing to be pitched as a "golden solution"
has not gone down too well because it appears as if the developers are not
"getting" the problem (when actually I am certain they are doing so; and
realise this is just one small part in the whole picture).

The other problem is that it somewhat undermines and trivialises what a
barnstar is. Sure they can be handed out freely as it is - but it does take
a small modicum of effort. In my year back editing Wikipedia I
have received 7 barnstars from editors for my activities. I specifically
recall what they were all for - and behind each is a piece of effort, time
or trial that I am extremely proud of. Not least because someone else out
there thought "yep, this guy has done a good job here".

The point of that somewhat lengthy paragraph is this: trivialising Barnstars
removes their current purpose (a relatively difficult to obtain piece of
quiet pride). This would be fine if their new "purpose" was as-or-more
important. But as mentioned above I don't think it is.