[Foundation-l] Human judgment

[Samuel Henderson]

Hi Elisabeth,

Well, my reason for changing the subject was to refocus the discussion from
a specific case to a general issue which affects all Wikimedians.  Like most
who have commented here, I am in no position to judge the particulars of the
ru.wikibooks situation, as I lack both the requisite linguistic ability and
the requisite background knowledge.  I can only say that it *appeared, *from
the information posted here,* *to be a case of egregiously abusive,
intimidating behavior by someone treating a WMF project as a personal
fiefdom; and that the further *appearance *of inaction in the face of such
profoundly unacceptable behavior was sufficiently troubling to prompt some
reflection.

It would not serve my purpose, and was not my intent, to question your
judgment (or anyone else's).  It is however necessary to question a culture
in which -- as at any rate it appeared, from the remarks posted here --
stewards do not feel qualified to exercise their own judgment in the absence
of a community request (even when such a request is unlikely to be
forthcoming).  *If* true, this suggests that very serious problems exist in
our organizational culture.

In any event, the traffic level since my post has served to remind me that
this list is not suited to nuanced discussions of, well, anything; at least
not for those of us who subscribe to the digest.  IMO this is unfortunate.
But so be it, for so it is; I shall return to my lurking.

Best regards,

Sam


> Although this is the wrong thread:
> The human -my- judgement was: reverting the one revert (one revert imho is
> no editwar) and warn him once more, then if he had reverted it again, I
> would have desysoped him and restored the Monobook again.
>
> I doubt You would normally block a user in Your project after one revert
> if
> it is not obvious vandalism, if the user might not be aware that he is
> doing
> wrong and gives a reason for his revert in the summary?
>
> Please don't cut that off the case we are talking about, if You are really
> talking about human judgement You can't generalize it imho, it is case
> specific.
>
> Best regards.