[Foundation-l] Friendliness (was: Missing Wikipedians: An Essay)

[John Vandenberg]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 11:18 PM,  <dex2000 at pc.dk> wrote:
>..
> This is certainly part of the problem. I would point also to the
> overwhelming amount of policies (and their corresponding abbreviations,
> WP:NOT etc. etc.) and procedures as being practically impossible to cope
> with for newbies.
>
> Question is, of course, what to do about it all?
> Could we create a
> procedure for admin appointment that puts the ability to communicate with
> people way above the persons need for tools and buttons for doing
> clean-up?

At the moment, we need admins who press buttons more than we need to
welcome new users.  It is unfortunate, but that is how it is.
We need to find ways of reducing the amount of work needed, or
radically increase the number of admins.

>..
> I think it could also be considered to divide our huge language wikis
> into smaller parts. The existing WikiProjects could be made virtual wikis
> with their own admins, recent changes etc. That way, each project is in
> fact like a small wiki to which the newbie could sign up according to
> 'hers' area of interest and where the clarrity and friendlier atmosphere
> of the smaller wikis could prevail.

This is the best solution, in my opinion.

--
John Vandenberg