[Wikimedia-l] Visual Editor "temporary" opt-out

[MZMcBride]

Todd Allen wrote:
>[comments about VisualEditor]

Hi Todd.

Thank you for writing this e-mail. Unfortunately I don't have a
particularly unified reply to write here, but I can offer five thoughts.

Regarding the specific issue you mention (the labeling of the user
preference), I think there should be at least a little recognition that
much more than half of the battle was getting this user preference
re-added, supported for future VisualEditor releases, and appropriately
positioned under the "Editing" user preferences tab rather than the
"Gadgets" user preferences tab. Now that we've made forward progress on
those fronts, re-labeling the user preference is a simple matter of
editing the page "MediaWiki:Visualeditor-preference-betatempdisable".

Broadly, looking at your e-mail, I wonder what your thoughts are on the
extent to which one wiki, even the golden goose, can dictate Wikimedia
Foundation product engineering and development. While the English
Wikipedia is certainly a formidable force, do you think it should be
capable, through an on-wiki discussion, of setting or changing high-level
priorities and their implementation strategies? If so, why and how?

I started 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Improvements> to
discuss actionable improvements that can be made right now related to
VisualEditor and its deployment. Please participate. :-)

And I started <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Complaints> to
examine the pattern of complaints related to VisualEditor.

Finally, and somewhat related to the complaints page, I've been thinking
lately about the British and the Irish and the nature of insurgencies. I
believe the VisualEditor team is now viewed by many on the English
Wikipedia (and other wikis) as an occupying force. Consequently, this has
created an insurgency composed of long-time editors. This isn't meant to
be hyperbolic: nobody is rioting in the streets or planning warfare (yet).
However, the anger felt by many in the editing community toward the
VisualEditor team is very real and very worrying, as is the seemingly
heavy-handed way in which VisualEditor has been deployed. Just a few weeks
ago, VisualEditor was receiving accolades for the way in which it had been
slowly and thoughtfully developed and deployed. However, seemingly
arbitrary deadlines and a few key bad decisions have greatly hurt it. The
wounds are deep, but it remains to be seen whether they will be fatal.

MZMcBride