[Wikimedia-l] Go away, community (from WMF wiki at least)

[phoebe ayers]

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 10:32 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo)
<nemowiki at gmail.com>wrote:

> Casey Brown, 13/05/2013 07:05:
>
>> [...] [Note that I'm speaking generally -- I personally think Gayle can
>>
>> handle criticism and she seems very nice. She also probably had no
>> idea this would create dramz. My comment is directed towards the
>> general "omg think of the staff member!" response to criticism that is
>> systemic in our movement.]
>>
>
> Still, "omg think of the staff member!" seems to be the point Gayle and
> Philippe make on this thread. If history teaches something, I guess the
> board will soon approve a resolution to request the development of a
> Personal Communitymember Filter to AT LAST hide all that offensive content
> in our community. MediaWiki-mailman integration offers some challenges, but
> our commitment to openness will swiftly help, shutting down more mailing
> lists in favour of wiki discussions.
>
> Nemo
>

Au contraire, I feel we should all earn some kind of barnstar just for
participating in this discussion/situation. You know, it's kind of the
ultimate Wikimedian tempest: arguing over who gets to add users and delete
pages on what is quite possibly the world's most boring wiki[1]...

It's also a quintessentially Wikimedian debate because there's all this
subtext -- assumed but not articulated -- that isn't minor at all: about
community ownership versus corporate control, about who has authority to
make decisions in what sphere, about the role volunteers play in the
organization, over what personal reputation means on the projects, over
what admin rights mean, what kind of work environment the staff have, etc..
I'm gonna take a stab in the dark here and guess that Gayle wasn't
intending to start a debate on all these big important topics, or even
perhaps to comment on them at all. I'm also gonna say from experience that
it's often damn hard to wade into these waters and take an action *without*
touching off a debate on all these subjects. As someone said upthread, the
golden rule does help, as does practice working with the wiki way, and
knowing all the personal ins and outs of Wikimedia and our arcane culture.
But *even that* doesn't always save someone from making an unpopular
decision, or from screwing up or not thinking through all the ways they
might be wading into a minefield -- and that goes for all of us, staff,
board, & community alike. Hey, ask me how I know.

Sheesh, being part of the world's biggest collaborative project is hard
sometimes.

-- phoebe


1. I exempt, of course, the internal wiki at my workplace, which has won
the crown many years running.