Erik said:
We are very open to continuing the discussion about how
the feature
should be configured, how it should be improved, and how it should be
integrated in the site experience
The message that is being given, though is, to quote Mathilda "I'm smart;
you're dumb; I'm big, you're little; *I'm right, you're wrong*, and
there's
nothing you can do about it."
And this continues in this post. Assuming for example that those who do
not opt-out "support" the media viewer.
Let me just make my position on the media viewer clear, since I am being
uncharacteristically vocal on this subject. I am undecided, but I think it
is probably a good thing. However when I hear respected communities saying
there are functional and legal problems, I am inclined to believe them. I
support therefore the "not-yet" faction. Personally I find it irritating
(and at the same time potentially very cool), but I keep it on because I
want to see what the bulk of our readers see.
So there are interconnecting layers of issues here - and I think they are
clear, but I will lay them out in case we are talking at cross purposes.
1. Erik's actions. This sort of thing happens a lot on on-line communities
(and elsewhere - see the Crimea!) and I did not get too excited about the
socially inept blundering on en:WP. But to repeat the same script on
German Wikipedia within a few days shows a lack of wisdom unbecoming to
"Deputy Director".
2. The specific question of Media Viewer. That I believe can be resolved,
and is all about "not yet", it should never have been allowed to cause
drama. I would like to see some metrics for the value delivered by the
Media Viewer, though, rather than "Flikr does it, it must be good". I am
disappointed after a mostly unusable Visual Editor was released with
content breaking bugs that another project is being forced down the same
path - Erik's comment "That's no way to develop software" rings rather
hollow in this context.
3. The ongoing question of software development. The WMF is supposed to "to
empower and engage" the communities to disseminate content "effectively
and globally." It is not supposed to run with its own agenda. Bugs and
feature requests by the community are allowed to stand unattended for years
- one was closed (WONTFIX) because of an off-hand comment made by a dev on
a mailing list! Meanwhile "nice to have" features absorb apparently huge
amounts of financial and staff resoruces. In the style re-work, extensive
feedback was solicited and provided - and ignored when it didin't suit.
(Notably a/b testing, mixing serif and sans, and using typefaces where the
glyphs are more distinct)
4. The culture at the Foundation needs to be more focussed on collaborative
and collegial work with the communities. The Foundation is an essential
part of the Movement, if it did not exist it would be necessary to invent
it. However it is not the senior partner, certainly not in terms of age or
resource, and, due to the open licensing, not in content. To work
effectively with the community the Foundation needs to consider the
community as its customer, be responsive to its needs and wants, in this
way it can deliver on its charitable objectives.
Note: This does not mean a namby-pamby relationship, but rather a robust
one, where evidence based decisions can be made jointly and collegialy.
Indeed one value add from having an organisation like the WMF is the
resource to gather significant evidence on usability, readability,
accessibility, clarity, interrogability and so forth.
On 14 August 2014 14:35, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 14 August 2014 13:56, David Cuenca
<dacuetu(a)gmail.com> wrote:
It would be more sensible to let contributors
participate in the tech
roadmap in more formal and empowered way than now, because without that
early participation there is no possibility for later consensus.
A pattern we see over and over is that the developers talk at length
about what they're working on in several venues, then it's released
and people claiming to speak for the community claim they were not
adequately consulted. Pretty much no matter what steps were taken to
do so, and what new steps are taken to do so. Because there's always
someone who claims their own lack of interest is someone else's fault.
- d.
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