[Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia moderators and moral authority (was Re: Repost: clear guidelines and the power to enforce)

[Gareth Owen]

The Cunctator <cunctator at kband.com> writes:

> On 11/11/02 12:21 PM, "Poor, Edmund W" <Edmund.W.Poor at abc.com> wrote:
> 
> > What it comes down to is a tough choice between two choices:
> > 
> > (1) We are building a free encyclopedia. Therefore, we use Wiki software.
> > 
> > (2) We are maintaining a Wiki community. If we make some good encyclopedia
> > articles, that's nice too.
>
> This is a false dilemma.

Hardly.  Time and time again the desire to be actually productive has bashed
up a misplaced desire to bend over backwards for people who are utterly
disruptive.  

I recommend new entry in "What Wikipedia is not"

        Wikipedia is not an experiment in anarchism.

Really, I wish Jimbo were an actual dictator, of the Torvalds school, and be
judgmental.  Its fair enough that Jimbo's not like that, I just wish he were.

All it would take is such a leader to say
"Julie : you're productive and intelligent and educated.  Please stay.
 Helga : you're a kook.  Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."

No one is here by force, no one can't leave if they don't care for the policy. 

Value judgements *aren't* inherently bad.
Discrimination on the grounds of talent and intelligence isn't a problem.
There is nothing wrong with intolerance towards those people who are
disrupting your reasonable goals and wasting your time and resources.
If someone is behaving like a child, say 
  "You're behaving like a child.  Stop it, or get lost"
Then -- if they don't quit -- kick the bastards out.

Allow me to add to add to our melange of bad analogies:
I love to play team sports, and these have rules much like wikipedia's.
If a player continually breaches them, the referee ejects them from the game.  
You don't reason with them.  You don't change the rules to take on board their
opinions, you kick them out, and get on with the game.  As a referee I can
assure you, any other course of action is a recipe for disaster.


ObRhetoricalQuestion : 
  How did the Linux kernel -- run by a dictator -- get so far ahead of
  GNU/Hurd, run by a bunch of committees trying not to offend anybody?
-- 
Gareth Owen
"And Cunct, please stop being such a prick."
                        -- wikipedia-l gains a new mantra (Wed Nov  6 2002)