[Wikipedia-l] I'm seeing a trend here or How to keep driving away good contributors

[koyaanisqatsi at nupedia.com]

You Wrote:
>I fight to keep things open, not to tolerate
>anti-social behaviour, but to keep Wikipedia from
>becoming the online equivalent of a police state. I
>believe that soft security is the best way to run a
>wiki community, and that too much hard security will
>eventaully kill us.
>
>If we lock down Wikipedia too tighly, we'll lose
>*most* of our great contributors.
>
>Stephen G.

I agree with this.  Just for the record, I don't intend to ban people for name-calling or even being stubborn--I had that opportunity in the case of 24, and thought it was not something that should be done.  I just would like to codify our expectations of what users should do:  simply try to treat each other with respect.  Give each other the benefit of the doubt.  Avoid personal attacks.

I do think this is very important.  Not everyone has been on the net long; and it's quite easy when first starting online to miss the fact that there are people at a monitor somewhere reading what you just wrote.  Online newbies flame a lot without thinking; wikipedia newbies do it a lot too.  Let's just make it explicit and encourage people not to.

Let's face it: if we had always been as quick to ban as we are right now, then Larry, The Cunctator, Ed Poor, LDC, and I would all have been banned at one time or another, possibly permanently.  (24 is still banned, isn't he?  That was meant to be temporary).  We've all been trollish, disrespectful, and/or stubborn at one time or another for various reasons.  But look: Larry has contributed some fine philosophy articles and was crucial in codifying NPOV; The Cunctator has contributed fine articles on the Sept. 11 attacks and is this list's consciensce; Ed is now a diplomat extraordinaire; Lee is an excellent coder and a workhorse who's also written some first-rate articles on poker.

What I would like is a page to encourage people to be how we want them to be, instead of punishing when they're not.  Something simple & direct, e.g. [[Wikipedia:Staying cool when the editing gets hot]].  I don't want to ban everyone who uploads goatse.cx or is adamant about a point of view, but I also don't want people insulting each other and leaving out of frustration.  We are a community; we all have the same goals; we all have something to contribute.  Let's keep the process open, and let's be as generous with others as others were with us.  :-)

kq