On 15 April 2013 18:39, Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com> wrote:
"You're an idiot, and you're damaging the
project. It's not about
copyright, or understanding it. What I'll do is to keep swearing at
you, and I'll be uploading tons of files onto en.WP, not Commons. That
will just disadvantage other users, and will cause Commons admins more
work eventually in having to go through the process of transferring
them to Commons. I will refuse to categorise. And I will encourage all
other editors to do the same. Continue your personal vendetta against
me—fine. Again, you and your thug friends on Commons are idiots and
deserve no respect. Tony (talk) 15:15, 15 April 2013 (UTC)"
That's the comment Charles refers to. Oops! I can see why some
frustration on Tony1's part is legit; a Commons admin deleted the
image illustrating the Signpost article on the attempt by the DCRI to
have a French Wikipedia article deleted, and then failed to explain it
in a way that would make sense to a non-expert. You won't see me argue
against accusations that Commons is dysfunctional, but the response is
clearly way out of proportion.
But the point that I made, and that probably hundreds of people have
made before me, is that there isn't much we can do without altering
the fundamental architecture of the community.
Actually, that is defeatist talk, and we can.
It is completely clear that some editors use incivility consciously as
a tactic. (The cited conversation is a smoking gun, if one were
needed.) Such people should be sanctioned. Many more people have a
temper (come to think of it, just about everyone does), and the point
needs to be made that sanctioning those who use incivility
systematically and disruptively does not mean sanctioning everyone on
the planet.
Then perhaps we could deal more rationally with the issue that
discussions on enWP are often conducted in the wrong "register".
Charles