on 2/25/07 8:38 PM, Michael Snow at wikipedia(a)earthlink.net wrote:
In fact, most of the
community's social problems arise because people are too "clueless" or
"crazy" to recognize the limits of their competence.
Emotional maturity includes "I know that I can not know".
We need to figure
out how we can better push for more competent
contributors.
Emotional or intellectual?
Wikipedia's best contributors are those wise enough to know their own
limitations. They hardly ever cause a stir because they don't overreach
these limitations, or else they put the necessary effort into overcoming
them. Unfortunately, far too many people lack either the self-awareness
or self-control to respect their own limitations. That means we have to
apply external controls. This may range from deleting content that is
not helpful at all, to mercilessly editing poor-quality but salvageable
content, to evicting contributors who are an overall detriment to the
project. The proper uses of such remedies are tricky issues that require
an abundance of good judgment. The community's ability to cope with that
problem, the constant need for good and careful judgment, has not scaled
very well.
Now you are presenting to the culture. It is long overdue here.
Marc Riddell