[WikiEN-l] Strange fetishes

Fri Mar 4 04:44:36 UTC 2005

Quote of the day:

"It is no defense to the 3RR that the information being reverted is false."
-User:BM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/3RR#User:Adam_Carr

Runner up:

"I agree that Adam Carr was reverting a completely nonsensical edit 
(Australia is not yet a republic), but he still broke the 3RR."

-User:Noel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/3RR#User:Adam_Carr

Think of the warning signs that would alert one to the possibility of 
groupthink… I still believe that most active users sign up to Wikipedia with 
the goal of writing an encyclopedia. But over time, their behavior is shaped 
according to a whole web of relations based on the fetishization and 
ritualization of the 3RR and other policies, making them lose sight of the 
goal of writing an encyclopedia.

I concede that Wikipedia is no longer the small community it once was, but 
rather an increasingly complex and cumbersome organization comprising 
thousands of user, meaning that attention to procedure is crucial if the 
project is to be manageable. The problem is not the bureaucratization of 
Wikipedia in and of itself but rather how Wikipedia is being bureaucratized.

If Wikipedia is serious about its goal of creating an encyclopedia, it must 
develop a conflict resolution process that bans users who make nonsensical 
edits, not those who are reverting them. If it continues to follow its 
present path, the only people who'll have the patience to deal with these 
games will be cultists, LaRouchies, Holocaust deniers, and other random 
cranks.

Larry Sanger's advice (http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/30/142458/25) 
should be taken seriously while the project is still salvageable.

-172

BTW, I have asked that my adminship be revoked in unrelated correspondences. 
I have no intention of returning, regardless of this message.

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