[WikiEN-l] An observation

Sun Nov 12 22:53:01 UTC 2006

> On Nov 12, 2006, at 3:58 PM, Ryan Wetherell wrote:
> 
> > Sigvardsson seemed to be suggesting that we need
> to do something to
> > "fix" the gender imbalance issue on Wikipedia.  I
> think that nothing
> > can be done, people will and should come and go as
> they please,
> > regardless of gender.  I'm not really sure what
> kinds of ideas
> > Sigvardsson might have other than, as Barrett
> pointed out, quotas,
> > which are totally ridiculous and unnecessary in
> these circumstances.
> > Sorry if my inference was incorrect/mangled.
> 
> Quotas are not the only way to encourage female
> participation in  
> aspects of Wikipedia.
> 
> 1) Encourage female friends who are knowledgeable
> about subjects to  
> contribute
> 2) Encourage female contributors to stand for
> adminship and the arbcom
> 3) Consider the importance of gender balance in
> arbcom in making your  
> selections in the arbcom elections.
> 
> None of these involve establishing quotas - they
> involve considering  
> issues of gender (or race, or sexuality, or anything
> else you're  
> invested in here) in making choices.

I think that's the wrong approach there. We've gone
from we need to establish quota's to everyone should
take other factors into account when deciding to
elect. We should look at wiki-philosophy, maturity,
and contributions. If nobody revealed anything about
themselves (ie Gender, race, local, biases), then
that's what we'd do. Asking us to vote for someone
because of a reason that isn't related to DR or
ArbComm at all is silly. Next thing will be that we
need more people who self identify as anarchists,
communists, and facists on the ArbComm.

-[[en:User:Royalguard11]]

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