[WikiEN-l] Semi-solid evidence that process is in fact dangerous to Wikipedia

Tue Sep 5 09:26:21 UTC 2006

On 9/4/06, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 04/09/06, maru dubshinki <marudubshinki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > "Who Writes Wikipedia?" (
> http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia )
>
> > "This fact does have enormous
> > policy implications. If Wikipedia is written by occasional
> > contributors, then growing it requires making it easier and more
> > rewarding to contribute occasionally. Instead of trying to squeeze
> > more work out of those who spend their life on Wikipedia, we need to
> > broaden the base of those who contribute just a little bit.
> > Unfortunately, precisely because such people are only occasional
> > contributors, their opinions aren't heard by the current Wikipedia
> > process. They don't get involved in policy debates, they don't go to
> > meetups, and they don't hang out with Jimbo Wales. And so things that
> > might help them get pushed on the backburner, assuming they're even
> > proposed."
>
>
> This means that if we want the content to grow and be *good*, we need
> to be more newbie-friendly.
>
> This is also a BIG stick to use on Byzantine overengineered processes
> and policy. Excessive process is actively newbie-hostile.
>
> Look at Debian, bogged down in process, to the point where Richard
> Stallman failed to make it in as a Debian maintainer for his own
> software because of excessive process. Look how it took Ubuntu to give
> it a much-needed rocket up the arse. Without Ubuntu, we'd still be
> waiting on Etch. Will it take someone doing a successful fork to
> decalcify Wikipedia policy?
>
> Greg - you might want to ask Aaron for what he ran, in case you can
> run better numbers across the whole database more easily.

You can't expect a site the size of Wikipedia to run without a serious
amount of policy.
If we stop adding policies things like living person bios would have
degenerated into flame wars with no way out. Newbies do face a steeper
learning curve, but in the end it is best for Wikipedia and it is the
project rather than the newbies we should care about. -

Mgm