[WikiEN-l] Contest and quality

Wed Sep 13 17:05:40 UTC 2006

On 13/09/06, Nathaniel <spangineer at gmail.com> wrote:

> I guess I would be hesitant to judge the overall FAC process based on the
> interaction between Francesco and FAC regulars.  Rare are FACs that get so
> heated (I recall the GNAA and Bulbasaur FACs, and that's it).  In this case,
> it seems both sides (I include myself in this) got defensive when they
> perceived that their opinions were under attack (for Francesco, that his
> writing was poor, and for Tony/Sandy/Me, that the standards we've been
> applying to FACs for months are faulty).  In the end (which occurred after
> Francesco's initial complaints on WT:FAC), I think pretty much everyone
> agreed that the article was at least somewhat better than it was when the
> nomination started.  And everyone was much more calm, that's for sure.

I think a process which tests Wikipedia content creators to
destruction, and whose advocates actually think this is a good thing
for a process to do, is prima facie pathological and needs removal as
soon as possible. It's way too damaging to the community.

> As for people disappearing and not striking their objections, yes, that
> happens, but in my experience Raul usually ignores these after several days
> if the nominator makes a note under the objection saying that he/she has
> addressed the objection.  Of course, sometimes it doesn't work out that way,
> especially for nominations receiving few comments.

I'm wondering if FAC shouldn't be officially deprecated - it could be
preserved as a source of quirkies for the front page, but it certainly
seems less and less like anything to do with general Wikipedia
quality.

- d.