On Mar 9, 2004, at 05:09, Tim Starling wrote:
Erik Moeller:
That of course does not address the question what
these bureaucrats
are
*allowed* to do.
I tried to make the bureaucrat access work across wikis but Brion was
livid.
Not exactly. When we first set up the 'bureaucrat' system, somebody
(snok?) snuck in interwiki control to it. This made the Sysop Cabal
refuse to *allow* the people who needed it to get it (sysops on smaller
wikis to manage their own affairs) on the fear that Some Bad Person
would use sock puppet accounts on small wikis, trick people into
getting bureaucrat access, and then make sysops on the English
Wikipedia to do Bad Things.
Later, Tim tried to hack it back in. In addition to the fact that
having it destroys the entire point because of the reaction (see
above), the code was tied to Wikipedia's setup and not a clean thing to
have in the general code.
I tested the water on giving bureaucrats the power to
desysop on
#wikipedia,
and the answer I got was firmly negative. What I'm proposing is a
minimal
change, by replacing developer power with the power of a small set of
users
who are selected by an appropriate process. Currently, any software
engineer
can get shell access by putting in a few hours of work, or by bringing
a
unique skill to the group. It's hardly a good way to select the
management
of an organisation.
As developers we do *not* manage the social structure of the wiki. We
are servants. We try to keep the servers running smooth and clean and
improve the functioning of the wiki. I'm not sure I understand what
you're suggesting be _changed_.
-- brion vibber (brion @
pobox.com)