[Foundation-l] "Wikidrama" and autonomy of Wikimedia projects

Tue Aug 12 22:44:04 UTC 2008

2008/8/11 mike.lifeguard <mike.lifeguard at gmail.com>

> >The outcome of the discussion on
> >en.wp
> >was clear - usurping en.wp contributors required the assent of an en.wp
> >bureaucrat,
> >who must abide by en.wp rules.
> Luckily, there are many projects which do not have such a policy.
>
> >so its up to the local community to proscribe and police that sort
> >of
> >undesirable activity.
> Luckily, the wiki in question, and indeed most wikis, do not have a rule or
> guideline on this issue (though I believe it is fairly straightforward).
>
> >A bunch of en.wp users showing up to vote in a
> >checkuser
> >election on another project seems strange and wrong, but again its down to
> >the suffrage policy of that project to control such events.
> Luckily, the wiki in question doesn't have a suffrage policy.
>
> Whether this lack of policy/rule/guideline/whatever is a problem is
> debatable. For example, English Wikibooks has not suffered for lack of a
> renaming policy (or blocking policy for that matter!).
>
> In other cases, a user may feel their hands are tied because there is no
> policy which says "This is the right thing to do." In cases where policy is
> lacking, good judgment must be used.
>
> When good judgment does not prevail, there is a problem. Those who whine
> about wikis not having a certain policy should realize that that situation
> is not in and of itself a problem. This applies as much on a single project
> as on multiple projects. We simply do not need a global policy for
> everything - efforts to do so will largely fail.
>
> That said, the issues raised by Cary are real, and we need to discuss how
> best to deal with them. My point here is to warn that writing a global
> policy for every niche where no policy lives may not be the best way
> forward.
>
> Mike
>

English Wikibooks, Commons, Wikiquote etc are pretty small compared to
English Wikipedia. The sheer size requires some sort of order. On smaller
wikis such as Meta and Simple English Wikipedia, we more rely on "good
judgement" than strictly following policies. I don't think a global policy
is needed. Local projects should make their own decisions, for the best
interests of what we're all here for: the content, not ourselves. If the
user in question ever wanted to edit Wikiquote, he or she can create another
username and contribute in that way. All this "me me me" attitude is bad -
it's the content that's our number one priority.

-- 
Alex
(User:Majorly)