[WikiEN-l] Wikiquette "committee"

Fri Oct 3 01:37:47 UTC 2003

>LittleD said Wikipedia's goal is to make an
>encyclopedia, not a judicial system. Any big debates
>that are not solved by mediation could just go on
>village pump, an article talk page, or, if it's
really >hard to resolve, the mailing list. A private
messaging >system would be useful (but possibly
difficult to >impliment), but more than that would be
too much. The >user talk system seems to work well
currently; maybe I >missed something about an actual
problem with it that's >come up.
>LDan

Usually, a conflict gets out of the way of the pump
very quickly. It is inflating the page very quickly.
Going to the talk page is obviously the direction, but
once the conflict has cristallized, it tends the leave
the talk page anyway.
Now with experience, I recommand that you don't head
for the mailing list for an edit war issue, except to
just tell people what is occuring if nobody noticed.
Two reasons for this. The first is that you annoy some
people who don't care at all about your problem (and
it regularly happens with other topics as well, which
extend for days on the ml).
The second is for you. Once people are upset that you
impose your problem on them, not only do you have to
cope with the other user with whom you are in conflict
with, but you also have to cope with angry editors,
who feel you are abusing them. That may generate even
more mails, public or private, and does not really
help you to quiet down.

Private mediation is already occuring anyway, but
perhaps this way would insure that *everyone* could
benefit from it, and from a neutral pov as regards the
conflict. Which all do not benefit I am sure.

Now, I see not how it would apply to ips or to people
refusing to give an email adress.

Finally, mediation could have two different goals. One
would be to solve the issue surrounding the topic, and
this should be public ihmo. And one dealing with
personalities conflicts. This one should be private.
It could be better than these two goals are separated.
imho.

Otherwise, I find the idea interesting and worth exploring.

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