[WikiEN-l] The difficulty of retaining volunteer writers

Fri Dec 2 21:53:09 UTC 2005

--- "Poor, Edmund W" <Edmund.W.Poor at abc.com> wrote:
> SlimVirgin is about to leave, and Essjay has already left. 
> And I'm so upset by recent events that I'm poised on the brink, 
> too. It seems the only way to deal with breakdowns in 
> collegiality is simply to leave - or say you're considering 
> it.
> 
> The emotional cost - not to mention the time cost - of stopping 
> a fellow contributor from directing abusive language at 
> another contributor has always been rather high, but it has 
> reached a new high of late.
> 
> By defending SlimVirgin against what FuelWagon HIMSELF conceded 
> was an "accusation" (his words), I find myself hauled before the
> arbitration committee. I am told that I must say something in 
> MY DEFENSE, with dark hints of un-mentioned adverse consequences 
> to me if I just leave it alone.
> 
> It's just too much trouble to sift through FuelWagon's 2000+ 
> word statement (which should only be 500, by the way). 
> 
> He made a personal attack, I blocked his account for 3 hours. 
> No one has told me (by email, IRC, or wiki talk page) that I 
> have done wrong in this.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Admins need more authority to enforce all our
policies. But, and this is important, they should get other admins to do the enforcement in cases
that will likely be challenged. This is especially important when admins are involved in edit
disputes; the involved admin should not enforce policy on their opponents unless the enforcement
was for something that would generally be considered to be obvious vandalism. The admin
noticeboard is a good place to bring cases like this to the attention of other admins. But those
other admins will not do anything unless they feel they have the authority to do so. 

I’m sick of the high turnover of good contributors too. We need to fix that if we want to
encourage a productive work environment. This bullshit has got to stop so we can concentrate on
creating the world’s best encyclopedia. Openness is a means to an end. Nothing more. Crackpots,
POV pushers, and trolls are not welcome. 

-- mav

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