[WikiEN-l] Quality vs. consensus (was: Meanwhile, AfD grinds on)

Wed Oct 19 21:09:27 UTC 2005

Poor, Edmund W wrote:

>I think the word you're looking for is "irony". Alphax was making the
>ironic observation that an overwhelming number of Wikipedians are more
>concerned with consensus than with quality.
>
Not only that but they misunderstand the nature of consensus.  Effective 
consensus depends on having effective community.  Consensus that is 
motivated by being right and winninbg your point is not much of a consensus.

>The question I wish to address is what method or "means" will best help
>us achieve our goal. Anything which has worked so far, but is now
>proving an obstacle should be re-examined. 
>
Certainly!  There is the old saw, "Patience is a virtue."  Most of the 
disputes concerning deletions could easily be defused if those seeking 
deletions showed a little patience, and weren't so convinced that they 
are right or that a deletion can only be reversed with great difficulty. 

Maintaining deletion discussions actively open after something is 
deleted would probably have the counter-intuitive result that fewer 
would be undeleted.  At the very least, the heat would be reduced.

Ec