[WikiEN-l] How to bring back people who don't want to bother?

Thu Jan 12 14:48:32 UTC 2006

uninvited at nerstrand.net wrote:

>Recent policy initiatives, such as
>the deletion of unsourced images and the restrictions on anonymous
>creation of articles, have been driven by legal, financial, and public
>relations concerns rather than anything that any contributors to the
>project have said.
>
>
I suspect that kind of policy initiative is simply more visible
because it has to happen quickly. To take an example of an internally
generated shift, consider the citing of sources. Two years ago, some
editors would routinely not supply sources, and defend their practice;
nowadays such edits risk being mass-reverted, and the editors' protests
would be met with scorn by all.

It would be nice to have more internal leadership. I think part of
the trick is to model after professional societies and trade unions,
where most leadership positions are part-time on a volunteer basis.
For instance, projects could elect lead editors, whose special role
during their terms is to preside over discussion on issues, and then
make an executive decision, thus eliminating the indecision arising
from those 56%-44% votes (think of city naming conventions). A lead
for user page policy could have saved a lot of userbox anguish by
being on top of the practice from the beginning.

Stan