[WikiEN-l] To: Jimmy Wales - Admin-driven death of Wikipedia

Tue Jun 6 22:46:42 UTC 2006

Conrad,

> * Kelly Martin wrote:
> 
>>On 6/5/06, Mark Gallagher <m.g.gallagher at student.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
>>
>>>In any case, the general thrust of Selina's comment was spot-on, so
>>>let's try not to jump on her for one clause.
>>
>>No, indeed, let us give the hypocrite a fair trial.  Then we can hang her.
> 
> What was that I was saying about the need for admins to maintain civility 
> even with 'bad' users? Oh well... probably wasn't important anyway, right?

[Note: I'm talking in generalities here, and mean no slight against
  either Selina or Kelly]

While I agree with the general idea of what you've been saying since 
your RfA passed, I think you could do with being a little less smug 
while you're saying it.

You haven't dealt with the same sorts of issues that other admins have. 
  Now, it's not necessary to fight trolls, regularly clean up heavy 
vandalism, mediate bloody disputes, etc., to be an admin, so that's no 
slight on you.  You seem to be more focused on editing the 
encyclopaedia, and that's an unvarnished Good Thing.  However, it also 
means that you have no idea what the rest of us actually *do*.  It's 
incredibly easy to stand, smugly, on the sidelines, and criticise your 
fellows --- and it's very poor form to do it from a platform of "I'm an 
admin, I know about these things," (as I've seen on ANI) when you know 
nothing of the sort.

I think admins have a responsibility to be civil and polite *on 
Wikipedia* at all times; I think the better admins out there go one 
better and are actually *pleasant* to deal with.  This is what I aim 
for; I often fall short of that goal, but it's there nevertheless.  It 
can be very difficult to maintain one's temper when dealing with 
problematic users.  That's a Bad Thing, true, but it would be nice if 
those criticising had some understanding of the difficulty.

I, too, cringe when I see other admins behaving in a manner less than 
ideal, particularly on Wikipedia, and have been known to take the issue 
up with them on many occasions.  Often a polite, private message will 
work wonders.  Standing by and pointing the finger and saying "you see 
what bastards these people on Wikipedia are?" is *not* going to improve 
anyone's behaviour, administrator or not.  It is an oft-repeated tragedy 
that people who are absolutely correct can be ignored, simply because 
the way that they make their points gets people off-side immediately. 
Please consider this; if the point you're making is important to you, it 
will be worth your while to change your mode of delivery.

Cheers,

-- 
Mark Gallagher
"What?  I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!"
- Danger Mouse