| Revision as of 00:45, 22 June 2007 editTom harrison (talk | contribs)Administrators47,534 edits links← Previous edit | Revision as of 00:50, 22 June 2007 edit undoTom harrison (talk | contribs)Administrators47,534 edits catNext edit → | ||
| Line 26: | Line 26: | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 00:50, 22 June 2007
- This is a Misplaced Pages userpage. For the major league pitcher see Tom Harrison. For the anthropologist, see Tom Harrisson.
We seem to have built a system that accommodates people whose net contribution is negative, while alienating some of our best volunteers. I by no means put this on anyone in particular, or include myself among the best. Most experienced users do a fine job in general, and a majority write more and better than I do. Many admins, foundation employees, and OTRS volunteers work hard for the project. Mostly I have done minor but useful stuff as a copy-editor, and tried to keep the good writers from being bothered by morons. If anyone reading this cares enough to worry that I am talking about him, I am almost certainly not.
It happens more and more that some loudmouth jackass causes enough trouble that it seems easier to accommodate him. This is short-sighted, and is why the fraction of jerks here is growing. What should we do instead? Keep people who help the project, loose people who do not, and protect each other from harassment. We could do that if we only had to deal with opposition by trolls and vandals. We cannot do it against the opposition of established members of the community. There are dozens of apparently respected users who are either not here to write an encyclopedia, are actively working against the goals of the project, or are pursuing vendettas against others. Everyone knows it, but we must Assume Good Faith.
Good volunteers are routinely harassed in real life and eventually driven from the project, or abused on-site until it becomes intolerable, while the rest of us bend over backwards to be fair to the harassers, urging the victims to grow a thicker skin, vigorously condemning any admin who blocks an established user. And God forbid we should tell people not to link sites that attack our volunteers.
Of course I am an administrator. Why do I not just block these jerks and delete the nonsense they post? That's my job, right? Some people are effectively untouchable (It would be easier if we would just maintain a list). There are far more people who will critique or undo an admin action than will do almost anything else. The magic word to summon that hoard is 'IRC.' In practice, we do not enforce any policies but 3rr and blp, and sometimes I wonder about blp. Personal attacks and harassment are forbidden? No, they are not. They are allowed, and repeated. Civility is official policy? No; incivility and even threats are as often as not rewarded with special accommodations. Neutrality and original research are whatever the majority says they are. BLP applies to some people who edit here, but not to others, and it is enforced unevenly otherwise.
Until the community wants to change these things, there are better places to spend time and less annoying places to volunteer. This probably sounds like I am leaving the project with a curse. I'm not. I will still be here off and on, cleaning up csd, reverting vandalism, removing the latest brain-dead conspiracy theory, adding the odd copy-edit or citation. Ultimately what work is done will be by people who choose to work in the environment we all maintain here.
| This is a Wikipedia user page.
If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated, and that the user this page belongs to may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia itself. The original page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tom_harrison. |
 |