Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:39, 2 March 2007

• How about semi-protecting this page, too, before it gets heavily trolled? – Chacor 14:50, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Could be a good idea - Skysmith 14:54, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Only when it becomes problematic. Anons are part of the community and “…these questions are to gauge community opinion…”. --Van helsing 14:58, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I went ahead and semi-protected the page. If Essjay's talk page is a good indicator, then there's going to be a fair amount of ugliness on here and it'd be preferable to keep this page a bit neater. Anons are indeed a part of the community, but they don't get to vote in RfBs, ArbCom elections and what not. I think this is of the same stripe. Anons are still free to join the discussion on the noticeboard itself. A Train 15:09, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Why not an RFC?

Maybe I'm ignorant, but why was this started as a Community noticeboard subpage rather than a formal RFC? -- nae'blis 15:33, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm not opposed to RFC, but think this situation falls outside of normal protocol where community consensus carries weight, since decisions regarding this ultimately are up to Essjay and Jimbo. So, I think a petition format is the way to go, with people registering their opinions in one single place rather than the many talk pages and mailing list (and probably IRC too) as has been going on the past few days. --Aude (talk) 15:40, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Just to put this into perspective

"I've never deleted a userbox and I don't forsee myself getting involved with that in the future." - Cyde, Misplaced Pages:Requests_for_adminship/Cyde. Milto LOL pia 15:39, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

• As one of those who opposed Cyde's adminship on the userbox issue, I will say that these two things are worlds apart. The userboxes hardly made any dent to Misplaced Pages's reputation, since nobody outside Misplaced Pages noticed the Userbox wars of February 2006. This thing has a great potential of bringing Misplaced Pages into disrepute however. Sjakkalle (Check!) 15:52, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

To be fair, the future is now, and by and large I am no longer involved in them :-P Cyde Weys 17:51, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Personal attacks need to end

Regardless of sentiments, surely everyone here knows that personal attacks are against policy. I think it is best for people to cease calling Essjay a "liar" and similar. He has had a reputation of being one of the least likely editors to be incivil, so even though many posting here are angry/disappointed/bewildered, doesn't give them the right to attack Essjay. State your case with some decency. Thanks.--MONGO 16:21, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Only to put your helpful remark in perspective, the word's an accurate description of his thoroughly documented and admitted behaviour and hence is not a personal attack. That said though, yeah, directly and wantonly putting into the form of a noun and calling him a "liar" could still needlessly stir things up. Gwen Gale 16:30, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Pretty much what I am trying to say is that it is one thing to state "I think he has been lying" and another to simply outright call him a "liar".--MONGO 16:35, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I used the word myself - probably unwise - but something being true doesn't make it any less of an attack. If I called Editor X an idiot and he truly was, that would not help anything. Milto LOL pia 16:32, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

New question

See Misplaced Pages:Community_noticeboard/Essjay#Essjay.27s_word_should_not_be_taken_in_content_disputes - this is what the encyclopedic (i.e. not related to Misplaced Pages's irrelevant public image) concerns are mostly about, and seems to be the thing people are most pissed about regarding internal affairs. Maybe focusing the RAGE AND HATRED on this subject will show people how irrelevant his credentials are to his past vandalfighting/maintenance stuff. Milto LOL pia 16:26, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Brandt

Why is Brandt's role in this even being considered? Don't let him influence any Misplaced Pages opinions if you hate him so much. The idea that "this sucks more because Brandt was the one who put it together" seems wrong to me. Milto LOL pia 16:35, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

We need better straws

The present bunch of questions is too focused on Essjay. I fear we are not asking the community anything useful. The community cannot (and shouldn't) arbitrate, and the community shouldn't (and cannot) demand anything from an unpaid volunteer. Whether Essjay should resign from his posts is an argument between him and his conscience. If the community wants externally enforced repercussions, a case must be brought before the people who are tasked with arbitration— why isn't it there yet? Another thing the community can and should do is figure out what Misplaced Pages can learn from this incident and how to prevent future incidents of this nature. I propose the following questions (with my responses filled in because I like signing my name). — Kaustuv Chaudhuri 17:33, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Removed my proposal as this is now troll central and I have better ways to spend my evening. — Kaustuv Chaudhuri 17:55, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

What a load of crap

This is nothing but an enormous personal attack and should be deleted in its entirety. What do you epxect to do with this "straw poll" which has not been at all advertised? Assume that Essjay will immediately get down on his knees and abide by any results which would come from this bogus vote? And since when did Misplaced Pages become a democracy, anyway? If you have a problem with Essjay, file an RfA, this is not going to do anything but make people yell at each other. Corvus cornix 17:39, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Like how people are going to yell at you for your deletion nomination of this page? Seriously. – Chacor 17:43, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree, a public poll is not necessarily the best way to handle this. InBC 17:41, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

The poll has been rather civil from what I've seen. There's nothing inherently wrong with gauging editors' opinions through a straw poll, especially with the understanding that it's not intended to decide on what action(s) should be taken. At a minimum it lets people vent their frustration in a central forum that other can easily avoid or ignore if they so choose. ChazBeckett 17:47, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think this is a big problem, or a personal attack, but I do think it would make sense to give Essjay more chance to respond to the already substantial calls for him to step down before seeking to quantify support for his resignation. Presumably he will say something more on this issue, and we should now wait to hear it, at least for a reasonable time. Christopher Parham (talk) 17:52, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages Watch and hivemind are loving all of this drama, I'm sure. Corvus cornix 18:39, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

Am I missing something?

Simple question: what did Essay do? With diffs, plz. And I strongly suggesting posting a summary on top of the article.-- _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk}  18:36, 2 March 2007 (UTC)