[Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia moderators and moral authority (was Re: Repost: clear guidelines and the power to enforce) (fwd)

Sun Nov 10 00:02:19 UTC 2002

On Sat, Nov 09, 2002 at 02:50:37PM -0800, Larry Sanger wrote:
> I admit of course that I was merely stating my own opinion as to the
> seriousness of the problem.  It's hard to quantify, but it seems
> completely obvious to me.  It's not like there was a golden age of
> Wikipedia when everyone was friendly and cranks weren't in sight.  On the
> other hand, I remember writing at one point (for the "replies to our
> critics" page, I think) that we hadn't had many problems with cranks and
> internecine warfare.  Now, I really couldn't write that, and I suspect the
> "replies" page should be updated, if it hasn't already been.
> 
> What do the rest of you think?

It seems to me that the proportion of bad edits, and bad users, is no
worse now than it has generally been in the last year.

I worry that any proposed cure may be worse than the disease.

I _would_ like to see clearer guidelines on when it is appropriate to
ban people and to freeze pages. I agree with you that currently we have
users doing these things (and threatening to do them) in circumstances
which would have been surprising a year ago.

-M-