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Re: Johannes misbehavior in the wiki, and a request for admin rights (was: wiki "abuse")

From
Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com>
Date
Aug 10, 2010, 14:49 UTC
Message-ID
<AANLkTinktAhPz_zp6Hf7yanxbn4FougPZwQj9msAXUvk@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<AANLkTini7xKkncXxjv=p32PupR4W2FP3Rqm2atnsV1Q_@mail.gmail.com>
On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 10:35 AM, Sverre Rabbelier <srabbelier@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 6 quoted lines
> On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 09:16, Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I don't think it's a single incident:
>
> I do. Dscho has been keeping the old wiki clean for I don't know how
> long. He has done the same for the new wiki. I am confident that those
> other bans are for good reasons.

I also find the subject line distasteful; there is no evidence of misbehaviour, and the subject line implies that there is. I'm hesitant to change the subject line and break the thread, however.

However, the best advice I ever got about trust is: "Trust, but verify."

Right now, whether or not Johannes has done the right thing has been called into question and is resulting in such an angry thread *only* because it's impossible to verify what has actually been done. When people can verify what happened - which in this case just means looking at the deleted pages - then trust is possible and easy.

Most social problems come from the social environment, not individual people's actions. In this case, the social environment (wiki settings) have been configured explicitly to cast doubt on Johannes. It was an accident waiting to happen, and it finally happened.

The proposal to add a second admin to the wiki - or at least make deleted pages visible to one other person - is not about Johannes. It's about creating a healthy social environment that allows people to relieve their suspicion before they let it get out of control.

So far, all the counterarguments have been of the form, "But Johannes is a good guy, so we don't need to check on him." That's an invalid argument, because the real proposal (modulo the stupid subject line of this thread) is not about Johannes at all. Checking on him isn't about preventing him from being an idiot, it's about preventing everyone else from being an idiot. Which I think we can all agree at this point, would have been nice.

Have fun,
Avery
Previous: Sverre RabbelierNext: Ramkumar Ramachandra
Message 9 of 14 in “Johannes misbehavior in the wiki, and a request for admin rights (was: wiki "abuse")”
  1. Felipe ContrerasAug 10, 2010
  2. Michael J GruberAug 10, 2010
  3. Felipe ContrerasAug 10, 2010
  4. Ramkumar RamachandraAug 10, 2010
  5. Amir E. AharoniAug 10, 2010
  6. Michael J GruberAug 10, 2010
  7. Felipe ContrerasAug 10, 2010
  8. Sverre RabbelierAug 10, 2010
  9. Avery PennarunAug 10, 2010
  10. Ramkumar RamachandraAug 10, 2010
  11. Felipe ContrerasAug 10, 2010
  12. Avery PennarunAug 10, 2010
  13. Felipe ContrerasAug 10, 2010
  14. Michael WittenAug 10, 2010

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