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List:       wikien-l
Subject:    Re: [WikiEN-l] Developer/Wiki relationship (was: Deployments today)
From:       Thomas Morton <morton.thomas () googlemail ! com>
Date:       2011-07-04 9:21:00
Message-ID: CAKO2H798Svu86dma0inko0d58xv54ek9FMFSz9uJj_YOu0jp7A () mail ! gmail ! com
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>
> Personally, I don't see why "community discussion" and "consensus" is
> required for each and every change or addition to the software.
>

I agree, actually. Indeed had this been taken to community discussion I
doubt we would have the tool - it's probably better (considering the
customisation) to have been landed with it with little discussion and for
the community to figure out how best they can use it.

Because it can be useful.


> Sometimes, bold action is truly the only way to move the encyclopedia
> forward, especially in the face of those who generally don't like
> change.


Yes; the key problem is assessing when roadblocks are there purely because
of a few curmudgeons or because the community simply does not want X.

Indeed the community wants lots of Y, and it probably sticks in a few
peoples craw that instead they got X :)

In this case the objections are genuine, and related to a crucial argument
(i.e. the "FacebooK" thing) that has not yet been resolved. For those
utterly opposed to socialising Wikipedia (under genuine arguments, I feel)
this risks coming across as an attempt to impose such things de-facto.

Not the case at all, of course, but all I am saying is that if lines of
communications had been opened the devs would have been aware of the touchy
subject and could have taken steps to show how this didn't step on
toes/issues.

Ideally better communication wouldn't have blocked deployment, just smoothed
the way :)

Many times, the community in general does hold back many
> additional innovations the developers may come up with solely for the
> sake of "process". This article parallels such conflict between
> "process" and "development":
>
> http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/05/process-kills-developer-passion.html
>
>
Exactly; which is why any line of communication should be two way - because
as much as the developers tend to lack access to the communities feelings
the reverse is true - the community lacks insight into the developers.
Programmers (of which I am one!) are pretty good at progress and subverting
process for the betterment of things (a form of "Ignore All Rules") and
dialogue back into the community can only help improve that.

Tom
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