Tuesday 19 August 2008

Commons suffrage poll

Here we go again, for the third time. There are issues about other Wikimedia communities coming to Commons to skew the politics there. Unlike Meta, where there are notes on much of the elections that mention activity on other projects, Commons is a content-producing community that also has some users calling it their home project; myself included. A considerable amount of the greater Wikimedia community do not seem to understand that fact, much like the fact that my community in real life does not understand that native East Asian people with names in their native language do not have middle names (case in point: I don't have a middle name).

On to this suffrage poll. From the looks of the last two polls, no consensuses were reached due to the complex nature. A careful look at this poll does not see any consensuses forming at the last two options; the first option (edits in the past month) seems to be ruled out of the picture, at least for now. Support for edits in the past year note the ideal amount of edits needed to stay active, but the opposition, mainly in the 150 edits/year sub-option, say the bar may be a bit high. Looking at the no change option, backers mention that the system is not broken and that the other options on the poll can be gamed; the opposition say that no change is not good.

Regarding my opinion (if anyone asks): I don't have one. This situation is much too complex for me to express in seven votes, and it's not like I will influence anything. I can live with whatever comes out of this poll.

Final thought: As I said above, this situation is very complex. So complex that it cannot and will not take a few polls and discussions to solve the situation; it needs lots of input in many different ways: not just in collecting, but how it is collected. It really doesn't look like the community who would like this situation solved is trying hard enough to work out a solution.

Monday 28 July 2008

IRC meeting re group contacts

I don't really think I can say much more than "this meeting was like a bunch of cows running around in prairieland". Should have been at least as organised as those Magnusdebates I used to attend. The log speaks for itself.

To make a long story short: the meeting was utter chaos.