Stop Wikipedia as an Anti-social Network

Stop Wikipedia as an Anti-social Network

Fundamentally, Wikipedia is presented to newcomers as "anyone can edit" but with numerous (unknown) restrictions and entrenched groups who foster the 6-year Clique-opedia mindset. The basic management has been self-organizing groups who rewrite policies to protect self-interest. The invited masses are also, likewise, self-interested (mostly) in their pet subject or pet person, or more likely(?) pet-products to advertize. When telling the newcomers, "No, no, there are some (many) restrictions here..." then the no-no-no dialog becomes very anti-social, as a core group of mop-carrying admins must quickly, directly say, "No means "no" and I do not have time to discuss while telling thousands more to not try it".

Now that so many rules have been set, the dialog is mostly, "No, No, that violates WP:NOT#92345 as Wikipedia is not Aardvark clothing". Instead, change the structure to invite discussions first, not edit-edit and then get screams. Instead, invite newcomers to work on old, reader-selected articles, at first, with established groups, plus a full introduction to house-style typesetting. Stop the current game of "Welcome, because I am supposed to want you here, and enough said, good luck". Instead, "Welcome, there are currently 87 teams of people who will welcome new members; if interested, then click for list of 87 and choose one". Also, there could be "950" senior teams looking for experienced editors, on advanced articles. Change most power structures into formal teams, based on protection of written individual human rights (to a fair hearing), as the "responsibility" of the team ("Jonny, we cannot write that"), allowing some team members to be more socially interactive than others. Guided by teams, then users will see less anti-social "no" and more "let's try this".

Punishments should be changed into simple demerit/merit points, where multiple violations, earning totals of demerit points will lead to a block or sanction. If someone in anger posts an insult, then give 100 subtracted demerits, plus for an apology, award 50? added merits, and issue other merits for helping reach the group goals (not merits for changing just 1 word in 50,000 articles). When demerits total to critical levels, then a user sanction-hearing discusses sanctions based on the escalated behavior, not because 7 users have been growing angry and (surprise!) all show up at en:WP:ANI to say "block this user" (when WP:IDONTLIKEIT if he disagrees). If the sanctions must be severe, then get a randomized jury vote about which sanctions, and stop the anti-social WP:ANI witch-hunts that currently pit Joe-Bob Hatfield against all the McCoys and "their cousins". In general, Wikimedia projects must diffuse power into randomized juries, and stop the anti-social wiki-family-feuds which quickly vent (canvas?) the gunny-sacked hatred of a particular clique against an individual being accused without due process, and lacking right of counsel with his chosen team, before being judged by a randomized jury, never by an entrenched special-interest group who have signaled the hunt to track down and eliminate their prey. Such hunting parties have attracted sociopaths to be judges. If a sanction is very complex, then discuss again, with a re-hearing and re-vote.

End the current era of en:The Lord of the Flies, where people fall victim to en:mobocracy as they face the torches of the angry mob in the current Franken-wiki. If the accounting of demerits (and merits), plus forum-style friendly discussions, require too much storage space, then consider purging some types of data, after a few years. Stop the current anti-social barking of "propose-a-specific-edit" or shutup orders, and if chit-chat dialogs produce too much clutter, then post them in special chat-pages which can be purged after some years. For every aspect of anti-social networking, then find an opposite social, friendly alternative to turn people away politely, not as a nuisance mass of unwanted strangers, who enter an ominous, dark cave where "anyone can edit" in total darkness [but beware clans of cave demons].

Wikid7709:34, 5 June 2011