https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30208

--- Comment #49 from James Alexander <[email protected]> 2011-09-14 
06:59:04 UTC ---
<First off I should say this is being said completely as a volunteer
([[User:Jamesofur]] ) and not as a staff member in any way. The only reason
this is being posted from my staff email is because that's what bugzilla is set
up to use>

I'm sorry that you think this and I know you've worked long and hard on this. I
for one am incredibly appreciative of this and all the work you've done even if
I strongly disagree with your conclusions. 

Users have been complaining about how hard it is to edit and create pages for
years and this is actually obvious on the RfC page for this bug as well where
an enormous amount of people are talking about alternatives such as using a
better AfC or Article Wizard to make it easier for new users and make sure they
understand our policies and procedures (as obscenely diverse and awkward as
they can be). I would strongly oppose your suggestion that 4-500 people in that
poll agree with you that this is the wrong direction.

In fact I'm not sure that I can agree with the suggestion that 500 people
agreed to do this. Around 500 people commented on the poll with the most common
'support' having around 230 votes and the most common 'oppose' having around
100. They had an enormously wide variety of arguments with strong (and
emotional) opinions on both sides of the arguments. Even within the 'support'
group the actual arguments were widely different and a significant portion even
said they supported it only if the tools like AfC were vastly improved.

When you read though the opinions there I'd also say a lot of them agree that
creating pages is user-hostile and far more difficult then it should be. In
fact many of them used that as a REASON to support the RfC (because they
thought it would be better for the new users). 

Obviously this is totally up to you but if you have some time I'd take a look
at some of the recent research especially the Summer of Research data at
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Wikimedia_Summer_of_Research_2011
especially the pieces on things like what type of articles are being created . 

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Patroller_work_load is an interesting
sub study from SoR that is also directly related to this and the data oddly
seems to say that the work load for patrollers (and the top patrollers) has
gotten progressively less of a workload. Obviously there is a disconnect here
as you guys feel overworked but I think it's a very specific pointer that
something (other then crazy new users and patroller work load) is at play here. 

Again thank you for all your work both on this and everywhere on wiki. I'm not
trying to 'convince' you I just want to point to some of the thought processes
that at least I'm having. I'm also sorry to hear that you seem to think that
the WMF is acting in either bad faith or just badly in general. Obviously I can
be regarded as biased in this but I will tell you that every single person who
has been in any way involved in this has taken it incredibly seriously. The
debates have been tough and the answers not completely apparent and every
single person wanted to live up to the spirit of the community and do what was
best for ALL users (not just new users).

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