On 7 September 2014 23:54, Marc A. Pelletier <m...@uberbox.org> wrote:
> On 09/07/2014 01:57 AM, Diego Moya wrote: > > a major property of a document-centric architecture that is lost in a > > structured one is that it's open-ended, which means that end users can > > build new features and flows on top of it, without the need to request > the > > platform developers to build support for them (sometimes even without > > writing new software at all; new workflows can be designed and maintained > > purely through social convention). > > And yet, after over a decade of open-ended design through social > convention, the end result is... our current talk pages. Perhaps > another decade or two will be needed before that document-centric > architecture gives us a half-decent discussion system? > > Sorry if that sound snarky, but I have difficulty buying an argument > that the current system has the potential to suffice when it has > demonstrably already failed. It does no good to have the hypothetical > capacity for a good system if, in practice, it's unusable. > > -- Marc > > I suppose the question really is, has it failed? On what basis are we saying that our current discussion system is unusable? Simply put, I'd suggest that the problem isn't the system, it's the discussion process itself that has points of failure. The replacement of actual discussion with templates is a point of failure, and that will not be improved by a change in the platform if all that happens is we use basically the same templates to have the same non-discussions. Nothing in the technology, either document-based or open-ended, will change the nature of the discourse itself; rude people will still be rude, erudite people will still be erudite, and none of will change the snark on Jimbo Wales's talk page. A significant percentage of Wikimedians rarely use talk pages at all (and a goodly number of those identify as exopedians), but no evidence that the percentage of Wikimedians who eschew social interaction has changed significantly, or that those with a low level of contribution to discussion space are doing so because they find the *technology* unappealing. Risker/Anne _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
