Large Problems Are Community Problems

Large problems unlikely to be the works of one or two individuals.

Its probably a result of the complex interactions amongst several relevant sources of CommunityProblems. I advise interested persons to consult our sister site MeatBall (first-timers start at http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?MeatballForCtwoPeople), which has special interest in the SocialDynamics of online communities.

When we accept the assertion above as a "possibility" we are in a better position to prevent future recurrence, or to contain future recurrences earlier and more effectively.

The SelfDeceit / ApathyCalcified pages were born during the height of the EditWars. So was the remodelling of the old FiveStagesOfGrief page.

We need to recognize and acknowledge our tendency to accept quick-blame and quick-fix solutions. Part of that recognition is to bring the "annoying possibilities" into our conscious mind, more importantly to do so when it is "inconvenient".

In 2005 I noticed the Edit wars which got carried over from earlier <?"2004 Spring Cleaning"> got into a unmanageable state.

And even now, mid Mar05, with edit controls in place, there are some change/revert stuff still going on.

So it should not all be the problem of the easy BlameTarget?, Robert. He has a significant role in the discomforts, but he has also good points, see his posts at SpookyDistance? re: WikiPedia deletes. I do not know the downsides of slowing down deletes. But perhaps it need more exploration.

See also on MeatBall, the page on LynchMob. Severe attacks initiated via IpUsername bear some resemblance to the description. It appeared this kind of thing happened with SamGentle times, and will probably repeat if this community does not device a mechanism to discourage that. -- dl

Early 2005 views

I shared the following statement with a C2 VIP in email very recently, hope to get some comments from community as well.

I hope people who have suffered most in the recent chaos do not take a hardened view as victors. Peace lasted much longer after WW2 (compared to WW1) due to compassion and generosity towards the losers.

CategoryCommunication (for now)