Restore Civility

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide the lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best. --RobertHeinlein

I suggest that the DeclineOfCivility is at the root of the WikiCivilWar? we're presently experiencing. All the various mechanisms of war - EditWar, FlameWar, DeleteWar?, and now SpamWar? - are nothing new and could have been brought to bear on wiki at any time in the last ten years. The idea that the WikiCivilWar? is simply caused by errant WikiVandals is supportable but naive; it's plain that these vandals are in fact longstanding members of our community.

How do you reach someone who GaveUpOnCivility?? That's a good question. Suggestions welcomed below.

How do you reach to someone who GaveUpOnTruthfulness? ?

Suggestions

Dueling:

Have the community back off so that it is clear who is involved, then let them duke it out.
- Pro: Gets the rest of us out of the line of fire.
- Con: Might take a very long time. Might not solve the problem. Might actually encourage incivility.

IP Blocking, other forceful measures:

Do what society does with miscreants--use forceful corrective action (up to and including removal from the community).
- Pro: Makes civil conversants feel they have a recourse.
- Con: Has already been tried.
- Con: Promotes fear and recrimination. Wastes the time of the WikiPolice. Seems to actually promote the DeclineOfCivility through brinkmanship, impersonation, trolling, etc.

Identify the participants:

Watching an edit-war, makes more sense as to who is involved when checked with the posts script. [To help clear up confusion over IP identity use: http://c2.com/cgi/posts?PageNameGoesHere Example: http://c2.com/cgi/posts?RestoreCivility]
- Pro: tells us who to blame, who to block, who to watch - also, flamewars are enormously fun to watch for some.
- Con: Exacerbates the problem by making participants defensive.
- Con: Doesn't RestoreCivility unless participants have an active sense of shame, which they most likely do not.

Make it hot:

Most of these evil self-absorbed fuckers can dish it out but not take it. So dish it out until they fuck off.
- Gee, seems worth a try. If we all do it, sit on their home pages and call 'em what they are. It might take a few months - but what else are we going to do?

Watching an edit-war, makes more sense as to who is involved when checked with the posts script. [To help clear up confusion over IP identity use: http://c2.com/cgi/posts?PageNameGoesHere Example: http://c2.com/cgi/posts?RestoreCivility]