QUOTE(CharlotteWebb @ Sun 6th December 2009, 12:17pm)
QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Sun 6th December 2009, 4:46pm)
threaten to resign en masse unless the community agrees some way forward in six weeks. You can focus minds, or you can at least try.
Note that the community will call your bluff every time, if that matters to anyone.
To my mind the only encouraging developments in the past two years on Wikipedia has been the rapid increase in the
scale of the infrastructure under Gardner. Keep in mind that I am only talking about scale and do not approve of the direction it has taken. The worst illustration of this direction is Gardner's selection of Moeller as her #2. Still this development of infrastructure is not unimportant. It is an absolute prerequisite for a responsible WMF. The Wikipedia of Flo-Flo and Danny (not friends, I know) could never even hope to be responsible. They would always have been dominated by an ultra-libertarian "community."
If WMF continues to grow as it has in the past two years it might be able to reshuffle priorities. WMF needs a large cadre of staff working not on PR but program, editorial and content. Perhaps with a staff of 150 or 200 and budget around $20 - 25,000,000/yr. they could could assure high quality content, retain experts as needed, resolve BLP problems, adopt meaningful child protection measures and obtain independent dispute resolution. They might even find the benefits of responsibility are greater than those of immunity. A top 10 website with staffing and budget on this scale is in no way remarkable.
The collapse of the projects most important "community" organ, ArbCom, would serve as an opportunity for WMF assuming more responsibility. It might also result in matters defaulting into the hands of darker and even more irresponsible elements in "the community. In any case an activist ArbCom trying desperately to address the projects problems is only a stop-gap.