QUOTE(TungstenCarbide @ Sun 25th December 2011, 1:03am)
QUOTE(Doc glasgow @ Sun 25th December 2011, 12:51am)
In all of its existence, has there ever been a "fundamental change in he way Wikipedia is run"?
Yes. In its early history, for a brief period of time, editors who were emotionally mature had a lot of say. People like Angela and Mav. There was an informal leadership of merit.
They were drowned out by morons and jimbophants in short order. It happened on Jimbo's watch and under his direction. He started promoting yes men to the arbcom and forming little secret star chambers to to is selfish bidding, and so on... That was a clear and fundamental change, at least to anyone who was there watching.
I think the reverse is true.
When I joined Wikipedia back in 2004, there was certainly a cabal. A powerful group, mainly of old-timers, that ran the show in the shadows. It was largely centred round access to Jimbo - and it looked to him for leadership.
Two things happened. 1) Wikipedia attracted a large number of "anti-authoritarian" people who were determined to reject the leadership of any cabal or godking, and gradually its power diminished 2) Jimbo proved to be inept as a leader. He either promised much and did nothing - or did things that were ill-thought through and tended to increase opposition to his power.
The problem is that without leadership change is impossible. Jimbo's leadership was always chronically poor - but it was the only form of leadership Wikipedia had.
When I saw Jimbo's latest talk of a privy council to look at structure, my heart lifter because a look at governance structure is what wikipedia does need. But then I realised, that any change was impossible, and Jimbo never had the will and competency to pull it off, and has long since lost the moral or charismatic authority.
The irony is that people see the problem as Jimbo's power, and the solution as removing it. But the problem is not that power, since you NEED that power to reform Wikipedia. It is that this power has never been sensibly used, and now doesn't really exist.
The only thing worse than Jimbo-in-charge, is no-one-in-charge, which is precisely what you've got.