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Posted by: the fieryangel

http://allswool.blogspot.com/2009/05/just-mainstream-news-medium.html

I thought that it was an encyclopedia. Now it's a "news media"?

Posted by: Kato

Thanks Danny. When I saw that "newsmedia" quote, I was going to write a post about it but couldn't drum up the enthusiasm.

In a nutshell: I thought the idea was to reflect the most scholarly thinking on a topic. Not what the "mainstream media" think. Relying on the New York Times to cover something like Israeli political history (which is what Sue Gardner implies) is a futile task.

Posted by: Danny

Thanks. I really have no idea what Sue is doing. Then again, I am pretty convinced that she doesn't either. She is, however, putting in a rather bloated staff. Six more hires (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings) at $90,000 is kind of ridiculous, if you ask me. Charity my ass.

Posted by: GlassBeadGame

I followed the link and then went to the postings. Only two had any information about salary. The range was 70-95k. This seemed somewhat high given the smallish nature of WMF but perhaps not given the large extent of unpaid actors (volunteers is not always the right word). I'm pretty sure the Intern is not comming in at 90k. If anything WMF seems too small for the desired task, especially if the worst problems caused by "the community" are ever to held in check.

Gardner is cluessless in many respects, as is clearly evidenced by her promotion of Moeller. A return to a shoestring staff of unqualified amateurs is not the way forward.

Posted by: Danny

This will bring the staff to about 30.

Posted by: dtobias

No, a news medium... "media" is plural.

Posted by: Milton Roe

And medium because it's hardly ever well-done. (Old vaudeville joke--- Jack Parr?)

Posted by: thekohser

Oooh, I could take a substantial pay cut, move to an even more expensive metro area, but be http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Research_Analyst_(Strategic_Plan) for a living. Oh, wait. One year contract? Forget that.

Posted by: Cedric

That sounds about right. Very much in keeping with the "We're making this shit up as we go along" ethos of Wikipedia.

Posted by: EricBarbour

Have you been to San Francisco lately?
A 2-bedroom apartment can easily cost you $3000 per month. A house? Million plus.
Even groceries in that town are more expensive than in surrounding environs....
(Complete with homeless schizophrenics and drug addicts everywhere downtown.)

Now that we are agreed that she is incompetent ......how does WMF rid itself of her and
her cronies? Tossing Jimbo out won't do the job, methinks.

Posted by: Milton Roe

Well, since they're only an office for doing paperwork administration, they're free. Why can't they move to someplace where the cost of living and doing business is cheaper? Not San Francisco, for godsake where you have to pay your employees that much, just so they can afford a parking garage and the California personal income tax. San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the country to live in-- you have to go the NYC area to get much worse.

No, I'm thinking someplace with cheaper land like .... Florida. Oh, wait. But Florida is #35 in cost of living in the 50 states (only 15 are worse), and they moved from there to California, which is #49 (only Hawaii is worse = more expensive). Morons: out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Texas is nice at #2 (only Oklahoma is cheaper). There are some nice places in Texas-- some of it is mountainous, it's not all that West Texas desert.

Posted by: dtobias

Mensa moved its national office from New York to Texas years ago, showing some intelligence.

The faction in its internal politics that supported this move had to fight tooth-and-nail against a clique of power freaks dead-set against it, and later the power freaks got back in control and turned the Texas office into an expensive bureaucracy which is taking increasing control of things over the local volunteers, despite it being in a lower-cost location.

Posted by: Jon Awbrey

Galveston is nice if you're looking for beaches — and they would probably appreciate an infusion of cash right about now.



Jon

Posted by: MZMcBride

Jesus Christ. Bitterness at past wrongs takes new form with you, Danny. Move on much?

Legitimate criticism is fine and should be encouraged; the nonsense you've taken to spouting just makes you look like a bitter former employee.

Posted by: Cedric

Ah yes, the old "disgruntled former employee" meme.

Posted by: Milton Roe

As in the case of NASA I'm completely amazed at how much intelligent thought and goal-oriented behavior toward some worthwhile project* ends up COMPLETELY subordinated to petty office politics, the struggle for minor amounts of power in minimal-stake games, and so on.

And then I realize (again) that all of our intelligence was probably developed IN THE SERVICE of playing petty "office politics" (in the days before we had offices, but it was the same tribal band stuff). So it's to be expected. It probably has something to do with sex and the politics of better mate or resource access in small groups, in return for even minimal social climbing.

Anyway, it corrodes all organizations. Mired in little fiefdoms, they can't remember their mission. Wikipedia is typical. In the military, infighting is so bad that interservice rivalry and interoffice politics takes precident over winning battles. At NASA, we Need Another Seven Astronauts regularly, or else suffer crippling delays, because a power stuggle killed the Saturn, our best man-rated booster. Just as it's now in the process of ruining the Shuttle's successor, the FUBAR Orion.

My fix for all this? Simple. Mandatory castration of all managment, for teams larger than 5.

Milton

(If you have fundamental problems about anything, don't be shy about asking. I can help).



* like ending hunger or disease, or finding out some new scientific fact

Posted by: Jon Awbrey

Then why does my ZipDrive Manager keep telling me to —

"Put another media in —"

( — in the mediodeon … ???)

Ja Ja

Posted by: Jon Awbrey

They will say pretty much anything that plays to the audience of the moment.

Promise them anything — but give them Arbcom.

Ja Ja

Posted by: Danny

Actually, as someone who was involved from long before you could spell Wikipedia and who invested more of himself in it than just about anyone, I think that a change of purpose from encyclopedia to news media is worthy of comment. Unlike David Gerard or many of the others, yourself included, I was there when the mission statement was written. I even participated in some small way. I would think it behooves me to comment when some comes from the outside and changes it.

Then again, I learned long ago that there is no arguing with a cult. Sadly, that is what Wikipedia has become.

Posted by: dtobias

...and one of the few people who top-posts replies even on a web forum like this. Your sense of netiquette is a little odd.

Posted by: Lar

Because you know, compared to bloated bureaucracy, using feet when you should have used metres, mismanaged projects, operating on the wrong leg, or whatever... top posting really is pretty awful in the grand scheme of things!

Posted by: GlassBeadGame

WMF is not bloated, just misapplied and without direction. Gardner's only virtue is that she has increased the administrative capacity and just plain scale of WMF staffing. Double it again and direct it toward exerting editorial responsibly and you might begin to get somewhere. At least the days of WMF staff being the easy butt of jokes is over. Currently staff offer the best remaining hope for the project. Getting rid of Moeller would reverse the early mistake of "bowing to the community."

Posted by: TungstenCarbide

Danny, thank you for this bout of self-righteous chest thumping. It shows that you have no self-awareness that you are a vicious asshole. Oh, and let's not forget the little gang of teenaged jack-booted thugs you created to carry out 'justice' - accountable to no one and hidden in your own little kingdom which you created - called the admin-irc channel.