Governance II, Mockingbird Killin’ in Cyberspace Options

[GlassBeadGame]

draggin' him, with his shy ways, into the limelight, to me, that's a sin. It's a sin, and I'm not about to have it on my head. I may not be much, Mr. Finch, but I'm still Sheriff of Maycomb County, and Bob Ewell fell on his knife. Goodnight sir.

---Heck Tate in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

I have given some thought to what tasks simply can not be delegated away by any responsible Board of Trustees. These tasks simply can not be assigned to a pseudonymous ‘tween regardless of how many degrees and virtual academic appointments he has convinced others that he possesses. These tasks are central to operating in the public interest and caring about the impact that your actions have on innocent people, both inside and outside your group.

WR: CHILD The protection of children from both predators and the destructive effects of over-involvement in an unsupervised social networking environment.

WR: PRIVATE Protecting the privacy of non-public persons who become the subject of articles and processes to determine the contents and status of articles. This should include the right to a professional, independent determination of the notability of the subject balanced against the prejudicial impact upon the life of the subject. Subjects should have the right to opt out of article coverage under appropriate circumstances.

WR:ANTI-CULT Actions to eliminate or mitigate the destructive effects that the addictive and cult-like aspects of the project have on susceptible users. This includes reform of processes designed to facilitate excessive participation, specifically: encouragement of excessively high edit counts, processes that award status and privileges based on community criticism and aspects that mimic role playing activities.

WR:THEFT The prevention and mitigation of copyright infringement, plagiarism and the falsification of credentials

Diligently carrying out these responsibilities is a Board function. The Foundation currently addresses adequately only some aspects of WR: THEFT. This may not be surprising given the founder's stated libertarian orientation favoring property rights over human rights. All of these duties must be addressed by someone. Maybe we need a new sheriff in town.

This post has been edited by GlassBeadGame: Wed 11th April 2007, 9:21pm

[Cedric]

Having monitored IRC but briefly this afternoon, I can give you my firm assurance that WP:CHILD is a sick joke [I have no minor children or grandchildren of my own, but if I did, you can be sure I would have been a lot more strident and angry in this post, and with some reason].

[papaya]

Well, it's pretty obvious that one of the reasons that WP:CHILD failed is that there are already too many minor editors who don't want to lose their precious ability to write articles on their bands and anime characters and the like. The level of irresponsibility on display in the discussion of the proposal is a sad testimony to the state of the WP community.