[Talk-de] Make Messaging public, or other changes?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hmpf, sorry. Wieder auf meine auto-completion reingefallen.

Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>     I'd like to ask for a quick show of hands on the idea of making the 
> whole built-in OSM messaging system public (not retroactively of course, 
> but change it so that anyone can ready any message written in the future).
> 
> I am not sure whether this is a good idea myself, that's why I ask. The 
> rationale behind this is the following: We suspect that there is quite a 
> bit of "new user intimidation" going on here in Germany, where people 
> sometimes almost obsessively "protect" their area against changes and 
> might, sometimes rather impolitely, challenge newcomers.
> 
> Since this is not happening in public, the newcomer has nobody to help 
> him, and anyone can basically say anything ("Haven't you read that 
> pelican crossings are deprecated?") without someone else noticing. Being 
> what he is, the newcomer will of course take everything at face value 
> and go down a path of trouble.
> 
> If all intra-OSM messaging were public (somewhat like a Wiki "talk" 
> page), then even if only few people took the time to actually read other 
> people's conversations, it would be easier for the community as a whole 
> to get involved and protect its interests against individuals causing 
> trouble, and knowing that what oen writes is public, people might also 
> exercise some restraint when choosing their words.
> 
> Another thing one could to if public messaging does not find favour is 
> posting a caveat immediately over the "write message" text area, 
> something along the lines of "if you're about to criticize someone whom 
> you don't know, think twice and always assume good faith", whatever.
> 
> Bye
> Frederik
> 

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"