[OSM-talk] Edit war on the wiki "map features"

[Andy Allan]

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 4:55 PM, Sebastian Hohmann <mail at s-hohmann.de> wrote:

>  it has been voted on and should thus stay on
> Map Features.

Therein lies the problem, in my opinion, specifically with the "thus".
Things could be voted on, but not put onto the Map Features page,
perhaps - otherwise we'll end up needed an "edited highlights" of map
features - given we're going to map *everything* on the planet, it's
becoming increasingly less feasible to have everything documented on
the one page, both technically and editorially. And isn't multiple
pages one of the joys of a wiki? A grey-scale of importance and/or
acceptance?

> Or should just everyone edit the wiki without regard for
> others.

Therein lies the strawman. It's not a binary choice between everyone
having an equal vote (no matter their level of experience, talent or
other meritocratic traits) and individual anarchism. There's other
possibilities that are demonstrated in other parts of the project,
especially amongst the developers, mapping party organisers and
sysadmins[1], but aren't used on the tagging discussions on the wiki.
More thought should be put into the alternatives available - maybe by
perusing the sidebar at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochlocracy for
some ideas.

But since it's a complex subject, and neither the wiki nor the mailing
list promote any better form of discourse than a simple tit-for-tat
refuting of points taken out of context (c.f. all the email I ever
send, which are often unhelpful and ill-thought out), and often create
a binary oversimplication of complex nuanced subjects, I unfortunately
hold out little hope of constructive dialogue.

Cheers,
Andy

[1] Meritocracy, do-ocracy and benevolent dictatorship, perhaps.