[OSM-talk] Problems with the wiki (was "Why OSM and not another collaborative mapping service?")

[Warin]

On 9/05/2015 7:57 AM, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 05/08/2015 08:00 AM, Bryce Nesbitt wrote:
>> There's another problem page at "OpenStreetMap is a social activity".
>> Sigh.  Lots of good cleanup edits.  Lots of blundering elephant edits.
> Yes, it doesn't feel good to point fingers at individuals but I, too,
> have the impression that Xxzme's overbearing control of the Wiki is not
> for the best. I seems to me that they're genuinely trying to help, and
> investing quite some time, but from interactions with others I can see
> that they tend to be intimidating and have a very stubborn sense of what
> is right and what is wrong. The relentless renaming and re-organising of
> content may feel to them like a necessary move to organize content
> properly but I think these unannounced and undiscussed edits have the
> potential to alienate other users of the Wiki who should have an equal
> voice, but are too often harshly overruled by Xxzme.
>
> This is compounded by Xxzme, unlike most other contributors to the Wiki,
> not caring to share any personal information about them - not their real
> name, not where they live or what they like. This is not a condition for
> participation on a normal scale, but with Xxzme making a significant
> portion of edits to the Wiki it feels like the Wiki has been taken over
> by someone that nobody knows at all and who doesn't want to be known.

There is no requirement for personal details of a contributor to be know/public.
And there should be no requirement for this!!! And it is not the problem.


>   It
> doesn't really feel like a community effort.

I think that is the core problem. My small edits of the wiki I hope have been beneficial for all ...
There needs to be more 'meeting in the middle' rather than 'my way' or 'no way'?
Personal dominance will only last some decades .. in the longer term a community will overcome.
Thus it is better to persuade a community to 'good' ideas rather than beat them over the head.

>
> I appreciate that Xxzme has spent a lot of time trying to make the Wiki
> better and I believe they did manage to make improvements, but looking
> at the complete picture I would politely ask Xxzme to find another
> occupation, and stop editing on the OSM wiki altogether.
>
This community would loose possibly valuable contributions from him if this were to occur.

A better outcome would be a more conciliatory attitude? How to get that is difficult.