Thread:MDbugs/@comment-8-20170719163905/@comment-8-20170720155006

This is why I believe discussions should be public on the wiki, rather than via email or phone. Transparency can mean more "messiness" but is ultimately fairer to the community and causes less misunderstandings of all that's said.

And talking of messines - editing can be messy too. I mentioned before about the French Wikipedia article that just said "an apple is a fruit". That wasn't within the article guidelines, but it became the base on which many people edited to grow the article into the complete piece it is now (although no article is really "complete" there is almost always room for improvement!).

My point is that articles can grow and improve when everyone is allowed to edit freely. That's not to say there will never be reason to revert, but you will get more good edits than bad - that's why wikis work!

I would also challenge the idea that someone should "finish" an article before moving on. When I was on Wikipedia, I would spend hours looking for typos and move from article to article fixing them. A small edit on many articles can improve them as much as a big one on a single page - and can be a lot less daunting for the editor.

This wiki needs to find the balance between admin decisions and community ones. I would say that a new policy is something everyone should have a chance to talk about, even if the final decision is made by the admins. But that is something you (the community) will need to work out between you.

One issue that keeps cropping up, that will take the whole community to solve, is the reading of comments as aggressive or hurtful - even when bystanders would read them differently. I don't know the solution for this, other than to say "assume good faith". Remember, that means to try and read what others say with the primary thought that they mean well, rather than assuming they are "speaking" in a harsh tone. I hope this will happen over time, but I know it's a hard thing to do when emotions are so high.

You might note that nothing I have said here is absolute, other than the need to be sure articles are open for all to edit. The rest is something you all need to work out and work on.