[Campaigns-l] Some Thoughts

[Jimmy Wales]

Pete Ashdown wrote:
> In my experience running a campaign wiki, registration is needed along
> with administrative approval.  I went from completely open down to this,
> due to the spamming and abuse.  If I had an army of editors staying the
> abuse, then I would go back to completely open, but as it is, I have
> other things I need to do in running a campaign.

One of the things that I hope very much that we can offer to campaigns
like yours is exactly that army of editors.  At least from my experience
at Wikipedia, there are a TON of people who care more about civil
discourse than about pushing a particular point of view.

> I compare it to the town hall meeting.  All are welcome to attend
> (unlike some recent town hall meetings by American politicians), but if
> you act like an obnoxious jerk, then you'll be thrown out.

Exactly.  My view is that we can build a healthy central community of
people who care about enriching the political discourse, so that a site
like yours can be opened back up... with a strong community to defend it
from attacks.

Small wikis always have a tough time dealing with spam and other abuse.
 But larger ones can help each other out.

Very counterintuitive given the poisonous political environment, but
after years of experience in the wiki world, I know there are more good
people than bad.  To me it seems perfectly sensible that we would see
democrats helping republicans, and republicans helping democrats, to
have better wikis.... because good people on both sides prefer to have a
respectful dialog rather than vandalism.

--Jimbo
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