Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-03-19/Discussion report
Article Rescue Squadron in need of rescue yet again
The future of the
At the time of writing, there were nine editors in support of the proposition that the ARS has engaged in canvassing. On the other hand, as expected, members of the ARS have entered the discussion in numbers to defend their project – which has survived four nominations for deletion in five years, primarily motivated by similar concerns.
Other concerns that have been brought up includeThe length and size of discussions
- New discussions
- March 17: RfC to increase transparency and community involvement in ambassador (de)selection processes
- March 13: RfC on the Requested Articles page
- March 13: Request for input on Online Ambassador orientation
- Discussions from last month
- February 28: RfC on the conflict of interest guideline, as requested by an Arbitration Committee remedy
- February 22: Binding community discussion on the Abortion article titles, as requested by an Arbitration Committee remedy
Some discussions extend to such great lengths and attract so much commentary that they exceed that 300 kilobyte mark. The
Wikipedia tries to cap these endless discussions by having an RfC last only 31 days, yet participants relist the RfC over and over to attract other editors to review the closed (or inactive) discussion, as in the case of the above cited RfC. The discussion on the Arbitration Committee and well-behaved sockpuppets, which commenced in January, stopped in early-February and was then revived in late-February after an editor relisted it at
Such discussions can often present a challenge to the editor who steps up to close them; "no consensus" is a common outcome for convoluted debates, a lack of resolution that opens the possibility of discussion starting all over again as the same issues continue to arise. One solution may be to encourage participants to keep their comments short and to the point, and to ensure closers read the entire discussion and undertake the difficult task of trying to divine rough consensus where it exists, rather than taking the easy option of closing complex debates as "no consensus" by default.
Does the Article Rescue Squadron need reforming and is the group open to it? Is the RfC on the right track to resolving issues? What should be done with long and lengthy RfCs? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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