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Sysop vandalism: Difference between revisions
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'''Sysop vandalism''' is degrading the quality of a [[blog]], [[newsgroup]] or [[wiki]] for reasons that have nothing to do with the objective of the project or the mandate of the group. It occurs frequently on Wikipedia and Disinfopedia - it is worst on the latter where sysops tend to delete things with no process at all, and ignore the [[votes for deletion]] process that non-sysops are required to go through. ''This is a very severe long-term problem and plays a major role in many [[worst cases]] visible on other public wikis.'' | '''Sysop vandalism''' is degrading the quality of a [[blog]], [[newsgroup]] or [[wiki]] for reasons that have nothing to do with the objective of the project or the mandate of the group. It occurs frequently on Wikipedia and Disinfopedia - it is worst on the latter where sysops tend to delete things with no process at all, and ignore the [[votes for deletion]] process that non-sysops are required to go through. ''This is a very severe long-term problem and plays a major role in many [[worst cases]] visible on other public wikis.'' | ||
Such vandalism is surprisingly common: Wikipedia permits and encourages sysop vandalism with the universal excuse that "[[trolls]]" were responsible for the edits, and that somehow they will be discouraged by being "punished" somehow - this idea that [[punishment works]] is part of a [[carceral state]] metaphor. This is the basic [[conceptual metaphor]] of Wikipedia and other wikis that insist one [[use real names]] (and thus be subject to offline abuse by sysops and their friends). There is no definition of the hated class of [[trolls]]other than by the very [[sysop]]s who exclude them, and the [[developer]]s who provide features to do so. This is the first step towards a [[permission-based model]] and there may be no way to avoid imposing [[hard security]] if this path is taken by developers. | Such vandalism is surprisingly common: Wikipedia permits and encourages sysop vandalism with the universal excuse that "[[trolls]]" were responsible for the edits, and that somehow they will be discouraged by being "punished" somehow - this idea that [[punishment works]] is part of a [[carceral state]] metaphor. This is the basic [[conceptual metaphor]] of Wikipedia and other wikis that insist one [[use real names]] (and thus be subject to offline abuse by sysops and their friends). There is no definition of the hated class of [[trolls]] other than by the very [[sysop]]s who exclude them, and the [[developer]]s who provide features to do so. This is the first step towards a [[permission-based model]] and there may be no way to avoid imposing [[hard security]] if this path is taken by developers. Mediawiki does seem to be evolving in this direction. | ||
These problems are made much worse by [[permanent sysop status]] and a model where one pays no price and loses no status even for the reversion of edits which are deemed ultimately constructive. Such behavior is certain to drive off the best contributors, but to serve the sysops' purpose of "converting" the board or wiki into a [[virtual community]] only for their own friends. | These problems are made much worse by [[permanent sysop status]] and a model where one pays no price and loses no status even for the reversion of edits which are deemed ultimately constructive. Such behavior is certain to drive off the best contributors, but to serve the sysops' purpose of "converting" the board or wiki into a [[virtual community]] only for their own friends. | ||
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A specific [[sysop power structure]] may be required to reduce such vandalism. | A specific [[sysop power structure]] may be required to reduce such vandalism. | ||
A related issue is [[sysop vigilantiism]] which is not necessarily vandalism, but does subvert [[due process]] and degrade trust in the [[power structure]]. | [[Sysop vandalism]] is much worse than [[sysop vigilantiism]], since [[social exclusion]] of some [[faction]] can just cause it to go somewhere else: as with [[Wikipedia factions]], many of whom left early to do something else. So controls on [[sysop vandalism]] are highest priority, as with all other [[vandalism]] (the only reason to need any kind of [[sysop]]). | ||
because it prevents the actual [[GFDL corpus]] from being corrected, and may not even be noticed for a long time. | |||
A related issue is [[sysop vigilantiism]] which is not necessarily vandalism, but does subvert [[due process]] and degrade trust in the [[power structure]]. However, [[social exclusion]] of some [[faction]] can just cause it to go somewhere else: as with [[Wikipedia factions]], many of whom left early to do something else. [[Sysop vandalism]] is much worse, because it prevents the actual [[GFDL corpus]] from being corrected, and may not even be noticed for a long time. So controls on [[sysop vandalism]] are highest priority, as with all other [[vandalism]] (the only reason to need any kind of [[sysop]]). | |||