Take 3: Editors and Trackers

[Luis Villa]

On Dec 1, 2007 4:10 PM, Lawrence Rosen <lrosen at rosenlaw.com> wrote:
> Luis Villa wrote:
> > Again, I admit I haven't followed this whole thread, but restricting
> > editorship to some sort of elite doesn't seem to be solving any
> > problem I've seen adequately described.
>
> If this is how it is perceived or what it becomes, then it will be a
> failure. The word "elite" shouldn't be part of the open source lexicon.
>
> But even Luis will admit--because he's become one--that there are quite a
> few people involved in this movement that have developed special expertise
> in the business and legal aspects of open source.

Sure, and I've previously argued that this list needs moderation in
part because the bad faith of some participants tends to drive such
experts away.

But that to me argues for 'keep away those who are in bad faith',
rather than 'keep away non-experts.' No one has shown in this
discussion that damage results from the good faith non-expert.

Mailing lists are pretty terrible for keeping away those who operate
in bad faith, but wikis (and their document-centered, rather than
discussion-centered, model) have a lot of baked-in technology that
makes it much easier. That, IMHO, even more strongly suggests that the
default should be fixing/banning bad behavior instead of limiting
access only to the privileged/expert.

Luis