As mentioned by valleywag, Jimbo was desysopped for inactivity on wikinews recently (as well as other projects). He then chucks a tantrum:

http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=W...Jimbo.27s_Admin

I suspect Jimbo's real concern is his image:
http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=W...ev&oldid=637716

Wikinews is a timebomb waiting to go off. When it does, Wales will be thankful someone booted him, as he'll use that to distance himself from some act of outrageous propaganda or defamation Wikinews will be held responsible for.

Mark these words.

You are probobly right.

I briefly mentioned this "preposterous" event in another thread.

Best item is the new word, "sysophood". I strongly suggest that Wikipedia Reviewers pronounce the "ph" with the "f" sound -- SIS-uh-food.

I'm made quite optimistic by this and other events. To move Wikipedia to a more rational governance, one of the main concerns is to get rid of the cult of "respected members". I am happy enough that Jimbo, Slim and whoever may have had a role to play in getting the project off the ground, but their time has passed and other issues come to the fore.

If people tie together the ID Cabal being brought to book, Mantanmorland's chickens coming home to roost, Jimbo's fall from favour within the community, Slim et al. being dis-empowered, then the common theme is that the community no longer believes that poor behaviour is excused either through stature on the project or doing good works for the project.

Writing lots of good articles may give you a respected voice, but it should not give a free pass on inappropriate behaviour. Similarly, being a "well respected admin" (by who?) does not give any sort of free pass on behaviour (and should in fact give far less freedom).

Jimbo needs to come to terms with the fact that his monsters have minds of their own. If he didn't want that, then he should have thought about that sooner. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong jar...

I imagine Sysoφood happy …

Jon

LOLWUT?



With Jimbo, it's a case of sysophilis.

Why does Jimbo think board membership is synonymous with adminship rights? Adminship is supposed to be for trusted members of the community. This is policy. Since a couple of the board positions can be filled with Sue Gardener's cronies, they can be filled with people who have nothing to do with the community. And what duties does the board have that have anything to do with administrating the wiki? Surely you don't need adminship powers to come up with a budget or find fundraisers (unless you're editing and oversighting a sponsor's biography).

SlimVirgin had a role to play in getting the project off the ground? I had no idea. But your main point is a good one. The tone of this Wikinews discussion is really kind of striking when you realize how rational it sounds. Almost everyone who participated in it sounds at least somewhat reasonable, with the exception of Jimbo himself. A reasonable, thoughtful discussion about an issue like this would be almost impossible on en.wikipedia.

Yeah I noticed that.

I don't know anything about Wikinews, but I think it's true of many Wikimedia projects. Compare the debates about Poetlister on WQ with those on WP!