QUOTE(Selina @ Sat 17th March 2012, 11:52am)
Oh yeah, but there was another one posted more recently too I think?
I remember editing the warning templates back in '06, before either of us had been banned the first time, Selina (I think we met on discussions of the userbox userfication controversy of '06) trying to include "please" and "thank you" and making them less accusatory. Some of it sticked, some of it didn't, but I understand that there is a big Foundation study coming out soon from the Community Organizers or Liasons, or whatever they are, saying that kinder gentler template makes a huge difference in retention.
And someone had the good sense to ask the chapter representative board candidates to think of three ways to improve recruitment or retention, how those ways could be measured, and how well the Foundation has been doing measuring causes of attrition. Those questions are a whole lot more interesting than squabbling over money. It's really sad to see the Foundation and the chapters squabbling over money. Don't these people know how to settle the unimportant things with a coin flip?
When you consider what the tone of templates can do, just think, if an evil hactivist really wanted to attack Wikipedia, how could they do worse than the GNAA strategy of introducing hateful racist and sexist epithets into the day to day discussions?