Lazy thinking

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

I had recently occurred to ask an English Wikipedia contributor as to what the project needs help with at the moment.

He/she said meaningful, although some controversial, things:

  • backlog problems,
  • backlogs everywhere,
  • editors too busy to write non-templated messages, basically too little editors to manage 4 million articles effectively
  • visual editor should be default, (... ? maybe ok, but controversial subject)
  • registered editors get to change to edit source, (... ? maybe ok, but controversial subject)
  • unregistered also get to change, (... ? maybe ok, but controversial subject)
  • preferences saved with cookies (an essay on this topic here)
  • ...
  • "we´ll need help from the wmf to get anywhere with the better welcome system thing"

Dear all,

Please stop thinking that software is in hands of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Many of its Engineering people are hired from external projects.

It is incapable to fully comprehend the issues and needs of the Wikimedia projects.

You should take notes of what exactly the needs of your project are.

There should be a well-established feedback process on software needs of a specific project,

including means to brainstorm and develop existing ideas.

...