Forum:GuildWiki community model

note: this forum page is not intended to be the basis of any official policy or guidelines, but rather something for people to read as food for thought, to keep in the back of their mind when doing things or interacting with others on the wiki

Introduction
While chatting about US election results with my friend tonight, the topic of Oligarchy came up. That got my mind thinking, "what is the model that best describes my idealization of the GuildWiki community?". After browsing through wikipedia:Template:Forms of government, I came upon Sociocracy, which seems to come closest. Note that different people through the years have taken the original concept of Sociocracy and expanded or elaborated on it, and not everything fits my idealization of how the GuildWiki community should work.

Excerpt quotes (not "derived work") of the Wikipedia article Sociocracy
(with interjected comments) Sociocracy is a system of governance using consent-based decision making among equivalent individuals and an organizational structure based on cybernetic principles. don't worry about the "cybernetics" part... It literally means rule by the "socios," people who have a social relationship with each other - as opposed to democracy: rule by the "demos," the general mass of people. GuildWiki is not a democracy, but it is run by the user community. Another quote later better explains the difference. ''To apply sociocracy in larger groups a system of delegation is needed in which a group chooses representatives who take the decisions for them on a higher level. Kees Boeke introduced the terms 'naasthoger' and 'naastlager', with the word 'naast', meaning 'next', referring to the fact that a higher level is not superior to a lower level.'' GuildWiki admins are people of a different level, but we don't consider them "superior" than a random anon who just made an edit to fix the grammar of a sentence. ''Boeke saw sociocracy... as a form of governance or management that presumes equality of individuals and is based on consent. This equality is not expressed with the 'one man one vote' law of democracy, but in the principle that a decision can only be taken if none of those present have an overbearing argumented [sic]  objection against it.'' ''Decisions are made only when no one involved knows of a significant argument against the decision (no paramount objection); before that point is reached, each reasoned argument is included in the discussion. All decisions must be made by consent, unless the group agrees to use another method.'' The following two quotes described how another person applied sociocracy in his electrotechnical company: ''The organization’s structure is made up of semiautonomous circles. Each circle has its own goals and the responsibility to execute, measure, and control its own processes. Each circle exists within the context of a higher-level circle. No circle is fully autonomous; the needs of its higher-level circles and lower-level circles must be taken into account.'' ''Decision-making meetings, as practiced in sociocracy, are an extremely efficient means of communication and an excellent way to establish trust. Despite the sound of it, consent is usually in the end more efficient than autocratic decision making.'' Drama causes people to spend energy/time dealing with (or avoiding) it, making everybody affected less efficient.

Sociocracy as applied to GuildWiki
With GuildWiki, I can see the various levels as being:
 * Users = people who read/edit the content of GuildWiki (main-space) articles (no distinction between registered/anons)
 * Sysops
 * Bcrats
 * Wikia

Note that an individual may have membership of multiple levels at once. All Bcrats/Sysops are originally Users and remain Users upon promotion. It is theoretically possible for Bcrat/Sysops to cease being Users due to shift of interest (stopped playing the game and stopped reading the content of the wiki articles, while continue to help the community with the Prot/Del/Ban powers), though it is more typical to consider such people to be inactive Users.

The different levels are responsible for different aspects of the wiki:
 * Users are responsible for the content of the wiki (creation, correction, extension, etc)
 * Sysops are responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of the information on wiki through the use of force (Prot/Ban/Del) when reason is not going to prevail (vs spambots or people not paying attention to warning/advices).
 * Bcrats are responsible for the granting of Bcrat/Sysop level and User rollback tool, and ensure those are being used responsibly.
 * Wikia is responsible for the physical/ethereal operation of the site, to generate revenue that pays for expenses and keep employees employed.

Note that the above only deals with the cold-hard information aspect of the wiki, where things tend to be more clear-cut. When it comes to policies, general decision making, conflict resolution, mediation/arbitration, the following model is what I think would fit GuildWiki and fit the general Sociocracy principle/spirit:
 * Users are responsible for proposing, amending, and approving policies. Users are responsible for resolving conflicts among them through dialogue or mediation from third-party Users.  Users form the community, and are responsible for the health of the community.
 * Sysops are responsible for enforcing the policies the User community have approved.
 * When disagreements among individuals of any given level (and over an issue governed by the respective level) reach an impasse where no amount of additional good-faithed dialogue or mediation could help the involved parties reach an understanding, individuals from the "nexthigher" level may arbitrate as a (almost-)last resort. So Sysops arbitrate User-level deadlocks, Bcrats arbitrate Sysop-level deadlocks, and Wikia arbitrate Brat-level deadlocks.  Arbitration happens when logic and empathy combined have failed, and thus all parties involved can expect any arbitrary outcome, even one where it benefits none of the parties or one that doesn't seem to make any logical/empathic sense whatsoever (at least to the parties involved, since logic & empathy have already phailed).
 * As a counterpoint to individuals from the "nexthigher" level arbitrating deadlocks of a given level, any lower level as a collective may overturn the decisions/actions of a given level. Thus, the Sysops can collectively overturn what a Bcrat decided, and the Users can collectively overturn what a Sysop or Bcrat decided.  Note this requires the collective to conclusively and unambiguously reach a consensus that disagrees with the higher level decision/action, and typically still requires an individual of the nexthigher level (or an even higher level) to actually execute it.

The above may read like a massive bureaucratic red-taped process, but in fact much of it relies on solving issues through communication among peers. The massive sections only deals with the extreme cases, where there is likely great drama already, and provides a systematic way for the wiki to move on with things instead of getting stuck in a mire of quibble.

Again, the above is not being proposed as a policy, but more as an informal model for people to keep in mind when acting/reacting on the wiki. We don't have something formal right now about these things, and we don't need to formalize them until we actually do need them. But it's a good thing to think about the relationships between the different "groups" on GuildWiki, and some insights from it might be useful for whichever other wiki you are on or will go to.

Discuss
First post! -User:PanSola (talk to the ) 07:34, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
 * ...Interesting. As far as one can get to "model" how something as complex as GuildWiki works, it's a good job. Of course, there are the inherent assumptions, such as: people will act in a logical manner most times (otherwise, proceed to drama and do not pass RC, etc.); people are willing to discuss openly in the first place; the integral structure of the wiki is sound (YAV and AGF are perennial examples of this, in any wiki)...etc. Still, I think for "only" 8,000 characters it's a nice attempt to summarize everything here. One thing I am curious about, is you say that perhaps maybe someday we would need to codify something like this. I would like to ask, why? "Writing down the spirit of the wiki" is an oxymoron of sorts; this is something similar, if only because you have to use such broad and general language to cover all cases. [[Image:Entropy Sig.jpg]] (T/C) 08:06, 5 November 2008 (UTC)


 * First of all, YAV is built into the model, in the sense that everyone is equal. People from the nexthigher level has no supremacy, and at least using the way I defined the levels, new editors have the same level as seasoned veterans, so they are also equal.  I claim that everyone being equal has the same meaning as YAV in spirit.  And AGF is implicit where you come here for the good of the wiki/community, and the model setting expectations that others are on the same level as you are.  On a wiki where everyone come with bad intentions to do evil (even yourself), AGF wouldn't be able to stand despite YAV (where value is found in destruction?) and equality.
 * If people are unwilling to act in logical manner, unwilling to discuss things openly etc, then this model will lead to arbitrary Dictatorship. Sysops dictate "arbitrary" outcome on User-level issues where the Users won't work together.  Bcrats dictate "arbitrary" outcome on Sysop-level issues where the Sysops won't work together.  Heck, because it is supposed to be arbitrary, there's no guarantee that things will work out your way even if you kiss-up or bribe the guys in the nexthigher level (they can take your bribe and still arbitrarily decide to screw you over). The price of nobody (even among Bcrats, and even among Wikia comunity team) willing to stand down and reach a compromise is that ultimately everything gets decided by Jimbo's coin toss (Jimbo being at the "top" of the Wikia foodchain), if he could be bothered to do so.  Therefore I claim that this model does not need to assume such thing as people willing to cooperate.  The model is built to deal with the lack of such things (hey, if you don't want things dictated by arbitrary decisions from the nexthigher level, work out a compromise).
 * Ideally we wouldn't need to codify it someday down the road. Ideally we wouldn't even had to write down GW:1RV.  But sometimes certain contentious circumstances crop up so much so often that something ends up getting codified to have a standardized metric on how to deal with the issues. -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 19:39, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Dictatorship
Also known by its more benevolent name, WikiBoss(TM), first coined by Tanaric. The model goes something as follows (extremely oversimplified):
 * The Bureaucrat makes all the decisions.
 * Do not argue with The Bureaucrat.
 * The Bureaucrat is always right.
 * Sysops exist to handle the janitorial work that The Bureaucrat can't be bothered to do.
 * Users exist to add content and pay tribute and form the "community" over which The Bureaucrat reigns.

Surprisingly, this model works rather well, despite being highly autocratic in nature. By having all decision-making power centered on one person, conflict rarely happens and rival factions can express their disconcent but not act upon it. Moreover, because sysops are little more than glorified janitors, they do not get into power struggles, and YAV need not be invoked between people of different "circles".

...There's more to it but I can neither remember the rest nor say much else without finding a concrete example to draw on.

(T/C) 08:06, 5 November 2008 (UTC)


 * What happens to the wiki when the boss is shot or otherwise disappears from the internet? Bloodbath in the aftermath of the power vacuum? d-: -User:PanSola (talk to the [[Image:follower of Lyssa.png]]) 19:17, 5 November 2008 (UTC)