User:Dpmuk/Withdraw Labour

This is a draft RfC. I hope it never needs to get used but unless the WMF changes things soon I fear it might.

Recently there have been several software deployments that have caused significant community discussion. However to all extents and purposes it appears that WMF and the developers ignore these discussions even when consensus is clear (such as to have a complete opt out of VE). It would appear that WMF and the developers stance is that the software side is completely separate from the community that uses the software and that the community just has to put up with any software changes. This is an absurd position to take as it is the community that has to use the software and so the views of the community should be sought before, during and after any deployment and, importantly, their views taken on board. At the moment the developers and WMF only seem interested in getting bug reports and show no interest in the community's views more widely - often dismissing them out of hand. I am not aware of a single instance where the developers have significantly changed their plans due to the community's desires.

The interface between the developers and WMF on the one hand and the community on the other clearly needs to change as the current situation is getting unworkable. Despite the strong, and obvious feelings, shown on en.wiki there has, to date, been no signs of any changes. This has made me, and I'm sure many other editors, feeling like the WMF and developers don't care about editors. As more main stream methods of making WMF take note have clearly failed I propose that admins and experienced editors withdraw their labour for 24 hours, that is do absolutely nothing on wiki. If this gets significant support this should definitely make it clear to the WMF the importance of editors and how strongly we feel we are being ignored. Although drastic this seems to me to be the only way to get the WMF to pay more than lip service to our concerns.