Extracting the CO(NH2)2

[Rogol Domedonfors]

I think we should give the WMF a general pass, under some restrictions thoughtfully debated within the community, to run small-scale trials to gather data on all kinds of things like this.

This is a wind-up, isn't it? I mean, he doesn't really write this sort of thing naturally?

[Zoloft]

Glad I remembered my high-school chemistry.

[Midsize Jake]

This is about restricting article creation for newly-registered users, no? The anti-"vanitycruft" measure that's been on the table for about a decade or so...? The WMF itself has always been the entity most responsible for preventing that, and these sorts of things in general, from happening in the past. IMO that's because any restriction on newly-registered users will negatively affect their "new-user conversion rate." If they've changed their tune about this, that almost has to mean that they've finally become more concerned with retention than recruitment, or else they're starting to believe they can use their money to help with recruitment now and perhaps no longer require the built-in systemic support for "vandalism" and "vanitycruft" that they've always used in the past to recruit people.

As for Jimbo himself, he's been playing this role for long enough that the style (written or otherwise) of the BS has probably become almost second-nature to him, so you might say it's "natural" in a way, but he also might very well still understand (if only on a semi-conscious level) that it's still BS. I'd say it probably depends on whether or not he's deluded himself into thinking that his post-WP entrepreneurial ventures have been legitimately successful - if so, he might have also succeeded in folding this "wisened master of digital charity" persona into his overall personality core, maybe even along with "internet civility expert" and "high-tech social reformer." But that's a pretty high level of self-delusion.

[thekohser]

Jimbo also wrote, "There are huge swathes of Wikipedia policy..."

Huge wrappings or bandages, really?

[Rogol Domedonfors]

It's one of those Oxbridge things. The Oxford Dictionary defines "swathe" as "A piece or strip of material in which something is wrapped"; the Cambridge as "a long strip or large area especially of land".

[thekohser]

Jimbo is American, though, so he ought to be using the American English "swaths" in this case.

[Rogol Domedonfors]

"A row or line of grass, grain, or other crop as it lies when mown or reaped". Perhaps.

There are huge rows of Wikipedia policy lying on the ground after having been cut down which are things we do not because there is evidence from rigorous testing that they are the right things to do, but because we've always done them that way.

Yes, makes as much sense as the rest of it.

[Poetlister]

Jimbo is American, though, so he ought to be using the American English "swaths" in this case.

He's living in London with an English wife, so naturally he is trying to sound English. You wouldn't want his children to grow up speaking American.

[thekohser]

Jimbo is American, though, so he ought to be using the American English "swaths" in this case.

He's living in London with an English wife, so naturally he is trying to sound English. You wouldn't want his children to grow up speaking American.

This is true. The chameleon is just trying to blend in. I withdraw my criticism, petty as it was to begin with.