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Dear Wikimedia Foundation:
Stop it.
The Foundation has lately been rolling out huge changes to the project's functionality. This isn't in itself a problem. What is a problem is that the Foundation has been refusing to accept and acknowledge editors' input on the matters. Changes like Echo and VisualEditor have been forced upon everyone without consensus.
As I understand it, this is the current procedure for making a software change:
- Put the idea in some top-secret dark corner of the project namespace
- Wait for input on the idea
- Realize that you're not getting any input on the idea, so put a small bullet point at the top of watchlists in the part that nobody looks at for a week or so
- Get some small input, most of which is probably negative, and don't listen to it
- Shove the changes in everyone's faces all at once
- Put a little grey box that nobody will notice at the top of every page (we won't notice it because that's the part of the page where you usually beg us for money, even though you clearly have enough money already)
- Ignore all the backlash from the editors, saying "we asked for your input!"
- Think that you've done well and that this fixes something
Am I the only one who sees a problem here?