[WikiEN-l] Re: No answer, great question

Mon Aug 15 13:48:19 UTC 2005

> From: fun at thingy.apana.org.au (David Gerard)
> Subject: [WikiEN-l] How to work better with brittle users?
>
> There's a common personality type for trouble on Wikipedia: brittle in
> interactions with others, can't tolerate ambiguity, so gets into
> rules-lawyering. Sees "common sense" and "judgement" mostly as  
> excuses to
> exercise bias, not as recognition that all rules are fluid in the  
> pursuit
> of our goal.
>
> I am not thinking of any individual, but of a general type I've  
> noticed. I
> think something about Wikipedia will tend to attract them. I would  
> *guess*
> it's something that attracts people from further up the autistic  
> spectrum
> than the general populace, but that's just speculation.
>
> The point is that they're good and hard-working contributors, but  
> can get
> difficult to work with. And putting them on a processing line that  
> leads to
> arbitration strikes me as not being a good thing. Is there a better  
> way?
> I welcome your thoughts and speculation.

I agree. No answer, but a great question.

And of course this is a general phenomenon on the Internet. In fact I  
read an article somewhere that there are a significant number of  
autistic individuals who are managing to earn a living primarily  
because computer-mediated interactions (email, etc.) provides some  
protective insulation against the direct personal contacts that they  
have trouble managing.

I don't think I'm going to mention where _I_ score on the AQ test,  
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

I've also opined (and got shot down on the basis of its being pure  
speculation) that some of these "brittle" contributors are just very  
_young._ I had a personal run-in with one contributor who  
indiscreetly revealed (or asserted) an age in the very early teens. I  
have to think that some of the emphasis on pop-culture, fancraft,  
Harry Potter, and Pokemon topics is age-related. And a certain degree  
of "brittleness" is characteristic of adolescents in general, and  
bright adolescents whose intellectual and emotional development is  
out of sync in particular.

A common characteristic of that age is a total inability to let  
things go and not sweat the small stuff. Every tiny rejection is  
fought tooth and nail, not for personal reasons of course, but  
because of The Principle Of The Thing.

I am sure that if I personally were fourteen years old right now I  
would a) be contributing to Wikipedia and b) would be one of those  
"brittle" and problematic users.

Instead of being the trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,  
courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent,  
and modest person I am now.

--
Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at verizon.net
"Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/