[WikiEN-l] newbie culture

Fri Jun 16 13:01:21 UTC 2006

On 6/16/06, Mark Gallagher <m.g.gallagher at student.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
> We've gotten to the stage where processes that *don't exist* are cited
> by wonks.
>

Don't you love it when things come full circle. Policy is meant to
refect what is done. If it doesn't then policy is in error. At least
that was the theory back when I was first involved. I understand
things have changed a bit.

> Now, process wonks who insist we follow process regardless of the sanity
> of doing so are irritating, but they obviously have the best interests
> of Wikipedia at heart, and, provided they receive the proper therapy,
> can even become quite likeable people eventually.  There's no excuse for
> saying silly things like "nobody may remove the speedy tag; use
> {{hangon}} instead".

Just an extension of the "don't undo unjustified speedies use DRV
instead" that people keep trying to tell me.

> The problem is not that old users (admins or no) aren't keeping up.  The
> problem is that new users aren't bothering to get acculturated.

They are not doing things the way they were done in our day. I know the feeling.

> I already *know* how Wikipedia works.

That is a mistake. At best I would claim the have a rough idea how
wikipedia works but any attempt at a solid theory generaly gets
falsified when presented with the evidence.

> I help keep it running practically
> every day.  So do most of the people on the list.  And I don't
> appreciate some newbie who *doesn't* coming along and saying "you must
> do it this way, and I should know, because I'm not a newbie like you".
>

Bunch of arogant know it alls who are not prepared to accept that no
they don't know how things are done. Yup sounds like the next
generation to me. Just wait untill they start turning up on arbcom and
the like.

-- 
geni