[WikiEN-l] "Good authors"

Sun Jun 25 20:59:57 UTC 2006

On 6/22/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> The Germans have it right, in my opinion, on their homepage:
> "Gute Autorinnen und Autoren sind stets willkommen."
>
> "Good authors are always welcome."

The opposite of a good author is a bad author. What kind of person
regards themselves as a bad author _and_ will happily accept an
introduction like this as a good reason not to participate? I don't
think it's the bad authors, school children and trolls we have to deal
with on a regular basis. I think it's more likely to be people who
lack self-worth and confidence, and who will be turned away, and will
never try editing Wikipedia for fear of being shouted at. Many of
these people could become excellent contributors: not all areas of
Wikipedia require a thick skin.

If an _actual_ bad author is going to be turned away by a message like
that, I think they are likely to be the kind of person we could
reform, and turn to areas of Wikipedia where they could be productive.
After all, they have listened to reason.

We have a history of being welcoming to _everyone_, and to then
examine their track record, to assist them in improving their
contributions, or to remove them from the project. I also believe that
becoming a "good author" on Wikipedia takes a lot of learning of both
the social and the technical dimension of the project. It's not
something which you _are_ when you visit the site for the first time.
A knowledgeable person might be completely incapable of reaching
consensus, and a dyslexic might be well aware of their problem, and
focus on pictures or policies.

Jimmy, I may be wrong, but I suspect the notion above reflects your
desire for Wikipedia to be seen (correctly) as elitist by the media,
rather than a free-for-all. As you said in an interview with the
Christian Science Monitor, "I think Wikipedia is extremely elitist.
We're a bunch of snobs. But it's an elitism of productive work, it's
an elitism of results."

These were very wise words. However, an elitism of results is not in
conflict with being welcoming to everyone we don't know yet. Indeed,
it requires it.

Erik