[WikiEN-l] The userbox fad

Thu Jan 5 19:01:15 UTC 2006

Anthony DiPierro wrote:

>On 1/5/06, jayjg <jayjg99 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On 1/5/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay at bigpond.com> wrote:
>> But so long as
>>
>>>they aren't actually doing any harm, then why not praise their
>>>constructive
>>>efforts, instead of trying to chase them away? The more we make Wikipedia
>>>a
>>>cheerful co-operative community instead of a battleground, the better for
>>>all concerned.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>When they argue about policy with longtime editors who actually know
>>something about policy, they *are* doing harm.  They are wasting the time
>>and trying the patience of someone who is actually contributing to the goal
>>of the project.
>>
>>Jay.
>>
>
>Not really.  Arguing about policy with longtime editors who actually
>know something about policy tends to make for better, more well
>thought out, and more clearly documented policies.
>
>If the longtime editors "who actually know something about policy"
>don't understand *why* those policies are in place, then maybe they
>should learn this, or maybe the policy itself needs to be re-examined.
> If things have been well thought out and documented, then pointing
>the newbie to a link which explains it all should take very little
>time, and will create a better contributor.
>
You're very generous with other people's time! We have "contributors"
with reading-comprehension problems, for whom pointing at a page
does no good, we have some who are simply not smart enough to be of
any help, we have some whose social skills are too limited even to
manage basic spelling fixes without driving everybody else up the
wall.

While I'm generally in favor of broad latitude for user behavior,
there are some people who are simply net negatives, and it is in our
interest to get them to go away. I've come to steer away from most
of that kind of debating, because the encyclopedia benefits more
from me applying myself in areas where I have specialized skills,
knowledge, and reference sources. But sooner or later we're going
to have to develop better ways to filter out the unhelpful.

Stan