[WikiEN-l] The userbox fad

Sat Jan 7 21:44:11 UTC 2006

> From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org 
> [mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Rob
> Sent: Sunday, 8 January 2006 07:08
> To: English Wikipedia
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The userbox fad
> 
> On 1/7/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay at bigpond.com> wrote:
> >
> > But how does a new editor know the difference between 
> policy, policy 
> > and policy? He needs to be set straight on the important 
> things, but I 
> > can't see any way of doing that without some sort of discussion.
> 
> 
> [[RTFM]]

Yeah. And you know what happens if you say RTFM to a bunch of people who
know what it means? They give a snort of laughter.

> Policy pages should fufill this function, and if they do not, 
> they should be rewritten.  Sure, questions are necessary to 
> clarify fine points and applications in particular instances, 
> but users who refuse to read policy pages after being 
> directed to them and need basic things explained to them over 
> and over again or who wish to argue about fundamental policy 
> points are time-wasting problem users.

People have different learning styles. Maybe some go straight to the policy
pages, read them, understand them and need no further instruction, but I
feel that these people are in the minority. The rest of us plunge in, press
things to see what happens, ask questions and so on. Often someone will pop
up on a new user's talk page and there is an instant link to someone who's
been around. That's all good.

I'll agree that there are problem users who either do not or will not
understand or follow policy, but I think you are being disingenuous if you
are trying to say that most new editors fall into this category, or that
editors with multiple userboxes automatically fall into this category.

So far as I can see, the only problem with policy as regards userboxes has
been people putting fair-use images on templates. This is a fairly subtle
point - if an image is used in the article space than why not use it
elsewhere in WP? - but I think most would understand if it was explained in
a friendly and reasonable manner, and this message seems to be getting
through.

Peter (Skyring)