Some _are_ better at it than others. Also some are better at editing then
dealing with other people, and some are just unable to deal with other
people in an environment where to a large extent, one is not held
accountable for one's actions. This is the downside of anonymity. en:WP is
in general not a very friendly environment. I am not saying that the
majority of editors are unfriendly, but there is enough of an impact from
the antisocial side to make the average experience unclude some significant
unpleasantness. Not everyone is prepared to tolerate that when doing unpaid
work. When the unnecessary unpleasantness is dealt out by adminitrators,
people leave. When enough people leave, the progect stagnates and eventually
collapses. Fortunately it is likely that the pieces will be picked up by
another project, so the work will not be lost.
Cheers,
Peter Southwood
----- Original Message -----
From: "Josh Lim" <jamesjoshua...@yahoo.com>
To: "Wikimedia Mailing List" <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2013 6:01 AM
Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Please, let's save the Wikipedia - from itself
I think what we need to consider here is where the loyalties of many of
these so-called "problematic" editors reside, whether their dedication to
maintaining the content where their expertise has been valuable has been
harmful to the overall health of the community. While I think we are all on
the side of Wikipedia here and we all have a genuine interest in improving
the encyclopedia for everyone, we have gone to the point where we have
started to perpetuate the idea that some are better at it than others,
similar to that declaration in Animal Farmthat "all animals are equal, but
some are more equal than others".
There are many reasons as to why this is the case, but I guess we need to
reiterate the need for us to break down barriers here, both between
ourselves as editors (step away from compartmentalizing ourselves into
spaces where everyone else will agree with us because we are familiar with
them), and between ourselves as people. The latter, however, is very
difficult to do, and it is one of the challenges that we have to face if
we will want to assure Wikipedia's future success.
Regards,
Josh
JAMES JOSHUA G. LIM
Block I1, AB Political Science
Major in Global Politics, Minor in Chinese Studies
Class of 2013, Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Trustee (2010-2013), Wikimedia Philippines
Member, Ateneo Debate Society
Member, The Assembly
jamesjoshua...@yahoo.com | +63 (927) 531-8301
Friendster/Facebook/Twitter: akiestar | Wikimedia: Sky Harbor
http://akira123323.livejournal.com
________________________________
From: Rui Correia <correia....@gmail.com>
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 5, 2013 5:08 AM
Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Please, let's save the Wikipedia - from itself
Greetings to All
Let me start by saying that I don't do much here at the WP, not compared
to
people who make hundreds of edits a week. I would love to, have a long
list
of "to-do", but unfortunately time is not on my side.
In my limited involvemet here, I have seen many a good editor leave the
project. Mostly, people leave because they can't take it anymore having to
fight the 'blocks' of defenders that coalesce around certain topics.
In itself, though not very healthy, such blocks forming around topis is
fine. What is not fine is that if any issue gets referred to a higher
process for a resolution, it is often the same people grouping of people
previously involved in disputes on the same topic who come to the
resolution forum to issue a decision. However, it is always the 'outsider'
that loses. He gets acused of everything under the sun, and gets 'good
advice' from supposedly neutral editors, urging him to calm down, to
temper
his language etc. It is like trying to point out that the earth is round
at
a monthly meetng of the fat-earthers. That is not healthy and is making
the
WP processes look like a kangaroo court run by a cabal.
And I expect pretty much the same reaction to this email.
I pointed out in an ealier email to this list the difficulty that one
encounters when you include something negative about certain big
corporations. I was stoned and made to feel that I was wrong and everbody
else was right. The reaction was tantamount to a chorus of "yes, we know
there are problems, but don't say it out loud, someone might hear you!".
Let's for argument's say that I was wrong. But - more importantantly - was
anything done to investigate what I was saying? What if there are legions
out there paid to sanitise the pages of big corporations? And we know that
they exist, and that WP has taken up the issue as in here,
http://nick-xomba-ceo.xomba.com/microsoft_accused_of_paying_blogger_to_alter_wikipedia_articles
I made a silly remark on a Talk page about the choice of the word
"downgrade" to refer to people using Windows 8 who wanted to go back to
XP.
For a failed product, by Microsoft's own admission, going back to XP is an
upgrade, going back to sanity, not a downgrade.
I was first accused of trolling, then something else, then of offending
the
entire community of users of Windows 8. The editor who is adamant - not
the
first time - to purge ant-MS from the talkpage violated the 3RR, but
nothing gets done about it. I reported the 3RR, and it was immediately
closed, labelled as being relatiatory. There is a backlog of issues on
that
page, but my entry was closed within minutes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Edit_warring#User:Codename_Lisa_reported_by_User:Rui_Gabriel_Correia_.28Result:_Closed.29
It was closed, claiming that it was already being addressed elsewhere.
So, I too will consider my stay here. Like I said right at the top, I
don't
do much here, so I am certain I will not even be missed. I edit in eight
languages, small little bits here and there. I participated in a number of
initiaves on the development of Chapters in Africa and am happy to see
that
things are moving. I had the honour and privilege to meet Jimmy Wales in
South Africa and to discuss a few things relating to WP in Africa.
So, it is time to wind down anr retire into a corner. I am busy with a
novel, I am sure that is where I should invest my time and energy.
Sincere regards to all, happy editing
Rui Correia
--
_________________________
Rui Correia
Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Work Consultant
Bridge to Angola - Angola Liaison Consultant
Mobile Number in South Africa +27 74 425 4186
Número de Telemóvel na África do Sul +27 74 425 4186
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