Hi David, we're not good friends, we saw each other in real life very few times, in Berlin and in Hong Kong, but I always remember our work for the Wikisource IEG¹ one of the coolest projects I've ever done in my life as a wikimedian. We did well, I think, even if our results were small and there was a need of some follow up work that didn't actually happen, even if I recall it as a failure². I'm writing here in the spirit of our movement: we like common things, and I think yours is a common struggle. I hope this little advice is at least bit helpful, and hopefully not for you alone.
I think that you're misinterpreting the role of the Wikimedia movement in your life. Wikimedia can be an amazing place where you can find friends, a community of peers, like-minded altruistic people, maybe even love, but never, never, never *purpose*. You can find purpose in other, more concrete and especially more close things: family, friends, relationships, love, good careers, children, you name it. Wikimedia can be a great, awesome *accessory*, but it will never replace those black holes that everyone of us stares in our lives. Everytime I've seen this happen, everytime I've seen people trying to put everything they had in Wikimedia, I've worried. I know quite well this feeling: it took me quite a few years to understand my own relationship with wikimedia was not ideal, and it was sucking life out of me. As a chairman of a chapter I was quite stressed, and above all I saw that wiki things constantly conflicted with other things in my life. Eventually, I gave up, because I saw that this path as not going to end well. I've even seen few members of our community took their own life: some of them were heavily invested in our wiki movement. Although I don't think Wikimedia was the reason, I think it had became part of the problem: often, people try to find something in Wikimedia that Wikimedia cannot actually provide. Sometimes it's even the contrary: the more you give to wiki the more it will ask you: we strive for "world domination", we want an impossible thing, enormous thing all together. We want to give free access to the all human knowledge to everyone, and we do this as a hobby. It's a dream, and you work towards it: it's not something that you will ever achieve. We've done incredible things in the last 18 years: but we always get this feeling that we haven't even started yet... This leaves a lot of room for stress, for anxiety, for not working properly and break things. You don't want to do that. So, I'd encourage you (I'm encouraging everyone of us, myself included) to pick your battles, check your priorities, start from the fundamentals: health first, work first, daily important relationships first. You need money to live, eat, pay your bills: don't put yourself in a worse position than your current one. You come first than Wikimedia. You can't do good if there's no "you" in the first place. I mean it. I hope this helps, Aubrey ¹ https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Elaborate_ Wikisource_strategic_vision <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Elaborate_Wikisource_strategic_vision/Finances> ² To be fair, I think we did a good job, and I think that WMF bears responsability in the "failure" of the project. But it's not important now. On Sat, Jun 9, 2018 at 4:23 AM, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Micru, > > It sounds to me like there are a few different topics that are on your > mind. I'm wondering if it might help to clarify the situation if we could > meet on Hangouts for some near-real-time communication. I'd be glad to try > to find a time to meet with you. I'll be coming and going from the Internet > for the next few hours, and if you happen to be online then I'd be glad to > talk with you on Hangouts for a voice conversation when we're both > available. Please feel free to send me a text message on Hangouts if you're > available and would be interested in having a conversation there. I may not > respond immediately, but I should respond within half an hour of receiving > your message. > > Personally, I am looking forward to seeing the new WMF website, and I > generally have a positive view of Ed Erhart. The topic of where certain > publications should be posted is a complicated one, and I would like to > hear your perspective. > > Pine > ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
