Original Research: After much time

Thursday, December 11, 2008

After much time

I left a comment on the Talk page to Wikipedia:Don't Feed the Divas, which expresses something that I've been trying to say in a way that didn't sound to me as if I were simply whining. I don't know how many people read that page, so I thought I would reprint it here -- in case anyone is still monitoring my blog.

Geoff

Reading this essay, I wondered if it applied to me; after all, a few months back I grew angry over how I was being treated, threw a fit & went on a Wikibreak. However considering my experience carefully, I saw that it actually didn't. First, anyone who has contributed to Wikipedia for more than a few months will agree that there are some unpleasant people here that make the experience unpleasant: cranks & ruleswankers, for example. Then there is the matter that the most active Wikipedian remains a stranger to the vast majority of other active contributors: we have little or no ability to build up an informal reputation here, even as far as to alert our peers that one is not just another newbie. As a result, as much as any of us -- okay, as much as I would like to receive lots of praise & validation that I'm an important member of Wikipedia, most of the time I'm by far happier if the rest of you just leave me alone to work on my own little corner. I don't want any praise, just a reasonable amount of civility & the assumptoin that I usually know what I'm doing.

Next, my motivations didn't quite match those described in this essay. I had decided to leave for a while first -- yes, in part to see if anyone noticed, but also because I was growing angry with certain users & knew that if I did take a break I might do something I would later regret. But no one noticed; we all think we're more important than we really are & it sucks when we learn the truth. I was about to accept this humbling discovery & move on with my life when, glancing thru the usual places in an admittedly self-centered quest for validation, I found Yet Another thread about a certain borderline contributor. Now that ticked me off & I threw a tantrum, which got me attention, sadly. And I still wonder why the only way I could get any attention was by being unreasonable.

Lastly, I have been troubled by a phenomenon of Wikipedia which has continued for a long time, several years in fact: the steady loss of experienced members. Almost all of the people who made Wikipedia work when I started here back in late 2002 have gone, & I wonder why that is. These people are our institutional history, the ones with experience in the ways of Wikipedia who can prevent us from repeating mistakes. Most of them have gone & the few who haven't operate under the radar, more interested in being left alone to edit articles than to share their experience with newer Wikipedians. It's as if being a Wikipedian means you contribute until you eventually burn out, then either blow up like a supernova or simply fade away like a dimming white dwarf. Neither is a worthy ending for so many altruistic contributions to an important project.

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Labels: blogging, wikipedia, writing

# posted by llywrch @ 3:36 PM

Comments:

I've been a regular contributor to WP for over three years and I agree with much of what you say. In my view, the big issue on the site is what you rightly call the "ruleswanker". The review and AfD/CfD processes, for example, are inhabited by cliques of these idiots who have no WP:UCS (common sense) and simply have to make their WP:POINT regardless of the editor's expertise, the project's purpose and the reader's benefit. They hinder progress, they are invariably incompetent and they simply cannot take on board the basic tenet of the site that it is there to provide a service for the readers.

Vandals, by comparison, are trivial: here one minute, gone the next. In fact, I've often found vandals useful because, when they attack an article I haven't updated for some time, it serves as a useful reminder to do so!

I'm afraid I'm currently a "diva" because, frankly, I've had enough. But there's more to it than that. I really am too busy to spend much time on the site and I've now discovered blogging, which I think is great, so I've decided to quit WP to make time for blogging (and to keep the stress levels down). I might return as an editor someday but, as things stand, I doubt it.

All the best, Jack.

# posted by