On 08/02/2008, David Goodman <dgoodmanny(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Yes, good people do things properly. But as one person
said to me
once, "you're the only person here who actually tried to help." -- and
there were 4 or 5 conventional notices of help on that page. She
wanted some simple practical advice about exactly what was best to do
to save the article. I'm not the only person, and neither are you.
The secret which we both use is to never use copy and paste, or a
template. But, as you say, most people are trained to interpret
offers of assistance as the conventional "Please let us know if t
here is anything more that we can do to help" at the bottom of all
negative form letters. Just as some people at WP end their negative
warnings with "Have a good day!"
However even when not copying and pasting anything people do a lot
will tend to become standardized (See how may times I've typed out "Hi
did you take this pic?") On top of that you hit the problem is that
while templates may feel impersonal they may well be a better option
than something that expresses the wikipedian's true feelings.
--
geni