[WikiEN-l] The userbox fad

[Stan Shebs]

Ryan Delaney wrote:

>On 1/4/06, Tony Sidaway <f.crdfa at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>The scope for abuse  of these userboxes has been amply demostrated.
>>They fulfil no function useful to the encyclopedia that isn't done
>>equally well by simply stating one's affiliations on one's user page.
>>They must die.
>>
>>
>
>You really ought to learn to pick your battles. Yes, some people do things
>on Wikipedia that are less than entirely productive. But some of these
>things boost community morale and connect people with each other in fun
>ways. Yes, in an ideal world, we would spend all our time working on the
>encyclopedia and doing nothing else. But tha door swings both ways. In that
>world, you would spend all your time working on the encyclopedia, not
>launching a crusade over trivial crap like this.
>
Taking a longer perspective, we do have fads that sweep over from time
to time. About the time I started, three years ago, lists were a big
issue - lots of lists being created and expanded, lots of argument
about the value of lists. Now they're just part of the scene, don't
get much attention.

Somebody compared userboxes to bumper stickers, and I think it's very
apt. While we may dislike seeing cars covered with bumper stickers,
we don't (usually :-) ) try to pass laws regulating the number or
type of bumper stickers on a car, nor do we try to outlaw the
printing of bumper stickers.

Similarly, if there are somebody who admire WP so much that they want
to be associated with it, even if they don't have anything to
contribute to the encyclopedia, that seems like a good thing. In fact,
if their language skills are abysmal and their library skills
nonexistent, I would rather have them tinkering with user pages and
talking about WP with their friends rather than editing on articles
proper. For some, I imagine that the user page is a good way to learn
about editing without disrupting article development. (It does suggest
that we should fine-tune our metrics so that user-space edits are never
counted.)

Stan