[WikiEN-l] Userbox fads

[Jay Converse]

On 1/4/06, Geoff Burling <llywrch at agora.rdrop.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 4 Jan 2006, Nathan Russell wrote:
> As for the matter that some Wikipedians spend more time on Userboxes
> than contributing content, if this is the case then someone needs to
> have a talk with the person & explain that the goal of Wikipedia is
> to create an encyclopedia -- not a web page with lots of cute & colorful
> Userboxes. If they refuse to get with the program, then perhaps the
> solution then would be to either treat them like a vandal or haul them
> before the ArbCom for an official banning. (And if anyone is curious,
> I can identify one person who falls into this category -- so there
> are people with accounts on Wikipedia who need to get with the program.)


If their actions are not detrimental to the encyclopedia as a whole, why
should they be ArbCommed?  This seems like an overreaction to me.  There's
no reason someone who just makes userboxes should be forced to leave.

Honestly, I don't see how putting a couple of userboxes on one's user
> page transforms the average Wikipedian into some drooling, lamer noob
> who uses Wikipedia only to hang with his bro's & to pick fights with
> his unkewl rivals. And for the record, while I have a few of these
> things on my User page, I find this phenomena silly -- like Sailor Moon
> anime, teen-aged Republicans, & people who can't understand the difference
> between "your" & "you're". However, I can cheerfully ignore it & spend
> my time on more important matters, like compiling material in order to
> add to Wikipedia an article on every population center in Ethiopia.


As another food for thought, does this make any admin with a userbox on
their userpage a useless admin?  I've seen that argument being bandied
about.

--Jay Converse (Mo0)

--
I'm not stupid, just selectively ignorant.