Re: [Wikimedia-in-blr] [Press] Bangalore Mirror : "Bangalore’s the place for Wiki"

Hi all, A relatively new Wikipedian sent me the personal mail below. Initially I thought I will reply him privately, but later I decided that my reply may possibly help someone else on the list, if at all, and hence sending to the list. I have removed person's details for anonymity but bccing him in this mail. I am also taking a small liberty to use his mail. Dear Wikipedian, Before I try to clear your misunderstandings , I want to share with you about my own experience. There was a time, very very long back, when I even decided to quit Wikipedia because "my" article was marked for deletion , and after a heated deletion discussion and lo, "my article" was GONE ! I ,then , never understood the complexity of the establishment called "Wikipedia" . I was tired, frustrated and angry like you! I cribbed that Wikipedia admins and other "self proclaimed experts" are stupid aliens who are out there to block Indians editing Wikipedia. Ok, I took a small break then and later came back again investigating what possibly went wrong. I have been mentored by several veteran Wikipedians. I asked for advice and help whenever i was confused. And here I am now , with 52,000+ edits and an administrator on English Wikipedia. Let us try to humbly explain what went wrong in your case. Before that, a big thank you for creating 5 articles to Wikipedia. Good job ! Unfortunately, we easily get irritated when somebody removes content that we have added, it is just human nature.. But remember that all Wikipedia content is open to being edited collaboratively. No one, no matter how skilled, has the right to act as if they are the owner of a particular article. If you are not willing to see that the information that you added is mercilessly removed, altered & changed, ...never edit Wikipedia :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:OWN Talking about the content suitable for an article on Wikipedia, first and foremost, we should remember , Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Forgotten, the five pillars of Wikipedia ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars So what would you like to see on an encyclopedia ? Definitely not, information about ATM, medical stores, hostels, eateries , medical stores etc, which you had tried to add to the article on a place. (I have checked your edit history) These information is definitely useful, I agree, but they find a better place on a city guide than an encyclopedia. Remember that Wikipedia is not a web directory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_n… and also there is a difference between List articles with normal articles. Arguments and differences of opinion on content on Wikipedia is natural. Even now, there are times when I get personally very pissed off. :) But we need to remind us a few things often : Observing Civility : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Civility and How to build a consensus : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Consensus I can see, that there are lots of good and encyclopedic information that you have already added to Wikipedia. Excellent ! But I am happy to mentor and guide you more on Wikipedia. I seriously wish that you would return back to Wikipedia and contribute more. Happy Editing ! Regards Tinu Cherian On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 1:38 PM, <name removed> wrote: