[Wikipedia-l] I'm seeing a trend here or How to keep driving away good contributors

[Andre Engels]

> I hope we are all proud of ourselves about how
> tolerant we are with people who consistently exhibit
> anti-social behavior. Andre has left the project due
> to fatigue with having to deal with these miscreants
> and I am so /disgusted/ with loosing yet another great
> en.wiki contributor that for at least the next several
> days I am going to concentrate on the Spanish
> Wikipedia and contemplate priorities on my own future
> involvement in en.wiki.  

Just for good order: It wasn't just these miscreants, although it's a large
part of it. I am also getting sick of the fights between ourselves, and of
getting hateful remarks from some of you. Furthermore, I have to spend less
time on the Internet anyway, as my work is suffering under it.

I don't think I will be gone forever, but for the time being I'm going to do
very little. Probably just a few new pages and major edits, those are what
still gives me fun.

Someone says that I do not have to deal with them. And that's true. But once
I have created a page or made a major addition to it, I get a bit attached to
it. And when they get changed, I want to look. Most of the time it's something
inconsequential. Often it is an improvement, and I smile. But sometimes it
gets worse, and that upsets me. And then I try to work on it. That's one way
to get drawn in. Unfortunately, there are others as well.

It's hard to say what, if anything, should have been done differently to keep
me. Because it's certainly partly my own fault, being too thin-skinned, taking
criticism too much personally, feeling personally insulted when there is
really just a difference in opinion. Maybe my involvement in Wikipedia was
just a case of having the right man at the wrong place - or a lot of wrong
places even.

Like mav, I am withdrawing, to WikipediaNL in my case. I'll probably be back
in some weeks or some months, and see what you have done with the project in
the meantime. I wish you luck.


Andre Engels