On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 7:28 PM, Lady of Shalott <ladyofshalott.wp@gmail.com
wrote:
The other day it occurred to me that a particular friend of mine could be a great contributor to Wikipedia, and so I asked her if she ever did. She said that she used to, and in fact started an article about a particular topic (a particular biological taxon - I won't be more specific at this point, but it is an extant article). I asked her if there was a particular reason she stopped, and her answer was,
"Yes, the last time I tried to, though admittedly that has been a few years ago, I was unable to. I can't remember what the impediment was but I'm basically a lazy person. If I have to jump through even one hoop, I lose my passion."
Now perhaps she tried to edit an article protected for a very good reason, or who knows what happened, but this event was enough to make her stop. I imagine she's not the only person to react this way. Is this reaction more typical of one sex than another? I have no idea. I just thought I'd throw it into the mix of known reasons some people don't edit Wikipedia.
Aleta/LadyofShalott
These kinds of stories are really important. I added a red link on Meta for a page where we can collect anecdotes just like this.[1]
I know the Geek Feminism wiki has a ton of examples from outside Wikipedia. This sort of history is less about cataloging all the transgressions or errors of the past, I think, than providing compelling, personal stories we can point to when people ask, "So what? I've never seen X situation."
I don't think they need to be all negative either. *Sometimes *Wikipedia gets it right. ;-) We should point out what that looks like too.
1. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_gap#Research http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_gap#Research