On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 7:28 PM, Lady of Shalott <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:ladyofshalott.wp@gmail.com">ladyofshalott.wp@gmail.com</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">

The other day it occurred to me that a particular friend of mine could<br>
be a great contributor to Wikipedia, and so I asked her if she ever<br>
did. She said that she used to, and in fact started an article about a<br>
particular topic (a particular biological taxon - I won&#39;t be more<br>
specific at this point, but it is an extant article).  I asked her if<br>
there was a particular reason she stopped, and her answer was,<br>
<br>
&quot;Yes, the last time I tried to, though admittedly that has been a few<br>
years ago, I was unable to. I can&#39;t remember what the impediment was<br>
but I&#39;m basically a lazy person. If I have to jump through even one<br>
hoop, I lose my passion.&quot;<br>
<br>
Now perhaps she tried to edit an article protected for a very good<br>
reason, or who knows what happened, but this event was enough to make<br>
her stop. I imagine she&#39;s not the only person to react this way. Is<br>
this reaction more typical of one sex than another? I have no idea. I<br>
just thought I&#39;d throw it into the mix of known reasons some people<br>
don&#39;t edit Wikipedia.<br>
<br>
Aleta/LadyofShalott<br><br>
</blockquote></div><br>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] <div><br></div><div>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, &quot;So what? I&#39;ve never seen X situation.&quot; </div>

<div><br></div><div>I don&#39;t think they need to be all negative either. <i>Sometimes </i>Wikipedia gets it right. ;-) We should point out what that looks like too. </div><div><div><br></div><div>1. <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_gap#Research">http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_gap#Research</a></div>

<div><a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_gap#Research"></a><br>-- <br>Steven Walling<div>Fellow at Wikimedia Foundation</div><div><a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org" target="_blank">wikimediafoundation.org</a></div>

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