Hi,<br>I&#39;ve been lurking this list for some time and have been getting a bit depressed by the direction it&#39;s taking as of late. It was all cha-cha-cha in the beginning, but now I&#39;ve seen references to women not wanting their children exposed to vulgarity, women and transgendereds needing a separate list to feel comfortable, and women on Wikipedia being compared to rural Africa as served by NGOs.<br>
<br>As a chick that likes computer stuff, I&#39;ve encountered this before in looking for peer groups and it makes me feel double alienated--I don&#39;t even <i>like</i> children and now they&#39;re part of a conversation about me as a female on the internet.<br>
<br>Personally, broad statistics about women nearly never ring true, and that&#39;s a conversation block. Nerdy guys have taught me Wordpress, torrenting, and heaps of other useful internet skills. In turn, I have taught some lady friends. It would be more encouraging to get back to what we know and how we can share it.<br>
<br>I don&#39;t edit Wikipedia because I&#39;ve never taken the time to learn the system and I&#39;m afraid I&#39;ll screw up. I assume it would feel like making a big mistake in a newspaper and having the whole neighborhood scoff, and I think that becomes a part of my Wikipedia profile forever and ever. I&#39;d like to find a YouTube video to walk me through basic involvement. If it&#39;s that cute guy from Portland who is now a Wikipedia community manager presenting it, well all the better. I could also be encouraged to edit if the community had an offline component that included meeting for microbrews.<br>
<br>Thanks,<br>Carissa<br>