On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 15:23, Daniel and Elizabeth Case dancase@frontiernet.net wrote:
It doesn't surprise me that Wikipedia would attract such serious Asperger cases as this.
I don't think we should be diagnosing anyone, or speaking in terms of illness. But I do think this touches on a major problem on Wikipedia, namely the dominance of the male brain. Some academics -- e.g. see [[Simon Baren-Cohen]]'s ''The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain'' (2003) -- have discussed certain autistic traits as being extreme versions of the male brain. I think we can talk about it without delving into the concept of illness, and simply look at the phenomena.
Women have male-brain traits too, by the way.
What it leads to on Wikipedia is a singular focus on detail and systems. Lots of templates and other tools that make editing tough. Categorization so detailed that things end up being hard to find. Articles created five minutes ago being tagged for deletion, or tagged as orphans, or tagged as in some other way inadequate. Policies and guidelines being imposed rigidly across the board with no room for editorial judgment.
It makes editing hard even for experienced editors. It can mean the simplest thing takes hours. Non-male-brain people (of either sex) are likely to walk away rather than deal with it. So I think it's losing us editors, and failing to gain us new ones, particularly women.
Sarah