On 1/10/07, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 1/10/07, Nina Stratton ninaeliza@gmail.com wrote:
I like the article on extroverts and attention seekers that Luna brought
up,
but it doesn't really address certain cultural factors. The current veneration of celebrities in general, is almost a world-wide phenomenon
now.
Many people hold the view that any celebrity is good, and that
celebrities
are to be envied wholesale. That makes Wikipedia a target for anyone
wanting
their "one minute of fame".
Plenty of productive ways of getting low level fame on wikipedia. While the multiple author thing means that featured articles are not that good a way of getting it featured pictures are.
This is also true, the "one minute of fame statement" was specifically for the casual vandal. This is where it gets interesting, because many people don't just want the collective "fame" of being part of such a high-profile project, but they also want, at the very least, validation and recognition within the community itself. Look at the huge back log of editor reviews, for example.
Another example is the way a lot of folks self-nominate for RFAs. RFAs in general are kind of a thorny issue for me, because I don't really think that folks realize how much work it is (I'm not an admin, and have no wish to be one). I just wrote, for all intents and purposes, a short essay to a user who was a bit uncivil to a newbie because his RFA went so badly. I wish more folks could see that this adminship is just another "chore", and not some kind of shiny metallic cop-star (no offense intended to the fine folks in the police).
I don't know if it's healthy or not, but I tend to just assume I'm famous within the community, and leave it at that. I'm most certainly an extrovert and attention seeker, and have been all my life. I actually wanted to be a singer and musician, but wound up doing other things. I've also always had the dream of getting in on the "ground floor" of something huge (like Google, for example). I've pretty much achieved both my desire for attention and "fame", as well as my desire to be a pioneer in a grand-scale project. I'm pretty content.:)
I honestly believe that most vandals come here expecting to get into the news the next day, because Wikipedia has become so high profile. It's
the
folks who come here sub-consciously craving negative attention that are
the
real problem. Those are people who are typically very wounded, and there
is
definitely some Psychology working there.
The Herostratus approach? I feel that this one only applies to a limited number of our more persistent Vandals.
True, but it also applies to a lot of trolls . See GNAA.
--
geni
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