On Jul 21, 2006, at 11:08 AM, Timwi wrote:
Jesse W wrote:
You prompted me to do some research - I looked at RC for the last few
minutes, in the User_talk namespace, and clicked on various IPs talk
pages to see what was on them. Here are my results:
[.......]
At least to me, "Take a look at the
[[Wikipedia:Welcome,
newcomers|welcome page]] if you would like to learn more about
contributing.", " If the bot reverted a legitimate edit, please accept
my humble creator's apologies", and "See the [[Wikipedia:Welcome,
newcomers|welcome page]] to learn more. Thanks." do not seem like
assuming that new users are all bent on destroying Wikipedia.
Yep -- well selected. Now let *me* do *my* selections from *your*
samples (I've replaced boldface with capitals):
Well done! I agree that the
selections you picked are non-welcoming,
and accusational in tone. Now the question is - if we should do
something else, what should it be, and how should we do it? It is
simply a fact that we get a large number of "unconstructive edits" -
what should we say to the people who add them? It is also a fact that
we get a large number of additions of advertising - what should we say
to the people who add those things?
This started with the claim that no-one was told about our policies
before they were blocked for violating them; I think both of our
selections make it quite clear that this is not the case.
Thanks for the discussion!
Jesse Weinstein
The selections:
unconstructive
edits are considered vandalism, and if you continue in
this manner you may be BLOCKED FROM EDITING WITHOUT FURTHER WARNING.
Please stop, and consider improving rather than
damaging the work of
others.
Your recent edit [...] was reverted by a BOT that
attempts to
recognize and repair vandalism.
Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising or a
mere collection of
external links.
Do these sound inviting or welcoming to you? To me, all of those sound
excessively hostile and suggestive of accusations.
And as for linking to [[WP:XYZ]] - none of the
above messages use any
of the WP:WP shortcuts
Take a look at AfD if you're looking for those.
Standard explanation: Lack of
time.