John Lee wrote:
What concerns me is the existence of userboxes and
categories that
exist solely for the purpose of factionalism. To me, the UDUIW stuff
fits that definition to a tee, splitting Wikipedians into "us and them".
I agree up, down, and sideways that factionalism is very, very
bad for the project. But given that it has begun to take root,
and especially when one of the factional splits is between those
for and against userboxes, it's not at all clear that rampant,
heavyhanded deletion of userboxes (which are, after all, merely
a symptom of the real problem) will automatically make things
any better.
When those userboxes are expressing factionalism, then yes, there is a
reasonable chance things will be better. It is /not/ good for editors to
get the idea that factionalism is the normal state of things on
Wikipedia and/or is to be encouraged. Attempting to associate me with
rampant or heavyhanded userbox deletors won't wash; I've only deleted
two userboxes in my whole life, both of which fit my rather narrow
definition of T1.
John