On 02/12/2007, Ron Ritzman ritzman@gmail.com wrote:
So when did this trend of suspecting editors who don't have a history of "newbie mistakes" of being potential troublemakers start? I can think of several good faith explanations for this...
I don't know when it started, but it shouldn't ever have caught on.
We are approaching a state where it's becoming more and more difficult for new editors to become part of the "community". I have firsthand accounts from a growing number of real-life acquaintances who have had bad experiences editing Wikipedia for the first time. They have had perfectly legitimate edits reverted in some cases even by bots, they have had articles listed for deletion on the same day as creation, before the original editor is even finished adding detail and sources. I have not time to go chasing up these incidents, and in any case, experience over the last couple years has pretty much set me in the mindset that really I'm just wasting my time and efforts to even try defend things against those who despite great persistence, are misguided (even just through not being familiar with a subject area, and assuming something is nonsense).
Wikipedia has lost its way. I can't see it returning to it either. Nevermind the fact that a lot of process was pretty flawed even in the "good old days".
Zoney