On 22 Oct 2004, at 22:19, NSK wrote:
I think people need to realise that deleting something does not improve WP. On the other hand, re-writing an article does improve WP. I imagine people prefer deletion because it is easier or because they enjoy "being a cop".
Indeed. The "cop" ego trip does enter into it big time. I have made two very bad experiences where people vigorously deleted content they perceived as invalid and (what's MUCH worse) they refused to communicate ''before'' committing and re-committing their view of the world ''even when asked to do so'' and made comments that I perceived as ridiculously impolite and implicitly judgmental. That's actually a reason why I'm a lot more active in "Wikipolitics" at present than I am editing.
-- ropers [[en:User:Ropers]] www.ropersonline.com
PS: The following might be perceived as bad stereotype stuff, as totally rude and preposterous (and everything I accused others of above) -- so please take it with ''truckloads'' of salt -- it's just a flip thought that popped into my mind: Seeing that US folks in general are said to be the "can to people", maybe the aforementioned "cop ego trip" issues might account for what was mentioned on one of the mailing lists a while ago, namely the phenomenon that European contributors appear to be doing more Wiki-politics and US contributors appear to be editing more. This might be an alienation issue. (Frontier justice attitude? Shoot first, ask questions later? Culture clash of that with the European way?) Then again, this thought might be mental junk.