On 2/17/06, Philip Welch <wikipedia(a)philwelch.net> wrote:
Stop worrying about userboxes and write an
encyclopedia already. If
and when userboxes interfere with encyclopedia-writing activities,
react in an appropriately minimalist fashion and proceed with the
encyclopedia-writing.
Quite frankly, the userbox fans are *not* the people disrupting
Wikipedia with an unhealthy fixation with userboxes. This isn't to
say that they don't *have* an unhealthy userbox fixation, but rather,
that they engage in that fixation in a way that doesn't really
prevent the rest of us from writing an encyclopedia.
The people disrupting Wikipedia—that would be us, writing dozens of
messages to this listserv about them. Aren't we the people who
actually care about writing an encyclopedia? Then why don't we do
that, instead of wasting our time compiling statistics about
userboxes, trying to delete them, and debating the right way to do that?
The people disrupting Wikipedia, maybe, are the people writing
messages to the listserv about people writing messages to the listserv
about userboxes.
Discussing and formulating Wikipedia policy is as important a
contribution as is editing an individual article.