In principle the formal language used in the templates is supposed to help sound impersonal--but it works the other way round and strikes new users in particular as impersonal bureaucracy. What we intend to be helpful suggestions come across as the usual self-protective internet warnings and disclaimers.
But what is even worse is not notifying them at all--and we rely on sometimes-functioning bots for the purpose at Speedy deletion and Prod--and good will alone at AfD. There is -- amazingly -- no requirement that the author or main contributors to an article be notified of impending deletion. Even more amazingly, requiring notice has been rejected repeatedly by the long-term experienced users: "they should be using their watchlists" ; "if people had to notify them, AfD deletions would go slower--they might protest more often".
One thing nobody could say about WP, is that we are friendly to newcomers. it's the usenet heritage. At most we give them a list of 30 long help pages to read, but not a single personal word.
On Feb 8, 2008 5:09 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 08/02/2008, The Mangoe the.mangoe@gmail.com wrote:
I'm not making a specific complaint, but merely noting what I see as a trend to get rather trigger-happy about slapping tags on things.
I think a lot of the problem is that the nominators feel affronted or cheated when a deletion nomination is challenged - they assume ownership of the deletion nomination and feel they have to fight for it.
(I must admit I haven't helped - I have frequently been guilty of stating my opinions of bad nominations in a personal manner, and recently needed to apologise profusely to User:Cirt for my profound dickishness on a deletion matter; I will be trying to do much better in future.)
How to depersonalise the process of deletion nomination?
- d.
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