--- Denni dwindrim@shaw.ca wrote:
I do not want anyone to be denied the opportunity to participate in Wikipedia to its fullest extent, except for three groups of people: the presently banned, anons, and newbies (he said, seeing keyboards around the planet ignite spontaneously).
Anon, in general, do not bother me. I am an anon at times. It helps me gauge the response of active sysops. Newbies do not bother me either. They are like teens trying to figure sex out.
I have no great sympathy for most of those banned; while mistakes happen, MNH and friends are "away" for good reason. However, anons and newbies have, as a group, no less ability to create havoc.
People are banned for various reasons. Just because a user is banned does not mean they are worthless. They may have heated up too much in the wrong situation.
I come at this as remembering my own first days here - trying to find my way around, trying to navigate what appeared to be darkness, editing a bit here and a bit there until I had the nerve to do my own userpage or submit a small article (can't remember which came first). Yes, I screwed up, not through bad intent, but through ignorance, and posted a couple of articles that got me leapt upon by irate sysops.
That fumbling around in the dark is hopefully now better addressed. Perhaps there should be a sysop "Guided tour" feature.
There are also those "anons" who are only anonymous to us. They know who they're dealing with, and sock puppetry is the least of their bad manners sometimes.
I put forward as a suggestion that newbie and anon postings be screened...
And who monitors the screeners? And define newbie. And define anon. Someone who comes for ten minutes per month will be a newbie for a very long time. Jimbo may be a anon.
While this does not negate Wikipedia's promise of being able to "edit this page right now", it does add the caveat that the edit may not be immediately visible.
That would not be good. The very idea of transparency and immediacy is highly critical to the W's success.
VfD has a big group of vigilant eyes, myself among them. But if I could be of help in screening anon vandals, and helping newbies find the right way, I'd sure rather spend my time on such a page. I propose this to the powers that be for consideration.
I propose the opposite: that the powers that be not spend any time on this. Rather, newbies need better help.
Heck, publiching a hardcopy Wikipedia Guide would go far to alleviate newbieism.
===== Chris Mahan 818.943.1850 cell chris_mahan@yahoo.com chris.mahan@gmail.com http://www.christophermahan.com/
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