On May 3, 2006, at 1:33 AM, charles matthews wrote:
We're not hunting down newbies and forcing them to participate in deletion discussions. Deletion discussions take place within the Wikipedia community, and like any community we have our jargon.
If someone wants to join that community, they have to learn the jargon. Even the most welcoming communities work this way.
No they don't. You're describing rude, myopic communities with little real interest in outreach. Not a global voluntary organisation.
Only rude, myopic communities have their own jargon? Are you saying that (for instance) the hacker community, academics, and professionals all belong to "rude, myopic communities"? Are you saying that baseball fans are a "rude, myopic community" because they use terms unfamiliar to newbies like "strikeout", "walk", and "infield fly rule"?
The purpose of jargon is to make communication easier within a group. Everyone here knows what "cruft" is. In AfD contexts, it's extraneous content not suitable for inclusion in the encyclopedia. We're all willing to explain that to newbies. And anyone who's offended by the word "cruft" needs to grow a thicker skin, because once we start making up euphemisms for it, we'll end up with even more impenetrable jargon than we have now.