Dear Mark W.,
At 05:09 23/02/2005 +0000, Mark Williamson wrote to Stan Shebs:
"Thanks" for the advice.
I have some for you, too - cool off a bit, and quit acting so condescending. It's very irritating, even in small doses. And as I have noted before, while friendly advice is usually appreciated by me, when it is given in a tone like this it really doesn't help anybody.
As someone who has supported you before (even though I have no way of telling whether you appreciated it), I ask you to break a little bit there -- Stan Shebs' advice wasn't *that* bad, actually... It is easy for us all to sound a bit condescending at times (and you probably think I sound condescending right now), but you sound more than a bit condescending (and, frankly, a bit irritating (since you brought up that term)) yourself at times, you know ....
I think this may be a good time for you to step back a bit and rethink your debating strategies.
Listen to Stan -- and give what he said some thought. It won't hurt. You don't need to post all your thoughts about it here (or anywhere else, at that) -- but please try to listen. Maybe you find that he isn't right. But in that case, maybe you could make your own life easier by finding out why/how people misunderstand you -- and then find ways of avoiding these misunderstandings...?
I appreciate very much your struggle for "small"-language wikipedias, Mark. I have also seen you contribute in many other great ways., and I hope that you will continue the struggle for Wikipedia to become ever more democratic and diverse within the limits of truth and humanism. But in this struggle, one needs both a strong conviction AND a level of humility (!) and flexibility (!!!) that allows people not to be driven away from the good cause.
I have defended you before, and will be happy to do so again as long as I see that you do positive things for Wikipedia. But sometimes it is time to listen and learn for all of us -- even for you.
Respectfully,
Olve
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Olve Utne http://utne.nvg.org