Please forgive my ignorance. 1. Are there members? 2. What are they members of? 3. How do they become members? 4. How do they know that they have been accepted? It seems that when a person becomes a member he should receive a membership certificate. This could be something that he can download and print out to put in a frame and hang on the wall. It could have a fancy border. I haven't seen any information about this. Merritt L. Perkins
At 06:43 PM 9/7/03 -0400, Merritt wrote:
Please forgive my ignorance.
- Are there members?
No. There are editors, contributors, and readers (all overlapping sets). At the moment, there is nothing to be a member of.
- What are they members of?
- How do they become members?
Since there are no members, these questions are moot.
- How do they know that they have been accepted?
It's not an accepted/rejected thing: you become a contributor by contributing.
It seems that when a person becomes a member he should receive a membership certificate. This could be something that he can download and print out to put in a frame and hang on the wall. It could have a fancy border.
It seems to me that (a) you still don't understand Wikipedia, and (b) because it's a Wiki, if someone wants to create membership certificates, they can go ahead and do so, and make them available.
Vicki Rosenzweig wrote:
Merritt wrote:
Please forgive my ignorance.
- Are there members?
No. There are editors, contributors, and readers (all overlapping sets). At the moment, there is nothing to be a member of.
The Wikimedia Foundation exists on paper; that is something to be a member of. But membership has not yet begun, unless I've missed the latest news.
However, it's important to distinguish Wikimedia members (when such exist) from Wikipedia contributors. The latter need not be among the former. (We might end up requiring the former to be among the latter, I suppose, but definitely never the other way around.) So ... forget membership for now and write articles!
-- Toby
From: "Merritt L. Perkins" mlperkins3@juno.com
Please forgive my ignorance.
- Are there members?
We are all members.
- What are they members of?
Members of the community of those involved with Wikipedias.
- How do they become members?
By participating.
- How do they know that they have been accepted?
None needed, only participation is required. All are accepted,.
It seems that when a person becomes a member he should receive a membership certificate. This could be something that he can download and print out to put in a frame and hang on the wall. It could have a fancyborder. I haven't seen any information about this. Merritt L. Perkins
Why not make up a certificate and post it on the Meta Wiki?
Then we can all download it, add our names, print it out, and put it on the wall. A fancy border would be nice, like a stock certificate.
Maybe Jimbo will even allow his mechanical signature to be reproduced on it. It could say something like
"I hereby certify this person is a member of the Wikipedia community because they decided to participate. " /signed/ Jimmy Wales Founder and Lord of All Wikipedian Realms
Here is an example of the Left-Handers Club certificate: http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/library/Membership_certificate.pdf
It could also have the new logo on it! Maybe we should have a membership certificate contest too! (I'm not joking)
Alex756
Merritt L. Perkins wrote:
Please forgive my ignorance.
- Are there members?
- What are they members of?
- How do they become members?
- How do they know that they have been accepted?
It seems that when a person becomes a member he should receive a membership certificate. This could be something that he can download and print out to put in a frame and hang on the wall. It could have a fancy border. I haven't seen any information about this.
Membership is defined in the by-laws of an organization, for which no draft has yet been made public.
I'm sure that your idea for membership certificates is a good one, but wouldn't you want to wait until we have decided on a logo which could then be worked into the design of the certificate?
Ec
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