Hi Littlewmfbird,
Come perch on my branches, says this tree,
And tell me more about what thinketh thee.
Come, let us evaluate together
About how Wikimedia might do better.
Little bird, as you perch on my branches,
Tell me this.
As you survey the broad blue sky, I ask,
Think aloud, daydream with me for a minute:
How might Wikimedia transform
from what you criticized in your verses
Into the community that we
(at least you and I, and I suspect many more)
feel it should be?
This is not idle wishfullness;
I am quite serious.
Like you, I can throw stones too
But I ask myself,
If I want Wikimedia to be better
Then how can we help to make it so?
And that question, little bird, I hope you will ponder, lo.
You see, trees like me
We weather many storms.
We could give up and disappear,
As you can too.
But what, then, of the Wikimedia we love?
And what of us? Are we better if we leave?
I suppose we must all leave someday,
our edits and patches left for future generations,
our great unfinished symphony to be continued by others.
But little bird, it sounds like you intend to stay, at least for a little
bit,
Since you did not ragequit.
So while you are here, little bird, Let us talk.
Give this thought:
how can we become better than we are?
I am listening, as are others.
(If I am slow to respond, it is because I am pondering.)
Regards,
Pine
*This is an Encyclopedia* <https://www.wikipedia.org/>
*One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of
our past, in which we must delve The well of our future,The clear water we
must leave untainted for those who come after us,The fertile earth, in
which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands,And the broad
fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not
know.*
*—Catherine Munro*
On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 9:11 AM, <littlewmfbird(a)yandex.com> wrote:
Oh what a day! Which began when perforce
a visitor from afar began to exhort
us to look far afield, to travel and visit
learn brand new things, uncover, elicit
stories of users far from our homes!
And so we set out, bravely to roam:
perhaps ten full blocks! We found creatures strange!
They all spoke English! The stories exchanged
recalled those of family: Mom, Dad, and friends --
it's true, then, we _are_ all the same in the end!
Such relief not to grapple
with projects baroque,
languages strange, or
features "they" wrote.
In tune with this sentiment
let's celebrate dominance!
Hush the less pertinent --
let's not mention "those" continents.
"Hurray," we all cheer: "Our wiki is strong!"
Our projects are weak, but shush, sing along:
our rivals are fierce, but yet we prevailed;
it must be because our PHP scaled!
Ignore those naysayers who laugh at our UX
And claims by our editors that it obstructs:
separate pages for talk, no friends and no chat --
no Serious Software has all of that!
Well, enough -- we're not free
to change even fonts
without acres of missives
to agony aunts:
let's move next to strategy,
where with speeches prolonged
new hires will tell us
what we got wrong.
Three commands we were given:
the first, to be punctual.
By fiat we've banished
the correct but eventual;
from now on our code
is timely _and_ functional.
Our prior disasters are
vanished by ritual.
The second was novel:
exhorted to innovate!
Our change-fearing userbase
I'm sure will reciprocate.
Perhaps we can grow
new crops of good editors.
New users, new processes,
throw off our fetters.
Perhaps we need spaces
where we can be bold --
it's hard else to see
how to do what we're told.
The last was to integrate,
engage with community;
never mind our tall silos
and product disunity:
we can have orphaned features
conflicted teams, clashing visions --
"What's key is to synergize!"
says our stratcom tactician.
Community discourse
will fix all that ails us:
except for those times
when instead they've assailed us.
Lift a glass to the mission!
We'll muddle through fine.
We all love each other,
but this day's been a grind.
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