[Foundation-l] Why should Wikimedians meet?

[Ray Saintonge]

Oliver Keyes wrote:
> Agreed. A good example; on the English Wikipedia, I'm a massive law nerd
> with 40-something legal GAs and FAs to my name. I'd never even have studied
> the subject if it wasn't for a group of Wikipedians, some of whom have later
> helped me with or collaborated on articles. The importance of social
> interaction cannot be understated, and it's why I have no truck with some of
> the more severe "OMG WIKIPEDIA IS NOT MYSPACE" people. People come here to
> build a collaborative encyclopaedia, yes, not to socially interact - but the
> key word there is "collaborative". Social contact is inevitable and
> incredibly helpful to us as a community; hells, it's what *makes us* a
> community and not just a hundred thousand people who independently agree
> that Wikipedia is nifty.
One of the more annoying of the anti-social species is the kind that 
becomes annoyed when talk page comments wander a little off topic, and 
claim that this is contrary to the talk page's single purpose of 
improving what's in article space.  The improvement to the article from 
these off topic comments may be somewhat oblique, but it can improve 
one's understanding of the topic and of the person commenting.

Ray