[Foundation-l] One down, three to go

[Virgilio A. P. Machado]

No, of course there was no intention, stated or 
otherwise, to help. That was exactly my point, in 
case you missed it. If you have to ask about how 
you are expected to help, you can't afford to do 
it. You are out of your depth and out of your 
league (absolutely no offense intended).

I love English lessons. They take me way back to 
my youth. Of course everybody is entitled to his 
own definitions of kind and nice, but for "kind" 
I'll stick to "having or showing a friendly, 
generous, and considerate nature," and for 
"nice," "pleasant; agreeable; satisfactory." If 
you were trying to be both kind and nice, I 
appreciate that, and regret not having recognized 
it. Please don't let me forget to let you know 
whenever you do succeed, but spare me of "taking 
up time from [your] life, for [my] potential 
benefit alone." Please don't. Nobody will believe you, and neither will I.

 From then on, I have no idea of what you were writing about.

Dealing with an old hand is no kid's business. 
Got to tread very lightly here. "Whistling past 
the graveyard" is a very appropriate metaphor 
considering that the problems, no matter how 
large or small, of those that are there, are 
definitely over. Time eventually solves all our 
problems. If you are "patient and persistent enough" they will go away.

Maintaining best practices is an entirely 
different matter. I would tend to agree that 
THERE ARE problems, but it's beyond me to list 
them all, or the projects where they persist. 
Given that human nature is what it is, I strongly 
believe that there is room for continuos 
improvement, both at the personal level (and I 
mean no offense to anyone, by implying that any 
of the members of this list, except myself, are 
less than perfect) and in each and everyone of 
the Wikimedia Foundation projects (and I mean no 
offense to any project and/or members of any 
project, by implying that any of them, except myself, is less than perfect).

Now comes the tricky part. Let's review what I wrote about Meta, for example:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Vapmachado#Updated_request_for_assistance

"The work on Meta was being done in an orderly 
manner until the disruption provoked and caused 
by those same people mentioned above. The user is 
the same. Trouble only started after the 
interference of the same people from the 
Portuguese Wikipedia on Meta. Their votes can be 
seen popping up on the RfA. There has never been 
a single block on any other Wikimedia project 
where these editors do not have any influence. 
The obvious conclusion is that the hostile 
behavior stays with that people, not this user."

Thousands of people are involved in those 
processes. It has been and it continues to be 
discussed extensively elsewhere. I might be one 
of the few or the only one who has patiently and 
persistently brought it up here, sometimes at the 
risk of disrupting this list. I do apologize for 
that. I wish I didn't have any reasons to do it, 
but nothing would give me greater satisfaction 
than realizing that I made a speckle of a 
difference in making things better for others, so 
they would not have to go through the same that I 
did, and at least one Wikimedia project would be better off for that.

I recall how some people have been so baffled 
that they wonder about what are my intentions. I 
don't think I ever answered. We all know that 
"hell is full of good intentions." What I have 
done is nothing, but whatever I have done for the 
Wikimedia Foundation projects nobody can take 
away from me. Now, would you believe me if I told 
you that there are some people who are spending 
their time and effort trying to do just that? Sad 
isn't it? But yes, it is true, you better believe me.

Sincerely,

Virgilio A. P. Machado
Executive Editor, 
<http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/pt:Log%C3%ADstica>Logística 
a Logistics wikibook in Portuguese
The One and Only Editor to ever develop and complete
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pt:Wikip%C3%A9dia:Projetos/Escolares_e_universit%C3%A1rios#Projectos_em_curso>academic 
projects on the Brazilian Wikipedia