[WikiEN-l] A few choice words from DW

[james duffy]

Actually, DW is really getting to annoy me, and not just on account of this. 
He's been ''gutting'' articles he doesn't like, often leaving snide comments 
about the persons who wrote the original version on the talk pages. Yes, 
some of them needed changes, but his arrogant dismissive tone about other 
people's work is rude, snide and outrageous. I came across some pages where 
three or four people people obviously had put in a long of work and had a 
long debate, only to find their work 'dumped' with some snide remark about 
it all being rubbish, with personal insults thrown in, suggesting that if 
that was the best they could do, they shouldn't be on Wiki. Yes, in a lot of 
cases things needed changing or re-writing or tidying up, but his whole 
approach, tone and attitude is well beyonds the bounds of acceptable 
behaviour.

As to his claim here, I disagree. We are not drawing up a list of filing 
cards here. I'm quite happy with Zoe's work. To call it a 'totally and 
completely lousy presentation' is not merely wrong but typical of the way he 
treats anyone who gets in his way, or writes something he doesn't like, in a 
way he doesn't like. To claim boldly that ''there is not one person on 
Wikipedia with any marketing expertise'' is monumental arrogance, as well as 
factually wrong. Maybe instead of calling himself DW he should have used 
TEHL (The Ego Has landed) when he joined Wiki.

OK, now that I have had my gripe for the day, I'm off to do some articles on 
Wiki, and if DW so much as touches anything I'm working on and leaves a 
snide remark, I'll set Two16 loose on him.

No. Maybe that's too cruel, though I'm not sure to whom; Two16 or DW!

JT.


>From: Zoe <zoecomnena at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: wikien-l at wikipedia.org
>To: WikiEN-l at wikipedia.org
>Subject: [WikiEN-l] A few choice words from DW
>Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 18:39:32 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>DW put this on my Talk page.  Any comments? - Zoe
>
>
>
>Dear ZOE: I'm sure your intentions, along with the others, was quite 
>sincere in coming up with a formula for the opening line of an article on 
>someone. However, it is a totally and completely lousy presentation that is 
>hard on the eyes and far too much for researchers to be asked to absdorb. 
>In plain words, it turns people off and therefore Wikipedia's credibity. 
>Please get over the obsession with Google, the heading doesn't gain users, 
>only QUALITY does. I am putting an enormous amount of work into hundreds of 
>articles that, based on this hoffific heading presentation is rendering 
>them useless. For people with or without a brain larger than a flea, this 
>is what they need when using an Encyclopedia for a biography or other such 
>items:
>NAME: year dates, occupation.
>John Smith (1920-1990), Medical Scientist
>SPACE
>Born John William George Peabody Smith on July 5, 1920, he was etc.
>Make paragraphs short (See HarperCollins/Random House or amy other 
>publisher about readability, interest span in the 21st Century etc.
>LAST LINE (always): John Smith died on December 1, 1990 and was interred in 
>????.
>If they were a great whatever, you might add one one to occupation. Then, 
>in a new PARAGRAPH, the full date of birth. AND, I've never met anyone who 
>said they were born in Tupelo, United States. So, do as I do and get the 
>Province/Departement etc. for foreign countries. Too, nobody says they were 
>born in Boston, New England, United States. So, a Region in France should 
>be specified after the Departement or leave the region out. I don't want to 
>see any more of my hard work changed. There is not one person on Wikipedia 
>with any marketing expertise. Buy a few marketing books, use a little 
>marketing common sense, and see how Wikipedia can succeed rather than 
>articles on "getting new users." Build it right, accurate, and sufficiently 
>detailed and interesting and they will come. ALSO, if idiots want to insert 
>stubs or are too lazy to do research, LABEL the artice: ''Work in 
>Progress". That way, a new user/viewer understands and doesn't click away 
>thinking what a half-assed informa!
>tion site Wikipedia is. Because, when they do, they don'y come back (except 
>to play and add the same useless bits of crap) and they don't tell 
>others....DW
>
>
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
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