[WikiEN-l] Welcome back Adam

Jimmy Wales jwales at bomis.com
Mon Sep 22 16:56:42 UTC 2003


Erik Moeller wrote:
> Contrary to his promise to use the name "Adam [name omitted for privacy reasons]",

To be clear, he never promised to use that name.  I just said that I
would let him back under that name.  Later, even though he didn't ask
for it, it occurred to me that I just wanted him to pick a name and
stick to it.  He told me that he prefers Lir.

> Adam is again editing under the name Pizza Puzzle, after he has lied
> to Jimbo about not having used that name in the past. (Jimbo has
> been in denial about this since it was first brought up.)

Well, sort of.  :-) I deliberately chose to give him the benefit of
the doubt.  After the last time I did, he wrote to me and admitted
that he is Pizza Puzzle, after all.

"Children live for attention and they love exaggerated emotional
responses. Attention is stimulation.  Whether that attention is good
or bad, it is stimulating and they like it.  The idea behind
Extinction is that you do not reinforce undesirable behavior by giving
the child a reward for their bad behaviors -- the reward being
attention and an exaggerated emotional response."

Adam is not a child, but I chose to just ignore this aspect of things,
because we were making good progress otherwise.

I ask everyone to try to be supportive and welcoming to him, because
it's the best hope for healing the past wounds.  It may not work, of
course.  But, we can try.

--Jimbo




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