[WikiEN-l] What's the issue?

[Stormie]

Denni wrote:
> Yeah, when someone bothers to leave me a note about how they liked my
> article or photo, I'm happy, but I consider myself fortunate to have
> huge amounts of experience with both writing and photography; if the
> plaudits I've earned by exemplary performance (no humility here) are
> reflective of what the "average" writer/illustrator gets, then there's a
> pathetically abyssmal level of feedback and encouragement going on.

Hey, I'm delighted if someone leaves me a note praising my stuff! I 
don't think anyone's suggesting that that's not wonderful..

> As an easy example, try this: SETI Online offers online certificates for
> work units completed. I am coming up on certificate four - 1000 work
> units - and I'm excited. Work for SETI? Zero. Their web page (or a
> counting applet attached) counts the returned work units and
> automatically adds access to new certificates as I am eligible for them.
> We have some crackerjack coders here who could, I'm sure, easily
> implement a routine to do such a thing.

..but, frankly, if I got auto-sent a certificate saying that I'd made 
1000 edits, it would mean less than nothing to me. Yeah, I was happy 
when I hit 1000, I even made sure I picked an especially worthwhile edit 
(a nice new article) to bring up the 1000. And then I got a note on my 
talk page from Maximus Rex saying "congratulations", and THAT meant 100x 
more than any automated thing would.

> I don't know how best this can be done. Do we create a WikiCommittee
> whose job it is to track users and drop comments on their user page? Do
> we ask a codejunkie to write a script to autogenerate certificate
> messages? Help me out here, allies. Whatever we do, if anything, I offer
> my assistance, because the more welcome we make good writers feel, the
> longer they stay, and the more welcome we make weak writers feel, the
> stronger they get.

What we need, quite simply, is for people to drop notes on other users 
talk pages saying "hey, that's some great work you've been doing there!" 
I've been doing some of that myself, _I_ enjoy doing it, and I'm sure 
that the recipients are happy too. So my advice: more of that. Less 
talking on mailing lists about awards and certificates, less organising 
of committees, just get out there and leave the personal message saying 
"well done!"

Cheers!
David... (Stormie)