[WikiEN-l] What's the issue?

[Catherine Munro]

>>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!"

I'll admit, my editing tends to go in spurts:  I'll spend a day or two 
creating swathes of new text (creating or greatly expanding articles) -- 
then I'll spend another three to ten days doing "housecleaning" - typo 
patrols, Cleanup pages, disambiguation, lately the Orphaned Categories 
page.  Why?  Because I hope against hope that the major contributions I 
made will be at least be noticed to the extent that someone fixes a typo or 
adds an external link, and I wait, patiently checking my watchlist, for a 
few days before I'm convinced (and discouraged) that a new article has 
vanished into the ether.  It certainly feels like the housework gets more 
credit; at least, I'm more likely to get feedback when I clean up someone 
else's article.  (I know, I know about article ownership.)   I'm not 
exemplary about complimenting people either (and it's always easier to do 
so via the edit summary than actually going to their user page), but I'll 
make more of an effort.  I just wanted to add my two cents -- I've been a 
steady editor for a year and a half, and I know exactly what others are 
saying about feeling like giving up sometimes because no one notices what 
you do unless you're a troll, or deliberately seek out controversial areas, 
or participate in every policy discussion.

the quiet one in the back,
Catherine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:CatherineMunro