[WikiEN-l] Pointlesswasteoftime

[David Gerard]

ClockworkSoul (mtitmus at optonline.net) [050416 23:22]:

> Perhaps, as a beginning, we should at the very least create a template 
> that can be throw onto the user page of newcomers that head directly 
> into a voting situation, to let them know of our common practice, and 
> why it is so. Something along the lines of:
> "Welcome, {{PAGENAME}}! We noticed that you placed a vote on {{{1}}}. 
> Community activity is encouraged, of course, but your status as a brand 
> new user means that your vote ''might not'' be counted if the 
> administrator that tallies your votes believes that you might be another 
> user logged in under a second account (a so-called "sock puppet"). 
> Please understand that this is the common practice on Wikipedia, and 
> that it is necessary to prevent deliberate "loading" of our votes. "
> I am going to create this template under the name {{newvoter}}, and I 
> will also report this email to the Admin board.


Don't forget to note that "Votes" for deletion aren't "votes" per se -
they're an attempt to ascertain whether there is community consensus to
delete. If you've made your first-ever Wikipedia edit to VFD, and were
there only because of a call to arms on another site, you might reasonably
be considered not (yet) part of the community in question. That would need
noting.

(This is similar to the Calvinball rule of Wikipedia policy, i.e. "if you
think you've come up with a stunningly clever hack of our rules which will
get your way against our community wishes, good for you! The rule just
changed.")


- d.