[WikiEN-l] Userboxes: A radical proposal

[Mark Gallagher]

G'day Steve,

>   What is the worst possible thing that could happen if we removed
> userpages altogether? Not user talk pages, but "hands off it's mine"
> user pages.

I find userpages very useful.  They often give me an idea of how a user 
approaches Wikipedia, and through that what they'll probably be like to 
interact with: do they take pride in their contributions (brag lists, 
etc.), are they good with fiddling with wikicode (pretty userpages), are 
they generally practical and edit-oriented (impersonal userpage, with a 
list of reminders, useful templates, etc.), are they kooks (userpage 
full of ravings, foul-mouthed comments about The Beatles and Queen 
Brenda, etc.), are they confident users (a userpage that says "I'm new 
here and don't know my way around", probably means "no"), are they silly 
sausages (a userpage with hundreds of userboxen, many of which aren't 
even applicable but look pretty, what with all those fair use images), 
where are they from and how provincial are they ... you get the idea.

I could probably live with losing my own userpage.  It's not really 
doing all /that/ much that's useful.  However, I'd like to hang on to 
the userpages of others ...


--
Mark Gallagher
"What?  I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!"
- Danger Mouse


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