[WikiEN-l] Userboxes: A rational proposal

[The Cunctator]

On 2/17/06, Philip Welch <wikipedia at philwelch.net> wrote:
> Stop worrying about userboxes and write an encyclopedia already. If
> and when userboxes interfere with encyclopedia-writing activities,
> react in an appropriately minimalist fashion and proceed with the
> encyclopedia-writing.
>
> Quite frankly, the userbox fans are *not* the people disrupting
> Wikipedia with an unhealthy fixation with userboxes. This isn't to
> say that they don't *have* an unhealthy userbox fixation, but rather,
> that they engage in that fixation in a way that doesn't really
> prevent the rest of us from writing an encyclopedia.
>
> The people disrupting Wikipedia—that would be us, writing dozens of
> messages to this listserv about them. Aren't we the people who
> actually care about writing an encyclopedia? Then why don't we do
> that, instead of wasting our time compiling statistics about
> userboxes, trying to delete them, and debating the right way to do that?

The people disrupting Wikipedia, maybe, are the people writing
messages to the listserv about people writing messages to the listserv
about userboxes.

Discussing and formulating Wikipedia policy is as important a
contribution as is editing an individual article.