[WikiEN-l] Userbox fads

[Fastfission]

On 1/4/06, Philip Sandifer <snowspinner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Jan 4, 2006, at 10:52 PM, Geoff Burling wrote:
> >
> > * they misuse wikipedia's Fair Use guidelines
> > * they enable zealots with similar POVs to find each other
> > * they cause divisiveness
> > * they are an unnecessary burden on the servers
> > * there are Wikipedians who spend more time on Userboxes than on
> > contributing to the rest of Wikipedia
>
>
> You're missing a key one - the userbox project has become a poisonous
> pit that explicitly targets those who do not like userboxes, and it
> is actively fostering a crusade mentality. This is a systemic
> problem, not one of specific boxes. In short, the project itself
> needs to go.

Oh please. I think userboxes are silly but this argument might be even
sillier. A "crusade mentality" cannot survive without an enemy. If
people weren't trying to delete the userboxes then there wouldn't be a
crusade. Using the fact of objection to deletion as a reason for
deletion is ludicrious.

If people are not being civil, we have WP:CIVIL. Userboxes don't make
uncivil comments, users do. And deleting their little boxes without a
good reason isn't going to make that any better.

FF