[WikiEN-l] userbox : insanity ?

[Peter Mackay]

> From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org 
> [mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of John Lee
> 
> Peter Mackay wrote:
> 
> > <snip>
> >
> >If people are using Wikipedia to play rather than build an 
> >encyclopaedia, then they should be encouraged in this primary 
> >objective, not castigated for extraneous activies, because for every 
> >frivolous userbox, I dare say if I went looking, I could find some 
> >other piece of useless guff on the user pages of experienced 
> editors. 
> >Let people play, if it does no harm and they are participating in 
> >community activities, but also encourage them to be more productive.
> >  
> >
> The difference is experienced users tend to contribute to 
> article space as well. 

So do inexperienced users.

> Many userbox fanatics make minimal or 
> no edits to articles. (Of course, most people with userboxes 
> aren't fanatics; I have quite a few userboxes myself. But 
> there are a few rogue bunch out there who seem more intent on 
> userboxes than building an encyclopedia.) I agree that this 
> is probably a symptom of a larger problem, though - people 
> forgetting we're here to build an encyclopedia, not play. 

I think it goes deeper than that. I think that some new editors are being
made to feel that they are not part of the established WP community and
consequently they are "acting up". This is the same "old hands" vs "young
Turks" divide I see on other sites and indeed in real life. This is not to
say that all old hands are pitted against all new arrivals, but it's a noisy
minority at both ends of the spectrum who are stirring things up.

Peter (Skyring)