[WikiEN-l] Quitting Wikipedia and wanted you to know why.

[Ray Saintonge]

There are new ones being invented all the time.  I've been around not 
quite as long as Cunc, but share his view on acronyms.  I often have to 
ask myself whether it's worth knowing what each one is.  Abbreviations, 
like complicated templates can.  They're like a set of secret codes that 
one needs to know in order to join the cabal.  That's very unfriendly to 
newbies who just want to add content, and don't have Cunc's thick skin.

Ec

The Cunctator wrote:

>You know, it's not that hard to just SPELL THINGS OUT.
>
>Can't stand these acronyms. Never could, never will.
>
>What the hell is BITE?
>
>--an old timer
>
>On 10/8/06, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>On 08/10/06, Stephen Streater <sbstreater at mac.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>If we have too steep or long a learning
>>>curve - by for example needing to know
>>>fifty pages of policy, guidelines and process
>>>to get started - content people will be put off
>>>at the expense of process people. It's easy
>>>for long timers to forget that the system was
>>>much simpler when they joined.
>>>      
>>>
>>I came along in early 2004 and am reluctant to call myself a "long
>>timer", but I seem to be compared to many. It seemed a lot simpler.
>>
>>Policy and process has to be trivially derivable from the very few
>>fundamental processes, or people won't be able to remember it. NPOV,
>>NOR, V, AGF, NPA. And let's add BITE. That's six pieces of jargon, but
>>six is enough to remember. Six fundamental policies, you could write
>>above your monitor for continuous reference.
>>