[WikiEN-l] A narrower concept of boldness

[Mark Gallagher]

G'day David,

(I will *pay you* to learn to post correctly ...)

> As for BOLD, I have never seen it cited for good ends; most good
> editing doesn't need it. It is usually used as the attempted
> justification for edits against the consensus. Personally I'd rather
> remove it from the guidelines altogether, but it is referred to so
> many times that perhaps it should be written in a way that would make
> it less likely to be misused. I see there's an active discussion
> there.

Not long after I attained adminship, I was cruising with my homies and 
homiettes at #moseisleycantina (since renamed to #wikipedia), when a 
user came in requesting urgent assistance of the sort only a newish 
admin could provide.

It seemed a newbie had come across a long and popular but ultimately 
poorly-written article, and was making copyedits, replacing the headings 
with decent phrases, and other nefarious improvements that only newbies 
seem able to make.

Our friend, the #wikipedia worrier, had reverted his edits and left a 
note on his talkpage saying, "Don't make major improvements to articles 
without first discussing them on the talkpage."  He was, however, 
worried that the newbie might re-offend, and wanted me to help keep him 
in line.

"Be bold!" was written for that newbie, and that user.  In the world of 
our friend, and other editors who would interfere with WP:BOLD, it is 
more difficult for a Broken Telephone process wonk to pass through the 
eye of a needle than for a helpful newbie to summon up the courage to 
improve our encyclopaedia.  That's a grim world, and I want no part of it.


"Be bold!" is a worthy, nay sacred, guideline, and it is not to be 
trifled or tampered with.  Shame be upon those who would ignore it, 
twist it, misuse it, dilute it, ruin it, in the name of improving our 
encyclopaedia!



-- 
Mark Gallagher
"'Yes, sir,' said Jeeves in a low, cold voice, as if he had been bitten 
in the leg by a personal friend."
- P G Wodehouse, /Carry On, Jeeves/