[WikiEN-l] A narrower concept of boldness

[Marc Riddell]

on 6/23/07 10:52 AM, Mark Gallagher at m.g.gallagher at student.canberra.edu.au
wrote:

> 
> 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!
> 
> 
Yes!!! Self-confidence is the result of a successfully survived risk.

Marc