[WikiEN-l] Block appeals--just don't follow the instructions? Huh?

[NavouWiki]

Zoney,

Don't make me read you poetry.  ;)


Navou

-----Original Message-----
From: wikien-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikien-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Zoney
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 6:33 AM
To: English Wikipedia
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Block appeals--just don't follow the instructions?
Huh?

On 16/09/2007, K P <kpbotany at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Blocks are NOT easily appealable when you have a hostile and petty
> blocking administrator and a policy that requires you to contact him
> first.  And when you don't realize that you're not required to contact
> him first in spite of the blocking message which tells you that.
>
> And, when you're a new contributor to Wikipedia and you get blocked
> and you don't know your way around, it is NOT CLEAR that the
> instructions are not meant to be followed.
>
> And this gets tiresome being told that the instructions are not meant
> to be followed and everybody knows their way around them, as if I'm
> stupid for not realizing that the instructions don't mean what they
> say, and I shouldn't be following them but some other set of
> guidelines.
>
> I am getting the idea ingrained into my head, though, from a couple of
> past conversations with administrators, that I AM a total idiot for
> trying to follow instructions on Wikipedia.
>
> It's not an issue of just you, it's an issue of the system being set
> up in a way that is hostile to the average user.  Instructions that
> shouldn't be followed.  Experienced users dismissing the confusion of
> inexperienced users by saying, "oh blocks are easily appealable," when
> the inexerienced user points out they are not.  If you already know
> everything, you probably don't even know what the instructions say.
> But if you don't already know everything, you can't possibly know that
> it's easy to do as long as you don't bother with the instructions.
>
> It is very frustrating when Wikipedia is treated as a closed club of
> those who already know everything (blocks are easily appealed)
> excluding those who are just here to edit and don't know the easy way
> to do things that don't appear in the instructions.
>
> The blocking message still says the same thing it did.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Blockedtext
>
> KP
>
>
I've come to the conclusion recently, based on the plethora of conflicting,
ambiguous, and ever-changing policy/guideline pages and the general state of
them, and the various inane templates and messages used as editorial notices
in article content, that Wikipedia is now controlled by the Vogons.

Except that with the Vogons, you can probably eventually find out the
correct archaic sequence to follow for any procedure.

Zoney

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