[WikiEN-l] How friendly are we to Newbies? Create an article as a newbie challenge now paused

[George Herbert]

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 10:34 AM, stevertigo <stvrtg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Sounds like just more strategic deletionist excusism. There is no
>> excuse for anyone giving to destruction a higher value than they do to
>> creation.
>>
>> So now that things are wrapping up, don't forget to hand out some
>> merit badges to the 'winners.'  Ostensibly, there is a deletionist who
>> stands out from the pack, for whom a specially branded Trout Award
>> will do just fine.
>
> WereSpielChequers could have expressed his concerns a bit better here.
>
> It seems that, under the guise of this project, some people are
> intentionally writing very low quality articles and then rules-lawyering
> over the specific speedy deletion category names:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3ASeb_az86556&action=historysubmit&diff=325921044&oldid=325918976
>
> There can be a fine line between probing the boundary of new user treatment
> and a breaching experiment.

I disagree that this rose to the level of a breaching experiment.
However - it was intended as an experiment, not a way to pick on
individual new page patrollers.  And ended up being perceived as the
latter, rightly or wrongly.  And that wasn't a good thing.

The lessons and changes to flow out of this (I hope...) need to be
structural and community, not individual and personal and
inquisitorial.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com