[WikiEN-l] Newbie and not-so-newbie biting

[Emily Monroe]

I'm going to contribute to this thread "backwards", replying first to  
this message and then replying to other peoples' reply. I hope other  
people don't mind at all.

> here's a nice post by someone who's been contributing occasionally  
> since 2004, about how daunting "wikibullying" can be for newbies and  
> other editors who aren't well-versed in the procedures and processes.

I ask again. Is there any way at all to make Wikipedia less daunting?

I wandered over once to a non-English Wikipedia. I forget which  
language it was in, Portuguese maybe. The universal sign for  
disability (the wheelchair stick figure) and a cognate for  
"accessibility" was right there *on the front page*.

> Unfriendliness is built into the system, even when admins and others  
> who enforce the rules are perfectly civil and try to be friendly at  
> an individual level.

I personally try to be friendly. I do. Other people have noted this in  
the past. It's, ultimately, the system that's so unfriendly.

I can't help but notice that the author of this article keeps trying  
to add articles that aren't to our standards. Maybe make people who  
are writing their first (or second, or third, if the first or second  
is deleted) article go through the article wizard? That way, some (or  
perhaps all) of his articles would've eventually been deleted, but at  
least they would've been sourced and at least somewhat of a NPOV?

Emily
On Sep 18, 2009, at 8:36 AM, Sage Ross wrote:

> This isn't a new issue by any means, but here's a nice post by someone
> who's been contributing occasionally since 2004, about how daunting
> "wikibullying" can be for newbies and other editors who aren't
> well-versed in the procedures and processes.
>
> http://travel-industry.uptake.com/blog/2009/09/04/bullypedia-a-wikipedian-whos-tired-of-getting-beat-up/
>
> Unfriendliness is built into the system, even when admins and others
> who enforce the rules are perfectly civil and try to be friendly at an
> individual level.
>
> -Sage
>
> _______________________________________________
> WikiEN-l mailing list
> WikiEN-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l