[WikiEN-l] Admin / experienced user flameout - how do we talk people down off the ledge?

[George Herbert]

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 11:33 PM, Carcharoth
<carcharothwp at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 2:51 AM, Ian Woollard <ian.woollard at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm pretty sure that the main solution to this is to make the wiki
>> experience better, not trying to specifically treat people that are
>> getting frustrated's experience better.
>
> I agree. It works both ways. New editors, who may not fully understand
> all the details yet, get frustrated as well. Get experienced admins,
> new editors, and people who hand out advice at ANI without fully
> looking into something, and you often end up with a mess. To answer
> Ryan's point, I think a *lot* of built-up frustration can be traced
> back to people falling into a "defend the wiki" mentality and seeing a
> never-ending siege mentality stretching away in front of them.
>
> I find the best thing to do is mix things up a bit. Chop and change.
> Not so much that you lose focus, but enough that you don't become
> overly focused and lose perspective. And never ever feel that you are
> the only one able to do something, and if you think you are the only
> person dealing with some routine task, ask for help. Get others
> interested, offer to train them up if it is complex, give them advice,
> and go away secure in the knowledge that whatever it is, it is now in
> safe hands. It is all part and parcel of working together on such a
> massive project as this.

I concur with this.  In particular, some areas of Wikipedia are
corrosive on those who participate there... new pages and recent
changes patrols, and (particularly, and particularly badly in terms of
effects) WP:ANI.

I think I've been able to tolerate ANI pretty much all the time,
though my activity level there has its ups and downs.  It's clearly
true that ANI has caused a bunch of people to end up in siege
mentality mode.

I have had to walk away from recent changes repeatedly.  The saving
grace there is that there are hundreds more backing you up there and
plenty of smart bots.


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