[WikiEN-l] Little edits or big edits in the mainspace?

[William Beutler]

Heh, well, among friends and associates, I'm "the Wikipedia guy". (Notice
the British / WP period-outside-the-sentence... never did that before
Wikipedia.) I enjoy greatly trying to explain how Wikipedia works, but it
can be a tall, tall task.

Some of you here might know of my (occasional) blog, "The Wikipedian", where
the goal is to explain Wikipedia to outsiders. Not easy, I can tell you --
to get it "right" and also be concise enough to keep people interested. I do
worry for the project that it requires such an intense commitment that few
will ever get there. Few even know they can edit without logging in,
frankly. More than one person, to me, on why they don't edit: "Oh, I don't
want to get involved..."

I like John Broughton's "Missing Manual" and the "How Wikipedia Works" book,
but I think there needs to be something shorter, for absolute beginners.
I've had the notion to pitch a "Complete Idiot's Guide to Wikipedia" to
someone (actually tried, once; got a friendly note from an agent that it
"wasn't for [him]"). I do think there is one to be written, whether I get to
it or someone else does...



On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 8:44 PM, Bod Notbod <bodnotbod at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 1:05 AM, William Beutler
> <williambeutler at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm always a little self-conscious when non-Wikipedians ask how many
> edits I've tallied.
>
> *Non* Wikipedians are asking you about your edit count?
>
> I've never encountered nor heard of people outside the community
> talking about such a thing. I find your experience quite cheering; it
> seems to speak of Wikipedia seeping into the culture even more than I
> had presupposed.
>
> It's like my grandmother asking me how many beats per minute
> characterise [[UK hard house]].
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>