[Wikipedia-l] Writing articles

[Ray Saintonge]

Merritt L. Perkins wrote:

>I have been thinking of trying to write some Encyclopedia articles but I
>would like to discuss them with several other people while I am preparing
>them for publication.
>. Suppose I choose to write about Rose of Sharon. I could look in the
>Wikipedia and not find it under that heading. 
>
(...snip, snip, snip)
Perfectionism can be a very diappointing experience when writing on 
Wikipedia. There is no such thing as a perfect article.  If you want 
contact with people interested in the Rose of Sharon, you are far more 
likely to find that on the talk page for that article than on this 
mailing list.  In education, perfectionism is one of the most difficult 
problems for gifted children.  It is very hard for them to accept that 
their errors are not faults.  They would often prefer to fail in school 
by producing nothing than by producing what they consider to be 
sub-standard work.

>If someone else is writing an article on the same subject I might choose
>to let him take my article and use parts of it in his article.
>
In a collaborative process everybody is contributing at the same time. 
 The article will be neither yours nor his.

>After I get tired of editing it I could submit it to be included in the
>Encyclopedia.
>
Why wait?

>There are several other subjects that I might write about but I would
>like to have other people participate. How can I do this?
>
Just do it.  Once you write, you may wish that they didn't participate.

>This matter may have been discussed in e-mail but I have more than 450
>e-mail on my computer so it is hard to figure out what conclusions have
>been reached.
>
If you have 450 e-mails on your computer, you probably need to simply 
delete half of them. :-)

Good luck!

Ray