[Wikiversity-l] What's going on?

Morley Chalmers morley at morleychalmers.com
Sun Oct 22 18:31:44 UTC 2006


This is **most** discouraging. Certainly not a skilful way to bring new
volunteers into the fold.

Over the past several weeks I've been attempting to engage an improvement to
how the Wikiversity introduces itself to new users. As a new user myself I
was particularly struck by the lack of clarity to statements of purpose.
Indeed I encountered outright controversy, very muddy waters indeed.

In that light I attempted to engage discussion towards a redefinition of how
the Wikiversity describes itself to new comers. I proposed a change in copy
from the present "all over the map" vague introduction to one that makes
explicit what the Wikiversity includes and what it does not.

This discussion has been posted to the Wikiversity mailing list at
<wikiversity-l at wikimedia.org> and on the Colloquium. With some supportive
and no negatives, I then proceeded to add the new copy to
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Welcome%2C_n

Two days later I find my proposed new copy has been removed, replaced by the
original.

I am **not** an old hand at Wikimedia, which is exactly the point. I'm as
good a guinea pig for assembling a functional newcomer section as you are
likely to find, at least in the short term.

I've attempted to be a responsible participant in a co-operative
collaborative enterprise. Yanking my edit after prior consultation is not
encouragement to collaborative participation.

What's going on? What do I not get?



Morley Chalmers
--
Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they
should be. Now put the foundations under them. -- Henry David Thoreau




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