Having been bitten multiple times, I can definitely say the unfriendly atmosphere has been a problem for a while now. Editors/admins who are regularly rude to others are not only tolerated by most of the community, they often have a group of supporters around them always ready to praise everything they do, manipulating RfCs and other voting (sorry, !voting) situations. A newbie running afoul of these people rarely even gets token sympathy if they try to get the problem addressed. The handful of editors who try to address these situations have to wade through multiple attacks and allegations just to try and do the right thing.
If we want to make WP more friendly, we have to make sure admins and high-profile editors are actually trying to BE friendly. If they can't handle that, they shouldn't be working in a collaborative environment. In addition, I believe that templates are 1) often not worded in a friendly manner, and 2) overused. Using a template when there isn't a very good reason to is going to often be perceived as rude, especially if an article they've worked hard on has just been speedy deleted. If WP is going to continue to gain editors, it has to do better. Sxeptomaniac > Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:36:24 -0400 > From: Sage Ross > Subject: [WikiEN-l] Newbie and not-so-newbie biting > To: English Wikipedia <[email protected]> > > 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 [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
