Milos, Again, I'm sorry to see you leave. I would like to thank you, thank you very much for all the things you have done!
I loved to work with you in the LangCom, and I believe I learned a lot. And I hope our paths will cross again someday. Huib On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 6:32 PM, Milos Rancic <mill...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am leaving the movement. I thought to leave it quietly, with just a > bit more than a few words to stewards and Wikimedia Serbia, but after > the first question why I am leaving, I realized that I actually owe to > many of you the explanation for leaving the movement after almost 10 > years. > > If you want to skip the story of my motivation, continue with > "Unfinished projects" section. > > == On my motivation == > > In short, I am struggling with the motivation to work inside of the > movement for almost two years. My participation in Haifa was the > culmination of my Wikimedia engagement and everything after it was > going down and down. > > I was struggling hard. I didn't want to leave the movement because I > was feeling responsible for a number of issues. As time went, as I > wasn't taking any new responsibility, the level of "feeling > responsible" was lowering and lowering. My last really big > responsibility was to push the creation of Wikimedia Serbia Office > last fall. After that I felt that there is no need for me inside of > the movement. > > But I wanted to stay, I wanted it hardly! For at least two years I was > struggling with my steward activity and although I know that I am > important to other stewards, I have problem to make one fucking > steward action for months. And that wasn't about my free time. I have > it enough. That was about my motivation. > > I was trying to find a way to motivate myself to participate in the > movement. Alone or in cooperation with other Wikimedians, I started > some not yet published projects. I thought that I could raise my > motivation if I leave issues related to the chapters and I left > Chapters committee. But it didn't help. > > I was on Amsterdam Hackathon and talking with Erik about one more > important Wikimedia issue: thousands of languages which are waiting > for their editions of Wikimedia projects. He was encouraging; for the > first time I got clearly positive response. But it wasn't enough. > Instead of enthusiastically working on the project, I just didn't have > enough motivation to do anything. > > I thought that becoming a Board member could raise my motivation. At > the beginning, I was actually very enthusiastic. But last two weeks I > spent much more time in being worried about the possibility to be > elected than about thinking about how to be elected. > > For a number of times I was thinking to quit, but this time I had > appropriate personal trigger and finally got courage to admit myself > that there is nothing which would change my motivation. > > == Wikimedia impact on me == > > I've just realized that if I am writing this kind of email, I should > say something about Wikimedia impact on me. > > When I first edited Wikipedia I was less than a month older than 30. > This November I will be 40. The whole decade of my life was under the > strong influence of Wikimedia movement. I spent intellectually > formative years inside of Wikimedia and it changed me a lot, probably > not comparable to anything else. > > And I could write a book about how Wikipedia and Wikimedia influenced me. > > == Unfinished projects == > > This is important. I am leaving some things unfinished and both of the > projects are very important. > > * First, languages. There are more than 6000 languages and there are > less than 300 language editions of Wikipedia. It is likely that all of > 3000 languages with more than 10,000 of speakers would survive if they > have Wikipedia edition in their language. And if you ask why Wikimedia > movement should do that, it's because there is no other relevant > international body capable to do that. That makes Wikimedia's position > unique and with large amount of historical responsibility. I will > share my research with anyone willing to work on this issue. > > * Gamification. Mostly because the lack of my motivation, the project > Wikichievements didn't start yet. It's actually in the very initial > phase. Wikimedia Serbia and Wikimedia DC would do that. If you are > interested in that, please contact Kirill Lokshin from WM DC. > Gamification and social features are extremely important in making > Wikimedia movement attractive to young generations again. > > == Wikimedia movement *is* important! == > > Wikimedia movement is not just "important", it is the best try of our > civilization to create a global movement based on completely different > principles than anything else before. It's the best chance of our > civilization to survive. And it's up to you to use the chance or not. > If Wikimedia movement fails, I am sure that the similar chance would > appear once in the future. But not soon and maybe too late. > > Every Wikimedian is a highly important person, likely more important > than many heads of states. And that importance brings high > responsibility to keep and develop Wikimedia projects and the > movement. > > * * * > > Thanks for all the fish! It is pleasure to know all of you! I won't > leave wikimeida-l for a couple of days. It's not nice to leave the > communication immediately. And you have my email; some of you other > means of communication with me. It will be always a pleasure to me if > I could help to any of you! > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l > -- Met vriendelijke groet, Huib Laurens _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
