![[Everything Shii Knows]](../mediawiki/skins/common/images/wiki.png)
Wikipedia is kind of like a 19th century utopia or a 20th century hippie commune. It is founded on the unfortunate belief that people will always do good things and be nice to each other, and after a few spectacular years that everyone involved will remember, it falls apart in a miserable, unhappy mess, which everyone will later insist they had no hand in.
Hell is other people. At one point it was possible to click "Special:Random" on Wikipedia, find a page that needed cleaning up, and simply fix the problem. In fact, in 2004 I did this quite often. I would find a page with strange side rants or dubious content, rewrite it, and move along on my happy way. That was back when Wikipedia was wild and free and you could sometimes find critical notes or suggestions for expansion on the actual article pages. It was a fun place where it was clear that we were only providing rough overviews and pointers to other content, and all contributions were welcomed. But now there are so many people editing Wikipedia that merely cleaning up random pages can lead to a revert war, requiring other people to be called in, and tempers will rage such as this one:
- You are nothing but a bully and its really sad that people like you are here on Wikipedia making it a miserable and disapointing place. Don't act all high and mighty because I'm allowed to revert something that is violating the rules. If they ban me so be it. I'm not going to be kicked around by nerds like you anymore when I am following the rules and doing right. IF anything its people like YOU that abuse the rules and should be banned for making this place a nightmare. That's all.. Damn you are such a nerd. [1]
The sad thing is, this guy is actually wrong. I was simply cleaning up the article, as I told him three times, but he was so upset by the invasion of his article that he didn't really go over what I did to see how I was fixing the text. But spats like this are inevitable as Wikipedia grows. When you actually have to make a major change to an article that's beyond repair, it's far worse and will probably take you all the way to the Wikipedia Supreme Court ("Arbitration Committee"). There are so many opinions on the Internet that eventually it will become impossible to change anything. Stalemate.
Update, late 2009: This is now the case in about 80% of all articles. People who monitor articles for improvements and revert them instead of collaborating are the dingleberry in the ass crack of Wikipedia.
How do we solve it? I have the answer here: Shii's Solution to the Problem of Wikipedia
Contents |
How to get a hoax article deleted on Wikipedia
- Try to delete it yourself.
- Get banned.
- ???
- Profit!
See Brahmanical See for details.
My favorite page on Wikipedia
A lot of people have their favorite pages on Wikipedia, such as a well-written article about an unusual subject, or a particularly funny essay. However, my favorite page on Wikipedia is unique among all two million Wikipedia users, in that it's in the "Image talk" namespace (used for discussing images hosted on Wikipedia's servers). Here it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Shii/Image_talk:Anime_by_nima.jpg [updated 2008, page was deleted for stupid reasons so I restored+moved it]
On this page, I attempted to get an image deleted from Wikipedia that was a copyright violation. That's all-- no hidden motive, no secret conspiracy. Basically the only background you need to know to read it for yourself is that SlimVirgin and Jayjg are extremely prolific Wikipedia editors (probably they are both in the top 10 for community involvement) and I am just a nobody, posting as "Ashibaka" at the time.
I like this page because it is very easy to understand and it gets a clear message across. For example:
- I have already asked Ashibaka to stay out of this, because she has a grudge against me. If this isn't a personal attack, Ashibaka, please allow others to deal with it. If you continue to post about it, I'll assume it's trolling. SlimVirgin (talk) 03:30, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
- I have never said that I had a grudge against you!! Ashibaka tock 03:32, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
It's true... I don't have a grudge against her, and I never had! Why on earth would I carry a grudge against someone on the Internet?! She had never done anything to me at all! I could only stare in awe as that page developed.
A little summary
On that page, Jayjg, Feloniousmonk, and SlimVirgin all said lies about me and made personal attacks, none of which they ever apologized for.
SlimVirgin attacks me, calling me "the worst of both worlds": "It's worth pointing out that Ashbaka is also a Wikipedia Review contributor (and one who is supportive of them), so we have the very worst of both worlds here."
SlimVirgin lies about me, saying I support the nutcase politician Lyndon LaRouche: "Then an image on my user page by Zereshk is threatened with deletion (again!) by someone who posts both to IRC and Wikipedia Review, and who has previously supported Wikitruth and the LaRouchies"
SlimVirgin lies about me, saying I have a "grudge" against her: "I have already asked Ashibaka to stay out of this, because she has a grudge against me."
SlimVirgin attacks me, calling me a troll: "If you continue to post about it, I'll assume it's trolling."
SlimVirgin attacks me, saying it's impossible for me to be acting in good faith: "I do [assume good faith], when at all possible."
Jayjg lies about me, claiming I am insulting him in secret on IRC: "The IRC 'rallying of the troops' is quite tiresome; a bit too much mindless bad-mouthing and groupthink there for for my taste."
Jayjg attacks me, accusing me of trying to disrupt Wikipedia: "Please remember WP:POINT ["don't disrupt Wikipedia to prove a point"], though, which clearly is [relevant here]."
FeloniousMonk attacks me, accusing me of trying to disrupt Wikipedia: "Your motive here is transparent. And disruptive."
SlimVirgin attacks me, accusing me of stirring up trouble: "Ashibaka is out to cause trouble."
SlimVirgin attacks me, calling me a lunatic and/or a troll: "LOL!! I can surely be forgiven for wondering whether this really still is a project to build an encyclopedia, or whether it has at last buckled under the weight of the lunatics and trolls."
FeloniousMonk lies about me, saying that I was bullying and intimidating SlimVirgin: "What I've seen here is very one-sided bullying and intimidation of SV over a petty, contrived issue."
My side of the story
Read that page closely. I never attacked SlimVirgin. I never made a single comment about her character. I had no ulterior motive; my motive was to delete a copyright violation that could potentially get Wikipedia, or SlimVirgin, sued. I was trying to help her. This is not a two-sided argument. It is three people attacking, and one person saying "eek!".
I noticed the image on SlimVirgin's user page. While it's true that she had been upset by things I had done in the past, I figured she was a sensible person who would understand that I wasn't out to get her, and I left a message on her talk page so that she could talk with me about the legality of fan art if she was unsure why the picture needed to be deleted. It turned out she was not happy. She cast the legal issues aside entirely and exploded at me, and what's more other people suddenly appeared to explain how I was an awful person who was going to ruin Wikipedia, and began circling the wagons to block me from the website. I don't know, maybe she had a bad day. Don't we all? But Jayjg and FeloniousMonk, were they also having bad days as well? Was it just a horrible day for Planet Earth in general? Well, I don't want to jump to conclusions.
Guys, if you are reading this website of mine you know I am just an average guy, who is often surprised by the beauty of the world and hardly ever gets angry with anyone at all. I love people in general and even if we disagree about some things I never ever ever turn that into a grudge, especially not on the Internet where I am talking to total strangers. Up until that point on Wikipedia I had sometimes, privately, got a little pissed off at people, only to be pleasantly surprised when they assisted me at other times with no hard feelings. I suppose I got used to that friendly "we're all in this together" mentality, and I assumed SlimVirgin would act the same way. Never in a thousand years would I have expected the sort of three-horse, say-your-prayers Armageddon that occurred on that page. I believe that page demonstrates the human fallibility of Wikipedia in a nutshell, and that's why it's my favorite page on the whole site.
By the way, the image was deleted and never replaced.
I have since left Wikipedia but I still do not carry any grudges against the trio mentioned above and I wish them best of luck with the Wikipedia project.