User:James086/Thoughts

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When you have seen beneath the surface (articles) of Wikipedia for some time you will notice things; trends, happenings and WikiDrama which trigger thoughts such as these. There's no order to these thoughts, I'll just add them as I have them. Feel free to comment or add your own thoughts.

Bear in mind that these are opinion, i.e. my point of view so you may not agree with them. Please go ahead and comment.

Contents

[edit] On blocking

If you block someone they will: (in order of probability; most likely at the top)

  • Not return to Wikipedia (although they might return under a new username/different IP)
  • Return to vandalise more.
  • Ask to be unblocked. Unfortunately the blocking admin is often right and unblock requests are turned down.
  • Change their ways. This is very rare, I have only seen 1 person change their ways though it was one of my favourite events on Wikipedia.

[edit] User lifespan

Most users (who edit for more than a month) will either become admins or become disenchanted with the project. There are also those who fall into both categories. Deletion and vandalism/trolling do the most damage. The amount of time spent in the project-space also seems to be related to how long a user lasts.

There are those who last for years, they are few and you can easily find most of them by looking up who has bureaucrat, checkuser and oversight permission.

[edit] Featured articles

We currently have 2080 featured articles. This is tiny compared to the total number of articles 2,407,003. I intend to produce 2 by the end of 2008. My current targets are Arbiter (Halo) and Halo (series). I suggest that all users try improving the quality of our content as we already have plenty of different articles. I would also like to see 5000 featured articles by 2010 which I think is an realistic target.

* Note: A user nominated List of Halo media, which I had contributed to greatly, for FL status and it passed however I am still aiming to get the 2 aforementioned articles to FA status.

[edit] Advertising on Wikipedia

The Wikimedia foundation is perpetually in need of more money and it has been suggested that small advertisements are featured on Wikipedia to provide a steady source of funds for the WMF. This gained strong opposition and was rejected but if the Foundation ends up in a funding crisis advertisements will be placed on Wikipedia. I would prefer Wikipedia to be free of advertisements, however if money starts running dry, I would support the inclusion of text based advertisements. I find it silly however that some people claim they would leave Wikipedia if it had advertisements. If the WMF has no choice, then they are basically quitting: either WP has ads and they leave or WP shuts down and they leave.

[edit] Speedy deletion

I recently wrote up for my admin coachee a summary of the CSD. Upon reflection it is quite interesting I think because it shows how I think of the CSD when deleting. Note that there may be some things specific to my coachee in there that are irrelevant to everyone else.