To date, I have not been a major contributor of content to Wikipedia--I have contented myself to browse, learn, and correct grammar, spelling, NPOV, and facts where I know them. In doing so, I am bound at some point to make someone mad. If so, please post a comment on this page, which I read. So you might understand why I say and do some of the things I say and do, a little about me:
- I believe that Wikipedia should allow people to learn and find answers to their questions quickly. For this reason, I try to make pages smaller, where that makes sense; I myself find it easier to find my bearings among many small pages whose relationships are clear, than on one big page.
- I am not interested in flame wars. I think that to be part of Wikipedia, it is necessary to believe that there is a large body of concepts, people, things, and events about which we agree and can say useful and interesting things. When we step away from that realm, discussions begin to revolve around which person or group of people are right, rather than what statements are true. I am still trying to learn to stay out of those discussions--I'm never pleased with myself afterwards.
- I think one of the things that drives many flame wars are discussions around the definitions of words. When discussing ideas and truths, words are only important for communication--we can use any words we want, as long as they get us both to the same idea. When the discussion becomes about people, words and their definitions become much more important. Words are important territory to hold in a flame war--if I can get you to define a word my way, then suddenly all the people who have ever used the word become my unwitting accomplices. If you win the definition battle, then many quotes using that word--some of them perhaps my own!--become your ammunition against me. I try to always remember that if the ideas I believe are true and strong, the words that are used should not matter as much.
- For all the above reasons, I find /Talk? pages to be often unhelpful. If I had my way, before editing a page... [I'll have to continue this later. Sorry]
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