User talk:Paolo.dL
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OPEN LETTER TO WIKIPEDIA PERSONNEL AND MEDIAWIKI DEVELOPERS
A case study documenting the unlucky experience of a newbie,
with suggestions to make MediaWiki's user interface a little bit "wikier".
Here is what happened to me out of the blue, while I was passionately trying to give my contribution to Talk:Exterior algebra. This is a case study documenting the unlucky experience of a newcomer dealing for the first time with Wikipedia user interface, editing policies, and unfriendly administrators. I hope it will be useful for Wikipedia "Personnel" (WPP; e.g. Stewards, Boureaucrats, Administrators) and MediaWiki Developers (MWD).
Based on the experience summarized below, I suggested a series of improvements in MediaWiki user interface, essentially aimed at teaching critical issues to inexperienced users and preventing or immediately and effectively correcting their unintentional misbehaviour. If you don't want to read the details, throughout the text you will find a few short notes marked as "Note for WPP and MWD" or "Suggestion for WPP and MWD".
I was accused of intentional misbehaviour. Please feel free to think I was guilty. Paradoxically, my suggestions would be valid even if I were in bad faith, because they assume other newcomers will be in good faith. This open letter is not meant to be a public self-defence. It is an amazing story narrated from two different standpoints, a controversial contribution which the reader is invited to use as food for thought and interpret as he prefers.
Mild refactoring 2 |