Wikipedia is not a social networking site

Fragment of a discussion from Talk:May 2011 Update

There need to be more forum-type, open, rambling communications allowed. One of the key techniques, used by deletionists, is to suppress conjecture by editors who might openly discuss an issue as discovering an entire new section to add to an article, or (God forbid) "16" spin-off articles needing to be created. To prevent their own heart-attacks when avoiding "too much truth" I think some people instantly bark, "This is NOT a forum, either propose a specific edit (of "5" words) or else [ShutTFUp implied]". Naturally, such venomous, negative people are the cyber-poison which will drive away some (many?) would-be active contributors. Those negative not-a-forum shutup orders need to be stopped. Also, some polite ways should be encouraged to say, "Thank you for wanting to add another 13th-century Persian poet, but there seem to be few sources about that poet; instead, consider working on some user-requested articles from this list of 450,000 empty articles which millions of readers have been wanting for months." In the process of working on other articles, then new users might meet someone who has detailed sources about 13-century poets, and a en:synergism could occur which would help many people and make the original user happy to be a part of the larger group. Some level of forum-type discussions should be encouraged, and the prior not-a-forum shutup orders need to be stopped.

Wikid7706:18, 10 May 2011