My recent experience

My recent experience

Hi, I've been a wikipedia user since the end of 2005, but I think I still count as a noob.

Recently I received a notice on my talk page about a proposed deletion of an article I created in the beginning of 2006, saying "No sources mentioned, just an external link that fails WP:RS rules quite spectacularly. The source used doesn't even meet our requirements to even being mentioned anywhere in Wikipedia".

I tried to ask on irc how I can respond to this kind of message, but I didn't get any answer. Then today (several days later) I decided to reply on that user's talk page; this is what I wrote:

Hi, I have no idea how to reply about your "Proposed deletion of (article)" on my talk page (thanks a lot wikipedia for being so user-friendly) so I'm replying here.
First of all, I found your message quite arrogant; I don't know if you wrote it yourself or comes from a template, but it is not very nice.
Second, I don't think the article should be deleted, but I don't have the time and motivation to go through the legalistic rules to understand why it deserves to be deleted or to find reasons that it shouldn't. If you really want it deleted, then go ahead, I'm not gonna fight you. (The article already got deleted since then)

So anyway, I'm not really upset, and I'm sure it doesn't compare with what others went through, but I found this unpleasant and I thought I'd share it here.

Aditsu10:38, 17 May 2011

I was previously miffed at the speedy or slow deletion for no justified reason of much of my work. However, when I saw that Jimbo Wales user page (the founder of Wikipedia) had been nominated for speedy deletion I was incredulous, and so I am taking things less personally now. It's going to be a tough problem to solve, but worth it.

History Link here, unbelievable: Jimbo speedy deletion


A lot of the user talk pages I have visited have a finality to them, with editors retiring from Wikipedia. All with a shared common experience. I saw a great comment from w:A C Grayling on the development of knowledge gathering - "At times sceptical challenge has been seen as a serious threat to the project of attaining knowledge."[ref1] He was talking about progress in the middle-ages. It appears Wikipedia finds itself maturing through its own dark ages.

[ref1] Ideas that matter, by A C Grayling (2010), Page 168.

One thing is certain. Something must be done
Geoffjw197823:26, 25 May 2011
 

Proposed deletions are for uncontentious stuff that no-one is likely to disagree with, so if you do disagree you can get it back. If it is a proposed deletion all you need do to dispute is remove it from the article, though I'd recommend doing so with an edit summary such as "disputing proposed deletion". If it has already been deleted and the 7 days have long gone, then just ask for it to be restored at WP:Refund. Hope that helps.

WereSpielChequers21:07, 27 May 2011

Thanks - I didn't know about WP:Refund There's also the "no loss of knowledge when doing edits" campaign, which is a good stance to hold.

Geoffjw197807:39, 30 May 2011

That depends, "no loss of knowledge when doing edits" rather sounds like "you cannot remove anything, no matter how wrong it is", which is a very popular credo among Wikipedians. Brya 05:20, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Brya05:20, 31 May 2011