Users/MovieProject

This editor ignored the request to sign up using their real name. They created a page about their ["MovieProject"], but despite wanting community participation they don't want to be a good member of this community.

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2010-07-15 19:38:46   Welcome to the Wiki. You can establish identity here in a variety of ways. Starting out with a name like the one you chose wasn't a good start in that path. Why not close this account and try again? —JasonAller

• Is that the rule now? No more talk? Just straight-up ban user accounts without real names? — BrianPakpour

• Brian, It is about identity rather than real name. Either this is a community wiki in which case there needs to be a certain level of respect between editors, or it is just another website and slowly sliding toward behaviors that are more often seen on Encyclopedia Dramatica, Yelp, and message board populated by participants who behave like a bunch of third grade boys all sitting around calling each other names. See CampusRec's edit history for an example of why user names that don't lend themselves to the establishment of an identity are problematic. As an example of someone who established identity without using a real name see CovertProfessor. —JasonAller
  

• I don't think I follow what's going on here. This person doesn't even seem to be banned —MasonMurray
  

• For some reason Brian made an assumption the account was banned. Jason just asked that they close the account and open one that is less single purpose. -jw
  

• Jason, it's not clear to me that deleting this user's content and saying that they don't want to be a good member of the community is treating them with respect. It's one thing if we'd already had some exchanges with this person that had gone nowhere. But as a first exchange, it might create some bad feelings if this user returns to find that their content was deleted, just because they didn't follow the sign-up instructions. —CovertProfessor

• I think the next logical question then is how one becomes a CovertProfessor? I mean, don't you have to start somewhere? — BrianPakpour
  

• Introduce yourself. Simple as walking in and clicking the link with your name in the upper right hand corner and creating a page and sharing what you feel comfortable about yourself. Telling the rest of us what is important to you about Davis. Those sort of things. —JasonAller
  

• This was my first edit. —CovertProfessor
  

• Fair enough. I guess what I would like to leave open is the possibility for those who may not be so originally inclined to later change their behavior. For instance, you may come to the wiki because you really had a horrible dining experience last night. But as you peruse, you might begin to enjoy the community and decide to become an active, flourishing member. But if other members flame them, immediately tell them what they're doing wrong, and make nasty comments on their user pages, that might never transpire. That's all I'm worried about. — BrianPakpour
  

• I agree with a lot of what you are saying. On the other hand I've watched as this wiki changed from the community of editors it had back in 2004 to the one that is here today. The problem with not addressing a stray editor here and there who has no identity is that pretty soon new users come in and see the large number of people who have chosen usernames like TheTruthHurts and think that that represents the social norm here. If you don't address those issues it becomes a problem along the line of the broken windows. A study was done that a neighborhood's crime rate would go up if broken window were not repaired. The idea was that if people in that community didn't care enough to repair the broken windows that others picked up on that and would toss a rock as well until the windows were all broken and then the crimes escalated. A username like MovieProject is very offputting when viewed from that perpective. It says: "I'm only here to take something from the wiki; I'm not going to contribute". I focus on editors who don't establish identity because I've watched the patterns emerge and I've had to deal with the trouble that comes with them. The software that this wiki runs on hasn't been updated in ages and it won't be worked on again. Philip will write a new version, but we are stuck with the problems that this version has until then. (I'm guessing at least a year, but expecting it to be longer before Davis Wiki moves over to the new software) If the goal is to preserve the positive pieces of the wiki until that software is ready some maintenance needs to take place. The user statistic page has been broken for a long time, the Recent Wikis page just broke this spring. —JasonAller
  

• Brian, I agree. —CovertProfessor
  

• That's almost always the case. We are not banning this user, nor are we forcing them to change their name if they don't want to. Just making suggestions to get more editors with a strong Identity. —MasonMurray
  

2010-07-15 20:56:28   The other thing you may not be aware of is that I tried for years to welcome new editors to the community. I've left the Welcome to the Wiki link on a lot of pages. I suspect that part of the reason that I'm a little jaded about that now is that I figure most of those people I left a warm welcome for never saw it due to communication deficiencies (did you ever notice the "messages" yellow flag in the upper right hand corner of the screen?) in the current version of the software. I've submitted software patches in the past, but didn't find it to be a good use of my time. Instead I've been trying to foster communication about what the next version of the software should look like. I got very badly burned by that earlier this year. —JasonAller