BB has some points, but, speaking as a non-insider who contributes quite actively to WP and WM, I can assure you all that it is not as unconstructive as he makes it sound. Edit war is a 4-letter matter in those circles, and anyone who pushes the envelope gets ditched pretty fast.
Anyone who really has nothing better to do with his time could settle down to irritate people, but the sheer tedium tends to keep the bad eggs from persisting too long, and the checks and bots are on average pretty effective.
For my part I concentrate on contributions rather than policing, but even so, I have accumulated a couple of hundred watchlist items, and I must have drowned dozens of bits of petty vandalism in metaphorical toilets. Specialists have done for thousands.
What makes it irritating and frustrating is trying to say important things in ways that WP authorities and near-authorities and wannabees consider OK. Perfect? Not a hope. Important? Hugely. As important as PG et al? In the long run certainly; at present? Dunno. You tell me. Contains crap by the ream? Certainly; every backyard rock group fights tooth and claw to get into WP and stay in. I for one have better things to do, both on WP and off, than to keep squelching them. So, as long as looking them up is optional, who cares?
But when the newsworthiness of Michael's death passes off (a week or two, max, I should say) and the deathless prose brigade drown in their own tedium, people who know and care can go in and tidy stuff up and soon there will be a stable piece of work that is worth being proud of.
Sure, outsiders should stay out.
For now.
Meanwhile, read what there is and prepare your updates for status quo post bellum.
Jon

On 2011/09/09 20:02 PM, Bowerbird@aol.com wrote:

I said:
>   now _perhaps_ kaldari will come back and
>   revert the change that theo10011 made, so
>   michael will again be called "the" inventor...

and sure enough, while i was in the very process of
writing my last post, that's exactly what kaldari did.

now maybe theo10011 will concede, or perhaps it
will become what wikipedia calls "an edit war", but
the best advice to outsiders remains to _stay_out_.

-bowerbird

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