Botteville

Resources

General note

Hi. I've been on here since the mid-2000's. I am not an administrator. I think it distracting to include personal information. If you need help, I suggest beginning with a search on help:topic. If you are more advanced search the template section with template:name. Wikipedia changes a lot, including the help and the templates. A topic is usually found in multiple places, so be persistent.

You will encounter many situations on WP, many of which are entirely unfair. It wouldn't really be fair for me to state what they are or give examples. You chose to work on Wikipedia voluntarily, at least presumably. You must make these decisions for yourself.

Wikipedia is, after all, no better than the people that participate in it. The same may be said of article quality. You will find many resources. The Internet has worked a revolution in education, and Wikipedia is definitely a part of it. The experts, however, are generally to be found elsewhere. We do try to point you to them as a rule, but of course rules do not always rule.

Most people want to help. There are some participants at any level who intend the opposite or are entirely motivated by their own agenda. All I can say is, if you get discourged you are acceding to their negative intents. WP does have a guideline, which serves to some degree as a rule book if conflicts arise. Most topics are referenced by a code stated as a link. Don't think, however, that these are going to solve all your problems. You may find, I believe, that the majority of your time is spent dealing with these problems, and not in improving Wikipedia.

Wikipedia today is writing about a different world than the one I lived in 10 years ago. What we have now that we did not seem to have then is war. Ten years ago we were still gliding along on our great victories in WWII in which we held the moral high ground. Words like "United Nations" and "allies" and the taboo against genocide meant something. Now we have some leading universities supporting genocide from the high places. Are these to be our experts now?

So you can see that I'm having trouble reconciling Wikipedia, a peaceful encyclopedia of high ideals, with general war. War does not allow you to sit on the fence. Where are the multitudes willing to give objectivity their best try? Populations at war are not by definition objective. I do not think there was a joint encyclopedia between the allies and the axis in WWII. You get the idea I'm sure.

Well, I'm here for the moment. I am certainly not sure of where we are heading. I certainly will not allow myself to be used in a war against the United States and its allies and I think Wikimedia Foundation is going to have to face that problem. I haven't decided yet. The world changes. There may not always be a place for Wikipedia. If I disappear from here that will be my main reason.Botteville (talk) 23:50, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

This user is a member of the
Roman and Byzantine military history task force.