Intro
editOne thing I've noticed over the years is that some people are not happy unless they have something to complain about. This seems to be true even of people who volunteer. That's why in a project like Wikipedia you will always find people who spend more time thinking of things that need to be done than actually doing anything themselves.
Manifestations
edit- Editors who place tags in articles (but never seem to remove them).
- Editors with high talk page/article page ratios.
- Editors who quote WP's (but often have trouble interpreting them).
Handle with care
editWhat can we do with these editors? We can't force them to be better editors, but we can mentor them to be. These guys don't lack passion, they lack the skills and the perspective they need to work constructively with others. We can harness their passion and with a little guidance and nurturing turn them into constructive editors and real assets to the wiki community. Take their penchant for finding problem articles and put them to work. Suggest that they pick an article that find lacking and start working to fix it. Help them learn how to express their passions civily and reach consensus with other editors. No citations? Teach them how to find Pick a search engine and see what you can find on the subject. Try searching on some of the phrases you find in the article. Have them go to their nearest public library and enlist the aid of their local librarian. If you nominate an article for deletion and someone objects, have them work with that individual do a quick search