Hi.
I have almost always edited talk pages.
There was this one article about 12 years ago, a major basic science article, where nothing was correct, not even the algebra going from one formula to the next. I found that most of the edits were by this one guy, so I just sent him the issues on his talk page. He never even looked at the algebra issues: he said everything is from some text book or other, he was a Physics teacher at some university somewhere, who was I? I sent him reference after reference, he never even checked. I took some satisfaction when the whole article was rewritten about 5 years later by someone else. Now it seems right but it is beyond me, I can not check it, hopefully I can learn from it.
About 4 years ago or so I found errors throughout an article. I spent days back and forth on the talk page with several editors, suggesting this, suggesting that. One of these editors was the person who had made most of the recent edits to this article. He kept saying I did not know what I was talking about. I remember once he said 'What you are saying is even inconsistent with other articles already on Wikipedia. Can you at least check <link to other article here>?' So I clicked the link, and the first sentence in the lede agreed exactly with what I was saying. I smiled, but I didn't reply to that because it was not a valid reference. I again made no attempt to change the article, I just kept proposing changes, with lots of references. Eventually, an editor who had made some of the previous changes to that article, yet not the main editor, chimed in with '<name of main editor>, you know he's right. I hope you don't mind if I put his changes in...' and it was done. A few years later the whole thing was re-written, the new text seems right to me, again it is beyond me, hopefully I can learn from it.
Points
1. It is not worth it. All this going back and forth. Everything we do is going to be replaced eventually with a better version anyway.
2. Be bold. Why waste all this time with talk page editing, when the point is main page content, which will be smashed with a better version soon enough anyway?
3. None of you is going to like me. Why should I worry if I am upsetting the article you have your rep staked on? Does anything else matter as long as I am careful, civil, follow a neutral point of view, and find references references second source references?
Yours Truly,
Me
A day or so later ---
Never mind.
I think I'll make another account so I won't be associate with this dribble.