User:Crunchydillpickle/Quotes about Wikipedia

cribbed from User:Gråbergs Gråa Sång:
 * Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. — Wikipedia's quote policy
 * The hours are bad and the pay sucks, but at least at the end of the day everyone hates you. - Jengod's userpage
 * The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it's a total disaster - Gareth Owens
 * It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.— Attributed to Harry S. Truman
 * "The breadth of an SNG is directly proportional to the relevant topic's prevalence as a special interest among autistic people." - Tamzin
 * Wikipedia editor (n.) Someone who will not leave a burning building until you show them the newspaper article documenting how many people were killed by the fire. - David Eppstein
 * If you want to be an admin, find your best friend's car, take out the rotor arm, slash the tyres, then tell them to their face you did it. If you can survive the abuse you get back, you might have what it takes. - Mgasparin
 * "Father of History, Herodotus, was careful in making such value judgments. E.g., he passed on reports of Phoenician sailors that were roundly dismissed as myths at the time, yet were later invaluable to proving ancient circumnavigation of Africa. " - milowent, in reference to inclusionism
 * "Wikipedia is built on the personal interests and idiosyncrasies of its contributors. You could even say it is built on love." -Wired, quoted by PMC
 * "How you know Wikipedia has jumped the shark: the great article on w00t has been deleted." - The Cunctator, November 2007
 * “Twenty years among the barebones of all subjects, and seeing the full rotundity of none, must surely leave its mark upon one.” -Trials of an Encyclopedist by Frank Moore Colby, 1911
 * “No one ever really means to be an encyclopedia editor. It merely happens to him. We do not hear children say they wish to be encyclopedia editors when they grow up. If we did we should probably punish them. No one ought ever to desire to be an encyclopedia editor." -Trials of an Encyclopedist by Frank Moore Colby, 1911
 * “In every long-lived encyclopedia, titles are carried for a generation for not other reason than that they have been found in some preceding work. There is hardly a page of any encyclopedia, even the best, that does not include matters of less significance than something which has been left out. In the department of biography, for instance, names of men and women are preserved merely as the result of the whim of some hack writer long since dead.” -Trials of an Encyclopedist by Frank Moore Colby, 1911
 * “Hence the embarrassment of the middleman of in- formation, the encyclopedia editor , vibrating between specialist and layman, an object of suspicion to both. I am snubbed by the learned and yet not welcomed by the totally illiterate.” -Trials of an Encyclopedist by Frank Moore Colby, 1911
 * All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the slightest human use! —A. E. Housman (taken from User:HJ Mitchell's userpage)
 * He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. —Friedrich Nietzsche (taken from User:HJ Mitchell's userpage)
 * "An encyclopedia not only furnishes the reader with information, but also stimulates him to go still further in his search for knowledge." - World Book Encyclopedia's entry on "encyclopedia" in 1960

Cribbed from User:Redthoreau/Nuggets of Wiki Wisdom:
 * "I learned from Wikipedia that Sandman:the Dream Hunters was actually based on Pu Songling's Strange Stories From A Chinese Studio, which I thought I ought to read. Will report back." - Neil Gaiman
 * "[Wikipedia's] articles are palimpsests stirred together by a global assortment of geniuses, crackpots, and everyone in between, sometimes citing great stuff, sometimes poor stuff, and sometimes nothing." - User:SMcCandlish
 * "I do think we can use Wikipedia for good." - John Green,Crash Course
 * "His point, and it’s really indisputable, is that this mammoth online project has developed a personality, a purpose, a soul. Now, as the new coronavirus outbreak plays out across its many pages, we can see that Wikipedia has also developed a conscience." - Noam Cohen, Slate
 * "What I originally had in mind was a sort of mutual agreement in which we would manage our own page. I did not fully understand the Neutral Point of View aspect of Wikipedia, I thought content merely needed to be accurate information, which of course we would have provided. I now see that my request is not compatible with Wikipedia’s policies." - A Director of Brand Strategy in Marketing at Apple, WP:TEAHOUSE
 * "[Wikipedia editing is] something of an addiction and something of a benediction, an act of love for a world that, as messy and misleading as it can be, still contains the most beautiful truths." - Mary Mann, The New York Times
 * "Let me say this. Wikipedia may be a haven for cranks and pedants, but it is also amazing. Why some guy named SSSilvers, who describes his interests as “light opera, musical theater and global warming,” would take hours out of his day to noodle with a stranger’s page is mysterious, and yet touching." Judith Newman, The New York Times
 * "Just like Rock always breaks Scissors, preventing copyright infringement always overrides coolness." - User:David notMD "I think one of my first admin actions was to delete ANI. (Defiantly: No, I wasn't trying to be funny! I was trying to do something else!) It was long before the "thanks" feature, but I received a lot of appreciation — barnstars and similar." - User:Bishonen
 * "Wikipedia is a very friendly space for people who like clear black and white rules and don't like ambiguity because the rules are all written down. And if you like following rules, you can go ahead and apply them and fix things. And it's a lovely retreat from the greyness and ambiguity of the real world." - Mike Dickison, Stuff
 * "Step two: If someone reverts your edit, you'll probably be tempted to revert it back, and then go to their house and kill them. This is not allowed." - Sam Denby
 * "Dedicate all your passion toward annihilating them with facts and quotes and references. ... But do so politely. Just because it is your intent to grind them into dust does not mean you can't do so with a smile. Never ever ever let the bastards see you sweat." - User:Jenhawk777
 * “I’m not sure I like Wikipedia very much, but I think it has moved beyond such concerns; now that it has become Google's first page for practically any reference query, and now that, because mirrors have now metasticised it across the web in multifarious guises, it cannot be shut down, the only option left is to ensure that it is as accurate as possible.” - User:Serendipodous


 * Why Meteor sandwich yum edits: "One of the things I most enjoy at Wikipedia is the stable environment — the "feel" of the place rarely changes. It feels like home, where even when you wake up in the middle of the night, with the lights out, you can still find your way to the bathroom without bumping into things and waking up the whole household." - User:Ottawahitech, Taken out of context from archive 112 of Village pump (technical)
 * It's my belief that most productive Wikipedians first arrive at the site wanting to do something that is against WP policy - advance a point of view, cover something that doesn't meet the notability guideline, etc. Peteforsyth, January 16 2009
 * It is easier to get a sincere 'thank you' for reverting 'ur a faggot' from someone's userpage, than it is for writing a researched, thorough, and referenced encyclopedia article on an encyclopedic topic. The best way to continue as a writing Wikipedian for many years is to be 'indifferent to both praise and blame.' Indifference to praise is a hard task for mere humans, but millions of potential anonymous readers demand it of you, for if you require praise you will burn out. Antandrus
 * We draw pictures in the sand. Between waves, someone might read a well-written article and be moved. Moni3, February 13 2008
 * "the universe is wider than our views of it" - Thoreau
 * "As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it" - Einstein
 * Like any human organization, Wikipedia is in constant danger of becoming ruled by those editors who enjoy ruling more than editing. Administrators need to be reminded that their powers are not earned rights or badges of superiority, but merely tools that will be lended only as long as they are properly used. Jorge Stolfi
 * "Wikipedia guidelines are like scripture: somewhere in the labyrinthine network of rules, you can find support for any position." — S Marshall
 * All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the slightest human use! —A. E. Housman (copied from User:HJ Mitchell's userpage)
 * He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. —Friedrich Nietzsche (copied from User:HJ Mitchell's userpage)
 * "I often find Wikipedia very amusing; its like a multi-national soap opera, generously mixed with black comedy, nth decimal place arguments, and the generally unbelievable, all set against a beige and gray backdrop splattered with virtual feces." – User:TimothyBlue
 * "There is a line between passion and obsession, commitment and crusade. The farther your keep from the line, the more enjoyable your experience. Easy to say, hard to follow." – User:TimothyBlue
 * "It turns out that the people who believe in truth and objectivity are at least as numerous as all the crazies, pranksters and time-wasters, and they are often considerably more tenacious, ruthless and monomaniacal. On Wikipedia, it’s the good guys who will hunt you down." - David Runciman, London Review of Books
 * The New York Times called vandalism on Wikipedia “schadenfreude’s most renewable resource”! It was 2007.
 * “AN and ANI are inherently obnoxious. They cause otherwise sane humans to act like you kicked their dog.” -Floquenbeam
 * "The higher up you go in this chain of authority, the humbler the language they use to describe their status: they compare themselves frequently to janitors or, more tellingly, to monks. There is an unmistakably religious tone to this embrace of humility, this image of themselves as mere instruments of the needs and will of the greater community. (The encyclopedia’s guiding principles are known as the Five Pillars.)" -NYT 2007
 * “For something alternately heralded and feared as a harbinger of some brave new world, Wikipedia has a lot of old-fashioned trappings; in fact, within its borders it generates its own special brand of kitsch.” — village pump, barnstars"

Wikipedia-related topics that would be cool zines

Info I would have appreciated when I started editing:
 * photos of the desks where Wikipedia editors edit from, maybe even cool portraits of them at the desks!
 * maybe an abridged version of the long argument on the Tree shaping talk page


 * English Wikipedia has a byzantine system of rules and also a rule to ignore all rules. Which rules actually matter? The least forgivable sins that newbies make, from my experience, are sockpuppeting (ie using multiple accounts), writing about people or organizations you know personally (which violates conflict of interest guidelines), and insulting other editors. Those are faux pas that get you blocked or banned. Most other mistakes just result in a calm warning.
 * How do you talk to people? Even though you might now see it happening much, you are totally allowed to write casual questions to experienced editors, and you are also allowed to ask for permission before making bold edits. But the process of asking questions is not intuitive! Talk pages are a vestige of a fledgling 2001-era Wikipedia, and to people who are too young to remember dial-up sounds or the OJ Simpson trial, they can feel totally foreign. To talk to someone, you leave a question on their talk page. To find someone to talk to, you look through the edit history of the article you're interested in, check out the profiles of the recent contributors, and simply choose a few people that seem active.