User:Giraffer/What I learned in one year

These are a collection of things that I learned in my first year on Wikipedia. I feel like it may be interesting for other users, and my future self to see what may have changed over time. Giraffer (talk·contribs) 10:08, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia is an example of how anonymous collaboration is possible, and can be used for good. The majority of people here are anonymous, and we have managed to build one of the largest sources of knowledge in human history.


 * Wikipedia was not designed to be as large as it is, but instead the community has adapted over time by adopting new policies and procedures to continue operating smoothly. There was WP:VfD, and now there's WP:AfD, WP:MfD, and WP:TfD, among others. We also realized that some disputes couldn't be solved easily, and so ArbCom was created.


 * Information is an incredibly powerful tool, and Wikipedia being one of the largest sources of it means that we have large disputes over it. ArbCom was created to solve disputes, often in large topic areas, involving thousands of words of evidence and discussion. We also have ANI to solve less difficult disputes, and DRN to solve disputes informally.

It's been a full second year. Giraffer (talk·contribs) 10:08, 15 May 2022 (UTC)
 * How we manage ourselves is integral to how we manage our content – this sounds obvious at first, but the connection between user conduct and article content is stronger than it may seem, and the community spending a large amount of time on ensuring generally good conduct everywhere is definitely not wasted.


 * The relationship between the WMF and community is delicate yet extremely important – ongoing WMF-led initiatives such as the Universal Code of Conduct and IP Masking if handled correctly will improve Wikimedia, but if handled incorrectly could irreversibly damage the projects.


 * Large areas of the site rely on one or a few contributors – the majority of socking, NPP work, and AfC reviews are handled by around 20 people each, and we are heavily reliant on them.