User:Markworthen/sandbox/Understanding Wikipedia's unique culture

I suggest looking at Wikipedia as you would a patient and his/her/their family who are from a completely different culture than your own. Different religious background, different beliefs about health and healing, different gender role expectations, different language, etc. If you are the physician such a patient sees, you have to do your best to understand your patient's cultural background so that you can communicate effectively and treat them with respect and dignity.

Wikipedia is like such a patient because Wikipedia has its own culture, traditions, policies, and procedures. I can rail against the stupid ways things are done here (and there are a few ... ;^), but that's analogous to chastising a patient for "not doing what I said" when I didn't take the time to understand them to begin with.

So, I encourage you to look at this as an exercise in developing cross-cultural competence. You might decide you don't want to invest your time and energy in learning Wikipedia's culture, which is fine. But if you do want to improve the accuracy of Wikipedia articles, understanding this unique, kind of wacky culture at Wikipedia is an important first step.