User:Montchav/Don't worry about writing essays

There are lots of essays about Wikipedia floating around on this website (here). Essays are probably normally there to get someone's point across, but the author uses Wikipedia namespace or their own user's namespace, so in essence there is no disruption. It's just a point of view. Maybe some users write essays purely so they can give it a cute fancy name or even cuter abbreviation (Don't hand out panda sandwiches at a PETA convention, No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spider-Man, WP:BEANS and WP:FUCK spring to mind here).

Users who write essays have every right to write them. If you slap an essay tag atop the page (like here), don't worry about what you write. Just keep it clean funny so you don't get labeled a troll or any other Internet-based miscreant. The thing with essays is, unless you're trying to make your philosophy become one of Wikipedia guidelines or rules, they're pretty untouchable. Other users may come along and add little bits to your essays, but the core remains.

Another one of my theories is that some users find Wikipedia, or parts thereof, so fascinating they think it's worth writing about. But mostly it's about WP:POINT. Some of the best essays end up becoming Official Wikipedia policies and guidelines (Ignore all rules (from April 2002), Assume good faith (March 2004) and Be bold in updating pages (Feb 2002) all started out as essays).

And with very few exceptions, 1) most users don't read any essays 2) those few who read only read the few most popular.