User:Nathan/About userboxes

''There have been a lot of debates about userboxes. This page is an attempt to develop my reasoning about this issue. Future revisions will reflect changes in my view, which could happen for any number of reasons.''

What are the steps in evaluating of a userbox is appropriate or inappropriate? What questions should be asked of any userbox (or for that matter, content on any userpage)? This can only be evaluated in the context of the goal of Wikipedia: The development of a resource that contains the useful knowledge of the human race.

Since this is such a broad and ambitious goal, there are many different elements that can contribute to its achievement. Among those elements is the identification of editors and their interests and points of view. Some might make the argument that the encyclopedia is supposed to have a neutral point of view, and thus the specific perspective of any given editor is irrelevant. I disagree with that presumption - the content of the encylopedia is supposed to be neutral, but editors themselves can never be neutral. Awareness of the interests and biases of yourself and other editors is crucial in counteracting it, as biases may unconsciously affect editing.

So if I accept that understanding and identifying editors is helpful to the task of developing an encyclopedia, then I must also accept that userboxes are a simple and straightforward method of accomplishing this task. Therefore, userboxes themselves cannot be verboten.

What I can do, however, is evaluate individual userboxes against the criteria of usefully describing an individual editor - keeping in mind that the description is useful only as long as it supports the goals of the encyclopedia. That leads me to a question, though: Can userboxes actually detract from the encyclopedia, or do some userboxes simply not contribute either way? Phrased differently, is some self-description actually a net negative for collaboration? The answer, I believe, lies in the fact that a userbox is descriptive only - a userbox describing me as a Nazi does not make me a Nazi anymore than the lack of one means I am not, it merely identifies something that exists independently of the box.