Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games/Newsletter/20160406/Feature

Feature: Mentem Mortalia Tangunt - WP:VG and Vernal Passages
 Submitted by Thibbs 

On what was technically the first day of the second quarter of 2016, WP:VG received the sad news that User:Jinnai (the WP:VG Newsletter's featured editor of 3rd quarter 2011, interviewed for The Signpost in September 2009) had passed away. In fact, Jinnai's death from a sudden illness came during the first quarter of 2012, only four months after the Newsletter was able to interview him. Jinnai was 33 years old. Known by WP:VGers primarily for his work in connection with the Dragon Warrior series, where among other things he helped elevate Dragon Warrior to Good Article (GA) status, Jinnai was also well known at WP:ANIME, where he worked extensively with the article on Jin Kobayashi's classic School Rumble to raise it first to GA and then to Featured Article (FA) status. Jinnai's assistance with the VG-ANIME crossover project, the Visual Novels Task Force (WP:VN), also led to recognition from both WikiProjects for his contributions to the One Piece and X-Change articles as well as for his tireless work with the Popotan series, for which he helped raise Popotan to GA, and both List of Popotan soundtracks and List of Popotan episodes to FA. He was awarded barnstars by both WP:ANIME and WP:MILHIST members for his content creation and for his more gnomish efforts, and his user page is adorned with WP:ANIME's BarnSakuras—an apt and fitting evocation of Motôri's mono no aware (the recognition of beauty and pathos in mortality and the ephemeral). Jinnai is surely missed, and with the nature of his 4-year absence at last explained, WikiProjects Video Games and Anime and Manga mark the passing of a collaborator, colleague, and friend.

Sadly, the WP:VG Newsletter has cause this quarter to note the death of another member of the community. Although she had a decidedly more volatile history at Wikipedia than Jinnai, User:Lucia Black—previously known as Bread Ninja, and interviewed for The Signpost in July 2013—also worked in an area spanning the topical region between WP:VG and WP:ANIME, and her passion when engaged in constructive content editing was a driving force that will surely be missed. Lucia Black was known at WP:VG for her efforts in relation to the Final Fantasy series (bringing Final Fantasy Dimensions and Final Fantasy Adventure to GA status), in relation to the WonderSwan console (raised to GA along with WonderSwan original, Gunpey), and in relation to games like Street Fighter X Mega Man and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (both elevated to GA). At WP:ANIME Lucia Black was known for her efforts in elevating Uzumaki to GA status and for her work with anime/manga articles including such titles as Blue Submarine No. 6, Gyo, Ergo Proxy, and 3×3 Eyes. Her work with the Ghost in the Shell series (including bringing Ghost in the Shell (video game) and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society to GA) spanned WP:VG and WP:ANIME, and earned her the respect of numerous colleagues, who have likewise adorned her user page with BarnSakuras of her own. Although interpersonal conflicts had escalated to the point of significant editing restrictions for Lucia Black in August 2014, her good efforts at working in unrestricted areas (areas outside of her Japan-centric comfort zone) such as at Secrets of Rætikon, Glover (video game), Diddy Kong Racing, and Assassin's Creed Chronicles demonstrated her to be a capable editor well on her way to rehabilitation. Lucia Black will be missed.

The falling silent of unique community voices like those of Jinnai and Lucia Black gives us pause as editors to reflect on the impact an individual editor has on the community, and the impact the community has on the individual editor. Wikipedia lifespans like that embodied by Jinnai highlight the charitable aspect of Wikipedia's editors, the great majority of whom are here to enrich society for no other reason than that an enriched society is a more pleasant place to be than an impoverished one. By donating his time and his knowledge, by collaborating, respecting, and fostering constructive relationships with his fellow editors, and by demonstrating in tandem with thousands of other editors that the product of our collaboration taken as a whole can be far greater than the sum of its parts, Jinnai's editing history illuminates Wikipedia's best face. His impact on peers with whom he collaborated and on newer editors for whom he served as a role model, and his capacity in death to cause even those who did not get a chance to meet him to reflect positively on why we are editing here in the first place serve to demonstrate the positive impact the individual can have on the community.

Wikipedia lifespans like that embodied by Lucia Black highlight the impact that the community can have on the individual editor and demand measured consideration of the pitfalls that can crop up in the editing experience of any individual. The report of Lucia Black's death came little more than a month after her last block for disruption (i.e. Lucia Black had suggested she was considering committing suicide). The response by administrators largely followed the recommendations outlined in WP:SUICIDE, however off-Wiki criticism of the immediate response by WikiMedia Foundation officials to the notice of death was swift and cutting. Reports of semi-private comments made by WMF staffers were characterized as callous and insensitive by Wikipedia's growing fringe-collection of watchdog groups including Wikipediocracy, Reddit's WikiInAction, and the coarsely titled newcomer blog, Wikipedia-sucks-badly, the various members of which then went on to announce reservations regarding the veracity of the death notice and even the veracity of the subject's declared gender. But it is at this point that the fine granulation of individual prejudices and the caustic bile of damaged personalities threatens to overwhelm the bigger picture: regardless of any clumsy or bungled attempts to deal with the announcement, and irrespective of the veracity of the details of the death, it is quite apparent the community can have a significant impact on the individual, and with the right set of conditions, an otherwise productive editor with a unique (and thus valuable) voice can be lost. In a case like Lucia Black's, we would do well as a community to consider that integration doesn't always have to be a lonely path, and that the strategic application of encouragement and empathy can sometimes forestall unwanted consequences.

The WP:VG Newsletter extends its sympathies to the families of both Jinnai and Lucia Black.