Wikipedia:WikiProject help desk/join

What does it mean to JOIN?

In today's context, it means expecting to be a part of something - like say a movement or a revolution. Over the Internet, we rely mostly on text and HyperText to get to know each other. Our face-to-face friends off-screen sometimes think we've flipped our lids to think we're part of something real. In a way, they have a point. The difference between the effort we expend on these WikiProjects and the value they may or may not return is up to us, and our commitment to stay with it.

The WikiProject category contains an oodle of projects with only one or two members and a scad of projects that have had no activity in a year. Those are about to be set aside to make room for a new initiative to get all the active projects moving forward together; this effort is not for the faint of heart. You will be expected to participate, ask questions, run scripts, automatons, and bots. You'll develop an understanding of how the databases work, how to operate on remote copies of the data, synchronize and backup data design, and build interfaces, querys, and reports; many of you may know that drill too. The good thing is that if you join this crew, you'll receive help as we all learn to improve the MediaWiki/Wikipedia way of doing things and our understanding of it. The world expects good things from us because we expect ourselves to be the best at what we do.

Did I mention this is not for the faint of heart? Quinobi 04:48, 12 July 2005 (UTC)