If You Dont Like It Dont Read It

Wiki is a big place. There is nothing to stop people from writing a page that you don't like. But there is also nothing that says you have to read it either.

Live and let live.

I don't like this page, so I didn't read it.

I knew I wasn't going to like it so didn't even click on it.

But you miss one very, very important point - I can also edit or delete it, and it might also be construed as my responsibility to do so.

Even more importantly, other people could read it, be influenced by it's wicked ways, and then go edit or delete the pages I do care about. We are not in a vacuum.

Also, the people who spend a lot of time here work hard on linking related information together. That means that they have to have a general idea of what is on the pages. The internet is a big place. This wiki is not nearly so big. Please treat it and the community here gently. Thanks.

<OldFogeyMode>

I remember when everything here was something I wanted to read. I remember when even the OffTopic pages were entertaining and educational. I remember when I read everything because I learned something from each page, and that created the habit of reading everything. That memory and that habit remain, and now that this wiki is full of such a wide range of non-programming related material, it simply makes me frustrated. I have given up trying to gnome, trying to link things, trying to convert thread mess to document mode, and removing insults and invective. Now I do only read a few pages that I care about, rather than bothering trying to make this a place I care about. It no longer is.

Probably that doesn't matter, and certainly it's now the case that the majority of "contributors" don't care. I wish they'd known this place when respect for each others opinions ruled. But they don't, and it no longer matters because it's too late.

Old fogeys aren't always right, and they aren't always wrong, but they are rarely heeded. Thus goes the world, and newer hands learn only by experience. One of the things they might eventually learn is that listening to those who have been around longer is sometimes worth it. Sadly, they tend only to realize that when they are themselves being ignored.

</OldFogeyMode>

The old fogey is right, this "used" to be a place for programmers to hang out and discuss their trade, techniques, likes and dislikes with their peers, now it just sucks, and it sucks because of all the non programming related content that has taken over.

CategoryWiki