This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 172 (talk | contribs) at 22:05, 2 March 2005 (how could I forget, one last note about quitting). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 22:05, 2 March 2005 by 172 (talk | contribs) (how could I forget, one last note about quitting)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)I have disconnected my Misplaced Pages email account; I have no interest in checking it anymore. If you want to get in touch with me, try the talk page. I may stop by Misplaced Pages periodically just to check its growth and development.
I am an historian specializing in international political economy, which allowed me to work on a diverse range of time and place on this site. I was a Misplaced Pages contributor from late 2002 to February 2005, and an administrator from May 2003 to February 2005.
Over the past couple of years, I was using a pseudonymous account, and the name I was using in my Misplaced Pages email account was not my own. Given Misplaced Pages's sketchy reputation in some circles, I wanted to avoid any possible negative consequences in the "real world"; and I did not want the less-than-friendly environment on Misplaced Pages to come back to haunt me off-line. Unfortunately, when the community knows you as 'just a number,' you don't tend to be treated so well.
I will no longer contribute to Misplaced Pages. The project is no longer workable. There are no signs of Misplaced Pages developing an authoritative public review process. The absence of one fosters a total disregard for expertise in this community; whether nor not you are taken seriously depends not on the merit of your work but rather how many friends you have made with the users who dominate the mailing list, IRC, and the administrative pages.
Instead, we have a dispute resolution process fetishizing increasingly rigid (and idiosyncratic) community norms and customs without reference to who's writing encyclopedic material and who's not. As a result, far too much power and status is given to people who are frankly nothing more than trolls, as long as they're good at gaming the system. The admins are increasingly obsessive of process, disregarding the public credibility of the project. Far too many seem to get off on "patrolling" conflicts between other users that they do not understand, an aspect of Misplaced Pages that is poisoning the atmosphere.
Thus, in recent months I was spending more time dealing with users with no intention of writing encyclopedic content, who were spending many hours a day feeding off conflict between other users or were dumping sheer nonsense in as many articles as possible. I no longer have the patience to deal with this. I will return, however, if there are any changes allowing me to become a more efficacious user in the future.
172 14:44, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Users I will miss (incomplete list-- just the names I can think of at the moment):
AndyL, A. Shetsen, Cecropia, Danny, El C, Everyking, IZAK, Jiang, John Kenney, Jtdirl, Mikkalai, Mydogategodshat, Mirv, Piotrus, RK, Rd232, Slrubenstein, Stirling Newberry, Tannin, TDC, Viajero
Users I will NOT miss: Fred Bauder, Ed Poor, Netholitic, RJII, Sam Spade, Silverback