User:BirdValiant

I've become disillusioned with the male-dominated culture of Wikipedia which, rather than creating a welcoming and collegial atmosphere which encourages truly collaborative effort, leads instead to excessive conflict, an everlasting explosion of excessive rules and regulations, and a crystallization of a cult-like bureaucracy which hinders the use of common sense in taking appropriate actions to such situations as obvious fringe theories. As Wikipedia has matured, veteran editors tend to increasingly take ownership of their contributions, to the exclusion of others. Instead of assuming good faith, many veteran editors tend towards excessive pedantry and aggressive behavior. Over more than a decade here at Wikipedia, I've seen an increase in these undesirable behaviors. What was once a liquid, collaborative effort founded on a fluid interpretation of the rules, has solidified into an unyielding, unwelcoming, prickly wall of thorns. What was once a pleasure has become a frustrating chore. The smallest of edits rouse the hornet's nest. Editing Wikipedia is a noble task, but I feel that I no longer possess the patience required to do so. Besides, the effort could be better used towards the advancement of my own personal endeavors. Therefore, I am logging out and embarking on a Wikibreak of indefinite duration.

All of the above is still true, but I'm back for now. I needed a couple years to recover from a perfect storm of everything bad about Wikipedia's culture. I encountered a total lack of concern about an obvious conspiracy theorist and complete lack of anyone with common sense willing to help until I took it upon myself to go through the laborious bureaucratic process demanded by the pedant overclass. At the same time, after trying to make some modest contributions, I found myself engaged in an extremely unpleasant exchange with someone who eschewed any sense of good faith, who chose to revert all contributions until an arbitrarily high standard was met, while also refusing to make any compromise or contributions of their own.

Frankly, I don't like a lot of you people. But, still, let's try to make something good out of this dumpster fire.