User:CanonNi/Essays/You're free to leave
 | This essay is in development. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion, especially since this page is still under construction. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Editors do not have the obligation to edit. If one wishes to leave, they may do so at anytime. |
Wikipedia is a volunteer service, and editors are not forced to stay. Editors make mistakes and get criticized by others. Some respond by saying:
Well, I'll just leave, if that's what you want.
Yes. If that's your attitude towards editing, you're free to leave. If you are unwilling to listen to criticism and fix your mistakes, please leave. There are over 100 thousand active editors here on the English Wikipedia. You are not irreplaceable, nor are you more important than others.
Criticism
[edit]New editors are often warned and criticized by more experienced editors. This is normal. Constructive criticism isn't attacking. It's helping, teaching, supporting, and benefiting editors. Criticism is essential for growth: it's how every editor started, and always will be.
Common scenarios
[edit]If Wikipedia does not want my article, I'll write somewhere else...
[edit]Please do. There are many other platforms where you can post your own writings that don't belong in an encyclopedia. We already have 6,913,980 articles, most of which are, unfortunately, of poor quality. Adding another to the dumpster does nobody any good.
"But I worked hard on it!" — Cool. It should be easy to cut/paste it elsewhere then. Just because something was worked on for a long time does not make it good.
There's too much rules here, I just wanna do what I want...
[edit]Well, too bad. Wikipedia has basic rules to keep it working, and not becoming an anarchy. If you want to say and do whatever you wish, please, go somewhere else. 4chan would be great.