User talk:Jim Butler/archive3
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I've decided to leave Wikipedia indefinitely. There's just too much amateurism. It gets incredibly tiresome to have to repeat basic stuff about scientific sources. I didn't come here to reinvent that wheel.
It takes some degree of knowledge to turn secondary sources into a good tertiary source. There are good editors here with such knowledge, willing to work for free. (Surely nobody might profit from editors' work here?) People who want to share their expertise shouldn't have to butt heads with those who lack it. Imagine if engineers and poets tried to build aqueducts by consensus. "Wait, I think water might just flow uphill, this time. Let's talk this out." Why bother?
Without oversight of topic content by knowledgeable editors, the project remains caught in wikiality: reality-by-consensus, or as Stephen Colbert said, "bringing democracy to knowledge". Those in leadership positions at WP could help move the project in a better direction, but instead waste their time on drama and micromanagement (again, just google around).
User:Gleng made some excellent, somewhat related points when he left WP.
I'll continue to use WP as a reference, with the due grain (large handful) of salt, but it's not a good use of my time to bail the leaky boat that it has become. No worries: it will improve, or something better will supersede it.
--Jim Butler(talk) 07:13, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
