User:Jiten D/Ramblings on Wikipedia

Here are some of my thoughts on Wikipedia and its working.

An analogy

Welcome to Wikiville - a museum city. Not a city museum; a museum city - a city that is not created for inhabitation but for display of works of art. It is not a bustling metropolis, but rather a humble city growing slowly and steadily. We've got a lot of small huts (stubs), some shackled and some made of solid brick. Apart from that, we also have an abundance of well made villa's (articles). Take a stroll down the street and you might even notice some flats (lists). I've left the best for last - as the popularity and glamour of the city has been on the rise, we've even got some skyscrapers (good articles, featured articles)! It's something we're proud to show off! Feel free to grab a hot cuppa tea and take a tour of our beautiful city.

Oh, before you do so, here's some information on how the city works so you don't get lost:

• Residents (aka readers) - To start off, we've got residents - an integral part of the city. They give the city much of its importance and often inspire the workers of the city to continue their efforts. They are called residents, but they come and go. They go from house to house to quench their thirst for knowledge.
• Builders (aka content creators) -They're the heart and soul of the city. They build much of all the houses you see in the city. Floor after floor, they add furniture to the houses reinforced by brand tags and beautify the walls with paintings. Sometimes, there is disagreement regarding the flooring plan of the house, but in the end, it is resolved with help from the other workers of the city.
• Renovators (aka copyeditors) - They help convert huts to more reliable and sturdy houses, fixing the placement of furniture in the house and making minor fixes like filling in wall cracks. Some of them even use advanced tools like AWB to help speed up the process. They work hand in hand with the content creators and sometimes even perform the role of both the workers together.
• Architects (aka people sorting categories) - They help decide where each house goes and how the houses should be grouped into blocks. They give the city its layout so that it doesn't become a mess.
• Road workers (aka people helping out with linking) - There has to be some way to travel from one house to the other! That is exactly what the road workers do. They help pave the road from one house to the other so to enhance the experience of the residents.
• Apart from this, there are lots of workers who help out at the Town Hall. More on that is given below.

Even though the city is being built with a remarkable and thoughtful purpose, disruptive residents are a dime a dozen.

• Bombers (aka section blankers) - They attempt to break down parts of houses, sometimes even going so far as to blow up entire houses!
• Hit and run vandals (aka regular vandals) - They do puny acts like spray painting curse words or gibberish on the walls of the houses.
• Billboard installers (aka spammers) - They put up huge signs without giving thought to the purpose of the museum city in an attempt to get their products or services some popularity.
• Litterers (aka sneaky vandals) - They are among the worst. They litter houses with stray sharpie marks and go so far as to replace the food from the fridges to inedible fake replicas. Their acts aren't as easily caught and can even be around for years!
• Abusers (aka LTAs) - They are the ones that cause the most disruption. They are the ones who escape prison and disguise themselves. They either try to force changes to houses according to their will and wish or attack the workers. They have an unhealthy obsession with the city and roam the streets armed with bad motives, wasting time that could be put to constructive use elsewhere.

Luckily, there are workers that fight head on with the disruptors!

• Traffic police, firefighters and janitors (aka vandal fighters) - They spend their in the upkeeping of articles by undoing the actions of those causing disruption. They are often armed with template grenades and use powerful tools like Huggle to aid their cause. They also make good use of security cameras which they call "filters" to catch the disruptors. They work hand in hand with the next category of workers.
• Police officers (aka admins) - They form the backbone of the city. They make sure nothing goes wrong with the city. They enforce the law (policies and guidelines) by arresting criminals and seizing land to destroy a house when necessary. There is a lot of consideration before a worker is handed the badge and their work after is often scrutinized due to their role in carrying out high impact decisions.
• Spies (aka checkusers) - They are a special type of workforce that focus on dealing with the abusers. They possess a knack for making connections and use sniffing dogs to help them in their work.

That's not it! There's more to the city! We have a place called the Town Hall (noticeboards, deletion discussions, AIV, etc). The Town Hall is divided into many sectors that deal with different issues and ideas - discussing a worker's conduct and work, filing an FIR against disruptors, discussing about the interior decor of houses and so on. It even has a whole section for settling arguments between workers (DRN)! There are also sections for discussing improvements to houses that belong to a particular block (wikiprojects).

All in all, it's a wonderful big city. I hope I haven't bored you, have I?