At least I'm consistent.
Since deciding to let the Laura Secord Wikipedia page continue to suffer from
poor editing, I've encountered (at least one) inconsequential Wikipedia page with
information that seemed to be very clearly mistaken. All that would have been
necessary on my part to correct that page would have been to delete one sentence.
But as with the Laura Secord page, I left that page as it was as well. Rather
than this being a case of refusing to take responsibility, I view my inaction
in these instances as stemming from feeling too responsible. I don't want to commit
myself to something that I'm not going to follow through with. Were I to correct
these pages I'd feel as though it were my responsibility to continue to visit
them and attend to their upkeep, to make sure that they stay corrected. Nothing
forces or requires me to do this - it's simply a subjective gut feeling. But keeping
an eye on these corrections quickly becomes a time consuming task well beyond
just editing a few lines of text. From years of participation in online forums
I've learned that when I comment on a particular subject I feel compelled to keep
reading that forum - certainly to see whether anyone responds to me, but also,
and on a more basic level, because I've made myself part of that discussion. I
don't really have the time for this either, but I feel that if I've joined the
fray I'm required to stick with it. I'm not in a position to "stick with"
Wikipedia pages that I might decide to correct. Though I can allow myself to do
this with forums, I can't make a similar commitment to various pages that I've
tampered with. I prefer (dare I write it?) simply not to get involved.
Go to: Bad Netizenship.