User:DustFormsWords/Articles Don't Have Problems

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Articles don't have problems. Editors have problems.

There is no such thing as an article with a problem. Every article is perfectly fine. Article change doesn't come about because articles have problems, it comes about because one or more editors have a problem with the article.

The most common, and beneficial, problem than an editor can have with an article is that it's not high enough quality. The editor can deal with their problem in a variety of ways, including:

improving the article;
adding cleanup tags to the article;
proposing the article for deletion;
ignoring the article; or
changing their own perspective.

Editors having problems with articles is a good thing. It is how Wikipedia improves. It is why Wikipedia is here in the first place. We have a problem with Wikipedia (hopefully that it's not high enough quality) and we seek to address that through improving Wikipedia.

As a result of this, though, it's not helpful to demand that someone else do something to an article. "Someone else" may not have a problem with the article. You may be alone in having a problem with the article. Dealing with the problems that you have with an article is your business. If you don't have the time to deal with the problem, then probably the problem wasn't that high a priority to you. If you don't have the skills, then you need to make it your business to learn them. If you just can't be bothered, then maybe your problem wasn't a very big one.

There are many users of Wikipedia. If you have a problem with an article, and no one except you wants to do anything about it, then maybe you are the only one that has a problem. Sometimes this means that you have a better vision of how Wikipedia should be than everyone else. Feel free to explain that vision and convince others of your viewpoint. More often, it means that your problem is a personal one. The best way to deal with it might be to change your own perspective. It is not anyone else's fault that you have a problem with the article. The problem belongs to you.

See also