An experienced Wikimedian who is involved with more Foundation-level stuff told me today that he thought he really didn’t know “how the English Wikipedia works anymore”. I was inclined to say the same thing about myself because it seems that I have pulled back out of Wikipedia itself and into the Foundation stuff too (that is, Wikimedia rather than Wikipedia) - but via a different route. In general experienced users who have been around for a long time have in recent years pulled out of editing to a great degree due to the fact that things are getting more and more unpleasant down in the article editing bazaar. People fight more, rules are tossed about. This is due partly to the steady growth of Wikipedia in active users and articles, but I get the impression those who wish to do the community harm are more prominent. The other reason is that sane minds are generally needed at the Foundation level. So they all gather up there, and thus cabals inevitably form.

The above is the usual for people who were involved in the encyclopedia long in the past. For myself I seem to be in the same negative position of not really knowing what is going on for a lot of the time but I got there a different way. I was never a proper article writer because I don’t know a lot to add that isn’t there. I don’t really have the patience to research and source long and complicated articles. But when I started out I still really wanted to help with Wikipedia because it is something good that can really benefit humankind (and other things we may come into contact with, due to our improved education, such as the environment on this planet). So I got into vandal-fighting and mediation and IRC (and then freenode staff through this). I then began to prepare myself to run for adminship, as my intention was to help administrate the project as I thought I could really help here. At this point I began to move into Foundation matters, finding it more interesting. And then I realised I no longer knew what was going on over on Wikipedia - I found myself spread way too thin as can happen and so started cutting back on what I do, severing connections.

So as it stands now, I look back on working on the English Wikipedia itself with nostalgia in a way. I knew friends back then who now have little time for the project due to real life commitments and I miss simply plugging away at tasks. So, the answer is arguably just dropping back in and doing them. This I would like to do, but I simply don’t have the time with crazy volumes of reading material stemming from my e-mail inbox and elsewhere, and jobs that need to get done that I have responsibility for - or so it seems. And yet I still sometimes find myself floating between things, not sure what to do. I’m no longer really comfortable in what I am doing, and it makes me less productive and useful to Wikimedia. However, I will keep going, and hope that I slot down into a niche where I can trundle along