User:Thenub314/sandbox2

Wikibreak

I am extremely saddened to realize that it I think it maybe time for me to hang up my hat here at wikibooks. In all honesty it is not something I really want to do, so I think I will take a wikibreak to try to sort it out. The fact is that when you come to a point when you can't accept the community consensus on some issue, a wiki can be a disheartening place to be, which is why we recommend leaving.

In my particular case the issue is over one particular book (petty huh?). The book attempts to describe safe levels of recreational drugs for people making the choice to start them. Having lost the a significant portion of my family to recreational drug use, it is clear to me that I cannot support a website that facilitates drug use. For me this was clearly outside the educational goals of the project, and certainly should not be considered a textbook. But the community does not agree. I have attempted for a while to ignore the issue and get back to work, I find that increasingly my mind is drawn back the the funerals I have attended, the eulogies I have given, and the people I can no longer speak to. And I think of some young teenager reading the book here, and deciding on the advise given here to take the first step down a very long and unfortunate path. I understand all to well our contributions support this site. By simply editing math books and cleaning up odds and ends I am helping in the success of the website that will aid this imagined young person to some unfortunate place.

While many would argue I carry no personal responsibility, the fact is I believe by contributing I do.

Let me be clear that, for me, the problem is deeper then the mere existence of this book. On a wiki you're bound to get lots of crazy contributions, and some of them may contain information that is in one way or another dangerous to the health of the readers. But the fact is that this book has been repeatedly nominated for deletion, (my attempt was I believe the third time), and each time the community's decision was that this book belongs here. Regardless of my opinion the consensus this is part of what wikibooks is. So the decision left to me is, if this is what wikibooks is, can I in good conscience be part of the project.

I have often argued that keeping bad books pushes away potential editors. This is not quite what I meant, but perhaps I am the first verifiable data point for my own theory.

I am not upset with the community here in any way, as I have said to a disgruntled user recently we are all here trying to help out and do our best. Maybe I will be back after I a little break, maybe I will decided to adopt the book and reshape it into something I can live with. At the moment it seems to be that would be ignoring the current problem. The book whether I like it or not is currently part of what wikibooks is, and eventually the book would just be recreated or reverted back. In the event I do not return, I would like to say thanks, it was a lot of fun while it lasted. Thenub314 (talk) 15:40, 4 July 2010 (UTC)