On March 11, 2018, I’ll hit a very momentous milestone in my wikiHow career. I’ll reach the point where I joined wikiHow a half-decade ago. I’m writing this post to say a few words of genuine gratitude for such a wonderful and memorable first 5 years at wikiHow, and I have all of you to thank for that: the staff
who work their behinds off to keep things going, the readers and most of all, the many kind and talented editors that I’ve had the wonder of working with for around half a decade of my beautiful, lovable life. Let me tell you a funny–and slightly unsettling—story about how I came this far and got to stay around with you all lovely people for so long.
I know many of you may be surprised, especially the newer folks that weren’t around when I was new, but I’ll tell you all a shocking truth. When I started, I wasn’t the happiest of people on the site. I kept getting my articles nominated for deletion. Under my first ever account
before this one, I started an article on “How to Fake an Emergency when Calling 911”. My first ever article. Not knowing any better, I wrote it just to be funny, but was deleted for being universally illegal–well, it’s dangerous and even lethal! It’s not kind to other people who have real life-or-death emergencies. (Admins, please see the deletion log
if you don’t think you’ll accidentally press undelete. Look at me back then and have a good laugh!). The community didn’t feel very friendly or personal, though. It felt just like an experience I’d had on Wikipedia several years back, which wasn’t too great either.
Soon after, I started this new Adelaide account. Some of you know that I opened that account as Adelaide1230, though, before I decided that the numbers were too much. I didn’t pick that name because I lived in the capital of South Australia
at the time, though. I did, however, choose it because I started to have a travel dream of visiting Adelaide in my lifetime and with that, the number “1230” was appealing.
I still didn’t feel very welcome in the community. The only one who was welcoming at the time was the beautiful @Krystle
. For those of you who joined wikiHow after summer 2016, you probably don’t know that she used to be the community manager on the staff. She was perfectly fit for the job–very friendly, empathetic, and kind when people made mistakes. I got the privilege of meeting her in person in 2014 and got to see that she’s a very nice person inside and out. Despite the lack of a proper welcome, however, I thought I would try wikiHow some more. I didn’t feel very connected to our mission
, I just wanted to play and have fun. I even played with some new accounts “just for fun”, like @Cleaner_38
and @Emilyr25
. One of the admins got irritated and told me to stop. I even drove @Ttrimm
walnuts when I was pressing to be a booster quickly
. She and others had to tell me to slow down
.
A bit later on, things got a slight bit worse. In July 2013, I almost left because I got tired of all the criticism I was getting. I felt like I had to leave and I edited on a new account, @Emilyr25
, to escape. I know, counterproductive and shocking and definitely no way to “escape”. Thank goodness I didn’t get blocked for disrupting the community.
Shortly after that, though, I stuck with my current Adelaide account. I attended my first ever meetup
in Mt. Dora, Florida. I became a welcomer and an admin in order to use some extra responsibilities to further wikiHow’s mission.
And I’ve come a long way from where I started. I’ve been to three other meetups: April 2015 in Montreal, May 2016 in Portland and May 2017 in St. Louis. I’ve loved every moment I’ve gotten to spend at these meetups, where everyone gets together and bonds, especially to talk wiki. Because of that, I’ll be attending my fifth ever meetup this May in Minneapolis and my wikiBirthday celebration will continue there. Even better, it will continue with my awesome mom who’s generous enough to accompany me to the meetups, allowing me to attend them in the first place. (For those of you who haven’t met me, I’m a few years short of achieving adulthood). At the meetup in MN, I’ll get to celebrate with a mix of some longtime contributors and some newer ones, all of who I’ve had the sincere pleasure of getting to know. A few of the newer contributors will be going to their first meetup this year, which is always very exciting for both me and those first-timers!
A secret (well, not anymore). I was underage when I joined wikiHow, but I emailed my mom asking her for permission and she said “yes”. I didn’t tell a soul my age, but I never reveal that on the Internet unless it’s with someone I know and trust privately. So I never got blocked! I was still under 13 when I went to Florida and Montreal, but no admin blocked me since they knew my mom gave me permission to join.
To conclude this post, here are some shout-outs to both some influential contributors who were around when I was new and many newer who I’ve gotten to know in my first half-decade here. These are some dedicated editors I’ve gotten to know, many that I’ve been able to bond with through working on this incredible mission of educating as many people as possible who need to know how to do everything from putting on a shirt to surviving extreme poverty or a thunderstorm.
People who were around when I was new:
@JackHerrick
(so grateful to him for founding wikiHow)
@Dvortygirl
(met in person)
@Byankno1
(met in person)
@Krystle
(met in person, an awesome asset to our community)
@Ttrimm
(met in person, an encouraging good friend)
@Loiswade42
(met in person and touches my life by her kindness)
@Illneedasaviour
(met in person)
@Flickety
(met in person)
@Zack
(met in person)
@Lojjik
(met in person)
@Jordan
(met in person)
@KommaH
@Grahamster
(met in person)
@DifuWu
(met in person)
@Eric
(met in person)
@Elocina
(met in person)
@Laura0681
@Sanssheriff
(met in person)
@Coffee-Addict
(previously Love7078)
@Garshepp
(sadly deceased, but his friendly messages to me will live on forever and I’ll remember them for the rest of my life)
@Chris-H
People who I got to know later on:
@Anna
(met in person, she’s presently community facilitator and I’m so pleased to know her. she’s very friendly and kind to everyone and has given me tons of constructive criticism that has immensely helped me grow! I am so thankful for that!)
@Choicefresh
@MissLunaRose
(met in person, very loving and caring)
@SarahB
(met in person, we have a close bond)
@Ginny-K
. (met in person, we’re wonderful friends that are happy together)
@P-Hills
@XxvXX
(don’t know how to tag you)
@Droces
(met in person)
@80_Calo
@Lutherus-Shyrilser
(met in person)
@ExoticComet
(about to meet for the first time)
@Deniseke
(met in person)
@Danielbauwens
(met in person)
@Donagan
(met in person)
@Caeiia
@99sobi
@Irdanwen
(about to meet for the first time)
@DaniFree
(met in person)
@InfernoTerra
@Rahul-Prabhu
@MartynP
(met in person)
@Mohil-Khare
@Thehelper101
And many more! I definitely left a lot of people out, please say the word if you were one of them. There are many more people that I got to know that unfortunately left wikiHow that may never see this post, one having passed away. But all of them count just as much as those who are still around today.
I have no words but Thank You for being such an important part of a very needed global mission: to teach people how to do anything that they need to do. I mean, because some people don’t know how to do certain things! I can say with 100% honesty that I’m glad I didn’t leave. I never would’ve been able to see how truly special, unique and genuinely welcoming our community is, especially considering how fake, mean and deceitful a lot of people are on the Internet and in the real world. Here’s to five more years of enjoyment here! But I plan to be here for a lifetime, even if it’s not regular in the future. I never, ever plan to leave this community completely or permanently. Promise.
