Contibutors Please Define Some of Your Motivations For Contributing.

A possible approach to getting more contributors and retaining those we now have is to state why those who contribute do so. Personally I like socializing but I prefer to know with whom I am socializing. I like to know something about them. There are User pages and perhaps new people can be directed to one or more of these to learn from a long time contributor. But those pages are picked up by Google and not everyone wants their life shown on Google which is why I myself make my User page different as shown here http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/User:Brother_Officer and I wrote that before a message was sent to me asking to join in conversing here to work on some of these questions. I have a hatred for death that takes away so much. Therefore it will not take away all that I can create. I contribute to Wikipedia and Wikisource and Wiki Commons for this reason. This is aside from the fact that long ago when I wanted to read a certain book the work was archived away in a university somewhere and I could not read it unless I went to the university. Books archived away are a shameful thing in my thinking -- just sitting on a shelf, if you see it, wear white gloves or someone will turn the pages for you and in a special closed off room. I write to of my own family materials archived away in a university. From a point of sadness I get angry and then determined to do something about these situations of archiving away and death taking good knowledge away forever. I love books and I love history and science. There is little that I do not like. Still, for these few things I have mentioned I will work towards defeating in some manner and to some extent -- the extent that I am able to make a change with these situations. Thus I have worked on articles on Wikipedia and posted a fewe images on Wiki Commons and my favorite that I found only recently is transcribing illustrated books for WikiSource. I have posted under several aliases and under my real name. I have learned here on wiki areas and I have a lot more to learn. Usually I just stick to the books where I don't feel I will be condemned -- not that I have ever been "blocked" nor told that I might be. I still consider myself a "newbie" which perhaps many should as well who have been here for years. Technology is forever changing at a fast pace and that makes all of us "newbies" that have to be "baby-sit" to some extent even if by exchanging ideas from others here on wiki areas. Well, I hope that what I have written is okay and I have tried not to hurt anyone's feelings in what I have written as good manners are very important to me. This is the most I have ever written in a conversation area. "So be it" Brother Officer 23:43, 26 November 2009 (UTC)