This is an archive of past discussions with User:Eric Corbett. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
I'm posting this here simply to scotch a rumour that the reason I've stopped contributing to Wikipedia is either because I'm dead or I'm suffering from a life-threatening cancer of the bladder.
As you can see, the rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated, and I've rarely been in better health, so apologies for that.
The reason I stopped contributing to this project was because I no longer have any faith in it, and I see little to be gained by attempting to contribute while simultaneously being subjected to various levels of abuse. Besides, many people, including his highness Jimbo Wales, appear to believe that I ought to have left years ago, so at least I've made them happy. No doubt everyone has noticed how much more congenial the atmosphere here has been since my departure, thus proving Jimbo to have been correct.
I have projects of my own I wish to concentrate on now, but I wish all the editors I've collaborated with in the past the best of luck in their future endeavours to improve Wikipedia's content, despite my belief that's ultimately a futile effort.
I'm delighted that you're alive and well, and very sad that you have left, though I do feel that I understand your reasons. I would warmly welcome your return but, in any case, please accept my best wishes for the future. DBaK (talk) 10:19, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
Glad you're well. You've left some magnificent articles behind, thank you. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned!
Thirded. Been page-watching and seeing your work around since 2012, which isn't a long term by the standards of yourself and other I admire here. Glad you are hale and tentatively hearty! Irondome (talk) 14:11, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
Indeed. But you contributed successfully for many years after losing faith in the project, so perhaps you'll allow us to hope for returns every now and then. Johnbod (talk) 14:16, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
And again - glad you're well, but you've been missed: the North of England needs you! Best wishes. PamD14:26, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
+1 - Glad you're well, Just wanted to pretty much repeat the above I wish you the best of luck with your projects, Take care Eric and thank you for all of your contributions here. –Davey2010Talk14:49, 25 July 2018 (UTC)
Good to hear you're alive and well, but I don't think you should retire. As I can testify again with Soho and Trellick Tower, you go beyond the call of duty at GA reviews and genuinely make the article "good" in name and spirit. I remember the comments from Jimbo, but in my view they are out of date and irrelevant these days. I think there's always going to be a "whipping boy" for the club of editors who can't write an article if their life depended on it but prefer to play the Dolores Umbridge school of civility patrol (which, like the Harry Potter character, is actually pretty sadistic, unpleasant and malicious underneath). At the moment, I think the knives are out for The Rambling Man, not you. Just seems to be the way these things go. Ritchie333(talk)(cont)10:05, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
Support, but I think it's not TRM but me, by DS warning and edit warring warning on my talk, on top of being believed to be behind every trouble related to iboxes ;) - Eric, I just had the pleasure to listen to Andreas Scholl again (who stepped in for a mezzo-soprano, and I came to sit next to his mother whom I didn't know so far ), - you improved his article greatly! His wife and child were also there, but closer to the exit ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:27, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
Oh dear! A "congenial atmosphere", since when have intelligent people wanted to live in a congenial atmosphere? Everyone skipping around with smiles on their faces like Methodists and Baptists at an alcohol-free Mid-Western picnic. I am quite sure there are indeed a large number of Wikipedians taking Pollyannaish delight in your departure, but in my view all your departure is doing is feeding such trolls. If you really can't bear the thought of editing, at least pop in from time to time to opine, just to keep these people on their toes. Giano(talk)13:56, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
Said Methodists and Baptists might be Trump-voters these days, so I don't think your analogy stacks up as well as it once did. I was thinking more of a vicarage tea party at Tollard Royal; the only place I've been to where if you don't speak in Received Pronunciation, nobody can understand you. Ritchie333(talk)(cont)14:54, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
There would have to be so many changes here for me even to consider the possibility of returning, but it's obvious that Wikipedia can't change, and just as obvious that I won't change. So we much each go our separate ways.
You are falling into the same great hole as those you oppose, that is taking the Wikipedia community far too seriously. When one puts the unwell Wikipedians and the hypochondriac Wikipedians aside, the remaining ones are only concerned with political correctness or have an OCD obsession with info boxes or image sizes. If one is clever, one pokes one of the latter two groups while setting them against the other group. Of course, the first two groups can be tricky because if one misdiagnoses one, the result can be problematic, so on the whole they are best left to publicise their ailments and become admins (they love adminship) while you make sympathetic noises and profer aspirin and when they become problematic, suggesting they are overtaxing or risking their health by such displays of strength, is generally enough to put them back in their boxes. That’s my ten cents worth in how to survive here. Giano(talk)20:59, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
Eric, I think Giano makes a bloody good point, in that you may be falling into the serious fallacy of taking the whole mess too seriously. To Giano's categories I would argue there are more, viz:
Wikipedians who drink while editing. An amusing group, noted for their unpredictable edits. I am a member of this sub-set.
Underachieving Wikipedians. Those who are too lazy or disillusioned with the cult to actually create sustained and if necessary, controversial content. Due to a lack of moral fibre and fear of negative peer-pressure. I veer into this sub-set.
Wikipedians who are fucking barking mad but disguise it well. The most dangerous group.
Do not stop editing Eric. Gropecunt lane is a masterpiece, which inspired me too look for other examples. There are others unrecorded out there. You provided a superb article which illuminated an almost unrecorded aspect of social history. I do believe T.R.M is the flavour of the month at the moment, not you. He should be defended by "the community" in the cases where he has not blatantly fucked up. If one is behaving like a wanker, then one should be alerted to it. Normal people know when they have fucked up, and tend to say "yeah, I was a prat there". Common sense and a sense of self-awareness is the best guard, not "Civility" dictats from on high. So stick with the editing, even if its one a month. Oh and Giano. Have you killed Her Ladyship? Resurrect her I say. One of the few characters which made this place bearable. Sod em all and do good work Eric. Irondome (talk) 02:30, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
... Oh good; I hope you're having fun doing whatever you're doing, and that they value you. I won't try to argue against your decision, but it makes me very sad. Giano, I'm glad to see you again, too, although I am currently working (between massive off-wiki demands on my time) on an architecture article that will probably make you cringe. Yngvadottir (talk) 17:16, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
I'm having lots of fun, and being much more productive to boot without having to waste time time dealing with the pond life so prevalent here. EricCorbett18:55, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
Have you not considered doing a farewell tour this autumn so we could all get together and buy you drink. Maybe you could come back each Christmas- there are a lot of civility creeps who would benefit from the thought 'Hes behind you!'. Maybe the foundation could hire an open-topped bus so we could visit all the now famous places mentioned in your seminal Gropecunt Lane masterpiece. I am however serious when I use the word 'seminal' as it is the only article one can use when training undergraduates to form a FA- certainly more valuable initially than the MOS. So, do hang around, theres a welcome in Rochester and at the London Wikimeetup. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ClemRutter (talk • contribs) 18:20, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
I really don't feel comfortable in being given the blame credit for Gropecunt Lane, as most of the spade work was done by ParrotOfDoom, whom God Preserve. All I did was to tickle it a bit, in the nicest possible way of course. Our aim right from the start was simply to write an article containing the c-word that so many Americans claim to find so offensive in a way that they couldn't object to. Nothing more noble than that. EricCorbett18:55, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
Sometimes you've just got to call a spade a spade
Speaking of the C-word, I just cannot but mention of the latest time it came up here in the U.S. It was at a live TV recording of the Brit's massive Trump protests and took place just behind the U.S. journalist and the guest he was interviewing when a couple of people paraded by directly behind them with a large poster saying "TRUMP IS A CUNT". Of course they shortly apologized for it all (which is not to say they were not inwardly laughing like most journalists and Americans as well). Oh well, that said and laughed about, it just really breaks my heart that Eric should leave. My best Wiki friend left a few years ago as well and it's lonely without her. I will miss Eric, not that I even followed his edits - just knowing that a "kindred spirit" was still with us warmed my heart. Gandydancer (talk) 19:19, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
So many Americans just didn't believe me when I said that the c-word is used quite commonly over here, and most often against men, not women, so it's in no way a sexualised insult. Anyway, I wish you luck in ploughing (or should that be plowing?) your lonely furrow (or should that be furrough?) here in the best of all possible worlds. EricCorbett19:31, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
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