Such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup or the wikimania or whatever.

Has anyone been to one, and did you enjoy it?

Poetlister and all her friends should visit just to disprove the sockpuppetry claim.

If only it were as simple as that. How many times have people said something like "Yes, these photos are of real people, but that doesn't prove that they made the edits on those accounts"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Adm...kpuppets_banned

On the same page, note that even a 100% bill of health by an independent checkuser would have been discounted:

One of my sockpuppets has signed up for a couple of the Philly meetups, but in each case I was only tentative, and those Wikipediots pick such dreadful evenings (Sunday nights?) where it's a challenge for me to abandon family events and get all the way downtown. I work in downtown Philly, so a weeknight would be so much EASIER; or have the meetup in one of the pleasant western Philly suburbs like King of Prussia, West Chester, or Media.

Nope, the Wikipediots always seem to want to meet on a Saturday or Sunday night, downtown Philadelphia.

"Sort of". I went to RecentChangesCamp in Montreal last year.

A couple of prominent Wikipedians were there, but it wasn't Wikimania or anything like that.

Oooooh, what's recentchangescamp like? Was it sad lol or was it ok?

Well I went to a meet today- it wasn't so bad- only one overly fanatical bloke there, even he wasn't evil bless him lol just a bit intense about wiki, and the others there were sound


I feel it would be scary though to meet for instance JzG or David Gerard. Maybe you sometimes have to be a larger-than-life personality to gain great status on wikipedia.

That was the other interesting thing- when we were talking about Durova for instance, and other well-known people on wikipedia, it sometimes felt as if we were talking about fictional characters, it felt far less real than when I'm on WR or on wikipedia itself.

But then a sense of proportion is one of the beneficial effects of real life I suppose

wikiwhistle: It wasn't too bad. I liked the whole group dynamic and the "unconference" aspect, and nobody caring that I'm a banned user (Wikipedia users were the minority - I wasn't there as a Wikipedia user anyway).

Meetup, yes. They are mildly amusing to see how the discussions mirror Wikipedia edit wars.

Can't say I have, but I've met an administrator from Wikipedia. Not an experience I'd like to repeat!

Rofl lol, what was he/she like?

I have an IRL aquaintance that edits on wikipedia. We chat by email quite often. He's a different 'type' of user to me- he's been banned ten times lol! Not for questioning the cabal or anything worthy, more for 3RR and insults. He'd be a bit different to those that were at the meet

Did you spill beer over me yesterday????

it was cider lol sorry

He was/is a high-ranking cabalista who was inordinately obese and knew lots of random facts about obscure literary works and history. He was nice enough, but there was a rather obnoxious air about him. Also, he was very one-dimensional: all he talked about in addition to random facts was this crazy RPG-or-whatever game.

I still get emails from him on behalf of his club. As much as I like the subject of the club, I feel better off avoiding it.

i've been to a couple because it's easy for me - they were both pretty friendly occasions with good people and beer. The presence of either of those things is usually enough for me to give the thumbs up, and both is best.

I'd characterise the folk there as a bunch of diverse people with a mutual interest, and a willingness to waste some time talking about it for a while. Probably the biggest wiki hitters who came along to one or the other were Jimbo, Angela B and Tim S, all of whom were very nice people - shared a glass of wine, or had a beer, chatted about wiki stuff etc. - but I talked more with some less 'wiki famous' folk; and a couple of folk specifically were very smart and interesting - and had good ideas, which built some faith for me in the wiki world.

Mind you, I was clearly the best looking person.

That was a joke.

I've never been to a meetup before, though I've met editors in person and spoken to quite a few.

TW: You should have sent a whip and threatened to use it the next time you see him.

I think having a meetup in "Media" would be pretty cool just for the name. Heck, you could maybe form a subchapter of Wikimedia Pennsylvania called (wait for it...) Wikimedia-Media !!!!

(don't EVEN get me started on the possibilities of a meetup in that other Pennsylvania town, Intercourse)

For the record I attended Wikimania 2006 at Harvard. It was interesting.

If you're going to go that route, then there are other great towns out in Amish country, including Blue Ball and Bird-in-Hand.

It's quite true that one can get from Blue Ball via Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse to Paradise, in about 38 minutes!

Greg

Xcuse me, but isn't Real Life + Wikipedia a contradiction in terms?

Jonny

Virginville would probably be the most appropriate PA town for a meetup.

Original research!

While You're There, Be Sure To Check Out The Dam Site Inn

Jonny

That pun is not lost on intrepid inn owners, Michigan has at least two, one is in Hell and the other near Paradise Lake. Go figure.

I can't even imagine meeting up with other people who edit WP. It would just be so bizarre hearing people talk about editing and WP drama crap. My friends give me a strange look when they discover I'm a regular registered editor, not just an anonymous ip address making changes on random stuff. I don't even mention it anymore, actually. I got sick of people looking at me like I was retarded or something, while these same people slaver all over themselves doing "research" for assignments through WP. Go figure.

I couldn't imagine a real life WP meet to be intellectually stimulating.