In Which Your Obedient Serpent is declared UNMUTUAL

[athelind]

It was a trivial thing, really. I discovered that "second breakfast" wasn't merely an invention of Professor Tolkien, but an actual meal in some cultures. This amused me enough that I went to the Wikipedia page for Hobbit to turn the reference to that meal into an internal link.

While I was there, I shrugged, and turned the references to all the meals into links.

This was, in retrospect, an error. As another wiki reminds us, A road composed entirely of Pot Holes is difficult to travel.

After saving my changes, I decided to make one more tweak, but to my surprise, my changes had been reverted in the brief span of time it took me to hit "edit" again.

And I had a Message, sent to the Talkpage for my IP address:

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
  
• How to edit a page
  
• Help pages
  
• Tutorial
  
• How to write a great article
  
• Manual of Style

Here are some other hints and tips:

• I recommend that you get a username. You don't have to log in to read or edit articles on Wikipedia, but creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive, requires no personal information, and there are many benefits of having a username. (If you edit without a username, your IP address is used to identify you instead.)
  
• When using talk pages, please sign your name at the end of your messages by typing four tildes (~~~~). This will automatically produce your username (or IP address) and the date.
  
  If you have any questions, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or type {{helpme}} on this talk page and a user will help you as soon as possible. I will try to answer your questions as best as I can. Again, welcome, and I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian. [NAME REDACTED] (talk) 15:52, 7 January 2011 (UTC)
  
  Fairly polite and informative, but it also screamed "Form Letter", with overtones of "LOL N00B".
  
  Mildly piqued, I responded ... perhaps less than diplomatically:
  
  I've been editing Wikipedia for years now without an account. Nine-tenths of what I do is simple grammatical corrections, and the occasional internal link. Have things finally gotten so stuffy here that I can't make simple changes to a page without them being instantaneously reverted?
  
  Only to be informed in turn (emphasis mine):
  
  Don't take offence, your ip address had made 6 changes, and what you did went against consensus. Perhaps you should realise my nice message was a sign of welcome and not take it personally; if you can't then maybe wikipedia isn't the place for you. Thanks [NAME REDACTED] (talk) 16:29, 7 January 2011 (UTC)
  
  "Went against consensus"? "Not the place for you"?
  
  This left me ... giggling, to be honest. I confess my own response was a bit cranky, but this ... this reinforced all the worst stereotypes of stuffy cliquishness I've heard leveled at Wikipedia!
  
  OH NOES, as the vernacular would have it. I've violated Consensus, and thus earned Paradox! I am not of the Body! I am Unmutual!
  
  Given that much of yesterday's conversation revolved around Glorious Godfrey and his Justifiers, the irony was palpable.
  
  The only possible response, of course ... was to be unflaggingly polite, whilst reserving my own amusement for other venues:
  
  Subject: Mea Culpa!
  
  My apologies; I shouldn't snap off responses like that before my morning coffee has kicked in. Your initial response was most polite indeed; it was, however, so well-composed that my early-morning pre-caffeinated sensibilities assumed that it was a form letter. My immediate reaction was that my changes had been automatically reverted by a bot, and this in turn suggested changes in the culture of Wikipedia that I found unpalatable. Hence, my terse response.
  
  To clarify: I made my edits when I happened to stumble on the "Second breakfast" page and discovered that it was an actual meal in some cultures; I had assumed that it was an invention of Professor Tolkien's. this amused me enough to make the edit; since I was there, as a matter of consistency, I opted to turn the other meal-references into links, as well.
  
  This was, in retrospect, an error. As another wiki reminds us, A road composed entirely of Pot Holes is difficult to travel.
  
  The anomaly of "Second Breakfast" is sufficiently interesting that I think it worthy of being added as a link to that passage, even if the other meals remain unaltered. I leave that option to your consideration.
  
  Thank you, and have a good day!
  
  ~~~~ (The four tildes of a Proper Wikipedia Signature)
  
  (Appropriately enough, the CAPTCHA to post this obsequious addendum was entrydoubt.)
  
  I do believe that niktopolion is rubbing off on me.
  
  For the record: as recently as 01 January 2011, I made smaller factual corrections and edits on other pages without comment or reversion. Evidently, the Wiki user in question is a member of "WikiProject Middle-earth"; the unwanted attention is almost certainly due to me disturbing his personal sandbox, rather than some sweeping sea-change in Wikipedia culture in general.
  
  I am tempted to finally give in and get a Wikipedia account ... with a username of "Unmutual", or something similar.
  
  If there are any further volleys in this pie-fight, I'll update accordingly.