Wikinews:Departure lounge

Contributors leave Wikinews at various times, and for various reasons. Some people disappear abruptly, some drift away, and others go out in a blaze of invective. The purpose of this page is to record their departure in case there are lessons to be learned by the community.

Please remember that this page is for recording a contributor's last words, not for pushing any agenda.

=2006=

NOTE: I am pulling out of the Wikinews project. My reason is the political objectives of Mrmiscellanious. His blatant twisitng of Wikinews policy is entirely offensive. I've had enough. Wiknews is a good project. And I've enjoyed being part of it. But with people like Mrmiscellanious, whose political agenda is very clear from his user page, it is very difficult, extremely time consuming and mentally taxing to argue, edit and rehash a basic story to keep it published. It seems that any story that goes against his POV, will be turned into an edit war. I do not have the time to argue for days on end. I'd much prefer to create another article, than debate the merits of POV. I have been contributing to Wikinews, (some 120 articles since October 2005) and know full well what is expected of contributors. However, I feel that Mrmiscellanious abuses the policy to justify his own politcal agenda. I do not have the energy to debate his personal politics here. Goodbye... --elliot_k 16:15, 24 May 2006 (UTC)"

Lastly, the fact is that I wrote 7 articles from scratch yesterday. 2 of which went on become leads (only once by me). The fact that despite this I'm still not given the benefit of the doubt and assumed good faith, and instead am treated the same as a spammer or vandal. With that being said, I can not contribute to a project where I am not allowed to edit in peace. Email me when the vast majority of good administrators get a tighter hold on this place. --MateoP 22:23, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I have to say, this has been extremely frustrating. I have long been a fan of wikinews, and helped a bit at the very beginning, and read it on a weekly basis but generally haven't had time to contribute lately. But I had a couple hours today and decided to help. I looked at all the articles in development, and the article in question was the most interesting one to me, so decided to help there, by de-copyvio'ing it. I thought it was an interesting article well worth having on Wikinews. The fact that it was from a US Army captain rather than from some random person, made it seem newsworthy to me. Certainly the article could use from some work to make it less NPOV but I am surprised that instead of letting people work on continuing to improve it, that it got brushed aside so quickly and harshly. Needless to say, I will think twice about contributing to Wikinews in the future. BryceHarrington 22:44, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

I am forced to consider whether it is worthwhile to continue any efforts to contribute to or use any aspect of this wikinews project any longer; the answer unwaveringly is that it is not. There is nothing that can be constructed here, the fools are too active. Against all of my previous observations, there is no way to separate their foolishness from productive work; there are no practical limitations to their destructive activities. I must revise the conclusion of my 16 month observation of this site and state that content here is not valued at all, it is worthless, even though only five months ago I thought it the most valued aspect. For anyone considering joining this hell, reconsider. At most, never venture beyond the main page's published articles again for if you do you will be caught on the inaccuracies and omissions that result from the activities of the fools. The mechanisms of this project will only cause you to pity it for its fate and make you unable to tolerate any of its articles. There is a beautiful illusion if you stop at the main page and never venture to any formation pages; stay on the main page or leave completely if you desire to retain a positive view of the project. I resign. An end to this. Opalus 04:56, 15 February 2006 (UTC)

From the user's talk page:

These reminders failed. There is too much infighting here, and there is too much ambiguity where it only serves to sanction any and every activity against anyone outside of the most limited and limiting faction. Activity here can only be compared to that of the failed court of Louis XVI. It seems to me the only solution is in a total measure: to shutdown the project for 6 months or a year or more, and in that time delete everything (accounts, discussion, all of it) that is not publicly licensed and leave what has been publicly licensed to other sites to maintain but delete the references to all of it here. The concept goal remains, but this tactic has failed and this group holds it back in total and is beyond the capacity of attempts to fix it through these channels. I do not hold myself apart, I failed this group by not staying and eventually taking power and cutting away at the problems myself. I find that I have not motivation to do that as the problems are to the core. Do not return any discussion forums, none at all-problems listed in edit summary only for collaboration. Leave this as only a purely article production site with no accounts and no means for discussion as discussion only invites failure to regulate discussion and the fallout from those failures. I can only suggest this most extreme solution as this matter has exceeded all others that seem possible here. Half-measures will give half-solutions, and give only temporary relief. Even the total measure may need to be repeated several times before a functional group can be gathered, but nothing can be done without one. There is no profit requirement to limit the project, but there is also no profit motive to accelerate its correction.

=2008=

Brock used to contribute regular OR about culture and entertainment stories in Taiwan. Last edit in '08 gave the edit summary "Retreat to Chinese......Maybe no longer returning en".

=2010=

It is with some regret that I have decided to retire from this project for the time being. Unfortunately, writing news seems to have become a secondary goal to having the last word in the latest drama and the community spirit for which I once admired Wikinews seems to have fallen apart. Thus, my enthusiasm for the project has reduced to the extent that I'm no longer happy contributing here. For anyone who might wish to contact me, my email is enabled and my Wikipedia talk page is open to all. I hope the project recovers from the self-destructive cycle it has fallen into and, if it does, I may resume editing here. Until then, I owe a debt of gratitude to those editors who have made my overall experience here a pleasant one including, but not limited to, Blood Red Sandmand, Tempo, Mikemoral, Diego and C628. Regards, HJ Mitchell &#124; Penny for your thoughts?   21:01, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't intend to restate what has already been said a multitude of times at this project. I have decided to retire because of recent events, among other obvious reasons. From what I have observed, the community has been complacent in the face of unambiguous disruption and abuse. I therefore no longer want to label myself a member of that community. I sincerely wish Benny the mascot, C628, Mikemoral, and Tempodivalse the best in their future endeavors.

You can best contact me through my talk pages at other projects. Alternatively, you can also send me an email.

Unfortunately, I am unable to continue my stint here as a frequent contributor to Wikinews. The new school year is about to begin, and I find myself getting increasingly busy such that I can't dedicate enough time to writing or reviewing articles. Perhaps in the near future, I will be able to fit Wikinews into my workload, but I really can't guarantee that I will return. I wish all Wikinewsies, both new and old, the best of luck as they continue their noble efforts to maintain a free-content news source.

Furthermore, I ask that my administrator and reviewer privileges be revoked. I'd like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to work on a great project and be a part of this awesome community. Benny the mascot (talk) 16:48, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Noting his retirement per his userpage here. The wub posted later on his talk page : "I have been thinking this over for a while, and I no longer wish to contribute here."