QUOTE(Malleus @ Fri 15th May 2009, 12:03pm)
What about also banning tv and newspapers from reporting bad news? Good news only from now on please!
But I do this all the time: I refuse to watch them. I recommend the practice too, as it opens up huge swaths of time in your life.
But how can I do the same at Wikipedia? The current software essentially forces you to read 'your' talk page. If you refuse, every page is decorated with the "YOU HAVE MESSAGES .. STOP EVERYTHING AND DEAL WITH THEM NOW, SLAVE!" box. The Drama Machine demanding attention.
This suggests that if white-listed talk-pages are ideologically offensive to the so-called "collaborative environment" -- a ridiculous position, if asserted, given that everyone with a cellphone or email white-lists all the time - then
at least allow users to disable message notifications, or, better, to allow notifications to be customized by editor.
Either way, recall that the ultimate purpose of the project is not to "collaborate", send barnstars or nastygrams around and generally participate in the Giant Group Hug From Hell, but to actually create useful content. Some people simply do not wish to waste time engaging with the teenagers.