8 ms·

Why every goddamn thing has to be exciting? Surely American organizational culture is becoming a parody of itself. If anything, this reminds us that American no

Why every goddamn thing has to be exciting? Surely American organizational culture is becoming a parody of itself. If anything, this reminds us that American non-profits are run just like corporations.

mellosouls 3y ago
Agree. "We're excited to announce this hum-drum thing" is an annoying PR cliche probably popularized by dead-eyed corporate drones to the extent it's now a part of every formulaic announcement. I'm sure in some cases the writer thinks they'll get in trouble with the boss if they aren't sufficiently unctuous but it's annoying to read again and again. Perhaps there is an opportunity here to establish an "Announcement Excitement Scale" from 1 to 10 where 10 is - say - ChatGPT or the iPhone and 1 is a license change. This can be printed with the announcement of being excited, then the reader can easily judge for themselves whether to peruse further.
- prox 3y ago
  I am excited you made such an excellent comment! It positively affected my thinking. I am also glad to announce I will recommend this comment to other people. Taking this out of context really puts the spotlight of the weirdness of this type of copy.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- dessimus 3y ago
  Considering the posts I see on LinkedIn, when occasionally scanning for career opportunities, I'd say most PR/Marketing types think all their stuff is 9+, but everyone else's is sub-4.
codetrotter 3y ago
It’s so formulaic, that even ChatGPT will express itself similarly. Me: Write a press release stating that Wikipedia is announcing the update to our license to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 ChatGPT: […] Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia, is thrilled to announce a significant update to its licensing terms. Effective immediately, Wikipedia will adopt the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. This change represents Wikipedia's ongoing commitment to open knowledge and collaboration. […]
- Freak_NL 3y ago
  I like this concept. If what you're trying to communicate is so formulaic and devoid of actual significant content that AI text generators will output nearly the same text: reconsider.
  - naniwaduni 3y ago
    The point of the communication is not to contain actual significant content; it's to declare a fait accompli. Lots of text is like this. Being fresh and exotic isn't the goal.
3pt14159 3y ago
I find it kinda exciting that there is one global license. People have different interests and different tastes. Software developers may find it very exciting if Rust improved compile time by 8x for a certain, common access pattern even though, in the grand scheme of things it does not really matter. Just let people have fun with things.
- _Algernon_ 3y ago
  I doubt the person who wrote Wikipedia's blog post here "had fun with things".
computerfriend 3y ago
I actually wouldn't be surprised if some Wikimedia people find this kind of thing exciting.
yonatan8070 3y ago
"we are very bored today to show you our new license, cc by-sa 4"
- seabass-labrax 3y ago
  "yawn, can we go home yet?" said no lawyer ever
endisneigh 3y ago
Ever consider that it is exciting for someone to have completed this work successfully? Would you also say it’s strange for someone to be excited that they’re done with class, or finished an exam, or successfully closed an old bug? A better question is why everyone has to be so negative.
- Symbiote 3y ago
  It's typical American usage where everything is awesome, amazing or exciting. From my British view, without reference to a dictionary, awesome is when you hear fighter jets zoom overhead, or a metal band from in front of the stage, or Niagara Falls, or a mile-long freight train full of rocks shaking the ground as it passes. The target has strength, size and power. An amazing thing is far beyond normal expectations in art, craft, or human behaviour. A detailed painting, where you step up closer and see it's even more detailed than you first thought. A carving from 3000 years ago with intricacy we didn't think possible at that time. Something exciting causes strong, (mostly) positive emotions. A roller coaster ride, an impromptu water fight in the summer, stripping off clothes and running into the sea in a group, getting close to the end of a game with the realization that you might win. Starting a job at Google and seeing 50 exabytes of data or a cluster of 10 million computers or whatever could be awesome. Someone's clever and efficient algorithm that reduces runtime by 10× could be amazing. Finishing the final university exam, expecting to pass the degree, could be exciting. Changing from licence version 3 to licence version 4 is none of these. It might be satisfying, or perhaps rewarding for the people directly involved.
  - endisneigh 3y ago
    > Changing from licence version 3 to licence version 4 is none of these. It might be satisfying, or perhaps rewarding for the people directly involved. who are you to say how someone else should feel? It’s like someone not familiar with coding saying why should software engineers feel excited for releasing something? It’s literally just text you typed. Wow, boring. Your other examples are literally just your opinion, which is fine. Understand others do not feel the same way necessarily.
GuB-42 3y ago
A change to, say, a non-commercial license would have been very exciting. But yeah, here, it is just a technical update that may be exciting only to specialized lawyers. But we are on a website where we get excited by some tool we never heard about before being rewritten in Rust, so...
- executesorder66 3y ago
  Wikimedia specifically avoids non-commercial licenses because it is such a nightmare to define what commercial activity is in a way that everyone can agree on. And the license does not help with figuring that out.
pksadiq 3y ago
This specific change shall excite many as CC BY-SA 4.0 is one way GPLv3 compatible, but CC BY-SA 3.0 is not. Which means that free software developers can now embedded many Wikimedia contents in their GPLv3 applications. This seems not mentioned in the blog post though.
- seabass-labrax 3y ago
  Incompatibilities between content and code licences has been a perennial problem for FOSS video games. CC-BY-SA-4.0 is an important step in the right direction!
mogoh 3y ago
If the top comment is about to much excitement, you know there is not much wrong here.
criddell 3y ago
> this reminds us that American non-profits are run just like corporations. They are corporations.
akolbe 3y ago
I agree. I've lost count of the number of times someone from the WMF announces on the Wikimedia mailing list that they're "excited" – often in contexts where it just comes across as obnoxious and narcissistic.
DeathArrow 3y ago
In my native language someone being excited means someone being horny.
- danShumway 3y ago
  Bold of you to assume that Wikipedia editors and and readers aren't horny for the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. It's an attractive content license.
- Kye 3y ago
  This is also one possible meaning of excited in English. It's usually applied to dogs.
justapassenger 3y ago
Each time you read any American text, treat words like “exciting”, “proud”, “amazing”, etc, same as “a” and “the”. They both provide little value to the communication and are mostly just a language quirk.
philistine 3y ago
Wikipedia has a ton of contirbutors wary of any changes to how Wikipedia functions. So every little change is under a ton of scrutiny from them. With the license, I presume most of them are interested; it is the license that applies to their own words after all. Ergo, a very hum-drum announcment gets this.
BeetleB 3y ago
My boss recently told me that my enthusiasm level (average) doesn't match the quality of my work (high), and that the higher the ladder I climb, the more that will matter for further promotions. (Yes, American company).
Anthony-G 3y ago
Everything has to be exciting or awesome (as in something that evokes awe). Back in 2010, Barbara Ehrenreich critiqued this culture of unrealistic optimism and unrelenting exuberance in Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World¹. I would’ve thought that post-Lehman Brothers America would have been more receptive of her critique but unfortunately not. ¹ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6975389-smile-or-die https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6975389-smile-or-die

mellosouls 3y ago

Agree. "We're excited to announce this hum-drum thing" is an annoying PR cliche probably popularized by dead-eyed corporate drones to the extent it's now a part of every formulaic announcement. I'm sure in some cases the writer thinks they'll get in trouble with the boss if they aren't sufficiently unctuous but it's annoying to read again and again. Perhaps there is an opportunity here to establish an "Announcement Excitement Scale" from 1 to 10 where 10 is - say - ChatGPT or the iPhone and 1 is a license change. This can be printed with the announcement of being excited, then the reader can easily judge for themselves whether to peruse further.

prox 3y ago
I am excited you made such an excellent comment! It positively affected my thinking. I am also glad to announce I will recommend this comment to other people. Taking this out of context really puts the spotlight of the weirdness of this type of copy.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
dessimus 3y ago
Considering the posts I see on LinkedIn, when occasionally scanning for career opportunities, I'd say most PR/Marketing types think all their stuff is 9+, but everyone else's is sub-4.

codetrotter 3y ago

It’s so formulaic, that even ChatGPT will express itself similarly. Me: Write a press release stating that Wikipedia is announcing the update to our license to Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 ChatGPT: […] Wikipedia, the world's largest online encyclopedia, is thrilled to announce a significant update to its licensing terms. Effective immediately, Wikipedia will adopt the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. This change represents Wikipedia's ongoing commitment to open knowledge and collaboration. […]

Freak_NL 3y ago
I like this concept. If what you're trying to communicate is so formulaic and devoid of actual significant content that AI text generators will output nearly the same text: reconsider.
- naniwaduni 3y ago
  The point of the communication is not to contain actual significant content; it's to declare a fait accompli. Lots of text is like this. Being fresh and exotic isn't the goal.

3pt14159 3y ago

I find it kinda exciting that there is one global license. People have different interests and different tastes. Software developers may find it very exciting if Rust improved compile time by 8x for a certain, common access pattern even though, in the grand scheme of things it does not really matter. Just let people have fun with things.

_Algernon_ 3y ago
I doubt the person who wrote Wikipedia's blog post here "had fun with things".

computerfriend 3y ago

I actually wouldn't be surprised if some Wikimedia people find this kind of thing exciting.

yonatan8070 3y ago

"we are very bored today to show you our new license, cc by-sa 4"

seabass-labrax 3y ago
"yawn, can we go home yet?" said no lawyer ever

endisneigh 3y ago

Ever consider that it is exciting for someone to have completed this work successfully? Would you also say it’s strange for someone to be excited that they’re done with class, or finished an exam, or successfully closed an old bug? A better question is why everyone has to be so negative.

Symbiote 3y ago
It's typical American usage where everything is awesome, amazing or exciting. From my British view, without reference to a dictionary, awesome is when you hear fighter jets zoom overhead, or a metal band from in front of the stage, or Niagara Falls, or a mile-long freight train full of rocks shaking the ground as it passes. The target has strength, size and power. An amazing thing is far beyond normal expectations in art, craft, or human behaviour. A detailed painting, where you step up closer and see it's even more detailed than you first thought. A carving from 3000 years ago with intricacy we didn't think possible at that time. Something exciting causes strong, (mostly) positive emotions. A roller coaster ride, an impromptu water fight in the summer, stripping off clothes and running into the sea in a group, getting close to the end of a game with the realization that you might win. Starting a job at Google and seeing 50 exabytes of data or a cluster of 10 million computers or whatever could be awesome. Someone's clever and efficient algorithm that reduces runtime by 10× could be amazing. Finishing the final university exam, expecting to pass the degree, could be exciting. Changing from licence version 3 to licence version 4 is none of these. It might be satisfying, or perhaps rewarding for the people directly involved.
- endisneigh 3y ago
  > Changing from licence version 3 to licence version 4 is none of these. It might be satisfying, or perhaps rewarding for the people directly involved. who are you to say how someone else should feel? It’s like someone not familiar with coding saying why should software engineers feel excited for releasing something? It’s literally just text you typed. Wow, boring. Your other examples are literally just your opinion, which is fine. Understand others do not feel the same way necessarily.

GuB-42 3y ago

A change to, say, a non-commercial license would have been very exciting. But yeah, here, it is just a technical update that may be exciting only to specialized lawyers. But we are on a website where we get excited by some tool we never heard about before being rewritten in Rust, so...

executesorder66 3y ago
Wikimedia specifically avoids non-commercial licenses because it is such a nightmare to define what commercial activity is in a way that everyone can agree on. And the license does not help with figuring that out.

pksadiq 3y ago

This specific change shall excite many as CC BY-SA 4.0 is one way GPLv3 compatible, but CC BY-SA 3.0 is not. Which means that free software developers can now embedded many Wikimedia contents in their GPLv3 applications. This seems not mentioned in the blog post though.

seabass-labrax 3y ago
Incompatibilities between content and code licences has been a perennial problem for FOSS video games. CC-BY-SA-4.0 is an important step in the right direction!

mogoh 3y ago

If the top comment is about to much excitement, you know there is not much wrong here.

criddell 3y ago

> this reminds us that American non-profits are run just like corporations. They are corporations.

akolbe 3y ago

I agree. I've lost count of the number of times someone from the WMF announces on the Wikimedia mailing list that they're "excited" – often in contexts where it just comes across as obnoxious and narcissistic.

DeathArrow 3y ago

In my native language someone being excited means someone being horny.

danShumway 3y ago
Bold of you to assume that Wikipedia editors and and readers aren't horny for the CC BY-SA 4.0 license. It's an attractive content license.
Kye 3y ago
This is also one possible meaning of excited in English. It's usually applied to dogs.

justapassenger 3y ago

Each time you read any American text, treat words like “exciting”, “proud”, “amazing”, etc, same as “a” and “the”. They both provide little value to the communication and are mostly just a language quirk.

philistine 3y ago

Wikipedia has a ton of contirbutors wary of any changes to how Wikipedia functions. So every little change is under a ton of scrutiny from them. With the license, I presume most of them are interested; it is the license that applies to their own words after all. Ergo, a very hum-drum announcment gets this.

BeetleB 3y ago

My boss recently told me that my enthusiasm level (average) doesn't match the quality of my work (high), and that the higher the ladder I climb, the more that will matter for further promotions. (Yes, American company).

Anthony-G 3y ago

Everything has to be exciting or awesome (as in something that evokes awe). Back in 2010, Barbara Ehrenreich critiqued this culture of unrealistic optimism and unrelenting exuberance in Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World¹. I would’ve thought that post-Lehman Brothers America would have been more receptive of her critique but unfortunately not. ¹ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6975389-smile-or-die https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6975389-smile-or-die