User blog:Silkmoth/Making Mistakes

Making Mistakes or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wiki
I, like many others, wanted to help Habitica by becoming a Wiki editor, a Scribe. Of course, the Contributor Rewards were a nice impetus, but I really just wanted to, and still want to, make Habitica a better place. So I made an account, and looked for some articles in need of edits.

"Silkmoth: What's this? Why it seems to be a well-written Rogue guide by Merfy. With no image to boot! If I just add the Rogue infobox, everyone will be so proud of me and will be my friend! Surely this is the first step to become a great editor!" "Sonnet73: Undo revision 99223 by Silkmoth (talk)) -- Keep pages do not need to be edited and adding the infobox could cause confusion (i.e., makes this look more like an official/main page)"

And so, my first mistakes came to light. I was also guilty of adding things to categories they shouldn't be in and adding a copyrighted image. Very minor mistakes, but at the time, I felt like I had committed high treason. I panicked in the Wizards of the Wiki Guild chat and my anxiety overtook me and I was even considering self-harming behaviors. This is an obvious overreaction, but if you have suffered from similar thoughts, you know how easy it is to spiral down into negativity. Furthermore, I had neglected to take my medicine for the day; so everything was a hullabaloo, a brouhaha if you will.

And yet, the established Wiki editors were so kind and supportive. "tricksy.fox: '@silkmoth You didn't do bad! You're still learning. It's not like you deleted the entire wiki or anything, you just made some minor and very fixable mistakes -- and they weren't even really MISTAKES, they were just things that didn't fit in with the way we handle the wiki here. Now, if you were running around turning every page into a picture of a puppy... that would be a problem! (a very... very cute problem). But you're not doing anything malicious or harmful, and you're learning really well! Just think of all the things you know about the wiki now that you didn't know yesterday.'" (tricksy.fox, if you don't want your quote used here, please let me know and it shall be removed posthaste.)

And so, I took a breath. I took another breath and another and meditated for a bit. I took my medicine along with Vigamox ophthalmic Rx for my bacterial conjunctivitis (pink eye). And so I vowed to do my best, and make helpful and appropriate changes. Of course, I will still make mistakes. But so will everyone. It won't be the end of the world and my good friends in the Wizards of the Wiki Guild won't hate me.

And so, dear reader, I leave you with this sage wisdom from pop icon and acroamatic philosopher Hannah Montana. "Hannah Montana: Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days. Everybody knows what, what I'm talkin' 'bout. Everybody gets that way." While the quote may be in a silly context, the message does hold true. A mistake does not define you, and forgiving someone for even something small can mean a lot to them.