Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
User:Trilobite
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Hello!
I became a Wikipedian in May 2004, having used the site to expand my knowledge for some time before that. I have interests in many areas, but expertise in few, so my edits tend to cover a wide range of topics. I divide my time on Wikipedia between actually adding useful content and writing articles, and the administrative-type¹ work of copyediting, cleaning up after vandals, welcoming new users, manning the help desk, paying the occasional visit to VfD, and other such tasks. If a traditional encyclopedia is an ornamental garden² then Wikipedia is an unruly jungle that grows with vigour but requires extensive cutting back of overgrown vegetation. Click random page a few times, or have a look at new pages and you'll see how much work there is to do.
In an experience that's probably familiar to many contributors, I often start work enthusiastically on some project, then something else comes along and I get sidetracked, thus leaving unfinished tasks to pile up. Because I feel the need to finish what I've started, even when new work pushes that goal further and further away, I have become increasingly addicted to Wikipedihol. I have made about 7000 edits if anyone's counting. I welcome any comments or feedback on my contributions on my talk page.
My current work (over the last few days) involves creating biographical articles for all members of the European Parliament. As there are about 700 of them this would be a tall order for a mere mortal human Wikipedian, but User:NoSoftwarePatents has unleashed the power of some magical automated process which does most of the work of extracting information from the EP website using a script. After I've finished this I plan to return to writing my history of Kyrgyzstan, then after that there's all kinds of interesting work to do.
As far as wiki-beliefs go I used to consider myself an inclusionist (I still consider many articles on 'non-notable' schools to be worth keeping, for example), but now I often find myself more inclined to delete than many people. If an article covers a topic so obscure that it will be a long time before someone else decides to edit it, and it's so poorly written as to require substantial cleanup, I prefer to delete and give the hypothetical future user a clean slate. I think it's good for members of the community to keep an eye on RfA, but only to vote if they have come across the nominee before and formed an impression of what they're like, or are willing to do a proper and thorough job of exploring their talk page, edit history, etc. In polls of all kinds many users seem to vote whichever way the majority is leaning, without having given it much thought themselves. This means that people who get their votes in early cause a kind of snowball effect whereby other votes accumulate around them. This is particularly evident on VfD where three or four votes in agreement in the first few hours often decide the whole thing, as far less people look at VfD nominations that are a few days old except in contentious cases. As far as censorship and bowdlerisation of Wikipedia go I am a firm opponent. If someone wants to create a 'child-safe' or 'work-safe' fork they are free to do so, but we shouldn't implement such things ourselves.
I have no idea why I have the username Trilobite. I suppose I have a mild interest in palaeontology, but apart from that it was chosen completely at random. I am in two minds about whether it is a good or ugly username to be recognised by. People often seem to spell it "Trilobyte".
I am politically left-of-centre, environmentalist, internationalist, and pro-European. I come from England and while I love the place I often consider it depressingly backward and uncivilised by European standards. Religiously I am somewhat agnostic, but lean towards certain non-Abrahamic faiths. I am a strong believer that "the truth will set you free", hence the involvement in creating a free encyclopedia. I believe Wikipedia has a strong systemic bias that needs to be countered.
I support the idea of free software but my use of it is mainly confined to doing my browsing with Firefox. If anyone can give useful advice about overcoming the evils of Windows XP and switching to Linux to someone who is fairly computer literate but by no means a l33t H4x0r, I would be grateful. A cursory inspection of what it all entails leaves me a little bewildered. How am I supposed to know, for example, which distribution to choose?
I used to think user pages should be protected and no one but their owner had any business editing them, however, you are welcome to make cosmetic or organisational changes to prettify this page if you wish. Don't be offended if I revert you though.
1. When I say I do administrative-type work, I don't mean to purport to be a sysop. Some new users have apparently mistaken me for one.
2. Or perhaps... a shubbery!
Obligatory quotes section
- "What you do is of little significance. But it is very important that you do it."
- — Gandhi
I think that's worth applying to all of life, but it's particularly relevant in the context of Wikipedia. Writing a stub on some obscure topic might not itself change the world, but assisting in the dissemination of free knowledge is the kind of thing that does.
Since Wikipedia is both an encyclopedia and a community, how about this for a pearl of wisdom:
- "The world is a great volume, and man the index of that book."
To do
- More anthropological terminology
- More ethnographic info
- More South American translations
- Pre-Christian sacred sites in Britain
- Assorted geo-stubs to be created
- Some late 20th century events
- Environmental terminology
- Check coverage of these places
- Finish MEPs
- Constitution matters
- Grozny
Links
- Wikipedia links
- My subpages
- S 1 2 3 4 5
- Welcome message
- County Durham stubs
- MEP script
- Co. Durham recent changes
- MEP recent changes
- Keeping an eye on the cabal
- Me elsewhere in the wiki-world
- Esperanto Wikipedia
- Spanish Wikipedia
- French Wikipedia
- Meta-Wiki
- Wikimedia Commons
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