Totem
I Used to be Indecisive---Now I'm Not So Sure
![The skyline of a city with many large skyscrapers; in the foreground are a green park and a lake with many sailboats moored on it. Over 30 of the skyscrapers and some park features are labeled.](https://web.archive.org/web/20130201093737im_/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Chicago_skyline_labelled.jpg/1280px-Chicago_skyline_labelled.jpg)
"What is this Real Life that you speak of, and where can I Download it?"' |
![HK Route7.svg](https://web.archive.org/web/20130201093737im_/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/HK_Route7.svg/458px-HK_Route7.svg.png)
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'Always Assume That Ladies/Women/Females/Girls/Your Mom Are Present. Discourteous behavior will not be tolerated even if not directed toward them.' |
Peaceful reminder to myself
Peace is a state of balance and understanding in yourself and between others, where respect is gained by the acceptance of differences, tolerance persists, conflicts are resolved through dialog, peoples rights are respected and their voices are heard, and everyone is at their highest point of serenity without social tension.
Quick Links
Warnings
Warning One: If you're studying geology, which is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life
— Steve Martin
Warning Two: This page and the adjoining talk page may occasionally contain strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for some adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)
Other stuff
Tools
Category | Description | link |
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Page view rankers | Find out how often a page on Wikipedia's been viewed | [4], [5] |
Categories | Catgraph: show which category links to other categories in a nice graph | [6] |
RC | This recent changes list is sure to have vandals all over it. This shows only anons editing in mainspace edits at special:recent changes | [7] |
history | This tool tells you who is the primary contributor of a Wikipedia page among other stuff | [8] |
Expand template | This will open up the coding to all those complicated templates like {{CURRENTDAY}} and view their source | link |
GOOD LUCK
How it could have gone: "Why are you following me"? "I'm Neighborhood Watch. Just doin' my job' "Ok...Well. I'm stayin' right over there with my Dad" "No prob. My name's George" "Hi. I'm Trayvon".
Treat other editors like they are in your home, not in your way....B7
I don't care what excuses you give yourself. I don't want you to fight....(Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird)
Only the dead have seen the End of War....Plato
We all commit forgivable sins
I've never found it productive to try to reason people out of an irrational belief. MastCell Talk 17:26, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
The question should never be...“How can I counter-attack a fellow editor." But, rather, it should be...“How does this diatribe forward the Living Encyclopedia.".
If you find a flaw in another editor it means that you first found the flaw in yourself, otherwise you would not have recognized it
The world we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far creates problems we cannot solve at the same level at which we created them.
— Albert Einstein
The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
— George Carlin
I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
— Alan Greenspan
Everything you see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you.
— Douglas Adams
![Spirituality](https://web.archive.org/web/20130201093737im_/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Religious_Symbols-ani.gif/50px-Religious_Symbols-ani.gif)
Every user is expected to interact with others civilly, calmly, and in a spirit of cooperation. Do not insult, harass, or intimidate those with whom you have a disagreement. Rather, approach the matter intelligently and engage in polite discussion....In large disputes, resist the urge to turn Wikipedia into a battleground between factions.
We are often better served by connecting ideas than we are by protecting them."
— Steven Johnson, Where Good Ideas Come from
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.....Einstein
An analogy of conversation that some editors have with our new brood......If you park your car here, it will be towed to the junkyard and turned into scrapmetal at your expense. Have a nice day!
WikiWorld
Henry Moore
I strive to be the best editor I can be. I am not a perfect editor. I have learned from past mistakes and, more than likely, I will make more down the line and learn from them. Perhaps an RfC review to receive some valuable feedback for improvement would be a good opportunity for myself and others. I am becoming weary of the drama. When polarized, ultra-critical edits are thrown back and forth and minuscule differences are given the third degree, articles and talk pages end up being an alternating collection of challenges that rarely praise or mostly criticize the topic and the editors envolved. My constant hope is that the environment of Wikipedia will become calmer and more balanced and that collaboration will become the focus of all editors, now and to come. While some of the more troublesome arenas are political, the focus is not. The focus should always be OUR READER, or stated more distinctly, OUR VISITOR. Quite simply, I want to be left alone (not bothered) by vindictive editors, to enjoy the pleasure of WikiLife at some non-toxic level of article/essay creation...to enjoy the unspoken bond that can exist between editors. No emotional see-saws, tension, protaganists, provocative provacatuers. I reject the drama of untimely name-calling and sarcasm laddened replys...even when I myself engage in them. I work to see barriers dissolve in the face of mutual humanity.
Storage Shed
Thoughts on a Variety of Subjects
Proverbs
- If you understand, you will remember.
- Success depends less on ability than opportunity; opportunities are rarely equal, and all opportunities have costs.
- Strive to have the ability to make the most of opportunities.
- Timing is everything.
- People have similarities and differences: similarities make communication possible; differences make it necessary.
- Freedom of choice is an illusion, responsibility is not.
- Life is a sequence of mistakes and side-effects.
- We have not grasped justice if we are still balancing competing claims: that which is good, is good for all, there is no conflict of interest.
- There is no such thing as "rights"; there is only love.
- The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia", 1782.
- A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. — Edward Abbey, paraphrasing earlier source?
Gleanings |
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GLEANINGS
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Articles I Have Created (or worked extensively on)
- Charles Felix Van Quickenborne
- Hand Held Computer
- Frank Felton
- Foy Willing
- Food Safety Modernization Act
- Lincoln Park Conservatory
- Middle Class Working Families Task Force
- They Came to Kill
^Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy
- Timeline of the Presidency of Barack Obama (2009)
- Timeline of the Presidency of Barack Obama (2010)
- Timeline of the Presidency of Barack Obama (2011)
- Timeline of the Presidency of Barack Obama (2012)
- Timeline of the Presidency of Barack Obama (2013)
- Dorothy Hope Smith (collaboration)
- Belgian Revolution (collaboration)
- Jarvis Square
Various Comments
- "Whatever reservations one might still have about its overall quality I don't believe there's much doubt that Wikipedia is the largest, most comprehensive, copiously detailed, stunningly useful encyclopedia in all of human history"...William Cronon, a renowned environmental historian and President of the American Historical Association.
- "...almost every time WP:CANVASS is cited, the person citing it is in the wrong. [It is] used to shut down discussion. [It]'s used to suggest that you shouldn't talk to people who you agree with." -Jimbo Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.
- Many an edit war (or talk discssion) may seem like a fight over nothing to the casual observer, but considering that according to its staff, the popular, multilingual Web site Wikipedia gets about 7 billion views per month, stakes can be high. An edit yields what millions of people read on the site on any particular topic.
- A Wikipedia conflict of interest (COI) is an incompatibility between the aim of Wikipedia, which is to produce a neutral, reliably sourced encyclopedia, and the aims of an individual editor. COI editing involves contributing to Wikipedia in order to promote your own interests or those of other individuals, companies, or groups. from WP:COI
- Where advancing outside interests is more important to an editor than advancing the aims of Wikipedia, that editor stands in a conflict of interest. from WP:COI
- Easier said than done. Their talk edits are constant efforts to send any discussion down a lonely country road where it eventually runs into a cornfield and stops. Finding the Interstate after that can be a mayor drawback and time-waster plus many editors are enjoying themselves in the middle of the cornfield. Getting them back on the road is near impossible. ```Buster Seven Talk 14:27, 9 February 2012 (UTC) From User talk:Jimbo Wales#Paid operatives
Civility Enforcement
- The purpose of Wikipedia is to create a high-quality, free-content encyclopedia in an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect among contributors. Contributors whose actions are detrimental to that goal may be asked to refrain from them, even when these actions are undertaken in good faith; and good faith actions, where disruptive, may still be sanctioned.
- Wikipedia's code of conduct is one of the five pillars of Wikipedia that all editors should adhere to. Wikipedia editors are expected to behave reasonably and calmly in their interactions with other users, to keep their cool when editing, and to avoid acting in a manner that brings the project into disrepute. Administrators are expected to adhere to this at a higher standard. Unseemly conduct—including, but not limited to, edit-warring, personal attacks, lack of respect for other editors, failure to work towards consensus, disrupting Wikipedia to make a point, offensive language (including rude, offensive, derogatory, and insulting terms—whether in English, a language other than English, or using invented terms), trolling, harassment, gaming the system, and failure to assume good faith are all inconsistent with Wikipedia etiquette. Editors should not respond to such behavior in kind; concerns regarding the actions of other users should be addressed in the appropriate forums.
- Editors are encouraged to engage in frank discussion of matters affecting the project, and are encouraged to share even those facts and opinions which demonstrate the shortcomings of the project, its policies, its decision making structure, and its leaders. Such discourse is limited by the expectation that even difficult situations will be resolved in a dignified fashion, and by policies which prohibit behavior such as personal attacks and legal threats. Editors who have genuine grievances against others are expected to use the dispute resolution mechanism rather than engage in unbridled criticism across all available forums.
- Wikipedia is a collaborative project that depends on volunteers located around the world. While English is the language of this wiki, there are many national and regional dialects of English. Editors should be aware that their local colloquialisms may be interpreted in an entirely different way by the majority of the project. Particularly in community discussions, a less colloquial "universal English" is key to fostering a collaborative environment.
- Editors in general, regardless of permission level, are warned not to engage in conduct that will not directly improve the level of discourse in a discussion. Personal attacks, profanity, inappropriate use of humour, and other uncivil conduct that leads to a breakdown in discussion can prevent the formation of a valid consensus. Blocks or other restrictions may be used to address repeated or particularly severe disruption of this nature, in order to foster a collaborative environment within the community as a whole.
- Repeated use of sarcasm, wordplay formulated to mock another user, casting aspersions on an identifiable group, or use of language that can reasonably be anticipated to offend a significant segment of the community is disruptive, particularly when it distracts from the focus of an ongoing discussion on communal pages such as those in the Wikipedia namespace.
- All users are reminded to engage in discussion in a way that will neither disrupt nor lower the quality of such discourse. Personal attacks, profanity, inappropriate use of humour, and other uncivil conduct that leads to a breakdown in discussion can prevent the formation of a valid consensus. Blocks or other restrictions may be used to address repeated or particularly severe disruption of this nature, in order to foster a collaborative environment within the community as a whole.
Lest We Forget
While editing random articles, I came across this memorable little slice of Americana at Pearson Brick House.....
The house contains two cellars. One of the two cellars is dirt-walled and contains a fireplace for smoking meats and chains for restraining slaves.
WP:EW
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20130201093737im_/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/The_Intervention_of_the_Sabine_Women.jpg/935px-The_Intervention_of_the_Sabine_Women.jpg)
The Shit Happens T-Shirt Theory
- When you wear a T-Shirt that says,
- SHIT HAPPENS, then that's what happens, shit.
- If your T-shirt says,
- MIRACLES HAPPEN, then Miracles will happen.
- It all depends on your viewpoint.
- Some editors wear a T-shirt that says,
- DRAMA HAPPENS. So that's what they see. Drama.
- But pointing out a problem is not Drama.
- And Protecting the Encyclopedia is not Drama.
- And Protecting New Users from their own Innocence is not Drama.
- It's Love.
- B7
Tip of the Day
Tip of the day...
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