Welcome to my user pages. Kia ora is a Māori language greeting that has entered New Zealand English and is translated as an informal "hi".
Wikipedia interests
Having chosen New Zealand as my home, I take an interest in anything from my adopted country. I have a special interest in:
geography (built environment and water),
history
people
politics
civil engineering
transport (especially cycling)
and somehow, I've become interested in rowing; between December 2017 and August 2018 I wrote articles for the European Rowing Championships covering the editions from 1893 to 1973 (65 articles) plus started circa 450 rowing bios in support of that exercise
I have an account on flickr, but I don't hold photo files there. The account's purpose is to hunt for photos that are suitable for Wikipedia. I am active on Commons, where I upload my own photos and those from flickr that have a suitable licence. Since 2017, I've been reasonably active on Wikidata. Prior to 2009, I had a separate account for another Wikipedia project and ArbCom agreed to courtesy vanish the account for privacy reasons.
Declarations
Conflict of interest
There are many people with bios on Wikipedia who I know well enough to have a conflict of interest (COI). I thus should not make edits to their articles (and note that I don't regard making minor edits as possibly triggering COI). I haven't always adhered to the COI policy (I have since I have become an administrator) and there are some people whose pages I edited in the past who I didn't know at that point, but I do know now. There are some links to Wikidata and that means that these people are notable; feel free to start a page for them. This COI list is probably incomplete:
Congratulations for reaching the 25 DYK milestone! Well done for all your good work, especially on New Zealand politician biographies. XLerate (talk) 04:39, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
Many thanks are in order: your wide-ranging contributions to Wikipedia have resulted in one hundred of your newly created or expanded articles appearing on the Main page, in the "Did you know?" section. You are a great asset to the encyclopedia. Moonraker (talk) 09:31, 6 August 2011 (UTC)
Researcher's Barnstar
Researcher's Barnstar
I am pleased to present you with the Researcher's Barnstar in appreciation for your fine work in researching Christchurch's buildings. Excellent work. Thank you. --Rosiestep (talk) 21:23, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
Oh, how very nice. Thank you, Rosie. Schwede66 17:23, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
A barnstar for you
The Modest Barnstar
Thanks for your recent contributions! 67.80.64.128 (talk) 12:24, 10 April 2012 (UTC)
Not sure what I've done, but thanks either way! Schwede66 18:09, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
An award for you
Golden Wiki Award
You are among the top 5% of most active Wikipedians this past month! 66.87.0.140 (talk) 22:50, 24 April 2012 (UTC)
We see you are on a Wikibreak and that is well deserved - after creating 200 articles that make it to DYK. Articles about your chosen country of New Zealand - and I see some made it to GA status. Thanks from the the Wiki and me. Victuallers (talk) 09:49, 10 January 2013 (UTC)
Barnstar
The New Zealand Barnstar of National Merit
For your contributions to Canterbury related articles. Tried to find a purely red and black barnstar but couldn't find one! Shuddetalk 11:54, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
this WikiAward was given to Schwede66 by Shuddetalk on 11:54, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
Thank you kindly. Schwede66 17:13, 23 February 2013 (UTC)
Many thanks for pointing me in the right direction on big and little things. Keep that good and gentle advice coming, please. Herewhy (talk) 04:24, 16 June 2019 (UTC)
A barnstar for you
The Reviewer's Barnstar
This is for your valuable efforts for reviewing articles under pending changes protection. Thank you PATHSLOPU 02:28, 30 May 2019 (UTC)
A barnstar for you!
The Original Barnstar
Thanks for your help on a variety of New Zealand articles! Violetnights (talk) 11:14, 24 April 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for that. Always happy to help. Schwede66 15:09, 24 April 2020 (UTC)
Awards from Figureskatingfan
Schwede, I could't decide which one to give you, so I'm giving you both:
Gold medal award Awarded for your recent edits/fixes of dozens of figure skating articles. You are the WP equivalent of the great Yuzuru Hanyu.
The Cleanup Barnstar For all the clean-ups in above-mentioned articles. Can you please clean up all my messes? ;)
For the significant work of managing the posting of 2020 Summer Olympics hooks. CMD (talk) 15:58, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
Although suspected rigging of the rowing events to validate your article writing should be of concern to future Olympics organisers. CMD (talk) 15:58, 10 August 2021 (UTC)
Thanks, CMD! I can confirm that the NZOC is unconcerned. Schwede66 16:51, 10 August 2021 (UTC)