Wikipedia and me
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I started editing in 2004, wrote over a hundred articles, became an administrator, then appointed to the email response team ('OTRS') and shortly afterwards the Arbitration Committee in December 2007. In these roles, I have dealt with content writing, content policy, editorial disputes, community matters, privacy and sensitive issues, and a large number of fairly nasty editors and inappropriately-behaving admins. We're here as volunteers to write a reference work, which means fair handling is important. As of 2012 I'm still writing articles.
I lean towards community approaches and a level field. I pushed for communal input in the Checkuser/Oversight appointment process, provided the first on-wiki analysis of Checkuser tool use, and a load of others. At Arbcom itself I fought hard for better process, a formal structure for proposals to be examined and voted on, and better collaboration/workflow.
As of October 2009, I stepped down from some roles. I'm still round though. In 2009-10 I served on the Foundation's 5 year strategy taskforce, in 2010 I was asked to visit and contribute at the Foundation's offices, in 2011 I was invited onto the WMF Communications Committee. In 2012 I was active in the SOPA community decision, primarily co-ordinating and reviewing our messages, posts, and information flow. I was also heavily involved in the 2011 - 2012 review of the site's legal Terms of Use and urged in 2009 and again in 2010 the creation of the 'Draft:' namespace, eventually created in 2013.
Areas of interest:
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- Writing content - I've written over a hundred articles and substantively contributed to many more. I have a wide interest; my contributions include physics and legal rulings, film plots and clinical science, technology and religion.
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- Fixing messes and problems that get in the way of editors - I help experienced users with difficult article wordings, input into difficult discussions, difficult neutrality cases, 2nd opinion, admin problem, email responses, and sensitive problems.
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- Improving editorial processes and guidance - I work on policy wordings and process updates that help readers and volunteers to contribute and improve the project in turn. If one process or policy is cleaned up, or one poor wording is fixed, a thousand editors benefit from it and will save their time, stress and frustration. I love this aspect. One of my mainspace articles on Wikipedia has been cited at length in a 2012 Utah Court of Appeals ruling as evidence covering Wikipedia's self-regulation and quality control.
I also have a "real" life, and balancing the two's important. But I'm free to choose my work hours. It helps :)
I'll update this at some point. Right now the old version's just a little out of date.
Recent article activity (occasionally brought up to date)
Incomplete list
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