User:Aylad

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[edit] 6 degrees of separation

Wikipedia needs a six degrees of separation project where users post and trace the links from one article to another. Since that won't likely happen, enjoy these (feel free to post new ones here):

• Nahuatl to Mirepoix (cuisine) starting on Nahuatl, six clicks and you're there. Uses 1 talk page. 16:17, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Why I am here

My interests include lots of various and odd things, but a near-obsession of mine is the community that is Wikipedia. That so many people with so few voices of real authority can accomplish so much is amazing. There are those who rage against the cabal, but I believe – call me an idealist if you like, but do it quietly, without wasting my time and yours by posting it on these userpages – I believe that the consensus of the community is most responsible for the changes, the policies, the enforcement (or lack of same), and the quality of Wikipedia. I, too, have been on the "wrong side" of consensus (long before I registered, a work of mine was the topic of an article deleted per WP:PROD... and no, the article wasn't self-authored), but I know that raging against it is foolish, because it is that same power of consensus that has made this project great.

It is the process of Wikipedia's creation and evolution that fascinates me. After I registered a user account, I spent approximately a year making almost nothing beyond small, anonymous vandalism-reverts and typo-corrections; I spent that year lurking. I spent hours reading talk pages – the more heated the debate, the better. I absorbed as much as I could of what makes Wikipedia work, what makes it stop working productively, what gets things back on track and what can be done when things go horribly wrong. And, now that I'm an active editor, I'm still learning... because Wikipedia is so complex, so rich in experience and tradition and fine detail, that it would be a miracle if anyone really understood it. But it works. All the enthusiasm I had in college for my cultural anthropology courses has returned and focused on this amazing project. Thank you to everyone who helps me learn... even those who disagree with me.

^{Of course, I'd prefer to learn without disagreement, but such is life, and such is learning.}

[edit] Overdue for... something...

Dead Noise - This little band article is about a band who stayed together for less than a year, who produced 1 album of 100 copies, and whose members currrently belong to redlinked bands. Encyclopedic?

Circuit of culture - A philosophical article with no sources to indicate notability or scholarly acceptance. In fact, only two (now three) pages link to it, and they're all userpages.

List of comic book superpowers Suggestion: This list is out of hand. I fully believe that the most notable superpowers should be explained in an article, but this exhaustive list of every variation of every possible superpower seems excessive.

Related:

• List of fictional characters with telekinesis
• List of fictional characters who can manipulate darkness or shadow

Suggestion: Any of these would make reasonable articles if sources can be found; of course, telekinesis already has an article.

[edit] Overdue for editing

These articles could benefit from some serious attention from some serious editors. I'll work on them as I can.

Haralson County, Georgia

Gaze

Khaki - "This article is about the fabric" it says, but it's not. This needs to be fixed.

[edit] Linkage

Words to live by.

Under construction: nothing currently

That thing I can never remember: {{cite web |title=Document_Title |publisher=Publisher_Name |url=URL |format=PDF |accessdate=YYYY-MM-DD }}

[edit] The learning process continues

• Important lesson: Just write the bloody article.

• Important to remember: Never let debate become more important than article creation/improvement. There will always be someone else with whom you can argue – it will never end – but while you and some other editor are chasing each other in semantic circles, Wikipedia is not being improved. I've fallen pretty firmly into this trap at WT:N, and now I'm trying to dig my way out.

• WP:Articles for deletion/List of fictional characters who can warp reality (not initiated by me) succeeded where WP:Articles for deletion/List of fictional characters who can manipulate electricity (initiated by me) failed... and after reading through both discussions, I understand why. The one didn't have clear criteria and was therefore not terribly useful, consistent, or objective; the other had clear criteria on which most people could agree and probably could be useful to some tiny fraction of WP's users.^[1]

[edit] Notes