User:Peteforsyth

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Pete works on
WikiProject Oregon
talk | recent changes |stubs
current collaborations:
PSU stuff & Applegate Trail
WikiProject Oregon blog
This user is a member of the Wikipedia 1.0 Editorial Team.

  OREGON
  OPEN CONTENT
  INITIATIVE

Contents

Hi, I'm Pete Forsyth. (My mom and some others call me Peter.)

I edit Wikipedia on a regular basis, and not just for fun. I believe that Wikipedia is changing the way we find information, the way we share information with others, and the way we think about collaborating for the collective good. Decidedly for the better.

I live in Portland, Oregon. I do some volunteer work with various organizations. I'm working on a project, The Open Lobby, that would draw on what I've learned from Wikipedia to develop policy proposals. I have a blog, Our New Mind, that explores related ideas.

I have a computer consulting business – I can fix your computer, build you a network, or design a web site. For a price.

[edit] What I've done on Wikipedia

Pete is a Veteran Editor.
Pete is a Veteran Editor.
I award this Barnstar to Pete for his great efforts improving WP Oregon. Aboutmovies 18:47, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
I award this Barnstar to Pete for his great efforts improving WP Oregon. Aboutmovies 18:47, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Most of my Wikipedia work is related to Oregon, with an emphasis on policy, history, and politics. I am particularly interested in the ballot initiative system. I also focus heavily on strengthening citations, which enables readers to verify claims and explore issues in greater depth. Here are some of the pages I've put the most work into:

List of Oregon ballot measures
Keeping track of ballot measures in our state, and nationwide, is pretty damn important. Heavily-financed special interests are nationally coordinated; regular folk oughtta be too. Wikipedia is a great place to keep factual information about ballot measures and the strategies that have been used on both sides.
Neil Goldschmidt, Gordon Smith, Vicki Walker, and other Oregon political figures
Wikipedia is a resource for getting to know our government officials. I've worked on many Oregon politicians' Wikipedia entries.
Columbia River
The history of this river, and its role in Oregon's history, is rich and fascinating. I've made a number of contributions to this article. Nominated for Good Article status in fall '07; it came up short, but there are many good suggestions on the article's talk page to get it approved.
Barlow Road and other aspects of Oregon history.
I'm particularly interested in the development of hydropower on Oregon's rivers, and the story of George W. Joseph.
Oregon statewide elections, 2006
My first major project on Wikipedia. This was meant to provide a central place for information about elections; the Secretary of State's site and others have a good deal of information, but not in a format that makes it easy to absorb or navigate. This page needs more work, especially citations and formatting. If I take this on for a future election, I'll probably do it very differently.
Featured article I helped get the following articles (and portal) to Featured article status
Hanford Site, Oregon State Capitol, and 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack, Johnson Creek (Willamette River), and the Oregon portal.
I now nominate my new articles, and others I find, for the Did you know feature.
There's a full list of Oregon-related DYKs.

I also built the following two navigational templates, and worked on nearly all of the articles covered in them:

v • d • e
Columbia River
Provinces &
states traversed		 Celilo Falls, before the falls were flooded by The Dalles Dam in 1957.
Lists
Geology
History
Ecology & culture
v • d • e
Topics in Oregon legislation
Crime and sentencing
Capital punishment · Measure 11 (1994) (mandatory minimum sentencing) · Measure 40 (1996) etc. (victims' rights)
Abigail Scott Duniway was instrumental in establishing women's right to vote in Oregon.
Abigail Scott Duniway was instrumental in establishing women's right to vote in Oregon.
Elections and voting
Gay rights
Same-sex marriage · Oregon Citizens Alliance · Measure 9 (1992) (homosexuality and education)
Environment
Land use planning
Health care
Minimum wage
Taxation
Tax revolt · Bill Sizemore · Measure 5 (1990) (landmark tax law) · Measures 47 (1996) and 50 (1997) (adjusted Measure 5) · Kicker (tax rebate)
Miscellaneous
Background, further reading

If you're looking for a complete overview of my edits, this tool provides a good summary. And, here's a neat tool that lets you see how many time any given page was viewed.

I've uploaded several of my own photos, and created several maps and charts. I also try to improve image quality whenever possible, adjusting color levels, cropping out unnecessary text from maps and diagrams, etc. A few of my own images below:

Pete French Round Barn

Alvord Desert sunset

Little Blitzen Gorge on Steens Mountain

Oregon State Senate districts

OSS districts in Portland metro area

OSS districts in the Willamette Valley

Timbers Army

Railings of the trail up Beacon Rock

This tool shows all the images I've uploaded or edited here on Wikipedia, or at Wikimedia Commons.

[edit] some wikitricks

<div style="background-color: #ECE5B6; padding: 0.5em; border: solid 1px black; -moz-border-radius: 8px;">
makes a background color, when put at the top of a page. Looks really cool on a talk page. No closing /div tag needed? Grabbed this from User:Valentinian.
User:Martha_Forsyth (Pete's Mom) experimented with this, and learned the following:
  • You can change the background color (see tags at Web-safe colors#X11 color names).
  • Adding a </div> tag at the end will give you a box with the background color specified (you can specify text color too. E.g., color:white (or other color).
  • No closing /div tag applies the background to the whole page (section??).
Example
—05:08, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
[[w:User:Peteforsyth]]
links from other Wikimedia projects to this page
InterWikiLinky
how to link to other projects
{{WikiProjectBanners|1={{template1}}|2={{template2}}|3={{template3}}|4={{template4}}}}
collapsible WikiProject banners
Use external editor for images, etc.
easy columns
{{Col-begin}} {{Col-1-of-2}} {{Col-2-of-2}} {{Col-end}}

[edit] resources

Proper citations are a crucial element of a good Wikipedia article. I use <ref> tags and templates like {{cite news}} to create well-formatted citations, wherever possible. A good source for Oregon-related citations is the Multnomah County Library's NewsBank-based system. My card number: 211680283880xx

Favorite sources:

[edit] stuff to do

The Portland Tribune has a couple extensive overviews of Southeast Portland: http://www.portlandtribune.com/neighborhoods/story.php?story_id=116172415370358000 and http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/story.php?story_id=30283 and overview of Portland neighborhoods: http://www.portlandtribune.com/neighborhoods/

I want to do some photography on Mount Tabor, and other places in the area.

When I've got a spare $17: this 1931 article discusses public vs. private hydropower in the west.

[edit] legislation advocacy

Make works of the State of Oregon public domain
Works of the United States government are in the public domain, and I believe works of the Oregon government should be as well. Wikipedia would be able to do much more if it could use resources developed by the state gov't. I'm drafting a letter to send to Oregon legislators to that effect. Please help me improve it, or comment on its talk page!
E-waste legislation
Various states, including Washington and California, regulate the disposal of e-waste to some degree. Oregon is likely to join them this legislative session. I've drafted a news release (linked above) on behalf of Free Geek, urging the legislature to prioritize reuse over recycling, and to ensure that waste processors adhere to responsible practices.

[edit] my work elsewhere

I write for other outlets besides Wikipedia. There are samples of my writing on my personal website.

[edit] sub-pages

automatic list

[edit] Signpost


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[edit] My Christmas present to Wikipedia and the world

Multi-licensed with Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike License version 2.0
I agree to multi-license my text contributions, unless otherwise stated, under the GFDL and the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license version 2.0. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under the Creative Commons terms, please check the CC dual-license and Multi-licensing guides.
Minor edits multi-licensed into the public domain
I agree to multi-license my eligible text contributions marked as minor edits, unless otherwise stated, under the GFDL and into the public domain. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my minor edit contributions in the public domain, please check the multi-licensing guide.
Licensing rights granted to Wikimedia Foundation
I grant non-exclusive permission for the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. to relicense my text contributions under any copyleft license that it chooses, provided it maintains the free and open spirit of the GFDL. This permission acknowledges that future licensing needs of the Wikimedia projects may need adapting in unforeseen fashions to facilitate other uses, formats, and locations. It is given for as long as this banner remains.