User:Poe Joe/My Wikipedia Life
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I'm just a quiet little kid from a small suburban town who truly loves Wikipedia. I'm not what you would call the loudest person, so I guess reading and editing this site, along with building my very own website (check it out!), has become my escape from real life.
Is it harmful? I don't know. But I do know that at least one side of the equation goes up. Part of the reason to my addiction to Wikipedia comes from the knowledge that the information I've contributed to this project has been read by thousands of people, and perhaps hundreds of lives may have been a little enlightened through my contributions, but it really isn't at all me. It is this site that what truly multiplies the impact.
And that's what truly is amazing. It's not me, or any user, or admin, or crat, or even the almighty Jimbo that makes this site amazing. It is the profoundness of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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[edit] My life as a Wikipedian
As so told in so many user pages, I must divulge that I'm mainly a reader that makes minor edits here and there. The only articles that I mainly stay on top of are those that interest me the most. Two subject matters that do are those that have to do with Temple City, California, my home town, and Simple Plan, my favorite band.
I'm not a heavy editor at all, but so far I've made more than nine-hundred edits, which I find sufficient enough as I don't yearn for being an admin, as it's all ludicrous anyways. To give an actual number, I'll usually count in to at least seventy-five edits per month if not more.
Something I've recently noticed is that copyright issues have gone absolutely insane. If a user has created an image that remotely resembles a copyrighted image, it gets deleted. People are even deleting images that are given out to use! This dif is a perfect example of grave pig-headedness. Needless to say, the project has suffered, but as this website is just an escape for me, I don't really where the tin hats.
And that's another thing. Some users on this site take Wikipedia so seriously. Now, there is nothing wrong with that in it of itself, but I like to think that while time and energy is being used on debating whether or not we should classify articles under good and featured, it could be used on things such as writing for the encyclopedia. I sure am likely to be crazy, but it seems like I might be the stable in the equation.
While on the topic of my observations here on Wikipedia, I'd like to say that we might be writing too much articles. We've since passed two million (I still remember how shocked I was when we broke 1½), while the vast majority of the articles seem to be useless stubs. As so following and agreeing with the above paragraph, I won't raise hell about it, but if I had a magic button that could delete all the nonsense, I would indeed push it.
I am in no way a deletionist, supporting the keep of many articles that eventually get deleted, but I think that poorly written articles that haven't been touched for months should be deleted, while well written stubs that are only a few months old should be kept.
[edit] My life outside Wikipedia
My life is that of a really simple one. I wake up each morning, go to school, come back, do homework, and then do whatever I like. This section is about the things I like to do when I'm not being the robot of society that we all are, because what really is more profound?
When you're old, and retired, you're not going to boast the trivial lessons of humanity. You could note that you were always in the top ten percent of your class from kindergarten to high school to college, but it's just a note. You want to detail the things that make us us, because that's what's interesting, and that's what you can be proud of. And although I'm not close to being over, I write the book along...
I absolutely love music full circuit which means listening, playing, and even making. I find that I can get both physical and mental work done faster if I have music playing in the background. I don't know.
My favorite artists, albums, and songs are speedily changing, the only constant really being Simple Plan. I like music of all kinds and of all genre, but I've noticed recently that my favorite songs tend to fall under the pop-rock/pop-punk/softer-rock spectrum.
Some of my favorite albums in no particular order include Green Day's American Idiot, Simple Plan's Still Not Getting Any..., Fall Out Boy's From Under The Cork Tree, Rascal Flatt's Feels Like Today, My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade, and Angels & Airwaves' We Don't Need To Whisper.
You probably have an idea now of what type of music I tend to like most, and no. There is nothing wrong with liking mainstream pop music. I don't understand why there is such passionate anger towards this type of music. I really wish I knew the answer.
As mentioned before, I also play music. Instruments I know how to play include trumpet, piano, guitar, drums, and voice although your ears would probably start bleeding upon hearing mines. I play in my high school band (doing trumpet) and two of my friends and I have been talking about starting a rock band together. It's probably not going to take off, but I think it would be fun while it lasted.
As for making my own music, I tend to write pop-ish music as well. I create an idea of what I want in Finale, start recording using various programs, and then use Goldwave to handle last minute touches. It's often so that my music idea was at least okay, but then I record it terribly, and that's kind of why I don't like to share it with others. It'd be a prime example of what you would call embarrassing.
But I do keep trying, and am slowly getting better (some of my more recent things have been decent), so who knows? Maybe one day I'll outsell The Beatles? Just kidding although I don't really need to point that out do I? Isn't it odd that every single sentence in this paragraph is a question? Am I bored? Crazy? Probably. OH SNAP!
Politics is so interesting to me because there is always something going on, and always an idea, never thought before, thought. Personally, I think that's amazing.
To sum up my most strong beliefs in one run on sentence, I'm a strong atheist who doesn't believe in gun laws that thinks we need to do more about overpopulation and global warming — less about animal cruelt — and thinks that we as a human race are definitely screwed.
To give myself another plug, if you want to read more about my political beliefs, you can go to my website, politicaljoe.net.
[edit] My life and Wikipedia
Wikipedia has most definitely changed me as a person. I find myself being more bold, respecting others contribution more, trying to discuss and reach compromise when in conflict, and so much more. Wikipedia believe or not can really help people be more human-like. And by that I mean people being a lot more friendly, nice, easier to talk to, and more understanding. It sounds like more corn than Thanksgiving, but it's probably at the highest arch or trueness I know.
Everyone has something to learn from Wikipedia even subtracting the massive collective knowledge it contains. Wikipedia, above YouTube, Myspace, and even the Mormons, has the highest sense of community I know of. We help each other out, discuss things openly, have such a great system for editing, deleting, and banning, but most of all. We don't tell each other to post a message in twenty talk pages or have severe consequences. I say that to jest, but am being partially serious too. There is such a minimal amount of spam on Wikipedia and only such kinship as we have could ever really fight spam as hard as we do.
[edit] My life; Wikipedia
I am a highschool taking two very challenging honours classes, and trust me. I'm drowned in homework. So I don't get to much free time and subsequently chose Wikipedia as my me. It may not be healthy, or make me the happiest man alive, or even the most satisfied, but it's what I choose, and for the present at least, Wikipedia has me, and I have it, and we both in certain ways benefit.
I have my hobbies such as music and politics, but what most consumes my free time is Wikipedia. Wikipedia has become such a fundamental part of my life that it would hurt me dearly to not write any size autobiography and not take into account my relationship to Wikipedia, for in a minor sense, I am Wikipedia.
- November 1, 2007
