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OnBeyondZebrax

Joined 17 October 2014

Hi, thanks for visiting my user page. It explains my approach to editing ("Be Bold!", Inclusionist and pro-"In popular culture" sections) and lists my "pet peeves", such as "weasel wording" and "puffery". I also believe that Wikipedia articles can have well-managed, well-sourced "In popular culture" sections (see WP:POPCULTURE). I believe that well-managed, properly sourced "in popular culture" sections help set WP apart from other encyclopedias. They also can demonstrate the broader popular resonance of many topics.

I am concerned about gender bias in Wikipedia and racial bias in Wikipedia. To try to help resolve the lack of coverage of women, black people, and their contributions, I have created several articles, such as Women in music, Women in law, Women in film and Black conductors.

I am also adding genres to the leads of actor and director articles. For an example of this, see Tom Cruise. Some may find it too detailed, but I think it gives you a good sense of the range of films an actor has appeared in. I believe that the genres of the films that an actor has acted in and the genres of films a director directs are an important piece of information.

I also like finding good images on Wikimedia Commons and then adding them to articles with a suitable caption. For some examples of lede illustrations I have added, see Emptiness, Insignificance, Boredom and WP:OR. Some essay ledes that I have added illustrations to include WP:Purpose and WP:No editor is indispensable. One of the funniest photos I picked for an essay lede is WP:Ragequit.

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Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians (AIW)
This user is a member of the Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians

This user, under the aegis of the AIW's motto Conservata veritate ("With the preserved truth") fights for improvement, freedom and preservation of Wikipedia, until no knowledge would be lost as a result.

Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians
Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians

Activities

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My fave project (Sept-Dec 2014) was fleshing out ledes. Often, as an article grows more comprehensive, the lede section does not take account of the new material. I have been doing a lot of music genres, but also doing other stuff, like hospital and Experimental film. So far, I haven't seemed to upset too many editors with my "Be Bold" editing of ledes!

Another project has failed. I believe that war crimes are a notable and notorious part of the major wars of the 20th century, and I tried to advocate for the mentioning of war crimes in the Lead of these articles. An editor disagreed with my views, and we reached an impasse in our Talk page discussion. So I started my first RfC to get more viewpoints. All the editors disagree with war crimes being in the lead. Oh well, I learned a lot!

I learned the hard way about WP:CAN, the rules on canvassing when I tried to contact another editor who I thought would support "keeping" an article I have created. Another user warned me I was canvassing in violation of the rules and then she or he redacted not just my message, but even the history of the message being sent was cleansed away...must be some Black Ops special administrator power! :)

My article List of suicides which have been attributed to bullying was AfD'd, but in the end it was kept. It is a hard article to read (you will cry), because it is about these young people who were bullied to the point that they committed suicide.

Essays

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WP:Essays are a fun place to edit on Wikipedia, because you are allowed to write in a more informal manner, and in some essays you can even (try to) be funny. Essays I have started or done significant additions to include:

Be Bold!

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If you are concerned about an edit that I did, I want to let you know that I follow Wikipedia's "Be Bold" editing guideline. If I come to an article, and find statements that I believe contain Original Research, misleading or biased points of view, incorrect information, or dubious and unsourced claims, I will, in some cases, remove, reword, or rephrase the content. At the same time, I know that their are clear limits to boldness (e.g., making a major change to a Good Article without discussing it on the talk page).

 
"Be Bold" has become an informal slogan of Wikipedia

Collegial spirit

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I would like to work together with other editors so that we can make Wikipedia into an online encylopedia that is both a reliable and useful reference source and an enjoyable read. Please send a note if you disagree with any edits.

I want to try to work out any disputes or disagreements in a calm and friendly manner, based on the rules that guide our editing on Wikipedia (e.g., the Five Pillars guidelines and the Wikipedia Manual of Style).

Inclusionist philosophy

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I believe in an inclusionist philosophy on Wikipedia. I think it is OK for an article to start from humble beginnings, and then develop. If an article starts with non-ideal sources (student newspapers, blog articles, etc), this content can act as a placeholder, as the article develops and better references are found. Sometimes, editors create just the basic framework of an article, with the intention of coming back to fill it in later, or for others to do so.

An underdeveloped article is just like this house under construction. Lend a hand, don't tear it down! A building, like an article, takes time to build. Imagine if a building were constantly ripped apart at the seams during construction!

I really don't understand the zeal of deletionists to AfD new articles and articles that are under construction. I have literally been in the first few minutes of creating an article, and I've had an AfD slapped on the article, just as i'm in the process of adding references! One tip for new WP editors: to avoid having an article deleted, you can work on the article "offline" in your WP sandbox, and only put it on the real WP page when it is ready, with lots of Reliable Sources as references. That's the strategy I used when I created the article on Poseur, because I knew it was a contentious topic, and that it would likely be flagged for deletion.

Origin of username

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"So you see!/ There's no end/ To the things you might know,/ Depending how far beyond Zebra you go!"

Possible solutions to Wikipedia's chronic editor retention crisis

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Articles created

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These are the articles that survived the AfD process. Some were cleansed away in the AfD flames, like my lovely article on "Machine pistols in fiction", which had references for almost every sentence!! : )
•Crisco Disco •New York soul •Music store •Professional audio store •Black conductors •Women in film •Women in law •Women in music •Vagina and vulva in art •Militarization of police •List of suicides which have been attributed to bullying •Reva Seth •Marie Henein •Canadian folk music •Canadian hardcore punk •Canadian heavy metal •L. D. Heater Music Company •Cue (audio) •Danielle Martin •Didi Beck •Jimbo Wallace •List of double bassists in popular music •Jean Pitard •Charles Stearns •Stanley Horn •Charles Marcus Edwards •Jay Scully •Grover C. Hall •Self-directed neuroplasticity •Brain Lock •Caspar Lehmann •Borate glass •Sir James Horlick, 1st Baronet •Korg CX-3 •Transitional housing •Keyboard amplifier •Chop Chord •Jeffrey Arnett •Deena Weinstein •Monetary policy of China •David Rotundo •Leonard Lopatin •Laurie Margolis •Nancy White (editor) •Fabio Mechetti •Arnaldo Ginna •Bruno Corra •Bass chorus •Richard Carr (blues musician) •Fuzz bass •My Kind Of Evil •Egg substitutes •Hawaii Board of Education •Anastassija Makarenko •Erol Uenala •Roddy Ellias •Larry Hurst •Peter Kiesewalter •Angstones •Rob Frayne •Chelsea Bridge (quartet) •Tena Palmer •Justin Haynes •Ebo Taylor •Strut Records •Delphine Zentout •Great Uncles of the Revolution •Steve Dawson (Canadian musician) •Chris Kirby •Elvira Woodruff •George Washington's Socks •Serge Provost •Michel Gonneville •Nicolas Gilbert •Scott Godin •Léopold Renaudin •Pemi Paull •Steve Marriner •Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters •Insignificance •Interruption science •Tristan DeVere Cole •Ola Solum •Kurt Weber •Salto (film) •Ways of Hearing •Transcription (service) •Glossary of jazz and popular music •List of liquid-crystal-display manufacturers •Public Service Commission of Canada •Michael Hiltzik •Bike rage •Orchestral reduction •List of public administration scholars •List of action film directors •Jazz violin •List of conga players •Offstage brass and percussion •Finger substitution •Thumb position •List of new jack swing artists •Vocal harmony •Firmin Swinnen •Desire •Like Punk Never Happened •Nancy Jo Sales •Dave Rimmer •Poseur •Dimebag Darrell performances •Movie star (disambiguation) •List of jangle pop bands •List of B.C. Rich guitars •List of slap bass players (electric bass) •List of Coronation Street producers •List of action film actors •List of guitar synthesizer players •Keyboard matrix circuit •Johnny Marr guest musician recordings •List of Canadian blues festivals and venues •List of Canadian blues societies •Swing (jazz performance style) •List of bass amplifier and loudspeaker manufacturers •Television play •List of privateers •Roland VK-7 •List of bodyguards •List of artworks by Marc Chagall •Push Push (album) •Sam Llanas •Cymbal choke •Modesty panel •ITV Playhouse •The Nearly Man •Coolpower •Acoustic enhancement •Pop rock (disambiguation) •Pop music (disambiguation) •List of club DJs •List of stage names •Lists of former Guantanamo Bay detainees alleged to have returned to terrorism •Jazz guitarist •List of directors associated with art film •Paul Tutmarc •List of mounted police units •Arts administration •Viewers for Quality Television •Quality television •National cinema •Norma Moriceau •Junior Watson •JW-Jones •Robert Stam •Dean Semler •Jean-Daniel Pollet •Charlotte Alexandra •Oneiric (film theory) •Alain Silver •Nino Frank •Matt Schofield •Organ trio •Stanislas de Guaita •Joel Black •Carla Peterson •Laurent Tailhade •Jonathan Kaplan •David Gogo •Scott Bukatman •Jesse Crawford •Ena Baga •John Geggie •David Currie (conductor) •Ottawa Symphony Orchestra •Canadian blues •Superstar

Pet peeves

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Some of my editorial "pet peeves" include:

  • Weasel wording: "It is widely agreed that ZitRemedy was one of the most important and influential rock bands of the 1980s."
    • Research shows that the band played as an opening act for a few tours of B-level hard rock bands in the US midwest and Northern England in 1981 and 1982, and disbanded in 1983.
  • Peacock wording: "Jane Doe was a legendary and world-famous ocarina player from Rockland, Maryland"
    • Show it with sourced facts, don't just make vague claims. If she was so "legendary" and "world-famous", she should have achievements, awards, and excellent published reviews in the Ocarina Player Magazine to show for it.
  • "John Smith, an award-winning author..."
    • Making a vague, unspecified refernce to "awards" is promo-kit fluff...merely having ANY award is not relevant! If an author's award is a $10 gift certificate awarded at the Albany Amateur Authors Reading Circle", a group of buddies who meet to chat about their writing, this is not a notable, respected award.
  • Puffery: "In the 1990s, the rock band ZitRemedy shared the stage with the Rolling Stones and the Who, and worked with Sting and Diana Ross."
    • "Shared the stage" is a widely used smokescreen to puff up a band. More research sometimes reveals that ZitRemedy in fact played as an unpaid warm-up act at 1 PM at a festival stage, where the Rolling Stones and the Who played at 10 PM, nine hours later. And the "worked with Sting and Diana Ross" was in fact when they were jamming onstage at a charity telethon where there were 100s of musicians and singers, and Sting and Diana Ross did a 3-minute walk-on at the end of the night!
  • Fluff: "ZitRemedy's tireless touring through midwestern hotspots and their legendary stage shows have made them the go-to group for the hottie-hipster set."
    • While I find fluff slightly less objectionable than puffery, since it is not attempting to deceive the reader, it is still a problem. Why? Because it doesn't really say anything useful, meaningful, or verifiable. It is the type of light, breezy writing used in promotional press kits, album cover "blurbs", or poorly-written music reviews, the opposite of the factual, neutral writing style expected in an encyclopedia.
  • "The seminal 1983 "BloodDemonSplatter" EP by the legendary Albany death metal band DarkWarriors of Zerxes became a classic of the genre, which had a wide influence on the development of death metal" (no sources cited)
    • The words "seminal", "legendary", and "classic" are so overused in Wikipedia music articles! I believe the word "seminal" should only be used with a source, because every fan thinks that their favorite band's debut LP is the "seminal" record in the genre...the words "legendary" and "classic" should not appear in music articles unless they are in a quote by a music critic or music journalist...every fan views their favourite performer as "legendary", and thinks that their favourite song is a "classic"! : )
  • Self-promotion: "John Doe is one of the top 3-string banjo repairers in North America. Leading international banjo stars have praised the quality and beauty of his repair work. More information on how to ship your banjo to this legendary repairman, on pricing, or on services is available at John_Doe_Legendary_Banjo_Repair.czm, or at my phone number BAN-JO4U."...
    • Wikipedia is not a free advertising service!
  • Excessively detailed plot summaries: In some articles about action movies, some editors provide a detailed account of every scene, rather than giving an overview of the plot. Instead of getting the "big picture" (e.g., "Rambo overpowers the sentries and makes his way to the fortress"), we hear reams of detail about every weapon that is used, every shot that is fired, every clip of ammo that is loaded, every twist and turn, and about the gory demise of every anonymous ski-masked villain.


Barnstar

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  The Copyeditor's Barnstar
This barnstar is in recognition of your astounding eye for editing. Your incisive editing of the Ilaiyaraaja article is greatly valued. Thank you. AppleJuggler (talk) 03:47, 24 March 2008 (UTC)
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