RexRowan

My account on English Wikipedia: {{en:User:RexRowan}}

Hello everyone, RexRowan is my username here on all Wikis. I am a female editor. From today, I will add in my editing experience little by little to share with everyone.

I joined a programme a little while ago called Research:WikiWomen's Collaborative by some very bright and brave women on meta who took over the initiative of being fellows of this research project to encourage women to edit Wikipedia in all languages. Today the exciting machine started rolling. I am very pleased that there are people, a lot of people, who do care about the betterment of humanity a great deal by doing their bit selflessly. In the many dooming challenges we are facing today due to the mistakes our ancestors have ignorantly committed in the past unaware of the consequences of the long term effects, I see hope of humanity saving itself by educating itself and evolve to better adapt and change our behaviours for a sustainable brighter future.

And Wikipedia is such a good place to start! It is free to use and accessible globally, thanks to modern technology and the generosity of the many good people who edit and donate to maintain this valuable oasis floating so that people can self educate anywhere in the world for free and hopefully build a better community as a consequence. And for that day to come, millions of editors with whatever knowledge they have, come to pass on the torch to wherever human life exists. Yes, I am a dreamer, and I hope someday you could join me.

This is the final frontier, this is the battle of knowledge against ignorance, and I am with a great crew! I joined last month, because I wanted to share the knowledge of the beautiful little Welsh village that I lived in but hardly mentioned on Wikipedia. After I made edits to a few articles I wanted to. I didn't know whether to stay on or not as at the time I felt I do not have much else to say and all the other articles are very well developed by professionals. Then I decided to learn the rope due to my curiosity of what else is out there and I was welcomed, adopted and trained by experienced editors on Wikipedia. I decided to stay, yes, for the fun, knowledgeable and caring community that I hardly encounter in really life, I knew this is where I wanted to be. It is a crowd supported think tank, people brain storm and do not make fun of others even their answer is incorrect, they simply got corrected and replaced by a better answer, so do not be afraid and be brave, there's a knowledgeable community behind you ready to step in when you are stuck. I like hang around the Science reference desk, it is one place I have much joy in participating, I surely learnt a lot from the people there. Everyday, great questions are asked and ingenious answers are provided.

I sure had my low moments when many of my stubs got deleted because of copyright issues. I thought I rephrased them but there's a term called 'close paraphrasing' saying that you really need to write everything from scratch in your own words rather than quoting and rephrasing existing materials from other sources. I am still learning and currently being led by my grandmaster Worm[1] due to my stupid Wiki suicide performance. Worm is an experienced editor who has guided me through a lot of troubles, with Worm's guidance, I became more confident and less anxious.

One person I just have to mention is the wonderful Carole[2] on Wikipedia. She is such a caring, tolerant person and is very patient and knowledgeable. One of the most helpful and pleasant person to work with since I've been here. Carole is a leader also a team player, when she sees a good idea she dives right in and build magnificent piece of art out of it.

And guess what, now let me tell you a secret: I have autism. But it did not stop me from editing Wikipedia. Yes, I have my moments every now and then, meltdown and anxiety, the typical side effects. But they exist when I do other things anyway. On top of that, being an editor on Wikipedia has given me a sense of identify and achievement, and the connection with a caring community breaks me free from my physical isolation in real life. This is one place I can be myself and be free without being judged by my personal disadvantages and purely based on my contributions. You can do it too! Wikipedia is not a dictatorship and does not have prejudices against secular social values.

All in all, register and have a go, it is a journey that you may enjoy! And remember to spread the word too! --RexRowan (talk) 07:48, 12 September 2012 (UTC)