Accounts
editPrevious usernames
editI used the username User:Francophonie&Androphilie from November of 2012 to January of 2013. I was then renamed to User:PinkAmpersand, which I edited under till October of 2020, when I took on my current username. From then until January of 2022, I considered my second rename to have been a "soft clean start" and made my old usernames slightly hard to find without outright hiding them. At this point, though, I just see them as regular past usernames.
Alts and logged-out edits
editI have two currently-active alternate accounts, and have used several others in the past.
| Account | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Active | |
| 'zinbot | Bot (BRFA) |
| 'zin is short for Tamzin | Multi-purpose alt account |
| Inactive | |
| TamzinHadasa | Doppelgänger[a] |
| Tamzin Kelly | |
| Tamzin Hadasa Kelly | |
| PinkAmpers& | |
| Francophonie&Androphilie | Former username[b] |
| PublicAmpersand | Public-computer account for former username |
| Francophonie&Aardvark | Testing/demonstration |
| Example male | |
| Example female | |
| Never attached on the English Wikipedia | |
| AmpersandBot (Wikidata) | Bot |
| PinkAmpersand2 (testwiki) | Testing |
| Tamzin~foundationwiki (Foundation Wiki) | Local account split from my global account due to technical reasons; now locked |
There may be one or two other testing accounts I've forgotten.
I occasionally edited mainspace logged out (in a policy-compliant manner) in my first few months of having this account, but stopped doing so to avoid any appearance of impropriety. I was never blocked or warned for any of those IP edits, and would link them but for the fact that I can't remember what they were. I have not (intentionally) edited logged-out since.
Connections to other users
editThe two people I live with full-time both have accounts (BiomatrixBackup and Juleraw), but neither edits regularly. Two Wikipedians have stayed with me for periods of weeks to months (TheresNoTime[c] and Elli). Four other Wikipedians have visited my home briefly. When sharing an IP with someone, I avoid commenting in formally-closable discussions that they have also commented in, unless we have clear independent knowledge of the discussion (e.g. both being pinged or the discussion listed on WP:CENT).
A previous shared-IP situation (with my brother, who made all of one edit) was disclosed to ArbCom at the time (c. 2013).
Before this account
editPrior to becoming a Wikipedian, I edited occasionally from IP, including sometimes engaging in bored after-school vandalism. I made two throwaway accounts, User:Snowforme (I'd seen WP:SEMI linked in editnotices and thought I'd be very clever if I gamed autoconfirmed, but then forgot to actually do that) and User:SnowflakeAZ (which was used for one vandalistic edit). I've never been to Snowflake, Arizona; I just as a 15-year-old thought that the "Snow for me and flake for you" line sounded amusingly flirtatious. To the extent that it matters, after almost a decade's tenure, much of it devoted to anti-vandalism work: Yes, I do regret the one vandalistic edit I made with SnowflakeAZ, and the handful I made as an IP. Don't vandalize, kids.
Blocks, and what we can learn from them
editI was blocked once, about a month into my editing tenure, after being mistaken for a sockpuppet. I was unblocked by the same admin three hours later "with apologies". I'm reminded often of what the blocking admin, Coren, said when unblocking me (emphasis added):
| “ | Please accept my apologies for the block. I realise now in retrospect that I should have discussed this matter with you before blocking the account. I'll still offer a piece of advice, however: don't delve too deeply and quickly in the back-office aspects of the project – it's rather seedy back there and you'll end up with a jaundiced view. Not unlike mine, I suppose. | ” |
As someone who now does a lot of anti-sockpuppetry work, I do try to keep those words in mind.
More recently, my alternate account, 'zin is short for Tamzin, was briefly blocked when it was... mistaken for a sockpuppet, just in a different way! I'd used it to test one edit filter and instead had tripped a scarier edit filter, and the blocking admin assumed based on the username that it was some troll trying to harass me. My only takeaway from that is that sometimes things get messy and mistakes get made.
Privacy
editMy name is Tamzin Hadasa Kelly. There you go. Only person in the world with that name. Everyone I know who cares a lot about being outed seems to stress constantly about it, so I decided a long time ago to not care. This does not constitute consent to being harassed.
I live in Cape May County, New Jersey. If you're in town or going to be soon, shoot me an email. We can get lunch or something.
Wikimedia is the only public-facing context[d] where I use the username Tamzin (extending to accounts on non-SUL Wikimedia sites and to wikis.world). I use the username TamzinHadasa on Discord, GitHub, Reddit (eww), and Twitter (double eww). If you see a "TamzinHadasa" or "Tamzin" in any other public-facing context,[d] it is probably not me.
I waive any privilege under WP:OUTING against people linking on-wiki to accounts that I have said are mine, nor quoting on-wiki anything I say in public with those accounts (although it'd still be a dick move to for no good reason go quoting personal things I've said), nor asking me whether a given public-facing account[d] somewhere is mine. (To avoid causing a false alarm for the OS team, if referring to me in a way that would normally violate OUTING, you should probably link to this section and explain why this waiver applies to the situation. This is for your benefit and the OS team's benefit, not mine.)
Just by virtue of my background, I know an unusually high number of BLP subjects. I'm also the child of a deceased biography subject. I used to give a central listing of this, but that started to feel like a bit of a "kick me" sign. Instead, I disclose as needed. If the COI is just in the form of "Yeah, we've met" or "Yeah I was vaguely involved in this thing", I reserve the right to edit such articles (in line with WP:COI); I always disclose the connection in my edit summary, which is a significantly higher degree of compliance than policy demands. On articles where I have a more substantial COI (relatives, employers, etc.), I use {{edit request}} for anything other than obvious vandalism/BLPvio. On one article, I have cited a book that I was a (fairly minor) contributor to. I did so in line with WP:SELFCITE and disclosed the connection.
I have never edited Wikipedia for compensation, and never will.
Wellness
editI have dissociative identity disorder (DID) or something similar to it, and either have bipolar disorder or have DID symptoms that manifest the same way. Hopefully this is the only time you need consider that information; I am strongly committed to not letting my condition(s) adversely affect my editing or my fellow editors. When I need to take a break from editing to straighten things out, I do.
However, if I ever seem a bit forgetful, or I seem to flit from one project to the next a bit erratically, now you know why.
Accountability
editI am committed to responding civilly and open-mindedly to any good-faith challenges to my actions as a holder of any permission or role, as well as to any good-faith suggestion that I should resign.
Notes
edit- ^ Apparently the plural of doppelgänger is doppelgänger.
- ^ At the time, former usernames could be recycled, so editors were advised to re-register a former username after renaming; by the time of my second rename, former usernames were shielded from recreation by AntiSpoof.
- ^ See also their disclosure page.
- ^ a b c By "public-facing" I mean a site where I've made comments in a way visible to anyone on the Web or anyone with an easily-registered account—i.e., not a game, a messaging service, a private forum, a site where I only lurk, etc.