Williamborg

Interests

I've been editing Wikipedia since adding my first article 19 years, 8 months and 20 days ago and am proud to have started 430 surviving articles of Wikipedia's 6,914,301 articles, as well as contributing to a few others. I'm currently wandering about Wikipedia, fixing things when the urge hits me, and adding articles when they seem needed. I'm mostly interested in things Scandinavian/Baltic and North American.

Introduction to Williamborg

Favorite quotes

"Everything's wrong on Wikipedia." Gore Vidal

"Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent." Walt Kelly

"Zurück geht kein Weg", sagte er ernst und freundlich, "man muß immer vorwärtsgehen, wenn man die Welt ergründen will." Herman Hesse 'Märchen'

“Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way . . . if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it!” A.A. Milne Winnie-the-pooh

"De store seire er aldri vunnet i det første slag." Johan Falkberget

"La perfection est atteinte, non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retirer." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944)

"One man may hit the mark, another blunder; but heed not these distinctions. Only from the alliance of the one, working with and through the other, are great things born." Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude" ("He who has begun is half done: dare to know!"). Epistle II of Horace's Epistularum liber primus, line 40]

"A leader is best when people barely know that he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worst when they despise him. Fail to honor people, They fail to honor you. But of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aims fulfilled, they will all say, `We did this ourselves.`" Laozi

Mainspace contributions

Williamborg's Contributions - Articles Initiated

| | A near-complete list of Williamborg's Mainspace Articles Initiated
(other articless were initiated before I elected to edit under a name, & yet others didn't survive the AfD process)|

Recent contributions to Ice Age Flood Geology (articles initiated are asterisked)

Recent contributions to Pacific Northwest geography and peoples (articles initiated are asterisked)

Recent contributions to Fjords & Protected areas of Chile (articles initiated are asterisked)

Aysen Fjord* | Isla Magdalena National Park* | Bosque de Fray Jorge National Park* | Chiloé National Park*

Requested Articles for Wikipedia:Translations (Articles Translated or Cleaned-up)

Contributions to African geography (articles initiated are asterisked)

Contributions to Scandanavian material (articles initiated are asterisked)

Photo contributions

A summary of photo contributions can be found here

Other

Long term interests

"Writing crystallizes thought," so I develop Wikipedia articles which interest me and try to support others who do so. The beauty and strength of the Wikipedia is that there is so much which is of interest and so many willing to do their bit. Wikipedia is a true intellectual community.

The intellectual community that is Wikipedia is an important home for long tail information. Unlike Encyclopædia Britannica (EB), which is constrained by physical size and number of editors to a limited number of broad articles and must focus on big topics, Wikipedia can cover both the big topics and the niches, helping people find their way to that relatively obscure material in which they are actually interested. Wikipedia is, in spite of those who suggest otherwise, a relational database which can link diverse topics in ways that EB and kin can not. There is indeed lot of dross among the minor articles, but there are diamonds too, and among those diamonds, insight awaits.

Such views have logical consequences; I incline toward inclusionism (I thought I was a devout inclusionist until I started AfD & RC Patrols and discovered how bad the nonsense and vandalism can get). Regardless, I strongly believe in fixing and extending articles rather than pruning them where possible. I strongly believe in the value of the less-popular topics. Obscure but healthy articles should be encouraged, nurtured and linked. Weed articles should be rooted out quickly.

I also hold with Halldór Laxness's view as expressed in his magnificent novel, Kristnihald undir Jökli or Christianity under the Glacier (published in English as Under the Glacier), in which he states, "The difference between a novelist and a historian is this: that the former tells lies deliberately and for the fun of it; the historian tells lies in his simplicity and imagines he is telling the truth." We Wikipedians must ever be open to the possibility that what one has previously read and what one "knows to be true" is simply wrong. We must be open and intellectually honest. We must attempt to use the Wikipedia, not as a pulpit for our world-view, but as a method to develop a more rational and less jingoistic world view.

Who I am off the Wikipedia

I am most definitely an INTP. INTPs are quiet, analytical individuals who enjoy spending time on their own, working through problems and forming solutions. They are intensely curious about systems and how things work. Consequently, they are frequently found in careers such as science and engineering. INTPs tend to be less at ease in social situations or in the "caring professions," although they enjoy company once they know the other(s) well. They also tend to be amused by bureaucracy and rigid hierarchies, and are totally unimpressed by the politics prevalent in many professions. They prefer to work with others as equals.

Who I am NOT off the Wikipedia

One can also be defined by what one is not:

I am not young—youth is a state of the body.
I am not old—age is a state of the spirit.
I am not religiously active—activism is seldom religious.
I am not retired—work is the ultimate meditation.
I am not yet educated—schooling is not a full education.
I am not well traveled—I’ve billions of people to meet as well as two continents, countless planets & millions of galaxies to go.

"Those who would take hold of the world and act on it

Never, I notice, succeed.

The world is a mysterious instrument not made to be handled.

Those who act on it, spoil it.

Those who seize it, lose it."

Laozi

Affiliations

Williamborg (talk · contribs · count) Williamborg (talk • contribs • non-automated contribs • wikichecker • count • total • logs • page moves • block log • email)

This user is a member of
WikiProject Norway.

This user is a member of the WikiProject Sweden.

This user is a participant of WikiProject Physics.

This user is a participant in
WikiProject Engineering

This user is a participant in
WikiProject Geology.

Thoughts on administration by various folks

This list plagurizes (in the best Wikipedia user-left tradition) part of Petros471's list.

Why am I here by Catherine.
A few thoughts on the use of admin rights by Mindspillage
This used to link to an essay on neutrality and non-intervention in controversial issues by Essjay - since his fall from grace the article disappeared - an unfortunate development since the article had merit.
A compendium of Administrator information by NoSeptember
AdminList Categorized by Recent Activity
Complete by uncategorized list of Administrators
Wikipedia:Shortcuts

Tools

Friday November 22 04:17 2024

Category:Wikipedia tools
Category:Wikipedia backlog
Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles
Help:Formula
Help:Contents
Help:Table
Help:EasyTimeline syntax
Help:Wiki_markup

Useful copy & paste notes

To make special characters show: add <nowiki> before and </nowiki> after
<br clear="all"> - to make sure tables etc don't overlap
;Bold :Indented next line
{{subst:AFDNote}} provides for AdF note when you didn't initiate the deletion.

{{section-stub}}

{{main|FOO}}

{{Reflist|2}}

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And <ref name=A/>

Image layouts

horizontal:

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vertical:

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