"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge." – Jimmy Wales
[whatever hasn't been deleted by a 'deletionist']
Don't indulge anger when another person criticizes or undoes your work. Risk of this 'other person's behavior' can be prevented by your writing good Edit Summaries.
Learning to use Categories (scroll to bottom of page) will save you energy and frustration in the long-run.
Most users you may hate in the beginning will be able to earn your respect eventually, and you likely will learn to appreciate (and even admire) them (for their pertinacity). [That may not always be the case.]
Trivia sections (which are lame) can be molded into "Cultural references" section with little effort.
Stay away from the "big" articles. Contributing to them is far harder, and quality help is needed elsewhere.
Don't even try to comprehend the music genre articles. They are emotional quicksand, a quagmire--stay very far away. Other 'tough topics' can also be avoided UNLESS you have topical expertise (often at a professional level), as in engineering, science, statistics, pharmacy, etc. Cultivate (and use) emotional intelligence.
Find your appropriate niche(s). There is much to do, but you can't do it all (see quote #2).
If you have foreign language skills, please consider doing interpretation (on articles and projects that interest you) FROM your second or third STRONG language INTO your native language (which you know best). The panel on the left of any Wikipedia article shows the languages into which that article has already been translated. Consider checking out each of the articles' translations for accuracy (and completeness) and currency. Non-English articles can be edited independently of their English language correlate. You are invited to translate FROM ENGLISH *ANY* of the English language I have researched, started, authored, or edited (see my contributions).
This is not final direction but 'preliminary advice' to get you (and others) going.
Please consider helping me on ANY of my current draft articles. Start perhaps with User:MaynardClark/Gottfried Müller, who designed the Kurdish flag, founded Christian vegetarian orphanages, and authored three books in German (and at least one translated into English).
Please consider visiting and watching ANY or ALL of my current draft articles and past article contributions. See below for a nearly complete list of my contributions.
A userpage subpage (e.g. for Wikipedia philosophical discussions) can offload 'growing content' of a Wikipedian's ongoing reflections (e.g. Userpage/Wikipedia).
This is a Wikipediauser page. This is not an encyclopedia article or the talk page for an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user in whose space this page is located may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia. The original page is located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MaynardClark/Wikipedia.
I have been featured in Marquis's Who's Who since the early 1990s. In 2019 I was selected for a special designation inside Marquis's select pool of profiles.
Richard Levins - Known for things other than his vegetarian diet, but he was consistently vegetarian, ostensibly for "ecological reasons"
User:MaynardClark/Gottfried Müller - Operation Mammoth was a German special forces mission in 1943 by the German military, during World War II, for a team of two German Army officers, led by Major Gottfried Müller and accompanied by a Kurdish activist Ramzi Nafie Rasheed, to start a rebellion of the Iraqi Kurds in an attempt to expel the British from the region, gain control of the oil fields, and somehow deliver them to the Wehrmacht because Operation Barbarossa was not progressing as it was expected in reaching the Caucasus. In return for ejecting the British, the Kurds would be assisted in creating an independent Kurdistan. The mission failed. Ramzi and the Germans operatives were taken prisoners by British and Iraqi forces, tortured and given the death sentence. Gottfried Müller managed to escape and return to Germany where he lived until his death on 26 September 2009.
Norm Phelps - 19 July 2012 (article begun by SlimVirgin) - upgraded on 5 January 2015 after death of Norm Phelps
Maynard has developed some Wikipedia 'memorial' articles for Harvard Faculty at the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health who had recently died, but who at the time had no Wikipedia articles, despite their considerable accomplishments and scientific contributions:
Richard Levins - Begun while Dr. Levins was still living
Several Harvard School of Public Health Faculty (including Joseph Brain) and archival staff and steering committee members of the Countway Medical Library had (before the coronavirus pandemic) organized interested Wikipedians and other persons into a task force that would methodically, systematically develop informative Wikipedia articles on notable HSPH faculty. That effort stalled for various reasons.
About 3000 Articles - At Least 237 Articles Started from Scratch
Wikipedia Contributions
In college, I was noted as 'Most Widely-Read Undergraduate' (in a large state university). It's fitting that I now enjoy contributing to Wikipedia as an avocation.
I first learned about Wikipedia at a mid-day luncheon meeting of the Boston Vegan Meetup in Harvard Square, where another vegan (a software developer) told me about this great new free-content online encyclopedia that had been created to complement Nupedia. I may have become one of the earlier users of Wikipedia long before I began microediting articles, typically punctuation on articles I read for the purposes of my professional work at the Harvard Medical School.
I have been a Wikipedian since early February 2007 (20 February 2007) and spend far TOO MUCH time on it. I have been a Wikipedian editor now for 14+ years (about 2000 edits per year, and about 5.5 edits/day).
I attended the 2011 Wikipedia conference at Simmons College in Boston. That's 'dedication'! Becoming an encyclopedist has its own history and is not without precedent. Family members loved learning, sold encyclopedias on the side, worked as a librarian, read voraciously, studied history, etc.. My first youthful article was taken mostly from encyclopedia material found in the library, supplemented by some primary sources. Good grades "incentivized" the belief that the encyclopedia is a good place for newcomers to begin. I sold Encyclopedia Britannica during and after college. One senior Faculty member in my major praised me as "the most widely read undergraduate I've ever met." Today, despite academic bolstering, I remain (cautiously) enthusiastic that the online Wikipedia is a great place for a newcomer to get bearings on a topic, from which to form future research questions.
I have made over 31,500 edits and worked on more than 4,240 articles so far. I've started hundreds - many Wikipedia articles were accepted (and some have NOT been accepted). Statistics will need to be kept more carefully, but over these past fifteen years, that is over 2020 edits per year and about 5.6 edits/day [5.6 for 4,595 days]- not that many, but far more than most registered 'Wikipedian editors' do on Wikipedia!). These ~4,240 accepted Wikipedia articles (plus some that have NOT been accepted) years ago had been broken down (approximately) as follows (so this is not current):
Primary Contributor - Started/Initiated or Maintained - 75+
Significant Structural Improvements 1155+
Improved 750+
Initiated or Maintained - 300+
Contributed to - about 3500
Worked On and made Significant Contributions - 1000+
Edited - ~3500
Tweaked 900+
Minor Tweaks - 500+
Number of WikiProjects - ~22
(note evident overlaps in categories)
Wikipedia Articles
Over 4,240 Wikipedia Articles, including numerous Wikipedia articles on Harvard Faculty
Wikipedia Academic
In alphabetical order, some of these more academic bio articles are:
David Hunter, epidemiologist at University of Oxford, who until recently had served at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as Acting Dean of the Faculty and former Dean for Academic Affairs and as Vincent Gregory Professor and Director of the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention.[2] - 27 August 2015
Vegetarian Interest Wikipedia Articles
In alphabetical order, some of these more substantial articles of vegetarian interest, which Maynard started and maintains, are:
User:MaynardClark/Gottfried Müller Gottfried Müller designed the Kurdish flag, founded Christian vegetarian orphanages around the world, and authored at least three books in German (and at least one had been translated into English).- A similarly named article (by another set of Wikipedians) had been deleted previously. This draft references Operation Mammoth and Salem International.
Frank L. Hoffman - 23 July 2012 - Returned for userfication on 2 December 2014
Several of his articles have been rejected; most (not all) of those dealt with vegetarian topics.
Those included articles on:
Climate ethics - which paralleled analytical methods used in medical ethics and applied them to issues in anthropogenic climate disruption. A different, less theoretical article titled climate justice eventually emerged when a popular social movement had emerged, but the theoretical ethical approach was pared down to a rationale for the social movement, not the broader, free-ranging meta-ethical discussion that had been envisioned originally (perhaps because of the urgency of the climate crisis and popular volition around searching for sustainable solutions. After many Wikiwarfare, Climate ethics now exists as an aticle.
Gottfried Müller designed the Kurdish flag, founded Christian vegetarian orphanages around the world, and authored at least three books in German (and at least one had been translated into English).- A similarly named article (by another set of Wikipedians) had been deleted previously. This draft references Operation Mammoth and Salem International. - deleted User:MaynardClark/Gottfried Müller
User:MaynardClark/Gottfried Müller - Gottfried Müller designed the Kurdish flag, founded Christian vegetarian orphanages around the world, and authored at least three books in German (and at least one had been translated into English).- A similarly named article (by another set of Wikipedians) had been deleted previously. This draft references Operation Mammoth and Salem International. - deleted
Richard Levins - Current project is to complete translation of this article into 22 different live human languages. Six of these article translation projects have been substantially completed. Article translations for fourteen more languages are underway or have attracted committed translators in fields related to the work of Dr. Richard Levins of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Ask me about what I've developed both before and while working on Wikipedia, which includes books, book chapters, articles in refereed journals, grey literature, conference papers, white papers, book reviews, documentation and training manuals, blog entries, proprietary dining and travel guides, and academic editing. I have taught a few community education courses and have tutored (a) some clinical topics, (b) various philosophy courses, and (c) an array of in-house 'keep your credential' courses for healthcare workers.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maynard_Clark
Maynard earned on July 11, 2014, his Grognard Mirabilaire Award with Experienced editor Status, so that he is now entitled to display the 1937 Wikipedia First Edition.
Grognard (French for "grumbler") was Napoleon's pet name for his Old Guard.
In Spring 2014, Maynard earned his Grognard Extraordinaire Award with Yeoman editor Status, so that he was entitled to display the Wikipedia Vest Pocket Edition.
In November 2014, Maynard earned his Iron Editor Star Award and the Book of Knowledge with his Veteran editor (Tutnum) Status, so that he was entitled to display the Wikipedia Book of Knowledge and the Iron Editor Star Award.
On September 5, 2015, Maynard became a Veteran Editor II (or Grand Tutnum), which rank he achieved when he completed 12,000 edits. When he completed 13,000 edits, he was able to display the appropriate userboxes PLUS the deep purple horizontal ribbon with the gold star OR the gold vertical line running through it.
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Incremental service award ribbons are also available, starting at 13,000 edits and 2 years 7 months 15 days of service.
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This user understands the difference between its and it's. So should you.
’s
Thi's user know's that not every word that end's with s need's an apostrophe and will remove misused apostrophe's from Wikipedia with extreme prejudice.
While the interval between 'Veteran Editor III' (his current level) and 'Veteran Editor IV' his next target level is significant, he had expected to achieve that next level, Veteran Editor IV, in 2017. Now, halfway through 2017, he is hoping to achieve that level, Veteran Editor IV, by the end if this calendar year.
This editor is a Labutnum and is entitled to display this Book of Knowledge with Coffee Cup Stain, Cigarette Burn, Chewed Broken Pencil, and Sticky Note.
This editor is a Most Pluperfect Labutnum and is entitled to display this Book of Knowledge with Coffee Cup Stain, Cigarette Burn, Chewed Broken Pencil, Sticky Note, and Bookmark.
please help translate this message into your local language via meta
The 2016 Cure Award
In May 2016, Wiki Project Med Foundation stated that Maynard was one of the top ~200 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia, helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public! He was actually #104 in that list of top ~200 medical editors. Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content.
please help translate this message into your local language via meta
The 2017 Cure Award
In April 2017, Wiki Project Med Foundation stated that Maynard was during 2017 one of the top ~250 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia was by - for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Maynard was actually #91 in that list of the top ~250 medical editors.
Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors!
The 2018 Cure Award
In 2018 you were one of the top ~250 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs.
In 2018 you were one of the top ~250 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs.
WikiPapers – a compilation of resources (conference papers, journal articles, theses, books, datasets and tools) focused on the research of wikis and Wikipedia