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What this is gonna be
editInterwiki Aviation Project (working title)
Background
editMotivation and purpose
As a former glider pilot and dedicated flighsimmer, I endeavor tweaking my models to perform "as real as it gets" and recreate historic flights in my simulator. I have both FSX and FS2004 by Microsoft, but am still favouring FS2004 for various reasons, the major one being that I invested lots of time in FS2004 and don't wanna start from scratch after all that I achieved.
In doing so, I examine and tweak downloaded freeware aircraft. As many models just fly with not too much regard to the details, and historic information is scarcely provided, I am forced to research. It is my experience that such research reveals far more data when carried out in several Wikipedias.
- I benefit from being able to understand and (partially) speak German, English, French, Dutch and Italian (in the order of competency level beginning with my mother language). I also have a very basic understanding of Spanish and Portuguese (because I learned and teach Latin) Turkish and (ancient) Greek, but my skills are not sufficient for publishing in these languages nor to tell a machine translation from being correct or not.
More times then not however, I was looking for information like "Where was that plane manufactured?" and was unable to find it in either Wikipedia, but sometimes in sources they cited from. Furthermore, an article about an italian made plane of, say, World War One, might be way more extensive in the Italian Wiki than in the French one.
Some day it dawned on me that I am obviously amassing data for my private pleasure and curiosity, thereby getting possibly a more complete picture then either of the Wikis I use to frequent. As I do not know anyone yet who has that kind of blessing I seem to have, but as I see an aviation portal on each of these individual Wikis with people trying hard to gather reliable information, I felt like I had to share what I got, and if just for kind of repaying for the fact that I can access all this data for free which still is the result of the hard work of others. So here I am....
Mission
editMy personal goals are:
- Trying to crossfeed the German, English, Dutch, French and Italian Wikipedia within the field of Aviation to a point that one individual article in either language displays the same amount of facts (not necessarily the same facts as POVs about what is neutral and particular focus may be different on each site) and get them to the same level of quality.
- Thereby to make availlable the same sources for either Wiki and thus connecting people working on the same subject which else would not occur because of the language barrier.
- Trying to attract people with similar language skills and interest in aviation to join in this quest for knowledge exchange as one person alone cannot do this in a lifetime.
- If possible, to make an entire task force out of this idea, connecting authors and sources among (ideally) all existing Wikis. I think, it would be easy to provide the necessary infrastructure thanks to the great Wiki architecture. The whole thing might be called something like "Interwiki Aviation Project" and might be a model for other fields of research as well.
Progress
editSo far, I am building the house. The building's roof was added just today, but electricity and communication infrastructure is in the early stages of being installed.
As to the affiliates, just the estates are staked so far with the german branch being the next to be erected.
20:47, 17 October 2012 (UTC)
A few words about me
editPolicy
editThere is no point but one I'd like to address: Edit wars. Before I became active here, I watched this going on quite a bit, and here's the lessom I took from it:
I will never touch that revert button unless in undisputable cases of vandalism.
If somebody reverts what I just typed outside my namespace, and/or if somebody reverts a contribution of somebody else which I think to be valuable, then I will go to the talk page (unless the reverter already convinced me with his edit remark) and present my point why I think, what I (he/she) wrote should be in the article. If the majority of fellow wikipedians agrees with me, fine. If not, or if nobody cares, fine. I will contribute to the best of my skill and knowledge, but the decision how useful that is lies in the eye and in the responsibility of the majority, not in mine. And if there is any way to enhance what I did, go ahead, particulary when it comes to style, orthographics and punctuation for I am not a native speaker. Under no circumstances will I allow this to be a way of discouraging me or getting me hot. My time in kindergarden is way behind, and I do not come here to get angry.
The Do It Yourself Guide on how to kick me outa here
editFor we all share the world with those we love most - and those we can hardly bear
You don't like me? You think I am in your face? You don't think a "Kraut" like me belongs here? And you really don't favour these oldfashioned approaches like talking it over, checking if there might have been just a misunderstanding, or indicating that I just stepped on your toes in a civilized fashion? Then I got something for you:
The Do It Yourself Guide on how to kick me outa here
1. Legal situation
editFirst of all, you need to be aware that you are fully entitled to dislike me. Such right is given to you by all applicable laws and jurisdictions on planet earth, including, but not limited to, the civil law of the State of Florida, USA (where Wikipedia has it's servers), Law of the United States, international and interplanetary conventions and even German civil law (GG and BGB der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in it's latest valid version) and cannot be taken away from you as long as you exist in any form whatsoever. For applicable law after termination of your earthly existence, please refer to The Bible.
2. Getting started
editPreparation is key
Presumably, since you put yourself through the trouble to read this manual, you have already tried to scare me off wikipedia. Yes, I know you have, because people do not read manuals and readme.files before they start doing something, but when they tried by themselves and it did not work out the way it was supposed to. Okay, you have tried it the classical way: You marched in guns blazin' and put the trigger of the revert button time and time again. And, as a partial success, the articles look considerably different than I originally intended. But you find me applauding this in some cases, ignoring it in others. But sometimes these other editors just don't do what would please you. I am still there and I am calm as ever. The problem is obvious: As a german proverb says, a single soldier doesn't make a war yet.
3. Kicking out the Saur step by step walkthrough
edit- Don't fight alone: To fight a(n edit) war, you need an army. For inspiration, see Blitzkrieg.
- For an army, you need funds: Sell your property, your grandma's house and your dad's 67' Corvette Stingray 425 Convertible. When addressing our fellow editors, be sure the term "bribe" is not used for most of them would sharply reject you. Also make sure, you don't just buy people and weapons but also uniforms if you want your troops to be regular combatants. See Geneva Conventions for details. A formal declaration of war preceding the hostilities is widely regarded as a sign of etiquette and civilisation.
- Take advice from the world's leaders: Wars are won through airpower. For inspiration, see Operation Desert Storm. Begin with air superiority (taking down my firewall and anti virus hard/software) and tactical bombing to disrupt my infrastructure, resources and supplies.
- Prepare your ground forces: Create a strong opposition against anything I do, no matter what, to make me feel utterly useless. Be sure the term "mobbing" is not used for this might attract bots and admins. If the virtual impossibility of you really being able to get one of them to join your forces occured, this would quickly drain your funds and therefore must be avoided at all cost.
- Backup your men by means of (viral) artillery and strategic bombing (of my hard drives, monitors and sound equipment).
- Terror bombing is widely regarded as both cruel, criminal and ultimatively effective. Should the need arise to end this war quickly and victoriously with a bang, use the A-bomb: Buy the place and make it a paysite. That's the safest way to kick me out.
- Finally: Ignore all rules. Including this one.
Happy editing!