Editing philosophy

edit
  • Notability: Not everything that is worthy is also notable, and the other way around. If there exist no good sources on a subject, then it should not have an article on Wikipedia. Even if sources exist, an article is still not justified if there is no encyclopedic information. For instance, if all we can say about a certain person is that she likes coffee and cookies, sings hymns, and lived a long time, then any useful information is better contained in a list.
  • Be brief. Don't use 300 words if you can say the same thing in 30. This is not about removing information, this is about presenting information.
  • Not everything that can be sourced merits inclusion. Don't include trivial stuff, this is an encyclopedia, not Facebook. Even if, for example, we would have sourced information that Einstein preferred his coffee with two lumps of sugar, that is not encyclopedic information that in any way increases our understanding of him. This means that existing text often needs pruning and rewriting.
  • Wikipedia is not a vehicle for promoting your company/journal/band/etc. Articles should be encyclopedic, meaning that articles should be presented in a neutral way. Words such as "famous", "renowned", "foremost", etc. rarely have a place in an encyclopedic article. Hence, our Einstein article starts with "Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist", not "Albert Einstein was the most famous scientist ever", even though one certainly will be able to find reliable sources saying so.
  • Deletion/Inclusion. I don't see myself as an inclusionist or a deletionist. Everything depends on the sources. If there are good sources, then an article should be written. If there are no good sources, then an article should be deleted.
edit

General

edit

Biographies

edit

Journal resources

edit
 
This editor is a Grognard Mirabilaire and is entitled to display this 1937 Wikipedia First Edition.

Contributions

edit
 

Articles that I have started

edit

(excluding many redirects, disambiguation pages, and Wikispecies and Wikidata contributions)

Where have I been

edit
Long term

(4.5 years or more):

       

Short trip

(up to 3 weeks; excl.

airport stopovers):

                                                     

US states and

territories: