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User:Hoblok

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I've been a registered user since 17 June 2006. While I'd been using Wikipedia as a reference source for a couple of years prior to that, I thought I ought to try my hand at contributing as well. The thing is that the majority of contributors to the English-language Wikipedia are young and/or American. That means that many of the subjects that are important to an elderly British citizen such as myself are under-represented in Wikipedia. I suppose it's up to people like me to try to redress the balance a bit.

Criteria for contributing

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My basic criteria for contributing to Wikipedia are that (a) I've got something noteworthy, relevant and factual to say that isn't already there, and (b) there's a low probability that my contribution will immediately be reverted or disputed. Regrettably, the latter means there's little point trying to contribute to the subjects that interest me most, namely irrational beliefs such as the paranormal, New Age mysticism, ufology, Forteana, fringe science, conspiracy theories, pseudohistory and religious cults. My interest in these is not so much the belief itself as a study of the people who believe in them. Such people undoubtedly exist, they are part of the broad spectrum of human existence and therefore ought (in my opinion) to be mentioned in Wikipedia. Unfortunately, however, it's in the nature of Wikipedia that the last word always goes to the majority, and the majority is brutally intolerant of non-mainstream beliefs. So I'm not prepared to waste time wading into an argument I can't win.

Contributions

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To date, I've tried to concentrate on filling in hopefully uncontroversial details pertaining to science fiction, pulp magazines, comics and related subjects. I don't always bother to log on when making minor changes so many of my contributions are "anonymous", but (mainly for my own benefit) here is a list of articles I've made changes to:

Other ideas

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The following is a (hopelessly incomplete) list of articles I'd like to add to in future:

  • Many SF authors who were popular a few years ago and are now out of print have woefully incomplete entries, including A. E. van Vogt, Eric Frank Russell, Henry Kuttner, John Brunner, Ian Watson, Raymond F. Jones and many others
  • If anything, non-SF pulp fiction is even more poorly covered than SF. Many important authors, magazines and characters simply don't have an entry at all.
  • There should be an article on Qhe, the 1970s Tibetan superhero that appeared in a series of four books by William Bloom under the pseudonym "W∴W∴".
  • There is also a lack of material on the numerous SF magazines of the 1950s and 60s, such as Science Fantasy (magazine), New Worlds (magazine), If (magazine), Authentic Science Fiction and others
  • There is nothing about Badger Books, which are extremely collectible and really ought to be better documented. The same is true of the many important authors who wrote for Badger books - both real names (e.g. John S. Glasby) and pseudonyms when these were used by more than one author (e.g. John E. Muller, used by both Glasby and Lionel Fanthorpe).
  • Some of the more minor Marvel Comics are rather poorly represented - for example while linking a couple of articles to Not Brand Echh and The Mighty Thor I noticed significant omissions in the latter two articles, and I'm sure there are more. Also there is very little about Marvel's earliest reprint titles such as Marvel Collector's Item Classics
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