User:Q8682

User enjoys world travelling, physically and mentally. Vocational roles have included policy drafting and proof reading. Thinks locally, acts globally. Thinks globally, acts locally. Seeks to follow the Scout Promise and Law, as a moral guide – Help other people, Look wide, Be prepared, and Service. What give you your values?

Who am I?

Long time user, occasional updater, I created my first work in March 2015 on Eprapah, a Scout environmental education centre.

• Be the example you want others to be.
• A plan is better than no plan.
• Just do it. Make things happen.

Who inspired me?

The maxim of W. Stewart WALLACE is useful, and led me to expand his page from one line to a little more comprehensive insight on the efforts of this individual in January 2016.

Who inspires me

I am also intrigued by and like the philosophy and efforts of LauraHale (c. 2012; Aug 2019: now-offline).

There is research which supports the idea that I am not alone in this. Women are often more motivated to participate if they can set goals to measure and improve on their performance. Editing a Wikipedia article alone does not motivate me to contribute because it is unclear as to why I am doing it. By saying I will take an article to DYK [Did you know...], I will take an article to GA [Good articles], I will add a picture to this article, I will publish a Wikinews article on that, I can focus and channel my desire to contribute in a way where I can measure the usefulness of my contributions towards the goal of improving on and adding the sum of all human knowledge to Wikipedia. I also find that Good Article and DYK are a form of community recognition for work well done that otherwise are not as accessible on Wikipedia. Like others, I like to see my work recognised for being a positive contribution. This repeated recognition from the community keeps me coming back for more.

My Wiki efforts

Registered Editor (1st edit) – 11 Jul 2011, to a talk page

Novice editor – During Dec 2017 (200 edits done)

Novice editor (Level 4) – During Aug 2020 (800 edits done)

Apprentice editor – On 13 Mar 2021 (1000 edits done)

Apprentice editor (Level 2) – On 22 May 2021 (1250 edits done)

Apprentice editor (Level 3) – On 22 Oct 2021 (1500 edits done; 20.8% were large edits)

Apprentice editor (Level 4) – On 18 Feb 2022 (1750 edits done; 21.9% were large edits)

Journeyman editor (Level 1) – On 17 July 2022 (2000 edits done; 21.9% were large edits)

Journeyman editor (Level 2) – On 14 January 2024 (2500 edits done; 22.4% were large edits)

Words of wisdom? Preview, preview, preview. Never publish, until you have previewed. Read the page out aloud. Correct any other typographical mistakes, even if not in the section you are changing.

And? Always [Show Preview] [Show Preview] [Show Preview] before [Publish changes]!!

(The ribbons are not ego; just a self-reminder of editing efforts; and how I still keep learning more about editing. Quality over quantity.)

Great expansion

Yes, I am proud of these.

• W. Stewart WALLACE (1884–1970), Canadian economic historian and librarian. Expanded from a twelve-word one-liner to 1285 words, from zero to twenty-one references (Jan 2016).
• Will H. OGILVIE (1869–1963), Scottish-Australian bush poet balladeer. Expanded from 350 words to 2500 words and three portraits, and four to forty-six references (Oct 2017).

A more informative and expanded revision from 2500 to 4000 words (in the body, excluding lists of poems, and notes), and forty-six to eighty-six references (Dec 2017). Haven't stopped yet.

And lots of incidental associated updates such as illustrator Hal GYE, and Scottish entries of Kirkhope Tower reiver's castle, Bowmont Water near his birthplace, Sprouston‎ near where WHO grew up, and Roberton where his ashes were scattered.

Expansion

Just some incidentals along the way.

• Kenneth MACKAY (1859–1935), Australian soldier. From 260 to 422 words, and from one to thirteen references. Subject of two of Will OGILVIE's poems (Nov 2017).
• Sydney MacEWAN (1908–1991), Scottish tenor singer of traditional songs, and priest. Significant update of text/content (from 480 to 1160 words), and from one reference to twenty (Dec 2017).
• Goalball, a Paralympic Games sport for persons with a vision impairment. Clean-up of contents (some dated material), small relocation of text to improve readability (from 1750 to 2030 words), and one more reference (Dec 2017).

• And that meant updating the world goalball championships to reflect the new world youth championships since 2005. New section, adding 565 words, 11 references, and 4 additional categories (Dec 2017).
• Updating of Goalball at Tokyo 2020, and associated pages and issues (inc. Makuhari Messe venue, and Harumi Futo Olympic Village) (2021).
• Cleanup of national team pages, and add an infobox and photos relevant to that page (May 2021). See the before-and-afters for BRA M (new), CAN F, CHN M (new), GBR F, JPN M (new), LTU M (new), RUS F, SWE F, UKR M (new). Continuing in Feb 2022 with working on the America Region, including new pages for ARG M, CRC F, MEX M, PER F, and VEN M.

• Harry 'The Breaker' MORANT (1864–1902), a horseman, scoundrel, poet, soldier, and Australian legend, who was subject of OGILVIE's friendship and poems. Added 70 words and seven references (Dec 2017). The article still needs to cover more of MORANT's pre-Boer life.
• Scottish highland dancing article improvement through removing red wiki-links, restructuring contents, and acknowledging other international organisations (Jan 2018). Next to improve citations.
• Edward George 'Ted' DYSON (1865–1931), Australian poet. From 350 words and four references, to 1170 words and twenty references, and added two photographs (Aug 2019). And then his brother William Henry 'Will' DYSON (1880–1938), from 180 words and two references, to 550 words and ten references (Feb 2020). Renown journalist Donald MACDONALD (1859–1932) who met Will in 1900; 289 words and two references, to 620 words, a photo, and 35 references, giving a little more acknowledgement to MACDONALD (May 2020).
• Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve (1921–1973), due to a link from the 1940s George Medal recipients page. What was one or two names became some structured lists (next time, a table). You wonder sometimes that perhaps medals go to the living, and no one wrote of the possibly-greater gallantry of the dead. Resulted in 195 words and three references, to 2080 words and 72 references. It was a long day.

Then updated to use an Excel table to collate details for each person, and generate the Wikicode for sortable table entries. Now consistent formatting, and 135 rows for 104 individuals.

• 1937 Stinson crash, a place where Scouts hike to as an activity. From 345 words and seven references, to 1300 words and 28 references. Included overview of aircraft, flight, crew and passengers, the two inquiries, and memorials. Also resulted in creating the stub defunct Airlines of Australia (airline), 375 words and twelve references.
• Yetholme, New South Wales (from 85 words and 4 references, to 580 words and 9 references), which led to adding photographs to Town Yetholm (285 to 355 words) and Kirk Yetholm (270 to 445 words) in Scotland (Oct 2021).
• Queensland, Nova Scotia, from a stub of 32 words, to 355 words and 8 references (Jul 2022).
• Angus MACKAY, Queensland politician, from 78 words and 2 references, to 688 words and 30 references (Jan 2023).
• Wallaceburg District Secondary School, from a stub of 70 words and 2 references, to 1690 words and 25 references, and 5 photographs (Dec 2023).

And dabbling with some others: Brisbane suburb MacGregor with more details and photographs (Jan 2018); long-gone town of south-western Queensland Barringun (Jan 2018; 90 words and 2 references, to 610 words and 21 references). New page for Enngonia, New South Wales (Apr 2021).

And images to supplement them. Check out Toobeah, Thallon, Hebel, Goodooga, Brewarrina, and more (Apr 2021). Still going – it was a long drive.

Just a mention

These are pages that need improvement, but I have updated a little to help the article. Haven't had the time, but had to do a little more justice to the topic.

• Pauls (dairy) Polar Perfections Limited, which became Pauls Ice Cream and Milk Ltd, today run by Parmalat conglomerate, a south Queensland-based milk processing company (Dec 2017). Why? BOLTON shipped Pauls' milk, and his philanthropy gave the Lindsay Gallery and some of OGILVIE's works, and the Cobb and Co. Museum which has OGILVIE's stockwhip, Loyal Heart's mane, and spurs.
• SS Persic, a steamer doing the England–Cape Town–Australia route in the early 1900s. Update contents (from 210 to 530 words) and from five to fourteen references (Dec 2017). Why? OGILVIE sailed on her.
• Alasdair HUTTON, Scottish announcer, changing to a neutral point of view, add more structure, and references. 690 to 840 words, and 13 references (Oct 2021).

And bitsa here and there not worth a specific mention, but doing what we'll all doing -- improving, collaborating, learning, helping.

A page is born

You can be proud of trying to improve the world one bit at a time.

• Eprapah, a Scout environmental education centre in south-east Queensland. Created 3630 words, 55 references, and eleven photographs (a significant article; Mar 2015).
• Bill BOLTON MBE (1905–1973), a Toowoomba businessman and philanthropist, as part of the Will OGILVIE story. Created 780 words and thirteen references (an overview article; Nov 2017).
• The Socialist (Australian newspaper; 1906–1923), which caused ambiguation with a citation within an article on Australian writer and critic A. G. Stephens (1865–1933). Created 280 words and three references as a stub article (Dec 2017).
• Heber Hedley BOOTH (1864–1936), a Queensland poet who wrote nothing terribly inspiring but deserves a reference in history (Apr 2019).
• Turbot Street, Brisbane, a major city thoroughfare, which answered where the name originated (word from the local Aboriginal language) but not what the word meant! Created over 1880 words and 64 references (Apr 2019).
• Alexander Vindex VENNARD (1884–1947), better known as Bill BOWYANG, a North Queensland writer amongst other occupations. Created 590 words and 21 references (Jun 2020).
• Harumi Futo, the 2020 Olympic Village for the 2020 Paralympic Games. For something completely different. Created 610 words and 8 references (Aug 2020).
• Agent Hamilton, Swedish-produced spy thriller TV series. On SBS, but no page. Created 410 words and 6 references (Oct 2020).
• Zara DARE (1886–1965), one of first female police officers of Queensland, in 1931. Was coming for a while. Created 2750 words and 41 references (Nov 2020). Also cross-referenced to five other pages.
• Township of Enngonia, New South Wales. 1400 words, 24 references, 12 photographs (May 2021).
• Australian artist Gladstone EYRE (1862–1933). 850 words, 33 references (Oct 2021).
• Indian–Australian champion wrestler Buttan SINGH (1865–?). 2590 words, 35 references, 3 photographs (Jan 2022).
• Wirth's Circus, Australia's largest circus for eight decades, 1420 words, 35 references, 2 photographs (Jan 2022).
• Vera PURDY (1909–1931), Australian prostitute and underworld figure. 1900 words, 43 references, 1 photograph (Dec 2023).

Otherwise check out the statistics, contributions, and pages created. And still contributing (when able) images to Wikimedia.

Travel teaches you more about your own society

Lived in:

Weeks to months:

Days to weeks:

Travels

If COVID-19 had not shown up, I was already booked for...

Canadian provinces/territories I've lived in/travelled to:

Areas of Scotland I've travelled within:

States and territories of Australia I've travelled within:

Bored?

Some pages which are really undervalued for their significance, and can be enhanced:

• Australian banking crisis of 1893 – This was as devastating as the USA Wall Street Crash of 1929, but this article (I have started) does not indicate the social impacts. People lost their lands, paper money became pieces of paper, and how it shaped regulation and better banking trust and stability in Australia.

Have expanded from 165 words and 2 references, to 840 words and 26 references.

• Pauls (dairy) – needs better order, expansion, provide background on creation, factory addresses, how many were employed, etc. Don't need to cover latest takeovers. Discuss contributions to Queensland. See 'Talk' for where to get more information.

• State of North Queensland – Cover the push for the separation of North Queensland from the rest of the State, with separation leagues, motives, etc. And the intended governor's residence at West End, Townsville.

The Bill BOLTON and Kenneth MACKAY pages need to be marked as disambiguation pages so they don't look like person pages.

Interested in creating a new page? Consider:

• Australian Colonel Robert William LENEHAN (1865–1922), of the Bushveldt Carbineers;
• William Nathaniel ROBERTSON, doctor born of Edinburgh and later senator of Queensland, whose name was given to the suburb of Robertson, Queensland;
• Agnes CONOR-O'BRIEN (c. 1868–1934) m. 1911 William McLEOD/MACLEOD, The Bulletin journalist and philanthopist;
• Annie May Colette 'May' SUMMERBELLE (1867–1949), Australian soprano, composer, and possible journalist. Her first husband Edwin Hubert @ Herbert Edward 'Bertie' GLASSON (b. 1867, m. Jan 1893) was hung in Nov 1893 for two murders, considered to be most horrific. She gave birth in 1894 to Noela Beatrice Myer Ewart GLASSON (d. 1945), who later married Australian poet Kenneth SLESSOR in 1922. SUMMERBELLE divorced her second husband Stanton John SENIOR in 1912 for desertion. She wrote the music 'The bravest men God has made!' to OGILVIE's 1915 wartime poem 'The Australian'. Her brother was in the military;
• Ella McFADYEN (1887–1976), Australian children's author under the name of 'Cinderella';
• (H)ugh Victor FOY (–1943), a captain of Australian commerce, whose brother was Mark FOY. He formed a polo team with Will H. Ogilvie and Harry 'The Breaker' MORANT at Bogan Gate, New South Wales, among many other things;
• William KERR (1812–1859), Scottish-Australian, journalist, proprietor of the The Argus (Melbourne). If you're into research on politics, acerbic individuals, and sectarianism in Australia. Start with the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry;
• Edith Eleanora CUSACK (and a reference to her sister, Aline Margaret CUSACK), NSW 1890s/1900s artist.
• +DONE+ (Feb 2020). Gordon TIDY (1858–1953). He was in the British Army, an Australian jackaroo, tutor of families on the land in Penola SA and Parkes NSW, a newspaper editor in 1897, poet, writer, who became an Anglican reverend by 1904, then to Rome for Catholic priesthood study, before returning to Anglicanism in 1912, and later rector in Chippingdale, England. A drinking companion with Will H. Ogilvie and Harry 'The Breaker' MORANT.

A worthy endeavour? Go through Trove and update the list of recipients of the George Medal. Use the The London Gazette search function. Many people to be recognised and remembered (May 2020: 1940s, added 6; 1950s, added 4).

Sometime I will fix Scouting and Guiding in Queensland as it is quite inaccurate. The weighting given to Benjamin Gilmore PATTERSON is unbalanced, and reliant on a single source. He has a part of a movement (and a youth organisation), but not to the degree given.

And I have a Paralympic Games sporting page to enhance too, but that's happening off-line as it involves comparing rules from each quadrennial so to see the evolution of the sport.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eprapah 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stewart_Wallace 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Ogilvie 
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:LauraHale (defunct)
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Did_you_know
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Good_articles