User:RTao
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About me
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Times I was targeted by or witnessed a legal threat: [1] [2] [3]
If it looks like I spend more time editing my user page than actual mainspace, it's because I'm practicing wikitext. This is totally a legitimate excuse, what do you mean?
The RTao Cinematic Universe (aka my userspace)
Summary of my day-by-day activity
My work
[edit]| Article | What it's about | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Century Mine | coal mine in Beallsville, Ohio | 2023-05-08 (18 months ago) |
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Whiskey Island mine | salt mine in Cleveland, Ohio | 2024-08-15 (3 months ago) |
My wikibeliefs
[edit]This was originally a rant written late at night. This is your last chance to turn back in blissful ignorance.
Why I'm here. I am a Wikipedia reader first of all. Wikipedia is unique in its relative homogeneity, depth and breadth of coverage, interconnectedness, and quality. I edit primarily because I find that actively participation is a good way to deepen my own knowledge, though I want to be careful of what I write as a non-expert[a]. Also, it's good to give back.
I believe in WP:CITEEVERYTHING. Accuracy is our fundamental value to the public;[b] it constitutes our entire worth as an information source. And yet it's all too easy for careless editors, often well-intentioned but inexperienced, to inject unsourced material into well-sourced paragraphs, creating the illusion of referencing. An over-cited statement is rare, visible, and annoying; an under-cited statement is common, invisible, and dangerous.
Example: [4], [5] (Who is John Zaller? Hint: not the author of the quoted definition.)
As a though experiment, try thinking about Wikipedia backwards: articles are primarily a list of reliable sources on the subject. Secondarily, the text of the article, including headings, exists to connect and organize sources via citations. Only finally is the content of the text a summary of the sources, so readers don't have to read every one to get a basic understanding. If this sounds too radical, note that this is already the only legitimate use of Wikipedia in academia. Citing Wikipedia itself is almost always forbidden, but articles can be jumping-off points for research. If experts are to take Wikipedia seriously, we must commit to shoring up the quality of sources used and extensive use of citations. And what else will educated readers – and readers wanting to be educated – think of Wikipedia, besides what experts have to say about it?
In practical terms: this means I try to cite most sentences and often nearly all sentences. Sometimes I cite parts of a sentence. When feasible, if there are multiple good sources, I cite a sentence multiple times, up to maybe four or five; if there's even more, and the sentence is important, it's worth thinking about which of the citations to keep. I pay attention to the references section as a whole (and should try to do the same for the "further reading" section). Filling in missing information in citations, convert bare URLs, and remove duplicate citations is not useless. Removing unreliable sources and associated content is a particularly worthy activity.
Unethical COI editing is really scummy. I refer to the kind advertised by "professional" Wikipedia writing services those . I hope the community and WMF will continue to and do more to frustrate these efforts and expose the bad actors. To a reasonable extent, they deserve to suffer in reputation, the very thing they seek to manipulate when they come here to For whatever it's worth, I commend groups who disclose paid editing and in general follow our rules in this area, though they of course still need to be careful.
- ^ i.e. everyone who edits generally
- ^ Even Wikipedia's identity as an encyclopedia may be less important. A reader familiar with typical Wikipedia style can spot a promotional puff-piece on their own, but core Wikipedia principles like WP:V and WP:RS mean nothing to the general public.