User talk:Dennette

Archives

Archive 1: August 2006 – September 2006
Archive 2: October 2006 – June 2007
Archive 3: June 2007 – July 2008

I give up

I know that Wikipedia is not a blog, but there's no place else for me to say this.

I started contributing to Wikipedia in April, when I made some additions to IGES. Mostly I made random edits and fixes to pages I stumbled across a page for John R. Fox, which led me to working on World War II related pages.

When I found the page for American Muslim Council, that led me to my first major contribution ... combining the pages for Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, which had been created because of two different spellings. This in turn led me to working on Islam/Muslim related pages.

A few weeks ago, I did my first AfD ... List of famous members of Mensa ... then I created Category:Members of Mensa, and spent 5 or 6 hours searching for and adding tags to 44 articles of people whose page claimed that they were members. That was my first real marathon session.

See Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2007 March 8#Category:Members of Mensa ... attitudes about categories have changed ... someone even went through and edited all of the articles to remove the category references. Dennette 03:42, 1 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Very quickly I had gone from a "casual" editor to spending over 8 hours a day on Wikipedia, a lot of it reviewing AfDs. My watchlist had grown to over 350 entries. Wikipedia had become like a drug for me.

But now it has become a real PITA. I have grown weary of the constant edit wars on Shahada, Portal:Islam/Did you know, Basmala, and the other Wikipedia:WikiProject Islam pages ... the Shi'a vs Sunni and "God" vs "Allah" POV reverts, and people adding/deleting "(PBUH)" after every mention of Muhammad. (I'd forgotten the Nikola Tesla revert war over whether he was a Serb or a Croat ... probably the first one I dropped from my watchlist.)

And I've gotten sick of all the fancruft from having spent so much time fixing Family Guy and The Simpsons related pages. Doing the AfDs opened my eyes to the world of Pokemon and Friends cruft, and the recent cancellation of Stargate SG-1 brought out the fanboys using the talk page for their speculations on how the series would be concluded, and numerous reverts of "Save the Gate" petition links.

I finally realized the Awful Truth ... in spite of its best intentions, Wikipedia is not a very reliable encyclopedia, and I was really wasting my time by trying to make any meaningful contributions. The trolls and sockpuppets have taken control, and Wikipedia has become the new MySpace.

The problem with "freedom" in this paradigm is that it has reached the point where more time is spent cleaning up after the vandals than can be spent improving the quality and accuracy of the articles. The appeal for me was that I was "doing something worthwhile," but the reality is that I was just finding an excuse not to do other things in Real Life.

So, I'm going to try to wean myself to just a few, brief visits a day, and then I can walk away from it. I've said all this as a reminder to myself, and as a warning to others. Don't let Wikipedia fool you ... it's a siren temptress who will only disappoint you in the end. I've read about the "Editors Revolt," and how the expert editors and administrators are leaving in droves (WP:MIA). I took it as a sign that it was time for me to leave, too.

Wikipedia will never become a Reliable Source of information, and teachers will soon forbid any research on Wikipedia for homework and essays. The data changes too quickly, and most of it is false ... some vandal will change a bio to say that the person died of AIDS, and it will remained uncorrected for days, because there aren't enough editors to watch all of the pages, and the bots can't keep up, either.

Well, that's my 2¢ worth. --Dennette 09:55, 2 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Continuing to detox

Well, I got my watchlist below 150, but that's not good enough. I finally decided to reudce my frustration level by deleting all Islam/Muslim related artcles from my list ... hopefully this will reduce the amount of time I waste looking a edit-war reverts by half ... some of them have gotten Really Ridiculous, particularly the ones between User:CltFn and User:BhaiSaab. _{(Note: Both of those users have been banned from editing here. — 21:53, 7 July 2008 (UTC))}[reply]

I also stopped looking at Lists of cruft ...

I gave up trying to deal with the Islamophobe vandalism weeks ago (leave that for the bots and the "crusaders" looking for barnstars), and the total ignorance of the fanboys polluting the lists just grinds my gears. <Sigh!> --Dennette 03:23, 5 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Final post

Well, with the opening of school, the anonymous vandals have returned in force. I tried cutting back and letting others handle the reverts, but I've finally come to accept that as noble as its intentions were, the baser side of human nature is an inherent flaw in the paradigm. It was fun being a part of Wikipedia, and I will still include links to many articles on my personal pages, but ... the anal orifice factor is just more than I can deal with. There are many Good People working here, but they are far outnumbered by the foul-mouthed children and others seeking attention. I no longer wish to be a part of this enterprise. --Dennette 14:28, 14 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. - I discovered that a Google search still brought up my User page, so I restored it and added some userboxes ... aside from these cosmetics, I've been Pretty Good about staying away from here. --Dennette 02:37, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sandbox - D&D alignments

The nine alignments can be represented in a grid, as follows:

Lawful Good _{Batman, Dick Tracy, and Indiana Jones}	Neutral Good _{Zorro and Spider-Man}	Chaotic Good _{Starbuck and Malcolm Reynolds}
Lawful Neutral _{James Bond, Odysseus, and Judge Dredd}	Neutral _{Lara Croft and Han Solo}	Chaotic Neutral _{Captain Jack Sparrow and Snake Plissken}
Lawful Evil _{Boba Fett and X-Men's Magneto}	Neutral Evil _{X-Men's Mystique}	Chaotic Evil _{Carl Denham, Riddick, and The Joker}

You're invited...

...to the 5th Washington DC Meetup! Please visit the linked page to RSVP or for more information. All are welcome!
This has been an automated delivery, you can opt-out of future notices by removing your name from the invite list. BrownBot (talk) 00:04, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sandbox - chess

Work in progress (from 1980) … Necessity and Sufficiency in Computer Chess Algoritms. — 20:48, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

D.C. Meetup, Saturday, September 26

The 8th DC Meetup dinner will be held this Saturday, September 26, starting at 6 p.m. The event will be at Burma Restaurant (740 6th St, NW near the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station). For details or to RSVP if you haven't already, see Wikipedia:Meetup/DC 8. (You have received this announcement because your user page indicates that you live in Maryland, Virginia, or DC.) --EdwardsBot (talk) 06:52, 23 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

About Being Spammed

I saw your complaint; the person you want to complain to is User:MZMcBride.
--NBahn (talk) 06:26, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Smithsonian Archives of American Art Backstage Pass

Archives of American Art Backstage Pass! - You are invited!

The Smithsonian is hosting its first Backstage Pass at the Archives of American Art in, Washington, D.C., on Friday, July 29. 10 Wikimedians will experience the behind the scenes aspects of archiving the world's largest collection of documents and photographs related to American art. After a complimentary lunch, an edit-a-thon will take place and prizes will be awarded. Followed by an evening happy hour. We hope you'll participate! SarahStierch (talk) 17:06, 16 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fine Art Edit-a-Thon & DC Meetup 26!

Fine Art Edit-a-Thon & Meetup - Who should come? You should. Really.

FINE ART EDIT-A-THON & DC MEETUP 26 is December 17! The Edit-a-Thon will cover fine art subjects from the Federal Art Project and the meet up will involve Wikipedians from the area as well as Wiki-loving GLAM professionals. You don't have to attend both to attend one (but we hope you do!) Click the link above and sign up & spread the word! See you there! SarahStierch (talk) 20:12, 26 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Smithsonian Institution Archives Edit-a-Thon and Meetup!

Who should come? You should. Really.
	She Blinded Me with Science: Smithsonian Women in Science Edit-a-Thon will be held on Friday, March 30, 2012 at the Smithsonian Archives in Washington, D.C. This edit-a-thon will focus on improving and writing Wikipedia content about women from the Smithsonian who contributed to the sciences. It will be followed by a happy hour meetup! We look forward to seeing you there!

...and if you do not live in the Washington, D.C. area, please forgive the intrusion and you can delete this invite! Sarah (talk) 04:09, 8 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

File:92nd div.jpg listed for deletion

A file that you uploaded or altered, File:92nd div.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Files for deletion. Please see the discussion to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. Cloudbound (talk) 14:24, 8 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You are invited to the "All Things GW" editathon on Saturday, April 20

The "All Things GW" editathon on Saturday, April 20, 2013 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. is a rare chance to go behind the scenes in the University Archives of the GW Libraries and use their unique resources to research and update Wikipedia pages related to The George Washington University and the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. Did you miss our last D.C. history editathon? This is your is your chance to come edit with wiki-friends using different great collection! The event includes a behind-the-scenes tour of the University Archives and a show-and-tell of some of its most interesting treasures, snacks, and the editathon.

Participation is limited to 30 volunteers, so RSVP today! Dominic·t 07:22, 15 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Webinar / edit-a-thon at the National Library of Medicine (NLM)

Join us at the NLM next week, either in person or online, to learn about NLM resources, hear some great speakers, and do some editing!

On Tuesday, 28 May there will be a community Wikipedia meeting at the United States National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland - with a second on Thursday, 30 May for those who can't make it on Tuesday. You can participate either in-person, or via an online webinar. If you attend in person, USB sticks (but not external drives) are ok to use.

Please go to the event page to get more information, including a detailed program schedule.

If you are interested in participating, please register by sending an email to pmhmeet@gmail.com. Please indicate if you are coming in person or if you will be joining us via the webinar. After registering, you will receive additional information about how to get to our campus (if coming in-person) and details about how to join the webinar. Klortho (talk) 05:38, 25 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Have time on Saturday?

I'm sorry for the last-minute notice, but on Saturday, June 8, from 3 to 6 PM, Wikimedia DC and the Cato Institute are hosting a Legislative Data Meetup. We will discuss the work done so far by WikiProject U.S. Federal Government Legislative Data to put data from Congress onto Wikipedia, as well as what more needs to be done. If you have ideas you'd like to contribute, or if you're just curious and feel like meeting up with other Wikipedians, you are welcome to come! Be sure to RSVP here if you're interested.

I hope to see you there!

(You can unsubscribe from future notifications for D.C.-area events by removing your name from this list.)

Harej (talk) 04:02, 6 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikimedia DC Meetup

Dear Fellow Wikipedian in Washington, DC:

I do not know if you know this but on meetup.com there is a group focused on sponsoring meetups for edit-o-thons of Wikipedia called Wikimedia DC. Wikimedia DC is the local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. The meetup group is free to join and Wikimedia DC membership is a minimum of $10 per year. I hope to see you at the next meet up. My best regards, Geraldshields11 Geraldshields11 (talk) 15:13, 14 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

ArbCom elections are now open!

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:51, 23 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy deletion nomination of User:Dennette/Ancestry

A tag has been placed on User:Dennette/Ancestry requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section U5 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page appears to consist of writings, information, discussions, and/or activities not closely related to Wikipedia's goals. Please note that Wikipedia is not a free web hosting service. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such pages may be deleted at any time.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. Legacypac (talk) 15:56, 6 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Speedy deletion nomination of User:Dennette/chess

A tag has been placed on User:Dennette/chess requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section U5 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page appears to consist of writings, information, discussions, and/or activities not closely related to Wikipedia's goals. Please note that Wikipedia is not a free web hosting service. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such pages may be deleted at any time.

If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you may contest the nomination by visiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be removed without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, and you wish to retrieve the deleted material for future reference or improvement, then please contact the deleting administrator, or if you have already done so, you can place a request here. Legacypac (talk) 15:56, 6 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

MfD nomination of User:Dennette/Ancestry

User:Dennette/Ancestry, a page which you created or substantially contributed to (or which is in your userspace), has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Dennette/Ancestry and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of User:Dennette/Ancestry during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Legacypac (talk) 16:35, 6 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

MfD nomination of User:Dennette/sandbox

User:Dennette/sandbox, a page which you created or substantially contributed to (or which is in your userspace), has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; you may participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Dennette/sandbox and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes (~~~~). You are free to edit the content of User:Dennette/sandbox during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. VQuakr (talk) 19:20, 6 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]