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My name is '''Nick'''. I'm an ], mostly ], for many musical projects that regularly perform, record and tour in ]. I also write fiction and non-fiction, teach guitar, run a ], ]/], offer advice and preliminary design of ] & advice on sustainable urban planning, and am involved in the ] education program as part of the ] in Australia. I try and focus my efforts on education and awareness.
My name is '''Nick'''. I'm an ], mostly ], for many musical projects that regularly perform, record and tour in ]. I also write fiction and non-fiction, teach guitar, run a ], ]/], offer advice and preliminary design of ] & advice on sustainable urban planning, and am part of the planning committee for Save The Planet .
I'm interested in pretty much ], but mostly; ], ], ], ], ], ], ], grassroots ], ], the ] of ] and the balance of ] and ].
I'm interested in pretty much ], but mostly; ], ], ], ], ], ], ], grassroots ], ], the ] of ] and the balance of ] and ].
Contributions:
Most often, I edit, write and copyedit articles. I enjoy tackling bigger tasks like creating articles where they don't yet exist or expanding articles that are very small or of obscure subject matter. I contribute my own original research to wikipedia all the time and do so with the utmost importance placed on information of truth, sometimes such information is not easily verifiable which is where we come to another policy that requires amendment to allow direct observation and obscure sources to be verified.
I use literally everything I can get my hands on for sources of information, published or unpublished, like; books, zines, websites, historical societies, booklets, other encyclopedias, street directories, maps, everything. Much of the stuff I contribute information to tends not to attract too many views let alone discussion. Through 2006-2007 I forget to sign in as myself 90% of the time, and in 2007 I stopped editing WP a fair bit as I was living away from home to study at uni. Since Sep/Oct 2008, I've been more organised on WP.
I expand alot of river and creek articles, for some reason they don't get as much attention by WP editors as even the bridges that cross them! Or the cities that rely on them! I was the first Misplaced Pages editor to add reference to the 250 individual nations that occupied Australia prior to European settlement in the leads of the Australia, victoria and Melbourne articles, as well as the articles for many suburbs in Melbourne, unfortunately this didn't happen until 2008! Yes! There was no mention of them in those intros before I added it.
I'm also an advocate of using Indigenous Australian names in preference over European names as they are more descriptive in their respective languages and were the original names used. Most European names don't actually apply to their subjects, many try to emulate locations or places in Europe, such as the name of the town known as Cowes, Victoria.
I come across a general lack of information regarding the need for Public transport and Transit oriented development in almost every transport-related article I read, so I end up spending a fair bit of time adding this too, then people tag it and suggest that such concepts don't exist! The ignorance!
Complaints:
Misplaced Pages is one of the most comprehensive encyclopedias in existance, it is a good foundation and starting point, a springboard into more specific information. It could potentially also provide people access to very detailed and specific information, this is and could increasingly be, of great importance to everyone. But due to such policies as the Neutral Point of View (NPOV) that privileges "mainstream points of view" and referencing policies that are biased towards mass media sources, the inclusion of detailed and specific information is often denied. I may seem confrontational at times but I assure you I'm just trying to generate some dialogue on such matters in the interest of improving Misplaced Pages. I don't like the idea of it becoming stagnant and holding policies up as absolute.
An example of whats wrong with Misplaced Pages can be found in that an article about an alcohol advertisment noitulovE, can become a featured article and yet far more significant, yet obscure, subject matter is seemingly ignored. Misplaced Pages could be used to shed light on obscure subject matter and bring it the attention and awareness that it deserves as mainstream bias can distort a subjects true significance. Despite these failings however, in general, I believe wikipedia hosts less bias, more usefulness and far greater comprehensiveness than any other source of information available to us today, notable exceptions being specific scientific and medical information.
I also sometimes wonder why we persist with including critics reviews and opinions on WP. These people are most often paid to give their opinion and it is unreliable. Also, by its very nature opinion is just that, personal opinion! Not appropriate for WP. Needless to mention the fact that judging artwork as 'good' or 'bad' is a time wasting endeavor. My impatience for editors who consistently tag and revert is wearing thin, editors must allow information to be referenced and contribute such, tagging and reverting is counter productive, contribute, don't tag and revert.
