Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by A. B. (talk | contribs) at 16:42, 2 July 2006 (corrected links after username change). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Notice to other Wikipedians: requested username change

See my request; here's what I wrote:

Please change User:Bonnyman to User:A. B. for privacy reasons. When I first became active, I thought that by changing my signature handle to A. B., I would preserve my anonymity, but my name still shows up in many places. I don't need perfect anonymity (I don't care if Wikipedians know my name), but it's a little creepy that my name shows up on Google searchs, allowing non-Wikipedians (especially industry colleagues) to look at my talk page, then my contributions. I'd rather change it now while I still have a low edit count (under 1000) than later.

Once the change takes affect, I will also edit any remaining pages where I see my user name to reflect the name change. If anyone has any concerns, please contact me by e-mail. I will keep this notice on my user and talk pages a week or two after the change takes affect.

--A. B. 13:40, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Welcome to my user page. I work hard to ensure that any edits I make are fully researched and documented using verifiable sources.

If you leave me a message on my talk page, I will respond there to avoid fragmenting a discussion.

--A. B. 19:17, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

It's the content, stupid

Content contributors are the most valuable members

In the time I've been involved with Misplaced Pages, I've noticed a preoccupation in the Misplaced Pages community with formatting, rebuking new users, etc.

The broader world that uses Misplaced Pages as a resource comes for the content, not the community. While these other community-oriented things are important, even critical, they are still secondary to Misplaced Pages acquiring more good content.

Biting the Newcomers

I'm especially concerned with the quickness with which new user's first articles are tagged with various notices noting deficiencies, yet without any follow-up comments on user pages offering explanation, encouragement, coaching and, most of all, genuine thanks for contributing comments. It's the content contributors that bring the real value.

A vanity page, a dictionary-type entry or a non-notable page from a new user is not an offense -- it's potentially the first step on the road to someone making real contributions to the content of Misplaced Pages. Yes, it's important to uphold the quality, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

The same applies to draconian edits to new pages when peremptorily applied. I know early on, when I got peremptorily slapped for a well-intended (if somewhat incorrect) addition, I was pretty offended and just about quit. A tactful sentence or two on my user page explaining the reversion would have been helpful.

An exercise for new-page and new-user patrollers

Track the newcomers that post new articles and look at what happens to their articles. Read the tone of the tags and messages from the perspective of new users that have just given Misplaced Pages their first shot.

Then see how much those that get slapped early on subsequently go on to contribute.

Other Misplaced Pages stuff I spend serious time on

Cultivating and sticking up for newcomers that add content

I spend a lot of time welcoming new users that add new articles, thanking them for their material ... and then going to bat for them when their first articles get tagged for deletion.

Obviously I don't do this for nasty things like attack pages, but many currently prolific contributors started their Misplaced Pages careers with a vanity article, a dictionary entry or some other "deficient" article. I try to get the article taggers to see things from the newcomer's point of view and to coach them rather than delete their articles.

Fixing all my own typos

You can't win 'em all. For a real measure of my Misplaced Pages contributions, take my total number of contributions and divide by 2 (or 3) -- the rest are typo fixes.

User subpages

To do list

Useful Misplaced Pages policy and how-to links

Sources for future articles and edits

• Knoxville, Tennessee
• William Gannaway Brownlow
• John Bell Brownlow
• Edmund Pendleton Gaines
• Tennessee history
• Permit class submarines
• General submarine resources
• Other resources

Articles I've contributed to

Useful snippets of text for talk pages