User:The Devil's Advocate

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The Devil's Advocate Name This user wants his or her name to be confidential XXX This user is male. This user is from Earth. en This user is a native speaker of English. agn This user is agnostic. This user wishes they had a girlfriend. This user is straight, but totally sympathises with Lesbians! C This user can't make up their mind if Coke or Pepsi is better and drinks both. P This user is of multiple ancestries. ∞ This user is an ageless Immortal. This user acts like an administrator on the English Wikipedia but really isn't. This user watches over Wikipedia with the help of Twinkle! This user is a WikiDragon: making massive, bold edits everywhere. This user is a true Wikipedian and allows everyone in the universe to completely rewrite every edit he has written on Wikipedia. This user is a true Wikipedian and reserves the right to completely rewrite edits by every user on Wikipedia. This alleged user can be said to maintain a policy or other custom of neutrality or other ambiguity-related quality on some or all issues that may be potentially controversial to some alleged people. This user isn't looking to receive any barnstars. This user doesn't in fact even own a barn. This user advocates WikiPeace. This user loves Wikipe-tan, the cutest personification of Wikipedia. This user has made over 2,000 edits on Wikipedia. This user's personality is so much more than the few userboxes describing it. ""All men can be criminals, if tempted; all men can be heroes, if inspired." " - G. K. Chesterton This user is interested in beauty. HDTV This user has a High-definition television (HDTV) set, and/or tuner box, to receive high-definition digital television. ubx-5 This user uses entirely too many userboxes.

Contributions | Sand Box | Drafts (1, 2, 3, 4) | Links| General Musings

My editing philosophy

In my editing I strive to take the approach of a Bohemian Wikipedian. I draw my inspiration from the values espoused in the film Moulin Rouge! of Truth, Beauty, Freedom, and Love. These also reflect the kind of values I try to uphold in life. As it pertains to Wikipedia I apply these values in this way:

• Truth - Far too often people take the dictum of verifiability, not truth too far by presuming that if a reliable source can be found to make the claim then it is ok for Wikipedia to say it in the editorial voice. Usually this occurs because of an editor's own bias seeping into his or her editing process. At times because there is an absence of contravening sources editors similarly feel confident in using stronger language than that of their sources. However, I believe this goes against an unspoken rule that Wikipedia should always strive for factual accuracy. I seek to counter the systemic bias that often works its way into contentious topic areas in pursuit of the greater truth. That means using the most neutral wording the sources support and, save for "sky is blue"-type situations, in-text attribution should be the norm. The goal is making the project a place to find the whole story with eyes unclouded by prejudice, contrary to the more controlled sources of information in the world.
• Beauty - When it comes to any article one is likely to find more than a few instances of repetition and less-than-engaging wording. One of my objectives in contributing to Wikipedia is to improve the stylistic appearance of any article I come across. That means, to provide an example, trimming down the instances of paragraphs starting with the same letter, and especially the same word. Another big issue is avoiding the timeline-like style certain articles about ongoing events tend to take on out of a general apathy of editors. By beautifying the project wherever I can my hope is that more readers will be engaged with the repository of knowledge Wikipedia represents.
• Freedom - This project is first and foremost an experiment in information democracy. Submitting the whole of human ingenuity and knowledge to the task of building a source of knowledge for all requires great care and consideration. As predicted by the iron law of oligarchy, Wikipedia has fallen prey to the same abusive tendencies of any governance system. Rule by consensus may appear to be a policy to cherish, but it is all too often misused by editors to impose their own will on the project. Assuming good faith keeps us willfully blind to some extent about what is taking place. Look through any article in a contentious topic area and you are liable to find a consortium of editors from the same ideological persuasion who have become the page's self-appointed gatekeepers. Enterprising users who go against their will often find themselves driven away, whether it is by falling into a revert trap or simply becoming frustrated with endless stone-walling. Unfortunately, Wikipedia looks more favorably upon the gatekeepers as they greatly outnumber their opponent. Always looking for a way to satisfy all parties without compromising my principles and drawing attention to the biases of all sides is the best way I can think of to insure this experiment remains open to as many people as possible.
• Love - Above all things I believe in WikiLove. WikiLove is like oxygen. WikiLove lifts us up where we belong. All you need is WikiLove. For me it means keeping an open mind on all things. Were more editors to leave themselves open it would be easier to defuse most disputes. Remain open to having your edits rewritten. Remain open to changing your mind. Remain open to changing your actions even if you won't change your mind. Too much potential is lost in the ideological rigidity of groupthink and confirmation bias. Pursuit of WikiLove means that the only things we should try to take seriously are the feelings of others. Sometimes it is hard to stay cool and we have all been there at one point or another. Keep in mind that we do this not for ourselves, but for all those who may witness this body of work.

To sum it all up, my goal is to try and uphold the idea of what Wikipedia can be, while dealing with the reality of what Wikipedia is at this moment. More than anything I want this project to be a great service to all truth-seekers in the world. It should be a light of knowledge in dark places when all other lights go out. One could say that I am a true believer when it comes to this idea and, even if it leaves me battered and bruised, I will strive to defend the principles of this project above all else.

Things to do

• Create article on E*Trade baby.
• Turn Wikipedia:Inaccuracy into a fitting proposal for a guideline.
• Write essay on "camping" at articles.
• Write essay on "railroading" by groups to potentially link with camping.
• Write essay on "echo chamber" to discuss groupthink on Wikipedia to link from camping and railroading.
• Write essay on "doubling down" in contentious disputes.
• Create article on Consolidated Restaurant Operations for possible merge with Dixie House article.
• Create article on WiseGeek.
• Expand article on Google Panda and content farm.
• Create article on Caroline Rose Hunt.
• Create article on Maritz, Wolff & Co
• Create article on Sheppard King
• Create article on Americas Lodging Investment Summit
• Expand AAA Five Diamond Award article.
• Rewrite Perkins Coie article.
• Rewrite articles on Rosewood properties.
• Expand New World China Land article.
• Rewrite articles on Resort and Hotel.
• Expand Sowwah article.
• Create article on Sonia Cheng.
• Write Essay on under-served topic areas.
• Create article on US Azeris Network.
• Write Essay on wikipartisans.
• Create article on Ben Swann
• Expand article on Stefaan Engels
• Create article on Chuck Engle
• Create article on Running Times Magazine
• Improve article on Runner's World Magazine
• Create article on Melissa Gillette
• Create article on Doug Kurtis
• Expand article on Association of Road Racing Statisticians
• Create article on indoor marathons
• Turn Wikipedia:Notability (fiction) into a fitting proposal for a guideline.
• Create article on Tim Siedell

Articles I've created

• Grassroots fundraising
• Kosovo independence precedent
• 2008 Andean diplomatic crisis
• 2008 unrest in Kosovo
• International Steering Group for Kosovo
• Kosovan local elections, 2008
• David E. Carter
• European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation
• 2008 Georgia-Russia crisis‎
• 2008 Djiboutian-Eritrean border conflict
• 2008 Ukrainian political crisis
• 2008 unrest in Bolivia
• Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers
• Global financial crisis of 2008
• North American integration
• Xue Hanqin
• Krista Branch

Articles where I've made major contributions

• Moneybomb
• North American Union
• Conspiracy theory
• NAFTA Superhighway
• Late-2000s recession
• Battle of the Kodori Valley
• Twelve Oaks Mall
• Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam
• Collapse of the World Trade Center
• 7 World Trade Center
• 1948 Arab–Israeli War