User:Wasted Time R
So named after the Eagles' striking "Wasted Time" and "Wasted Time (Reprise)" from Hotel California. And a metaphor for WP editing?
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[edit] Not a waste if I'm an 'influencer' or 'protector'?
- March 2007 interview by TechPresident.com
- January 2008 (anonymous) mention in PARC Augmented Social Cognition blog
- March 2008 story by Eve Fairbanks in The New Republic
- long Slashdot thread in reaction – lots of flames! hey, it's Slashdot ...
- reaction in Jonathan Martin's Politico.com blog
- reaction in The Economist's Democracy in America blog
- reaction in Institute for Politics Democracy & The Internet blog
- reaction in Matthew Sheffield's NewsBusters.org blog
- and also mentions and links in various blogwatchers such as tailrank.com, roundups such as TechPresident.com's Daily Digest and signandsight.com, etc.
- and discussion by Fairbanks herself on NPR's On the Media show
- referenced later by Matthew Sheffield in this August 2008 Washington Times column
- April 2008 appearance on NPR Bryant Park Project show
- April 2008 appearance on BBC World Service radio program The World Today
- April 2008 appearance on CBC Radio One Search Engine show
- May 2008 front-page story by Kelly Heyboer in The Star-Ledger (link expired)
- same version with photo posted in Star-Ledger Digital Life blog
- carried by Newhouse News Service
- versions of that ran in the Houston Chronicle, ran in the Sun Journal of Lewiston, Maine, and ran in The Age in Melbourne, Australia
- May 2008 appearance on WCBS 880 radio
- December 2008 interviewed by BBC World Service producer about Scorpions album/Internet Watch Foundation/ISP blocking episode, might have been an unnamed referent in this BBC story
[edit] Advice for editing history articles
Find source material that isn't on Google. You'll have the field to yourself.
[edit] Advice for editing political articles
Don't.
[edit] Why it is or isn't a waste, Part 3
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[edit] A's and faves
6 FA articles: I've been the lead writer of: Early life and military career of John McCain • George W. Romney
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- I've been the co-lead writer of: John McCain
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- I've made a significant contribution (#2 editor) to: Nancy Reagan • Saxbe fix • Zoo TV Tour
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- I've made fewer but important contributions to: Pat Nixon • City of Blinding Lights • Temple Israel (Memphis, Tennessee) • maybe others?
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1 MILHIST A-class articles I've been the lead writer of: John S. McCain, Jr.
36 GA articles I've been the lead writer of:
- 2 I've been a major contributor towards: Cornell Plantations • Cynthia Lennon
- Also 2 GA that are now FA and thus off this list.
47 DYK appearances: 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) • Why Baby Why • U2 360° Tour • Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today! • World Conference on Human Rights • Carolina in My Mind • I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home) • Jay Weinberg • LatinoJustice PRLDEF • United States House Permanent Select Committee on Aging • Hematological Cancer Research Investment and Education Act • Queens Borough Hall • Racing in the Street • Good Shepherd (song) • Citizen Action • Billboard Touring Awards • Assumption Preparatory School • Automobile Manufacturers Association • United States Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs • Running to Stand Still • Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review • Ultraviolet (Light My Way) • Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour) • Sweet Thursday (album) • Arizona SB1070 (failed GAN) • Border Governors Conference • The American Israelite • Waitin' on a Sunny Day • Youngstown (song) • Nannygate • Enough Is Enough (organization) • United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture • United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council • Spying on United Nations leaders by United States diplomats • Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 • Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation • Main Street Connect • Auditorio Monte do Gozo • Monte do Gozo • Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2012 • Heather Zichal • Baby Don't Go • Budget Control Act of 2011 • Jerome J. Shestack • Alabama HB 56 • New World Center • 1111 Lincoln Road
Beyond these, I've created and/or been the major author of literally hundreds and hundreds of Wikipedia articles. Some of my favorites:
Started towards GA-level quality but need completion/returning to: James Taylor • Rod Stewart • George McGovern
Articles that look good in parts but I don't think I've fully captured the subject on: Legal Services Corporation
Articles I'm #1 editor on by frequency that I'm not happy with current state of: The Animals • The Rascals • Bruce Springsteen • Whitewater controversy • John S. McCain, Sr. • Rudy Giuliani • Dixie Chicks • The Allman Brothers Band • Bob Seger • and others I'm no doubt forgetting
[edit] Advice for self
Awake, you sleepers, from your sleep! Rouse yourselves, you slumberers ... who are wasting your years in vain pursuits that neither profit nor save.
[edit] Advice for new editors
Look before you leap.
[edit] Early history
Starting in January 2005 I made around 1,000 edits as anons User: 68.197.107.71 and User: 67.108.122.62, never feeling committed to the idea that WP converges to quality or that anyone reads these articles. I'm still not sure on either account ... a page view count mechanism would be really helpful. In May 2005 I began using this account; within a little more than a month I had another 1,000 edits. Too much!?
- 2008 update ... a page count tool is finally here!!
[edit] Why it's a waste, Part 1
The biggest problems in WP articles, especially those dealing with popular culture:
- Excessive detail in the wrong places, such as an article's intro
- Inconsistent levels of detail within an article or across a set of articles
- Just plain too much detail
<time passes>
Regarding convergence to quality, I think it can happen for articles on subjects important enough to warrant attention but obscure enough to not get too much attention. Political subjects or contentious history, forget it. Popular culture that attracts a lot of people, forget it. Even if you get these kinds of articles right, someone else will come along and mess it up. Even if you and a bunch of other editors hammer out differences and get it right, in a short while other people will come, ignore your agreements, and mess it all up. Even if you watchlist these articles and fix the mess ups as they happen, eventually you'll get tired, the hordes won't, and down it will all go.
Regarding if anyone is reading, one sanity check is to Google a subject and to see how high the WP article shows up. If it's not in the first two pages of results, chances are good no one's going to find it. I have a feeling a large subset of WP articles are only read by editors, not by "real" readers looking for information.
<time passes>
The first article I ever edited is also just about the worst article in Wikipedia, List of best-selling music artists. Missing or bogus data, pov agendas, pure vandalism, heavy churn, perpetually under VfD. The edit was this: [1]. I picked this article because I could tell it was pretty worthless, so if I blundered it totally, no harm done. The same still applies.
<time passes>
[edit] Proper usage in music articles
[edit] Quotes and italics
Popular music article writers, please memorize Wikipedia:Music#Albums, bands, and songs. Albums go in italics, songs go in double quotes, bands are just proper nouns, and only the first reference to the title subject of an article (and any alternate names of it) go in bold. How hard is this to understand? Yet there are jillions of music articles that get this wrong in every which way.
[edit] Tour names
As specified in WP:WikiProject Music/MUSTARD#Formatting, concert tour names are being done throughout Wikipedia as regular proper nouns, not italics or quotes. See Talk:Zoo TV Tour#Tour name conventions for the original rationale.
[edit] Punctuation
Another common fault is placing punctuation inside the double quotes used for song titles, such as:
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Her biggest hits were "Fool to Love," "Cry Every Day," and "Tears for Years."
Take a look at Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Quotation marks. Song titles are clearly the case where the punctuation is not "part of the sense" of the thing being quoted, and therefore should be outside the double quotes. Thus the above should be:
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Her biggest hits were "Fool to Love", "Cry Every Day", and "Tears for Years".
I've seen more than a few cases where people make the same mistake in their coding with italics:
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Her most popular albums included ''No Love Supreme,'' ''Sorrow Tomorrow,'' and ''Love is Pain.''
which is really ridiculous – do the titles on the real album covers include commas and periods?
It is true that other publications (New York Times, Rolling Stone) put punctuation inside the double quotes in the first case, but Wikipedia standards are clear that you don't; see WP:MOS-T#Punctuation for another statement to this effect.
[edit] Barnstars
Not sure I really believe in this metaphor, but ...
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The Minor Barnstar | |
| For making minor edits to improve the quality in the Il Divo article I award you this Barnstar Rosameliamartinez 09:10, 12 March 2006 (UTC) |
Keep up the good job with the many concert [tour] articles. I'd award one of those stars, but there's some silly administrative debate on the appropriate star to hand out for WP:MUSIC contributions. --Madchester 21:20, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
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The Editor's Barnstar | |
| I, Eseymour, award you this Editor's Barnstar for your fine work in leading the dismantling of Hillary Rodham Clinton controversies and integrating the content into appropriate separate articles. Awarded on the 13th of November, 2007. |
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The Barnstar of Good Humor | |
| Thanks for the laugh from the Britney Spears comment at WP:GAR. I’m envious that your life is so carefree as to allow you to place concern on |
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The Wasted Time Barnstar | |
| For putting up with all the garbage that goes along with political articles and for being able to keep cool for 3 years without running away like many of us have considered. I will waste some of my time to give you this waste of time barnstar. STX 19:23, 6 February 2008 (UTC) |
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The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| This barnstar is for your tireless efforts in creating and improving the Hillary Clinton article, please keep up the good work. Thanks! Dwilso talk 04:04, 18 March 2008 (UTC) |
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The Resilient Barnstar | |
| For being able to listen to criticism, and improve in your ability for NPOV writing a very informative section on the Cultural and political image of Hillary Clinton. Kudos!! ≈ jossi ≈ (talk) 03:11, 20 March 2008 (UTC) |
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The Original Barnstar | |
| To Wasted Time R, on the occasion of press coverage of your wiki work. Few have represented Wikipedia so well and at its highest level of excellence. As others have said, well done. Congratulations! -Susanlesch (talk) 00:33, 4 April 2008 (UTC) |
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The Special Barnstar | |
| To Wasted Time R on a very special occasion, in recognition of outstanding contributions to Wikipedia. Susanlesch (talk) 02:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC) |
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The Half Barnstar | |
| For incredible collaboration to get John McCain up to GA status. Keep up the good work! Eustress (talk) 19:37, 18 April 2008 (UTC) |
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The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar | |
| For going above and beyond the call of duty to deal with the Hillary Rodham Clinton FAC when the nominator didn't follow up. Ealdgyth - Talk 14:41, 29 April 2008 (UTC) |
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The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| For this, I, J.delanoygabsanalyze, hereby award you this Tireless Contributer Barnstar. I don't think I have ever seen such dedication anywhere, let alone on Wikipedia. Congratulations, and keep up the good work! J.delanoygabsanalyze 03:16, 1 June 2008 (UTC) |
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United States barnstar of national merit | |
| I award you the barnstar of national merit in recognition of your ceaseless contributions of excellence in the United States Senator John McCain article and biographical series. —
∼ Justmeherenow ( ) 19:58, 18 August 2008 (UTC) |
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The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar |
| For your participation in the Spring 2009 GAN backlog elimination drive, in which you reviewed 5 articles, you are granted this barnstar! Great work! —The participants on the Spring 2009 GAN backlog elimination drive 21:24, 31 March 2009 (UTC) |
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The Original Barnstar | |
| For all of your hard effort in getting War Tour up to GA which, if it is indeed the first Tour article to make it to that level, is an accomplishment to be proud of. MelicansMatkin (talk) 00:03, 14 April 2009 (UTC) |
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The Special Barnstar | |
| For bringing the Running to Stand Still article up to WP:NSONGS standard, and then some... --Merbabu (talk) 23:14, 20 November 2009 (UTC) |
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The Barnstar of Good Humor | |
| For commendable patience and tolerance in the face of his GA reviewer's continually missed deadlines and inane complaints about phrasing, I award Wasted Time R this barnstar of good humo(u)r. Steve Smith (talk) 10:43, 4 December 2009 (UTC) |
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The Guidance Barnstar | |
| Awarded to User:Wasted Time R Appreciation for splitting that "time" between your own excellence in editing without forgetting about those of us still plodding along. Leahtwosaints (talk) 01:34, 29 March 2010 (UTC) |
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The Teamwork Barnstar | |
| For you excellent work on the Arizona SB1070 article, repeatedly editing and contributing with other users. Theo10011 (talk) 19:01, 3 May 2010 (UTC) |
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The Original Barnstar | |
| Thank you for helping me out three and a half years ago when I did not completely understand how things worked. You and User:JayJasper are tied as the most neutral wikipedia editors. I am proud to have collaborated with y'all.Southern Texas (talk) 22:40, 9 December 2010 (UTC) |
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The Barnstar of Diligence | |
| For extraordinary scrutiny, precision, and community service. Cheers! —Eustress talk 22:02, 7 February 2012 (UTC) |
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The Barnstar of National Merit | |
| This tricolor-beribboned barnstar is awarded for the recipient's even-handedness in addressing nation-of-origin issues on Wikipedia. (And, by the way, cogratulations on the George W. Romney bio's having become an article especially featured on Wikipedia!) | ||
| this WikiAward was given to Wasted Time R by Hodgdon's secret garden (talk) on 23:37, 14 February 2012 (UTC) |
[edit] Why it's a waste, Part 2
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Too much wasted time has taken its toll. Have wiped my 1000-item watchlist and only put back a few obligations and obscure things I care about. Edits should be few(er), once I finish some things I started. |
From December 2006. Didn't work.
[edit] Why Trivia sections are bad
All sorts of articles, mostly popular culture ones but some other kinds as well, have picked up sections named Trivia. This is not a good idea!
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a catchbin for every factoid about a subject, as some non-Wikipedia popular culture web pages are. Wikipedia articles should have a cohesiveness of content. If a "Trivia" item is really important, it should be put into one of the mainline sections of text in the appropriate spot. If a "Trivia" item is somewhat important, it can often be pushed down into a subordinate article (such as an album or song article for a musical artist, rather than the main article). If a "Trivia" item isn't important, it should be left out of any article! It's that simple.
Trivia sections are the lazy way out; they represent no organisation, no structure, no cohesion. They should all be gotten rid of, something I've tried to do when I've encountered them in articles I've worked on.
See Wikipedia:WikiProject Music/MUSTARD#Trivia for a guideline against Trivia sections in music articles.
And Wikipedia:Avoid trivia sections in articles for a guideline against Trivia sections in all articles.
[edit] Why it's mostly a waste, Part 4
