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-The Wikimedia community was deeply saddened in early May of 2021 at the death of [[User:SlimVirgin]], also known as SarahSV and Sarah.  She had been an integral part of English Wikipedia since 2004, had a wide range of interests, and was foundational in developing and gaining consensus on many of Wikipedia's core policies. Her 177,000-plus edit history gives us an insightful view of the evolution and history of Wikipedia over the past 16 years. Reflecting on her significance within the community, a number of editors offering condolences on her talk page spoke of the ending of an era.
-Even from her earliest time on Wikipedia, SlimVirgin had no fear of participating in controversial subjects.  Within a week of starting to edit in November 2004 she had created the article on the [[Death of Jeremiah Duggan]], which was related to the [[LaRouche movement]]. By January 2005 she was involved in her first [[Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Lyndon LaRouche 2|arbitration case]], which revolved around the LaRouche topic area. Many other new editors would have been dissuaded by this level of dispute; but she ''increased'' her participation in the project, determined to ensure that only high-quality sources should be used in articles, eventually leading to her establishment of the cornerstone principle of [[Wikipedia:Verifiability, not truth|Verifiability, not truth]],<ref>{{diff|Wikipedia:Verifiability, not truth|205259083|144173144|Diff of Wikipedia:Verifiability, not truth}}</ref> which later influenced the principle of the project not being a vehicle for [[Wikipedia:Tendentious editing#Righting great wrongs|Righting great wrongs]]. She was [[Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/SlimVirgin|nominated for adminship]] in March 2005 by {{u|Michael Snow}}, the first editor of ''[[Wikipedia:The Signpost|The Signpost]]''; a candidacy that was widely endorsed by the community. For many years Sarah's talkpage was the second-most-watchlisted after {{noping|Jimbo Wales}}'s.
-==== Policy development ====
-Sarah [[User:SlimVirgin/Policies|developed a number of policies]] crucial to the project. She was instrumental in creating the early draft of the [[WP:BLP|Biography of living persons]] policy and negotiating its pathway to fully-accepted community policy. Work began in December 2005, following the [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident]]. She continued to watch over this policy throughout her time at Wikipedia, and made nearly half of the edits to this policy, the last in December 2020.
-In 2006, SlimVirgin proposed that the [[Wikipedia:Verifiability|Verifiability]] and [[WP:NOR|No original research]] policies be merged into a consolidated attribution policy. Although that merger did not proceed, her leadership in this area led to significant improvement of both policies, which in turn have informed similar policies on over 70 other Wikipedia projects. In more recent years, Sarah was very active in simplifying, clarifying, and structurally improving the [[Wikipedia:Conflict of interest|Conflict of interest]] guidelines and related pages.
-Sarah was subjected to extensive harassment, stalking, and misogyny, both on- and off-wiki, particularly in the early years of her Wikipedia career. Her experiences helped to inform the community's policies on [[Wikipedia:No personal attacks|personal attacks]], [[Wikipedia:Harassment|harassment]], and the use of external attack sites. Over time, many of these principles have been incorporated into policies developed by the Wikimedia Foundation and the broader Wikimedia community; the current draft [[m:Universal Code of Conduct|Wikimedia community universal code of conduct]] reflects many of those principles.
-A selection of the [[User:SlimVirgin/Policies|policies she developed]] shows the degree to which her work influenced the project as it continued to grow.
-==== Gender gap and creation of the Gender Gap Task Force ====
-In May 2013, Sarah initiated the [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Gender gap task force|Gender Gap Task Force (GGTF)]]. Its purpose is to gather information on the existing gender gap (both editorial and content), and to promote reduction of that gap through recruitment and content development. Starting with just a few editors, the GGTF now has more than 170 participants, and works closely with other Wikiprojects focused on similar topics.
-Since her early years in Wikipedia, Sarah actively sought, in multiple ways, to reduce the gender gap on the English Wikipedia, including participating on the Gender Gap mailing list, helping to promote editing salons focused on relevant subjects, and writing and improving articles about women. Of particular note, Sarah brought the [[Female genital mutilation]] article to [[WP:FA|featured article]] status in 2014. The article was described by the late [[User:Brianboulton|Brianboulton]] as covering "a difficult and challenging topic" as well as being "an important contribution to Wikipedia". [[User:J Milburn|J Milburn]] agreed with this, and went on to congratulate Sarah "for her fortitude in tackling such a difficult and yet important subject". On the [[International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation]], on February 6, 2015, it was [[WP:Today's featured article|Today's featured article]]. It was later recognized with a [[Wikipedia:Million Award|Million Award]].
-==== Featured and good articles; topics of particular interest ====
-SlimVirgin was an eclectic editor who worked on a [[User:SlimVirgin/Articles|broad range of topics]]. Her interests included literature, current events, philosophy, race relations, the Holocaust, religion and faith, conspiracy theories, human and animal rights, and justice. She was highly respected in the FAC community, and the quality of her nominations set new standards for others to aim toward. In addition, Sarah was active on FAC talk, where she was instrumental in setting and improving the standards for successful FA candidates.
-She improved [[Bernard Williams]] to featured article status in December 2004. In 2006 she wrote three featured articles: [[Joel Brand]], [[Rudolph Vrba]], and [[Night (book)]]. [[Brown Dog Affair]] was written in 2007 in collaboration with other editors. In 2009 she wrote [[Abu Nidal]], [[Stanley Green]], and [[Marshalsea]], followed a year later by [[Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah]] and [[Death of Ian Tomlinson]]. In 2014 she was part of the collaboration that took [[Ezra Pound]] to FA standards. Later that year she completed her promotion of [[Female genital mutilation]] to FA.
-When Sarah worked on articles she intended to bring to [[Wikipedia:Good article|good article]] or [[Wikipedia:What is a Featured Article|featured article]] status, she would often make major improvements to many related articles.  Some of these articles are [[The Holocaust]], ''[[Night (book)]]'', [[Joel Brand]], [[Rudolf Vrba]], and [[Vrba–Wetzler report]] in 2006; and ''[[The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science]]'', [[Mary Baker Eddy]], and [[Christian Science]] in 2014. She was continuing her work on [[The Holocaust]] and [[Auschwitz concentration camp]] until her very last edits in mid-April 2021.
-==== Recognition and awards ====
-Sarah worked in many areas and was recognized often by her peers.  Along with the Million Award and [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Editor Retention/Editor of the Week|Editor of the Week]], she received more than 120 [[WP:BARNSTARS|barnstars]] from a multitude of fellow editors.
-Sarah's work was featured over 40 times on the [[Wikipedia:Main page|Main page]] of Wikipedia as [[Wikipedia:Today's featured article|Today's featured article]], and in [[Wikipedia:Did you know|Did you know?]] and [[Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries|On this day]] sections.