User:GRuban

Did you know ... that the aluminum smelting plant in Tursunzade is the largest aluminum manufacturing plant in Central Asia? On the main page on 13 March, 2006
Did you know ... that Lavastorm, a web design company during the dot-com bubble, split into two companies focusing on revenue assurance and mobile games? On the main page on 25 Dec, 2006
Did you know ... that Circle of Chalk, a Yuan Dynasty play, is still being performed in European versions set in 14th-century China, Soviet Georgia and East Germany? On the main page on June 1, 2008
Did you know ... that to get her first job in television, Melissa Bachman worked four months for free, drove 150 miles (240 km) daily, and supported herself as a waitress? On the main page on 25 January, 2016
Did you know ... that before becoming a successful pulp magazine illustrator, Modest Stein was an aspiring assassin until he dumped his dynamite in a Pittsburgh outhouse? On the main page on 30 January 2016
Did you know ... that Becca Pizzi completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days, and accepted a marriage proposal on the mound before throwing out the first pitch at Fenway Park? On the main page on 17 December 2016
Did you know ... that between modelling for Victoria's Secret, Calvin Klein, and Prada, Lyndsey Scott develops mobile apps for iOS? On the main page on 15 September 2017
Did you know ... that Microsoft's Brad Smith has filed multiple data privacy lawsuits against the US government? On the main page on 6 June 2018
Did you know ... that Raphaëlle Boitel worked as a contortionist street performer at age eight to earn tuition for circus school? On the main page on 8 April, 2019
Did you know ... that when Elly Mayday was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she not only continued to model, but appeared in pictorials with a bald head from chemotherapy and surgery scars? On the main page on 28 March, 2019
Did you know ... that Summer Rayne Oakes has been called "the world's first eco-model" because she only models clothes made from organic or recycled materials? On the main page on 23 July, 2019
Did you know ... that teenage CEO Alina Morse's sugar-free candy company had US$6 million in sales when she was thirteen years old? On the main page on 28 August, 2019
Did you know ... that novelist Leslie Schwartz has published a memoir about the 22 books she read in jail while recovering from alcoholism? On the main page on 25 January 2020
Did you know ... that nine-year-old Dana Fischer is the youngest winner of a cash prize at a Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix, beating 94 percent of the mostly adult players in 2020? On the main page on 25 April, 2020
Did you know ... that after winning a place in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Mia Kang became suicidal from a modeling-related eating disorder and credits the combat sport Muay Thai for saving her life? On the main page on 27 April 2020
Did you know ... that Jenny Kim's victory in the 2017 Miss Supranational beauty pageant marked the first time that a contestant representing South Korea won a major international pageant? On the main page on 12 September, 2020
Did you know ... that women called Honey Badgers are among the most prominent men's rights activists? On the main page on 04 October, 2020
Did you know ... that Nabil Ahmad became a comedian after a friend signed him up for a reality show as a prank? On the main page on 18 December, 2020
Did you know ... that cosmic horror Cthulhu has run for President of the United States in every election since 1996? On the main page on 1 April, 2021
Did you know ... that role-playing-game supplement GURPS Steampunk was the most detailed definition of the steampunk genre when it was published? On the main page on 16 April, 2021
Did you know ... that filmmaker Matthias Hoene won an award for a commercial of dogs having sex? On the main page on 21 May, 2021
Did you know ... that the documentary series Exotic and Unusual Fishes of North America included a poaching incident with an arrest? On the main page on 26 November, 2021
Did you know ... that Karolína Huvarová quipped that she earned her position as men's hockey coach "in bed"? On the main page on 31 December, 2021
Did you know ... that Utah & Ether's five-year, 30-country graffiti-tagging tour ended when a single dad got Ether in a headlock? On the main page on 17 February 2022
Did you know ... that Malika Louback believes her three engineering degrees make her a better fashion model? On the main page on 30 March, 2022
Did you know ... that Yulia Tolopa, a single mother from Russia, has fought for Ukraine in the war in Donbas since she was 18 years old? On the main page on 12 April 2022
Did you know ... that military volunteer Maria Berlinska led the report that let women hold combat positions in the Ukrainian military? On the main page on 15 April 2022
Did you know ... that J. T. Blatty was a tennis star and US Army captain before photographing military volunteers in Ukraine? On the main page on 17 May 2022
Did you know ... that Inna Derusova was the first woman to be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine? On the main page on 22 May 2022
Did you know ... that after Florida schools banned 54 mathematics books, Chaz Stevens petitioned that they also ban the Bible? On the main page on 22 August, 2022
Did you know ... ... that the founder of the Guide to the Free World, helping people leave Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, said she was told: "It's good that you get out of Russia, but a pity that you won't be shot"? On the main page on 27 October 2022
Did you know ... that when baker Ruby Tandoh (pictured) publicly came out, she mocked critics who suggested that she had romanced a male contest judge? On the main page on 11 January, 2023
Did you know ... that trans man Iszac Henig alternated wins against trans woman Lia Thomas on the way to the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming Championship? On the main page on 14 February 2023
Did you know ... that after being featured on a Lithuanian website, Maya and Yehuda Devir got so many followers that they thought Instagram had broken? On the main page on 26 April 2023
Did you know ... that transgender activist Ky Schevers transitioned to male, detransitioned to female, then retransitioned as transmasculine and genderqueer? On the main page on 14 May 2023
Did you know ... that when Sarah Jane Baker was released after 30 years, she was the United Kingdom's longest serving transgender prisoner? On the main page on 8 November 2023
This user has been editing Wikipedia for at least fifteen years.
Identified as a precious editor on 17 September 2017
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Our work together here should be our armor, not some sharp, angry, burning sword. I would strongly recommend that everyone here find an article to work on for a while; not the cliche "random article", but something that gives you a nice tug at the heartstrings. It feels great to be out there doing work on something you genuinely care about, and I assure you it'll help you regain the sense of why you're here.

Personal[edit]

This user has been on Wikipedia for 18 years, 3 months and 14 days.
This user has publicly declared that he has a conflict of interest regarding these Wikipedia articles:

My Wiki-bio, circa 2015, for an article about me by a journalist.

Professionally, I'm a software engineer. (That's a computer programmer that's more full of themselves.) My longest stint was for a company which knows everything except how to spell its name, then another few years for a small software company; I currently work for my uncle. I've written most of a few articles about each, see the box to the right. I've been a Wikipedian longest.

I got to do this neat thing for the earlier one, which helps lots of people find free (as-in-speech) images, including those usable for this project. Using it and other tools I've found over 4,000 images to illustrate articles and put them on Wikimedia Commons. Here is my images to-do list.

You'll notice the articles I've written have mostly gotten better over time. The little icons by the name of each article are the quality rating, assigned by other people. They are, in order: Stub: very short/incomplete (but most of the articles on the Wikipedia are in this category); Start: just the bare minimum; : C; B; Good article (1/200); A (rarely used); Featured Article: one of the best on the project (1/1000). My early articles, at the tops of the lists below, are mostly start and stub class, while my more recent ones, usually at the bottoms are mostly Bs. None of the last grades yet, but eventually! The numbers following are the average daily page views for each.

Barnstars[edit]

Informal awards, when editors liked something I did. Appreciated! Actual awarding thereof may generally be found in my talk page archives.

Extended content
I Angelbo award you this Barnstar for your game and RPG related contributions Angelbo 04:14, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
The Article Rescue Barnstar
I award you this barnstar for the rescue and referencing of Sue Fink, Susan Owens and Wallace Reyburn ϢereSpielChequers 15:45, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
The Socratic Barnstar
For your well phrased arguments at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Anders Blixt. Pcap ping 15:31, 10 February 2010 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Good Humor
Thank you for the good sense and the shared smile. Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 01:04, 20 October 2011 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Diplomacy
Thank you for such a practical choice on the C shell article. Msnicki (talk) 22:06, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
What a Brilliant Idea Barnstar
Your idea to look at FA nomination was clever. While not the whole story, it is an interesting way to gather some relevant information. S Philbrick(Talk) 14:03, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

(That's referring to the study I did for WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Gender gap task force when someone asked whether it really mattered to Wikipedia article content that only 16% of us editors were female? I showed that at least for one reasonably sized subset of Wikipedia:Featured Articles biographies, women wrote about women 2x as often as about men, and men and undeclared editors wrote about men 5x as often as about women.)

The Original Barnstar
Thanks for protecting my Photo and Others from Copyright Infringement. I have corrected my name name on Panaramio. Thanks ChuckBerglund (talk) 14:09, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

(This is about https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/File:Atmospheric_Refraction_Sunrise.jpg)

The Reviewer's Barnstar
This is for your valuable efforts for reviewing articles under pending changes protection. Thank you PATH SLOPU 14:28, 14 June 2019 (UTC)
Valued Picture Barnstar
For your timely addition of the photo to María José Cristerna‎ while the DYK entry was still on the main page. This is one case where a picture was worth more than a thousand words. Nick Number (talk) 18:38, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
For stepping up at RfA. Ad Orientem (talk) 23:50, 9 November 2019 (UTC)
Valued Picture Barnstar
That's a great pic you added to Tanitoluwa Adewumi I hadn't seen that one before - and everything I had found is in copyright. Narky Blert (talk) 22:50, 5 May 2020 (UTC)
The Special Barnstar
For your careful, detailed, continuing review of 2channel. Thanks! By the way, the Barubora (2005) source contains more than enough for a whole Ayashii World and an actually coherent Futaba Channel article! Plan to write/DYK both of those this year. Hopefully 2channel too if it passes GA! Psiĥedelisto (talkcontribs) please always ping! 02:16, 3 June 2020 (UTC)
The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
Dear GRuban: This barnstar is long overdue! Thank you for your continual availability and willingness to help us copyright-ignorant editors improve the visual look of our articles. Thank you for your incredible patience as you explain exactly what needs to be done, and often go ahead and just do it for us! Your kindness makes Wikipedia a much nicer place to spend our free time. Thanks again! Yoninah (talk) 22:06, 5 September 2020 (UTC)
Phone a friend award
You make this a better place! Thank you for trying to get the message out there at DYK! Bruxton (talk) 19:35, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

(That's about my efforts in this conversation.)

Games[edit]

Role-Playing Games[edit]

Ten sided dieThis user is a member of
WikiProject Role-playing games.
Cthulhu for President

Besides minor edits, my early work was in Category:Role-playing games.

Other Games[edit]

Dana Fischer
Laura M. Robinson

Wikipedia Support[edit]

Wikipedia:Requested articles[edit]

I wrote or stubbed the following as part of fulfilling Wikipedia:Requested articles (and the former Wikipedia:Articles requested for more than two years):

Wikipedia:WikiProject Countering systemic bias[edit]

This project tries to make up for the fact that most Wikipedia editors are technically savvy first world males.

Collaborations[edit]

One of the best things about Wikipedia is the ability to work with the other dedicated editors. These are articles that I wrote based on starts or ideas by other Wikipedia editors.

SusunW articles[edit]

User:SusunW is the real author of these articles about historical women, mostly Wikipedia:Good articles, that she gave me joint DYK credit for, which I don't really deserve. For most of these I only uploaded an image or two (which Susun usually found herself), occasionally translated, consulted, helped with research ... in short, my contribution is under 10% of any of these, under 1% of most. But she gave me that credit, so I'm taking it!

Other[edit]

Creationist museums[edit]

From an Articles for deletion discussion where I was challenged to create some articles to prove it could be done.

Not creationist museum[edit]

James Jones Literary Society First Novel Fellowship authors[edit]

Leslie Schwartz

From another Articles for deletion discussion where the claim was made that winners of this award aren't notable. So far - well, as I look into it, some were, and some weren't. These are some that were. Also expanded article on the society and award. The article in question was deleted anyway, but restored eight years later.

Ukraine[edit]

I have the honor or misfortune of having been born in Russia, so the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War has been particularly poignant.