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"Ancient astronaut theorists say: yes!"

User:PaleoNeonate

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There is no Cabal

Admnzlmao.png
Wikimedia-logo.svgUnified login: PaleoNeonate is the unique unified login of this user for all public Wikimedia projects.
Crypto key.svgThis user has an SHA-512 committed identity.
See /Identity.
 15,000 This user has made 15,000 edits to the English language Wikipedia
Text document with red question mark.svgThis user participates in
WikiProject Citation cleanup.
WP RationalSkepticism Logo.PNGThis user is a member of WikiProject Skepticism.
Original Barnstar Hires.svgThis user participates in
WikiProject
Wikipedia Awards.
Crypto key.svgThis user is a member of WikiProject Jehovah's Witnesses.
Lol2.gifThis user is a member of the Wikipedia Department of Fun.
Yogo2783 Close crop.JPGThis user was identified as an awesome Wikipedian on 6 September 2018.
CabalThis user is a member of the not so Secret Cabal.
Leo Petroglyph, human stick figure.jpgThis editor is a WikiProphet.
MiB.svgThis editor is a
man in black.
Homo habilis-KNM ER 1813.jpgThis editor knows that the scientific method permits to develop the best available explanations to understand the world and our origins.
SThis user is spiritual but not religious.
MonWheel.jpgThis user is interested in religion as an anthropological and historical phenomenon.
Blacktriangle.jpg Until proven wrong, this user does not believe in the supernatural.
NoQuacks.pngThis user resists the POV pushing of lunatic charlatans.
1-month-old kittens 32.jpgThis editor is against kitten abuse.
aotwThis user is an antiovertranswikist.
Yin and Yang.svgSince one queries the Tao using </dev/random
Impose your will on the world using >/dev/random
NBOXThis editor thinks that user boxes are rarely relevant to Wikipedia.
Antiovertranswikist Association
False dilemma
WP:SCRUTINY


Etymology[edit]

  • Paleo (old, ancient)
  • Neonate (baby, weeks old)

I have chosen this nickname because I have been around Wikipedia a long time, then suddenly decided to create an account, and a number of general WP procedures were still very new to me at account creation time. I only use this name on the WMF projects.

Background[edit]

I am a male born in the seventies in Canada. I am not notable.

Although I long resisted creating an account, I have made edits to Wikipedia on and off since January 2005 (1189 pre-account edits). This account was finally created on February 2017. I have therefore been around Wikipedia since around 13 years ago. My account has been created 1 year, 7 months ago. To see the number of edits created using this account, click here.

On Wikipedia I am foremost a reader, but can edit random articles when I see that improvements are possible. I also try to resist non-notable promotion and point-of-view pushing, to keep Wikipedia a reliable reference. I avoid the use of templates to communicate with other editors except when appropriate (vandalism, disruption or deletion notices). I help other editors when I can, but am not an administrator. I occasionally use emoticons or {{hn}} because on a medium without instinctive body language feedback it can be difficult to express emotions, allowing the tone or context to sometimes be misinterpreted.

Interests[edit]

Although my professional expertise is Computer Science (senior engineering level), I rarely edit related articles. I can easily criticize trends that I do not consider technological advancements, appear to be revisionism under new terminology or syntax, or violate basic security and privacy ethics. I'm also involved in research and development of new languages and protocols and can find some more common ones suboptimal. As an OS/systems developer, I also run a custom operating system and cannot be satisfied with systems like Windows, Ubuntu, iOS or Android (and would not use a stock Linux or BSD kernel binary distribution).

I'm critical of the current web technologies which are suboptimal and have serious security and privacy problems, which I consider to be a collection of kludges, ideally completely redesigned from scratch, without caring about backwards compatibility. An emerging issue is the software bloat required to implement all of its redundant features, with fewer implementations available to chose from (the few popular browsers). Another is that it aims in a direction to have more and more control over user experience and their computer, the security implications being of a second rank. While remote gaming and video viewing platforms can be useful, these should be much better optimized than the web allows. As for document viewing and activities like banking, a specialized platform should also be more efficient, secure and portable than the current web and browsers permit.

Amateur-level interests include: biology (and evolution), medicine, geology, paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, cosmology, physics, climatology, environmentalism and religion (from the perspectives of anthropology, sociology, neurology and literature). Although I was raised as a fundamentalist creationist, I have grown out of it over time through education, critical thinking and knowledge; I am now an agnostic with naturalist pantheistic tendencies, who has long ceased to believe in the supernatural. I'm also a regular reader of the science reference desk.

As a multi-instrumentist musician (mostly playing live lead guitar in the last few years), I compose and produce recordings. I like fusion jazz, smooth jazz, flamenco, Indian, Turkish, world music, various forms of electronic music and religious music, mostly instrumental. I have some interest in the history of instruments. Music is the art through which I can feel and express my "spirituality" today.

I am a published author (mostly software, and some books). Favorite sports are swimming, soccer and taekwondo. I love reading, including Wikipedia. My girlfriend is unfortunately not a Wikipedian. We have a cat, named Ananda.

I decided to remain anonymous and to use a pseudoname on Wikipedia, because I can participate in potentially contentious topics. I use IRC and mailing lists for computer-science related activities non-anonymously, but never had an interest to join Wikipedia IRC channels. I prefer that all my Wikipedia-related communications remain on relevant talk pages and have also disabled the "email me" feature.

Venues[edit]

Note: parts of this section may be outdated and likely to be rewritten.

As I find that most articles I could think of already exist, I have decided to create an account, and to as time permits use the following categories to find articles to improve (provided for myself and others who may find them useful):

Links WikiProjects Notice boards & tips
?
?
?
tips
?
?

Also see[edit]

  • {{Useraward}} - A custom award utility template I wrote

Wikiproject Skepticism tasks[edit]

Clipboard.svg Wikiproject:Skepticism

(edit or discuss this box)

Items inactive for too long can be removed


Peep The All Seeing Spy Eye.gif

Use {{#section-h:Wikipedia:WikiProject Skepticism|Monitoring}} to embed on a user page


Categories for discussion

Redirects for discussion

Requests for comments

Peer reviews

Requested moves

New pages search log (New articles for more, rules)
Watchlist
The following articles are subject to problematic edits and require constant attention. You can help monitor their recent changes by adding them to your watchlist:
Acupuncture · Chiropractic · Climate change · Intelligent design · Genetically modified organisms · Homeopathy · Pseudoscience
More articles on the skeptic watchlist (related changes).
Assessment
Assessment changes to articles monitored by this project:
Log · Assessment


Wikiproject Citation Cleanup TODO list[edit]

edit · history · watch · refresh Stock post message.svg To-do list for Wikipedia:WikiProject Citation cleanup:
Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Eventual[edit]

Because it's part of my skill set, I'm likely to eventually learn these technical aspects of Wikipedia thoroughly (this will also depend my available time, on needs and perceived usefulness of proposed features):

  • Templates and parser functions — I wrote a few templates and have updated some others so far, but that is only a beginning; I also currently lack the template editor user right, but have not needed it yet.
  • Lua modules — I initially learned Lua when it began to be part of the NetBSD OS base system, but have not used it on Wikipedia so far.
  • Web API (for bots) — I have read the reference documentation but have not yet written a bot.
  • Custom JS gadgets — My current experience with Javascript is mostly implementation, server-side scripting and application-embedding. I have little in-browser JS experience as I generally loathe the [slightly controlled] remote-execution-vulnerability model.
  • Edit filter implementation/debugging — I've not yet learned the syntax but it appears to be a very simple domain-specific-language. Having written a lot of software (including spam filters, IDS and related filters), this should not be difficult. I cannot currently view all filters, the source code of some are restricted to administrators and editors with the edit filter user right.
  • MediaWiki (maybe) — I know PHP and have previously ported an old version of MediaWiki to PostgreSQL as consultant. I could perhaps provide tools and frameworks for modular features such that advanced users have more configuration control without adding extra work for feature developpers, without unnecessary scripts being loaded and executed for disabled features and their unused dependencies. If this modular framework already exists, it may be suboptimal or not used properly at current time, considering the non-configurable featurism bloat which is recently occurring.

Useful links[edit]

  • WP:ACDS — Discretionary Sanctions
  • WP:AIV — Administrator Intervention against Vandalism
  • WP:UAA — User name for Administrator Attention
  • WP:RPP — Request for Page Protection
  • WP:AN — Administrator Noticeboard (to discuss with/about admins or general uncategorized)
  • WP:AN3 — Administrator Noticeboard to report edit warring (3RR, etc)
  • WP:ANI — Administrator Noticeboard to report incidents
  • WP:AE — Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement (report violations of discretionary sanctions, violated 0RR/1RR decisions, request closure of discussions/deletions, etc)
  • WP:SPI — Sock Puppet Investigations (to report multiple undisclosed account usage)
  • WP:911 — Emergency, self-harm, threats
  • WP:REFUND — Request for undeletion or userfication of deleted articles
  • WP:DELREV — Deletion Review
  • WP:AfD — Articles for Deletion (closing will determine if admin must delete)
  • WP:CSD — Criteria for Speedy Deletion nomination (use AfD or MfD if unsuccessful)
  • WP:PROD — Proposed Deletion (uncontroversial, technical; use CSD, AfD or MfD if unsuccessful)
  • WP:SUPPRESS — Oversight (request deletion of outing/info/inadvertent-IP, etc)
  • WP:TfD — Templates for Deletion
  • WP:MFD — Miscellany for Deletion (user boxes, project/Wikipedia space, drafts, or other not covered by AfD/TfD/CfD/RfD) (category)
  • WP:CfD — Categories for Deletion
  • WP:FfD — Files for Deletion (images, other media)
  • WP:RfD — Redirect for Deletion
  • WP:RM — Requested Moves
  • {{Deletion tools}} — Deletion tools
  • {{Copyvio-revdel}} — WP:REVDEL request
  • CopyPatrol tool
  • WP:3O — request Third Opinion
  • WP:RfC — Request for Comment
  • WP:DR — Dispute Resolution
  • WP:M — Mediation (all parties must agree to open)
  • WP:ARB — Arbitration Committee
  • WP:ACC — request Account Creation
  • WP:UTRS — Unblock Ticket Request System
  • WP:ARCA — Arbitration Requests Clarification and Amendment (i.e. article protection change when original administrator not available, clarification to sanctions)
  • WP:RESTRICT — Editing restrictions
  • WP:EAR — Editor Assistance Requests
Single notice links
Single-issue user warning or notice templates
Notices Warnings
Character substitution templates

Category:Wikipedia_character-substitution_templates

Template Output HTML alternative
{{!!}} || &#124;&#124;
{{!(}} [ &#91;
{{)!}} ] &#93;
{{!((}} [[ &#91;&#91;
{{))!}} ]] &#93;&#93;
{{(}} { &#123;
{{)}} } &#125;
{{((}} {{ &#123;&#123;
{{))}} }} &#125;&#125;
{{(((}} &#123;&#123;&#123; &#125;&#125;&#125;
  • Note: Template: !  was also a template but was converted into a Magic Word, you can also use the HTML alternative of &#124; and either will give you an output of |


Standard templates
Templates Examples of template output
{{User link}}, {{U}} Example
{{User0}}, {{Usert}} Example (talk)
{{User}}, {{User1}}, {{BUser}} Example (talk · contribs)
{{Userv}} Example (talk · contribs)
{{Usertcb}} Example (talk · contribs · block user)
{{User2}}, {{Usertcc}} Example (talk · contribs · count)
{{User3}}, {{Usertcl}} Example (talk · contribs · logs)
{{User4}}, {{Usertce}} Example (talk · contribs · email)
{{User5}} Example (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
{{User6}} Example (talk · contribs · count · logs · page moves · block log) or (with |email=y)
Example (talk · contribs · count · logs · page moves · block log · email)
{{User6b}} Example (talk · message · contribs · count · logs · email)
{{User7}} Example (talk · contribs · count · logs · email)
{{User8}}, {{Usertcce}} Example (talk · contribs · central auth · count · email)
{{User10}}, {{Usertccl}} Example (talk · contribs · count · logs)
{{User11}} Example (talk · contribs · count · api · block log)
{{User12}} Example (talk · contribs · page moves · block user · block log)
{{User13}} Example (talk · contribs · logs · block log)
{{User14}} Example (talk · contribs · global contribs · logs · block log)
{{User15}} Example (talk · contribs · count · logs · page moves · block log · edit summaries)
{{User16}} Example (talk · message · contribs · page moves · edit summaries · count · api · logs · block log · email)
{{User17}} Example (talk · contribs · uploads)
{{User19}} Example (talk · contribs · global contribs · page moves · user creation · block log)
{{User21}} Example (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · page moves · block user · logs · block log · arb · rfc · lta · rfcu · ssp · SPI confirmed suspected)
{{User23}} Example (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · target logs · block log · list user · global contribs · central auth · Google)
{{User-dev}}
Example
(talk · email · rights) · (Testwiki · talk · rights) · (GitHub · Open issues)
{{User plus}} Example contact
{{Usercf}} Example (contribs | filter log)
{{User-multi}} Example (talk · contribs · count · logs · page moves · block log · block user · email · central auth · deleted contribs · list user · global contribs · target logs)
With this template, you can specify which links you want displayed. The above example includes some of the available links.
{{UserSummary}} Example (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · blacklist hits · AbuseLog · what links to user page · count · COIBot · user page logs · x-wiki · status · Edit filter search · Google · StopForumSpam)
{{User toolbox}}
{{Useranon}} 192.0.2.42 (talk)
{{IPuser}} 192.0.2.42 (talk · contribs · WHOIS)
{{IP summary}} 192.0.2.42 (talk • contribs • deleted contribs • blacklist hits • AbuseLog • what links to user page • COIBot • count • block log • x-wiki • Edit filter search • WHOIS • RDNS • tracert • robtex.com • StopForumSpam • Google • AboutUs • Project HoneyPot)


Advanced editing[edit]

Programming and specialized editors may be more suited to edit than browser-native textarea or the MediaWiki Visual editor. There is a Firefox browser addon named "It's all text" which allows to use any external editor to edit browser textareas (via an edit button or a custom key shortcut). The editor command parameter of this extension can also be an sh script invoking a terminal emulator such as Rxvt-Unicode with ViM inside. Example: 

$ cat /usr/local/bin/term-vim.sh
#!/bin/sh
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 /usr/pkg/bin/urxvt -e /usr/pkg/bin/vim $@

ViM being a very advanced programmer's editor, it supports macros, loading templates, complex search/replace features as well as piping selected pieces of the text through external commands. Support for Wikitext syntax highlighting is not included by default with standard ViM distributions, but various third party options are available to configure ViM to support it, like these: [1] or [2]. Basically:

  • Copy syntax/mediawiki.vim to your ViM installation's syntax/ directory
  • In the ~/.vimrc configuration file of the user running the browser (I recommend using a dedicated unprivileged and restricted user which has access to the main user's X11 session to open the browser window; this user can also be chrooted, in a jail or vm), add the following lines:
augroup filetypedetect
 au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt   setfiletype mediawiki
augroup END
autocmd Filetype mediawiki      syntax on
autocmd Filetype mediawiki      set linebreak noai nocin ts=8 sw=4 tw=0

Enjoy.

Wikipedia and Javascript[edit]

Using NoScript with Wikipedia previously worked. More recently, the notifications page stopped to display. Notifications work if the browser's Javascript setting is completely disabled (which in Firefox is no longer feasible from the preferences, but can be done using about:config's javascript.enabled switch). According to developers, this is by design. The issue wasn't only that of CSS, but of the page needing dynamic loading.

Even with scripts enabled, various gadgets and features never worked properly (I couldn't test the visual editor for instance). I expect that some features query the User-Agent and use browser-specific and revision-specific code (I don't allow User-Agent to give precise information, only the major information), or possibly depend on invasive DOM features that I would not allow. If any code relies on referrer (this would seem absurd), that is forged too, displaying the destination domain rather than the source one.

Advantages:

  • Security and privacy (inadvertent paste in a field doesn't cause them to be sent, for instance)
  • Wikipedia pages and diffs load much faster, saving time patrolling
  • The jumping bug, when following links with subtitle anchors, is absent, also saving time
  • The search box autocompletion/suggestion features could not completely be disabled, they now are
  • Bugs introduced by features such as character counters in edit summaries are absent

Disadvantages:

  • Collapsing of elements, like that of the WikiProjectBannerShell template
  • Striked user/talk pages of blocked users
  • The search system is so primitive that without autocomplete it requires more precise terms and will not correct minor errors (explaining why so many redirects are used for plausible typos which the engine cannot match itself)
  • The purge toolbar button option no longer works, but it's easy to add ?action=purge at the end of a URL
  • Some tools, especially new versions, are now broken, partially or fully
  • New Pages Feed is completely broken (but New Pages fortunately works)
  • OTRS is broken
  • Since Javascript must now be disabled globally, another browser instance is necessary for pages where scripts are required. Unfortunately, archive.org recently began needing scripts to search for archives. As such, I ceased to manually recover dead links as I encounter them.

Awards[edit]

These are friendly ways to express appreciation and to encourage civility and efforts. For more information, please see Wikipedia:Awards, Wikipedia:WikiLove and Wikipedia:Kindness_Campaign.

Barnstars[edit]

Kindness Barnstar Hires.png The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
Thanks very much for your help on my A.M. Pattison piece. I greatly appreciate it. Ian.fraser1 (talk) 21:02, 21 March 2017 (UTC)
Team Barnstar.png The Teamwork Barnstar
Thanks for your help on the aura article, and thank you for helping revive the wp:skeptic project! KarlPoppery (talk) 04:07, 22 May 2017 (UTC)
Special Barnstar Hires.png The Special Barnstar
For excellent communication and artistic skills. Noah Kastin (talk) (🖋) 23:47, 17 July 2017 (UTC)
Barnstar of Recovery Hires.png The Barnstar of Recovery
While not quite an AFD rescue, I figured you earned this for efforts to kickstart the WikiProject Skepticism talk page Dkriegls (talk to me!) 05:21, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
Compass barnstar.png The Guidance Barnstar
You helped me a number of times. You are really helpful. I am lucky that I met with you by chance. P.Shiladitya✍talk 08:47, 23 February 2018 (UTC)
Kindness Barnstar Hires.png The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
Thank you for being so kind and helpful. You helped edit a draft that I thought no one would even look at, you gave me good advice in a talk section, and you welcomed me on my talk page. You have been the nicest person on this site that I have met so far. Thank you. Wyrm127 (talk) 01:44, 26 June 2018 (UTC)

Miscellaneous[edit]

Dear @PaleoNeonate: Sir, Thank you icon.jpg --P.Shiladitya (talk) 15:32, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Obscured jaguar.jpg The WikiJaguar Award for Excellence
For your recent assistance responding to the request I left on someone else's talk page, I award you the WikiJaguar Award for Excellence in talk page stalking efforts. (Specifically, for your suggestion on using {{ow}} for notifying community editors of other editor's previously made concerns which have been deleted from a user's talk page, made in this discussion on user Bbb23's talk page. I appreciate your help!) SpintendoTalk 10:39, 25 June 2017 (UTC)
New Zealand TW-17.svg Thanks for supporting my run for administrator. I am honored and grateful. ) Cullen328 Let's discuss it 20:42, 23 July 2017 (UTC)
Handshake icon.svg
 The Good Friend Award
Thank you for your valuable help in MfD of my userpage's subpage. You gave advices to me about deletion of userpages. This is for you. Thank you. PATH SLOPU (Talk) 09:53, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

gnomish guidance

Cornflower blue Yogo sapphire.jpg

Thank you for service from 2005, for welcoming users and improving references, for evaluating drafts, for a list of useful links on your personal page, for guiding and missing, - gnomish user expressing spirituality in music, you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:27, 6 September 2018 (UTC)

EOP[edit]

Guru meditation.gif

═║╒╓╔╕╖╗╘╙╚╛╜╝╞╟╠╡╢╣╤╥╦╧╨╩╪╫╬NO CARRIER
AT█

TheMatrixWikiAnimated.gif

Stop icon Please stop your distributive editing. If you continue to edit distributively, you may be suffering of bilocation.

Wikipedia ad for Wikipedia:List of cabals
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