User:JRM

   

Special note: edit my page if you see any spelling mistakes, broken links, section mismatches, or other things that just plain don't make sense. Discussions should go on the talk page, though. Be bold—but vandalize only if it's really, really funny. ;-)

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Who I am

I'm Joost R. Meerten. The R doesn't stand for anything, like the S in Harry S. Truman. I'm Dutch. You'd expect me to be on the Dutch Wikipedia (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoofdpagina), but somehow that doesn't interest me in the slightest; probably because most local topics don't interest me, the English Wikipedia is much bigger, and translating back and forth is a fairly thankless job. (Nevertheless, I am listed as a translator on Wikipedia:Pages needing translation—let it not be said I shirk from thankless jobs.)

There used to be a fairly cryptic outline of my personality here, followed by a fairly self-humbling account of what I do on Wikipedia. I decided it's too unfriendly. It's still in the history, if you really want to know.

What I'm at

I'm still deciding on a general strategy to Wikipedia; at present, I do whatever I feel like. I'm often on RC patrol. I typically browse Wikipedia to and fro and fix any deficiencies not related to content (unwikified text, typos, broken links, links to disambiguation pages, missing categories). I rewrite the odd paragraph if I see any obvious way of improving it. I rarely make sweeping changes or indeed add new articles. Think of me as a /WikiJanitor.

I'm new

I'm still quite new to Wikipedia. I'm getting better every day at taking criticism, though; I haven't had to buy a new monitor in six days now. (This is a feeble attempt at humor, just in case.) If you see me do something stupid, kick my ass on my talk page. If I make an edit you don't agree with, ten to one I've left a note on the article talk page. I never revert anything that isn't clearly vandalism. I never take things personally, because I really don't know you and you really don't know me, so go ahead and say whatever you want. I'll take it like a Wikipedian.

I'm an inclusionist

I'm an inclusionist, but not the kind that stalks VfD and votes Keep on everything just to tick off the deletionists. Though I'm fairly lazy, I would instead improve an article if it shoud be included. I am very allergic to the phrases "not notable" and "Google test", though. The next time anyone mentions these in a single sentence, you are entitled to administering one (1) punch on my behalf to the offending party, while shouting "WIKIPEDIA IS NOT PAPER!" at the top of your lungs.

I've got bad ideas

We're voting on a new deletion policy: Preliminary Deletion. I think it's not going to work, and have a suggestion of my own, Countdown deletion. The world needs more deletion policies! Read it, if you're bored. :-)

What I've done

I really don't keep track of everything I do, because it's mostly small potatoes. I recognize that it's nice for people to see what, if anything, you're contributing to Wikipedia, without plowing through the contributions list. So here are some subjective selections of "my" work (in quotes, because Wikipedia is all about collaboration). These are articles I've made more-or-less significant contributions to. Keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive and is no indication of my interests.

Awards

This is mostly a courtesy to User:Pedant, who wants me to promote his new award (the Atlas Award). Personally, I like the gesture, but dislike flaunting awards. So, Pedant, I hope you appreciate this. :-)

Atlas Award
You are hereby awarded the Atlas Award for your work in removing undesirable things from the sandbox and not allowing the bullies of the world to kick sand in our collective face. It is now yours. You are therefore entitled to display it prominently, and are encouraged to award it to other deserving editors who have likewise raked the sand clean.

Thank youPedant 22:30, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)

lol, now thats POV, and inaccurate. I just like recognising unrecognised tasks. If I had an award, I'd flaunt it, is probably what I said... anyway thanks for your continuing efforts.Pedant

Thankfully, this is a user page, so I can toss NPOV and factual accuracy right out the window... JRM

Notes to articles

Main page: /Notes

These are personal notes to articles; a sort of sidebar encyclopedia. Most of this is not very serious, all of it is quite personal, none of this really belongs in Wikipedia to begin with, but who's gonna stop me?

This page just got too darn large to stay here, so it got its own page.

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