I'm male and of British origin. I live in Germany and am a freelance teacher of English as a foreign language (TEFL) and French>English/German>English translator. I have a degree in Modern Languages and European Studies from the University of the West of England, Bristol. General information about me can be found in the absurdly high number of userboxes to the right.
I'm a member of the Counter Vandalism Unit and Recent Changes Patrol which are essentially the same thing, in that they both involve scanning through the recent changes page to see if anyone's done anything Wikipedia:Vandalism untoward on these pages. The difference between the two is that with recent changes, the main goal is to check the punctuation, spelling, and general NPOVness of the new entries - vandalism is deliberate defacement of the articles and the aim there is general simply to revert to that last known good version.
I'm also a member of the Welcoming Committee which seeks to offer a warm welcome to all new Wikipedians. As a general rule, I wait until someone has contributed before saying hi, as it can be a bit intimidating barely touching anything before "You have new messages" starts flashing up on the screen.
You'll also see me popping up on Articles for Deletion a lot. I'll leave you to ponder the paradox of a self-processed inclusionist (also see [1]) poncing around on AfD but mainly I just weed out vanity articles and spam. I also make a point of voting to keep articles on subjects which are known, regardless of their "minority status" (mods, video game characters etc.)
I'm a member of the Computer and Video Games Wikiproject and spend most of my article-editing time working on video game focussed articles. I also translate from German to English and French to English.
Approaching me
I'm neither a newbie nor an advanced user of Wikipedia. If you have questions, go ahead and ask. I don't bite. Much.
People who write strongly biased "articles" on an emotional whim don't belong in Wiki-Hell but deserve a good slap on the wrist.
Having too few words in an article does not constitute a deletion candidate. It just needs expanding and cleaning up.
General knowledge does have a place in Wikipedia, though not always in its own article.
Anonymous editing
As you'll probably see, I am a member of the group "Wikipedians against anonymous editing". Vandalism is a serious problem on Wikipedia. I'm grateful that my user page has only been vandalised once. Most, but not all, vandalism on Wikipedia is carried out by anonymous users or anonymous sockpuppets.
Now, while I accept that blocking anonymous editing is not a definitive solution, it does go some way to solving the issue. Some vandals are persistent and they will quite happily sign up for new names and attack under new IP addresses. There is no solution for dealing with these people short of hunting them down and getting them locked up in a psychatric institution. The majority of vandals, however, won't take the time to set up an account.
Wikipedia is like any human society. As Benjamin Franklin said, those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither. The core of Wikipedia is freedom of expression and freedom of knowledge. Limits have to be placed, yes, but these limits should only serve to protect these freedoms. Registering does not restrict anyone from editing articles - indeed, it's more of an advantage, because you get to monitor your own entries, create your own signature etc. - but vandals prevent those who wish to share their knowledge (in the articles) and opinions (on the talk pages and forums) from doing so.
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