User:Magicalsushi
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Might as well write something here...
I'm a 20-year-old computer science student from the UK. I live in East Sussex but go to university in Oxford. My main interests are anime, music (listening to, not playing) and computers; I am also learning Japanese.
Specifically, my favourite anime series are:
- Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Boogiepop Phantom
- Paranoia Agent
- The Rose Of Versailles
- Kare Kano
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
I'm currently watching Big O and Planetes; both look like they're going to be good.
My favourite music artists and groups are:
- Kate Bush
- Supertramp
- Blondie
- Sparks
- Catatonia
- ELO
- The Music
- The Cardigans
- Clinic
- Blur
- Electric Six
- Daft Punk
- Ladytron
- The Beatles
- Television
Sparks are my latest little musical obsession.
My political beliefs are somewhat left-wing and very liberal. I believe that everyone should be as politically active and aware as possible, but I'm not really much of a role model in this respect. Although I have an opinion on most issues, my main areas of political interest are copyright-related issues (I'm largely against the copyright system as it stands) and gay rights (I'm in favour of them), as these are among the few political issues which really affect me more than they do most people. Another such issue is the funding of higher education, but I just don't know what to think about that anymore.
[edit] Me and Wikipedia
A quick look at my Wikipedia contribution history will show that I made several contributions over a particular period in 2004, but then stopped. I'm a little agnostic with regards to Wikipedia. It's a nice idea in some ways, and I have found it useful on many occasions. However, I also have a few misgivings about some aspects of the project. This comes largely from feeling "out of the loop" - I don't edit the 'pedia often enough to remember the markup, style conventions and so forth, and hence live in fear of irritating experienced users. This puts me off of making edits, which means the situation is likely to perpetuate itself. Some day when I have more free time (ha!), I'd like to come to grips with this problem.
That is a personal problem, of course, but it results in me being somewhat disillusioned with Wikipedia. Why? Because when I notice things that are wrong, I feel unqualified (and hence unable) to fix them. I always feel like any edit I make will immediately be reversed by someone more respected in the Wiki community.
A good example is the entry for the Electric Light Orchestra, a band I like. They're British, yet the entry lists the American single releases with their positions in the American chart. It's very interesting information, but there are two problems. Firstly, the British chart positions aren't given. This isn't a huge problem; someone who knows the British chart positons (like myself, actually) could, in theory, add them. The second problem is more fundamental. The person who gave the American chart positions didn't say they were the American ones. That might cause confusion but that's not what I'm worried about here; what irritates me is the assumption that the American chart positions are THE chart positions. After all, nowhere else really matters, does it? Who cares if the band are from the UK?
Just how international are articles supposed to be? My understanding is that, in theory, the answer to that question is "maximally". In an ideal world, the ELO article should have not only the American and British chart positions, but also those of France, Germany, Japan, Australia and every other country where ELO released singles, plus perhaps a note saying that they didn't release any singles elsewhere. Is this likely to be possible? For many articles, no, but in the case of very popular subject matter (The Beatles, let's say), it could be done. Should it be done? I'm not sure myself, but I strongly suspect many other users would say "no".
If that is the case, don't you think it's a problem?
Magicalsushi 20:43, 2004 Dec 13 (UTC)
