User:Trevdna

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It is with great regret that I announce that I have decided to leave Wikipedia, effective immediately. THIS WAS NOT because of anything that occurred on Wikipedia.

It is due to demands on me personally. There are simply not enough hours in the day for me to achieve anything on Wikipedia. My responsibilities (some are self-imposed, some not) are numerous and rigorous, and they do not look as though they will get better any time soon. If they do, I will consider rejoining Wikipedia, but this does not look likely in the foreseeable future. Pre-IB classes, in addition to many other responsibilities, leave no time for Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is strangely addicting to me; this was part of the problem, and it part of why I have decided to leave. If I do not leave, it would be unhealthy for me.

I plan on checking up about once a month to see how things are going on, but I will not edit - I must draw the line which I do not allow myself to cross, or I will be sucked back in again, step by step. I simply cannot allow myself to come back, because that would be unhealthy in more ways than one.

I think Wikipedia is a great encyclopedia. Many people delight in announcing to anyone who would listen that "the system is flawed", "it can never work", or even (my favorite) that "it's like a public toilet". Well I think those people are WRONG! Wikipedia is very likely to be something great, even if it is never perfect (nothing is, except those things that are built on Jesus - but I digress).

In order for Wikipedia to truly prosper, the focus must be more tightly than ever on making a good encyclopedia. Not on userboxes, not on the interpersonal aspect of it, and not on anything else. Further, layers of bureaucracy should be stripped away whenever possible. (While I don't expect anyone to be influenced by this statement, I feel a need to express these views before I leave.)

I truly regret having to leave. During my brief sojurn here at Wikipedia, I have stood on the shoulders of giants. I remain humbled by the knowledgable editors who guided me and helped me here. I was indeed privilaged to deal almost entirely with civil, positive Wikipedians. And when they weren't civil or positive (only one instance comes to mind), the contributers were only doing what they thought was correct. I encourage all editors to work together in a spirit of harmony and cooperation.

To all involved in Wikipedia, I wish you the best. May your edits always be guided by the Holy Ghost. --Trevdna 00:35, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, here is my sandbox for the FairTax article. Although the differences are minor (and probably don't even include everything from the current version of the article), I would appreciate it if someone would incorporate the changes into the present article. Please remove this message once it has been done. Thank you in advance. --Trevdna 00:35, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Below is my old user page...

WikiProject: Latter Day Saint movement

(edit or discuss this box)

Collaboration of the Month: Family Home Evening

• Nominations for next month: Captain Moroni • Lehi, son of Helaman • Book of Mormon chronology • Family Home Evening • Apostle (Mormonism)

Featured content

Comments needed on the List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nomination for Featured list status
Mormon handcart pioneers - This Featured article will be on the main page 2006-12-14 - help needed to monitor the article that day

Articles in Progress See LDS WikiProject for more detail.

• Request for Comment What needs to be added to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints article? • Is the LDS Church article neutral • New article on Spirit existence proposed • Jesus in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints • Criticism of Mormonism

• Peer Review: Heavenly Mother • Restoration Branches • Common Latter-day Saint perceptions • Emma Hale Smith • United Order • William Clayton (Mormon Pioneer) • Daniel Webster Jones • Valeen Tippetts Avery • Thomas L. Kane • baby blessing • Culture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

• Needed articles: Second Coming (Mormonism); Mormon section in Dating Creation; Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Utah Lighthouse Ministry • Mormonism Research Ministry

• Cleanup: Mormon Trail • First Vision • Anti-Mormon

• To expand: Hyrum Smith • Edmunds-Tucker Act • Celestial marriage • Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Korea • Temple Square • Haun's Mill massacre

• Accuracy disputed: Plural wives of Joseph Smith, Jr.

Other things to do

• Work on LDS stubs • Create new articles • Upload temple pictures (with permission) for List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Finding articles

• Category:Mormonism • List of articles about Mormonism • Category:Latter Day Saint denominations • Category:WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement templates

Trevdna has been a Wikipedian since October 7, 2005, when he first edited anonymously, and four minutes later registered and made his first registered edit.

Trevdna believes that almost any article can become a featured article, and wants to see as many articles as possible become featured quality (and regrets very much that he cannot do it himself, but he has his own life to tend to). He further believes that Wikipedia should become the definite source of all human knowledge, and as such, more people should work on getting IMPORTANT ARTICLES featured, rather than just on things they enjoy.

If you have any ideas for him, including ways to make his edits better (this is always appreciated), things to do around Lynnwood, Washington, or other things you think he may be interested in, don't hesitate to post on his talk page. He will respond to you, and regard it as constructive criticism (unless it obviously is not, such as flaming, namecalling, etc.)

Here is a list of very useful stuff (no official rules or guidelines here for now...)User:Trevdna/Useful pages

1 Contributions
- 1.1 WP:LDS
2 Deletionism/Inclusionism
3 Userboxes

[edit] Contributions

Trevdna has created the following articles:

Edmonds Woodway High School
Paull Shin
Life of Joseph Smith, Jr. from 1831 to 1844 (Trevdna takes little responsibility for this one - he copied the relevant, poorly written text wholesale from the main article on Joseph Smith, Jr., then cleaned it up a little and added a litlle relevant information from other articles.)
Plan of Salvation

He has been working on the following articles to get them to Featured Article quality (in chronological order):

FairTax (put up for peer review as well)
George Washington (put up for peer review as well)
Joseph Smith, Jr.

Once he's done with these, he will work on the following:

He has peer reviewed the following articles:

Early life of Joseph Smith, Jr. - here is the peer review
Nuclear fission - here is the peer review
Berlin Wall - here is the peer review

Finally, after he's done with that, he will begin the push to a real encyclopedia.

[edit] WP:LDS

He is currently a member of the WikiProject Latter Day Saint movement. Within it, his contributions have been as follows:

Peer review:

And general maintanence of Template:LDSprojectbox

[edit] Deletionism/Inclusionism

Trevdna was once a member of the Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians, but came to the realization that his ideals were not really Inclusionist. On January 6, 2006, he removed his membership from the rolls, and went his own way.

His current views on deletionism/inclusionism are as follows:

Middle schools should be deleted (never notable).
High Schools shouldn't be deleted (can be notable, and no one should make judgement calls on which are good, and which are bad).
Lists of words should all be moved to Wikitionary.
Brand name products should only be kept if well-known.
Roads, streets, and highways should go (pretty much never notable).
Area codes on Wikipedia is just rediculous (never notable).

[edit] Userboxes

I have decided to limit my userboxes to the following nine (so as not to the userbox controversy) - three are useful things to know about me, three are of dubious usefulness, and three are admittedly useless for building an encyclopedia, but offer a useful perspective on me that helps others understand me a little better when dealing with me.