User:Lojah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Lojah

I'm Lojah. I'm from Florida, Scots- Muskogee heritage. I'm a traditional Stomp Dancer at Hossosv Tvllvhvse Ceremonial Grounds On the Poarch Creek Indian Reservation.

Anthropologist, Heathen, musician and hopeful Freemason. I also have strong interests in Celtic cultures , Druidry and lingustics. Attended the Defense Language Institute for the Russian Language in 2002. My favorite color is green or maybe red, but blue is nice too.

[edit] Music

I love all kinds of Music, but especially Bob Marley, the Ramones, the Dogs D'Amour . I also like classical music and folk music.

Check Me Out on [MySpace.com/LojahMusic]

[edit] Advice for Newbies

The advice for newbies on Wikipedia says "BE BOLD." I would like to reinforce this statement. You MUST be bold in your edits. Authorize YOURSELF to perform the necessary edits. This inevitably will bring you into conflict with someone who thinks they are entitled to restrict your Wikipedia freedoms in cases when no such regulation exists. They will try to intimidate you. Don’t worry about them. Most of the time they are merely expressing their opinion which will likely mean no more than your own. Know your Wikipeda rights and don’t let ANYONE try to convince you there are rules against you that do not exist. The creators of Wikipedia knew what they were doing when they made 90% of the guidelines suggestive rather than binding. The difference between “discouraged” and “forbidden” is obvious. The difference between “guideline” and “rule” is also obvious. Don’t let anyone convince you that these opposing words are mutually inclusive. Wikipedia thrives on Boldness NOT irredeemable and unyielding compliance to suggestion. If an article needs to be dealt with and no one else seems to be interested in it and you are interested in it and have reliable resources on the matter, deal with it, edit it. Know WP:COI and recognize the limits of its authority. Be BOLD, but be neutral. If we take the WP:COI guidelines as binding rules that apply in all cases, which they clearly are not, Wikipedia would die. Someone claiming to be a Freemason would not be allowed to edit a page on Freemasonry. Someone who uses a Scots-Gaelic user name would not be allowed to edit anything to do with Celtic, or Scottish culture—Christians restricted form Christianity articles-Jews, restricted from Jewish articles-No Muslims on Muslim articles-No pagans in paganism- No Native Americans watching Native American articles-No tennis players editing the tennis articles. Then what would we have? Nothing. We would have nothing because people generally do not volunteer to edit articles about subjects they are not interested in, affiliated with or in some other way involved in for FREE. We choose to edit articles that interest us. The creators of Wikipedia knew this when they distinguished guidelines from rules. This is no-doubt the reason the creators of Wikipedia made WP:COI a guideline rather than a rule.

"This page is considered a guideline on Wikipedia. It is generally accepted among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. However, it is not set in stone and should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception." --WP:COI

If we take the WP:COI guidelines as Law rather than as the guidelines Wikipedia claims them to be then they must be applied to everyone equally and then nobody would even care to contribute anything because they just might accidentally say something positive about the subject that interests them. WP:COI does not restrict you from editing articles about subjects you are involved with. It merely discourages it and then explains that if you choose to edit an article where someone might view it as a WP:COI to USE CAUTION. Clearly if the guideline says to use caution, "it is not set in stone" and "should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception" when doing something it is NOT restricted. Be neutral. But you are not restricted to only editing articles that you are not interested in. Understand that WP:NPOV is a RULE and WP:COI is a guideline. Know the difference. Be BOLD, be neutral, damn the torpedos and the nay-sayers.