User:Schuminweb

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hi! My name is Ben Schumin. I am a 2003 graduate of James Madison University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration. I also run a Web site called The Schumin Web.

I have been involved with Wikipedia since April 2005, and am a self-proclaimed Wikipediholic. My interests are diverse, and include Web design, public transportation, vintage ocean liners, protests and other political demonstrations (particularly with the activities of the black bloc), local government, digital photography, fire alarms, and Homestar Runner cartoons. I am also a member of the welcoming committee, and make sure to welcome new users who make a good-faith effort to contribute positively to the encyclopedia.

Contents 1 Wikipedia philosophy 1.1 GFDL compliance 1.2 Style 1.2.1 "Parentheses are evil" 1.3 Wikimedia Commons 1.4 Policy and process 2 Selected contributions 2.1 Major writing and/or cleanup 2.2 Article creation 2.3 Featured contributions 3 Personal bookmarks 3.1 Tools 3.2 External tools 3.3 Templates 3.4 WikiProjects 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Wikipedia philosophy

This user has a website, which can be found here. This user maintains a blog at The Schumin Web. incl This user is a Wikipedia inclusionist. This user is part of the Welcoming Committee. This user is not a Wikipedia administrator but would like to be one someday. This user lives in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This user attends or attended James Madison University. This user uses public transit. This user is a railfan. This user is interested in his or her local history. This user is a Space Shuttle fan. This user is a member of the Anti-war movements and ideologies WikiProject.

I am an inclusionist. Wikipedia is not a paper encyclopedia, and as such, we do not have the same space limitations as a paper encyclopedia. As long as the a topic can be verified, then why not clean it up and include it? It may not belong in a given article and need to be forked off onto its own article, it may be a better fit within a different article entirely, or it may need to be merged in with another article. I think Stilgar135 put it best on the talk page for WikiProject Dead Malls:

“

This is exactly the sort of thing I love seeing on Wikipedia: fascinating niche topics that simply wouldn't be examined by any other mainstream reference.

”

[edit] GFDL compliance

I am also big on GFDL compliance. I strongly encourage the use of the move function rather than doing a cut-and-paste move, whether renaming an article, archiving a talk page, or what have you. This assures that the revision history is maintained, and therefore compliance with the GFDL. By extension, this prevents our having to list the page at the cut and paste move repair holding pen to have the edit histories merged.

[edit] Style

Compliance with the GFDL also goes right along with compliance with Wikipedia's style guide. I'm big on ensuring articles stay within style guidelines in order to make sure that the encyclopedia has a uniform "look", so that when people visit Wikipedia, they know what to expect. A particular area of emphasis in this is headings. Headings that don't match tend to stand out and look really bad. Especially headings with links in them, which stand out even more. I also emphasize the use of real headings over "fake" headings in order to facilitate future editing. In other words, I favor "== External links ==" over "'''External links'''".

[edit] "Parentheses are evil"

Another one of my stylistic concerns and pet peeves is excessive use of parentheses, most often to make comments in the text of an article. Often times, these comments are indeed material to the article and quite helpful, but the presentation in parentheses marginalizes them to an extent, and disrupts the flow of the article. It is my belief that the information presented in such comments can be placed in the main text of articles in a way that does not disrupt the flow of the text. Thankfully, where such parenthetical comments are located, they can be converted to other formats rather easily. See this edit to The Blues Brothers (film), this edit to Air Florida Flight 90, and this edit to Shuttle Buran program for examples of how this is done.

[edit] Wikimedia Commons

I also support the use of Wikimedia Commons for hosting images and other media in the public domain or available under a free license, rather than hosting them on Wikipedia directly. This makes images and media easily available to other projects as well as Wikipedia, and allows greater collaboration between projects. I only support image hosting directly on Wikipedia in instances where hosting the image is prohibited on Commons, such as for fair use images.

On that same note, I absolutely loathe image galleries in Wikipedia articles, using the <gallery> tag. I believe that such galleries have no place on Wikipedia for the most part, and that in most situations, they should be removed. I find that it makes the article look more elegant and less cluttered to place these image galleries on Commons, which is designed to have image galleries and such, and link to them from Wikipedia articles using the {{commons}} and {{commonscat}} templates.

[edit] Policy and process

And lastly, while I do understand the importance of policies and guidelines, try to follow them, and know that process is important, I do believe that there are some situations where it becomes appropriate to ignore all rules. But just with everything else on Wikipedia, NPOV and consensus ultimately rule the day.

[edit] Selected contributions

[edit] Major writing and/or cleanup

American Taekwondo Association Carol Moore Cinderella City Mall Dan Tangherlini District of Columbia War Memorial Dixie Square Mall Empress of Japan (1930) February 15, 2003 anti-war protest Fire alarm Fire alarm control panel Flandre Freedom Plaza Grapette J20 counter-inaugural protest James Madison University

List of burials in the Valley of the Kings List of smoking bans Luray Caverns Manual pull station Meridian Hill Park Million Worker March Myrtle Square Mall Nikki Tilroe Peace Action Pentagon Renovation Program Pioneer LaserActive Polyus (spacecraft) Protests against the Iraq war Rest area Reverse takeover

Rude Mechanical Orchestra Sega Mega Drive September 24, 2005 anti-war protest Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle Silver Line (Washington Metro) SmarTrip Smoking ban SpinnWebe SS America (1940) Tanglewood Mall Today's Special Toyota Previa Washington Metro Washington Metro rolling stock WMRA

[edit] Article creation

ANGUS Argo (submersible) Association of Old Crows Augusta County Public Schools Blue Mountain Tunnel Brendle's Bruce Williams City-University-Energysaver Code Pink CAF Cookie cutter stadium Cooper Wheelock Dan Tangherlini DC Anti-War Network District of Columbia War Memorial February 15, 2003 anti-war protest Freedom Plaza Gentex Giant Food of Carlisle, Pennsylvania Giant Food of Landover, Maryland Gillig Hudson Street (TV show) Ira Byock J20 counter-inaugural protest

Kittatinny Mountain Tunnel List of defunct shopping malls List of smoking bans List of street medic organizations List of The Simpsons chalkboard gags List of The Simpsons couch gags Mall of Memphis Manual pull station March 17, 2007 anti-war protest March 20, 2003 anti-war protest Martin's Food Markets Metrobus (Washington, D.C.) Mickey Matthews Mill Mountain Star Million Worker March Mobilization for Global Justice Mr. Smoothie NTelos Open classroom Pentagon Renovation Program Point of sale display Robert Bobb Rude Mechanical Orchestra Self checkout

September 24, 2005 anti-war protest Shenandoah Acres Silver Line (Washington Metro) SimplexGrinnell SS America (1940) Standard Electric Time Company Sun Television and Appliances Tanglewood Mall Telegate The News Leader The News Virginian Transportation in Washington, D.C. Valley Mall (Harrisonburg) Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind Virginia State Highway 262 Washington Metro rolling stock Waynesboro Outlet Village Wheelock College White Flint Mall WMRA Woodforest National Bank Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center WSVA

[edit] Featured contributions

• Facts from Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) were featured in the "Did you know" section of Portal:Trains on January 11, 2006 (see Archive)
• My photo of the Skyline Parkway Motel, placed in Arson and Disaster, was discussed in an article in The News Virginian (Waynesboro, Virginia) on August 28, 2006

[edit] Personal bookmarks

[edit] Tools AutoWikiBrowser Software Cleanup messages Cut and paste repair Footnotes Guide to layout Heading style Image copyright tags Reference converter Requested moves Sections Stub types Template messages Uncategorized pages Userboxes User talk namespace templates

[edit] External tools Edit counter Move-to-commons assistant Push for commons [edit] Templates Welcome template [edit] WikiProjects Wikiproject list WikiProject Anti-war WikiProject Dead malls WikiProject Fire Protection WikiProject New York City Subway WikiProject Retailing WikiProject Washington Metro

[edit] See also

• SchuminWeb's Wikipedia contributions

[edit] External links

• The Schumin Web
• College Life
• The Classic Liners of Long Ago
• Today's Special
• The Schumin Web Transit Center
• The Schumin Web Community (Discussion Forums)

This is a Wikipedia user page. This is not an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user this page belongs to may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia itself. The original page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Schuminweb.