User:Slyguy
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(If you are about to criticize my edits, please read the information below first.)
Greetings, fellow Wikipedians! I am Slyguy. Thanks for stopping by.
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[edit] Current project (starting October 30, 2006):
Adding names to Wikipedia's list of people by name. One might think that this task can be done more quickly with a bot, but there are so many messy situations that a bot would not handle satisfactorily. For instance, there are people who are commonly known by one name or more than two. Also, it would be difficult to program the bot to determine the occupation(s) to include in the entry. So, here I am, using part of my spare time to plug away at it manually.
Wikipedia's list of names is useful, and it was fortunate that it has survived several deletion votes. Here's hoping it will never face another one again!
[edit] Got concerns about mistakes I've made?
In the descriptions that I write, I try to be faithful to the opening sentence in the bio (if there is a "proper" opening sentence), and/or to the categories the bio is included in, while being mindful of lo-res terminology.
If you have a problem with one of my corrections (for instance, the occupation I give for an individual), feel free to correct it. If you have constructive criticism about many of my corrections and my general methods, please tell me, I would appreciate hearing what you have to say.
For what it's worth, before I start one of my "runs" I go back to some of the pages I've recently edited and search for corrections to my edits, in order to learn from what I've done wrong.
[edit] Notability in adding people to the list
If a person is sufficiently notable to have a WP bio that survives, then I consider him/her notable enough to add to the list of people.
[edit] (Non-)Inclusion of middle names, initials, etc.
It may seem arbitrary whether I am including the person's middle name/initial in the list, but, in fact, it is based on a strict rule: I follow the article's actual title for guidance. If you have a problem with the way I write a person's name, blame the article. I do not take the time to research whether the person is commonly known by his/her middle name, etc. I take the article in good faith and assume that the title provides the most appropriate way to name the person.
[edit] Life-span or fl. date missing
Sometimes I may not even add an approximate fl. date for someone, that is because there were no clear dates of activity (or too broad a date range) given in their wiki article. Right now, I am concentrating on populating the list, and I do not wish to concentrate on people and delve into research into when they were active, even for a minute or two. I may decide to take on that project later. If you wish to add dates to my entries, by all means, do so.
[edit] Non-Western names
Sometimes I might place a name in the wrong place in the names list due to confusion of the order of family name/given name in non-Western name-systems. If you notice an instance of this, please tell me, I would like to learn about proper order in the name-system of an ethnic group so that I will avoid such mistakes in the future. In fact, there are wide tracts of names that I have deliberately omitted adding for the above reason. They would be more trouble than they are worth figuring out where to add. (For instance, most names that begin with the letters 'Abd'.) I will reserve as a future project going back to these names and figuring out where to place them; for now, I am just adding the "easy" names (mostly European names).
[edit] Nationality
In some of my edits I omit the nationality of the person added. There are three possible reasons for this:
A. There is no definitive information given in the WP article as to the person's nationality. (I have a broad definition of "definitive information" and it may include place of birth, or inclusion in a nationality-referencing category.)
B. The person's nationality was/is archaic (e.g. Persian), and the article sometimes refers to the person's nationality as the nearest modern equivalent (e.g. Iranian for Persian). The article could be in error, or not, but either way, I am not inclined to make determinations in this regard at this time. I sometimes make exceptions; for instance when the article says "German" in relation to someone who fl. in the 14th century, even there was no Germany; that part of Europe was the Holy Roman Empire at the time. I will still refer to the person as "German" in the list, because calling them, say, a "Holy Roman physician" strikes me as stilted and awkward.
[edit] Inconsistent style
If you notice that I may have an inconsistent approach from one date to the next, please keep in mind that I decide to do things differently as I learn from mistakes. I (often, but not always) choose not to go back and correct my previous edits to reflect such decisions because I am concentrating on moving along and populating the list for now.
[edit] Things I should know already
If I make a mistake that I shouldn't make this far in the game, e.g. listing someone as an "actress" instead of the low-res "actor", please just keep in mind that I get into a "rhythm" and, at times, blindly repeat things that I read without thinking. Just kindly notify me of the error. The embarassment is enough punishment, please don't unload harsh language. Remember, just like other people, I am giving my time and effort to contribute here.
[edit] You can help!
Researching the person's nationality/lifespan/fl. date, and editing the article accordingly, could be added as a side project, but I choose not to do so at this time. If you would like to do this, then by all means, be my guest.
[edit] Description of a typical Slyguy LoPbN edit
0. First of all, I have the A-Z index and the List of people by name open in separate browser windows constantly, for easy access.
1. The A-Z index is manually scanned for the next person on the list. (All redirects are skipped.)
2. The person's entry is opened in a separate window (by pressing Shift while clicking on the link).
3. The article is checked for a deletion tag, an indication that the person is fictional, or anything else that should preclude it from being added to the list.
4. "What links here" is opened to see if the person's entry is already on the LoPbN.
5. If not, the appropriate section of the LoPbN is opened up and manually scanned for the person's name, just in case there is a duplicate bio for the person that's been listed. (If duplicate bios are found, they are given merge tags.)
6. A section-edit page is opened and the person is added to the list at the appropriate spot.
7. The new page is previewed to see if everything is kosher.
8. The new page is saved, with the summary being "+ [the person added]".
Throughout this process, I may do other small things that need doing, e.g., if a person's entry is really poorly written then I add a cleanup tag, or if there is a mistake with the alphabetical order in the list then I fix it.
