User:WassermannNYC

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1 Raison d'Wiki
2 Brief Bio
3 Administrator Watch -- Censorship Watch
4 When updating and improving articles, I mostly like to...

[edit] Raison d'Wiki

I edited anonymously for a long while, but now that I notice that many of my entirely legitimate and well sourced additions to Wikipedia are constantly being removed/reverted without any justification whatsoever, I've finally decided to take a username. Many times when trying to add to and enrich a page here on Wikipedia I've been accused of being a vandal, of "attacking a page," pushing POV, etc. Little did I know that certain people here on Wikipedia (mostly those 'tricky' rogue administrators) were tracing my IP address and systematically reverting the majority of the edits that I'd made, even though they were entirely true, well-intentioned, and most often generously sourced. I'll still probably edit anonymously some, though.

[edit] Brief Bio

I was born in Charleston, South Carolina, USA, in early February 1962. My family and I moved to North Carolina when I was very young once my father became a professor at UNC Chapel Hill. However, I went back to South Carolina later on when I attended the College of Charleston for my undergraduate degree. I continued on afterwards at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where I earned my Master's and PhD.

I currently (2007) teach, research, and publish in the academic fields of English and American studies (I also sometimes teach selected courses in other departments) at a large university in New York City, where I am a tenured professor. I've also been a visiting professor/lecturer at two other institutions of higher learning during my academic career, both of them in North Carolina (either in or near Charlotte, where my parents now reside).

[edit] Administrator Watch -- Censorship Watch

Sadly, censorship is alive and well here on Wikipedia through the use of certain 'shady' tactics. These 'tactics' are used by some editors (and even many adminisTRAITORS!) here on Wikipedia, only instead of gasoline they are using their keyboards.

Increasingly I notice that certain administrators and others are abusing their high positions on Wikipedia to censor and/or delete valid information, much of which is entirely legitimate and most certainly belongs here on Wikipedia. It disturbs me to no end that administrators are acting this way, for if we cannot count on administrators to maintain NPOV and be inclusive when it comes to controversial information, who can we depend on? This is becoming a definite problem here, especially in relation to certain sets of (mostly controversial) articles. I intend to do my part to root out, point out, and examine administrator abuse/censorship -- I will do my best to expose and oppose censorship and rogue administrators whenever I can.

[edit] When updating and improving articles, I mostly like to...

Categorize articles
Copyedit (fix minor issues: grammar, punctuation, and so forth)
Wikify articles
Build "Further reading" sections: lists of books, articles, etc.
Add external links to articles
Fix vandalism
Build various lists (many of them related to Lists of Jews: Lists of Jewish Americans)
Add tags/flags/banners to articles and sections of articles that are biased, sloppy, or entirely unsourced:
BE BOLD