An always-changing list, but here's the current status.
I retired from Wikipedia editing for a month after, on my birthday, a user took an article that I had been working on in my user space and posted it in the main space, with several superficial modifications, and claimed it as their own work. Obviously, given Wikipedia's content policies, there was nothing that I could do. Naturally, I didn't want to spend any more time contributing to a project that wouldn't protect, or even appreciate my work. There seemed to be a fundamental divide between myself and Wikipedia policy.
After a month of consideration, however, I realized that being elected as an administrator was a sign of confidence and appreciation and it just wouldn't be right for me to not reciprocate my responsibility to the community just because of one bad person. Also, certain people took advantage of my absence to create havoc on the polices that I worked so hard to protect, and I wouldn't have that.
So I'm back, but in a far reduced capacity than I used to be. No longer will there be months where I contribute thousands of edits. I will never again rewrite an article for Wikipedia. Obviously this is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and I expect my articles to differ substantially from the versions I present. But that's a far cry from having an article stolen without a modicum of credit. I also will not be participating in the Good Article process anymore, for obvious reasons.
I've also been disturbed lately at the trend of "quantity is more important than quality." We've gotten to a point where people will fight tooth and nail to keep an article on someone who finished 21st in the Olympics, but almost no one willing to provide citations for articles tagged with "citations needed." We celebrate reaching the two millionth article, but where's our quality celebration? I've never told anyone in real life that I'm an administrator on Wikipedia. Whenever the topic is broached, people scoff, snicker and point out everything that's wrong with the project without any clue with how much hard work goes on behind the scenes. In my experience, it's become a badge of shame to be associated with the Wikipedia project. Sometimes I wonder, however, why I should continue to defend the project to people. People complain constantly about how inaccurate the project is; I've never heard anyone complain that there are "too few" articles. It may just be that we're still in the throngs of a nascent stage, where we need to justify our existence by being comprehensive. Yet I firmly believe that editors and administrators alike need to start putting Wikipedia in a historical context. If we don't quickly adapt to changing perceptions and demands, Wikipedia will become the type of internet fad that Myspace is rapidly becoming. Our audience has changed its demands, and unless we change our efforts to match it, we will quickly find ourselves irrelevant. We need to focus less on creating articles on non-medaling Olympic athletes, non-notable video games and unknown porn stars (all of which I am at least somewhat guilty of) and start focusing on cleaning up and improving articles on Gold medal winners, video game franchises and breakthrough actors. I will risk making the solid prediction that unless attitudes and priorities change, Wikipedia will find itself by the wayside in less than a decade. Remember, there's dozens of small projects like us out there, just waiting for us to crumble, learn from our mistakes and take center stage themselves.
If there's anything more, I'll let you know.
| Article |
Lead |
Quality Rating |
Notes |
| Articles Started In Full By Canadian Paul |
| Carlo Orelli |
The last surviving Italian World War I veteran who joined the army at the onset of the war |
B |
An entry from Carlo Orelli appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on December 26, 2007. |
| Moraff's World |
The second of three in a series of roguelike shareware computer games produced by Steve Moraff in the late 1980s and early 1990s |
Start |
Needs a major overhaul, a pre-"I know what I'm doing" article, thankfully User:D.brodale stepped in and took out the most embarrassing parts |
| Majid Khadduri |
An Iraqi–born founder of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Middle East Studies program |
Start |
|
| Otto Natzler |
An Austrian–born ceramic glazing expert |
Start |
An entry from Otto Natzler appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on April 27, 2007. |
| Wiley Mayne |
A Republican United States Congressman from Iowa |
B |
|
| Major League Baseball (video game) |
A sports game released in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System |
 GA |
An entry from Major League Baseball (video game) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on August 20, 2007. |
| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (NES) |
An action game released in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System |
GA |
An entry from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (NES) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on August 20, 2007. |
| Wade Mainer |
An American singer and banjoist |
GA |
An entry from Wade Mainer appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on August 23, 2007. |
| Carmelo Camet |
An Argentine fencer who competed in the Olympic games in 1928 |
GA |
|
| Russell Jump |
The 56th Mayor of Wichita, Kansas, serving from 1952–1953 |
B |
An entry from Russell Jump appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on December 30, 2007. |
| Al Suomi |
A former NHL player, who played with the Chicago Blackhawks for the 1936-37 NHL season |
Start |
An entry from Al Suomi appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on December 31, 2007. |
| William S. Livingston |
A political science professor who was the acting president of the University of Texas at Austin, a position he held from 1992 until 1993 |
Start |
An entry from William S. Livingston appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on April 14, 2008. |
| Articles Expanded Into Full By Canadian Paul |
| E.V.O.: Search for Eden |
A Super Nintendo Entertainment System game developed by Almanic and published by Enix about a character whose goal is to evolve into the dominant life form on Earth and live in Eden where Gaia, a goddess personification of earth, lives |
Start |
Needs a major overhaul, a pre-"I know what I'm doing" article, not to mention that most of my work got removed anyways |
| John Babcock |
The last known surviving veteran of the Canadian military to have served in the First World War |
GA |
Re-written completely from the original article |
| Arcadia Lake (porn star) |
A pornographic actress, best known for her portrayal of Tammy in the 1978 film Debbie Does Dallas |
B |
Rewrote completely from an anonymous IP address' stub |
| Eric Peterson |
A Canadian stage and television actor, best known for his roles in three major Canadian series – Street Legal, Corner Gas and This is Wonderland |
B |
Original version was an unreferenced copyvio, required essentially a total rewrite |
| List of Married... with Children episodes |
An episode list for the Fox sitcom Married... with Children |
List |
Turned a disorganized list full of redlinks into a proper episode list (+30,114 - my largest one time edit ever) |
| I'll See You in Court |
The tenth episode of the third season from the TV comedy series Married... with Children |
GA |
The plot summary was iffy but thorough, but there was no other real content, cleaned up and expanded the article |
| Moses Hardy |
One of the last surviving American World War I veterans |
GA |
Re-written completely from the original article |
| List of centenarians |
A list of well-known centenarians |
List |
Properly tableized and filled-out the list, but referencing and size concerns probably mean that this list will likely never reach FL status |
| Mark Matthews |
An American veteran of World War I and World War II and a Buffalo Soldier |
GA |
An entry from Mark Matthews appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on December 30, 2007. |
| Planet of Dinosaurs |
A 1978 science fiction film |
Start |
An entry from Planet of Dinosaurs appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on January 10, 2008. |
| Starter Pages Created By Canadian Paul |
| Frank King (cartoonist) |
An American cartoonist most famous for the comic strip Gasoline Alley |
Start |
Expanded by other Wikipedians |
| Feroze Khan (field hockey) |
At the time of his death, the world oldest Olympic gold medal winner, following the death of U.S. athlete James Rockefeller in 2004 |
Stub |
|
| Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance |
A role-playing game that was first released in 1988 for the computer, under the name of Pool of Radiance, and ported to the Famicom in 1991 and to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992 |
Stub |
Expanded by other Wikipedians, probably deserves Start Class by now, although not before it's cleaned up |
| Reinhard Hardegen |
A German u-boat Commander who sank 22 ships, amounting to over 100,000 tons sunk, ranking him as the 24th most successful Commander in World War II |
Start |
Expanded by User:Abel29a |
| Roger Beaufrand |
The world oldest Olympic gold medal winner, following the death of Pakistani Field Hockey player Feroze Khan in 2005 until his own death |
Stub |
|
| Hans Maier (rower) |
A German rower who competed in two Olympic games in 1932 and 1936 |
Stub |
|
| Erik Larsson (ice hockey) |
A Swedish ice hockey player who competed in the Olympic games in 1928 |
Stub |
|
| Gino Rossi (boxer) |
An Italian boxer who competed in the Olympic games in 1932 |
Stub |
|
| Signe Johansson-Engdahl |
A Swedish swimmer who competed in the Olympic games in 1924 in Paris |
Stub |
|
| Josef Straßberger |
A German weightlifter who competed in two Olympic games in 1928 and 1932 |
Stub |
Originally a messy re-direct, created a page to end the confusion |
| Sverre Hansen (footballer) |
A Norwegian football player who competed in the Olympic games in 1936 |
Stub |
|
| Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach |
A German industrialist and rower who competed in the Olympic games in 1936 |
Stub |
Originally a messy re-direct, created a page to end the confusion, but it needs to go into more detail about his industrial career |
| Axel Johansson (speed skating) |
A Swedish speed skater who competed in the Olympic games in 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen |
Stub |
|
| Axel Johansson (footballer) |
A Swedish football striker |
Stub |
|
| Betty Tancock |
A Canadian swimmer who competed in the Olympic games in 1932 in Los Angeles |
Stub |
|
| Allen Van |
An American ice hockey player who competed in the Olympic games in 1952 |
Stub |
|
| Jonas Jonsson (sport shooter) |
A Swedish shooter who competed in the Olympic games in 1948 |
Stub |
|
| Claude Saunders |
A Canadian rower who competed in the Olympic games in 1936 in Berlin |
Stub |
|
| Marjory Saunders |
A Canadian archer who competed in the Olympic games in 1972 in Munich |
Stub |
|
| Harry Hill (cyclist) |
A British cyclist who competed in the Olympic games in 1936 |
Stub |
|
| Howard Thomas (wrestler) |
A Canadian wrestler who competed in two Olympic games in 1932 and 1936 |
Stub |
|
| Kálmán Sóvári (wrestler) |
A Hungarian wrestler who competed in two Olympic games in 1936 and 1948 |
Stub |
|
| Joaquim Fiúza |
A Portuguese sailor who competed in three Olympic games in 1936, 1948 and 1952 |
Stub |
|
| Karel Hartmann |
A Czechoslovakian ice hockey player who competed in the Olympic games in 1920 |
Stub |
|
| Ernest Barberolle |
A French rower who competed in the Olympic games in 1920 |
Stub |
|
| Élisabeth d'Ayen |
A French tennis player who competed in the Olympic games in 1920 |
Stub |
|
| Fernand Jaccard |
A Swiss football midfielder |
Stub |
|
| Other Pages Created By Canadian Paul |
| Philip Rabinowitz |
Disambiguation page |
Disambig |
|
| Category:2008 animal deaths |
Animals that died in 2008 |
Category |
|
| James Walker (athlete) |
Disambiguation page |
Disambig |
|
| Category:Colombian supercentenarians |
Supercentenarians of Colombia |
Category |
|
| Category:Colombian centenarians |
Centenarians of Colombia |
Category |
|
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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To-do list for User:Canadian Paul:
