User:Dvyost

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...is leaving Wikipedia.

Real life calls with a vengance lately, and I'm increasingly unable to justify the time I put in here. One RfAr in particular has gotten ugly all around and made me question whether some of this is worth it.

I still think this a terrific project, and I hope y'all continue to fight the good fight--if Wikipedia manages to live up to its own ideals, it'll be one of the greatest things the world has seen. It's quite possible that I'll return here someday, but if I do, I'll probably just start from scratch; this account I intend to terminate.

Anyway, since some of my user talk page may be needed for an ongoing RfAr, I won't run around deleting stuff yet; in the meantime, anybody who wants to pick up any of the articles below for their watchlist, your efforts would be much appreciated! --Dvyost 00:26, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

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Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français.

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Nin mɔgɔ'in bɛ se ka dɔw seben Bamanankan na dɔɔni-dɔɔni .

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Mark D. gave me a pretty butterfly/Exceptional Newcomer Award

Howdy folks, and welcome to my user page. A long-time fan of Wikipedia, I finally started contributing in May 2005. I'm a graduate student in American literature who's particularly interested in the history and literature of sub-Saharan Africa.

At 4 AM local time on August 16, 2005, I wrote this sentence as my 2,000th edit in four months of Wikipedia contributions! For a while I was saying that I was taking a Wikivacation to get a life. This was a lie. (Don't worry--I was taken in, too). Actually, I've been on almost every day since, albeit in a less focused way than I was over the summer. I'm still not able to work quite everyday, but if you leave me a message here you'll hear back from me soon.

At 1 AM local time on October 10, 2005, this sentence became my 3,000th edit. Checked the edit counter just in time, too; I would have hated to waste it on Saxotone...

At 1 PM local time on November 2, 2005, this sentence became my 4,000th edit--thanks mostly to reorganizing and disambiguating waaaay too many African ethnic groups.

At 7 PM local time on December 18, 2005, this sentence became my 5,000th edit; looks like most of the last 1,000 have been welcomes and vandal stomping, but with winter break here at last I'm starting to get back to some real editing...

1 Did you know...
2 What I do
3 Complete list

[edit] Did you know...

(From articles I contributed)

_ For your fine contributions to the history and culture of West Africa, including but far from limited to the History of Western Africa, I am pleased to award you the following Epic Barnstar. Yours, El_C 17:09, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

...that Malian playwright and novelist Massa Makan Diabaté was the descendant of a long line of Malinké griots?
...that French Army soldiers killed between 15,000 and 45,000 Algerian civilians in the Setif massacre of May 8, 1945, the same day as VE day in Europe?
...that in the 1850s, El Hadj Umar Tall founded a short-lived Islamic empire covering modern day Guinea, Senegal, and Mali?

...that Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita defeated Sosso king Soumaoro Kanté at the Battle of Kirina in 1240, securing the future of the Mali Empire?
...that the Peul preacher and social reformer Seku Amadu led a jihad against the Bambara Empire of nineteenth-century West Africa to found his own theocratic Massina Empire?
...that Bitòn Coulibaly transformed a Ségou youth organisation into an army that he used to found the eighteenth-century Bambara Empire?
...that Liberia is the only nation in the history of West Africa never to have been colonized?
...that the Mauritania Railway transports iron ore on trains up to three kilometers long?
...that the Islamic Spaniard Judar Pasha led 4,000 Moroccans to victory against more than 40,000 Songhai troops at the Battle of Tondibi, putting an end to West Africa's Songhai Empire?
...that Yunfa, a nineteenth-century ruler of Gobir, made a personal attempt on the life of Fulani reformer Usman dan Fodio, triggering the Fulani War?
...that former Moroccan prime minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi involved himself in socialist causes as early as the age of twenty, by attempting to organize the Casablanca working class?
...that British archaeologist J. Desmond Clark discovered a site at Zambia's Kalambo Falls containing artifacts from over 250,000 years of human culture?
...that the Mandara kingdom of West Africa was conquered by Modibo Adama of the Fulani Empire, Muhammad Ahmad of Sudan, and Germany within a single hundred year span?
...that Robert Meeropol, son of Communists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, was adopted by "Strange Fruit" lyricist Abel Meeropol following the Rosenbergs' execution for espionage?
...that American Civil War novelist John William DeForest coined the phrase "The Great American Novel" in an 1869 essay?
...that Salaga in northern Ghana was once one of the biggest slave markets in West Africa?
...that Jaja, one of 19th-century Nigeria's most successful merchant kings, began life as a slave in Bonny?
...that Senegalese marabout Mahmadu Lamine was executed by French soldiers for leading an 1886 rebellion against the French colonial government?
...that the AfroBrazilian trader Octaviano Olympio dominated Lomé's politics for the first fifty years after its inception?
...that Yusuf ibn Ali Karamanli, pasha of Tripoli, declared war on the United States in 1801 by ordering the flagpole of Tripoli's United States consulate cut down?
...that French naturalist and explorer Théodore Monod had the same great-grandfather as biologist Jacques Monod and director Jean-Luc Godard?
...that the Adrar des Ifoghas, a sandstone massif in Mali's Kidal Region, is half the size of France?
...that the National Museum of Mali is housed in a traditional mud brick structure?
...that the Kanembu, an ethnic group of Chad, are generally considered the modern descendants of the Kanem-Bornu Empire?
...that the Karamanli dynasty of 18th century Tripoli depended almost entirely on piracy for its income?

[edit] What I do

DJ Bracey, via his avatar γκυκλοπαίδεια, awarded me this Barnstar for tracking down a vandal spreading the blood libel (of all things... honestly people...)

For a while I was doing a lot of work on WikiProject Countering systemic bias, particularly in West African history and culture; my contributions there have been about half new articles, half translations from the French wikipedia. I'm also fond of my expansions to Seretse Khama, William Styron, Grace Paley, and Donald Barthelme as well as two articles I started (or restarted) from scratch, Lucy Delaney and William Clarke Quantrill.

These days I'm occasionally adding new articles of my own, but mostly I'm working as a roving Africa and literature editor. In particular I keep an eye on Wikipedia:List of missing Africa topics for new blue links, which I then try to help edit, expand, and generally plug into place; our Africa coverage remains thin enough that a lot of articles go unlinked from not being able to find each other. Putting in the proper redirects for various transliterations/naming conventions is a major concern for me.

I'm a member of Wikiprojects Countering systemic bias open tasks, Battles, and Echo, though I tend not to do editing with those in mind; it's just that the editing that I do fits into those projects very neatly. I'm also on the Wikipedia:Welcoming committee, and as my watchlist grows, I'm reverting an increasing amount of vandalism on various Africa pages.

I'm an English teacher and consequently tend to be a grammar and spelling pedant. It happens.

[edit] Complete list

Dvyost is presented this Africa Award for his excellent contributions to Africa-related articles, particularly the list of missing Africa topics. Presented by BrianSmithson from the Africa-related regional notice board

For my own reference, here's a more complete list of articles that I've been seriously involved with (that is to say, significantly expanded, or maybe just created a sad little stub for).

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 to whom this page belongs may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia itself. The original page is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dvyost.

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User:Dvyost

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Contents

[edit] Did you know...

[edit] What I do

[edit] Complete list

[edit] Western Literature and History:

[edit] WikiProject Countering systemic bias open tasks:

[edit] African history and politics:

[edit] African geography:

[edit] African culture:

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