User:Elf

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Image:UserElf.jpg
Photo removed because even a user photo must be GFDL or public domain, and I didn't want my face to be in that category (not that anyone would ever want it...)

Elf is taking a long wikibreak and will be back on Wikipedia probably at random long intervals for minor edits and sometimes to check for messages, but 2 years of one's life is a long time to devote to something for which one doesn't get paid, no matter how interesting it has been. Her real life needs the attention more than a couple thousand dog pages do.

Apparently that makes me a WikiOgre (and not at all a WikiElf as you might expect).

If you want to see/watch what I have on my watchlist-- go here but brace yourself.

Contents

[edit] De rigueur user boxes

This user is an administrator on the English Wikipedia. (verify)
This user is proud to have been a Wikipedian since January 27, 2004.
18,000+ This user has made over 18,000 contributions to Wikipedia.
This user is a contributor to the
Dog breeds task force.
This user is a professional writer or journalist.
This user is a professional editor.
Wikipedia:Babel
en This user is a native speaker of English.
fr-1 Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau élémentaire de français.
Search user languages
This user is from Silicon Valley.

SCU This user is a student at or graduate of Santa Clara University.
This user maintains a blog at Taj MuttHall.

This user lives in a user box under the freeway overpass. Bring chocolate.

[edit] A very cool Wikipedia tool that everyone might find useful

Wikidashboard from PARC

[edit] My contributions so I don't lose track

[edit] What do I know, anyway, huh?

My Research Assistants
Boost (Border Collie)b. Jan '05
Boost (Border Collie)
b. Jan '05
Tika (Aussie)b. Feb '01
Tika (Aussie)
b. Feb '01
Jake (mixed-breed)Nov '91-Feb '07
Jake (mixed-breed)
Nov '91-Feb '07
Remington (Lab mix) 1993-2003
Remington (Lab mix)
1993-2003
Image:Havenophotouploaded.jpg
Sheba (Siberian Husky)
1981-1998
Amber (GSD/Golden mix) 1978-1992
Amber (GSD/Golden mix)
1978-1992

[edit] The horrible addiction...and recovery?

Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits (see also count_edits utility and other Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters, whose count doesn't seem to match what's on the number of edits page)

Mar 12, 2004 #427 After a mere month and a half of editing, I make the top-500 list with a mere 820 edits. (Compare to today's list (Mar 1 '08), where #3950 has made almost 5,600 edits. It was a smaller place then...)
May 7, 2004 #320 This is not necessarily a Good Thing.
July 1 #295 And that's while I'm "trying to cut back".
Aug. 8 #288 My ascent is slowing--excellent.
Aug 17 #292 Better. Doesn't FEEL like less, but OK.
Aug 22 #286 up again! Crud. (I blame it on mixed-breed dog getting nominated for featured article.)
Sept 21 #271 bad, bad Elf.
Sept 22 #265 How is that possible? Give it up--I'm doomed.
Oct 10 #252 I've since been self-blocking for long periods. Perhaps this will help.
Nov 8 Still #252 Promising. Plus I was gone from 9-14. We shall see...
12/16/2004 #259 This is good. But last couple of days have been bad. Back to wrapping gifts.
Jan 3, 2005 #243 Mea culpa--
March 24, 2005 224 Good lord.
April 27 #219 The slide continues.
June 25 I just cleaned out my watchlist and it's down to 1479! I feel so--so-- large--
July 24 #240 Back down somehow; took a couple of weeks break (but mostly AFTER this date) and have been TRYING not to spend that much time here. (13 higher are bots on this list, though, so actually that's 227?)
Oct 15 #235 After more than 2 weeks of doing almost nothing here, I'm at--huh--#235. Go figure. I'm outa here again.
Nov 29, 2005 #280 Have made only 4 edits in the last month. But I'm still sticking in there! But that's a good drop. Bye again-- back to my real life.
Mar 11, 2006 223 again. Sigh.
Sept 29, 2006 373 After at least 4 months of almost no activity, I have dropped to 373! Hooray! Keep going, you maniacal editors, make me eat your dust! Woohooooo!
Feb, 2007 #496 After 9 or 10 months of very little activity, I'm down to #496. The List referenced above lists down to #2474. So i have a long way to fall yet.
May, 2007 646 Still successfully staying away. Down to 646! Proof that wikipediholism can be defeated! (Although it now lists my edits as only 16,832, so my 17,000 userbox lies. :-) )
Sept. 2007 743 Go baby! (Now it claims my edits are 17709. Up and down and all around...)
Do you realize that there are 1,745 users with 10,000 or more edits?? Are they all crazy? What's not getting done now that they're all doing *this*?
Nov. 1 2007 793 Ahh, my days of glory are fading rapidly away. Thank goodness! But it says I'm at 17957... might as well make another 43 edits and get it over with...
Dec 22 2007 #853 Did I really make only 27 edits in 2 months?? That's pretty darned good, for a pathetic ex-Wikiholic. (As of Jan 8 '08, my personal preferences page confirms that I have passed the 18,000 edits mark. wOOt.)
Jan 20 2008 #883 Well, someday, maybe even within a couple of months, if I keep restraining myself, I'll drop past #1000. This would be a Good Thing.
March 11 2008 #975 I'm doing good...only another 50 edits since then...but I can't begin to tell you how many hours those edits consumed...

[edit] Useful pages

[edit] My tips on creating new entries

  • Include the bolded term as part of the first sentence, not as a separate preceding line.
  • If the text is shorter than a couple of long paragraphs, that usually means there's a lot more info that *could* go there if someone had the info and the time. This is called a "stub"; you can include the text {{stub}} to draw attention to the page and make it easier for searches for stubs to find (usually people with time to work on content).
  • Try to identify terms that already exist in Wikipedia and add links. I've found that it doesn't take much time if I remember:
    • Most noun articles are stored as singular rather than plural, hence e.g. [[shaman]]s finds the correct link to shaman but still leaves the plural in the text.
    • Capitalization is (usually) important, but you can link to something that's a different form in your sentence by "piping"--looks like this: [[Religious conversion|converts]] links to the existing page Religious conversion but leaves the word converts in the text
    • You can use the Show preview button at the bottom of the edit page to get a preview, including your guesses at links, click on the links to see whether they link anywhere, then use your browser Back button to get back to the edit page and adjust them, etc. until you're ready to Save page.


[edit] My laughs for the day

[edit] Links with an attitude (humor taken from a history page)

23 Apr 2004

17:45 Haydn and Croatian folk music (cur; hist) (removed the telephone directory link which is largely impertinent)

[edit] axiom-thrust particle disproportionators

...that says We are reconfiguring the axiom-thrust particle disproportionators in order to improve flange density followed by 19 pages of argument about why this is right, wrong, or would be better with m-dashes! :) Thanks, --Nevilley 09:17, 4 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Using m-dashes to reconfigure the axiom-thrust particle disproportionators would be the height of stupidity... Duh! Tuf-Kat 14:15, Jun 4, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Things to do

(This list was created a long time ago and is probably irrelevant. But I haven't checked lately.)

[edit] Dog project