User:Nydas

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Articles I've worked on

I don't have specific interests, although you're more likely to find me on articles about fiction. I'm occasionally active on Articles for deletion and Featured Article Candidates. Articles I've worked on include blacky pictures, a psychoanalytical testing procedure, rural transport problem, a geographical concept and Edinburgh Phrenological Society, a 19th Century organisation.

Spoilers

I've argued strongly for the use of spoiler warnings on Wikipedia. Spoiler tags aid functionality and accessibility, and ensure a neutral point of view. Most of the spoiler tag removals were justified by a redundancy which is obvious only to longterm Wikipedian users.

Separation of powers

The same person should not edit, enforce and interpret policy and guideline pages. It's too tempting to abuse this power. I try to avoid this behaviour.

Quotations

I'm concerned at the common practice of selectively quoting famous people to 'enlist' them for some cause or other. I've written a short essay on the subject at Wikipedia:Don't overuse quotes.

Rules for writers

George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language is a lucid analysis of writing pitfalls. His rules for writers are very useful for Wikipedians.

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

To do list

• Diplomatic isolation
• Water supply of Edinburgh
• War fever
• Naval race
• Dig for victory
• Irrationality (book)
• Rebus McTaggart
• The Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire
• Valencia Opera House