User:Philcha

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Main interests that are relevant to Wikipedia 2 Views on writing style 3 Views on spelling 4 My attitude to disusssions 5 Nice things people have said to me

[edit] Main interests that are relevant to Wikipedia

(the first 4 since I was a kid)

• Paleontology (strictly armchair)
• Space travel (armchair, alas!)
• Chess (also armchair, since I wasn't good enough to make a living out of it)
• Science fiction (one day I must write some).
• Computers (I've worked with them for long enough).
• Computer games, especially Turn Based Strategy and Real-time strategy games.

[edit] Views on writing style

Since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia (i.e. aimed at laypersons, especially fairly young ones) and is mainly presented on the Web, the well-known principles of writing for the Web apply:

• use the simplest possible language,.
• avoid long passages of prose.
• avoid jargon where possible and provide / link to definitions where jargon is necessary.
• use (sub-)headings and other devices to give the reader as many up-front clues as possible to the structure.
• use images where appropriate but not so much as to make pages load slowly.
• link to anything that's relevant.
• aim for a fog index of about 12, similar to mags like TIME and around the reading level of a high school student.

If anyone thinks that's "dumbing down", they're sadly mistaken. The practices I've advocated are also in line with Wikipedia:Make technical articles accessible.

I've recently found a couple of tools that look useful:

• User:Dispenser/Link checker checks web pages that an article refers to, to make sure they still exist and still do what you expect them to (e.g. have not lapsed and been taken over by an advertizer).
• Wikimedia readability analyses the readability of a Wkipedia article.

[edit] Views on spelling

I'm a Brit, and I understand that most readers and editors of Wikipedia will be more familiar with US English. Feel free to correct any spelling inconsistencies or terms which may cause confusion to US English users.

[edit] My attitude to disusssions

• I've had a lot of enjoyable, productive discussions with people who see things differently from me. Usually I learn something from them, which I think is a good outcome.
• I try to be considerate of "newbie" suggestions or questions, however naive. If someone's read a Wikipedia article with enough interest and attention to raise a question or suggestion, that's a success for Wikipedia.
• Unfortunately there are a few bullies around. If I see such behaviour I'm prepared to fight fire with fire.

[edit] Nice things people have said to me

		The Working Man's Barnstar
		For excellent work on Chess topics:Staunton, Blackburn, Zukertort‎ , Steinitz and Anderssen. I am very happy to award you this barnstar. SunCreator (talk) 18:15, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

		The Content Creativity Barnstar
		For the tremendous work and material you put in the article Alexander Alekhine during the GA-review, I award you this barnstar. SyG (talk) 21:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)