User:TKD

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TKD
Wikipedia-related
This user is an administrator on the English Wikipedia. (verify)
This user helped promote the article Red vs. Blue to featured article status.
This user helped promote the article Diary of a Camper to featured article status.
This user is a member of the Machinima WikiProject.
This user is a member of the
Video Games WikiProject.
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This user is a member of WikiProject Halo.
This user is a member of the League of Copyeditors.
{#if} This user understands and uses ParserFunctions.
Languages (real)
en This user is a native speaker of English.
es-2 Este usuario puede contribuir con un nivel intermedio de español.
la-1 Hic usor simplici latinitate contribuere potest.


Languages (computer)
C-4 This user is an expert C user.
c++-4 This user is an expert C++ programmer.
bas-2 This user is an intermediate BASIC programmer.
js-2 This user is an intermediate JavaScript coder.
Perl-2 This user is an intermediate Perl programmer.
HTML-3 This user is an advanced HTML user.
php-3 This user is an advanced PHP programmer.
sql-3 This user is an advanced SQL programmer.
asm-2 This user is an intermediate assembly language programmer.
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This user has a page on Wiktionary.
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Other
rvb This user is a Red vs. Blue fanatic.
Caboose This user likes food-nap time.
Donut This user believes that it's not pink; it's lightish red!
mach This user watches machinima.
This user plays the Halo series.
A, B, and C This user prefers the serial comma.
they This user considers the singular they to be substandard English usage.
snuk This user says snuck.
This user lives in or is from Connecticut.
IE This user contributes using
Internet Explorer.
Firefox This user contributes using Mozilla Firefox.
This user contributes using Microsoft Windows XP.
G This user uses Google as a primary search engine.

Hello! I'm TKD,[1][2] a Wikipedian editor and administrator. As the userboxes to the right might imply, I am a software engineer. Most of my current work involves C++ on OpenVMS. In my spare time, I also compose music, although not extremely well,[3] and I play video games.[4]

It's interesting that, on Wikipedia, one things leads to another, then to another, practically ad infinitum. I first found my way here in late 2005 looking for more information on Red vs. Blue, which a coworker had shown me. At the time, I had stopped gaming, mostly due to time constraints, and thus could not recognize the game (Halo: Combat Evolved) used.[5] As I read, I found some mistakes that I could correct, and so I made my first edit here in early December 2005. From there, I became interested in machinima in general and renewed my appetite for video games.[6]

In October 2006, I decided, after much thought, to nominate myself for adminship and was entrusted with a mop. I don't claim to be the most active in clearing backlogs, but, when I do pitch in, my admin chores have lately centered on CAT:CSD, WP:AFD and occasionally WP:AIV[7] and WP:RFPP. If you need anything, please don't hesitate to let me know. Be advised that I'll probably notice a new message on my Wikipedia talk page more quickly than I will an email, so please contact me on-wiki unless you've been blocked or the communication needs to be confidential.

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[edit] Wikipedia philosophies and hints

[edit] Article size and mergism

I am basically a mergist. I believe that, within reason, one or two larger articles are more helpful than a dozen smaller articles. If those large articles start to become excessive in size (greater than 50 KB), then it is worthwhile to break them up logically, but, before breaking a 50 KB article into 10 5 KB articles, strongly consider whether 2 25 KB articles are better. And don't blindly split as in binary fission; see whether one article makes more sense as an auxiliary article of the other. This way, you preserve the context of the original article and avoid a size issue.

The 30 KB warning is merely advice; many featured articles have been well in excess of that guideline. Before resorting to splitting, check for redundancy and verbosity. If you can shave off 4 KB of an article by tightening up the prose, do that first, and then re-evaluate where the article stands. You don't have to remove information, but do consider picking up a writing style manual (The Elements of Style, for American English), and seeing how much verbosity you can eliminate while preserving the article's flow. In particular, the fact that is a phrase that is almost never necessary.

[edit] Templates

Templates are useful not only for nice-looking infoboxes, footer templates, and boilerplate text, but also for injecting consistent formatting or providing shorthand. See {{rvbchar}} and {{machinima episode}} for two templates that I've created simply to help with typing reduction (in the first case) and formatting consistency (in the second).

[edit] Categories

A few tips when putting articles into categories:

  • Remember that a category must be useful to the reader. This means that a category with only 2 potential articles is probably not worth creating, and, if you see such a narrowly defined category, feel free to list it on WP:CFD|categories for deletion.
  • Be extra careful when creating categories. The "move" button doesn't exist for them, so, if you don't get it right the first time, you'll have to resort to
  • Remember to choose sort keys wisely. Many articles begin with "List of", but this is not useful as a sort key. Instead, use a custom sort key that omits the "List of". If a category is about X, and you have articles about "X Ys", "X in Y", or similar, sort on Y rather than X.
  • Articles that serve as a "main" article for a category (often, these have the same name as the category) should have a sort key that begins with " " or "*"; this forces that overview article to the top of the category.

[edit] Useful pages

  • Template:TestTemplates
  • Wikipedia:Village pump
  • Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts
  • m:Help:Templates
  • m:Help:Advanced templates
  • WP:REF/ES
  • User:Interiot/Tool2/code.js
  • m:ParserFunctions

[edit] Other subsitations

[edit] Personal to-do

[edit] Short-term

  • Help to maintain the Red vs. Blue pages, as always.
  • Rewrite the rest of machinima from reliable sources. We need info on production techniques more than examples.

[edit] Medium-term

This is in no particular order.
  • Work on This Spartan Life for GA.
  • Expand 2003 in machinima and write 2002 in machinima, possibly more.
  • Work on Operation Bayshield for GA/FA.
  • Start to research material for a proper article on Warthog Jump (the videos more than the technique).

[edit] Long-term

  • Read the Hello novels so that I can help to clean up the novel articles.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ My username corresponds to neither my initials nor taekwondo.
  2. ^ On some other sites—for example, the Spanish Wikipedia—I may be known as TKD 117; the number is a reference to the Master Chief from the Halo series.
  3. ^ I actually minored in music for my BS degree.
  4. ^ One-handedly, due to physical disability. I'm proud to say that I have beat Halo 3's solo campaign that way, on a standard Xbox 360 wireless controller.
  5. ^ Quite sad, in retrospect, even given that I usually favored role-playing games over first-person shooters.
  6. ^ Including, of course, the Halo series this time.
  7. ^ When other admins don't beat me to it.

Example (talk • contribs • blocks • protects • deletions • moves • rights)