From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My name is Nicholas Rollins. Everything else you need to know about me can be learned from these userboxes:
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This user thinks that GoldenEye 007 is the best computer or video game ever made. |
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This user is owned by one or more cats. |
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This user uses entirely too many userboxes. |
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[edit] Wikipedia
I've recently read several articles — mostly on or found via The Register — criticising Wikipedia. While I love to contribute, I can see that it does have many problems when it comes to using it as a reliable source of information. People coming across a vandalised article, or a very badly-written piece of fancruft on their first visit will have a very tainted impression of the project. (Remember that Penny Arcade strip and the comment "I wasn't aware they thought they were making a real encyclopedia for big people"?)
I think that Wikipedia:Stable versions and User:TidyCat's proposal, at User:TidyCat/Achieving validation on Wikipedia, are great ideas and a step in the right direction. Frozen, stable, reliable versions of as many articles as possible kept obvious to visitors while development of the wiki version goes on in the background.
One thing I think everyone should keep in mind is that extending an article does not necessarily make it better. Adding a lot of material to an article can of course be a good thing, but not if none of it's referenced, or if there's a related page where it would be more appropriate, or if it's too specific to be included in Wikipedia (which is just supposed to give a general overview of things).
Personally, I've recently started trying to improve things in my own small way by adding references for as many of my contributions as possible. The most extreme example of that is in the Perfect Dark Zero article (a game I haven't yet played, but would definitely like to; despite the criticism it's received I think I'd enjoy it), in which I added references to Edge, IGN and GameSpot almost every step of the way in the "development" section. But too many references has got to be better than too few! :)
[edit] Useful things
I refer to these quite often.
[edit] My contributions
These are some of the Wikipedia articles I created or contribute to frequently. A full list may be found at Special:Contributions/User:Nick R.
- The Matrix series - I still love the first film, even though the sequels were disappointing.
[edit] Templates
(Although when I originally created it it had three buttons to represent a Sega Mega Drive rather than a NES (the Master System was my 8-bit console of choice).)
(Although when I originally created it it had an inferior wording and colour scheme.)
[edit] Other sites I use
[edit] Favourite...
I like making lists, like that guy in High Fidelity. :)
[edit] Other miscellaneous online things
