Hello to any who may visit this page. I have been present on WP since sometime around 2007 or 2008 when I would have made my very first edit from a school computer, more than likely on a page dedicated to some long forgotten battle from either the American Revolution or the American Civil War. I long forgot my profile information from then, if I even made one at that time, and I have been active here ever since. Most of my years and edits have been done as a random IP user, mostly because I wanted to ensure I would always divorce my ego from my edits. As a random IP user, with an IP that changes constantly, any challenges to my edits would likely never be answered as I would not even be notified, helping to ensure I would never return to a page with even the possibility of a bruised ego or "take it personally". At the time, I didnt quite understand why someone would even want a profile, given the mission of WP overall. Since then, I have learned much and have earned an understanding and appreciation for dedicated Users who participate more than just making edits, but by participating more often in community discussions.
I have always believed that the first step an editor must go through to be effective is to accept and acknowledge their own bias. The second step is to accept that having a bias is not a negative, but mostly an expected outcome of having a passion for something. With our goal being to work together towards truth, working with bias in mind can help make bold edits that contribute to bettering the page, and help self-reflection when/if your edits are challenged.
Why did I finally make this account in 2024? Well, I was mostly curious if this username was taken already, but also I wanted to challenge myself further. For most of my IP User career, I focused on topics of History (various) and especially tried to work on pages/articles that were (very) rough translations from non-English sources to help improve grammar and (when required) challenge the source claims. As a user with a dedicated profile, while I still intend to passionately work on these pages still, I boldly venture into terra incognita, especially politics and current affairs, to challenge myself with more contentious and divisive content, and to not be afraid to put up a good fight in the name of truth...to challenge status quos if I have reason to believe there is a flaw in it, to boldly edit in the pursuit of greater understanding and to actually participate in Talk discussions that are likely to be heavily filled with unaddressed bias and users who may assume bad faith rather than good faith difference of opinion or perspective. Why? Am I looking for a fight, or for conflict for the sake of it? No. I aim to better myself, to better the quality of discussion and debate on topics full of passion and disagreement, and hopefully to better the quality of WP overall. That is why.
If you made it this far, congrats! You now get a special secret: I don't actually care about the silly ranks at the top of the page. I did legitimately "earn" both of them through all my years of uncounted thousands of edits (If I were serious, my best guess would be I "earned" the "rank" above the one I've chosen here), but I do not believe that experience as a WP editor is valid as any sense of authority on anything really, and I think this "service" system, while good intentioned, leads to a bit of misplaced sense of importance and authority over other editors. I include my "rank" mostly to keep certain editors from assuming (intentionally or otherwise) that they can attempt to bully me into accepting a position in a debate by trying to assert I lack some sort of "understanding" of the WP guidelines. My hope is that by dissuading other editors from "moving the goal posts" to focus on experience as a registered "Wikipedian", this will help keep discussion and debate on-topic and focused on what matters most.
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