Animalparty

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This user participates in
WikiProject Animals.
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This user is a member of WikiProject Paleontology.

This user is a participant in
WikiProject Arthropods.

MS

This user has a Master of Science degree in Biology.

This user has made over
100,000 edits to Wikipedia.

This user is one of the
900 most active Wikipedians

Hi, welcome to my user page. I tend to edit biological articles, with interests in invertebrate zoology, evolution and paleontology, and biographies of scientists (and sometimes their notable family members). I also enjoy articles on artists, actors, and journalists: the people influencing how we see the world.

My philosophy/tips/musings on editing and article creation:

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. However, many Wikipedia articles are poorly constructed, looking more like montages assembled from newspaper clippings, or are just plain terrible. Read actual encyclopedias and longform biographical dictionaries written by competent, professional writers. Don't use other Wikipedia articles as examples of "how an encyclopedia article should look". As Wikipedia becomes an increasingly dominant form of information, this has concerning implications for the future of information and media literacy. Every bad Wikipedia article risks perpetuating bad practices. Do everything you can to make a good encyclopedia article, whether it consists of 100 words or 10,000.
Context is key.
One good comprehensive article is better than a dozen isolated stubs. Merge when appropriate.
Emphasize quality over quantity.
Make technical articles understandable.
Avoid overlinking, and don't link purely because an article exists by that name. Keep the reader focused on your article, and don't use multiple wikilinks when they draw emphasis away from the primary target (e.g. "described by the British naturalist Charles Darwin", not "the British naturalist Charles Darwin")
Do not start lists with "This is a list of..."! We know! And give those lists some introductory context!
Be aware of the FUTON (full text on net) bias and the Digital divide: the vast majority of scholarly human knowledge is not freely available online, and an easily accessible source (e.g. first hit on Google) doesn't always mean a reliable or authoritative source. Don't be afraid to find and cite a book!
Eschew obfuscation.

Useful tools:

reFill - automatically expand bare url citations
Wikipedia citation tool for Google Books - converts a url into a formatted reference
Move-to-Commons assistant - easily move properly licensed files to Commons

Articles created

Many articles have subsequently been edited by others, to varying degrees, as Wikipedia is a dynamic collaborative project

Did You Know? appearance
Good Article
Composed mainly or entirely from Public Domain sources.
Disambiguation pages, redirects, categories, and other miscellaneous pages not included.

Biographies

Scientists and physicians

Artists

Other

Arthropods

Myriapods

Spiders, insects, etc.

Paleontology

Miscellaneous

Major contributions

Ocepeia
Edwards Davis
Millipede
Glomerida (expanded from stub)
Microlophus albemarlensis (expanded from stub)
Ralph Vary Chamberlin (expanded from stub)
Denis G. Lillie (expanded from stub)
Kyphosichthys
Eozostrodon
Insect trap