User:Æo

Æo (pronounceable: /ˈiːoʊ/; /ˈɛːoʊ/)

Active since 19:50, 13 January 2013.

Former usernames (and alternative accounts):

Aethelwolf Emsworth (2013–2020, continuing as Æo);
Eckhardt Etheling (2015–2018), 4,154 edits;^[i]
Wddan (2017–2018), 1,979 edits;^[i]
Amorphophallus Titanum (2018), few edits;^[i]
Arcane Square (2017), few edits.^[ii]

I have a university degree in philosophy and I have been particularly interested, and have had some university education, in theology and religious studies, especially pertaining to East Asian religions and European esotericism and new religious movements. I am also interested in demographics of religious and non-religious populations.

I do not edit or otherwise contribute to any Wikimedia article or project on behalf of any employer, client, or affiliated person, organisation, or other entity; nor do I receive or solicit any compensation for any edits or other contributions. Given that I mostly contribute to articles on religion and philosophy, I think it is also worthwhile to clarify that I do not consider my contributions bent by or to any particular religious or political convictions; I do not identify with any specific religious or political systems, and I do not consider myself an atheist either.

I think that Wikipedia is a wonderful project, which, however, has many weaknesses: It tends to entropy, as it is taken by many non-scrupulous contributors as a repository of anything one may find in the Internet, thus not as an encyclopedia but as a sort of "sandbox game"; well-written articles are rare, and most articles are instead filled with poorly written content, either without sources or sourced with chaotic webs of links which ultimately do not support the content itself; articles are constantly vandalised, and vandalism often remains unchecked. The Wikimedia organisation seems to be more concerned with changing the interface for improving "users' experience" than with establishing better methods aimed at improving the quality of the encyclopedic contents.

Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c Topic-dedicated accounts: Beginning in 2015, I created some alternative accounts alongside my earliest one, Aethelwolf Emsworth, because I wanted to experiment with other nicknames and especially because I discovered that using separate accounts to treat different topics improved my ability to focus on such topics. I restricted the use of Aethelwolf Emsworth to editing about Eastern religions and thought, while I used Eckhardt Etheling for Western religions and thought, Wddan for religion demographics, and Amorphophallus Titanum for other, minor topics. They were undisclosed alternative accounts, and the practice of using them came to an end in late 2018 when I made the mistake of continuing my editing activities while through one of them, Wddan, I had received a brief block; for such a mistake, I was banned for one year from Wikipedia. Since 2019, I no longer use separate accounts for different topics, and I have restricted my editing activity to my earliest account, continued under the new nickname Æo.
^ I created the account Arcane Square one day when I both had to use a public Internet connection and I did not have my other accounts' passwords at hand, and I edited through it only on that occasion.

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[topic_accounts-1] Topic-dedicated accounts: Beginning in 2015, I created some alternative accounts alongside my earliest one, Aethelwolf Emsworth, because I wanted to experiment with other nicknames and especially because I discovered that using separate accounts to treat different topics improved my ability to focus on such topics. I restricted the use of Aethelwolf Emsworth to editing about Eastern religions and thought, while I used Eckhardt Etheling for Western religions and thought, Wddan for religion demographics, and Amorphophallus Titanum for other, minor topics. They were undisclosed alternative accounts, and the practice of using them came to an end in late 2018 when I made the mistake of continuing my editing activities while through one of them, Wddan, I had received a brief block; for such a mistake, I was banned for one year from Wikipedia. Since 2019, I no longer use separate accounts for different topics, and I have restricted my editing activity to my earliest account, continued under the new nickname Æo.

[2] I created the account Arcane Square one day when I both had to use a public Internet connection and I did not have my other accounts' passwords at hand, and I edited through it only on that occasion.

[i]

[ii]