Difference between revisions 59754412 and 60631909 on enwiki

Please feel free to contact me on my [[User_talk:Avb|talk page]]. 
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(contracted; show full){{userbox|grey|white|[[Image:Apple of Discord.png|40px]]|This user is a Genuine and Authentic [[Discordian Pope]]. Marriages performed at a discount (US only).}}
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If you are looking for some background information about me, please go over my 
editing record in search of possible bias or the lack thereof, e.g. in [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AContributions&offset=0&limit=500&target=Avb&namespace=0 article space] or on [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=Avb&offset=0&limit=500&namespace=1 talk pages]. In case you don't have the time to do the right thing and check out my [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AContributions&offset=0&limit=500&target=Avb editing record], here's a range of informative user boxes, as well as what an extremely [[WP:RS|reliable]] external source has said about me. 

Or perhaps a [[self-reference]] may help: I am somewhere on the road from Wikipedia newbie to Wikipedia veteran. As of May 2006, after 2000+ edits, I have learnt enough to make somewhat authoritative statements about what makes Wikipedia tick, but not enough to be sure if I love it as it is, or might want to work towards change. As such, my contributions on the talk pages of policy articles are still largely geared to increase my understanding of the policies, mirroring my increasing understanding of how things are done in practice through participating in the regular work of creating/editing articles. 

I do not edit from a particular POV. I tend to add information on underrepresented POVs, and improve information on ''any'' POV, insofar as I know enough about the subject. To me, knowledge of a subject includes ''all'' relevant POVs, not the one I happen to prefer, if any. To know all is to understand all, to understand all is to forgive all. That applies to my personal life as readily as it applies to Wikipedia. Within practical limitations, Wikipedia is there to allow all people everywhere to know all. As such I am ready to edit for and from just about any POV. If I have an "agenda", it's that I think my own POV (in cases where I have a POV I prefer - generally I like ''some'' aspects of ''virtually all'' POVs) is best served by accurate descriptions of all POVs. After all, that is how I have been reaching my own POVs for 50 years and counting. No prejudice, no hype. Drill down to the raw info, build your life on that foundation. I became a huge fan of Wikipedia's [[WP:NPOV]] policy from day one. [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AContributions&offset=0&limit=500&target=Avb editing record] in search of possible bias or the lack thereof, e.g. in [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AContributions&offset=0&limit=500&target=Avb&namespace=0 article space] or on [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=Avb&offset=0&limit=500&namespace=1 talk pages]. You may also want to check out the informative user boxes to the right, or read the following summary: 

I have an agenda here on Wikipedia: I view the encyclopedia as our gift to the world and hope it will help people all over the world improve the conditions under which they live. If we are ever to make our presence in this universe a balanced one, we will need balanced knowledge available to all. I don't know whether or not providing good information and cutting the crap will lead to an ideal world. But I do not think uncertainty about the outcome is a good reason for setting one's sights too low. 

There are thousands upon thousands of good editors at work here for all kinds of reasons. This is mine and I know I'm not the only one - in case you've just wandered into Wikipedia, stumbled over this user page and are patient or curious enough to have read this far, I did not think up the concept of a gift to the world, or what it may be good for (other than making available for free what you have to pay for elsewhere). 

So: in the main namespace I do not usually edit from a particular point of view. I tend to add information on underrepresented POVs, and improve information on ''any'' POV. To me, knowledge of a subject includes ''all'' relevant POVs, not the one I happen to prefer, if any. To know all is to understand all, to understand all is to forgive all. That applies to my personal life as readily as it applies to Wikipedia. Within practical limitations, Wikipedia is there to allow all people everywhere to know all. As such I am ready to edit for and from just about any POV. I think my own POV (in cases where I have one - I generally like ''some'' aspects of ''virtually all'' POVs) is best served by accurate descriptions of all relevant POVs. After all, that is how I have been reaching my own POVs for 50 years and counting. No prejudice, no hype. Drill down to the raw info, build your life on that foundation. I became a huge fan of Wikipedia's '''neutral point of view''' principle from day one.  

I also do some work on policy pages, from a specific (although changing) POV. For a while I contemplated working towards change (which on Wikipedia is not done by changing policy, but by building a wide community consensus which is then incorporated into policy). I discovered that I had some ideas in common with [[User:Larry Sanger|Larry Sanger]], an important co-founder and architect of Wikipedia (ideas that, unfortunately, made him leave the project years ago). However, in the end I decided that I like things the way they are (including the way change is effected). This is simply based on the huge success of the project. Never change a winning team. As such I am now firmly on the side of [[Jimbo]] in this respect (and quite a few others). My contributions on policy pages (and sometimes also on article talk pages) are increasingly geared to help explain policies to well-meaning new editors who want to change policies without sufficient knowledge of or experience with how Wikipedia is run or, rather, runs itself. Helping to keep policy text in line with practice is also on my agenda. ⏎


My World View published [http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=23320&first=yes here] on April 11, 2006:

You scored as '''Postmodernist'''

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