There are  now 1,530,150 articles in the English Wikipedia, of which more than 600 are  mostly my own work.

What I'm doing on Wikipedia

• Links to my articles
  
  

I am  a Wikiholic, and  proud of it! I have  made more  than 21,000 edits to over 5,000 unique pages, and  on 14 September 2006, when my edit count had just passed 20,000, Daniel Bryant awarded me the Tireless Contributor Barnstar.

I have  been a registered member of the Wikipedia community since January 3, 2004. I actually discovered Wikipedia late in 2001 or  early in 2002, curiously enough through the Esperanta Vikipedio, while searching the web for Esperanto resources, which were then scanty. I did not sign up, however; I was a slow starter in recognizing the value of the project. I rediscovered Wikipedia in late October 2003, while doing a Google search for materials relating to Soong Mei-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek), following her recent death at the age of 106. This time, I began to rate the project a little more  highly. I made a few anonymous edits here and  there, before deciding to "commit myself" by registering formally on the third day of 2004.

My contributions

By 4 February 2006, I had clocked up more  than 18,000 edits to more  than four thousand unique pages, putting me among the top 200 editors by total edit count and, if you ignore the bots, by article-space edit count. Time constraints curtailed my participation from the end of March to mid-August, so when the list was next updated, on 23 September, my placing on the list had dropped by 75 places, to 243rd. I think I'm climbing again, with over 850 edits in the last month. My current edit count stands at just over 21,000 as of 31 October.

Over 14,000 of my edits are  in the main article space. Although the great majority of my edits have  involved maintenance work, I am  also one of the heavier contributors of full-length articles; to date, there are  over 600 that are  mostly my own work, and  over 70 others to which I've made a major contribution.

Fiji project

Over 70 percent of the articles to which I have  made a significant contribution are  connected with the Fiji project I undertook in February 2004. Almost 95 percent of these articles are  either original contributions, or  articles that I have  more or  less completely rewritten; when I joined Wikipedia there was so little material on that topic that I had to start almost from scratch. I am  determined to ensure that whoever contributes to Fiji-related articles in the future will not have  that problem!

I have  two main reasons for undertaking the Fiji project. First of all, I have  a passionate interest in that country, although I have  yet to visit it. Secondly, it  has been said that the English Wikipedia has a built-in bias towards countries with a high number of internet users, among whom English is  natively or  at least competently spoken. Wikipedias in other languages reflect a similar bias towards countries where they are  widely spoken by a large population with internet access. Every Wikipedia has a dearth of articles about small nations, especially of those that do not use the language of the particular Wikipedia project in question. The only solution to this imbalance is  for Wikipedians to take an  interest in smaller nations and  adopt them. Accordingly, when my goals for the Fiji-project have  been met, I will adopt another small nation, probably another Pacific Island nation, to write about. As of now, the project is  still far from finished.

Even now, I would estimate that over 80 percent of Wikipedia's Fiji-related material is  my own work, but this figure is  starting to decrease. When I came back to Wikipedia in August 2006, after five months of being mostly away, I was delighted to find that a significant number of articles had been added by other contributors. Laulad (formerly Sanaya) has been submitting and  editing articles on Lauan chiefs, while Girmitya has put a lot of research into the history of the Indo-Fijian community and  has written articles about some of its leading personalities and  organizations. Xorkl000 (who kindly awarded me the Barnstar of National Merit on 25 September 2005 for my work on Fiji) continues to keep an  eye on Fiji-related topics for factual inaccuracies and  POV. In addition, a number of users have  been making anonymous contributions. So, the Fijian "department" on Wikipedia is  no longer such a lonely place to work.

Other Wiki-roles

Of course, there are  a number of other topics to which I turn whenever I need a wikiholiday from my Fiji project. Most of these concern political affairs and  biographies. In the second half of 2004, I took some time out to cover the Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004, which shook the tiny island to the core, and  of necessity added some touches to related articles as well. In addition, I spent quite some time in early 2005 updating a considerable number of Lebanese-related articles, and  also contributed some of my own, as the national uprising known as the Cedar Revolution stimulated worldwide public interest and  brought about an  urgent need for a comprehensive, reliable, and  up-to-date resource. Unfortunately, I found that many of the articles concerning Lebanon were two or  three years out of date, many were biased towards a particular POV, and  some were downright inaccurate. Worst of all, many significant political figures and  movements in Lebanon were not documented in Wikipedia. I decided to play a part in rectifying that situation. There are  currently over 40 Lebanese articles that I've edited significantly; of these, about 25 are  mostly my own work.

I am  also one of the volunteers helping out on the Multilingual statistics page. I designed one of the tables found there and  redesigned two of the others. I help to keep an  eye on the monthly statistics for the 200 or  so languages in which Wikipedia now operates.

One topic about which you might expect to find material written by me is  New Zealand, but as of now, there are  a mere handful of New Zealand-related articles that I've had anything to do with. This is  not for lack of interest in my homeland, but mostly an  acknowledgement that there is  already a considerable number of eminently qualified Wikipedians from New Zealand working in that department. As my own time is  limited, I prefer mostly to leave it  to them pursue what they are  doing so well, while I concentrate on filling gaps in the content, such as Fiji-related material, in which fewer writers have  been taking an  interest.

Sister projects

I have  a passion not only for Wikipedia, but for its "sister projects" as well. Time constraints have  prevented me from playing as active a role in them as I would like; I don't have  enough time to do everything that I would like to do for Wikipedia, let alone for the sister projects. Nevertheless, I have  made more  than 500 edits on Wikiquote, where I have  compiled quotes for about 50 individuals, and  have also uploaded a number of documents to Wikisource. I have  contributed 3 reports to Wikinews, but if and  when time permits, I would like to play a more  active role in that project. I have  also made the odd contribution to Wikipedias in other languages, but have  given up submitting electronically translated articles, as machines produce too many errors, and  one Italian kindly told me that the translation device I used was a "terrible fish."

Wiki-policy

I became a sysop, otherwise called an  Administrator, on 3 July 2004 - six months to the day after I became a Wikipedian. I have  expressed my thanks here to the 23 people who recognized my passion for this project and  voted for me. I feel honoured to have  a role in building this incredible online resource, which I envisage as ultimately consisting of literally billions of articles worked on by millions of editors in the world's 6,500 languages. As of 1 September 2006, the total Wikipedia project consists of over 5 million articles in 229 languages. That is  indeed a great achievement that all of us should be proud of, but the time will come when we will look back and  see it  as no more  than a small stepping stone to something that will have  grown so huge that we cannot presently conceive of it.

A certain creative tension exists among Wikipedians who describe themselves as inclusionists and  deletionists, respectively. I long avoided taking a stand, concurring with Australian evangelist John Smith's summarizing of his own political inclinations as a bird that has both a right wing and  a left wing. I would now say, however, that I have  come to lean increasingly towards the inclusionist position, though not rabidly so. I still have  a "deletionist wing," especially when it  comes to material that I consider to be pornographic. I take a negative view of editors, whom I consider vandals, who insist on uploading reviews (euphemistically code-named "articles") on every latest pornographic movie that hits the video industry.

My personal ambition as a Wikipedian is  to become the undisputed number-one contributor of quality articles to Wikipedia.

Other projects

A multitude of wiki projects now dot the internet, many if not most of them using Mediawiki software and  emulating the administrative structure pioneered by Wikipedia. I welcome that, and  participate in a number of them, including Wikimapia, a project to annotate Google Maps with notes contributed by users through a wiki interface. I am  sceptical, however, of projects whose stated aims are  to supplant Wikipedia, such as Larry Sanger's Citizendium project, a proposed fork and  supposed "improvement" of Wikipedia. Its restrictive editorial policy is  likely to stifle development, and  the abolition of categories is  a retrograde step. What the organizers of Citizendium are  forgetting is  that an  encyclopedia is  written by editors, but for readers, and  their proposal to abolish an  invaluable aid to navigation, thereby making each article its own stand-alone category (as they put it) will do nothing to create a user-friendly interface.

But perhaps the most serious oversight on the part of the Citizendium people is  that initial perfection rarely wins in the market place. The now-forgotten Beta video system and  the Apple computer were superior to the VHS and  IBM models, respectively. Endless fine-tuning tends to create projects that are  artistically beautiful, but unworkable, and  I suspect that Citizendium will be no exception. Its greatest weakness will be its initial inability to attract a large pool of contributors. A larger number of lurkers from Wikipedia will, however, peruse the newly created articles on Citizendium and  scavenge them. Given the public profile of Wikipedia, readers are  far more  likely to find the articles on Wikipedia than where they are  originally posted, and  Citizendium editors will be left wondering what they are  working for and  why.

I mean no ill will towards Citizendium or  the people involved in the project. But my doubts are  real, and, I think, well-founded. I feel differently about projects like Wikinfo, whose editorial policy is  designed to allow points of view not permitted on Wikipedia, thereby providing an  alternative resource that complements Wikipedia without attempting to replace it, as is  seen in the continued participation in Wikipedia by Fred Bauder, Wikinfo's founder. Larry Sanger, by contrast, has severed his links with Wikipedia. All the best to him - but I honestly think the best for him is  to go back to the drawing board and  redesign his project fundamentally.

An Award Awarded for work of Fiji related articles. Someone had to do it  eventually, so here it  is for your work on Fiji. --Xorkl000 11:21, 25 September 2005 (UTC)		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		I notice from your userpage that, as of today, you have  made 20,000 edits on the English Wikipedia. This is  an extraordinary effort, and  I am  happy to present you the Tireless Contributor Barnstar for your unwavering additions to Wikipedia, which are  of both the highest level of quantity and, most importantly, quality. Daniel.Bryant 09:46, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

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