User:Bellagio99

About Bellagio99
Welcome to my page. I'm a social scientist (and point guard wannabe) who social networks, true science fiction, and modern dance. In Wikipedia (and life), I'm a moderate inclusionist. Some of the pages I've worked on are Natalie Zemon Davis, Judith Merril and Oscar Peterson. Much to my surprise, I've made more than 6,500 edits of more than 500 pages, although the distribution is a J-curve. Part of the reason is that when I encounter bad syntax in the odd article, I am a drive-by WikiGnome.

Why "Bellagio" for my WikiName? It's the Italian village and not the Las Vegas hotel (the latter, to its credit, has some wonderful Dale Chihuly glass art). I love the beauty, the vibes, and the people of the village. So, why not?

My drug of choice --

FWIW, I'm starting to think of Wikipedia as the anti-Google. Where Google supplies an unorganized list, Wikipedia tries to organize information chaos into comprehensible bytes. Despite the problems that all WP editors know, IMHO, it does a pretty good job of synthesizing, presenting and self-correcting. YMMV.



Tools
(Feel free to "borrow" these tools. I did. Thanks to Refsworldlee, Jeeny, JaminBen, Epbr123, Ne-Jay, Hereenthere, Michael Hardy, et al.)


 * Free Images Search Tool
 * Table Help
 * Web colors
 * AIV
 * MoS
 * AfD
 * RfE
 * Picture Positioning
 * |Move-to-commons assistant
 * Clean-up templates
 * Stub Templates
 * Wikipedia:List of shortcuts
 * Asking for article assessments
 * User:Bellagio99/Sandbox

Typical changes I make

 * writing and rewriting large chunks of content
 * removing duplicate or long-winded information
 * neutralizing overly positive or negative statements
 * asking people to cite their sources
 * improving spelling, punctuation and grammar
 * patrolling articles in my watchlist for linkspam and vandalism

Cite templates

 * -- citation needed
 * cite book
 * cite journal
 * cite web
 * cite news

Useful templates

 * PageName ~
 * Articles for deletion
 * Articles for deletion
 * Articles for deletion
 * Articles for deletion
 * Articles for deletion
 * Articles for deletion
 * Articles for deletion
 * Articles for deletion

Template formats, courtesy of emerson7
 * template:cite news: newspapers, news organizations, etc.
 * template:cite web: websites
 * template:cite journal: magazines and journals

Links I find useful
(Unceremoniously stolen from User:Nuggetboy's page who appropriated it from Boojum's talk page.)


 * Policy Library
 * Cite your sources
 * Verifiability
 * Wikiquette
 * Conflict resolution
 * Brilliant prose
 * Neutral point of view
 * Pages needing attention
 * Peer review
 * Village pump
 * Boilerplate text

More useful stuff
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Wikipedia reference desk

 * Reference desk link
 * Manual of Style
 * What is a troll?

Wikipedia statistics

 * Wikipedia general stats:
 * Wikipedia edit counter
 * Kate's edit counter
 * Article traffic statistics by month
 * Number of times an article has been viewed in a specific day, month and year:
 * Wikipedia charts:
 * Erik Zachte, "Analyzing & Visualizing Wikipedia":

Wikithanks, Wikismiles & Wikilove
This image is useful for giving thanks to all the people who cooperate -- wittingly or not -- in improving Wikipedia:



You can also smile at others by adding this graphic to their talk pages along with a friendly message: 

has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing! Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.



Contact
Please leave me messages on my User Talk:Bellagio99 page, I will usually respond there to avoid fragmenting a discussion. Thanks.

For private communication: Special:Emailuser/Bellagio99

A Partial Autobiography in Userboxes
All scavenged -- thank you : Jeeny [RIP], Malik Shabazz, ThaddeusStamp, Goyston, Ludahai, Ursasapien, Sefringle, The Psychless, Leuko, Bearian, RrBurke, Meandering, Javascap, Johnny Au, Benbest, Faithlessthewonderboy, Wordbuilder, BlackJays, S.dedalus, Fairsing, DMack, Spencer, Andrzej Kmicic, Attilios, HokieRNB, Menasim, Legotech, Herenthere, Dycedarg, Pinkadelica, David Gerard, Slrubenstein, GreenJoe, TiddlyTom, Lisapollion, MySurvivorPartay, GordonEcker, VitaleBaby, EchetusXe, LeaveSleaves, Appraiser, Bearian, Jake Wartenberg, Wasted Time R, Unionhawk, Rossrs, KeyedIn, Moonriddengirl, Madcoverboy, Wikipedia-Project Userboxes and others.

Please note that I am more than the sum of my Userboxes. I am an Emergent Property and a Networked Self.

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Reading, writing
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Places I've been
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