User:Canada Jack

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I've been on Wikipedia since the spring of 2006, and have generally edited pages involved in Track and Field, space flight and fringe belief issues, such as ufos and the North American Union. In terms of creating a page, I did a lot of work writing the Carl Lewis biography, (though it has been messed up recently) initiating the complete re-do of the Roswell UFO incident page and sister pages, and have been lately (Summer 2009) adding a lot of detail and citations to many of the Soviet space flights of the 1970s and afterwards.

I've done some work on the JFK assassination pages, and have waded into the mire of the North American Union pages. In both cases, there is a lot less to the eye, despite what some in the conspiracy communities say, IMHO.

I have a deep interest in track and field/athletics. I have added a lot of biographical information on various runners, particularly late 19th and early 20th century record setters in the mile. Typically, I have insufficient information to make these pages little more than glorified stubs, but it's a start.

Medal boxes for World Championships track and field medalists
I started a project in July 2007 to update the "medal boxes" found on many Olympic medalist's pages to include medals won at the World Championships. I plan to do this only for Track and Field/Athletics athletes who have medalled since the inaugural 1983 World Championships. I will systematically add the boxes or include WC medals when warranted. Many already have both or the Olympics. I am striving to have ALL the athletes get them, save for those who do not already have a page.

The sample to the right is what I am talking about. I will not use photos that are not already there. In this case, the image is of German high hurdler Harald Schmid, the medal information is American sprinter Calvin Smith's with modifications to show the styles I have employed.

I've employed a standard which I feel can be incorporated into other similar boxes.

First, I favour the use of lower cases in titles, save for the "Olympic Games" etc. So, it's "Men's athletics" not "Athletics." This applies in the events as well, so it's "High jump" and "400 m hurdles." So, the first word is capped, following words are not. I use "m" instead of "metre" and "4x400 m relay" for the relays, as opposed to "4 x 400 metres" or other variations.

I don't use "throw", so it's "Discus," "Javelin," "Hammer," rather than "Discus throw," etc. "Shot put" is the exception. This serves a practical purpose - using the full event names tends to squish the boxes. The 3000 m steeplechase is the one event which is perhaps too long for the box, but I feel can't be abbreviated.

The boxes themselves introduce "Men's athletics" BEFORE the Olympic/WC bar, not later. On some pages where an athlete ONLY won medals at the Olympics, it may make sense to have the "athletics" bar after the "Olympic" bar, but not if there are multiple championships. And it makes sense to introduce "athletics" before "World Championships" as it is not obvious that this is the sport involved, and it would imply that "athletics" is a subset of the sports competed at the World Championships if it was after.

In some cases, contributors have gone to town in terms of adding "medals" won at various events - including sometimes Grand Prix events where "medals" aren't awarded per se, nor is finishing third a particular honour. Though I am tempted to cut down these over-weighted medal boxes, I have generally only been compelled to rank the events so that the Olympics (if medalled) is first, then the World Championships, then World Indoor Championships (if applicable), then whatever follows. (It seems to me that regional championships should follow, though the Commonwealth Games arguably should precede any regional championships. I've not bothered to determine what should go first beyond ranking Olympics 1, WC 2 and WIC 3.)

Venues are year/city. So, it's "1997 Athens" rather than the reverse.

Since "5,000" and "5.000" could both be understood, depending on the convention, to be read as "five" and "five thousand", I have opted for omitting the comma/period for the longer distance events, vis "5000," "10000," "3000," "1500."

Finally, I sort medals by golds, then silvers, then bronzes, rather than by sequence of championships. This is my view looks a lot better then the chronological order that is the main alternative. "Disqualified" boxes should be 4th on this list and should only apply to those athletes who would have won a medal if not disqualified. I am inclined to only use these boxes for drug violators, not for people who, for example, are part of a relay team who were subsequently found to have passed outside their zone.

aka Johnny Canuck
I was a fixture on Space.com as "johnny canuck" for many years, though I am rarely on that site these days. I started on wikipedia as "johnny canuck" but was forced to change my name owing to a sockpuppet issue (see discussion), but I have been "canada jack" for almost my entire time here.

Interests
My general subject interests include: track and field (athletics); subjects of interest to skeptics (including but not limited to UFO claims, crop circles, JFK assassination conspiracy claims, 911 conspiracy claims, etc.); manned space flight; European Union (in particular its expansion, integration and the euro), Canadian subjects.

Personal
I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and work at the CBC as a promo producer.

I am particularly interested in geneaology, having traced family roots in Toronto back to at least 1835, and having found extensive roots in Britain, and in pre-1776 America (back to 1620).