User:Cyfal/Trivia

(This page is something like a short diary about my experiences in wikipedia.)

Some statistics about me: click here

How I started
I'm German, thus naturally I started in the german wikipedia. However, all prejudices about Germans are true, they love to obey strange rules and prefer to be rude instead of arguing in case of dissents. Ok, there are exceptions, and I hope I am one of them – please be polite if I didn't manage to neglegt my roots, I will try my best to be civilised ;-)

My first edits in the english wikipedia were mainly adding other language versions. However, finally I decided to start in the en-Wikipedia as a true contributor and shorten my work for the german wikipedia. Well, here it's really a paradise as compared to my german experiences. People are polite, interested in improving articles, and interested in providing sources. In the german wikipedia, sources are not considered that important, and people think that improvement of wikipedia can be performed best by deleting informations. (It is true that removing lesser-quality articles improves the mean quality, but that does not help any reader searching for a specific information in wikipedia.)

Well, here are some of the first highlights, which I encountered:
 * Contrary to de:Curtiss R3C-2, my first new article en:Curtiss R3C-2 wasn't ignored, but rated – as a stub by a real pilot, that both ashames and encourages me. I hope I will find some additional information to expand this article.
 * As my favorite anime, I do not only find here Sailor Moon, but for each important character an own article – incredible.
 * I read in William Holman Hunt an explanation of my german wikipedia name, which I selected mainly because it sounded strange to me…
 * Also, I was impressed by the fact that a single picture, The Hireling Shepherd, is allowed to have it's own and elucidate article here.

Summary: I love you all! Thank you!

-- 21:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

After some days, checking various articles and using the "random article" key I did not feel the need to change any of them—This is either due to the fact that the English Wikipedia articles are in a better "condition" than these of the German Wikipedia, or maybe its because I don't notice stylistic errors because I'm not a native speaker. Thus, up to now I mainly reverted some vandalism. I was still to lazy to work on any point of my to-do list… -- 17:20, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

My first and only contribution to wikipedia which was not entirely serious on 19:19, 6 January 2008 (UTC)—and already on 13:32, 7 January 2008 it has been reverted... Ok, no further jokes now.

Also, the first time I detected something like an edit war, 28 December 2007, although not very serious.

-- 21:25, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

This was one of the funniest edits I ever made for a dissident like me... (currently, this german article does not exist, but before, it existed.) --Cyfal (talk) 18:06, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Talk:Franz Josef Strauss is a good example what happens if Germans start discussing. --Cyfal (talk) 23:44, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Both proud and sad
Today (9 April 2019) I've reached the top 3000 of the List of Wikipedians by number of edits, actually number 2999—however, I've noticed that the number 3000 I've overtaken is Hasteur who died so young from this terrible disease. I have a feeling I was unfair. --17:12, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

I am lazy...
When I started in October/November 2007, I also created a to-do list, but I guess it will never be done—therefore I leave it here (I'm still to optimistic to delete it) --15:18, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
 * new: Macchi M.33
 * new: Heinkel He 49
 * update? Macchi M.39
 * check Gotha G against de:Gotha G.I
 * check this one

Barnstar
My good, I'm so damned proud of my first barnstar I received on 20 February 2008—I moved it from my discussion page to my main page so I can lookup to it all the time... --Cyfal (talk) 19:31, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * BTW, this lasted quite long, no idea wether "the inventor of the Rickshaw" was vandalism or just an error. --Cyfal (talk) 20:46, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Articles I did create or extend, and other stuff
Here I start a list containing articles I created new or mainly extended, and major contributions:
 * Jacques Schneider created
 * Curtiss R3C created
 * added this strange trivia in Ghost in the Shell
 * added that François Pinault that he collects art exhibited in Palazzo Grassi
 * reformulated Third Man Argument
 * enhanced article Bundenbach
 * changed Ebersheim into a disambig
 * fixed a lot of wrong links to Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) because now it's The Left Party.PDS
 * modified a lot of links from redirect Blue Oyster Cult to article Blue Öyster Cult
 * modified a lot of links from redirect Motorhead to article Motörhead
 * moddifed a lot of links from disambiguation Nagasaki to article Nagasaki, Nagasaki
 * modified Rumpler and corresponding redirects and links
 * rated Hypernucleus article
 * corrected a lot of "calender" into "calendar"
 * corrected a lot of "drunkeness" into "drunkenness"
 * added explanation of the name to Moose test
 * merged QSL with QSL card
 * Baumgarten-Tangl law created
 * tried to solve the interwiki confusion with strong verb, strong inflection, weak verb, weak inflection
 * added plot to Empire of the Sun
 * extended Compass direction using a watch (now part of a bigger article)
 * started article The Nautical Almanac
 * added stuff to Hermann Hendrich
 * Sherwood (company), still a stub
 * William Gould Newman, just because I noticed a red link in William Newman
 * added boring old fart to BOF
 * corrected a lot of "potatos" in "potatoes"
 * America a Prophecy created
 * corrected all "and and" into "and" (long ago, there are again a lot of them...)
 * corrected a lot of "of of" into "of"
 * Castle (company), still a stub
 * Panduro Hobby, was still a stub – and has now been deleted
 * Panduro disambiguation page
 * Vorderkaiserfeldenhütte
 * mentioned Tinseltown in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California finally
 * Kudlik
 * In camera (disambiguation)
 * Mother-in-law seat created this redir
 * Place du 8 Novembre 1942 created as stub
 * Kenzan, still a tiny article
 * Sogetsu, an ikebana school (was a redir before)
 * Starbase (disambiguation)
 * Precisely (sketch) just because I was confused that the Dab Solver has problems with Precisely on The French Lieutenant's Woman (film)...
 * Forst, Lower Saxony this small village deserves an entry due to its Krautrock inhabitants in the 70s
 * Armindo Bruma because there were already two footballers at Bruma, but not this one, however, was deleted as non-notable
 * ACUF new disambiguation
 * Zeppelin (research station) just to make two red links blue
 * Volcan (mining company) to make links blue in a template
 * enhanced article Großkarolinenfeld
 * created disambig Worner
 * created a lot of hatnotes for umlaut articles, e.g. like this
 * created a number of disambig pages, e.g. Reinshagen, Hüttenbach, Jaeckel...
 * enhanced article Satow, Germany
 * Goyet, now moved to Goyet (place), needs to be expanded
 * Peiho Forts created this redir
 * Category:Austrian science fiction writers created
 * Hosoban created this redir
 * Schilde (Schaale) created
 * created a number of German river articles and disambiguations, e.g. Ölschnitz, Nassach (Fils), Nassach, Murach, Kertelbach, Berka (river), Engelsbach, Engelsbach (Aubach), Völkerwiesenbach, Aubach (Wied), Koser, Klingenbach (disambiguation), Klingenbach (Igelsbach), Kleine Isar, Kleine Isar (Landshut), Kleine Donau, Klausbach (Salzach), Klausbach, Kalterbach, Kainach (Mur), Kainach, Kleinlaudenbach.
 * also created Austrian river articles, e.g. Lizumbach, Fallbach (Inn, Baumkirchen), Kelchsauer Ache, Pitten (river), Zeller Ache, Erlauf (river), Metnitz (river).
 * Statement of Facts

Funny vandalism reverts
One of the pleasures here are the edit summaries in case vandalism is reverted. I collect here some of them which were fun to me:
 * yes, we Wikipedians are not interested in everything
 * always polite
 * maybe or not...
 * stay true to your school
 * get what you wanted
 * especially
 * hi, bye (sounds like Hello Goodbye...)
 * "suggests"
 * closest friends
 * happy to help
 * do I understand my standpoint?
 * heru?
 * neutral
 * we don't want inconsequent vandalism
 * most are not
 * city names

Funny vandalism
Actually, there are also funny kinds of vandalism – although seldom. Here are the few cases I encountered:


 * seems that Yekkes have some typically German habits
 * this is a nice way to react to a spelling error
 * Toblerolex – a nice idea
 * Heävy Metäl Ümlaut
 * head of the school – funny edit summary
 * Lyme Regis – a town from a children's book
 * Frankenstein – I must admit, if you take a look at his picture...

Longtime vandalism and other nonsense
Here I collect some vandalism an other nonsense which remained for a longer period than usual.


 * non-"anthropomorphic" friends six months
 * Tower falling down, one month
 * word deleted, one month
 * a machine translation from the French wikipedia, Rabat translated as reduction, since the start of this article, i.e. two months
 * crash test dummy saving a live, more than one month
 * not directly nonsense, but odd: short article and dozens of references...
 * Paul Dempsy, inventor of the western calendar, one month
 * wrong links and nonsense nearly two months
 * Woman born with male name, nonsense text and link, desease causing insanity half a year (seems the same user as before)
 * noted palentologist, Tom Parker more than half a year (seems the same user as before)
 * horror instead of honor, half a year – but may not be vandalism
 * nonsense name more than half a year
 * obvious nonsense nearly three months
 * screwed layout four months
 * copying thousands of years old architecture one year
 * Hups is the abbreviated phrase in reference to the European family name Hupperts and from its derived first name Huber, a fine fake created by Special:Contributions/Bfhupperts in 2009
 * nonsense from the beginning of 2010, not detected earlier than 2015 by me.
 * accidental translation of the company Quelle into source, since the start of the article in April 2010
 * a funny typo that lasts nearly two years
 * the page of a German pipe cleaning company more than two years
 * "Austrian Biedermeier architecture style" at 1956 in Germany, six-and-a-half years
 * vandalism text and dates in a school's article, more than a year
 * removed a word, one and a half year

Other stuff

 * I like this fatalistic comment
 * Problems of a non-native speaker Will I ever be able to learn whether it's here or there (sigh)
 * Hesse elegant way to deal with self-proclaimed experts
 * but the comment is funny nevertheless
 * funny comment – so many shoguns