User:DanielRigal

About Daniel Rigal
Hello. I am Daniel Rigal. I was born in 1970 and I live in Guildford in the United Kingdom. I have an MSc in Communications Systems Engineering from the University of Kent where I was involved with UKC Radio. Before that I went to Wanstead High School (and lived to tell the tale). I work in London as a Systems Administrator.

I like editing Wikipedia because I am not good enough at programming to give any useful free software to the world but at least I can contribute to the Commons this way. I get a lot out of Wikipedia as I use it as my main starting point for almost any form of research, at work or at home, so I am more than happy to give something back by improving articles or removing vandalism. I also occasionally enjoy trawling the new pages and weeding out the nonsense. It is an interesting window into the modern psyche to see what non-notable rubbish some people think is worthy of inclusion in a serious encyclopaedia.

I am not around quite as much as I used to be but there is still a reasonable chance that I will catch anybody vandalising a page on my watchlist (if nobody else gets to it first) so please don't take the risk. (Also, why would you want to do that anyway?)

Big shout
This just to say thanks to everybody who has reverted vandalism to my talk page (and to this page before it got protected) and all user pages in general. I know it might seem like a thankless task but it is appreciated.

The things that I can't stand
Of course we all hate vandalism but not all vandalism is equal. A lot of it is just idiots messing about, without thinking that they are wasting the time and resources of a charitable foundation, or clueless kids so obsessed with the modern idea of pure celebrity that they can't see anything wrong with jumping on here and spuriously bigging themselves up. In the lower rings of the hell for vandals we find the people who I really can't stand and I'd like to address them directly:
 * To the people who fake the deaths of living people:
 * You think this is funny? Did you even think that one of the subject's friends or relatives might see it and be genuinely upset by it? What do you get out of it? Why would you want to do this? What is wrong with you?


 * To the people deface and gloat on articles about people who were recently murdered or hounded to suicide:
 * You do this in order to upset and offend the friends and relatives of the victims. That's pathetic and yet this is the very maximum extent of your power. You can't hurt the victims. They are free of you and everybody like you. They rest in peace while you know none. You are as impotent as you are contemptible. What is wrong with you?


 * To the people who deliberately misgender or deadname people in articles or on Talk:
 * We have all heard your spurious ideological justifications but nobody is fooled. You just want to hurt and humiliate other people who you perceive as vulnerable and within shouting distance. Ironically, you only diminish yourself when you do this. Besides, why do you even care enough about what gender somebody else is to be a dick about it? What is wrong with you?
 * Note: When I revert deliberate misgendering I often issue warnings for "inserting deliberate factual errors". I don't do this for amusement. I do it because it is the correct warning for somebody deliberately making an article less correct in order to try to spread misinformation.


 * To the racists, sexists, antisemites, homophobes, Islamophobes, sectarians, transphobes and SWERFs:
 * I'm not sure if you noticed, but it is the 21st century now. Why are you still a thing? Could you, like, maybe just stop being a thing? No? Well, can you at least stop putting your nonsense in our articles? What is wrong with you?


 * To the vandals who just won't go away despite being blocked repeatedly:
 * If you have had more than a dozen sockpuppets blocked and have not given up then you really do need to think that maybe there is something seriously wrong with your life. Every person who has to spend time dealing with your crap is a person who could be doing something more productive or enjoyable. But we will deal with your crap. It will be deleted/reverted, for as long as it takes. Why are you still here? What is wrong with you?


 * To the grand scale fakers:
 * You make whole walled gardens of WP:CB articles, templates, categories and so on about stuff that isn't notable or sometimes isn't even real. It must be almost as much work for you to write this stuff as it is for us to find it all and delete it. Are you so far gone that you think this stuff is real and important? If so, there are people who can help you but you need to get off Wikipedia and find them. Alternatively, maybe you imagine you are the king of the trolls? Who cares if you are a king if you are still just a troll? Why do you waste your time on this? What is wrong with you?

Some things that make me sad
Lately I have noticed a pattern of bad editing (mostly far-right trolling) from long established users. The editors typically joined several years ago, contributed fairly constructively on non-political topics for a while and then drifted away. Then they come back after several years of inactivity and they are like completely different people. I am sure that some of them are different people. Maybe their accounts got hijacked by trolls due to poor passwords or maybe they have a kid who fancies himself as an edgelord and gets into their accounts when they are not looking. But I am also sure that some of them are not. Some of them really are the same person. It is a bit like Ionesco's play Rhinoceros where previously normal people just turn into rhinoceroses. We see this with a few celebrities too. They seem like decent enough people until they hit a low point in their career and then something snaps and they come back foaming at the mouth, ranting on podcasts about how "woke" Hollywood is keeping them down and how a white guy can't get a decent break. It's not even a grift, at least not always. It's genuinely sad.

Why so few userboxes?
There are a lot of userboxes where you can claim your affiliation to various groups and viewpoints. As you can see, I don't have any of these. It is not that I think that there is anything wrong with these boxes but I don't really see the point and furthermore I feel that my affiliations and viewpoints don't belong on Wikipedia anyway. I like a good argument about politics, religion or whatever as much as the next loud-mouthed bozo informed rational debater in tHE fREE mARKETPLACE oF iDEAS but I believe that Wikipedia is not the place for any of this. When I am on Wikipeda I do my best to take all my other hats off and just be a good Wikipedian. That is why I only have userboxes relating to my existence as a Wikipedian.

"My" articles
Despite being a deletionist, I do occasionally write some stuff. Here is a list of the articles which I have extensively edited:

Written from scratch

 * Alberto Magnelli - Italian abstract artist
 * Back-end database - A database that is accessed via another application
 * Bill Pritchard (Partially translated from the French Wikipedia) - British singer-songwriter
 * Charities Aid Foundation - A UK charity that assists other charities
 * Clap-o-meter - A device for measuring applause, or at least pretending to
 * Discount-licensing.com - A UK company that sells second hand Microsoft licenses, to the apparent annoyance of Microsoft.
 * Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (partially translated from the French Wikipedia) - French contemporary artist
 * Eastwood (album) - Album by the Cuban Boys
 * Hélio Oiticica (partially translated from Portuguese Wikipedia) - Brazilian abstract artist
 * Jack Smith (artist) - British abstract artist
 * Jean-Pierre Yvaral - French abstract artist
 * Jamie Raines - British YouTuber
 * Maija Isola (stub) - Finnish textile designer
 * Meat on the bone - Type of food product
 * Mia Mulder - Swedish YouTuber
 * Munchy box - Controversial Scottish fast food
 * Otto Freundlich (partially translated from German Wikipedia) - German abstract artist
 * Penalty fare - Excess charge for travelling on UK railways without the correct ticket
 * Queer Britain - The UK's first LGBTQ museum
 * Robert Kuśmirowski - Polish contemporary artist
 * The Dream and Lie of Franco - Anti-Franco artwork by Pablo Picasso
 * The Looney: An Irish Fantasy - Comic novel by Spike Milligan
 * The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary (stub) - Book by Jeff Kinney
 * Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway - A railway in east London, which I used to use
 * Wanstead High School - A school in east London, which I was a pupil of
 * YES! To Fairer Votes - A political campaign

Saved from deletion

 * Aaron Fricke - US gay rights campaigner
 * The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English (stub) - Reference book of women writers
 * Moneyfacts - UK based financial information service company
 * Monkey (advertising character) - Advertising mascot with a cult following

Rewrites and major changes

 * An Idiot Abroad - TV series. Previously copyvio and promotional, now a decent stub
 * Cildo Meireles - Brazilian installation artist
 * Chris Burgess - US basketball player (still not a great article but you should have seen it before!)
 * Cuban Boys - British comedy electronic band
 * Gospel Oak to Barking Line - A railway line I used to use in London
 * Horseshoe theory - Political theory concerning similarity of extreme left and right wing ideology
 * Impossible object - Objects that can be drawn but not actually made
 * Jeppe Hein - Danish installation artist
 * Keith Leblanc - US musician and producer
 * Lindy Morrison - Australian musician and politician
 * List of discredited substances - Amusing list of things people used to believe in
 * Nicky Clarke - Hairdresser
 * Non-decimal currencies - Currencies with weird numbers of minor units
 * Orbirail - The concept of an orbital railway round London (still a poor article as it is nearly impossible to reference)
 * Remo Mancini - Canadian politician and business man (previously being fought over by pro and anti factions, now neutral)
 * RFB protocol - The protocol used by all VNC software
 * Scottish Children's Reporter Administration - Scottish Government agency
 * Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway - Predecessor to the Gospel Oak to Barking Line (above)

Looking at this list I wonder how I get suckered into working on some articles. I mean, its not like I care about Remo Mancini, Nicky Clarke or the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration. Its just that sometimes you see an article that is so in need of help you need to do something for the good of Wikipedia even if it means researching a subject you don't really care about from scratch.

Yes, of course, I know they are not really "my" articles.

Trophy cabinet / Gratuitous vanity
I decided to copy all my barnstars and the like here in order to display them. They are also shown in their original context on my talk pages. I am not trying to pretend to have twice as many barnstars as I really do.

To do:

 * Cofunds
 * Luis Tomasello (translate from es:Luis Tomasello and fr:Luis Tomasello).
 * Get Orbirail referenced and coherent (or find a way to recast it so it isn't a problem any more). Maybe recast it as Orbital railways in London.