User:Djd/About me

Greetings.
Well, I'm not quite the newbie, anymore, but I still have much to learn, here. So I'll still start by reminding y'all WP:DONTBITE, please! Though I must say the kind folks at Wiktionary already did. Thanks for the warm welcome, guys! WP:PLEASEBITE WP:DELICIOUS :-)

I've gotten a pretty good handle on Wiki mark-up, just in time for the new VisualEditor to be of little use to me. I'm trying to get an equal handle on Wikipedia policies and procedures, but I might not do everything quite exactly right, so please WP:GOODFAITH. Just because a new user decides to WP:BEBOLD is not a reason to start a flame war. I may be new to the Wiki family, but I've been a longtime participant in cyberspace ... long before the Internet was available to anyone other than a privileged few, there were BBS's, FidoNet, Usenet, and much more. So, let's all follow some basic WP:ETIQ here. Thanks!!

Who am I?
That being said, let me take a moment to provide an overview of what I can provide the Wiki community.


 * I am an old techie, a computer geek from back before IBM invented their PC. Yes, there really were personal computers before IBM.  Really!


 * I not only have a broad knowledge of comptech and scitech, but also of history and linguistics, as well.


 * I am a researcher, at heart. I love searching out and using appropriate reference materials, evaluating sources and applying their content.  I enjoy organizing information in clear, concise ways, to make learning and reference fun and easy.


 * I am an educator. I enjoy learning new things and sharing what I've learned with others.


 * Je parle français, along with a little Latina and Κοινή Ελληνική. (No, it's not Greek, to me, just a different kind of "English" in a funny font.) One thing I like to say is, "Learn English by studying French!" You see, a little historical event called the Norman Invasion greatly changed our Germanic language by adding a huge amount of Norman French, making English as much Romance as it is Germanic.  Then the Renaissance brought in a new dose of Latin and Greek directly into the language.  As a result, the same word could have been introduced to the English language multiple times, by multiple peoples, speaking multiple languages.  As a historian and a multilingual, I naturally have a love of Etymology.  I can also be very useful in bridging the English and French Wiki communities and content.


 * I am a human. I have a human (male) body, and have human emotions and interests.  I may be a geek, but I'm not Spock.

Putting all these wonderful things together, you have a wonderfully complex individual who can help you develop Wikipedia articles and Wiktionary entries in two languages in topics as diverse and far-ranging as TCP/IP and Human anatomy to Lexicography and rocket science. Not bad for a newbie.

What am I doing here?
So now you know just a little but about who I am. Now, for what I'm doing here in the Wikiverse.

I have been using Wikipedia for years as a starting point for research, but have always taken it with a huge grain of salt. One reason for that is, of course, the chronic vandalism and flame-throwing that used to be par for course, here, in the mid 2000's. Things have gotten much better, though, and Wikipedia's grown to the point where it's much more stable and well-behaved ... sort of. At least, I feel it's worth the effort of trying to help this place grow. I've noticed that the French Wikipedia has some strengths, but in general, lags far behind the English, and I know I can help improve that situation. And certainly, once I have a little more experience here, I do want to help improve the bit of culture clash I've noticed with Wiktionary.

What are my initial areas of focus in the Wikiverse?
I've chosen to start with Human anatomy and Lexicography. My initial ideas for anatomy contributions actually involve quite a bit of lexicographical research, so for me, the fields are much more related than you may think.