User:Escottf

This is the User Page for the user: Escottf.

About Escottf
I used to work in IT for a newspaper so, unlike most newspaper staff, I didn't edit text everyday for a living. That didn't stop me from catching the odd error though.

I speak New Zealand English and British English although I can overlook American English spelling in an article, and am quite lost when it comes to -ise or -ize at the end of a word.

I live in Poland after living in London, UK for many years after growing up in Auckland, NZ. Sadly, I do not speak Polish yet.

Why I'm here
I use English Wikipedia as my primary search engine - as I am usually looking up a "something" or "someone" rather than a random piece of text on the Internet.

It's getting to the point where most places or things of importance are on Wikipedia - it's rare to miss something important.

I do hate to see bad spelling or bad grammar ruin a perfectly good bit of text though and everyone should be encouraged to contribute even if their English isn't the greatest as there's always people to fix things up.

Getting more information into Wikipedia is important (as long as it's not spam or inflammatory) and even if someone can only contribute a small amount, others may be tempted to add more if they see something existing there.


 * It really irritates me when people delete pages for something that's obviously not just a flash in the pan - like a school that's been around for decades or a monument - just because there is currently little information about it on a page.

That said, I'm not an expert in copy editing - unlike many of the superb sub-editors I have worked with over the years. I don't care what a split infinitive is, let alone have the ability to identify one.

Due to all this, I seem to be in the running for the world's smallest edits awards!

Valuable tools in my Wikipedia work
Right, I'm not sure that linking to external sites works or is allowed on a talk page - I'm sure someone will tell me off if not - but here's some tools I've found invaluable:


 * Google Translate - especially important for translating over Polish Wikipedia pages to English but also from other languages as, surprisingly, sometimes the Polish page of a Polish-related Wikipedia article isn't always the one with the most information. It's far from perfect, but generally gives you some idea of what's going on and a beginning to edit from.


 * Wiki-Map - now that Google Maps seems to not like Wikipedia any more, I looked for an alternative and Wiki-Map was the great alternative I found. It gives you a Google Map with links on it showing any geo-referenced pages on Wikipedia in that area. It was originally only for English Wikipedia documents though so I emailed the developer and he implemented the other language Wikipedia sites immediately (I'm not joking - he replied straight away and the site went live with it at the same time) - genius! NB: whoever his advert provider is, it can be a bit pop-uppy! Be warned.


 * Wikipedia Reference Generator - I think this is now an official Wikipedia tool now but I think it was originally made by some chap called Magnus (?). Anyway, I hate references but this makes it relatively easy to link to a website or news page somewhere to get rid of that dreaded citation needed warning!


 * I only noticed it recently but Wikipedia has a form of grammar checker which is not bad either - I used it on pages I'd created and discovered quite a few duplicated words and missing commas. This seems to be the quick way to it: here.

Oh, and looking at other people's work who have done it better than me (i.e. most people) - the best way to learn.

Interests
Recently I've been editing a lot of English language pages about Polish topics - such an amazing (and scary) history. There's a tonne of information in Polish Wikipedia too, just waiting to be translated.

"Thank yous"
A few people have been nice enough to thank me for my edits and contributions. Thank you very much for that. I'm only adding to the work already done in English, or copying over work that's already been done in other languages (of which there is considerable data lurking around). The thanks are appreciated but the work that's gone before even more.

Awards
Well, I got awarded a (virtual) medal. Thank you kindly. Spare time and an inquisitive nature will get me far. I'm going to sell it in my old age to pay for food ;)

Testing
Sometimes it's simpler just to make a link here than figure out how to create a page elsewhere :(

...so this is my playground. Imagine slides and climbing frames people!