User:Halibutt/About me

 Halibutt (b. 1981) is a journalist and writer from Warsaw, Poland. Since October 2014 I am the spokesperson for Wikimedia Polska, the Polish chapter of Wikimedia Foundation (just to make it clear, I edit Wikipedia as an ordinary editor in my free time, not in any official capacity).

I used to work for a number of well-known titles (Polish Press Agency, Rzeczpospolita) and some known to but a few people (Puls Raszyna). Some of the journals I used to write for do not exist any more (ahoj.pl, Businessman Magazine), some thrive to this day even though I left their ranks. As a freelancer I also write for corporate clients and NGOs.

I joined the Polish Wikipedia on 20 November 2003, with a sense of a mission, but don't worry, I quickly grew up. A week later I joined the English wiki - for good, I hope. As of 8 October 2014 I have made over 34,000 contributions to the English wiki (and counting!). My main interests are history and linguistics, with focus on Central Europe and history of 20th century armed conflicts. I passed my Cambridge CAE exams and got an A, which theoretically entitles me to teach English language in Polish high schools. Right… Anyway, English is not my first language, so feel free to correct my mistakes.

When it comes to editing, I'm an inclusionist. A decade ago most history-related topics were a true battleground between various factions. I received my share of insults and personal attacks back then (see history of this page for a pretty amusing list). Having spent years on pointless struggle for NPOV, I realised that the easiest way to achieve it is by leaping forward. This means expanding the problematic articles and providing as many adequate references as possible. This usually keeps trolls and POV-pushers away. In addition to writing articles I also recorded a couple audio files for various Wikimedia projects, I also created some pretty little maps.

If you want to learn more about me - take a look at my Babel templates at the talk page or feel free to ask. Oh, and be sure to learn how to deal with Poles.