User:John

I've been here for ages, on and off. I like:


 * Copy-editing for style. Less is more, terse beats flowery, euphemisms are bad, "In October of the following year..." --> "In October 1872..." Breathless prose is also bad. "Revealed". Elegant variation. Puffery, hagiography and fanspeak. We aim for a neutral encyclopedic tone here.
 * Cliché. Duly, promptly, eventually. Adverbs (and adjectives) especially need to be used with care. Aforementioned. Notwithstanding. Unbeknownst. Subsequently. Additionally. In fact. Finally. Moreover.
 * However, while, although. Use with great care; they may not mean what you think they mean. Don't write "but" when you mean "and".
 * Reducing overlinking. It's such fun to insert these lovely blue links. But with them too, less is more. The right number of judiciously targeted links is more effective.


 * Sourcing. This has got better over the years, but is probably still the number one flaw in Wikipedia. It's possible to insert some garbage about a minor artist or a major road sourced to a blog and have it remain there for years. We need to be more vigilant, for biographies of living people, but also in general.

I'm restricted in the time I can give to Wikipedia for various reasons, but if I can help you with anything, ping me on my talk page.