User:JoshuaZ

Hi, this is the user page for JoshuaZ, Joshua Zelinsky in real life. I can be frequently found here or at the English Wikinews.

Pages I have made:


 * 1) TalkOrigins Archive (although was almost completely a draft from Wesley R. Elsberry)
 * 2) William W. Hoppin. Still a stub- help out and expand it.
 * 3) Mary Higby Schweitzer the paelontologist who discovered soft tissue remains in dinosaur bones. Still a stub- help out and expand it.
 * 4) Elementary Proof. Still a stub- help out and expand it.
 * 5) QubeTV, a politically conservative video-sharing site made in response to claims of liberal-bias on YouTube. Still a stub. Help out and expand it.
 * 6) Kojo Nana Obiri-Yeboah, a Ugandan preacher accused of faking miracles.  Still a stub- help out and expand it.
 * 7) Samuel Molyneux, a 18th century British politician and amateur astronomer whose work led to the discovery of the aberration of light which conclusively showed that the Earth moved.
 * 8) People of the Book (novel), a 2008 novel by Geraldine Brooks.
 * 9) Margaret Downey, an activist for atheism.
 * 10) Doc Paskowitz, an American surfer.
 * 11) Morgan Sparks, an American scientist who helped make the first commercially practical transistors.
 * 12) Dan Kaminsky, a computer security expert.
 * 13) The Devil in Dover‎, a book by Lauri Lebo about her experiences in the Dover trial.
 * 14) Nikolai Sahzin, current world-champion of chess boxing. Still a stub.
 * 15) Shmuel Rabinowitz, head of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. Still a stub.
 * 16) William Lobkowicz, current heir and manager of the Lobkowicz lands.
 * 17) Notes from the Road, a website devoted to chronicling Eric Gauger's travels around the globe. An earlier version had been deleted. I rewrote that version to make a version that made the site's notability clear.
 * 18) Ax-Grothendieck theorem, a statement about polynomials that is surprisingly deep (and has a very interesting method of proof).
 * 19) House of Numbers, a documentary denying the connection between HIV and AIDS.
 * 20) I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier, a popular pacifist song during World War I. (With most of the real work done by Durova).
 * 21) Jordan-Schur Theorem, a theorem about the existence of large abelian normal subgroups in certain groups.
 * 22) SN 1961V, a possible supernova impostor.

Pages I have substantially improved
 * 1) Chess boxing, a sport that combines chess and boxing. Now a good article.

My Wikipedia philosophy:

On talk pages: Talk page discussions should be about the article. Arguments about truth or falsity of cited claims should not go on talk pages because they are by defintion OR and in any case rarely convince anyone of anything. This applies particularly to articles related to pseudosciences and politics. However, I have on occasion massively violated this.

On conflicts: Leaving a page because of a contentious editor is not a good thing to do. If people do that on a regular basis the contentious POV editors will have the run of Wikipedia.

On edit warring: Edit warring is bad. However, I have done it on occasion. I am not perfect. Edit warring when the consensus is against an editor is very bad, and edit warring about a topic one is personally involved in is reprehensible.

On userpages: Userpages should not have much on them that does not assist Wikipedia, however, I do not strongly mind other users who have well-developed user pages. In at least one RfA someone voted to oppose since a user had a blank userpage. That is ridiculous.

On userboxes: I do not use them but I do not mind people who do.

On deletion: I am neither a deletionist nor an inclusionist. I'll let my AfD record speak for itself. Everyone should keep in mind that AfDs are not votes, although I am sometimes myself guilty of using the term "vote" in this context. If an AfD is unanimous or nearly unanimous with a high number of editors signed on and one agrees with the displayed consensus then one should not add ones own remark unless adds new information in some form. I am also sometimes guilty of this.

On adverbs in articles, formal essays, etc.: Most adverbs should be shot on sight.

On policy formulation: Will Beback has succinctly summarized the right attitude: "Better articles are our goal, not better policies." 

My thoughts on BLP issues. Input/feedback would be appreciated.

Something that ticks me off: People who waste time fighting both for and against deletion of userspace devoted content like categories for users. I fail to understand how the time consumed from these deletion discussions is at all helpful to the project. If people want to have a few descriptive categories, let them. Nor do I see why people should fight vigorously to keep these categories.

Currently targeted adverbs: Quite. Interestingly

Number of times this page has been quite interestingly vandalized: 36.

Number of times this page has been edited in a way that is arguably vandalism: 7.

Barnstars and similar stuff (9)

Other useful data about me
"If I said 'the sky is blue' you would ask for two reliable sources, four pictures, and then say 'what about nighttime'" - Newyorkbrad to me.