User:Kzollman/WikiThoughts

Pronouns
In gender ambiguous contexts, I often use the pronoun "she" (or "her", etc.). For example: "Suppose a person falls down the stairs at a store. She can sue the owner." I do this because I don't like the trend our language has for preferring males as examples. I do wish others would do this too, although I don't think there ought to be a policy (what a mess that would be). Surprisingly, I have more than once run across people who think this is incorrect English usage! Twice Thrice Five times, I have had people change articles to conform to what claim is the standard.

I don't know about other fields, but this is not the standard in philosophy. In the last ten years or so, people are increasingly using "she" in gender ambiguous context. This shift is documented by the Chicago Manual of Style. I have thought about suggesting we include something in the Wikipedia Manual of Style about this. With only two cases, its probably not worth the effort. If others have had the same experience, it might be worth doing...

Deletions
Recently I've started being more active in Articles for Deletion. I am forming some opinions about the matter. With respect to many things, I'm an inclusionist. I don't see the harm in having a thousand articles about Xena or some other strange thing. I wonder why people are interested in dedicating so much time to that stuff, but that's their business. However, I think we need to take a hardline on Vanity, Promotions, and Original Research. Given how many people want forums for their business, band, or strange ideas, we simply cannot open ourselves up for this lest we be overrun.

I also would like to see AfD be a little more respectful of people's work. People often put a lot of effort into these pages, and I'm sure it must be incredibly frustrating for it to be deleted and the discussion to consistent entirely in "NN" and "I agree with Homer". Although many pages do need to get deleted, I think we could be nicer.