User:Richardcavell

About me
I am Richard Cavell, a man from Australia. I now live in Lytham St. Anne's, near Blackpool, England.

I have previously been very active in editing Wikipedia. However, as Wikipedia has become more complete, I find that there is less for me to contribute. Also, I believe that Wikipedia has evolved to the point where the primary contribution should now come from professional editors who are trained by the governing organization.

Here are a few barnstars that I have received.

My ideas for improving Wikipedia
Technical
 * All titles should be in lowercase unless ordinary English rules require that they be capitalised.
 * Wikipedia's front page should contain a search box that does not assume the language being used, and search results from this page should be taken from all Wikipedias.
 * We should create a type of redirect that does not appear in the search box dropdown. This allows more redirects to be kept without causing harm.
 * I believe that articles should have a strict content length limit - then we can have related articles if people want more information.
 * Articles about photographs and films should include a mandatory description of whether and how they implement colour. (For example, a film can be black and white, or use a particular system for colour, or a film can have a colorized version).

Biographies
 * For some biographies, it is improper for Wikipedia to insist on using the person's real name, or to expose other elements of their personal history.
 * The first sentence of a biography should not try to cram in the subject's full name and birth/death dates and locations. It is tedious to read. The first sentence should contain the essential identity of the subject.

History sections
 * The "history" section of an article should sometimes be toward the bottom of the article rather than at the top. There are some subjects (such as TV shows, listed companies or political parties) that have evolved over time so that the modern incarnation contradicts the historical one. For most readers of Wikipedia, for some subjects, it is improper for Wikipedia to anchor a subject to its history. Also, the history of a subject is frequently boring and does not contain the information that the reader is searching for.