User:Rodw

An experienced wikipedian, I focus on disambiguation and have particular interests in the geography, history and architecture of South West England.

About Me
I was born in Ramsgate & brought up in Margate went to the University of Surrey and then trained as a nurse at Frimley Park Hospital before undertaking various courses and jobs in Accident and Emergency in the National Health Service. Qualifications from Bournemouth University and London South Bank University followed along with jobs for the NHS and University of Sheffield. Until my retirement I worked for the University of the West of England.

I am now living in Cotswolds close to our narrowboat on the River Thames having moved from the Chew Valley, south of Bristol. I'm a member of the Cotswold Canals Trust - contributing to the restoration of Inglesham lock and hold a certifcate in community boat management for their trip boat. I am a Trustee of Wikimedia UK and volunteer and director of Lechlade Community Library. I am also a community first responder for the South Western Ambulance Service. I have four kids with very varied ages and interests, who have all used Wikipedia for homework in the past. My hobbies include juggling, Real ale and travel.

All edits I make to wikipedia, wikicommons, etc are my individual contribution and do not represent any other organisation I am a member of.

Find out more at RodSpace.

Personal to do list (help welcome)

 * Create articles for all Grade I listed buildings in Cotswold (district)


 * Suggestion : Create articles for all Grade I listed buildings and churches in Stroud District

Subject matter you might find me writing about
Most of my edits are to articles about South West England, and tend to be about geography, industrial or architectural history and related topics but also relate to other areas of interest and places I've travelled to. I'll edit almost anything as I come across it.

To help I have quite a few books about South West England (particularly Somerset). If you want me to look anything up in them for wikipedia articles just let me know.

My history and activity on wikimedia
You can find statistics on my editing activity here I made my first edit on 29 October 2004 and as of 12 March 2006 had made 973 edits, including getting one article, Chew Valley Lake to Featured Article Status. During the next few months edits increased (am I becoming a Wikipediholic?) and by July 2006 had over 2000 edits with another article Chew Valley making it to Featured Article Status and a couple of others gaining Good article status. By October 2006 the count was over 4000 edits and two lists List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset and Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal having achieved featured status. Various edits also made it into the Did you know section. During the later part of 2006 and early 2007 my editing activity increased, particularly around the Mendip Hills, WikiProject Bristol, particularly Buildings and architecture of Bristol and I also joined WikiProject UK Waterways. By April 2007 I passed the 9000 edit mark, and helped make Mendip Hills a featured article and Grade I listed buildings in Bristol a featured list.

My 10,000th edit was the start of a new article on the Bristol Byzantine architectural style and happened on 19 May 2007, and the 11,000th to update my userbox of Good Articles to 8 following the promotion of Somerset Levels on 6 July 2007. 12,000 – 15,000 went past in a hurry during August (although I was on holiday & at a conference in Brisbane where I edited Queensland Maritime Museum among others). September and October 2007 were mostly related to the creation of WikiProject Somerset and the initial assessment of approximately 2000 articles. During October 2007 Buildings and architecture of Bristol became the fourth article on which I had done serious editing to become a Featured article.

The start of 2008 saw Exmoor and Somerset achieving FA status and on 3 February I passed 20,000 edits while creating stubs for villages on the Somerset WikiProject "to do" list. Edits around 22,000 and 23,000 were work on the new WikiProject Museums particularly setting up templates and guidelines for the initial assessment of thousands of articles.

24,000->28,000 edits went past with mostly low level editing, particularly to stubs within Somerset but I did manage to get a few more DYKs & GAs, and maintenance tasks for WikiProject Somerset and WikiProject UK geography. One specific achievement during that period was getting Physical geography of Somerset to Featured topic status. 28,000->33,000 included getting all parishes in Somerset to at least start class, and creating new articles (with accompanying DYKs etc which took me past the 50 DYK mark) while working on getting List of Grade I listed buildings in West Somerset to featured list status.

33,000–36,000 continued in much the same way with DYKs going past 60 and with 5 of the lists at List of Grade I listed buildings in Somerset becoming featured. I also joined the new WP:HSITES. Reaching 37,000 edits included completing the creation or improvement of the articles for all Grade I listed buildings in Somerset and getting the lists of them to FL.

The 40,000 edit mark was during December 2009 and included getting Grade I listed buildings in Somerset to GA and getting all of these to Featured Topic, and various other maintenance and development work almost exclusively relates to Somerset articles. Edits 40-45,000 involved a personal challenge to get all settlements in Somerset with over 5,000 population to GA and getting River Parrett to FA along with various other edits to Somerset geography, museum and similar articles, including more DYKs.

45,000-50,000 continued in the same vein including getting Sweet Track to FA and nearly completing the challenge of getting settlements in Somerset with over 5,000 population to GA and various further DYKs. I also helped get WikiProject Wiltshire up and running and started some articles for churches under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. My 50,000th edit was putting up List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in South West England.

In January 2011 I got an opportunity to meet Jimmy Wales and local wikipedians in Bristol and attend his public talk at the Victoria Rooms. One of the purposes of the day, apart from celebrating wikipedia's 10th birthday was to encourage outreach and as part of that I was interviewed by BBC Focus and the New Statesman. The city council has webcast the talk - my question is at 53:22. There are also videos of interviews with MartinPoulter, Ghmyrtle and myself on the same day

On March 19th I participated in the first Bristol Wiki Academy. (see my blog post). From October 2011 to June 2012 I took a wikibreak as my wife needed major surgery for a brain tumour and my elderly father had multiple admissions to hospital and then I needed to help him move into a nursing home and sell his house. Editing continued for the rest of 2012 (although at a slower rate) continuing mostly on Somerset related articles, including keeping an eye on the cleanup list and converting lots of stub articles to start class.

Editing continued in much the same vein during 2013 but included participation in the WikiCup for the first time (reaching round 3). I also got quite heavily involved in the UKs first participation in the Wiki Loves Monuments competition, not just uploading several hundred photographs but also helping with the preparation of suitable lists using appropriate templates etc.

I again participated in the Wikicup during 2014. At the beginning of February I attended a weekend workshop organised by Wikimedia UK to "Train the Trainers", as part of an initiative to accredit volunteers to run training for other potential editors across a range of projects. It was held in Cardiff deliberately to enable those living in Wales and the south west of England to participate. Most of 2014 went past with further editing of Somerset articles and in October I passed the landmark of editing wikipedia for more than ten years.

In 2015 I again participated in the wikicup progressing to the final for the first time, but loosing a a (600pt) FAC got bogged down in a complex discussion about copyright/fair use, ownership and legal status between wp and commons. A significant piece of work (larger than I initially thought) was to review all the FAs I have nominated years ago to ensure they still meet current FA criteria and standards. I agreed to do a workshop for Wikimedia UK which was held at the University of Exeter in July. For this purpose I have set up another account at User:Rodw (training) without all the gadgets and changes I have made to this account over the last 10 years. In September I attended the first Wikipedia Science Conference. In October I was nominated as Editor of the Week, an unexpected honour. I agreed to act as trainer for an event at Gloucester Archives in November.

I decided not to enter the wikicup in 2016 and have tackled the cleanup listings for Somerset and Bristol getting them from 400+ tagged articles to less than 100 each. Bristol achieved FA status on 31 December 2015 and appeared as TFA on 7 March 2016 for which I did some promotional press releases and interviews. During the summer I helped to set up and then took part in the The West Country Challenge. In 2017 I continued with articles about the local area and again took part in the WikiCup, withdrawing in the third round after my daughter suffered a spinal injury and my time became more limited. As well as continuing my usual content contributions, I started doing more to resolve the massive disambiguation backlogs. After being used as an example in the debates about vetting and the Optional RfA candidate poll/Poll candidate search, I put myself up in the system and received very positive comments from a range of editors. My 100,000th edit was to create the article for the Church of St Mary, Cheddon Fitzpaine. In November 2017 I was recruited, at short notice, as a stand in judge for The Core Contest. At the end of the year I was also recruited to help out with backlogs at New pages patrol and Articles for creation. By the end of the year my edit count was up to 117,000 as lots of the edits are fairly minor. 2018 continued in much the same way with one or two side projects including leading a workshop for medieval historians at the University of Winchester.

In 2018 and 2019 I got seriously into efforts to reduce the number of disambiguation links putting my edit count over 200,000 by June when I got involved with Glastonbury 2019, a project trying to get photographs of loads of artists at Glastonbury Festival. I also decided I should stand for the Wikimedia UK Board election at the 2019 AGM, held at the Watershed on 13 July and I am grateful for the votes which got me elected. It will take a while to get "up to speed with this, but if there are issues you want brought to the attention of the board please let me know. In March 2020 I participated in the The Great Britain and Ireland Destubathon. Having moved house in January 2020, I joined WikiProject Gloucestershire and started to expand it by identifying relevant articles which were not included and particularly tackling the county cleanup list. As part of my disambiguation work I was involved in a RFC and a proposal on the community wichlist survey. In the first part of 2021 I participated in the pilot wikilearn course on partnership building on moodle. The rest of the year mainly consisted of disambiguating. My 500,000th edit was during March 2022.

My (out of date) wp picture gallery - see also my contributions on commons.

Rodw

 * working towards Genghis Khan Edition Conquest of the Wiki World Triple Crown upgrade from Alexander the Great Edition Triple Laurel Crown (and all previous)