User:Scarpy

I am loving and giving.

What I work on

 * 1) I have worked professionally on ITSM platforms have written a few articles on the topic, including Comparison of help desk issue tracking software, Networked Help Desk and Supportworks.
 * 2) I'm from Colorado and wrote about a few topics related to Colorado including CSAP, Joanne Conte and WAAKE-UP!.
 * 3) I have an interest in Synesthesia and started the article for Wednesday Is Indigo Blue.
 * 4) I enjoyed watching Narcos and created a stub for Javier Peña as I noticed there wasn't one.
 * 5) I am part of the addiction and recovery project, and have researched and written extensively about addiction and recovery topics, including but not limited to Abraham Low, Abraham Low Self-Help Systems, Al-Anon/Alateen, Alcoholism in family systems, Clutterers Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, Co-Dependents Anonymous, Compulsive buying disorder, Crystal Meth Anonymous, Debtors Anonymous, Emotions Anonymous, Families Anonymous, GROW, Gamblers Anonymous, Helper theory, LifeRing Secular Recovery, Moderation Management, Nar-Anon, Neurotics Anonymous, Nicotine Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Oxford Group, Parents Anonymous, Recovery International, Secular Organizations for Sobriety, Self-help groups for mental health, Sex Addicts Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous, Solvency, Survivors of Incest Anonymous and Women For Sobriety.
 * 6) I did a rewrite of the Cusper article. I have some thoughts the importance  of studying generational differences, but they haven't coalesced yet.
 * 7) Recently I've taken a lot of photos for Wikipedia and related projects, and some not so recently (on my old Commons account).
 * 8) I created the article for Megavitamin-B6 syndrome because someone sure needed to.
 * 9) 88 Drive-In - should make some updates here.

What I think about what I work on
I don't necessarily support or oppose anything I'm working on, it's always a mix of both (at least where it's the kind of topic that makes sense to "support" or "oppose"). Most times, I start working on articles because I want to surface what the current state of the scholarly literature is on a given topic, and make that available to the world in an encyclopedic way. That way, we all have information to make better decisions on related issues. I see a virtue in taking a topic that lacks a free comprehensive encyclopedic summary and providing one to the world. Although I'm human, I try very very very hard to be neutral, objective, understand the information contained in the reliable sources to the best of my ability and communicate it effectively. One of my proudest moments was being part of the group of editors that got a very easy to misunderstand--and very commonly misunderstood--statistic correctly interpreted in the Alcoholics Anonymous article, then seeing it acknowledged on Slate Star Codex (in the article "Alcoholics Anonymous: Much More Than You Wanted to Know").

"There is an alternate reference going around that only 5% (rather than 25%) of AA members remain after their first year. This is a mistake caused by misinterpreting a graph showing that only five percent of members in their first year were in their twelfth month of membership, which is obviously completely different. Nevertheless, a large number of AA hate sites (and large rehabs!) cite the incorrect interpretation, for example the Orange Papers and RationalWiki’s page on Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, just to keep things short, assume [RationalWiki's AA page makes every single mistake I warn against in the rest of this article, then use that to judge them in general. On the other hand, Wikipedia gets it right and I continue to encourage everyone to use it as one of the most reliable sources of medical information available to the public (I wish I was joking)."

(This was probably the version that Scott read.)

If you're collaborating with me on an article, and I'm not living up to my own standards, I give you my permission--in fact I strongly encourage you--to say it to me now without equivocation in terms that you think are adequate to get me to notice. You may temporarily hurt my feelings, and it may suck, but we'll all be the better for it in the end.

But, if you're collaborating with me on an article, and you are 100% sure that my interest in it is because I'm a fanboy, stan, or whatever terminology for such attitudes is hip in the current year, the probability of that being true is very low. If you make statements to that effect, I may direct you here and I may explain my interest is along the lines of what I've stated here. You don't have to believe me, and to be fair, I have no idea how I would prove it to you--there's no technology that I'm aware of to demonstrate my subjective sense about something (how could I prove, for example, my favorite color is green?). Nevertheless, I retain the right to be interested in basically any topic that interests me (of course, there are some limits) and to contribute knowledge about it to Wikipedia where reliable sources cover in sufficient quantity and depth without joining a pro- or con-whatever-topic-it-is team (again, within limits, of course there are some things that are very bad) no matter how much someone wants to weakman me on to a team. Interest in a topic is not an endorsement of a topic. While other editors may disagree, I also don't see inclusion of a topic in Wikipedia as an endorsement. Carl Sagan isn't as popular among skeptics as he was when I was coming of age, but I still endorse this perspective (from The Demon-Haunted World) even if it's no longer fashionable.

"'At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.'"

I'll also echo the newest Cosmos host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, in his 2006 conversation with Richard Dawkins. (A good 2021 rejoinder is here).

"'Being an educator is not only getting the truth right, but there's got to be an act of persuasion in there as well. Persuasion isn't always, 'Here are the facts — you're an idiot or you are not,' it's, 'here are the facts, and here is a sensitivity to your state of mind,' and it's the facts plus the sensitivity, when convolved together, create impact."

Wikipedia communicates science, so the Science of Science Communication applies to it whether you like it or not. So we should be aware of the often counter-intuitive pitfalls discovered from studying effective science communication and try not to fuck things up.

Articles I'm working on in my sandbox
These are works in progress, but I would still be interested in input other wikipedians had to offer on them.
 * User:Scarpy/Esquire Theatre
 * User:Scarpy/Drug Addicts Anonymous
 * User:Scarpy/MC
 * User:Scarpy/Lost Loon Lake
 * User:Scarpy/Mount Luddy
 * User:Scarpy/Homuncular flexibility
 * User:Scarpy/The Science of Science Communication
 * User:Scarpy/Facemasks
 * User talk:Scarpy/Vitamin B6 Toxicity -- not really working on this, but I use it as a reference often.
 * User:Scarpy/Upper Body Ergometer
 * User:Scarpy/Pineal cyst
 * User:Scarpy/Phenotropic computing
 * User:Scarpy/Ten_Arguments_for_Deleting_Your_Social_Media_Accounts_Right_Now
 * User:Scarpy/List of Micropayment Platforms
 * User:Scarpy/OSS Trouble Ticket API
 * User:Scarpy/emWave2
 * User:Scarpy/Paint the devil on the wall
 * User:Scarpy/Wim Hof
 * Spender-Menders
 * Simplicity Circles
 * Methadone Anonymous
 * Integrity Groups
 * Schizophrenics Anonymous
 * Richmond Fellowship
 * Community Psychology
 * Parents Without Partners
 * Mended Hearts
 * Wellness and Action Recovery Plan
 * Minnesota Model
 * Adult Survivors of Incest
 * VOICES in Action
 * Incest Survivors Anonymous
 * Parents United
 * Adults Recovery From Incest Anonymous
 * Women Organized to Make Abuse Nonexistent, Inc. (WOMAN, Inc.)
 * Process addiction
 * List of web application vulnerability scanners
 * world view transformation
 * Correlates of indebtedness

Psychometrics

 * Scale for Assessment of Unawareness of Mental Disorder
 * Assessment of Insight tool
 * Insight and Treatment Attitude Questionnaire
 * Empowerment Scale
 * Recovery Attitudes Questionnaire
 * The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale
 * The Personal Vision of Recovery Questionnaire
 * Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
 * https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1007/s10464-013-9621-3

Links about Special:Nearby

 * Go on a Wikipedia scavenger hunt with Wikipedia Nearby
 * Extension:GeoData
 * API:Showing nearby wiki information
 * Extension:PageImages#Image_choice
 * Talk:Denver Firefighters Museum
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Help_desk/Archives/2019_July_9#Why_is_the_location_map_showing_as_the_page_image_here_instead_of_the_photograph.3F
 * WDFIST
 * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/FIST
 * https://fist.toolforge.org/fist.php
 * WikiData Free Image Search Tool
 * WDFIST- items around you

Remember these

 * Free_English_newspaper_sources
 * https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/
 * https://jhiblog.org/2018/02/05/the-challenge-of-contingency-and-leibnizs-cybernetic-thinking/
 * CRIStin
 * User:Antandrus/observations_on_Wikipedia_behavior
 * User:Frietjes/findargdups
 * User:Evad37/rater
 * User:Enterprisey/delsort
 * https://tools.wmflabs.org/refill/ng/ User:Zhaofeng Li/reFill
 * Help:Citation tools
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Galobtter/Shortdesc_helper
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages/User_talk_namespace
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Template_messages
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Welcoming_committee/Welcome_templates
 * http://reftag.appspot.com/
 * https://www.gwern.net/Search
 * https://tools.wmflabs.org/citer/
 * https://tools.wmflabs.org/citations/
 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Andy_M._Wang/pageswap
 * User:Tony1/How to improve your writing
 * Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch
 * Help:Citation_tools
 * WP:SOAP
 * WP:MISSION
 * WP:RSPSOURCES
 * https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/solutions/journal-citation-reports/
 * https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php
 * https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri
 * WP:SJ
 * WP:CITEWATCH
 * H:PARAM
 * https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker
 * Deletion_process
 * https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues - Google Scholar Metrics
 * https://alyw234237.github.io/wiki-doi-gbooks-citation-maker/
 * User:DataflowBot
 * [[]User:XLinkBo]

Pages I watched a one point

 * Robinhood Markets - was keeping up on the GameStop thing.
 * Uyghur genocide - words can't describe how awful this is, but I feel powerless about it.
 * United Launch Alliance - rockets are cool
 * Bari Weiss - God bless her


 * 2019 Denver mayoral election
 * The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
 * Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
 * Burying the hatchet
 * Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
 * Etaoin shrdlu
 * Economical with the truth
 * Irrational exuberance
 * James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher
 * Just another Perl hacker
 * Kiss up kick down
 * Candace Newmaker - related to "rebirthing"
 * Treatment Improvement Protocols - substance abuse related
 * TempleOS
 * User:Bearian - interesting editor
 * KMyMoney - foss financials
 * List of alternative shells for Windows - was really hoping LiteStep would do something cool.
 * Re-evaluation Counseling - reminded me a bit of mutual aid support group networks.
 * W. Clement Stone - related to GROW
 * Cornelius Keogh - also related to GROW
 * Final Fantasy IV - one of my favorite games
 * Jiddu Krishnamurti - mentioned by a friend of mine once
 * Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums responsible for sending gangs to Colorado?
 * IP Code - codes for protection of electronics from the elements
 * Inner child - trope
 * Choreoathetosis - mentioned in Megavitamin-B6 syndrome article, involuntary movements
 * 22 Short Films About Springfield - Steamed Hams
 * Bayard Rustin - mentioned by Christopher Hitchens often in contrast to MLK and Malcolm X.
 * Original design manufacturer - I think this is what System76 and Purism do - buy laptops and install Linux on them.
 * Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
 * Alcoholism - related to other articles I've worked on.
 * August Landmesser - german who didn't salute
 * Open Philanthropy Project - was thinking they could be interested in MAPT.
 * Relational aggression - damaging another person's status
 * Glenn R. Simpson - at times I wish I had his job
 * Logocentrism - have seen people accused of this from time to time
 * User:Yoninah - excellent editor
 * Empathy quotient - not to be dismissed.
 * Emotion_classification - emotion classification is a big deal
 * JSLint - javascript code validation
 * Fairbanks International Airport - took a photo, but it was replaced.
 * Kitty Crimes - Colorado musician
 * Rebirthing (breathwork)
 * Root hog or die
 * OK Boomer
 * Universal Wrestling Federation (Bill Watts)
 * Big Five personality traits
 * Kiosk software
 * Padonkaffsky jargon