User:Vertium

Hi, and welcome to my User page.
I'm just an average guy who believes in Wikipedia's mission but not in the way the project is being run by some. Don't get me wrong - the majority of the admins and bureaucrats on the project are great. But there are a small number of hyper-authoritarian individuals that cause me to largely ignore the project at this point.

I supported this project financially until 2016, at which time, my experience showed a growth in the number of individuals who interacted with many contributors with what I consider to be excessive arrogance and criticism. Along with this observation was my perception that such behavior had reached new levels of tolerance and acceptance by those who administer the Wiki. There are enough vandals and troublemakers out there, messing with the content of this encyclopedia, without those having an unchecked superiority complex being allowed to abuse those of us who contribute what and how we are able. I'm not here as often as I used to be, for a number of reasons, including the comments above. I'm here when I can be, and encourage all who are eager to collaborate and add value to do so as they are able.

When I am here, I won't necessarily find every article of interest, but I do find the collection and distribution of knowledge a very valuable tool in the betterment of our civilization. Only when knowledge is freely shared can people as a whole achieve their true potential. Your legitimate contributions are valuable to this effort, so please add meaningful content to the Wiki when you can. Otherwise, read all you want, and feel free to message me on my talk page.

Reverts and Errors
I am one of many who patrol recent changes made to articles to ensure that vandalism of Wikipedia is kept to a minimum. When I see vandalism, I will use the rollback functionality of the Wiki to revert the changes to a previous, unvandalized version. There is always the chance (hey, after all, I'm human) that I will revert a page in error, and if I do so, I will make an immediate correction and revert my own changes. If you believe I have reverted a page in error, please calmly bring your comments to my talk page and leave me a message. I am more than willing to have a calm discussion with you about it and we will work to resolve the concern. If you're going to just throw sarcasm or abuse my way, save your breath, as I'm not interested in a confrontation.

Useful Links

 * WP:AIV - To report vandals
 * WP:PERM - To request extra rights
 * WP:RPP - To request page protection
 * WP:UAA - To report usernames
 * WP:ANI - For admin attention on issues
 * WP:5P - The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * WP:VAND - All the things you need to know about vandalism

Find that an article is missing key information? Be bold and add it - just make sure that it's verifiable and you use the Edit Summary to explain what you did.