User:XPIOTOS

In Case You Were Wondering...

 * Much of my time is spent on Wikipedia (there's so much to learn).
 * I contribute using a MacBook.
 * I believe in Fairtrade products.
 * I still call Australia home.
 * I am a current St John Ambulance Australia volunteer, and a former firefighter with the Country Fire Authority. I greatly value the fact that I have these opportunities.
 * English is my first language, but I speak a few others.
 * I play several different musical instruments. Music is the language of the soul.
 * I was born in the 1990s.
 * I studied at the University of Melbourne - a spectacular institution.
 * Volunteerism suits me.
 * I aspire to work with Médecins Sans Frontières in the future.

A Little Rant...
I strongly advocate the use of Commonwealth English spelling in all en.Wikipedia articles except: My reasons for this are as follows: I believe that:
 * Where the article is about the United States specifically
 * Including geographical locations or landmarks
 * Where it refers to something that is exclusive to the US, such as
 * species that are exclusively found in the US, or
 * where a species is clearly established as being native to the US but is also found elsewhere
 * Ex: The gray squirrel is clearly native to the US, and thus I believe that the US English spelling gray is the only appropriate spelling of the species' common name on Wikipedia
 * Where the US English spelling is globally more common
 * Ex: Arguably, the use of ass as opposed to arse as slang for buttocks
 * Where an international standardising authority, such as IUPAC, prefers the US English spelling
 * The English language originated in Great Britain and is a heritage of Commonwealth nations
 * With the exception of the US, much of the English-speaking world spells according the Commonwealth English convention. Thus, where US English spelling deviates from Commonwealth English (as used in the majority of English-speaking countries), the US English spelling must be considered a dialectual anomaly
 * I believe that Wikipedia, a strongly international online community, must not show bias toward one particular country, especially when using spelling or terminology that is unique to one particular English-speaking country but refers to something that is not unique or attributable to said country
 * This is especially the case where an international standardising body prefers spelling of a particular word according to the Commonwealth English convention
 * Ex: aluminum is not an appropriate title for a Wikipedia article in my view, as IUPAC prefers the Commonwealth spelling aluminium, but rather aluminum should redirect to an article titled aluminium as is currently the case
 * Other languages should not be taken into account when determining which spelling of a word or terminology to use for titling Wikipedia articles
 * Ex: In the gasoline/petrol debate, the fact that Spanish uses the word gasolina is irrelevant
 * Where there are several spellings or terminologies used internationally, with no clearly dominant variation, the spelling used in England should be adopted for use on Wikipedia to avoid argument and provide a standard on which to fall back.

Links That Matter...
User:XPIOTOS/draft