User:Willscrlt: Difference between revisions

Willscrlt (talk · message · contribs · page moves · edit summaries · count · api · logs · block log · email)

Contacting me: For matters specific to the English Wikipedia, please leave me a message on my talk page here. For time-critical issues, you may also e-mail me. For matters related to other languages or projects, it is best to leave me a message on my Meta Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons talk page.

This user has been on Wikipedia for 18 years, 4 months and 24 days.

Hello. My name is Will, but for over 25 years I have been known online as Willscrlt (yes, there was "online" prior to the World Wide Web).

The English Wikipedia ("en.wiki") is my home wiki, but I also frequently visit and edit on the Meta Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, where I also upload images. I also visit and occasionally edit on other wiki projects (mostly the English Wikibooks) and in other languages. I really only speak English, but I can comprehend some Spanish and French thanks to studying the languages in school. I also can decipher a bit of German, Italian, and Portuguese. Writing in any language other than English usually requires an online translator or sometimes a dictionary.

In mid-2010, I accepted a job that left little time for doing any wiki activities. In September 2011, the company laid off a large number of people, including me, and I returned to college to continue my education. Unfortunately, I still can find very little time to be an active editor on the wikis.

What I enjoy doing here…

I registered for an account here on June 15, 2006. I made a few contributions prior to registering, but I do not remember what or how long ago. The task I find myself most drawn to, is developing interwiki-compatible, multilingual templates. I have learned a lot of useful skills by developing several templates in my userspace (see my meta templates page for a list). Most of them are only useful for me personally, but the experience I've gained developing them and testing them across multiple project sites has been quite helpful. I am branching out into the development of templates that are useful to multiple projects now, especially where there are not as many template developers as here at en.wiki.

My wiki experience…

My reason for participating in the various Wikimedia Foundation Projects is to leave them better than I found them. That is how I got started editing Wikipedia. In December 2006, I noticed that the List of cocktails was in a terrible mess, so I started fixing it; that grew into a three-month reorganization and clean-up project editing nearly all of the mixed drink articles. The results of that project remain visible today.

Along the way, I joined several WikiProjects, learned how to create complex wiki templates, reverted the occasional vandalism, participated in various discussions, and a lot of other fun projects. Originally, I considered myself a Wikipedian (someone who primarily edits on Wikipedia). However, Wikipedia is like the Sun in our Solar system… it may be the biggest and brightest object, but it's certainly not the only object worth visiting. Commons, Meta, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikiquote, and Wiktionary are other projects I enjoy visiting. They are all underutilized resource (at least compared to the English Wikipedia), and I hope that more people will participate and increase the content of these free, collaborative information repositories.

My life outside the wiki…

I have been using computers since sometime around 1980. My first computer was an Atari 1200XL, followed by an Apple IIgs, then an Apple Macintosh IIci, and then an old and abused Intel 80286-based PC (very briefly until it died). From that point on, I've stayed with MS-DOS and then Windows-based computers. My first online experiences were made using a 1200 baud modem on my Apple IIgs. I was a charter member of America Online (before it became known as AOL), and I became active in the local Bulletin Board System scene.

In the 1990s, I was a Sysop of a fairly popular BBS. That introduced me to people who were putting together the first public regional Internet access (later to be known as a community Internet Service Provider). My first professional development experiences involving the Internet were developing gopher pages and later HTML pages for the ISP. Later, I branched out into my own Internet and graphic design business. From there I moved into computer consulting.

In early 1999, shortly before the dot.com bubble neared bursting, I relocated to Sacramento, California to help start an online auction company that lost funding by October of that year. For the next decade, I did computer network integration and consulting work. In mid-2011, I accepted an information technology position at a company that designed and manufactured weather instrumentation systems. Being in charge of 14 servers and 100+ computers was fun, but very challenging. One of the things I enjoyed most, was working with and providing support to the software developers. In September 2012, the company laid off many people, including me. I headed back to school full-time to earn a second Associates degree, this time in Computer Programming, and to prepare to transfer to a university to earn a Bachelor's degree in Design with a minor in Computer Science.

I enjoy meeting people, travelling to new places, and experiencing other cultures. For more information about me, you can visit my home page.

I have a hard time quietly sitting by without speaking out when I see things that I feel deserve some consideration, or even some change. I also sometimes write things that others find helpful. Here are a few of them:

• Category suppression — How to suppress categories in templates. Revised 17 May 2009
• How to move Geograph files to Commons — A simple, step-by-step guide that I wrote. 13:48, 11 May 2009 (UTC)
• !Voting/Discussion buttons — Extra editing buttons for discussion and !votes, both with and without icons. 04:40, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
• WikiHumanity — one of the biggest problems I see facing Wikipedia is the imbalance between efficiency and empathy. WikiHumanity is an important key to Wikipedia's success.

By design or by accident, I contributed to the following articles in some meaningful way. I have edited many more pages, but these are ones of which I am especially pleased. The dates listed in reverse chronological order (newest on top) generally by the first date I made significant edits. I've likely made other changes since.

I have added icons next to my original articles, and ones that I significantly modified, that have achieved a B-class or better rating based largely on my original efforts. The ratings were determined by other editors-not by me.

This editor is an Experienced Editor and is entitled to display the following Service Badges.

Experienced Editor		Yoeman Editor		Journeyman Editor		Apprentice Editor		Novice Editor
Edit:	6000	Edit:	4000	Edit:	2000	Edit:	1000	Edit:	200
Date:	2013-09-26	Date:	2009-04-22	Date:	2007-01-21	Date:	2006-12-29	Date:	2006-12-06

	The Exceptional Newcomer Award
	I, SilkTork, hereby award Willscrlt The Exceptional Newcomer Award for notable work on the cocktail/mixed drinks project. 03:03, 21 January 2007 (UTC) (KC)
	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Excellent wikipedian, excellent additions to wikipedia, and lots of them. thuglastalk|edits 05:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
	The Photographer's Barnstar
	Very impressive images of drinkwear. Much needed. thuglastalk|edits 05:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
	The Editor's Barnstar
	For some sweet organizational edits. Eustress (talk) 15:20, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
	The Special Barnstar
	Thanks for your significant work in creating and formatting the Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Food and drink/Main page layout discussion page. Northamerica1000(talk) 23:19, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

• Nominated to be an administrator
  • Willscrlt (talk · contribs) - Excellent Wikipedian, he is almost entirely responsible for the organization of mixed drinks in a very short interval of time. He has also encouraged and tried to get other wikipedians involved in the project thuglas^talk|edits 19:45, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
  • While very honored, I respectfully declined. Since I was involved with so many other projects, I did not feel I would be able to commit enough time to administrative duties and still complete the other projects.

These are some of the original images and photographs I have created and contributed:

• 
  My Scottish Clan Badge
• 
  The logo I created for the Mixed Drinks and Bartending WikiProjects
• 
  Soymilk Nog
• 
  Mark Twain Cabin
• 
  A question mark icon in a blue box

Wikibooks and WikiJunior were in need of new logos, so I submitted several images for consideration. See MetaWiki to view them.

I also created a unique collection of 45 drawings of 25 different varieties of drinkware; all the drawings were released into the public domain. Here are my favorites from the collection:

• 
  Banquet Goblet
• 
  Cocktail Glass
• 
  Cooler Glass
• 
  Hurricane Glass
• 
  Irish Coffee Glass
• 
  Margarita Glass
• 
  Shooters Glass
• 
  Water Pitcher

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