Geogre

Geogre was an admin, but all he got was crap.

As there have been technical difficulties with your Nobel Prize, please accept this public domain Pulitzer as a substitute -- Samir धर्म 11:22, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Wanna vandalize my page? Heck, who doesn't? Write it in sonnet form, please.

 True Fake Vandalism Triplet


Want Spring Sonnets For
Vandalism Joy? Denied!

Faux Haiku Instead.



Believed was funny

and new; not very true tho-

many such are here.



Forcing a bad joke

And trying for a hat trick

Tripled Fall may help

 ~LaughingVulcan thanks you.
  

1. Vandalism (a sonnet)

  This sonnet disturbs the page
  An edit out of place 
  To break the narrative pace
  As youth disturbs the aged

  This user whose space I deface
  His life is ne'er so complete 
  As when he votes delete
  So fancruft will be replaced with space

  He aspires to literary documentation
  Vandalism leaves him miffed
  And so complete with linked information
  I write this doggerel gift

  Though only done in jest
  Twas at the user's request

                   - Stephen

I was a Wikipedia administrator. I suppose that's germane. If you need administrator help on something, please ask over here.

As for my personal details, they are totally irrelevant even to me. However, since I've made reference to some of them elsewhere, I'll confirm some of them. Oh, I will add an irrelevant fact: I'm a descendant of Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk.

Wikibreak? Why so quiet, Bob?

Well, no and yes. Prospero has lost his books, you see. I have moved, geographically, and my books moved somewhere nearby. Until they are all again under my hand, my new article work will slow. Also, I'm reading a long but interesting new biography of Aphra Behn. When I am done reading it, I will assuredly (promise) whip that article into Featured quality.

Portrait of the author.

Commonplace Book Ejecta of the ({{time}})

The Geogre said none of these things.

"This man is fortunate who can get for himself

praise and good will;

very difficult it is when a man lays claim

to what is in another's heart." -- "Sayings of the High One" 8, Poetic Edda.

"God the first garden made, and the first city Cain." -- Abraham Cowley

"In short, I found that people don't care to give alms without some security for their money; a wooden leg or a withered arm is a sort of draught upon heaven for those who choose to have their money placed to account there..." -- Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling.

Latest de novo articles

Here comes the brag list, so duck!

I ain't proud of them, but.... Ok, I'm kind of proud of them.

I hereby award you the Brilliant Prose Rose for your great articles! Bishonen

3. James Ralph I'm planting my flag here; an American? a Brit? a dunce? a question?

(In the brag list, below, successful Featured Articles are set in bold.)

More than two days old:

Literature:

John Nutt (printer) The enigma who printed A Tale of a Tub makes sense now. George Faulkner was one of the biggest names in Dublin publishing history. Zacharey Grey Very Tory historian. Samuel Cobb Sounds like a great drinking buddy, but he was poor. Stephen Duck Swift made fun of him repeatedly, but he's en vogue now that clever New Historicists are here to rescue him. Thomas Cooke (author) A literary dunce; it was no era to try to be a professional writer. Frances Norton, Lady Norton A needlepoint poet. Thomas Fletcher A minor poet of the 17th century. AfD bait? Nearly. Francis Hawkins A prodigy and translator. Hemistich is a half line of poetry. Cockney School Keats, guv. Cretic I thought I'd get it in one, but it took two edits (it's a poetic foot). Bob and wheel Hey, finally! A really needed de novo! Pastourelle It's an Old French lyric form of love and rape and frightened girls who should stay home. Silloi A Greek philosophical satire. Artistic inspiration Oh, it's alright, but overwritten. Genius (literature) Not a great name, but a fairly good article. Afflatus Inspiration by another name. Sarah Fielding is now 10% more comprehensible than when I wrote it. Ormulum is featured, thanks to Haeleth's rewrite. Jonathan Wild is a Featured Article. Peterborough Chronicle Wrote it when I was new. After improvement, a Featured Article, 10-05. Digression I did it ages ago. See, there was this one time when.... The Battle of the Books Swift. King Sweeney...forgot I did this one, too. Sylph Definitely forgot that I wrote this one, but it's not bad. Bathos is a very important word for the Lady's Auxillary's production of Hamlet. Parody is about 99% mine. When I found it, it was a stub about film. A Tale of a Tub was my first complete article here. Hope you wanted to know all about it. It is also a Featured Article (November 12, 2004). Mock-heroic Amazingly, I just rediscovered this article I wrote as an IP. It was one of the last I wrote as an IP, as well. It's not bad. William Duncombe Literary dunce, Whig. Areopagus (poetry) Supposed movement of all the biggies of the 1580's. Charles Molloy Nathaniel Mist's collaborator and a major jacobite/tory. Susanna Highmore A female poet. That is all. Thomas Hales (dramatist) Ugh. Still, an Irishman writing fluent French? Impossible, eh? Pierce Dod A guy who said that smallpox inoculations would never work. Anne Dodd The top news kiosk of the 18th century in London. Mary Hearne: More a name on a couple of novels than a person. Fleetwood Sheppard Patron of Matthew Prior & Robert Gould's. Jonathan Smedley One of Pope's arch-dunces, a scheming churchman. Eliza Haywood Now, she's a novelist. Then, she was an actress. James Moore Smythe The last dunce, I think. John Tutchin Yet another dunce, but this is a very sad one. Leonard Welsted A light weight dunce. Dulness I'm an expert on this subject. George Duckett Being commissioner of excise left him with time to hate Alexander Pope. John Ozell Can a translator be political? He could in 1708. Robert Wilks One of the actor-managers of Drury Lane -- not really my people. Susanna Centlivre A woman, a whig, and a Popian enemy. Charles Johnson (writer) A playwright of the 1710s and vulgarian to Pope. Nathaniel Mist A Jacobite enemy of the Hanoverians, employer of Theobald and Defoe. (My 200th original article on Wikipedia.) John Misaubin A caricatured French/English doctor. (#202 & DYK). Giles Jacob Another source of error in 18th c. biographies. Elinor James A woman with a printing press: scary. Giles Mompesson If only he had George Bush to look into his soul for him. (DYK) James Worsdale A fraud who managed to get into many beds. Elizabeth Montagu I dare anyone to say this isn't mine (well, from Schnorrenberg). Laetitia Pilkington A close friend of Jonathan Swift's and an invaluable memoirist. Edward Pilgrim A man killed by the Romford city council, it seems. Charlotte Charke What was there was a copyvio, a paragraph that should have been nuked and a good example of why deletionism is the only sensible philosophy. Ann Cargill A young starlet who had a glamorous life and Romantic death. John Marston Total rewrite. Sarah Scott I absolutely loathed that novel. John Cleland Just did a total rewrite, from petit ambassadors to the shoes to crowning glory of flaxen hair, as it were. Jane Wenham Subject of the last witch trial in England; DYK. Edmund Curll Combined DNB stuff with the old 1911, which wasn't too bad. Charles Blount (deist) Not a stub anymore. Charles Gildon The reason a lot of our 18th c. biography articles are wrong. Aurelian Townshend Delicate, musical, minor 17th c. poet. John Arbuthnot I pretty much wrote it the first time, but it stunk so bad I wouldn't take credit. Now I will, even though it's DNB stuff. Ignoramus In honor of some of our new Wikipedians. Robert Gould A vastly underrated poet. Chrononhotonthologos The play by Henry Carey. Rather fun, and I make it serious. Heroic drama I can't escape Dryden (DYK). Hudibrastic From Hudibras, of course. Huchoun One of the earliest Scottish poets (DYK). Augustan literature is just an "overview." (Main page Wed., Aug 10, 2005.) Augustan prose Augustan drama Augustan poetry are all fuller and coherent articles in their own right. Restoration literature (with Bishonen): I can't believe I wrote all that. Even I am going to admire it for a while. A Featured Article woo-hoo. Thomas Usk More midi-evoel authors. A Game at Chess At least it's literature. I didn't even mention the TS Eliot connection. Lewis Theobald A dunce who was not a dunce. Annus Mirabilis (poem) Too short; I should re-read the poem & write it anew. Venice Preserv'd Plot summary makes it sound worse than it is. The Knight of the Burning Pestle Fun play. Beaumont and Fletcher get lost in the canon shuffle, you know. My interest is as a historian of parody, though. Licensing Act of 1737. This is a stub, practically, because the subject needs a monograph, not an article. Henry Brooke is enough of mine to claim, I think. It's not as dramatic a rescue as others I've done, though. Churchyard Poets Look, I don't think there were any, ok? I don't think the Romantics happened, either. I'm an 18th century specialist. To me, this is all one unbroken line. However, other people use the word, so it deserves an article. Thomas Percy About danged time someone wrote an entry on him. More could be done, of course. Cotton library Single greatest source of medieval literature in English. John Rich (producer) and the disambig at John Rich; properly, it would be "theater manager," but even fewer people would search that than "producer." The Rhyming Poem An Anglo-Saxon poem in rhyme. The classical unities and a bunch of redirects. Cleanness By the Pearl Poet. The entry on the Pearl Poet isn't all that great, y'all. Essay of Dramatick Poesie Honestly, I don't even like Dryden. The Percy Folio Didn't even look to see if a text is available of it online. Someone else will fix it, I'm sure. The Rehearsal (play) Much more important than the movie by the same name. The Proverbs of Alfred Some of them are his, too. Vox Clamantis Gower doesn't like the peasants. George Lillo Major author without an article. The Conquest of Granada Dryden. A Yorkshire Tragedy Been tribble at a mill. Trivia (poem) The best unread poem of the 18th century. George Lyttelton Friend to the Tory satirists. The Bagford Ballads More of the good Harley did. Pruning poem Many a slip betwixt cup and lip. Biographia Literaria Coleridge when he was high. Oroonoko Wrote it. Fought over it. Rewrote it from scratch, and now it's Featured Article. Meditation Upon a Broomstick I ought to stop today; I'm not writing good articles. Eastward Hoe Not a great play or a good article. The Rover (play) I could make a career of just entering Aphra Behn stuff, and so could you. Namby Pamby 18th c. verse satire, important silliness. City Heiress An Aphra Behn play. I won't read the Behn article, because I want to be able to sleep at night. Dragon of Wantley A funny poem from the 17th c. Havelok the Dane I need to fill out some bibliographic info yet. Chaucer's Tale of Sir Topas I can't believe I got to write this. Flores and Blancheflour I thought the poem was slow torture. Elegiac Obvious and inobvious. Wise Blood Check the diffs! A half sentence substub shall not stand when I'm a lecturer on Flannery O'Connor (or was one, anyway). Glumdalclitch A Gulliver's Travels character. Alison Lurie Yet another of the Missing Pulitzer Prize winners. Edwin O'Connor Yet another of the Missing Pulitzers entries. Robert Lewis Taylor Yet another "Fill in the Pulitzers" entry. MacKinlay Kantor Part of the "Fill in the Pulitzers" project. A. B. Guthrie, Jr. Part of the "Fill in the Pulitzers" project. Linguistic Determinism I didn't create it, but I did such a save of it that I want to boast. Henry Brooke, Lord Cobham I sympathize with dimwitted traitors -- the best kind. The Mint is an idea whose time has come again. Moll Flanders was a disgrace, so 98% of it is now mine (one sentence left of the original): This is one of those items that visitors to Wikipedia will search for, and if they had seen what was there before, they'd have concluded that Wikipedia is worthless.

Religion:

William Melmoth Religious writer: combine him with Law, and you have the groundwork for Methodism Dionysius of Fourna A painter who wrote a manual on how to make proper ikons. John Flete A church historian. Frances Neville A female religious writer in the 16th century. Original righteousness Since I had to obliterate every existing word, I'm counting it. John Gale (theologian) Opponent to William Wall; sincere mess of a move involved, too. William Wall (theologian) An anti-Baptist. This somehow feels...necessary. Alice Chestre Not very exciting, but I didn't find another major criminal today. Lewis Sabran: A Jesuit spokesman of James II's. Monan There probably isn't such a person. Leoba: Boniface's niece? An important nun and an Englishwoman in Germany. Amelbert: He didn't want to be a knight. Peter Fourier A theologian. Anthony Tuckney Puritan theologian. Benjamin Whichcote I'm going to claim it. Compare the diff from before and after me. Dorothea A total rewrite. I mean total, too. Alcuin Club A robot could make an article like this. Saint Denise A virgin martyr. Pudentiana A legendary saint. Saint Lucifer An anti-Arian pugilist. Bernadine of Siena An evangelical preaching saint of the counter-reformation. Paschal Baylon Monk, mystic, May 17. Solange A virgin martyr whose head is her relic. Antonia and Alexander Identical almost with Saints Theodora and Didymus. Saint Juvenal Both of them. Saint Angelus Martyr. Jutta Kulmsee Patroness of Prussia. Evodius Perhaps the 3rd known bishop in church history. Peter Chanel Martyr to the south seas. Saints Theodora and Didymus Virgin and soldier martyrs. Saint Maximus A merchant martyr. Saint Alda A mystic. Richarius A French saint whose cultus Charlemagne favored. Radbertus is not de novo, but I un-1911'ed it and added most of the information. Fidelis of Sigmaringen April 24th's William of Conches Some theologian. A humanist. William of Auxere Some other theologian. Didn't condemn Aristotle. Saint Apollonius Unclear to me if this is Claudius Apollonius or not, but I think not. John Coleridge Patteson Red on the list of saints article. Robert of Melun Trying to fix the Robert list. Saint Alberic Last of the founders of the Cistercians. I now know that story pretty well. Saint Emma After all, Emma is not a disambiguation, but an article on the Austen novel. This is what happens when you build haphazardly. Saint Robert And, believe it or not, there is a mess of messes over the stupid Robert article now. Have I mentioned that I loathe "List of" articles lately? Galdino Pretty political, if you ask me. Even the hagiography doesn't make him sound very, umm, mystical. Perfecto An inflammatory saint/martyr in these days, I'm afraid. Stephen Harding A founder of the Cistercians. Benedict Joseph Labre A mendicant saint. Cuthbert Mayne Another of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales. There is an engraving of him somewhere, but Google Images couldn't find it. Hugh of Grenoble The second of the three sainst named Hugh. Seeking photos. Marcellinus of Carthage This is the saint of my birthday. Make of that what you will. John Bramhall An Anglican who spent the Interregnum defending the English Church from all attackers. Birinus Another saint: "Apostle to the West Saxons." Nicholas of Flue Patron saint of Switzerland and March 21. Saint Lea Jerome mentioned her in passing, and she is a saint for March 22. Margaret Clitherow Killed by the sheriffs of York under Edward VI, one of the "forty martyrs." Marcella A saint mentioned in the Saint Lea article, so I had to turn her link blue. Rupert of Salzburg A bishop who gave the town its name. John Field (divine) Not a saint. A Puritan, and a dedicated one. Saint Amun A collection of hermits = a monastery. Chantry is 98% mine, from info. I have from the Ox. Dict. of the Christian Church. Lazarus and Dives From the Bible and a Vaughan Williams composition. Westminster Assembly Puritans at work. The Book of Sports Puritans don't dance on Sunday. Doctors' Commons A legal college for churchmen. Edward Burrough A Quaker advocate. Deiniol A Welsh saint. Erconwald An Anglo-Saxon bishop. Oswald Another Anglo-Saxon bishop. This one had some drama. Thomas Barlow (bishop) A Vicar of Bray candidate. Philadelphians A theosophical sect in England. Bangorian Controversy If you have Hoadly, you have to have this. You know, this seems to be pretty interesting. Benjamin Hoadly A low church bishop who fought Atterbury. Petrock No, not a pet rock. More saints. Honorius of Autun Popularizer of clerical learning. Asterius the Sophist Heretic. Guardian angel isn't mine, but about 70% of it came from me and my reference works. Saint Egbert A hermit. Hylozoism Not a bad job on this one. It makes no difference at all, though, when there are "Digimon" characters without pages still. Aristides (Apologist) Christian apologist. Hrosvit 10th c. Latin Christian poetess. The Christian Year Where hymns came from. Alogi Heretics. Saint Aurelius A saint. This is ticking me off. I learned that saints are by their names alone. Fine. Well, Aurelius brings up the Roman family. Therefore, I tried to keep to the convention and wrote it as Aurelius, Saint, but then someone redirected that, too. I'm just going to start naming articles whatever the hell I want. Zita A man needs a maid. Zwickau prophets Baptists. Witelo Scientist. Cambridge Platonists I kind of like the job I did on this one. Cardinal virtues Prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. Thomas Beccon I admit it, I've been distilling stuff from the Ox. Dict. of the Christian Church. Surprising how much others have already done, from apparently the same source. Herbert Marsh An English bishop who was anti-Calvinist. Saint Lambert (martyr) A saint whose name has generated a number of geographical tags. Gloria in Excelsis Very tough rewording the New Advent...that thing is a 19th c. mess. Latitudinarian I'm of two minds about.

History:

Thomas Nuthall I just stumbled across while looking for Nutts. Jacob Nagle An American diarist who went everywhere & did everything. Miles Prance A perjurer for Titus Oates and others. Bartholomew Steer A rebel, utopian, torture victim. Allan Stewart (Jacobite) A ... well... a Jacobite and a murderer. William Rainborowe A Leveller and American. Martin Grabmann Do you know how long I had to look to find something we didn't have? David Durand French historian of England. John Keogh Campaigner for Roman Catholic voting rights in Ireland. John Gamble (musician) A collector of songs. John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Bargany Wretchedly boring. Thomas Whenstone A British pirate and Cromwellian nephew (more in the Nepotism series). Patriot Whigs What a lot of "Tories" were in the 1730's. Edward Tremayne A conspirator against Queen Mary; otherwise just trivia, really. Battle of Secessionville My great-great-grandfather was the only fatality among the Georgia troops at this battle, thereby establishing the family's luck to this day. Charles Hitchen Crime lord cop and convicted sodomite. Margaret Roper Daughter of Sir Thomas More (DYK). Sophonisba O Sophonisba, Sophonisba O! The True Law of Free Monarchies By stinky Jimmy I. Jack Ketch Did you know? Robert Aske Tried to help the peasants, got killed for it.

Myth:

Polycletus More for Lempriere, but this one was the greatest Greek sculptor, according to them. Bavius Because Pope read Horace (well, sort of myth). Clytie Sort of a duplicate article, but a correction of the old one. Clytius Useless article. Phaon Mythological figures this major without articles are getting rare. Trivia (goddess) The goddess of Greek redlights. Oeonus It's just kind of rewording from a good reference, but this one is helpful for the list of cremated people. Hegetorides It's easy to write articles like this. Cineas Everyone should own a copy of the public domain Lempriere's Dictionary Mydon Kind of embarrassed to write that at all.

Miscellaneous (music, paint, policy, oddities):

Samuel Mearne Book binder...cruft for the wealthy. Walter Pope Astronomer and poet. Richard Ayleward Hymnist and musician. Simplicity Pattern His genitive his own article (DYK). Tilly Kettle First British painter in India (DYK). Peachoid Oh, this, too. Foghat I absolutely hate "Fool for the City," but "Slow Ride" is cool. Little Englander Nothing to be proud of. Wikipedia:Managed Deletion I am so going to regret this. Eudemonism Not very well written, even for a starter page. Translatio studii...yeah, did this one as well, back when I was an IP. Tietze's syndrome "Every physician hath almost his favorite disease," Fielding said. Privileged presses One I missed when putting together the brag list.

Images:

(Just so I'll remember them & fetch them when I need them.) Poppy-purple.png (purple poppy eater). Hydrangea of somesort (Hydrangea-heads-pale.png). Cone-flower.png (in echninacea). Tulip-blossom.jpg (variegated). Mallard-duck-grooming.jpg (see above) Carrboro-NC-4-1-00.jpg (Town Hall sign in April of 2000). Southampton.gif (Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron.) Spanish-tragedy.gif (Title page of said play.) Faustus-tragedy.gif (Marlowe's Dr. Faustus title page.) Othello-tragedy-18th.gif (From Hanmer's 1744 edition of Shakespeare, based on Pope's text, a mild "striking" of Desdemona by Othello.) Fela-Hooke.gif (from Micrographia, Robert Hooke's flea.) Donne-shroud.png (John Donne posing in his winding sheet.) Book-auctioneer.png (A man selling the books of a hanged doctor in Moorfields in 1700.) Swift-works.png (From the 1735 edition of Swift's Works.) Pope-dying.png (The death of Pope from Museus by William Mason, 1747, showing a poetic apotheosis.) Johnson-blinking.png (The Reynolds 1775 portrait of Johnson squinting at a book.) Pope-Alexander.png (Satirical print vs. Dunciad from 1729.) Note: many of these images no longer exist, thanks to various campaigns for and against .png, .jpg, .gif, and licenses.

Places I've Lived

• Savannah, Georgia
• Atlanta, Georgia
• New Orleans, Louisiana (University)
• Atlanta again (University, plus being in a punk band)
• Athens, Georgia (University some more)
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina (yet more university)
• Goldsboro, North Carolina (work)
• New York City (work) (from August 2001 to August 2003 (terrorist attack and blackout framing my time in Manhattan) (weirdest thing in my life was how quiet Manhattan got after the attacks; no planes, no cars, no buses, no trains running, just quiet up on 86th St.))
• Baltimore, Maryland (work) (Arrived just in time for an economic collapse)
• St Simon's Island, Georgia (work) (the ocean is nice; the people who go to it, not so much).

Things I've gotten paid to do

• Write institutional grants
• Teach stuff
• Teach other stuff
• School technology
• Drink a beer milkshake
• Pick up a girlfriend from a bus station 260 miles away, despite protestations
• Review movies that were on video
• Technical edit medical journals
• Given my record, I'm hoping to get paid to not live places.

My areas of special knowledge are

• English literature
• Restoration to mid-18th century England
• Religious history

Sayings of Geogre the Wise (the Geogre's Laws)

1. Any biographical article with a minuscule for the last name is already in trouble. ("Geogre's Law" for AfD)
2. Wikipedia is not the venue for negotiating ultimate truth, the nature of reality, nor the secret history of the world.
3. Anyone who thinks Wikipedia is a good place to advertise is already failing in business, music, and art.
4. A Wikipedia article does not make something good. The absence of an article does not make something bad.
5. Nothing exists, as far as we're concerned, until someone tells us what someone else said. We do not see the world. We see the reports of reporters who saw the world. (IOW: Wikipedia is a tertiary source of information.)
6. Being an admin is like being a Roman dictator: those who do it best are pressed into service, grumble about the power, and seek to get rid of the office as quickly as possible. They accept the position but do not seek it.
7. Anyone who tells you what a good friend he or she is of Jimbo Wales's, anyone who tells you that he or she is trusted by Jimbo Wales, and anyone who mentions having drinks with Jimbo Wales is really telling you, "I have no valid arguments for my point of view."
8. If you do not know the person's birth name, you cannot write a biography of him or her.

Advice for AfD Voters

Now moved to User:Geogre/AfD

Notability Nota Bene

Now at User:Geogre/AfD

My "Deletionism"

I am perceived as being a "deletionist." I don't regard myself that way at all. There are various ways of looking at Wikipedia -- as a system, as a machine, as an activity -- but I prefer to look at it as an organism. It therefore has two needs: acquisition and loss. It must gain new food, and it must strain out the waste. Two needs, with two tactics. I also look at Wikipedia as a reference work for users. Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts on deletion.

When Nothing Is Better Than Something

When I first came to Wikipedia, I hit the "random" link a few times. One of those turned up Al Gore. I was impressed that the article was long, detailed, and without an agenda, either pro- or con. It was because of that article that I returned and began to believe that Wikipedia would not just be the anarchy of the web, or Usenet, where the most motivated (i.e. the loudest and most aggrieved) ruled by persistence and intimidation.

I believe very strongly that users of Wikipedia coming to it the first time will perform 2-3 searches, if we are lucky, and will base their impressions of the site on those results. If those 2-3 searches yield nothing, it's bad, but if those searches yield junk, argumentation, inaccuracies, or blips of non-information, it's even worse. We are all aware that reference works have limits. If I do not find "polyphiloprogenitive" in an online dictionary, I know that there might just be a hole in that dictionary. On the other hand, imagine what reaction I would have if I did find it, and it said, "A word used in a poem." What would your reaction be? What if I found, "A new web company based in Tonga with cool products!" or "#redirect Words no one uses" or "A word often heard from Lord Viperskorpion on tel3D00dies?"

I believe that we must, absolutely must, patrol the site for articles with inadequate, erroneous, and argumentative information, and it is far better to have a hole than to have trash on the ground. This is true because of the medium we are operating in. The world wide web itself, and especially those bits of it that allow "anyone" to enter them, will always fall victim to the most motivated. I remember back in 1990, when I was a user of the FidoNet BBS system, that the Feminism echo was full of chauvinists and misogynists. The Christianity echo was full of atheists. The Socialism echo had hyperpatriot and Nazi participants. I.e. there are people who feel so personally upset by a topic that their chief activity online is to search out those who represent what they consider to be evil and to bash them. That model, of what some call trolling, was later replaced, with the www, to a model of spammers. Now, every group or page was full not of cranks, but of advertisers. The shadier the product, the more aggressively it was advertised. Wikipedia, I think, is a prime target for the most motivated, and the most motivated are always the ones with a score to settle or a score to make.

The "eventualist" position is of some concern to me because of the problem of first impressions. Eventually Wikipedians will fill in gaps, but the new users do not often get motivated to fix bad articles. New users need to first believe that their efforts are worthwhile and then that they will not find themselves instantly ridiculed for working on an article. Also, although the documentation is very clear on the subject, people have trouble believing that people really don't own their words, really won't care about being edited. (Unfortunately, having looked at IRC and VfD for a while, I have to say that people do get upset with edits.) I think that the logic of eventualism applies equally to absences as stubs. Eventually a Wikipedian will create a good article, just as eventually a Wikipedian will fix a stub.

A ratings system may help. However, when we get into ratings we again deal with motivations. If I read an article about a Chemist, I would normally not say anything at all. I don't know the field. Who will? Other chemists, surely, and people who dislike the author of the article, or who believe that chemistry articles are too minor. (Think of what will happen to the ratings of Pokemon articles.) I.e. the motivations of reviewers will offer at least an opportunity for a skewing of results. I do not want someone who has never read beyond Stephen King to rate my Ormulum article harshly because it seems unimportant. I want literary scholars to do so (or, rather, rate it highly). I think a ratings system is a step in the right direction, but I worry that ratings can easily reflect prejudice and motivation. A dedicated atheist could easily bomb every religious article. A dedicated Nazi could bomb every socialist article. We can be back to the problems of trolling.

All of this is simply to explain why I am a "deletionist." I do not delete topics. I delete articles. I do not pass judgment often on whether a thing is worth knowing, but I think it is very important to make sure that the materials we have are rewarding for the users.

An example

I wrote an article on The Mint because I had referred on IRC to needing to find a contemporary version of it. Well, having written the article, I needed to figure out other articles that might link to it. Defoe wrote about life in The Mint in Moll Flanders, so it was natural to worm a reference into both Daniel Defoe and Moll Flanders. I know about Defoe, or at least I know as much as I care to about him. I haven't read Captain Singleton, but I've read Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, Jonathan Wild and Roxana. The Defoe article is poor. It's not unforgivable, but it's really insufficient. Since there is a great deal to know about Defoe (Paula Backschedier has a biography that's worthwhile, though hardly the last word she intended it to be) and I don't, I didn't feel like opening the can to add only a few worms. On the other hand, I was shocked to see Moll Flanders. I invite curious parties to compare the versions before [1] and after [2] my edit. I say this not to credit myself, since I really can't remember the plot of the novel well enough to have summarized it, but to warn about the dangers of articles like that. Moll Flanders is a frequently-assigned text in college English classes in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. It also makes it into advanced High School classes. It is, therefore, one of those topics that is very, very likely to be a first search term, since high school and college students hit reference works first and foremost to do their papers and prepare for class. Imagine what kind of an opinion such a user gets of Wikipedia when the entire article is simply the title of the book! It would be far, far better to have nothing there at all, or to have a listing on AfD that will draw out editors, than to let something that abominable be someone's idea of what this project is about. Geogre 18:43, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Schools

The subject has bedeviled Wikipedia as long as I've been on the project: are schools universally notable? I will try, here, to work out my thoughts on the subject. First, I'll attempt to answer the most frequent arguments of those who wish for blanket approval of school articles, and then I'll attempt to argue that a blanket approval is not merely injudicious, but actually harmful. After that, I will offer up my own voting guide to school articles.

The inclusion argument: So far, I have heard two basic arguments about the blanket inclusion. One is that preserving information about schools here will be of service to researchers and the curious. The other is that finding one's school on the site, or creating an article about one's school when one is a student, encourages users to become contributors. This is aside from the "all are notable by affecting lives" argument, which I will deal with later. I hope to fairly represent these arguments.

Research To answer the question of research, I can only say what I have said elsewhere: the primary source of information on schools or municipal institutions of any era is never a secondary source. When you wish to find out about the elementary school that served the Black population in an American city in the 1940's, you do not look at an American encyclopedia of the 1940's. You look to city records. The city had to fund the school. It had enormously complex and thorough documentation on the school. Any future researching wanting to know about a public school in America of today would similarly go to a municipal record. It would be foolhardy to ever look into any secondary source for that material. The reason that you would never look into a secondary source is that a secondary source is only going to be even remotely useful if it is entirely comprehensive. Inasmuch as Wikipedia relies upon voluntary contributors, it cannot under any circumstance be comprehensive about anything, or cannot guarantee that, and it cannot remain current comprehensively. An article written in 2002 will stay unchanged through 2004, if it looks reasonable or another interested editor doesn't come along, and yet it will be out of date.

Interest Certainly one's present school is going to be interesting. However, so will one's favorite store, favorite rock band, favorite game, favorite character from favorite book, favorite BBS, favorite chatroom, favorite toy, favorite buddy, favorite lover, favorite magazine, etc. To me, we cannot say that because some might have interest we must allow all schools in. That's simply not sufficient justification. However, the most important danger of the "interest" argument is that it shows a fundamental understanding of the purpose of Wikipedia that I do not share. We must ask ourselves one simple question: Is Wikipedia a group participation project that looks like an encyclopedia, or is it an encyclopedia assembled by group participation? Which is foremost: getting people to contribute, or getting good content? If the former, there is no reason to delete schools, or anything else, much. I believe that Wikipedia exists only to provide an encyclopedia that is GFDL. I will say that a person who cannot write an encyclopedia quality article is not welcome to write articles. That excludes some people from authoring, but it excludes them based only upon their product, nothing else.

Growth: Wikipedia has to grow, right? Well, that was the case. Wikipedia needed to get off the ground, and it needed to attract contributors. It still does. However, it is no longer in any danger of indifference, no longer needing to attract users. Now, we are having to shift energies from growth to strength, from acquisition to pruning. We still need content, but we are no longer so much in need of content that we must change our standards to encourage it.

The second big prong of the "inclusion" argument is significance. As I have heard the argument, it states that schools, by virtue of affecting lives of all students, are inherently notable.

Answer: I do not deny that I was shaped by my schools, for good or ill. I do not deny that my hatred of my high school spurred me to achieve success in college. In that regard, the argument is absolutely true. However, I feel that a thing must not only have an effect, but must have a singular and essential effect. I beg pardon for being academic, here, or dropping into philosophy, but the question is not whether a school has an effect, but if a school has an effect that is identifiably part of its essence. Did the pretty girl at the next desk have an effect on her life that was characteristically or essentially the particular high school we attended? Was it an effect that can be identified as being the Lincoln High Effect? Does the effect have an identity, and therefore is the school itself, as itself, having the effect, or was it just being in a school of any sort?

Given the fact that public schools, in particular, are remarkably uniform across a state, region, or even nation, how can we say that the Lincoln High school had a particular identity? When "deletionists" argue that a school is just like all the others, what they're getting at is that everyone is altered by school, but that is due to school itself, and not this school itself. In the case of private schools, the schools are much more likely to have a character, an identity, and a particular effect on a life. A Friends school will be very different from a Opus Dei Catholic school, and both will be radically different from a Hebrew academy. Each competes with the others and strives for unique character.

The fact that it is a school does not give it notability in a person's life, even the life of the students there now, for any school would do the same. That's why I and others ask that the school have some other mark to make it worthy of inclusion. What else is there about it? Did it blow up? Did it serve as the set for Porky's? What sets it apart from every other institution?

The argument against inclusion: Above, I was only rebutting the inclusion argument. As for why there is actual harm to inclusion, there are two general points. First is that the information is inherently lost. Second is that the information is at cross-talk or lost. (In process.)

(This section in process.)

What I edit

I actually spend less time writing articles about 18th century British literature, because I know them so well that doing them justice is daunting. Instead, I do a great deal of copy editing and tweaking. However, for an article that I'm proud of that I did in toto, see A Tale of a Tub. (One day I will get around to writing an entry on my dissertation field, but it's hard to even think about that stuff.)

I'm a believer in Wikipedia and have hopes for its continued prosperity. I've been an encyclopedia reader since my earliest years. Nothing matches the pleasure of learning that I have gotten from grazing in encyclopedia, and I look at Wikipedia as a way for me to, in a small way, add to the pleasure of others and pay off some of my debt.

Sonnet Vandalism

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a curious userpage I'd never seen before,
While I wondered, nearly napping, suddenly there was a yapping,
As of Geogre gently asking, "vandalize it, I implore!"
"I'll oblige you, then," I muttered, as the words began to pour;
"only once, and nevermore."
Phaedriel 05:11, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

You ask for lack of sanity.
Surely it's only vandalism
If I do not place it at the bottom?
Oh what is formal anarchy?
The wand'ring troll swings wide their words
And dashes admins to the code.
You think that harshness in this mode
Renders acid whey and curds.
We fight for 'pedia progress.
We fight for advancing the cause.
We pray that the errors will show less
In the minds clearly blank of our laws.
Oh, how shall we fight off the gno(e)mes
If we spend our time writing poems?
Vandspeare15:28, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Found that their hominid

Omnicontrariness

Meant that he might just be

Waiting a while

--Trovatore 21:58, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Again it is almost October

The summer is finally over

And out of their holes

Come new kind of "trolls"

Who write FAs like Geogre.

Zocky | picture popups 04:28, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

---

So Geogre the hordes of vandals has besought

To write in sonnets: so to make their writ

Acceptable, or something where they ought

To strive for Excellence, or tilt at Wit!

Alas, 'tis not so simple. Here's the rub:

The Numbers do not come, and nor will Rhyme.

Without some schooling how's the puerile cub

To come to bear such fruit? Let them spend time

In conning cunning sonnets made of old –

Before the Net benumbed the bookish Minde,

And eke before the genial Current's bold

Pellucid crystal Course was web-confin'd.

(Learn this, meanwhile, in old Noetica's school:

The better spelling's always minuscule.)

– Noetica^♬♩ Talk 06:30, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

---

Not an edit since 2009,
Marking his hapless decline,
Though he might have been great, I cannot dictate,
His edits fifteen years before mine.

So here I am, writing 'bout Geogre,
A user much greater than I,
Though most regard vandals as jokers,
He tolerates, and invites them to write.

"Write it in sonnet form", Geogre said, grinning,
As I looked at the page, I had some slight fears.
Although it was stated right at the beginning,
These wishes unseen these past few years.

Though a strong urge may soar to thee
I beg of you, please, don't revert me!

-xelvibes | hi!

---

Critical commentary

  The Vanity of Human Wishes
  
    asked for a sonnet
  but got this haiku instead
    rain in a dry pool

  Filiocht

There once was a cow from Nantucket
who gave milk right into a bucket
    but 'twas markedly sour, 
    so depressed at this hour,
she remarked "moo moo moo moo moo, fuck it."
Joefu 03:09, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I couldnt resist

how about a haiku:

is there truth in boredom
one cannot decide to say
thy content begone

First line has one syllable too many if you're going for the "untraditional" 5-7-5 form. — Alkivar (who blanked the page, too, so true vandalism and a haiku)

There once was a fellow named Geogre
Whose name didn't rhyme with squat
He asked for a sonnet
But the vandals had done it
When he just got nonsense — a lot.

JRM 08:12, 2004 Dec 29 (UTC)

I wanted to vandalise this page, but am really bad at poems, so im going home! Selphie 15:19, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Although I know you only by a name,
your invitation beckoned me to write,
and while I have much else to do tonight,
to miss this chance would be an utter shame.

A sonnet, then? How strange a choice of form
for work that often chooses freer verse,
or blank (like Alkivar), or sometimes worse
(as seen in posts by those who front the storm).

If vandal I will be, then to deface
a page with lines expressly called upon
and not some other writing, sense or non-,
seems vaguely incorrect, or out of place.

Well, then, so my intention will be clear,
The last line isn't going to rhyme at all, and the meter will be wrong, too. -Mindspillage (spill yours?) 01:13, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism

There was a Wikipedian who thought it 

Wise to have vandalism as a sonnet 

But the vandals, wanting a gimmick 

Gave him instead a limerick 

And so he remarked, "Doggone it!" 

Pufferfish101 21:16, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Poor Attempt at a Poem

Geogre asked for a sonnet

But someone gave him a bonnet

While others wrote haiku!

I wouldn't know what kind of poem this is

But I do know that it sullies the name of poetry

Yeltensic42.618 don't panic 01:55, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

actually these aren't actually bonnets because they aren't made of straw. But they are the best I could come up with.

George asked for a sonnet.

But I can't do that!

What about a bonnet?

In fact a whole pile of hats.

Theresa Knott (a tenth stroke) 23:23, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

I'm not going to pretend... I have no talent for poetry but I was somehow linked to your user page and started reading it. I would disagree with your opinion on the inclusion of "The Rusk Center" as it is a place of interest and as such notable. Ironically there is a written record of a (very moving) speech by Jimmy Carter to the Georgia Law Society given at the Rusk Center included in Hunter S. Thompson's "The Great Shark Hunt" anthology. You seem like a bright and engaging individual. Good luck in all your future endevour!Hamster Sandwich 08:20, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Another sonnet for Geogre

Dear Geogre, here’s a note from me to you.

Like me, you have a single user name.

I do not always like the things you do,

But you’re a noble fellow all the same.

I am not very good at writing verse.

It’s not at all my favourite way to write.

But let’s face facts, things cannot get much worse,

And I’ll be happy if it just scans right.

My page was always being vandalised,

But THEY have stopped me from protecting it.

When from the argument I fled, despised,

I did not think to score another hit.

Your page gives me the chance to make my point.

One has to take one's chances in this joint.

Author's note: line 1 only works if your user name is pronounced as having 2 syllables (ie. “Jogger”). Deb 09:45, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Infernokrusher sonnet

Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Someone's in love with Georgre, and it seems like Georgre. Originally from: Billy the Shake goes to the Demo Derby

Ro-Mo. Your windows are still mirrored; taunt me not,
But show your colors, dare to challenge me,
These lips are two shaped charges, primed and hot,
That wait the go-code for delivery.
J-Cap. The flag is to the deadly, not the loud,
Yet aim as well as posing shows in this;
The worthy throwdown’s always to the proud,
And hammer down is how the hard girls kiss.
Ro-Mo. My draft is stopped; I struggle toward the clutch.
J-Cap. And would a charge of nitrous make thee run?
Ro-Mo. Too much; but what else is there but too much?
Let me take arms, and elevate the gun.
J-Cap. Small arms but hint what demolitions say.
Ro-Mo. Then, gunner, gimme one round.
J-Cap. On the way.

-- FreplySpang (talk) 20:54, 19 July 2005 (UTC)

---

The Edit War

With revert one, then two and three and four

A wiki warrior's hauled into the dock.

Th'administrator passing by to block

Checks diffs for proof, but gives it no thought more

Until the warrior, now enraged, returns

Sockpuppet first, then 'nonymous IP

Each blocked in turn, no sign of clemency.

Then with a vengeance the mailing list burns

"Abuse!" he cries, "There must be a cabal —

And they’re out to suppress my point of view

So now all Wikipedia’s askew."

Inured list readers respond not at all

For the change, upon investigation

Claimed that Sealand’s not a micronation.

---

Before I vandalize, do you want it Shakespearian or Petrachan?

--Fenrus 18:40, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

---

Oh ! Lady be good, sir Bigod. Unknown herald.

--Anon. vandalism misplaced at the top. (Good to see that folks still read old plays.)

---

/-\|_ UR p/-\3G5 R ]\/[/-\3D 0f R0TI|\|g ]\/[3/-\t

YO1!1!1!1!1 OmG MAHADiTS R lEEET

ur REV3rTS WAAK

U BAKA WIKI-FREAK

WALE aND BAT UR MeAT

DEF3AT u SHAL 3AT

aNy Hopa OF ESCHAaT ?!1!1??!1!1!1 WtF

NO VANDALS R3tRAaT1!11! oMg WTf loL

--Marudubshinki 05:05, 22 September 2005 (UTC) (diff with edit summary)

---

his Geogre has a way with such pretense.
He cares not for gender revolution,
his page a testamentary quite intense.
Sonnets are our righteous retribution.

Our Anaïs deserves seiner title,
es has lived a life fighting for the queer.
Our Ana's fingers like fleurs are vital,
es will use them to tear off Geogre's ear.

We humbly request you not be a douche,
and maybe then you could get off the rag,
or we will mail you a dead polatouche.
Not something we'd do if you weren't a skag.

A revolutionary activist:
put it back now, 'cause we're pretty damn pissed.

--198.70.73.187 (diff)

---

Two years have gone by,
A myriad Delete votes, yet
Wikipedia grows.

--Owen× ☎ 21:37, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Browsing through Watchlist-

Dismayed; Bad poetry

disses 5 7 5.

--Maru (talk) Contribs 21:55, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

---

A deletionist poem:

Chris talk back 23:05, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

---

Oh, Geogre, ye of the Admin status, it is the Eazy Cheeze,
To make a spur of the moment sonnet is what I have sought.
Eighteen lines, split evenly between development and release,
Iambic Pentameter's suggested but not needed, is my thought.
Why I have posted here, what you call vandalism,
Is to ask why you voted to delete my article on Blackout's Box.
The man we call Michael Biggins is real, with that there is no schism.
He is as funny as a hyena, as cunning as a fox.
Why, then, did you doubt the article in the New Times of Broward and Palm Beach,
The one linked so prominently on the front page [3] of the site?
As you can tell he's done a great deal and has a long reach,
His fame and notoriety has the potential to reach a great height!
I ask you, great Geogre, e-mail me and tell me why,
You voted to delete a true and right page,
Surely I broke a few rules in posting in desperation to appear worthy,
But those were stupid mistakes, and not the result of rage!
In closing allow me to reiterate your skills as an Administrator are quite great,
But please let me repost my work; don't consign me to a dark fate!

[My e-mail is [on second thought, post on MY talk page if you want to talk] ; please, Geogre drop me a line after reading the article, and no one else spam me cuz I wouldn't like that. Remove all the x's except for the logical one in my provider's domain name. Thank you so much; I'm sorry for the long delay but I only now motivated myself to look for someone to complain to :).]

by EazyCheeze talkatme!

found text sonnet in half rhyme; from the collected writings of Geogre

further performance of the play was forbidden

partly Dryden's bombastic verse

unlike Pope's notion of the Golden

Hudibrastic From Hudibras, of course

a description of the virtues of cleanliness

influence of that king's presence and personality

the emphasis on the individual and the willingness

she gets her wish to lose her virginity

one of the new terrors of death

the lives of the conspirators as his reward

and thereby having the laurel wreath

house in the settlement, in accord

on the surface, it appears

became a book collector in his later years

Eugenics

Of all the sonnets on your page,

you haven't yet got one Onegin

(which oft inspire fits of rage

or heavy incantations pagan

when hoped-for tetrametric grace

falls pitifully upon its face.)

A lack becomes an invitation

and magnet for procrastination

for one who wearies of the dull:

though metapoetry grows tired,

that's where the errant neurons fired

and where the idle fancies pull—

at least I claim no rich pretension

my verse should merit wiki's mention.

-Mindspillage (spill yours?) 17:38, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

---

I can't write a sonnet
Gosh darn it;
So here's some doggerel
Jesus it's awferul.

—Bunchofgrapes (talk) 04:40, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Lyrical ballad for the 21st century

A richly enfolded love poem found on Tznkai's page:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
All my base
Are belong to you.

--Bishonen | talk 03:02, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Why you're a loser

Oh my gosh, you're such a loser,

Probably a drug abuser.

On an encyclopedia

you can't hear others screaming "duh".

Wasting time on Internet

junk is sad, you know it, yet...

Still we find you doing things

like inviting bad poetry

Such as this, just one more sign

that you're a loser, by design.

Never will there ever be

a loser quite as dumb as thee.

But perhaps there is some hope;

that soon you won't be such a dope.

Matt Yeager ♫ (Talk?) 06:04, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

How Can I Vandalize a Protected Page: No Fair!

by user:163.1.232.51

There was a Pelagian called Geogre,

The trolls thought he was an ogre.

I tried to devise

A poem to eulogise,

but the rhyme it just wouldn't go. Grr.

Another haiku (I'm horrible at Western poetry)

This is a vandal
Well, maybe not...well, maybe
Forget what I said.
~~~~ The preceding worthless jargon was submitted by [[User:CliffHarris|CliffHarris]] HH:MM:SS MM MD, YYYY

Short one

There was a man with a fixation,
On how everyone should put thier citations,
He explained the need,
But noone agreed,
Yet he cannot see the causation.

-HIBC

Limerick vandalism

There is a fine fellow called Geogre

Who some people consider an ogre

But he's really quite fun

(Once you get past his gun)

Though his surname appears to be Borgia.

Not great, can anyone do better? Filiocht | The kettle's on 15:04, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

Ok, I could never resist a gauntlet.

There once was a Geogre from Georgia

Whose writings they would not have bored ya

Such a heck of a time

Coming up with the ryhme

That Fil I wish I had ignored ya.

Well I kinda strayed off topic there. Paul August ☎ 17:24, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

I can't resist this stuff either.

The Geogre's a sharp-witted creature

Whose articles often make feature,

but write substub one

and you'll meet his big gun:

Just be grateful he isn't your teacher!

Mindspillage (spill yours?) 17:38, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

Dyctyly dactyly

Geogre the sonnet-phile

Prayed that all vandals might

Hew to the style

--unknown

YY U R.

YY U B.

I C U R.

YY 4 ME.

Lsi john 20:02, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Vandal?

Not I

Vandal?

I lie

Blank:

Your page

Thanks

You gave

For a short, sweet sonnet

(with no bonnet)

In a strange convention

(I will mention)

And if I might, and if I may

Wish you a very happy day

Nengscoz416 (talk) has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing!
Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

More Poetry

Ode to Geogre-:

His law doth posit this for website pages,

to capitalise each link is vain.

tis readily complete bollocks,

and shall not be done again.

For where his law is implemented,

utter crap shall cease to be.

delete! delete! I cry so strong,

for this is utter vanity!

Be gone dark page of narcissism,

which threat thou art, notable; not so.

Persist in use of the law of Geogre,

it removes the vain, so not to show.

Thor Malmjursson (talk) 05:18, 18 January 2009 (UTC) (Category Member, Wikipedian Poets) :)

---

La Feuille Morte

Dirai-moi adieu
La feuille morte de la feu
Plus belle dans les yeux

 - Stephen