The subjects I am most involved with are related to Russia the Soviet Union, World War I, II, and Cold War, and generally the swath of nations and peoples that run from Poland, the Baltics, and Russia, running southeast through Turkey and the Caucasus, Central Asia, and ending in Pakistan, northern India, western China, and Mongolia.
I enjoy working on the navigation elements and interconnectedness of Wikipedia, such as: Navigation lists such as indexes, outlines, timelines and years pages; See also and navigation hat notes; navigation templates and navigation sidebars.
I am a self appointed maintenance angel for Timothy (given name), Tim (given name), Timmy (given name); every Tim, Timmy, and Timothy has a place, and every Tim, Timmy, and Timothy should be in their proper place. This is critical for the survival of Wikipedia.
I watch articles generally related to:
History: the history of Russia and the Russian empire, the Soviet Union, and the Soviet bloc; the history of eastern and central Europe; Central Asia and the Caspian Sea; 20th century Germany and the Holocaust; World War I, II and the Cold War; the Sino-Japanese wars; general United States history.
Other: Los Angeles and California, UCLA and Los Angeles City College; The Doors, Velvet Underground, and Traffic; gold and silver age Russian literature; golden age science fiction; fascism and communism; Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop RPGs; Commodore PET and Altair 8800; accessibility and blindness; Blue holes; whiskey and tea; warships; colors, especially blue; bibliographies; glossaries. ...
I have some skill with MathML, LaTeX, C++, Python, Javascript, PHP, none with Lua. At one time I could write C well enough :) to make a living and had a painful 3yr encounter with 6502/6510 assembly language that left me traumatized. I've been casually learning about the Mediawiki software and the Wikipedia API, and investigating various database APIs. I also have some skill with Excel VBA. For the most part when I say "some skill", this should be interpreted as meaning "self taught hack that knows enough to be dangerous". It can be an embarrasing path but I occassionally arrive at the correct destination. My saving grace is knowing I'm a potentially dangerous self taught hack. Someday I might put a link up to my Github for Wikipedia tools.
I can "function" in Spanish (Los Angeles flavor), French, German, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Armenian (so so), and Georgian. By "function" I mean I know enough to work intelligently with the aid of a computer.
Much of the information here is to help my memory; if it helps others, wonderful. If you have a resource/page about Wikipedia or a good tool for working on Wikipedia, please let me know on my talk page, I hoard information.
My page on Polish Wikipedia
My page on Ukrainian Wikipedia
Important thoughts, random musings, personal confessions, and fun facts
In 2018, I had a actual heart attack while listening to an orange monster promote fascism and white supremacy.
Don't worry, Rod Sterling is actually standing just out of sight laughing at us with Allen Funt.
"Once ya, ya get to know these parts, you never lack for somethin ta do. People always ask me, "Why I stay here?" I tell'm I stay cuz I like it better here than I would anywharez else." — Herb Jones, The Legend of Boggy Creek.[2]
For the record, I'm a cranky old gay Polish Jew who has lived his entire life in Los Angeles. No connection to Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, or Ukraine.
Where I live
I'm reasonably well traveled, but I have been fortunate to have been born, lived, gone to school, and worked my entire life in Los Angeles; I plan on staying well into the future. None of the videos below are mine (none of the pictures to the right from Wikipedia commons are mine either), but I do think they are quality and may be find a useful place in an article.
DTLA
Downtown Los Angeles After Midnight (2023), Downtown Los Angeles Chinatown Walk Tour, Downtown Los Angeles Saturday Walking Tour (2023)
Skid Row
Walking tour, Walking tour, Walking tour
Hollywood
Hollywood Blvd walking tour [3], [4], [5], [6]
2023 Hollywood Christmas Parade [7], [8], [9]
Thai town:
Amphai best Thai food in Los Angeles, Thai Town New Year celebration, 2023 Streetfood in Thaitown, Thai town Food Tour
Koreatown
2024
Weho
Sunset Strip at Sunset walking tour, Santa Monica Blvd/Robertson general area, Halloween 2023
Venice
Walking tour, Sunset on Boardwalk, Morning Walk, Abbot Kinney, Venice Beach Santa Monica Pacific Palisades, Boardwalk, Lincoln
Santa Monica
Driving tour, Walking tour, Walking tour
West side
The Grove
Parks
2024 MacArthur, 2024 Echo Lake, Griffith, Sunset at Griffith Observatory, Palisades
Thinks to watch while on a break
The Greatest Movie in Cinema history
Tim Curry talks about the Rocky Horror Picture Show 1975
Fear and Loathing bathroom scene
Truman Capote and Groucho
Santa Monica, '72, Live at Madison Square Garden 1973, An American Prayer, Summer Of Soul
Greatest song ever: 1968, Acoustic version (my favorite), 2018 remix, Esher Demo; Live: [10], [11], [12] [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]. Anyone that says anything negative about George Harrison is a bad person.
Followed by the another greatest song: 1968, 2018 remix, Anthology 3, Live [21]. Anyone that says anything negative about John Lennon is a bad person.
Followed later by the another greatest song: 1968, 2018 remix, Anthology (my favorite), Live [22]. Anyone that says anything negative about Paul McCartney is a bad person.
(If you haven't listened to the White Album you should)
And because I still have a platonic crush Ringo [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]. Anyone that says anything negative about Ringo Starr is a bad person.
(If you haven't listened to all the Beatles albums you should)
Listen and sing along to one Beatles album a day and you will be a happier person.
(If you're bad mood, sing along with Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da five times; it will help. Repeat as needed.)
Funny
Currently the funniest video on Youtube, updated 20 September 2023.
Currently the funniest video on Youtube, updated 12 May 2023.
The funniest video on Youtube, updated 16 January 2023.
Another funniest video on Youtube, updated 16 February 2023.
Paul Lynde roast Dean Martin, updated 24 April 2023.
Not Funny
2,000 Lies or The American Insurrection or January 6 Insurrection - PBS or American Reckoning
Jack Smith statement, Fani Willis statement
Ponderables
Should Rita Graham and David open the door?
Who are the overlords of the UFO?
The Floor Show
White Rabbit, a bathtub, Las Vegas?
The importance of toast.[31]
Quotes from people much wiser than I will ever be
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence, you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. —Martin Luther King.[3]
"The Russian Revolution was the most successful criminal conspiracy in history. The takeover of an entire nation by a shameless huckster supported by a hostile foreign power. And the revolution was also an object lesson in how liberals can lose, and lose catastrophically, from a position of great advantage, if they are divided in the face of a ruthlessly ideological foe."[4]
"I told you so. You damned fools".[5]
"Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow." H.G. Wells
“They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high,” she wrote. “To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone.” Barbara Ehrenreich[6]
"“No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges – absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day? Soon people won't be living their own lives any more." Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Observations
I think most portals exist to provide busy work for the bored.
Sarcasm is often the only effective response to absurdity.
Foolishness, and ignorance often win, but that's no reason to surrender.
I often find Wikipedia very amusing; its like a multi-national soap opera, generously mixed with black comedy, nth decimal place arguments, and the generally unbelievable, all set against a beige and gray backdrop splattered with virtual feces.
I hate grave dancing in articles about real life events
Things I've learned to live by on Wikipedia (or try to)
Think before you type. Then type. Then think again before you press Publish. "If you see a man hasty with his words, there is more hope for a fool than for him." Mishlei 29:20
When in doubt, don't press Publish.
If you're uncertain, Ask.
When you're wrong, you're wrong. Accept it gracefully.
I try and abide by a personal 2RR rule (except in cases such as vandalism, copyright, or BLP violations). If I've reverted twice and things continue, I'll leave it to another editor to pick up where I stop. If it's important someone else will come along. If important or the article is not watched, WP:3O or WP:DR is a better forum for resolving the dispute than moving towards WP:EW territory.
Think if something can be Improved, rather than Reverted or Deleted. If it can, then either Improve it or leave it for someone else.
Don't engage in petty reverting. See above.
Sometimes it's best to disengage from a quarrel and return later rather than keeping it going. "Just as without wood, the fire goes out, so without a grumbler the quarrel quiets down." Mishlei 26:20
Use polite and meaningful but short edit summaries.
Use warning templates sparingly. A note often produces better results.
Some topics I am too emotionally close to and I choose generally not to edit in those areas. At best it will be frustrating, at worst it will result in a ban or block. Everyone has to know their limitations. Wikipedia should be enjoyable and edifying, not frustrating and exasperating.
Don't stick your nose into situations you know nothing about. "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt." Abraham Lincoln
Don't stir the pot.
Don't hold grudges.
Not every editor is able to constructively edit/review every article. Know what articles are best left to others.
There is often no right or wrong answer. If you don't feel strongly about something and others do feel strongly, you probably have better things to do than arguing about it.
Editing should generally be fulfilling and a positive part of your life.
Some areas on Wikipedia are very contentious, and often very unpleasant experiences arise. You can only deal with so much unpleasantness beyond which it isn't worth the personal toll and the impact on the other areas you edit. Pick and choose the unpleasantness you decide to involve yourself in carefully; you only have so much time and strength. It is better to deal with some difficult situations and leave others to others and keep your enthusiasm for editing than to try and deal with all difficulties and burn out and drop out.
There is a line between passion and obsession, commitment and crusade. The farther your keep from the line, the more enjoyable your experience. Easy to say, hard to follow.
When you see !vote it doesn't mean a Negative or Oppose vote. It means Not voting and refers to the process of consensus-building as opposed to polling.
RefScript automatically creates refs from webpages.
On Wikipedia, if something sounds straightforward and self-explanatory, you're wrong, it's not.
There are important differences between policies and a guidelines and an essays. They are not the synonmyns. Editors use the terms far too loosely and interchangeably, sometimes unintentionally and innocently, other times...?
When you remove vandalism with an inappropriate edit summary, make sure to remove the default edit summary on your revert, or else the inappropriate edit summary will appear on the revert and in your user contributions.
Excessive inline references per WP:OVERKILL. It makes it hard to read an article. If they are needed, they should be encapsulated or bundled WP:BUNDLING in a footnote with an explanation.
Too many sections MOS:OVERSECTION. Article creation is not a contest to see how many sections an editor can cram into a stub.
Substubs. These are not articles: they are PAGE SPAM. Shame on any editor that creates them and doesn't expand them (unless there is a good reason); if an article is worth creating, an editor should write 350 words about it, create a couple of incoming links, add two references, add categories. Minimum effort.
The idea that having a separate article is always somehow better. Nothing is improved if content is unnessarily fragmented and placed in a more obsure stand alone article.
Completely empty sections; if an editor creates a section, they should at least write one sentence about that section's topic.
That its much easier to be considered notable as an athlete or entertainer, than it is to be considered notable as an academic, scientist, or author.
About articles
Every list should have a very clear and unambiguous inclusion criteria, that leaves little or nothing to question. The clearer the better. I think a lot of lists go off the rails with marginal entries and become only semi-useful from wlink spam.
Articles and investigative reports about Wikipedia
Paling, E. (21 October 2015), "Wikipedia's Hostility to Women", The Atlantic, retrieved 15 January 2023
Page, S. (17 October 2022), "She's made 1,750 Wikipedia bios for female scientists who haven't gotten their due", The Washington Post, retrieved 15 January 2023
Qaiser, F., Zaringhalam, M., Bernardi, F., Wade, J., Pinckney, E. (23 May 2022). "How academic institutions can help to close Wikipedia's gender gap". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-01456-x. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
Gardner, R. (9 January 2023), "Wikipedia operator denies Saudi infiltration claim", BBC, retrieved 15 January 2023
Wikipedia tackles alleged conspiracy to distort articles on Holocaust, 2023, retrieved 5 February 2024
Antisemitism on Wikipedia: Distorting the History of the Holocaust, retrieved 5 February 2024
How Wikipedia is being changed to downgrade Iranian human rights atrocities, 2024, retrieved 6 February 2024
The worst part of Wikipedia
The seemingly endless, repetitive, and ultimately meaningless time sink discussions where editors constantly repeat themselves over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Usually accompanied by walls of text that begin to blur into each other like a mental quagmire. See all the move requests related the Russo-Ukrainian war or renaming Turkey, or any high level article about Armenia or Azerbaijan as an example.
The second worst part of Wikipedia
Walls of text. In any and every context except your own user page.
Don't like them. Don't read them. Don't encourage them. Don't build them. Shun those that do.
Yes occasionally lots of text is needed, and when it is it should still be as concise and organized as possible.
Nothing justifies >500 words in a paragraph.
Nothing justifies >50 words in a sentence.
Nothing justifies >10 sentences in a paragraph.
Violating the above should be a Wikipedia felony, the offenders beaten mercilessly with rabid squirrels until they repent. Habitual offenders should be sentenced to live with feral cats and no wifi.
What Wikipedia is not
Wikipedia is not a directory of every athlete mentioned in the news.
Wikipedia is not a directory of every game or season mentioned on the internet.
Wikipedia is not a directory of every actor or musician with a credit.
Wikipedia is not an directory of every music single and television episode ever made.
Kyiv and Kiev
If it were up to my personal preference I'd change every occurrence of Kiev to Kyiv just to make the point many are trying to make, so I understand those that want to change it. But its not up to me and should be a matter of personal preference. The Wikipedia community has a consensus on historical Ukrainian names, read WP:KIEV.
What to do if you have been blocked or are facing being blocked
You have two options:
Option 1
Continue the fight until the bitter end. Don't accept defeat. Tell everyone else why they are wrong and why you are right. If you really think your right and won't abide by the consensus because you think its wrong, this is the option to take. Make sure you are very clear about your future defiant intentions. Use walls of text to make your point, with liberal use of copy/paste. Respond promptly to every comment made regarding the issue, with liberal use of copy/paste. Make sure to be very clear about where you stand in every reply. Blame others and point out their faults to distract from your editing.
This has never worked, but you might be the first!
Option 2
Admit defeat. Stop the behavior that created the problem. Post your accept the consensus to stop. Total white flag. This will work wonders for most people facing a block; this will not work for repeat or egregious problems, but if you've just made a mistake and taken it too far this will work wonders.
You need to consisely:
Explain what the problem is so others know you understand the reason behind the (potential)block.
Explain that you accept the consensus that what your were doing is unacceptable; you don't have to '''agree''', but you do have to accept to '''abide''' by consensus.
Explain what you will do to avoid a repeat (if needed and not implicit in the above).
Don't:
Use weasel works to try and minimize your problem.
Set conditions for your acceptance of the consensus, policy, or guidelines.
Try and offset your responsibility by pointing to others problems.
Attack or criticize other editors.
This works once, maybe again if you gain invisible Wikipedia brownie points.
Left aligned images
Images that are aligned to the left are an absolute pain for people that need significant screen magnification. It is much more accessible to place the images all to the right and avoid breaking up the flow of the text. This isn't true for simple low level magnification, but for individuals needing magnification at 500%+ while using a low resolution on a large display, it is an enormous and almost always unnecessary pain.
Unsourced material in BLPs
BLPs need clearly WP:ISWP:RS with WP:SIGCOV addressing the subject directly and indepth for both content and notabilty to avoid abuse. Per WP:BURDEN
"All content must be verifiable. The burden to demonstrate verifiability lies with the editor who adds or restores material, and it is satisfied by providing an inline citation to a reliable source that directly supports the contribution."
"Any material lacking an inline citation to a reliable source that directly supports the material may be removed and should not be restored without an inline citation to a reliable source."
"Do not leave unsourced or poorly sourced material in an article if it might damage the reputation of living people or existing groups"
BLP abuse occurs when unsourced (or poorly sourced) negative information is placed in an article.
BLP abuse occurs when unsourced (or poorly sourced) promotional information is placed in an article.
BLP abuse occurs when unsourced (or poorly sourced) information is placed in an article with language that modifies or qualifies the information in a way that violates WP:NPOV, WP:WEIGHT.
BLP abuse occurs when opinions in otherwise IS RS are presented in Wikipeda as facts or given more WP:WEIGHT than is WP:DUE and neglects other viewpoints.
BLP abuse occurs when unsourced (or poorly sourced) information about private individuals makes its way into Wikipedia, either as part of another article or as a WP:BLP1E.
Just because information is on the internet does not make it notable, true, or worth adding to Wikipedia. // Timothy :: talk 18:57, 25 March 2023 (UTC)
Legitimate uses I've found for ChatGPT
Using ChatGPT to write articles is repulsive. It should be a Wikipedia felony and a shunnable offense. But there are some great legitimate uses for ChatGPT. I've been using it inside VSCode (via Github Copilot) and on their website. Here are some useful things I've found (in no particular order). Obviously you should check the results and never assume.
Give it a list and ask it to order it chonologically or alphabetically.
Give it a list of ISBNs and/or DOIs and it will create a bibliography or references in the format you request from the list. It will even use Wikipedia citation templates if you ask it to.
Give it a list of bare URLs and it will create references.
It can create and modify Wikipedia tables.
Checking (NOT creating) translations. Its about as good as Google translate (poor), but is another tool that can help check translations.
Grammarly is much better for writing assistance.
I'm sure there are more things it could help with. When you have it use Python scripts to expand its reach, it can do some pretty interesting things.
Things I have to repeat often
Sourcing
Nice new article. However if you could take a look at the article and add two additional independent reliable sources with significant coverage addressing the subject directly and indepth, it would help with the review process. The Wikipedia guidelines you should review for more information are Independent sources, Reliable sources, Significant coverage and general notability guidelines. Hope this help, ping me if you have questions or you can ask them at the tea house.
On English Wikipedia, verifiability means other people using the encyclopedia can check that the information comes from a reliable source. Its content is determined by previously published information rather than editors' beliefs, opinions, experiences, or previously unpublished ideas or information. Even if you are sure something is true, it must have been previously published in a reliable source before you can add it.[34]
Any questions you have can be answered at the WP:TEAHOUSE.
If you are going to edit Wikipedia, especially creating articles, you need at a minimum to undestand the above. It will take time to learn them, but your time will either be spent productively learning about the above, or wasted here at AfD.
Here are some resources every editor on Wikipedia should understand. Please read:
As you have no doubt already seen, editors use a lot of slang and abbreviations, Wikipedia:Glossary is a good resource for learning wiki terms and language.
Any questions you have can be answered at the WP:TEAHOUSE.
BLPs need clearly IS RS with SIGCOV addressing the subject directly and indepth for both content and notability to avoid abuse per well known core policy (WP:V and WP:BLP) and guidelines (WP:BIO and WP:IS, WP:RS, WP:SIGCOV).
Add references to restored content
Please be certain to add references to all the restored content at the above article (See WP:BURDEN, WP:ONUS, WP:V). This is very important for all the names of living or recently deceased persons in the article (see WP:BLP). For lists of individuals, there is no need to add a reference to each entry if a note at the top of the section will source many or all of the entries. Others may need an individual reference for the name. I'm certain you would not want anyone to add anything to the article, so references very important. Do not feel rushed, but it should be done within a reasonably short period of time (especially sourcing names of living persons per WP:BLP) and show steady progress until completion. Basic facts can be referenced using primary sources (see WP:PRIMARY); all other material should be references using independent reliable secondary sources (see WP:IS, WP:RS).
New articles lacking sources for notability
Recently you have created new articles which lack references clearly showing notability.
Please add references showing notability to the article. Articles that fail to show notability may be deleted; adding references will improve the article and assist in preventing deletion. Once you have added references showing notability, please submit to Articles for Creation (see article for link).
Please pay particular attention to the significant coverage guideline, to show notability sources need to have multiple sources which address the topic 'directly and in detail.
Articles which do not have sources showing notability may be deleted or merged/redirected to other articles.
Sources connected to the subject (in anyway) cannot be used to show notability.
If you have questions, please feel free to ask them at the WP:TEAHOUSE,
Unreferenced cleanup talk page discussion starter
There was a great deal of unsourced material which appears to be either WP:OR or WP:SYNTH in the article; this has been removed per WP:V. Material should only be reinserted if it has proper independent reliable sourcing per WP:BURDEN and if edited to remove any POV per WP:NPOV and WP:WEIGHT. Without insisting on independent reliable verifiable sources WP:V, anyone can place any information, positive or negative, into an article based on nothing but opinion, bias, or belief. Insisting on independent reliable sources for article content ensures the subject is not abused or exalted, and readers are not misinformed.
Independent WP:IS reliable sources WP:RS are essential for all articles, however they are absolutely critical for biographies of living persons WP:BLP and I firmly believe currently active organizations. For most articles there is not a possibility of unsourced information having a real world impact; this is not the case with BLPs and currently active organizations.
WP:PRIMARY sources should only be used to source basic facts and statistics; WP:SECONDARY sources are needed for all other article content.
Tags have been added for other problems.
A place for stuff I need a place for
WP:RPRGM
class="wikitable" style="font-size:75%;"
==Notice about Wikipedia conventions regarding Ukrainian place names==
Please read [[WP:KIEV|Wikipedia conventions regarding Ukrainian names]] for further information. ~~~~
Regarding [] and similar edits, the preponderance of English language [[WP:RS|reliable sources]] do not use this spelling or name. Per Wikipedia guidelines, in cases when different possible spellings or names exist, the [[WP:COMMONNAME]] and spelling from [[WP:RS|reliable sources] and the subjects article title (if one exists) are used. Names and spellings should be as consistent as possible across Wikipedia.
Cleanup entries not meeting article criteria, "List of ***wars***"; entries such as battles, uprisings, individual incidents, feuds, etc are clearly not wars (they may have been a part of a war) and have no sourcing (WP:V) stating they were wars in themselves.
Article as written meets WP:NOTTVGUIDE and needs cleanup to comply with guidelines and policy.
I keep a personal list of pages I've come across that need unsourced content referencing and cleanup work or work for an AfD at User:TimothyBlue/cleanup.
If you are looking for a citation or to verify a citation from one of these works, just ask me on my talk page. I'm happy to help if I can. Many of these are on Kindle, so I can provide a Kindle location and chapter, but not always a page number.
How to evaluate claims of off-wiki status as an expert or scholar
If someone feels the need to tell you they are expert or scholar, they are rarely an expert or scholar.
If someone feels the need to tell you they are expert or scholar, and therefore you should respect their opinion/contribution even though they don't have WP:RS, they are very rarely an expert or scholar.
If someone feels the need to tell you they are expert or scholar, and therefore you should respect their opinion/contribution even though they don't have WP:RS, and they have "Dr." or "Ph.D." anywhere in their username, you can be completely certain beyond any doubt they are not an expert or scholar.
The Unspoken Sixth Pillar of Wikipedia
A stub article shall be created for each and every male football (soccer) player, who has ever been on a roster for a national team for even one game, regardless of how obscure they are or unlikely it is that the stub will ever be expanded, if even one bare entry in a statistical database site can be found as a source for the aforementioned male football (soccer) player. If challenged, WP:NFOOTBALL shall be invoked with the authority of the gods to override any objection, policy or guideline.
Anyone who foolishly deviates from this sacred standard, even ever so slightly or inadvertently, will be declared an apostate and banished forever, doomed to create stub articles for baseball players.
Proposed new CSD criteria
The following is a list of proposed new CSD criteria that will make everything much more interesting.
A8. No indication of importance (things you don't understand and don't feel the need to try)
Wikipedia is not about learning new things and its just rude for someone to create an article that you don't understand.
A12. Stuff you don't like.
Applies to stuff you don't like or don't agree with, or stuff that makes you uncomfortable, hungry, restless, or fatigued, regardless of WP:N or WP:RS. Because Wikipedia is here for you.
A13. Stuff someone you don't like is enjoying working on, so you want it deleted.
Applies to people who have offended you in the past, may offend you in the future, or someone you just have a funny feeling about. Also can be applied if someone you don't know and have never interacted with, is obviously bothering/harassing/stalking you, even if you are uncertain which editor is doing this.
A14. Too many typoes mispellings or grammer errors.
Available only to WikiGnomes and to WikiElves helping them. Because Grammer Speling and Punctuation is the very MOST immportant thing; an if anyone disegrees their WRONG! and trying to Destory Wikipedia and MUST be stoped; before the werld comes too an end..
A14(a) The hyphens-dash clause
This applies when hyphens are used instead of en-dashes or especially when used instead of em-dashes or visa-versa. This can potentially cause a fatal case of what is referred to as Gnomish CE-OVERLOAD, if a WikiElf is not present to help them calm down. In severe cases, all the offending editor's articles and edits shall be reverted and they shall be issued an infinite block for WP:DE. Available only to WikiGnomes with SuperGnome™ powers.
A15. Someone stole your idea.
Something you've been planning on writing for years now and was almost ready to think about considering starting it, but someone stole the idea and beat you to it. The offending editor obviously is a mind reader and this is the same as plagiarism.
A16. Obviously not notable.
You did a Google search in English and nothing came up on the first page, so it can't be notable and it's too much trouble to go to AfD and plus someone might disagree with you there.
A17. Its a stub. You hate stubs.
A stub. You hate stubs. Why are there so many stubs? Also applies to start articles that look too much like stubs and to featured articles that at one point were stubs.
A18. Something that could be merged, but you're too lazy to do it.
Applies if you are too lazy at the moment to do the work or feel you might be too lazy when you get around to thinking about maybe doing it later.
A18(a). Something could be redirected, but you forgot the correct syntax for a redirect.
Syntax is hard. Why can't you just wish for a thing to be and it is? This way you just have a couple clicks to perform. Everything on Wikipedia should be done by clicks and not require typing. Typing is hard.
A19. Articles with references in languages other than English that obviously cannot be verified.
This is English Wikipedia so everything should be in English. Google translate is hard and some of those non-Latin characters are scary.
G15. You're having a bad day and something just absolutely must pay for it.
Applies to all situations where real-life issues are upsetting you and the best solution is to take it out on an innocent article, category, template or other random page or two. Please note: this only applies to real-life off-wiki situations that are upsetting you. If you are upset due to an on-wiki situation, other CSD criteria may apply, such as A12 or A13. If you are both having a bad off-wiki day and something on-wiki is also bothering you, please contact an Oversighter and have something suppressed.
G16. You should get credit for something, but won't unless it's deleted first so you can claim the credit.
You found something and think you could improve on it, but want credit for creating it, so you want it deleted. Can be literally anything from a new stub to the five pillars.
G17. You just feel something should be deleted.
Feelings are more important than facts, policies, and guidelines. You should WP:IGNORE and go with your gut.
U6. A user page that meets the criteria for a user page, but that you don't like.
A good way to express exactly how involved you are in the lives of individuals you don't know.
U7. User page deletion anger management
Available when you are having a disagreement with another editor, need to vent your anger, but don't want to be blocked for a personal attack. You can repeatedly have their user page deleted until they acknowledge you are always correct and agree not to challenge you in the future. Use with caution due to the possibility of this developing into a U7(a) situation.
U7(a). User page deletion anger management delete war
When two editors need to vent their anger over a disagreement on an article but don't want to edit war at that article or engage in personal attacks, they can engage in a delete war against each other's user pages, repeatedly having the other's user page deleted and when the other user refunds their page and deletes your page, you simply delete again until someone surrenders. Canvassing your clique to create a delete war army to assist you is acceptable. If the delete war appears to be at a stalemate, an uninvolved admin can decide to close the delete war by having a Wikipedia drone strike carried out on the editors accounts to end the situation.
These are some of the tools I use, your millage may vary, but these work for me. Suggestions welcome. Items available for Linux, may be available for Windows and Mac. All work well for individuals with visual impairments, and most work well with dark themes.
Text Editors
Visual Studio Code: This text editor has a Wikipedia extension (by Jason Williams) with code coloring, a great snippet tool, autocomplete, code folding, robust find and replace within/across documents, workspaces, write scripts in any language, and a reasonable spelling engine that doesn't flag code. I find this very useful for working with new articles and bibliographies.
VSCode online edition
Useful extensions: Wikipedia extension, LaTeX Workshop, Markdown All in One
Sublime Text: Another great text editor, all of the features above, except spell check and code coloring. I usually use this as a notepad, to compose or edit short passages, edit talk page messages. Biggest drawback is no spell check. I prefer VS Code for snippet management. There is a plug in that allows you to directly open, edit, and save Wikipedia pages which is very useful.
(These are useful for cleaning up raw bibliographic data, working with tables, geographic data, etc)
Office Suites
LibreOffice: Word Processor and Spreadsheet. Minimal bloat, all the tools someone might use in a more expensive and bloated Office suite. Doesn't have an easy to switch to dark mode :/
Zotero: reference manager. Someone told me this would change my life and it did. Has browser plug ins for Chrome and Firefox. Lacks some accessibility customizations I like.
Web tools
Exceltowiki [36]: works with LibreOffice and OpenOffice, not just Excel.
DeepL: Machine translation, personal opinion this works better than Google.[10]
Online RegEx, Online RegEx utility
Python RegEx video tutorial, Another Python RegEx video tutorial, Google online RegEx tutorial, Python RegEx tutorial
Online repositories
Github, online storage and versioning for projects that aren't yet ready for prime time or anything else you want.
Databases, indexes and bibliographies
UCLA Library - UC System wide search
Los Angeles Public Library search
Stanford Library system search
New York Public Library search
Catalogs from Other Libraries: Selected Library Catalogs from Around the World, Northwestern
Library of Congress
United States National Archives
The British Newspaper archive
Periodicals and Newspapers from Bengal
WorldCat
Video: New WorldCat.org Sneak Peak
ISBN Search
Search for Books by ISBN ABE Books Search by ISBN
BibGuru
Newspaper archives: Jawaharlal Nehru University Library
Search by DOI
EBSCO
National Archives of India
India: Newspapers/Periodicals, Colbumbia University
Congress.gov, United States Congress
Online Archive of California
Historical Associations
California Historical Society
City of Los Angeles Historical Society
American Historical Association
Organization of American Historians
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Wikipedia Editor Information Pages
These are items I either have or continue to find useful. I post them here for my reference and in the hope they might help someone else find something.
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Section titles use sentence case, not title case. See MOS:CAPS.
Everything about using hyphens and dashes properly on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia's style for an Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Ellipses ellipsis is three unspaced dots (...); do not use the precomposed ellipsis character (…) or three dots separated by spaces (. . .). Generally, use a non-breaking space before an ellipsis, and a regular space after it
Wikipedia:Summary style Talks about what Summary style is and the pattern of topic development that follows: Summary Overview Article/List >> General Subject Article/List >> Specific Topic Article/List eg: History >> American History >> History of the American Civil War >> History of the Battle of Gettysburg