User:Deathphoenix

!vote is the only thing I've added of value to Wikipedia, unfortunately.

Battle of Vimy Ridge:

C'est impossible!

Ah! les Canadiens! C'est possible!

8 June 2024
News and notes: Wikimedia Foundation publishes its Form 990 for fiscal year 2022-2023 Technology report: New Page Patrol receives a much-needed software upgrade Deletion report: The lore of Kalloor In the media: National cable networks get in on the action arguing about what the first sentence of a Wikipedia article ought to say News from the WMF: Progress on the plan — how the Wikimedia Foundation advanced on its Annual Plan goals during the first half of fiscal year 2023-2024 Opinion: Public response to the editors of Settler Colonial Studies Recent research: ChatGPT did not kill Wikipedia, but might have reduced its growth Featured content: We didn't start the wiki Essay: No queerphobia Special report: RetractionBot is back to life! Traffic report: Chimps, Eurovision, and the return of the Baby Reindeer Comix: The Wikipediholic Family Humour: Wikipedia rattled by sophisticated cyberattack of schoolboy typing "balls" in infobox Concept: Palimpsestuous
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Me

Since userboxes are so popular around here, check out mine!

Who I am

I'm relatively new to the Wiki world. I started out as a simple browser reading an online encyclopedia for general interest and learning. After seeing a few typos, I started to fix them. After finding something weird with one of the pages, I got into the world of Wiki vandalism. With any luck, I'll have some vandal deface my user page some day. But if you're not here to do that, be sure to check out the Kindness Campaign page.

In case anyone is wondering, my name does not come from the Harry Potter series of books. I like the series and work on its Wikiproject, but I'm not a rabid fan by any sense of the word. In fact, I picked that name years before J.K. Rowling even started writing her first book.

I am a tech writer working in the software development field. I am Canadian, I was born in 1977, and I currently live in Toronto, Ontario with my lovely wife and young leech dependent offspring son. I hold degrees in Engineering and Applied Arts.

As of 17:44, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC), my Wikipediholic score is 128. Not bad for a first-timer.

!vote

I am the originator of the term !vote. I first proposed its use here (final version of the thread here) and started using it in normal on-Wiki conversations after then. I don't know when it took off, but I recently noticed many other Wikipedians using it in normal on-Wiki conversations as well, including in AfD closures. I know it's extremely sad that !votes are my sole claim to Wiki-fame, but since I am unlikely to have any other (positive) impact on Wikipedia, I'll grasp onto anything that I can.

When a vote is not a vote

While AfD isn't a vote, and each entry in an AfD is a comment, I choose to name any comment which calls for an action (such as comments that start with Keep, Merge, Redirect, or Delete) a "!vote" for convenience and to differentiate it from an actual comment which doesn't call for an action (such as comments that have no heading, or start with Comment). If I ever type "vote" in a discussion on Wikipedia, I actually mean "!vote".

What I do

On Wikipedia, I would say that I'm a part-timer. I'm pretty busy with other things, but I love contributing to this great project in my own small way.

• On general articles in Wikipedia, I usually just make minor edits when I see any mistakes while reading. I generally like to read articles on astronomy, the military (mostly just the units, departments, tactics, and weapons), and fantasy literature.
• In contrast with my unblock activities, I check Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism on a frequent basis and either send warnings to accounts, or block them. I also sit around and admire the work of HBC AIV helperbot (not run by Hudson's Bay Company, strangely enough!).
• I try to help deal with the inevitable detail-oriented, fan-based edits that come with the release of the newest Harry Potter book, as a participant of WikiProject Harry Potter. These days, I just make minor edits, lend my opinion on the talk pages, and maintain the watchlist and image pages.

What I infrequently (or used to) do

• I am one of the (over a dozen) listmods on the Unblock-en-l mailing list, and I (now infrequently) examine some of the unblock requests there. I also (infrequently) examine on-wiki unblock requests.
• I used to spend a fair bit of time on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Old closing some of the last, more difficult AfDs of the day that other vote closers leave unclosed. With a few exceptions, it's generally a thankless task that takes a fair bit of time, and you can expect a huge volume of criticism if you get it wrong! After having my competence as a closing admin attacked repeatedly for one AfD on Wikipedia:Deletion review, I've decided not to do this anymore to reduce my Wikistress.
  • I can't stand seeing eight day backlogs like this one, so maybe I'll try to clear some backlog. The jury's still out on whether I want to continue doing this on a regular basis like I used to, though. My Wikistress has been a lot less after I stopped closing old AfDs.
• I like to contribute to the creation of barnstars, though my work (if any) these days consists mainly of discussing new proposals rather than creating new barnstars.
• I used to regularly offer my opinions on Wikipedia:Deletion review and tried to notify administrators whose actions are being reviewed (by using Template:DRVNote). I still glance over the page, but rarely contribute to it anymore.
• I used to spend quite some time voting on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion (back when it was still called "Votes for deletion"). I tended to vote Delete more than others, but I only think of myself as a strong deletionist for vanity or advertisement articles. For other articles, I tended to be one of those Wikipedians who dislike making broad judgements about the worthiness of a general category of article, and who are in favour of the deletion of some particularly bad articles, but that doesn't mean they are deletionist.
• When I think of it, I like to clear out Candidates for speedy deletion, though I don't do that too often these days.

My alignment

Although I like to think of myself as Chaotic Neutral, according to this test, I am actually Lawful Neutral. Oh, the irony.

Barnstars & awards

• 
  For your many hours of vandal fighting today, January 2, 2007, I am proud to present you this Barnstar of exellence in fighting vandals. Good job!S h a r k f a c e 2 1 7 22:06, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
• 
  For dedication to improving and expanding Wikipedia. Good job! Sharkface217 02:47, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
• 
  For your steady hand, helpful kindness, and sound judgment in every area of the project, I award you this Tireless Contributor's Barnstar! Xoloz 17:18, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
• 
  Thanks for helping me so much. I am deeply sorry for the sins I have commited here. I hope my reëntry here will be sincerely welcomed. εγκυκλοπαίδεια* 19:09, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
• 
  I hereby present Deathphoenix with the Nuclear Editing Award, for his willingness to eradicate unneeded verbiage. Ëvilphoenix ^Burn! 19:09, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
• 
  In recognition of an apparent lack of Vandal fighting Barnstars, I , Evilphoenix, hereby award Deathphoenix (no relation) this Flamethrower of Vandal Doom (+3 vs. Troll), for use in Vandal Whacking cleanup tasks. Ëvilphoenix ^Burn! 06:20, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
• 
  For making Wikipedia a happier place consistently, I, Redux, hereby award you The Barnstar of Good Humor. Congratulations! Redux 18:26, 29 January 2006 (UTC) (KC)
• 
  I hereby award you this Barnstar Barnstar for your tireless efforts of improving Wikipedia by creating and awarding barnstars. Cyde Weys _vote^talk 17:59, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
• 
  In recognition of your persistent dedication to the community on Wikipedia talk:Barnstars on Wikipedia, I hereby award you with the The Barnstar of Diligence – ClockworkSoul 21:00, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC) (KC)

For fun

Contact me!

If you wish to contact me, you may do so on my talk page or by email. If this is unacceptable and you wish to visit me in person, look for me at the following address:

40 College Street

Toronto, Ontario

Canada

M5G 2J3

On comments I've seen of increasing bureaucracy and governance

Homer Simpson: "What really matters is my title. I think I'll make myself... Vice President. No, wait! Junior Vice President!"

Jocularity in edits

• "most useless waste of space on all of Wikimedia"
• Uncromulent neologism
• I mark an unsigned comment here. The following edits show my stupidity.
• A couplet of DRV notices in rhyming couplet form (generally bad form to include my own bits of humour, I know, but I think it makes sense to put both our poems in here)
• block-ity block block (check the editor's name too!)
• I hate long goodbyes
• How can it remove itself from the list of users to block when it is blocked?.

Jocularity in pages

• Wikipedia:Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense (WP:-) and others) - inaugural entry
• Wikipedia:Association of Geriatric Editors (WP:AGE)
• Wikipedia:No climbing the Reichstag dressed as Spiderman (WP:SPIDER and others)
• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Acucullophilia: I would have suggested WP:BALLOCKS if I were to contribute to that AfD.

Deathphoenix's Laws

Law of Userboxes

The number of opinion-expressing userboxes on a user page is inversely proportional to the number of edits that the user makes to articles.

Contentious AfDs-to-Outraged Comments Ratio

An administrator who closes contentious AfDs will receive at least one comment for every ten contentious AfDs closed.

Ivory Percentage of School Article Deletion

A real post-primary school (such as a secondary school, college, or university) nominated for deletion has a 99 44/100% chance of being kept.

Bookmarks

Other accounts

• Merged under Unified login:
  • Meta
  • Wiktionary
  • Wikibooks
  • Wikisource
• Wikia
  • Memory Alpha
  • Wiki 24
  • Terminator
• Ultronomicon