Wikipedia:Editor review/Morriswa

Morriswa

Morriswa (talk · contribs · count) I am a sailor in the U.S. Navy. I'm a Christian. I'm really into road atlases, American highways, and traveling/driving. I want to be reviewed to see where I stand as an editor. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 00:44, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Questions

1. What are your primary contributions to Wikipedia? Are there any about which you are particularly pleased? Why?

   Most of my edits are either to my user pages/subpages or on road articles.

3. Have you been in editing disputes or do you feel other users have caused you stress? How have you dealt with it and how will you deal with it in the future? If you have never been in an editing dispute, explain how you would respond to one.

   I have had disputes over my script/template/tool-generated edits, but I have gotten better with my editing.

Reviews

• Comments by Imzadi1979: I see an over-reliance on scripts for editing, and very little in the line of content contributions in your editing. Most of your edits have been requests for information and minor changes to articles. I also see an obsession with creating redirects of dubious quality and lots of editing in your user space. It's great to want to give other editors some information about yourself, but WP:Wikipedia is not a social networking site. If you're editing road articles, your religion doesn't matter. In fact, your military service doesn't really matter to the subject area either. What matters is how your work is received by the community. A user page is a good spot for someone to get to know you, but we don't need your life story; for that we'll friend you on Facebook. We're here to build an encyclopedia first and foremost. That means working on articles and their content. Several editors have given you suggestions and tips on how to find resources for article work and research. I don't know if you intend for it this way, but some of your requests have come across with a hint that you want or expect other editors to hand your sources on a silver platter. Other editors are not expected to give you exact sources to write articles. If I'm going to take the time to dig up a specific source for a specific article, I might as well then take the extra time to write the article too. I also see too much focus on former and future Interstate Highways when some of these are dubious, speculative and maybe even incorrect.And to top it all off, when concerns with with your redirect creation are brought up on your talk page, rather than stop creating more redirect and discuss the situation, you keep creating more redirects.
  
  My suggestion is that you spend time actually writing articles rather than running around running up your edit count through script usage. An editor's worth is not measured by the number of edits he makes. I've been half tired and needed to take three or four edits to fix something. I've also written whole sections of hundreds of words in a single edit. There's no magic formula to this; just write and make mistakes. Fix your mistakes and learn from them. Don't rely on scripts too much. When other editors bring a behavior of yours to your attention with concerns about it, stop doing it to allow the discussion to take place. But above all else, write! Imzadi 1979 → 02:18, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

When was the last time I actually made a redirect? Talk pages of redirects don't count (to me). Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 08:14, 20 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I endorse all the comments above, except for "It's great to want to give other editors some information about yourself, but WP:Wikipedia is not a social networking site. If you're editing road articles, your religion doesn't matter. In fact, your military service doesn't really matter to the subject area either." I personally believe that who you are affects how you edit, be it religion, military service, education, or other life experiences. But, I see the point where having 50+ userboxes, like I used to have, is overkill.

It just seems like you expect someone to continually be holding your hand, and you keep saying, in essence, "I'M LOST AND SCARED. HELP ME!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!!1!??!?!?!!!!!!!!" over and over again. Honestly, try reading through the standards, and try looking things up for yourself. Look at the examples of good articles that we have written. Try and figure things out for yourself, and be more self-sufficient. It wears us out to have to continually be answering questions. But also, read through the standards, because sometimes your edits aren't following them. Take a day off from editing and just read through them, if you have to. Back in 2005 when I started, I printed out the core Wikipedia policies and read through them. If printing out WP:USRD/STDS and the core Wikipedia and USRD guidelines is what it takes, then do it. --Rschen7754 08:14, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Also, keep in mind that I started editing at the age of 15. If I was able to be a net positive to the project at the age of 15, then certainly you can be, too. Note that I said "net positive", not "prolific article writer." I didn't get a FA until I hit the age of 19. It took me 4 years to learn how to write a FA. If you want to learn how to do that, it's going to take time and hard work; you gotta be patient. You can't train to run a marathon overnight. --Rschen7754 08:18, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, gentlemen, for your comments. With my new work schedule, and with the copious amount of pages on my watchlist, I'm not able to see all edits on my watchlist, so I didn't see that Rschen7754 left either comment.

I understand where you guys are coming from. However, I hope my recent attempts to improve the articles on Georgia State Routes (to be followed by Florida, then South Carolina) will cause you to rethink your idea of how I edit. I know it is only adding an RJL and adjusting the format of content, etc., but those are partly why Georgia "sucks" on the USRD scale. I will have to re-read the page (link, please) that lists the definitions of "stub", "start", "C", "B", etc.

What else do you think I should do to the articles? I appreciate your help and feedback. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 10:14, 10 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]