User:Deathphoenix

Welcome to my user page. To leave me a message, please click here.

!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!

For adding absolutely no value to Wikipedia, I hereby award myself with this stamp. --Deathphoenix 16:06, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Me

Wikimood by Denelson83 (talk)

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

/Sandbox /Work /Whiteboard /Userboxes /Deathphoenix's Laws /When a vote is not a vote /RFA questions /Cleanup /Lancaster (rc) /monobook.css /monobook.js Harry Potter Watchlist (view)

Templates: Party colours Today's AfD Deletion review Guide to Votes for Deletion Templates Dispute resolution Silsor's "Godwin" watchlist Living people watchlist

Portal:Astronomy Portal:Espionage Portal:War Portal:The Simpsons

April Fools Next BJAODN

CSD category Add to today's AfD Old AfD Paste AfD My deletion log Unblock requests Autoblock finder Victims of instruction creep: Template talk:Afd-mergeto Template talk:Afd-mergefrom

Reading list How-to guide AfD process CSD criteria Wikipedia is not

Village pump RC patrol AutoWikiBrowser ARIN: WHOIS RIPE WHOIS Alexa Google PageRank IP Locator Copyscape copyvio search

Wikiproject HP Canadian Wikipedians Geriatric Wikipedians

Other accounts

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

Soapbox: Article ownership and taking things personally

There should be no "owners" of any articles except for user pages. I strongly believe that once you submit an article or edit to Wikipedia, it is no longer yours. That goes with the various levels of copyright used here (GFDL, CC, and public domain).

If you wanted full ownership of an article with no other people "destroying" it, you should put it up on a web site. However, if you do make a contribution to Wikipedia, be ready to have your work mutilated and edited mercilessly if need be. I expect (and have seen) some of my own edits mutilated because I missed something, I wasn't aware of common Wikipedia style/practices, or because my edits were simply not good. As a tech writer, I have seen some of my own documentation edited mercilessly. I try not to take such things personally, even though it can be hard at times.

If you can't honestly say that you wouldn't mind having your contributions to a particular article edited with extreme pain, don't make those contributions and concentrate on another article that you don't feel so personally about. The other alternative is to put up your material on a web site, where others can't just come and edit your work without your permission.

Copy & Paste

VandalProofProof

== Your report on **IP address** to [[WP:AIV]] ==
FYI: [**DIFF**]
Just wanted to let you know that I removed your report without action because the IP hadn't vandalised since your final warning. I'm not sure if you were using a tool such as VandalProof to make this report, but it's best to wait until an IP has vandalised after the final warning before making the report. Please keep up the good work! Thanks, ~~~~

Unblock request granted (with sample reason)

{{subst:request accepted|Collateral damage: You were hit with the [[Wikipedia:Autoblock|autoblocker tool]], which blocked the underlying IP address of a recently-blocked user.}}

Preferred method of awarding barnstars

[[Image:Barnstar_of_Diligence.png|right|frame|For whatever reason, I hereby award you with the '''The Barnstar of Diligence''' --~~~~ <small>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Kindness Campaign|(KC)]]</small>]]

Update loyalty/allegiance field

Changed loyalty/allegiance field according to established [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Harry Potter/Templates#Allegiance|conventions]]

Page blanking and replacing with spoilers

{{subst:test2a}} Posting spoilers is considered vandalism. Don't do it. --~~~~

Wikiproject Harry Potter

{{HP-project}}

AfD "don't remove" boilerplate

Congratulations on having your article pass the [[Wikipedia:Votes for deletion|VfD process]] with a '''Keep'''. Just to let you know, even when the consensus appears to be '''Keep''', you should wait until we have finished the AfD process before you remove the boilerplate text stating the article is up for AfD (you can, of course, continue to work on the article during the AfD process, as long as you keep the boilerplate text up). I know that sometimes it seems that the AfD process takes a long time to complete, but if you have a look at [[WP:AFD/Old|the old AfD articles]], you can see that we have a huge backlog. Thanks, --~~~~

{{subst:vanity|User:Deathphoenix/Sandbox}}

Some of the people, places or things you have written about in the article User:Deathphoenix/Sandbox may not be sufficiently well-known to merit articles of their own. The Wikipedia community welcomes newcomers, and encourages them to become Wikipedians. On Wikipedia, each user is entitled to a user page in which they can describe themselves, and this article's content may be incorporated into that page. However, to merit inclusion in the encyclopedia proper, a subject must be notable. We encourage you to write or improve articles on notable subjects.

Footer

This page has been vandalised 27 times.

The talk page has been vandalised 5 times.

(not counting honest mistakes)

I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

Wikimedia Foundation

This is a Wikipedia user page. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated, and that the user this page belongs to may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia itself. The original page is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Deathphoenix