Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians/2021

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2021

Rest in peace, deceased Wikipedians. We promise we will never forget your contributions.

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Flyer22 Frozen

Flyer22 Frozen, previously known as Flyer22 and Flyer22 Reborn, died in her late 30s on January 16, 2021, from complications of a long-term physical illness. An editor since May 2007, she was well-known for policy-focused editing in controversial topic areas, especially sexology, to ensure that appropriate sources were used and the neutral point of view policy followed, and for identifying a large number of sockpuppets over the years. Flyer22 racked up a prodigious 365,630 edits across 179,838 pages. The first page she created and worked on was JR Chandler and Babe Carey. Some of her best work was at Todd Manning , which became a featured article in 2015, as well as at Titanic (1997 film) , Jennifer's Body , Avatar (2009 film) , 2011 Tucson shooting , Clitoris , Vagina , G-spot , and Asexuality . Other topics she significantly worked on include Angelina Jolie , Brad Pitt , Scarlett Johansson , Human brain , Sexual intercourse, Lexa (The 100), and One Tree Hill (TV series).

In 2014, she was interviewed for an article in the Signpost about the importance of working on anatomy articles, especially ones pertaining to female anatomy. That same year, she did an interview with Andy Cush from Gawker about selecting and balancing sexual images with articles' text.

“

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

” — William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Editors who kept in touch with Flyer22 over the years came to know her as a warm, kind woman. She was among Wikipedia's most generous editors when it came to helping contributors develop their skills and knowledge. She would write detailed and highly cogent talk posts explaining the range of opinions found in mainstream sources, which is especially valuable in fields like gender studies where prevailing views can change rapidly. Many editors expressed gratitude for what she taught them, some noting that she had helped them improve as an editor and collaborator not just on Wikipedia but on other wikis as well. Between 2007 and 2017, she received around 74 barnstars and other awards. She received many more throughout the years, but stopped archiving her talk page and therefore stopped keeping a record of such gifts.

Besides her strong focus on mainspace editing, Flyer22 was also a frequent participant in WikiProject Medicine, WikiProject LGBT Studies, WikiProject Film, WikiProject Anatomy, and WikiProject Soap Operas; plus a variety of noticeboards, especially on biographies of living persons, page protection, vandalism, reliable sources, edit warring, and original research – with special attention to child protection and the blocking of egregious trolls. A vegetarian, she enjoyed the occasional Impossible Whopper. Her death was announced to her closest wiki-collaborators on January 21 by her brother, Halo Jerk1.

Some testimonials from her fellow editors:

• "Flyer22 believed in the good that Wikipedia could do in the world, and lived that out."
• "I never knew how deeply she had affected me. When I first started at Wikipedia, she showed me what an effect I could have, too."
• "She was tough as nails, but underneath that exterior armor she was very sensitive and had a heart of gold, and some of the highest integrity of anyone I've ever seen."
• "She didn't need to boast about plaques on the wall, because it was readily apparent she brought real expertise. I was always thankful we had someone like Flyer around."
• "She epitomized the comment Jimbo once made about how it amazed him that WP editors could put up with so much and for as long as we do."
• "I think she was the bravest editor I have known."
• "Flyer was a good human being, and that was the basis for her becoming a great editor. She can be succeeded but never replaced. Godspeed."

Her brother stated:

• "She was an anchor for me for many years. I loved her deeply and will miss her."

Pi zero

Pi zero, real name Dr John Nathan Shutt, died suddenly on February 25, 2021 at age 56. As well as making over 3,000 edits to Wikipedia since 2007, he was deeply involved with the sister projects English Wikibooks (where he was an administrator) and the English Wikinews (bureaucrat), making nearly 240,000 edits in total. His mother was Elsie Shutt, the noted technology entrepreneur. His death was reported on Wikinews.

Yoninah

Main page: Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2021-03-28/Obituary

Yoninah's final edit was on 18 January 2021, an abrupt end to a long and prolific tenure on Wikipedia. At the time, she was among our 400 most active editors. She was especially active at Did you know (DYK), where she mentored new contributors, reviewed nominations, and prepared sets of "hooks" to be published on the Main Page. Over the years, there had been offers to nominate her as a Wikipedia admin, but Yoninah politely refused each time, saying she was happy just being an editor. She was so omnipresent on the DYK project, that her sudden absence was felt immediately among the community. Several editors began to post on her talk page on 28 January, ten days after her final edit, to wish her well and hope for her speedy return. Sadly, she never did.

Yoninah was an editor since 3 July 2005, first interested in Roots: The Saga of an American Family. She resided in Jerusalem and identified as a Jewish professional editor, writing articles for Wikipedia about (in her order) rabbis, Breslov personalities, Jewish personalities, Hasidic dynasties, yeshivas, streets, neighborhoods, landmarks, cemeteries, Jewish themes, books and films. She might have also included food and women biographies among her contributions. Some of her articles reached Good Article status, including Birds' Head Haggadah, Chaim Topol, Chavrusa, Downtown Triangle, Schwester Selma and The Precious Legacy. Yoninah, who enjoyed photography, was also active on Commons, where she contributed several images related to Jewish holidays and themes, along with photos of people and places in Jerusalem.

She became the soul of DYK. Yoninah assembled diverse and interesting sets of DYK "hooks", brought her knowledge of a wide array of topics to the project, and always put our readers' interests at the forefront of her work. She contributed hundreds of articles to DYK; among her last was Psalm 148, written in collaboration. She added Hebrew text and facts about use in Judaism to almost sixty of the Psalms. She was known as someone who could find high-quality, visually intriguing images to use for DYK. As one editor noted, it's not an overstatement to say that "Yoninah has touched the lives of almost every English-speaking person in the world with access to the internet—not primarily because of the articles she wrote, but the huge positive effect she had in our community."

Her death was announced to the community at Wikipedia talk:Deceased Wikipedians on 17 March 2021, and confirmed privately by various editors. However, out of respect for Yoninah's privacy, additional information about her real-life identity and her death have since been suppressed. We never knew what she looked like, or any other personal information that did not relate directly to DYK and Wikipedia. Yoninah's gift to the world was what Wikipedia was created for—a sharing of knowledge that renders invisible the boundaries of geography and politics.

Over 60 Wikipedians have left testimonials on her talk page, including:

• "Losing her not only left a pretty noticeable gap at DYK, but her death also makes me feel like a cherished friend has vanished."
• "Yoninah just quietly got on with the work and made a huge contribution to the project that will be truly missed."
• "Yoninah's contributions to Wikipedia were immense, and she was an exceptionally collaborative and helpful colleague."
• "תהי נשׁמתה צרורה בּצרור החיים." ("May her soul be bound up in the bond of life.")
• "Yoninah was a true guiding light in Wikipedia."
• "What a wonderful, generous spirit she held inside her earthly vessel."
• "You were always there for us on DYK, you were a rock, Yoninah."
• "She will be missed, and we will have big shoes to fill to continue her work."
• "Her commitment to the tidiness of the DYK section was magnificent."
• "Yoninah was a god-send when it came to images. Terrific lady, she was."
• "נר ה' נשמת אדם" ("The spirit of a woman is the candle of the Lord.")
• "The DYK community will feel less without Yoninah."
• "A true Wikipedian, the likes of which I'd never seen before on Wikipedia."
• "What a shattering loss. How tremendously valued she was in life."

Yoninah was beloved by many and will be remembered. May her memory be a blessing.

הַ֥לְלוּיָ֨הּ הַֽלְל֣וּ אֶת־יְהֹוָה מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֑יִם הַֽ֜לְל֗וּהוּ בַּמְּרוֹמִֽים

Moroboshi

Pier Luigi Rocco, Moroboshi, was one of the true pillars of it.wiki; an extremely important user and admin, he joined the Project in 2005 following his passion for manga and anime. But his great wise mind brought him to care about almost any corner of the Italian encyclopedia. In the course of time he became a reference point for his gentle yet solid approach to users and contents. An example of what and how an admin should always be.

He died quite young, at 54, by a sudden heart attack which put a silent end to a lifelong illness.

The Italian Wikipedia is astonished. Pier Luigi's memory will always stay with us as a model and an indication, we will remember his kindness and we will keep on loving him, grateful for each and any of his 16 years of edits. For each and any of his exquisite words.

Ciao Moroboshi

SlimVirgin

SarahSV aka SlimVirgin died in April or May 2021 after a long illness. Her first edit was in November 2004, her last on 18 April 2021. An administrator since 2005, Sarah made a total of over 170,000 edits with another 4,500 edits at Commons.

Sarah was a major contributor to many featured and good articles listed here. Often these articles were on notoriously difficult subjects, such as Female genital mutilation, the Killing of Muhammad al-Durrah and Night. She created many Did you know? entries, and she was instrumental to the development of several policies and guidelines that are considered today to be some of Wikipedia's most fundamental principles, such as biographies of living persons, no original research, verifiability, and conflict of interest.

In 2006 she proposed the attribution policy to replace Project:Verifiability and Project:No original research. Her first post to the mailing list demonstrated a long-standing interest in such things. The name "verifiability" had not been the only name for the original policy; Jimmy Wales had called it "confirmability" in 2003, for example. Both names had, and still have, the problem that people confuse "verified" with "verifiable" (and "confirmed" with "confirmable"). SlimVirgin wanted to address this problem with "attribution". Within 2 days, the proposal had generated 214Kib of discussion.

The references section is herewith in her honour.

References

• SlimVirgin (2006-10-11). "Wikipedia talk:Attribution".
• SlimVirgin (2006-10-11). "Wikipedia:Attribution".
• SlimVirgin (2006-10-13). "Wikipedia talk:Attribution".
• slimvirgin (2004-12-10). "NPOV and credibility (was Re: [WikiEN-l] Original research)". WikiEN-L mailing list.
• Wales, Jimmy (2003-11-07). "[WikiEN-l] Partial solution to rampant deletionism". WikiEN-L mailing list.

At the start of 2020....

SV was honored with the Editor of the Week Award. These are the words of User:Sj in his nomination. They speak to her greatness and the effect she had on WP:

"Our first editor of the new year is User:SlimVirgin, a 15 year veteran well known to many. She is one of WP's most respected editors; built on her integrity and dedication to building an encyclopedia that we can all be proud of. She is strong while wielding a steady collaborative persona. Her high quality contributions are related to multiple important topics and intersect with multiple WikiProjects. She highlights COI issues and calmly combats paid-editing on Wikipedia's top articles. She helps articles evolve into interesting and informative reading for our readers bringing free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. She is a rare bright star among the sleeping throngs. The Wikipedia community appreciates her important efforts at quality improvement on this site at such a high level."

―Buster7 ☎ 14:23, 9 May 2021 (UTC)

Comments at that time: 15 year veteran, known by many, respected by all. Wields a steady collaborative persona. Highlights COI issues and calmly combats paid-editing on Wikipedia's top articles. A rare bright star among the sleeping throngs. Improves WP at a high level. One of the top five or ten all time best WP editors ever. Few editors are able to be so hard-nosed when need be and yet so able to use a softer stance, what some may term "feminine" attitude, when that is required. Without SV Wikipedia would not be what it is today.

SV was also honored with the Precious award in 2017. In the kind words of Gerda Arendt:

"Thank you for quality articles such as Ezra Pound, Female genital mutilation and Night, performed in collaboration, for defense against self-promotion, for clarifying and amending, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!".

– Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 08:59, 10 May 2021 (UTC)