User:Dave Farquhar
Some parting recommendations, before I go:
I used to think the most noble thing a wikipedian could do is click on the front page's date link, look at the historical anniversaries, and search for any missing stories and fill them in. Or if you know where to find a PD image or something else that would contribute to an existing story, go get it.
Wrong.
Be obscure. Write about Kaypro. Write about Kansas City, Missouri. For the sake of your sanity and mine, never write anything that has any chance of getting attention called to it! Lots of things happen when articles show up on the front page or the current date's page. There will be good edits. Great edits. Brilliant edits. But there'll be edits that really don't improve anything as well. Those are frustrating. But that's something I can live with and you should be able to as well. But eventually, someone with a crusade is going to come along and make an example of you.
How I wish I'd stuck to topics nobody cares about. Like Tip O'Neill. (It'd be nice if half the effort that goes into policing this place actually went into creating content.)
I'm a 1997 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. I was a regular newspaper columnist in the Columbia Missourian newspaper in 1996 and 1997, and my articles have appeared in publications such as Compute, Computer Shopper UK, and The O'Reilly Network.
My first book, Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics, and Multimedia, was published by O'Reilly in 1999.
I can't program but I love writing and I love history, so contributing to the Wikipedia is my way of giving back to the open-source community that gave me Linux and so much great software to run on it.
Some of my crimes against literature:
- American Motors
- Lyman Bostock
- George Brett (major contributions)
- The Cars (band)
- Whittaker Chambers
- Jimmie Foxx
- Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
- Mark Hanna
- Frank Luke
- Billy Mitchell
- Adam Osborne
- Osteopathy (major contributions)
- Packard
- Eddie Rickenbacker
- Samantha Smith
- Target Corporation
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- Frank Woolworth
Frustrations: Brittney Spears had an entry before Daniel O'Connell, and her entry is more extensive than that of Andrew Carnegie. Bands that nobody will remember in five years have entries, but Tip O'Neill doesn't yet.
My biggest crime against the Wikipedia: Changes I made to the Kmart Corporation entry led to someone making further changes, which mentioned Martha Stewart. Next thing you know, she has an entry. I hope not all of the blame for that will rest on me.
You can visit my Weblog, The Silicon Underground, at dfarq.homeip.net.