[I] am but History's courier
 To bind the conquering years;
A battle-ray, through ages gray
 To light to deeds sublime,
And flash the lustre of this day
 Down all the aisles of Time!

— "Army Correspondent's Last Ride",^[3] George Alfred Townsend, 1865. Excerpted on the National War Correspondents Memorial as "War Correspondent Ballad".^[4]

Tyranny truly is a horror: an immense, endlessly bloody, endlessly painful, endlessly varied, endless crime against not humanity in the abstract but a lot of humans in the flesh. It is, as Orwell wrote, a jackboot forever stomping on a human face.

— "Who Would Choose Tyranny?", Michael Kelly, 2003.^[5]

This user has registered rights on the English Wikipedia. (verify)

0+	This user has made more than 0 contributions to Wikipedia.

This user is one of the 43,975,237 most active English Wikipedians of all time.

This user has been on Wikipedia for at least 0 days.

BLOCK

This user is not blocked from editing Wikipedia, but would like to be some day.

This user is a Wikipedia admin­istra­tor but would like to not be one someday.

My name is Tamzin Hadasa Kelly.^[6] Yes, Tamzin is a real name, pronounced /ˈtæmzɪn/ in most American accents. I take she / her, they / them, or xe / xem pronouns.^[7] I live in Cape May County, New Jersey.

I don't like doing userboxen or topicons for rights and roles. The most important thing that happens on Wikipedia—creating quality encyclopedic content—requires no hats at all. Instead, I like to emphasize the different ways that I can help you, dear fellow Wikipedian, assuming I have the time and energy.^[8]

• I am (somehow) an administrator. That means I can do all of the things described here. If there's anything on that list you need done, please let me know. In particular, I'm happy to help with technical matters, dealing with sockpuppets, and stepping in with newer users who need policies politely explained to them.
  • For permissions requests, self-requested blocks, and copies of deleted content, please see User:Tamzin/Discretionary admin things.
• I am an edit filter manager, and can help you set up a new filter or fix bugs in an existing one.
• I operate a bot, 'zinbot. If you have a cool idea for a bot task or a tool coded in Python, I may be able to help you make it happen.
• I am a sockpuppet investigations clerk. If there's a case you'd like me to take a look at, please let me know.

I previously edited under the usernames Francophonie&Androphilie (Nov. 2012 – Jan. 2013) and PinkAmpersand (Jan. 2013 – Oct. 2020). Please see User:Tamzin/Disclosures and commitments for other policy-compliance stuff and some notes on accountability.

Things I've written[edit]

My philosophy of Wikipedia[edit]

This editor has thanked these Wikipedians.

This editor has been thanked by these Wikipedians.

This user is or was an AmeriCorps (City Year) member.

I'm probably not what people would think of as a "content editor", so it might surprise some people to know that I believe that every Wikipedian ought to be a content contributor first and foremost, and that everything else they do should be guided by that. At the same time, I think that focus on "content creator" dynamics often sets that bar unfairly high. A content contributor isn't a person who creates FAs, or GAs, or any articles at all, necessarily. It's someone who contributes to the encyclopedia's content in a way that makes things better for our readers. For years,^[9] my main form of interaction with Wikipedia was just reading articles and touching things up along the way. I think everyone should try to take some time to do some amount of content work, even little things—not because content work is the only valuable kind of work, but because it keeps you in touch with what we're doing here: building an encyclopedia.

What strikes me, then, is that despite all the tensions we have over "content creators" versus not, there's one thing that almost everyone's guilty of (myself included, often), and that's not actually focusing on the quality of the product we're here to make. We have four and a half different village pumps for matters of governance.^[10] But we don't have a Wikipedia:Village pump (content). Why is that?

For a volunteer organization trying to create a massive educational tool, our scarcest resource is editor-hours. I believe in prioritizing outcomes that maximize the long-term number of quality content-oriented editor-hours. We need to have very little patience for editors who make others less likely to contribute quality content. And those of us who often work a bit removed from mainspace should always be able to justify how our work increases the amount of quality content-oriented editor-hours available.

When I was in AmeriCorps with City Year, I would tell my students, "I'm like a teacher's aide, except I work for you instead of for the teacher." That's how I see being a Wikipedia editor: I'm like any other writer of an educational resource, except I work for the readers instead of any boss.

We have an ethical duty to our readers to inform them and, within reason, to not make their lives worse. We have an ethical duty to those we write about to be accurate and, within reason, to not make their lives worse. We have an ethical duty to our editors to keep them safe from abuse (be that by trolls or by nation-states).

What I do here[edit]

This user has an account on GitHub.

I try to stick to quieter tasks, avoiding the busier parts of projectspace. Sometimes I even succeed at that.

Normally you'll find me doing some mix of the following (in no particular order):

• Writing about current events and legal topics.
• Removing unsourced statements from articles. (Reminder! If you see an unsourced contentious statement about a living person, don't {{cn}} it; remove it! I routinely remove BLP violations that are more than 15 years old, and that should not be happening.)
• Sourcing unsourced statements in articles (something you should always try to do before removing an unsourced statement, unless it's obviously false, obviously going to be very hard to verify, or a BLP violation^[11]).
• Clerking Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations (and avoiding getting jaded in the process).
• Handling reports of vandalism, of problematic usernames, and of other problematic behavior.
• Handling requests for speedy deletion.
• Participating and closing discussions at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion.
• Working on other kinds of navigational aids: disambiguation pages, hatnotes, etc.
• Troubleshooting regexes at Wikipedia:Edit filter/False positives.
• Troubleshooting or improving templates, modules, and scripts.
• Actioning template-protected and fully-protected edit requests.
• Actioning pagemove requests at Wikipedia:Requested moves/Technical requests.
• Patrolling new pages, especially new redirects.
• Helping users in #wikipedia-en-help ^connect and responding to revdel requests in #wikipedia-en-revdel ^connect.
• Responding to inquiries sent in to the Volunteer Response Team.
• Coming up with SQL queries, some of which are quite useful and some of which are sillier.

Five rules I try to follow[edit]

These make me a better editor. I encourage others to live by them as well. As with Wikipedia policy, occasional exceptions may apply.

1. Outside of my own userspace, I try to always use an edit summary.
2. When I revert someone, if I'm anywhere less than 100% sure that they'll read and understand my edit summary, I try to leave a note on either the relevant talk page or on their user talk page.
3. When dealing with a non-malicious edit that had a clear summary, I try to hold myself to 1RR, and usually to 0RR if I made the first edit.
4. I contend that every person who edits Wikipedia without compensation and in good faith has a mind that works a bit differently from the rest of the society. As a practical matter this means that I try to treat everyone like they're somewhere on the autism spectrum... since most of them either are or have subclinical symptoms thereof. Even if someone isn't on or near the spectrum, there's still no harm done by treating them with a little extra AGF and putting a bit more thought into how I phrase things. Essay to kome.
5. Be honest.

Several things that make editing easier[edit]

The pipe trick exists and I feel like a lot of people don't know about that because it doesn't show up in diffs. (Update: This has since been confirmed by multiple functionaries telling me they hadn't heard of it till they read this.)

I use Twinkle, RedWarn, and popups for a whole bunch of useful things. The first two's relevance depends on your editing style, but I think popups is indispensable to any editor. At XfDs I use XFDCloser.

// General
// [[m:MoreMenu]]: Whole bunch of useful buttons
mw.loader.using(['mediawiki.util', 'mediawiki.api'], function () {
	mw.loader.load('https://en.wikipedia.org/w/?title=MediaWiki:Gadget-MoreMenu.enwiki.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');
});
// [[WP:JWB]]
mw.loader.load('//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Joeytje50/JWB.js/load.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');

// Mainspace-oriented
// [[User:Dr pda/prosesize.js]]: Get a page's prose wordcount
importScript('User:Dr pda/prosesize.js');
// [[User:Andy M. Wang/pageswap]]: Swap pages' histories
importScript('User:Andy M. Wang/pageswap.js');
// [[User:Wugapodes/Capricorn]]: Redirect categorization
mw.loader.load('//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Wugapodes/Capricorn.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');
// [[User:Novem Linguae/Scripts/CiteHighlighter]]: Highlight source quality
importScript('User:Novem Linguae/Scripts/CiteHighlighter.js');

// Anti-abuse
// [[Wikipedia:Redwarn]]: Mostly counter-vandalism-oriented
mw.loader.load( '/w/index.php?title=User:RedWarn/.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript' );
// Mark locked accounts
importScript('User:GeneralNotability/mark-locked.js');
// All the IP information you want, in one place
importScript('User:GeneralNotability/ip-ext-info.js ');
// Rollback summaries and more (requires `rollback`)
mw.loader.load("https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Blablubbs/rbk.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript");
// [[User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/massRollback.js']]: Mass rollback (requires `rollback`)
importScript('User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/massRollback.js');
//Mass revdel (admin-only)
importScript( 'User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/massRevdel.js' );
// [[User:Mr. Stradivarius/gadgets/SpamUserPage.js]] (admin-only)
importScript('User:Mr. Stradivarius/gadgets/SpamUserPage.js');


// Other-namespace-oriented
// [[User:PleaseStand/userinfo.js]]: Information when you view a userpage
importScript("User:PleaseStand/userinfo.js");
// [[User:Evad37/OneClickArchiver]]: Archive discussion-page content
importScript('User:Evad37/OneClickArchiver.js');

// Specific venues
// [[WP:SPI]]
/* [[User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/cuStaleness.js]] & [[User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/sockStaleness.js]]:
   See whether accounts/IPs are likely stale for CU; see who created them */
importScript('User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/cuStaleness.js'); // I wrote part of this one!
importScript('User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/sockStaleness.js');
// [[WP:SPIHELPER]]: If you're not a clerk/CU/patrolling admin, you don't need this
importScript('User:GeneralNotability/spihelper.js'); // And a much smaller part of this one
maxUsersCUStaleness = 100;
lazyCheckCUStaleness = false;
// [[User:RoySmith/tag-check.js]]: Ditto
importScript('User:RoySmith/tag-check.js');
// [[WP:EFFP]]
// [[User:Suffusion of Yellow/effp-helper.js]]: Proxy edits caught in the filter
importScript( 'User:Suffusion of Yellow/effp-helper.js' );
// [[User:Suffusion of Yellow/batchtest-plus.js]]: Test new filters against old hits
importScript( 'User:Suffusion of Yellow/batchtest-plus.js' );
window.batchTestPlusMaxConcurrentRequests = 5;

// Wikidata
// [[User:Yair rand/WikidataInfo.js]]: Information about a page's Wikidata item
mw.loader.load("//www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=User:Yair rand/WikidataInfo.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript");

/* bad eyesight + frequent editing in "night light mode" hours + fairly
reflective laptop screen + often editing in direct sunlight = I often can't
discern link color*/
.mw-parser-output a:not([class*="user-blocked-"]) {
	text-decoration: underline dashed 1px;
}
/* watchlists are stressful. scanning contribs for revs that aren't"current" is
more pleasant. this is more pleasant still. */
.mw-contributions-current {
	background-color: Aquamarine;
}
/* still needs troubleshooting */
/*.toc {
	float: left;
	clear: right;
	margin: 0.5em 1.5em 0.5em 0;
}*/
/* All those capital letters make me feel like I'm being yelled at.  Wish I
could say I were joking, but I'm not. */
.mw-anonuserlink {
	text-transform: lowercase;
}
.watchlist-message {
	background-color: pink;
}
/* Flag deprecated HTML */
tt, center, dir, font, menu, xmp { 
	text-decoration: underline red solid;
}
strike {
	text-decoration: line-through red;
}
/* Distinguish del/ins from strikethrough and underline */
del {
    border: 1px red dashed;
}
ins {
    border: 1px green dashed;
}
.selfreference {
	background-color: pink;
}
/* I like seeing things */
.ambox-Orphan{
	display: table !important;
}
/* from [[:Category:CS1 maint: url-status]] */
.mw-parser-output span.cs1-maint {display: inline;} /* display Citation Style 1 maintenance messages */
.mw-parser-output span.cs1-hidden-error {display: inline;} /* display hidden Citation Style 1 error messages */
/* from [[Template:Short description/doc]] */
.shortdescription {
  display:block !important;
  white-space: pre-wrap;
}
/* Number entries in history and on special pages.  Forked from https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Gadget-historyNumbered.css */
.ns--1 #content ul,
#content #pagehistory {list-style: decimal}
.page-Special_Page {list-style-image: url(bullet.gif)}

/* BETA: [[MOS:LISTGAP]] / [[WP:*:]] violation highlighter.

DISCLAIMER: MW markup and HTML are infinitely complex, and there are valid use
cases for all of these, especially `ol + ol`. Correct flagged markup at your
peril. */

/* List gaps */
.mw-parser-output dl + dl, .mw-parser-output ul + ul, .mw-parser-output ol + ol {
	border-top: 1em solid pink;
	border-top: 1em solid rgba(255,192,203,0.5);
}
/* The common mistake of
* Foo
:* Bar / :: Bar
(At any level of nesting) */
.mw-parser-output ul + dl > dd > ul, .mw-parser-output ul + dl > dd > dl {
	border-left: 1em solid pink;
	border-left: 1em solid rgba(255,192,203,0.5);
}

/* Welcome to Tamzin's tutorial on how to see all of the `-show` classes.

The following -show classes exist as of 2022-04-30:
    .checkuser-show, .sysop-show, .abusefilter-show, .abusefilter-helper-show,
    .patroller-show, .templateeditor-show, .extendedmover-show,
    .extendedconfirmed-show, .autoconfirmed-show, .user-show, .unconfirmed-show,
    .anonymous-show

I categorize them in four groups:
1. "Entry-level" rights: user, autoconfirmed, and extendedconfirmed.
2. All other rights I have.
3. All rights I don't have.
4. "negative-right" classes: .unconfirmed-show and .anonymous-show

Many people will want to ignore that first group entirely.  Personally, since I
design templates, I like knowing all parts of a page that will look different
for different users.  Since this supplements the CSS styling I get from being in
these groups, I don't need to much about with `display`.
*/
.user-show,
.autoconfirmed-show,
.extendedconfirmed-show{
  background-color: lightgray !important;
}
/* Next, all other rights I have, or ones that are redundant with rights I have.
Since these are all things that most experienced users *don't* have, I like to
make them more obvious to myself.  Again, though, no `display` changes
necessary. */
.abusefilter-helper-show,
.abusefilter-show,
.extendedmover-show,
.patroller-show,
.sysop-show,
.templateeditor-show {
	background-color: khaki !important;
}
/* Two things change for Group 3:
1. I have to now *override* the default display settings, rather than just
   supplement them.  This means setting four different kinds of display style.
2. With Groups 1 and 2, I'm going to assume that people usually aren't applying
   classes from both groups to objects, since Group 1 classes are all *de facto*
   subsets of Group 2 ones.  Here, though, it's common to see something
   "templateeditor-show sysop-show" or such, so I don't want the styling to
   conflict.  Thus I'll use a border instead of a background color.
*/

.checkuser-show{
	border: 3px orange solid !important;
}
div.checkuser-show, p.checkuser-show{
	display:block !important;
}
span.checkuser-show, small.checkuser-show{
	display:inline !important;
}
table.checkuser-show{
	display:table !important;
}
li.checkuser-show{
	display:list-item !important;
}

/* As with Group 1, many people will want to ignore Group 4, but it's useful for
template designers.  We take the same approach for Group 4, but using a
different styling */
.unconfirmed-show,
.anonymous-show{
	border: 3px blue solid !important;
}
div.unconfirmed-show, p.unconfirmed-show,
div.anonymous-show, p.anonymous-show{
	display:block !important;
}
span.unconfirmed-show, small.unconfirmed-show,
span.anonymous-show, smapp.anonymous-show{
	display:inline !important;
}
table.unconfirmed-show,
table.anonymous-show{
	display:table !important;
}
li.unconfirmed-show,
li.anonymous-show{
	display:list-item !important;
}

Three controversial opinions about Wikipedia[edit]

1. WP:NODISCLAIMERS has outlived its usefulness. As a major provider of information to a global audience, we should hold ourselves to disclaimer standards similar to those of major media organizations.
2. We should not allow BLPs about people who do not unambiguously meet GNG, as established by references that are actually in their articles. Any BLP subject who has not been the subject of long-term coverage in reliable sources as an adult should be able to have their article deleted on request.
3. It's spelled "lede".

One lie I've told[edit]

I don't actually need a cetacean. I live quite close to a beach that dolphins routinely swim by. I have all the cetaceans I could ever need.

Notes[edit]