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Alternative account - User:DuncanHillTestAccount. DuncanHill (talk) 21:33, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
A few notes about me and my interests, which are intended both for the satisfaction of the curious, and to better enable those editors who so wish to read my contributions critically.
I'm 40, English and male.
Born in Bristol of moonraker stock, I grew up in Cornwall (specifically Treknow and St Austell), and retain a close interest in all things Cornish, especially mining, the china clay industry, pasties and clotted cream. I attended Tintagel County Primary School, Sir James Smith's School, Penrice Comprehensive, and St Austell VIth Form College, before going to Grey College, Durham.
My hobbies include geology and trying to educate admins about RTV, speedy deletion, and the difference between userpages and usertalk pages.
I live in Brighton, and am involved in various community groups there.
I've been involved in Scouting most of my life, and am now a Group Scout Leader. I have two Wood Badges, one for Scout Leader and one for Group Scout Leader
I am a member of the British Science Association, the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall and the WEA, and an Associate Member of the Institute of Leadership and Management. I am also a Buffalo (though I have not attended lodge for a long time).
I could be described as being Inclusionist, Eventualist and Incrementalist. I have been accused of "mindless policy wonkery" for warning an experienced editor about a breach of Wikipedia's policy against personal attacks. It has also been suggested on-wiki by admins or sole-co-founders that I am shabby, lack compassion and understanding, have a "naturally acidic personality", sounding "seriously uneducated" and (my favourite) "behaving like a spoiled brat".
I also have the username DuncanHill at various websites, including Escouts and Jango.
Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue's responsibility until it engulfs his pupils' lifetimes will deliver universal education. The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring.
Off-wiki communications
Caveat Should I receive information by private means (including, but not exclusively, email), I shall consider that the sender has waived any claim of copyright or privacy on their part of the message and has obtained such permission on the part of any third parties whose post(s) form part of the message. By communicating with me outside of Wikipedia spaces you are giving me permission to disseminate the content of any message in the manner of my choosing,and you hold yourself liable for any violation of law, Wikipedia policies, service providers Terms of Service, and other consequence of my making public such information. You may request privacy, and I may honour such a request, but I am not bound by it. I would note that this is of course a reciprocal undertaking, in that I release all claim of confidentiality in relation to Wikipedia related communications sent by me, and only request that the recipient act with all due care and good faith DuncanHill (talk) 19:36, 5 February 2008 (UTC) and amended by me DuncanHill (talk) 20:46, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
Useful things
Wikipedia Selection for Schools
Wikipedia for Schools, a free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia, targeted around the UK National Curriculum and prepared by SOS Children's Villages UK.
Using Wikipedia
Search Wikipedia with Google [1]
WikiBlame - search article history to find when and by whom a particular piece of text was added [2]
Searching for articles in a combination of categories - Wikipedia:Categorization#Searching for articles in categories
How many times has an article been viewed? [3]
New to Wikipedia? The Welcoming Commitee is at WP:WELCOME
Frequently asked questions is a good place to go if you are unsure on how to proceed.
{{subst:welcomeg}} Typing this on a new editor's talk page will provide them with a welcome message, and a variety of helpful links.
{{expand}} add it to articles which need expansion - a great alternative to speedy deletion!
WP:TALK will help you use Talk Pages constructively.
WP:VANDAL will tell you how to deal with vandalism.
WP:UWT has a variety of useful talk-page templates, including those for warning vandals and other non-constructive editors.
WP:RPP is for requesting that an article is "protected", useful when it attracts a lot of vandalism.
WP:COI contains guidance on conflicts of interest.
WP:AUTO for policy on autobiographical articles.
WP:CANVASS contains guidance about canvassing for debates, including stealth-canvassing.
Template:Cite web, how to cite web resources.
Template:Cite book, for citing books.
And lots more citation templates here.
Part of an article disappeared? It happens to the best of us - this explains the likely cause and solution.
Article deleted? These good people may be able to help, by copying the deleted text to your userspace, so you can work on improving it.
Has your article been wrongly speedied? Check out non-reasons for speedy here.
Copyright problems with your images? First, try this excellent flow chart. Still having problems? You can ask for help here.
The {{reflist}} template has compatibility problems with most browsers, specifically the use of more than one column will either display incorrectly, or break the links between the reference numbers in an article's text and the references themselves. See Template talk:Reflist/Archive 2008#Multiple columns deemed bad for more details.
PediaPress - in partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation, PediaPress enable users to create print-on-demand books from Wikipedia and most other websites using the MediaWiki software. PediaPress
Dab solver - a wonderful tool to help fix links to disambiguation pages
Sources
A Vision of Britain through Time at [4]
Dictionary of National Biography at [5] - free access to most people with a UK library card, free biography daily by email, lots of other goodies. Even if you can't access the whole site, try its Open Shelves. I am able to email you copies of articles in it (this is entirely legitimate, using a function offered by the ODNB, so please no-one get the idea that I am offering to evade copyright).
London Gazette search engine here [6]
Archive.org amazing!
Oxford Digital Library collection of Key Historical Geological texts another stunner!
Geograph Photos of every Grid Square in Britain! (well, not quite all yet - you can upload your own to help complete it). A great resource, as Geograph photos are available for re-use under a Creative Commons licence, why not have a gander, and upload some of them to Commons for use on articles currently lacking photos?
FishBase - more than you ever realized you could possibly need to know about fish [7].
The Marine Life Information Network for Britain and Ireland [8].
Mindat - a great online mineralogical resource [9].
Gresham College lectures - transcripts, audio and video of lectures [10]
The Canadian Encyclopedia The Canadian Encyclopedia
Electronic Encyclopedia of Gold in Australia
Europeana - Europeana (beta version)
Brighton & Hove virtual reference library
British and Irish Legal Information Institute Access to Freely Available British and Irish Public Legal Information
Pages I've created
People
Places
Things
Any help in expanding these would be very much appreciated!
Odds & sods
Cornwall building & structure stubs
The Generosity of Others
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The Original Barnstar | |
| for all your recent hard work Reedgunner 14:52, 31 October 2006 (UTC) |
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The Working Man's Barnstar
I, Dweller, award you the working man's barnstar for your tireless contributions to the project since you joined. Wikipedia is stronger for the contributions of people like you. We're glad to have you on board. --Dweller 14:06, 25 July 2007 (UTC) |
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The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar | |
| You truly showed the spirit of Wikipedia in helping our friend the sitting duck. Your kindness is not unnoticed! Love,Neranei (talk) 01:35, 18 October 2007 (UTC) |
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The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar | |
| For making a difference. Sluzzelin talk 00:54, 30 January 2008 (UTC) |
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The Minor Barnstar | |
| For the fine photo of Poldice. It may be a small thing, but it made my day. Bretonbanquet (talk) 21:14, 23 February 2008 (UTC) |
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The Categorisation Barnstar | |
| For all the nice categorization work on James Ranald Martin and several other pages. Keep going! Prashanthns (talk) 14:29, 7 May 2008 (UTC) |
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The da Vinci Barnstar | |
| For an awesome level of work in resolving the AN/I Derailment! LaughingVulcan 15:22, 7 September 2008 (UTC) |
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The Barnstar of Diligence | |
| For diligent work on WP:Cornwall over the years Andy F (talk) 19:56, 24 February 2010 (UTC) |
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The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| Thanks for your ongoing contributions - much appreciated. Stalwart111 (talk) 00:09, 12 March 2010 (UTC) |
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The WikiProject Barnstar | |
| To DuncanHill for diligently and constructively contributing to WP:Cornwall over many years. Andy F (talk) 21:13, 16 April 2010 (UTC) |
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The WikiProject Cornwall Barnstar | |
| For all your excellent work maintaining and contributing to WikiProject Cornwall over the years.
The deserved first recipient of this award! Zangar (talk) 16:34, 18 July 2010 (UTC) |
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The Disambiguator's Barnstar | |
Thanks for all your hard work on disambiguation pages, it's appreciated. Best wishes, Boleyn (talk) 20:31, 12 February 2011 (UTC) |
 | DuncanHill's Awesome Wikipedian day is 10th April. |
| This user has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian and was awarded his own day. |
DYK
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On 27 November, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article John Mawe, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page. |
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On 18 December, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article John Rogers (divine), which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page. |
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On 20 December, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Jonathan Couch, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page. |
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On 26 December, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article John Ralfs, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page. |
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On 12 January, 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Dr William Oliver, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page. |
Some thoughts about Wikipedia and Wikipedians
Request for comment at Meta to remove Jimbo Wales' "Founder flag". [11]
Processes reduce drama, short-cuts induce drama. In my experience, the most vocal proponents of "IAR" and "Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy" are responsible for creating most of the unneccessary drama on Wikipedia.
I do not trust (as an admin) any member of Wikipedia:WikiProject Arbitration Enforcement so long as it remains "admin only", and regard myself as being in dispute with them. This applies to any other admin-only grouping or project that may be lurking about.
It has been suggested that "Wikipedia is a community, not a crazy den of pigs" - something which I believe to be unnecessarily harsh on pigs, which are (when well cared for) charming, intelligent and good-humoured animals, who will instinctively treat humans as equals. It is not yet known how Wikipedians would respond to being well looked after.
SteveBaker has written a good essay about consensus - Consensus Essay.
This has promise Wikipedia:Governance reform.
I enjoyed reading this essay - Wikipedia:Give an article a chance, and this one is good too - Wikipedia:Lurkers. Wikipedia:Why do you care? is also worth reading. User:Balloonman/Why I hate Speedy Deleters is particularly interesting.
Seeing an RfA opposed because the candidate said he wanted to make a friendlier and more progressive environment for editors just takes the biscuit!
When an admin, or an arbitrator, or any other such editor given tools of power, resigns, it should be a resignation. I do not trust any admin who has resigned and then been given his admin tools back without a fresh RfAd. Why? Because if they had any respect for, or trust in, the community they are supposed to serve, they would have been prepared to seek the community's approval for their return.
Someone has suggested, in relation to Foundation elections "I would almost go so far as to say that suffrage should go to project admins, completely ignoring edit count". I won't embarrass the person responsible by naming them, as they did go on to say it was a random thought, but such a change would, in my opinion, be the death of Wikipedia.
Community petition about the Board of Trustees.
There are a number of actively homophobic editors on Wikipedia, who make scurrilous and unfounded allegations about editors who identify as gay. Unfortunately, there appears to be a lack of will (to say the least) amongst admins and arbitrators to act against such editors. - indeed, at least one admin thinks it is appropriate to re-insert such personal attacks. It is therefore my opinion that Wikipedia is not currently a safe environment for any editor who identifies as gay.
Would you be happy working for an organization which doesn't want you to know where it is based?
Anyone who says they have a very good reason for their actions, but that they won't tell you what it is, is probably lying. This applies both on- and off-Wiki.
Are you an eccentric? Could others think you are eccentric? Then one admin at least doesn't want you here [12].
If you work for an organization which produces high quality, free access, encyclopædic resources, then please do not try to link to them from Wikipedia, as you will find yourself blocked. This is because many admins object to high quality, encyclopædic material, and especially contributions from experts.
"either be a journalist, or be a participant, you can't ethically do both" - I don't know whether that is just plain bollocks, or just plain dishonest.
"What matters is not how people vote, but who controls the count".
Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain.
Read this then read this.
Some boxes
In order for users of Wikipedia to read the encyclopædia critically, they should have information about the social and political backgrounds and beliefs of editors.
Memberships and hobbies
 | This user is a member of the worldwide family of Scouts. |
 | This user is or was a member of The Scout Association (UK). |
 | This user is a Wood Badger. |
User:DuncanHill/BA
User:DuncanHill/WEA
 | This user enjoys reading poetry. |
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This user is interested in Geology. |
 | This user is interested in maps. |
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This user loves smoking. |
 | This user likes a 'proper' Pasty. |
| C2H5OH-3 | This user utilizes alcohol at an advanced level. |
Biographical
 19 | This user has visited 19 of the 208 countries in the world. |
 | This user studies or studied at Durham University. |
| en-GB -N | This user is a native speaker of British English. |
 | This user is a member of the LGBT community. |
| This user is a member of WikiProject Cornwall. |
 | This user participates in WikiProject Mining. |
| @ | This user can be reached by email. |
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This user contributes images to Wikimedia Commons. |
 | This user has rollback rights on the English Wikipedia. (verify) |
 | This user has pending changes reviewer rights on the English Wikipedia. (verify) |
| incl | This user is an inclusionist. |
| even | This editor is an eventualist. |
| incr | This editor is an incrementalist. |
 | This user has read and understood the BIG HUGE FREAKING PURPLE BOX. Have you? |
 | This editor is not an administrator and does not wish to be one. |
Beliefs
 | According to The Political Compass this user is: Economic Left (−7.13) and Social Libertarian (−8.62) |
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According to the World's Smallest Political Quiz, this user is* a Political Liberal
(Personal Freedom: 100; Economic Freedom: 30). |
| This user supports The Scout Association for many reasons, including its equal opportunities policy for LGBT members and leaders. |
| € | This user is in favour of EU integration, including – but not limited to – the euro. |
 | This user is against involuntary military service. |
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This user believes that the death penalty should never be used.* |
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This user supports the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. |
World view
| You scored as Existentialist Existentialism emphasizes human capability. There is no greater power interfering with life and thus it is up to us to make things happen. Sometimes considered a negative and depressing world view, your optimism towards human accomplishment is immense. Mankind is condemned to be free and must accept the responsibility.
What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com |
References
- ^ Illich, Ivan (1973). "Introduction". Deschooling Society. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. p.7.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help)
Service award
