User:Tomhab

About me

I was a Computer Science student in the UK with quite obviously too much free time on his hands. My motives for joining wikipedia is to see if open source and other similar ideas (such as the Wiki) can work.

Wikipedia

I started editing on 15:22, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

My rather unexciting 1000th edit at 14:42, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Baha'i

I'm probably most active on wikipedia on the Baha'i pages. I'm very keen to avoid any particular arguments (especially something like the photo of Baha'u'llah, which will be nigh on impossible to win outright on). I'm very keen on making it very NPOV and encyclopaedic, but won't tollerate excessive and bigotted attacks on the Faith. Ideally my aim is to make Wikipedia the best neutral Baha'i resource available, as detailed as any and all books put together.

We're doing rather well at the moment. The main Baha'i pages have featured article status, and the rest are constantly improving.

Pages where you'll find me most:

Please note that a photo of Baha'u'llah has appeared so these pages might be offensive to Baha'is.

I've started around 50 Bahá'í related pages (although few have reached non-stub status):

I also plan to upload quite a few pictures from a recent visit to the Baha'i holy places in Israel.

There are others but these are the main ones. I've been concentrating more on creating new pages recently. Means Wikipedia improves and largely avoids new arguments (although Bahá'u'lláh's family kicked up a right argument).

Wikis

Anyone going through this page should by now know what a wiki is. They aren't just used for encyclopaedias (sorry I do the British spelling), but can be for other ideas. Originially a friend proposed using it to generate code, quickly use to fix bugs and, unlike open source ideas such as Sourceforge and CVS, wikis you can get your teeth right into.

Examples of wiki-problems

Most of what I've seen has been very promising. Check out most long pages and it all seems good, detailed (more so than a top brand encylopaedia) and NPOV, but go to other pages and it doesn't always seem to work.

Baha'i - If you ever fancy a giggle go here and read through the talk page and take a look at the history. Ever since the page has hit featured article status (very impressive I must say) it's been under constant attack and in the middle of the revert war. Some users are sincere (as it did look a bit like a Baha'i leaflet), whereas others are agressively trying to insult and destroy the reputation of the Baha'i Faith.

For those curious - yes I am a Baha'i.

Battle of Jenin 2002 - Another interesting page. The sheer differences of view between the Israelis and the Palestinians about what happened means that its pretty messy. I think it generally settled on a slight Jewish bias for the moment but does seem to come under attack a bit.

Result

Maybe in the future they'll all resolve themselves, but I'm not sure. This is a little damning for the wikipedia idea. If it were software this could be crippling as often time-to-market is critical. Other areas (such as encyclopaedias) its just plain bloody frustrating. The idea that someone will lose interest may work on topics like George W Bush where any vandals will give up and a well-meaning person will fix it, but not where people have something major to lose such as their belief (in God, their country or just what is right and wrong).

Pick wikis very carefully for each topic. Wiki-Manuals and Wiki-FAQs are great ideas. In my opinion Wikipedia's only success is due to its massive user base.

Barnstars

Barnstar of Diligence for work on the Bahá'í Pages

For services rendered to the Bahá'í pages (and there are a bewildering array of very obscure ones) I, MARussellPESE, present Rboatright the Barnstar of Diligence which is awarded here in recognition of a combination of extraordinary scrutiny, precision and community service. These pages are the better for your services.

Also awarded to, in no particular order: PaulHammond, Occamy, Geni, Rboatright, and Tomhab.

Useful Links

You can think of this as bookmarks, NOT my favourites though - just stuff I link to a fair amount on wikipedia