User:Shanya Almafeta
The account of this former contributor was not re-activated after the server upgrade of March 2022.
I'm just putting this page in as a placeholder for now. I try to improve this page every so often -- if I can't write a decent 'article' about me, a topic I've had my entire life to research, how can I hope to write a good informative article?
About Me
I am a student at Radford University (in Radford, Virginia). I'm young (23), transgendered (oh boy), not religious, but an 'ethics fundie.' I'm an avid reader, avid gamer, amatuer programmer, otaku, and former administrator of the Interlingua Wikipedia. (I'm a fair hand with Wiki code because of this, as you may guess.)
I am a socialist, but I oppose the open source movement and any other institution which seeks to destroy the rights of creators -- in an era where intellectual property is increasingly the only kind of property that matters, copyleft is about as realistic as pure Marxism.
Pages I've Created
I usually create pages listed in the list of most-wanted pages. However, I also plan on turning every red link on my user page into a blue link, as a matter of pride.
Articles i've created: 1 CE, arcology, BASIC, China, dextrocardia, game show, HyperCard, operating system, religion
Userspace pages I've created: Citizendium In Print
Topics of Especial Interest
Topics in which I am interested in, and may be creating topics on, include animals and anthropomorphics, animation (largely animé, although Flash, cartoons, and other forms of animation interest me), the fourth generation of computers (after computers became personal, but before they became based on standard operating systems with drivers to handle varying hardware; examples include the Apple IIe and my favorite, the Commodore 64), Confucianism, conlangs (especially international auxiliary languages), copyright law, food (I like to create articles about various dishes, foodstuffs, recipes, and the history of cuisine about different cultures -- I admit it, I'm somewhat of a glutton), games (especially roleplaying games, but also video games, board games, and children's games), Interlingua, languages and linguistics, politics (especially 'dark horses' like the Constitution Party and the Green Party), Shinto, skunks, sushi (favorite type: inarizushi, with california rolls a close second), Star Trek (mostly TNG and Voyager), toys, and transgender issues (especially in law).
Guidelines
Here are some of my ethics for creating articles:
- Be accurate. (Even if it seems second nature, look it up.)
- Be concise. (Don't try to explain every aspect of a problem on one page; that's what a wiki is for, to put more in-depth discussions of subtopics on individual pages. Don't make this site a dry encyclopedia; make it a learning tool, a place where people can go in, find a topic they're interested in, and hyperlink to their heart's content.)
- Be gentle. (Try to resolve problems if possible; give in if resolution impossible.)
- Don't get hot under the collar. (Wikis are transient, not permanent; that page I stress over today could become slashdotted or PoEd into a cesspool of speculation and subtle vandalism tommorow.)
- Give references. (Wikipedia does not count -- if it's true and it's on Wikipedia, then it's available somewhere else. Good, complete articles should include references to books, print encyclopedias, trade journals, scientic papers, magazine articles, and other references to go to for people who want to 'go beyond' Citizendium.)
It is my hope that in order to promote a communally-built wiki in nations that do not recognize open-source licenses, the copyright will be owned by the Citizendium Foundation, who will allow it to be used under a 'license' even looser -- maybe even to release a 'paper Citizendium' at-cost (perhaps on Lulu.com or somesuch) or for just enough profit to cover Citizendium's costs. I hope that non-commercial use is as free as possible, but that the Citizendium Foundation works to prevent commercial abuses of this content.