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I live in the Hunter Region of New South Wales and monitor most articles related to this. One of my interests is gathering all pages related to Port Stephens Council LGA. In particular I'm trying to correct the common misconception that all there is to Port Stephens Council is Port Stephens. (And it's certainly not Newcastle![1][2]) I intend populating the articles as best as I can as time permits.
A complete list of my major projects can be found on my project page.
Where did "AussieLegend" come from?
Well, obviously..........
Seriously though, I used to listen to Australian radio presenter John Laws' talk show and he often advertised his email address to listeners. I always thought he was a bit up himself using the email address "legend@<domain>" so I decided to one-up him and become "Aussie legend". I did something similar with my naturally-aspirated 1984 Subaru Touring Wagon (back in 1984 actually) after I heard a Purvis Eureka driving down Hunter Street, Newcastle one night, making the unmistakeable Volkswagen Beetle engine noise that betrayed its shiny turbo badge. I thought "why not?", so I slapped a turbo badge on the Subie (it looked quite nice really) and rumours started about this bloke in Newcastle with a turbocharged Subaru. I found out about the rumours at a Subaru Car Club meeting one night, when a Sydney visitor related the story of how this turbo Subie had dragged off a V8Holden Crappydoor in front of a huge group of people who had just left a Newcastle night club one night. It cracked me up so much....we were stopped at a set of traffic lights, it was raining, he was in a puddle, I wasn't, I had a turbo badge, he didn't, The lights went green, he had 2WD, I had 4WD traction........
I really believe that editors should have some idea of the subject matter that they're editing and not just what they've gathered from a few google searches. I'm not a brain surgeon so I wouldn't edit an article on Neurosurgery. I'm not a mechanic so I wouldn't edit the Internal combustion engine article. I wouldn't even do something relatively minor like edit the Pacific Internet page because I've never used that ISP.
That said, I see nothing wrong with editing articles to remove vandalism, correct spelling errors or carry out any other maintenance task that doesn't require reasonable knowledge of the subject.
But that's just me.
Edit warring vs collaboration
There's no need to edit-war. It's as simple as that. Editors should always try to work with each other. Here's an example: An editor adds content that I disagree with,[3] so I revert with an appropriate edit summary.[4] He clearly disagrees so he reverts with an equally appropriate edit summary.[5] Instead of edit-warring, I post a message to his talk page and we have a polite discussion.[6][7]Problem solved! No anger, no tears, nobody got upset. That's what happens when we treat each other with respect.
Electronic information isn't worth the paper it's printed on
It's important to remember that we can't rely on electronic media, including Wikipedia, for 100% accuracy. I live in a street, the partial spelling of which is "olwe". My Telstra phone bills have always come to the correct address but the phone directory, which is printed by a company owned by Telstra and which gets its database from Telstra, has omitted the "l" for the past couple of years, but the same company got it right for all the years previously. They say Telstra needs to sort it out but my reply is always, "they're not the ones making the mistake!" My parents have lived in the same house in the same "street" since both were new in 1948 but the GPS my daughter purchased in 2009 showed the address as "avenue". Newcastle City Council still shows it as "street" but when an ABS representative visited one day, her very official pre-printed documentation also showed "avenue". Considering the ABS is a reliable and authoritative source, it seems very clear that electronic information isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
2012 update
After a polite request, Newcastle City Council sent me a copy of the original development application for my parents' street, showing it was always "street" and never "avenue". Finally, in sheer frustration, after again being told by the phone directory company that Telstra needed to get it right I contacted the Telstra complaints department and spoke to a man who agreed that what I had been told was ridiculous. Within minutes he had changed the details and told me to check online in a few days to make sure everything was correct, as the changes he had made should have rippled down through the system. Sure enough, in a few days every online reference including Whereis and even Google Earth had updated to show "St" instead of "Av". That was just too easy.
March 2016
A few nights ago I found out my son's Mazda 3 had voice control (I'm buying a new car to replace my 2003 car and was doing research). I tried entering my parents' address into the GPS but it couldn't find it because the car still thought it was "avenue". I'm buying a Subaru.
Copyright sucks!
I believe that information should be free and that copyrighting images when anyone else could take the same photo is just wrong. Accordingly, almost without exception any images I upload to Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons will be released into the public domain.
Barnstars etc
The Australian Barnstar of National Merit
for your efforts with Australian articles Gnangarra 00:11, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Diligence
Thanks for keeping an eye on Millere08. Johnfos (talk) 22:54, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
The TV Star
For keeping an eye on NCIS-related articles, I hereby award you this barnstar. Keep up the good work :-) SoWhy 16:18, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Integrity
For sacrificing yourself for the sake of wikipedia and fixing article Jessica Tovey. VeryRusty (talk) 10:38, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
For the work and efforts of keeping Wikipedia clear of a blocked sockmaster and his puppet's copyrighted or vandalism additions MLauba (talk) 11:07, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
The Keeping TV Related Articles From Becoming Overun With Vandalism Star
Thank you for the occasional helping hand, listening ear or bit of sage advice. I appreciate what you do to help! Drmargi (talk) 04:10, 28 January 2011 (UTC)
The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
Thank you for keeping the So Random! page and other television show pages free of vandalism. DisneyFriends (talk) 03:56, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
Thanks for keeping The Glee Project vandalism-free. There has been too many unnecessary edits by anonymous users lately. 07 Matthew (talk) 04:46, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
Australian Wikimedian Recognition (AWR)
Thank you for your contributions on English Wikipedia that have helped improve Australian related content. :D It is very much appreciated. :D Enjoy your Australia Day and please continue your good work! LauraHale (talk) 08:18, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
For your tireless work upgrading {{infobox Australian road}} and also updating all deprecated parameters on existing boxes! -- Nbound (talk) 03:56, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
Other stuff
ISO dates - Just say NO!
ISO dates (yyyy-mm-dd) are great for computers but people don't relate to them. Similarly, ambiguous date formats like 9/11/01, which can be read as September 11 or 9 November in the first year of any century are hard to follow, while nobody has a problem with Mmmm dd, yyyy or dd Mmmm yyyy formats. The ambiguous formats are discouraged so why do we permit ISO dates in text that is meant to be read by people? \/\/3 /\/\4'/ 45 \/\/3LL /\/\4|\|D473 7|-|15 Ph0R/\/\@ Ph0R 4LL 73><7! Anyone who inissts on using ISO dates should have their CPU and RAM removed!
After seeing disputes and arguments over whether certain chess players really are Jewish or not (especially when said players don't make a big deal of their religion or ethnicity themselves), I've come to the conclusion that racial and religious categories (like "Jewish chess players") are A Bad Thing. And the same goes for ethnic categories. For the purposes of Wikipedia, I don't care what race or religion a person is(*), unless it directly relates to their field (a Jewish theologians category, for instance, is quite appropriate). The categories seem to only exist for racial and religious point scoring ("See how many eminent people in field X belong to my race/religion!")
Just a clarification on my comment, "I don't care what ... religion a person is" - I mean for the purposes of an encyclopedia article about them. I don't believe religion is unimportant - far from it. I believe what one believes about God is of the utmost importance - but by this I mean what one actually believes, not what particular religion one was brought up in or nominally identifies with (which seems to be the case in 99% of "category: people of class X of religion Y" listings).
Well, we're back and not before bloody time. I did speak to my MP and he said it's all well and good, but there's not a lot Australia can do, so he didn't see the point. *sigh*
Cancer and Wikipedia
In 1991 I had a melanoma removed from my forehead but, after further preventative surgery, I was given the all clear (no sign of melanoma cells!) and lived the next 30 years with no further problems. In August 2020 I was walking quickly along a path in the dark and my foot rolled off it causing me to fall heavily. I hit my head, tore up a finger, banged up my knee and broke two ribs. By December, all had healed but I was still getting pain in my ribs so I had an X-Ray. That identified something near my spine. A subsequent CT scan was followed by a CT guided biopsy and the day after Easter 2021 I was informed that the mass in my back was metastatic melanoma - incurable, inoperable and eventually terminal. I have a small lesion in my brain and metastases throughout my body, one of which fractured my L3 vertebrae causing considerable pain. After a dose of radiation and 4 sessions of infusion with ipilimumab and nivolumab, I'm responding well. I now have 33 treatments with a slightly higher dose of nivolumab, multiple brain MRIs and body CT scans, as well as regular ECGs and doctor's visits to look forward to over the next 2 years. As a result, I've had to curtail my Wikipedia editing somewhat; I won't be editing as much but will try to edit for as long as I can. If I don't edit in a month or more, you can safely assume that I won't be back.
A sign that I saw as funny while taking photos after the 2013 New South Wales bushfires. "Building the Foundations for Newcastle's Future" - And where do we do that? Port Stephens of course. 2019 update: The sign is still there, slightly faded after 6 years, and still with no buildings around.
Committed identity: 9c244af63e829de072dd2e077d59951c5473b9333098c4c937d961d650c3d56e90277c1fc523a0bacf3d599eb38541110cdb6f1910e19c818f2fd763a0b99179 is a SHA-512commitment to this user's real-life identity.
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I'm buying a Subaru.
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