Unfortunately Jtdirl has retired, possibly permanently, as a Wikipedia editor and may not be returning, at least not for the forseeable future. I may however make the odd visit back. Best wishes and good luck!
I regret to say that I have decided to terminate my participation with Wikipedia. It has been a challenging, often rewarding, but all too often frustrating experience. I have come across some of the most astonishingly talented individuals who have done remarkable work and produced extraordinary articles. However I found the constant bombardment with messages from those damned bots the last straw. The idiotic things constantly bombard me with messages demanding that I supply information on photos that I have supplied repeatedly, but the damn bots through design flaws miss. Perfectly legal images, including some of my own taken by me for Wikipedia and unambiguously stated to have been taken by me, and given freely to Wikipedia, have been deleted amid snide insinuations from bots that the source of the picture is disputed when the source has been added in over and over and over.
I also found myself spending far too much time dealing with vandalism. The sheer size of Wikipedia makes maintaining quality impossible. Too many articles that were top class and the work of superb contributors could be reduced to unreadable pulp by one or two illinformed editors. I ended up giving up the fight to maintain standards.
I cannot possibly list all the great contributors I met over my four years here. Among them were Mav, Deb (Man I'll miss you!), John Kenney, 171 . . . I was going to keep going but I could fill the page with the list. To all of you, thank you for a most wonderful experience.
To Jimbo, I salute your courage in creating this extraordinary site. I only wish that we had tighter structures to help keep up standards rather than have to fight over and over again to undo vandalism.
I will drop back occasionally, probably anonymously. I didn't intend coming back at all, such was my frustration in recent times but I have been using the site tonight anonymously and corrected a few errors and thought I'd better explain my departure.
There is more I could say but . . . well may I will someday. I wish Wikipedia all the success in the world. I have been proud to have been a contributor and hopefully have been of some use. I am particularly proud of some of my work here. When I came here the Irish pages were dire and the naming conventions on royalty an international laughing stock. I was glad to have devoted so much time to repairing them. I was particularly chuffed to hear on the BBC recently an expert say that Wikipedia's coverage on titles and usage was the best of any encyclopaedia and showed that a lot of experts who knew what they were doing contributed.
I won't spill the beans on who they are but over the years I became aware through private channels of some of the identities of some of the contributors. Suffice to say that you would be surprised if you knew who they were. One of them was a senior Vatican official with an astonishing (and impressively neutral) knowledge of world religions. One contributor here was at the time a head of government and we even had a European royal on here. One of the saddest experiences I had was to see a very very senior figure, a world-renowned expert who could command fees in the tens of thousands for a ten minute speech, hounded off here by a group of ignorant fools who knew nothing about the topic but made that gentleman's life a misery. Encyclopaedias like Brittanica would have offered that person a blank cheque to write for them. A small bunch of idiots drove him away.
But enough of the cribbing. Thank you for the experience. I wish Wikipedia every success in the future. But please please find a way to control the ability of people who don't know what they are talking about from driving away though who do. And please please would someone get the photo-gestapo to start working with people rather than waging a blitzkrieg on people's work. Not every one among those solving the problem of illegal photographs has an attitude. Many work very well with people. But a few storm around hounding people. In my last month on here at least 9 people I knew and highly respected were driven away by the bot-madness, having had their work torn to shreds, their honesty impuned and their desire to help fix problems undermined by bot-bombardment day after day. It drove them away. It has driven me away. Unless something is done to fix it it will drive others away also. And Wikipedia will be the poorer for it.
And finally, as those of you who know me know, I am also a poet and lyricist (and a historian, polemist, political scientist and a couple of other things - time to get back to the real job and leave Wikipedia on its own) and occasionally leave joke limericks around. Here is my final effort.
When it comes to writing Wikipedia
There are vandals who will try then to beat ya
By savaging texts
and becoming great pests
All to earn us a criticial media.
I'll decided to call it a day Having had to add in one more say.
The curtain now drops
My editing stops
But its been fun, which I'll miss come what may.
Wikipedia is currently working on 1,711,935 articles. The local time at the Wikipedia servers is 03:39 on Friday 30 March, 2007.
Image created by me of the "Crowned Harp", a symbol of Ireland until 1922. (It is the first actual image physically created by me. I don't know if my old art teacher would be impressed that my first attempt at art in 20 years has a crown in it!!!)
A new limerick of mine (August 2006) on the so-called "British Isles"
There once was a set of old isles
whose naming disputes ran on for miles.
With long history lessons
and longer bitching sessions
It produced much more groaning than smiles.
An old limerick of mine
When attacked by some vandals and trolls
The truth doesn't matter at all
For they just spin some yarn
without given a darn
whether accuracy rises or falls
Wikiword for Today
Wikipsychic: The presumed ability of Wikipedians to know, without having been told, of all edits and debates that are of interest to them, all over Wikipedia, but most especially on the Wikipedia:Articles for Deletion and Wikipedia:Templates for Deletion pages. Those who do not believe in Wikipsychic powers and who inform others of votes and debates commit the Wikiheresy of "votestacking" and must be condemned to Wikiboycotts and Wikistonings.
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Note: Jtdirl's comments on Wikipedia are a work in progress subject to the Thread-mode Disclaimer.
Something I don't drink.
Believe it or not, many Irish people hate Guinness and are bemused at tourists flocking to Ireland to drink it. I for one think it tastes hideous. Give me Smithwicks or even Carlsberg any day!
You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.
Cultural Creative
100%
Postmodernist
75%
Idealist
75%
Existentialist
31%
Romanticist
31%
Materialist
13%
Modernist
6%
Fundamentalist
6%
Some thoughts on President Bush and his worldview
George W. Bush will leave office in January 2009.
The world is counting the minutes.
The Georgian Creed
I believe in George Herbert, the father almighty
creator of American power on earth
and of wars, seen and unseen.
I believe in George Duyba, his most important son, our president.
He was conceived by the oil industry
born of the blessed Barbara
suffered under Bill Clinton
and was crucified, losing the election.
He descended unto the Supreme Court
At the inauguration he rose again
and ascended in power
where he is seated at the old desk of the Father
so that in wars he can choose
the living and the dead.
I believe in election influence of Jeb Bush,
A powerful Republican Party,
Communion with Congress
the forgiveness of voters
the resurrection of the party
and the Bush Family everlasting.
Amen.
by jtdirl
Republican Prayer
For the Republicans
Lord
May we have the looks of Ronald Reagan,
The electability of Richard Nixon,
the brains of Donald Rumsfeld,
and the charms of anyone but a member of the Bush family.
May the Democrats have the looks of Walter Mondale,
the electability of Jimmy Carter,
the excitement of Michael Dukakis,
and the morality of Bill Clinton.
Amen.
Republican curse May you spend all eternity listening to Bill Clinton explaining his definition of "sexual relations with that woman."
by jtdirl
Democratic Prayer
For the Democrats
Lord
May we have the looks of John F. Kennedy,
the electability of Franklin Roosevelt,
the morals of Jimmy Carter, and the charms of Bill Clinton.
May the Republicans have the looks of George W. Bush,
the electability of Dan Quayle,
the Charms of Donald Rumsfeld,
and the morality of Richard Nixon.
Amen.
Democratic curse May you spend all eternity listening to Donald Rumsfeld explaining his concept
of known knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns, and unknown unknowns,
and how to tell the difference between them.
by jtdirl
Hey,
I'm a Dublin-based 30-something writer, columnist and academic. My politics are left of centre. Since joining Wikipedia in November 2003 I have written on a broad range of topics, including Irish government and politics, religion, globalisation, folklore, republicanism, constitutions, governmental systems, state ceremonial to god knows what else.
By the way, some people have asked about my usernic. Fear Éireann means Man of Ireland in Irish. (Caint by the way is the Irish for talk) The colours used in my sig are two of those of the Irish flag, green (for Irish nationalism) and orange (for Irish unionism). The Irish tricolour, green, white and orange symbolises peace and reconciliation between unionism and nationalism.
What is a Canadian but an unarmed American with healthcare?
Joke doing the rounds c. 1990:
God visits President George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ian Paisley to announce the impending end of the world. They report the news to their colleagues.
George Bush announces to his cabinet: "Friends, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I have definite proof that God exists, because He has spoken with me, and the bad news is that the world's going to end tomorrow."
Mikhail Gorbachev announces to the CPSU Presidium: "Comrades, I have bad news and worse news. The bad news is that the God, who we have been denying for the last 70 years, exists, for He has spoken with me, and the worse news is that the world's going to end tomorrow."
Ian Paisley announces to the UUP leadership: "Friends, I have good news and better news. The good news is that I have proof that the Lord our God exists, because I have spoken with Him, and the better news is that He has told me that there will NEVER be a united Ireland!".
Arwel
Question: If we have to go back a while in terms of content, does this mean -
1. That out deletions are undeleted?
2. That our undeletions are deleted?
3. Will that make GrahamN happy or unhappy?
4. Does this mean we have to rename pages - Votes for Deletion becomes Votes for Redeleting Undeletions (VfRU) and Votes for Undeletion becomes Votes for Undeleting Redeleted Undeletions (VfURU). And if so, as User:MyRedDice any suggestions for how we can keep the contents, maybe even the titles of the pages, under 32K?
5. Does that mean our hardbanned people now become only squiggely banned?
6. Does that mean we might lose the records of some of Michael 2417 identities?
7. Does that mean that DW might become a wiki version of the Undead, the 'Unbanned'?
8 Does that mean we might have lost 172's reversion of Fred Bauder's additions to Communist State, Fred Bauder's reversions of 172's reversions, 172's reversions of Fred Bauder's reversions of 172's reversion, Fred bauder's reversions of 172's reversions of Fred Bauder's reversions of 172's reversion, my reversion of Fred Bauder's reversion of 172's reversion of Fred Bauder's reverson of 172's reversions of Fred Bauder's reversions of 172's reversion of Communist State?
9. When Wiki re-opens, will we find that it was all secretly a lockout by Pizza Puzzle so he could rewrite New Imperialism without anyone stopping him?
10. Will Liza Minnelli have found a new husband by the time wiki reopens for business?
11. Will David Gest have found a new husband by the time wiki reopens for business?
It looks so . . . so . . . wikipedian. What is it? Wikipedia for Reaganites? You know, it desparately needs an article on Communist state. What say you? Oh and as it likes opinion as opposed to NPOV, wouldn't a nice gentle article saying how Stalin was one of the greatest intellectual leaders in Russian history suit its acceptance of POV oh so well? Or an article on the People's Republic of China, liberation theology, Marxism for beginners, How Communist Intellectualism Benefits Humanity, Nixon was a Socialist, The Sandinista Revolution: An inspiration for America, Fidel Castro's collected speeches, Daughters of the Russian revolution. Maybe even New Imperialism/Temp and New Imperialism could find mutually accepting homes there. Yes, Fred's POV creation could prove such fun! And there we were all wondering where had be gone to? We missed him so terribly. FearÉIREANN 13:10 28 Jul 2003 (UTC)
Long time no hear, me old mucker. Deb 17:39, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Sorry to butt in but i noticed a conversation you had on the British isles discussion page where you referred to the Book "The Isles" by Norman Davis. Can i recommend to you two books on Cornish history.
Mark Stoyle "West Britons, Cornish identities in the early modern British state"
\(caint) 04:32, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
