Below is my response to Timbktoo's survey questions.
Your role
edit- What exactly do you do (most specific user group)?
- I do a lot of work with WikiProject College football, and other sports-related projects and pages in general. I've done some U.S.-politics related stuff as well, and I pop in and out of WP:ITN and WP:DYK (some details on that here). I am first and foremost a content creator - this is an idea I borrowed from another college football user but haven't gotten around to finishing, though all of my article creations in my first three years can be seen there.
- How long have you been an editor/admin/user of Wikipedia?
- I'm certain that I read Wikipedia (and perhaps did some unapproved research for a school project here and there) far before I ever made an edit or created an account. I couldn't be certain, but I think I may have made a few IP edits before registering my account, which I did on November 27, 2015. I made my account in order to create the page Battle Line Rivalry, which was being played that day. I am not an admin, nor do I have any plan (or desire, as of now) to be one.
- How active are you in that capacity?
- I edit nearly every day, and my article creation tends to be in spurts (I'll create a handful in one day, and then I tend to go for a few days before making another). Overall, I'd consider myself to be very active on the site.
- Do you consider this your primary occupation or only a hobby?
- I'm a full-time student, so Wikipedia is just a hobby for me.
Your thoughts
edit- What do you think of Wikipedia as a project?
- I can understand some of the doubt and skepticism that came along with this sort of a project, but it's a brilliant idea in my opinion. I have been able to interact with lots of amazing people and write about things I'm passionate about. Simply the fact that Wikipedia celebrated its 20th birthday recently, and the English Wikipedia hit six million articles semi-recently, shows the project seems to be flourishing.
- What do you see in the future for the site?
- Hopefully, a continued and healthy expansion, and lots more eager editors willing to contribute.
- How might the subjects covered by Wikipedia be expanded?
- This is a tough one, as I can easily see both sides of this argument. For one, the breadth of information on Wikipedia is incredible, but on the flip side, the depth of that information can be lacking in some places. I think access to more sources (like those that are available as a part of WP:LIBRARY and the Library Card program) and perhaps the participation of more experts (or any passionate and well-informed editors) that can expand the depth of knowledge in their fields.
Your experience
edit- What have you seen, do you have any stories?
- I focus mainly on creating content, so I tend to stay out of (and, often times, unaware of) a lot of the drama that takes place. WP:FRAM was probably the biggest thing I can remember, but I didn't get involved in that at all. I suppose a less well-known "story", if that, was a fellow college football editor, CalebHughes, who created a decent amount of college football rivalry articles, and, to be fair, was quite the productive contributor to the project. As I remember it, a few of his articles got sent to Articles for deletion and he started socking (using a separate account(s) to pose as someone else). You can see the spiral downward on his talk page. I actually hadn't checked on it in some time, but upon doing so I learned that he is still creating sockpuppet accounts, one or two per week, even two and a half years later. You can see all of it on his sockpuppet investigation page.
- How big a problem is vandalism?
- Of all the problems Wikipedia faces, vandalism is probably the biggest. A lot of it is fairly easy to detect, but there's some stuff that can be harder to spot. Changing a number or a fact somewhere in an article is a lot more subtle than adding your opinion to an article's lead in all caps, for example.
- How easily is vandalism dealt with?
- In my experience, it has been relatively easy. ClueBot NG takes care of a good chunk of it, and what's left can be detected and reverted manually by admins and other users. Some stuff is harder to find than others.
Hope that works alright, and best of luck on your assignment! PCN02WPS (talk | contribs) 03:29, 18 February 2021 (UTC)