Silence

I m Silence. CHOOOOOO CHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I have been a compulsive editor for several years now, editing anything I read, so my coming here was probably inevitable. I made my first edits to Wikipedia in July 2004, and have used Wikipedia regularly since a couple of months before that, though my periods of actually editing it have been intermittent. I have, however, been a regular contributor to [http://www.batpedia.com/ Batpedia], the community Wiki of the IRC channel I attend, and through that site have grown more accustomed to MediaWiki and the Wikipedia style of article-writing.

I am interested in: :*Art. :*Literature. :*Theatre. :*Philosophy. :*Linguistics. :*Pretentious-sounding lists of interests. :*Debate. :*People. :*Things that are awesome. :*Things that aren t awesome. :*Things that don t really make a whole lot of sense. :*Abrupt tables of contents.

=Me=

I am a heterosexual male. I come from a caucasian, upper-middle class family living in the eastern United States. I am ethnically Jewish.

I have no spiritual beliefs because my skeptical nature prevents me from accepting beliefs I cannot distinguish from self-indulgent delusions, because I have not personally experienced or observed anything that leads me to believe in a god or soul, and because I find the world perfectly beautiful and strange enough even without the supernatural added in for spice. However, I am interested in religion and mythology as systems of thought and storytelling, and acknowledge the psychological and emotional value they have for most people.

I am a naturalism secular humanism with rationalism tendencies. I believe in the importance of logic, reason, clarity, and truth, though I treat all of these not as ends in themselves, but as tools with which to help humankind. Practicality and usefulness towards myself, society, and mankind are the most important things to me, primarily because the alternative isn t so hot.

And I also have a healthy appreciation for totally arbitrary, meaningless, nonsensical madness, because it keeps me on my toes, and because without a respect for the absurd it s hard to both understand and appreciate much of life.

I am politically .

=Attitudes=

I have no current aspirations towards any sort of eventual honors on Wikipedia. I prefer working behind the scenes to hogging the spotlight, and am better as the second-man in a project rather than the leader. However, compliments, critiques, insults, conversations, and total nonsense are all welcome.

I am more of a preservationist than a deletionist, but I m not especially inclined toward either direction, and I always vote on issues case-by-case (whatever that means).

I also support: :* whenever it would make it easier to navigate than having to click through a bunch of links. :*Not in most cases; while sometimes this can help tone down a discussion, such deletions are prone to abuse and may just as easily exacerbate a disagreement rather than helping resolve it. Plus any deletion of information on Talk pages is more likely to cause confusion than to be helpful. :*Boldness. :*Friedrich Nietzsche :*Not using cite sources! as an excuse to attack any passage you disagree with, when you haven t cited a contrary source either. :*International Fixed Calendar. :*Consistency. :*Excessive use of serial commas. :*Permanently banning everyone who overuses Wiki as a prefix. Yes, I m sorry that your wiki holism has given you so much wiki stress that you have to take a wiki vacation to avoid a lapse in wiki quette, but for wikigod s sake, man! :*Including Jesus Christ in the list of people who have claimed to be Jesus. :*Defining Neutral Point of View as weighing all sides of the matter equally , not not weighing them at all and just mindlessly parroting what anyone claims about anything . :*Using .

I am always open to, or at the very least interested in, new ideas. If I come on a little strong to you or seem too sure of myself, it s not because I think that I am infallible (or that anyone else is), but rather because I m eager to put my ideas to the text in conversation and debate so that I can learn whether my ideas have any merit.

If you disagree with me on any topic, please feel free to say so and explain why you feel that way; don t worry about offending me, regardless of the subject. The only things that don t interest me are generic, rhetoric-based (rather than logic-based) arguments like How can you be so sure of yourself or Why are you being so stubborn (rather than accepting everything I say as gospel) Instead of just telling me I m wrong and stopping there, explain to me why I m wrong so I can see whether your criticism has merit, and, if it does, change my behavior accordingly.

Also keep in mind that in many cases I like to take Wikipedia seriously, without acting seriously. In other words, I like to keep a sense of humor while in edit histories and Talk pages and other spaces outside of articles themselves, and if I come across as being sarcastic or silly in any of my comments, please do not take it personally as an indication of disrespect, malice, or mockery; it is purely intended to keep a light-hearted air in all things and to add a little spice and variety to a too-monotonous world. So, don t be offended by my occasional irreverency; be only offended by how terrible my jokes are, if anything.

=Contributions=

Note that a lot of the articles I ve worked on heavily have nothing whatsoever to do with my personal interests, but are just things I stumbled upon and saw needed help I could give. I also occasionally copyedit featured articles a few days before they re going to be on the main page, when I see a lot of layout or grammar/spelling fixes I can make before its grand unveiling that will help make Wikipedia look better and give readers a more fluid text. Some articles I m working on or have worked on in the past are listed here for personal reference:

=Favorite pages=

*American and British English differences *Animal rights [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.phptitle=Animal_rights&oldid=9773120] *Apology (Plato) *Criticism of Wikipedia *Discordianism *English poetry, entirely for the line William Shakespeare is regarded as one of the greatest English poets ever. What a delightfully fanboyish way of putting it! EVER! So damned awesome. *Humor

*Inherently funny word *Joshua A. Norton *Kasparov versus The World *McDonald s coffee case *Miracles of Jesus *Penis panic *Punch and Judy *Scientology controversy

, for being self-referentially as large as Godzilla.

*Timeline of unfulfilled Christian Prophecy *Use of death penalty worldwide

, because any policy that would cause the deletion of over 90% of all Wikipedia articles is a good policy in my book.

*Zachary Taylor

==Favorite categories and lists==

, because it implies that all other Wikipedians hate gay people.

for the same reason. There should be a category for Wikipedians who hate comedy.

*List of catch phrases *List of films that have been considered the worst ever *List of people who have said that they are gods *List of severed penises *List of unusual deaths *List of words having different meanings in British and American English

==Favorite comments==

*Kevin Myers comment on . *Ed Poor s comment on . *Everything on . *Anonymous comment with hilarious topic name, .

=Contact information=

E-mail:

AOL Instant Messenger: NICKMANRMB

Internet Relay Chat: irc.esper.net, nickname Silence or something else

Phone number: (439) 382-5968

This page has been vandalized: times.

The number three is not important.