User: Postdlf
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
I sometimes work in Manhattan when I'm not going to law school in Washington, DC. I used to be an art student in Columbus, OH.
I really like Wendy's cheeseburgers, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and the moon.
My Big Fat Wikipedia Contributions
Feel free to yell at me if you like something or think I was smoking crack.
The following articles are ones that I created:
I have also made substantial contributions to the following articles:
Images
A good encyclopedia needs good pictures. I think it should also have good layout too, and there is a lot that can be done to unify how the pictures look within an article so that they don't look like they just all fell together out of a box—even a slight shift in the color balance of an image can make it feel like it belongs more with another.
Here are some that I have uploaded, modifying in some way as found:
Constitution Gardens satellite image with monuments marked West Potomac Park satellite image, with monuments marked |
Crystal City, Virginia satellite image—if you look real close you can see my building... |
National Gallery of Art, satellite image of both buildings Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall satellite image |
The Pentagon satellite image National Mall satellite image, with monuments and museums marked |
Union Station (Washington, DC) satellite image |
Washington National Airport satellite image |
Washington, DC satellite image, with boundaries marked |
Upper Arlington, Ohio satellite image, with boundaries and landmarks mapped |
My categorization philosophy/obsession
I also categorize things a hell of a lot, mainly because I don't want to see it done wrong. Doing it wrong is being too general, so that articles end up getting cluttered by a laundry list of redundant categories (which looks really dumb when you're reading an article, as if the author couldn't figure out the relationships), and categories get dumped indiscriminately with tons of articles that end up bearing little relationship to each other and look like a confusing mess. Doing it right is creating a sensible taxonomy that allows the information to be restructured and formed into new relationships by recategorizing categories, rather than having to go back and retag every article because you were too general the first time. Doing it right establishes groupings and series that help point out where new articles in wikipedia need to be filled in, and also can point out articles that need to be merged or made consistent with other articles on the same specific topic.
Categories are important because they function to classify the subjects of articles—they appear with an even greater claim of factuality and objectivity than the content of articles. They should be limited to what is somehow integral to understanding a subject, rather than something that simply happens to be true about it. Trivial information can be buried at the bottom of an article with no problem, but trivial categories bury the article itself.
I created nearly all of the subdivision organization of Category:Politics of the U.S. (separating it into branches, cataloging all the agencies, and getting started on many of the officials), Category:United States law (by topic), many in Category:United States history, and just about every last one of the U.S. states. You may also know me from such categories as Category:Continental Congressmen and Category:Continental Army officers, Category:International law, Category:Corporate subsidiaries by company, Category:New York City and Category:Washington, DC and their subdivisions, and many, many others.
