About me:

I'm Dutch-Canadian.

I LOVE Wikipedia!!! Universal free sharing of knowledge in this structured form is one of the great projects of mankind in the modern age.

I HATE the over-hasty, casually destructive "speedy deletions" of new articles practiced by some editors and administrators ("new page patrollers"?). This seems to so often be done in a rush, with no real support, encouragement or constructive criticism given first. Remember that it is new authors (the lifeblood of this enterprise) who are primarily affected by such heavy-handed measures, and consider that many will be, or have already been, driven away by this conduct. This absolutely harms Wikipedia! I've dealt with a lot of inflexible, unresponsive bureaucracy over the years, and I can spot bean-counting, legalistic, can't-see-the-forest-for-the-trees types a mile away! Wikipedia certainly has its share, and they do seem to gravitate to certain tasks where they can do the most damage. Wikipedia is not an old boy's club, where, once you're in, you try to keep others out. It belongs to everyone.

I am so impressed by, and grateful for, all the incredible photographs created by so many dedicated and talented contributors. Really beautiful stuff, it adds so much to the pleasure of browsing Wikipedia.

Heavenlyblue (talk) 07:41, 14 May 2008 (UTC)




/Sandbox