Hi! My name is Johan Elisson. I am a Gothenburger working as an information architect at the Product Information business area of Semcon, a global product development consultancy. I got my job in part thanks to my long-time dedication to Wikipedia. I have studied engineering physics at BSc level and engineering mathematics and computational science at MSc level at Chalmers University of Technology. I started out as a technical communicator, which one of my favourite authors (Kurt Vonnegut) once described—also quite fitting for a Wikipedia editor—as

[...] trained to reveal almost nothing about themselves in their writing. This makes them freaks in the world of writers, since almost all of the other ink-stained wretches in that world reveal a lot about themselves to readers.

I rarely write about subjects related to my work or education, my main interests on Wikipedia are history and sports, focusing on Swedish military history and Swedish football. I follow the football club IFK Göteborg, and since 2016 I work extra as a supporter liaison officer for the club. I have also been a board member of the official supporters' club Supporterklubben Änglarna, of which I am now part of the nominating committee.

My first edits to Wikipedia were made in July 2004 and I became an administrator in October 2006. I once upon a time created the WikiProject on Football and the Football Portal. I have been mostly inactive here for some years with only a handful of edits per month, but I regularly check my watchlist and talk page, and occasionally do major work on expanding/rewriting articles or creating new articles.

I have a slight problem with recentism on Wikipedia and as such focus my efforts mainly on expanding or creating articles about not-so-recent, or timeless, stuff. Sure there are positive sides to recentism, but when e.g. 90 % of a club history section deals with the 10 most recent years, while the first 90 years of existence gets 10 % of the space ... Come on, expand at the early end of that section instead of adding some trivial fact about a match last week.

In regard to writing outside Wikipedia and my job, I was blogging for the—at the time—largest (and best, according to an Aftonbladet award) Swedish sports blog for a number of years. I have subsequently co-authored the book Vi som är från Göteborg åker aldrig hem med sorg (published in 2014)—a fan culture history of IFK Göteborg—, and contributed text to the official 110th anniversary book IFK Göteborg 2004–2014. I am aware of WP:SELFCITE and avoid it whenever I can. I am dreaming of publishing a book about IFK Göteborg in European football, and a biography on Carl "Ceve" Linde.

My current edit count is not really interresting for anything but the adminship nomination process, and seeing I actually passed that one, the edit counts have no value at all. I feel I can make useful contributions to Wikipedia no matter if I have admin privilegies or not. I think of myself as a delusionist, but closer to being a deletionist than an inclusionist.

Selected sports contributions

Related to IFK Göteborg:

Related to football:

Other:

Selected misc contributions

Related to Boden:

Related to (military) history:

Other:


Todo list
Countries I've visited: Sweden Norway Denmark Finland United Kingdom Republic of Ireland Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg France Spain Portugal Italy Germany Switzerland Austria Poland Czech Republic Slovakia Hungary Latvia Lithuania Russia Turkey Azerbaijan Israel China Thailand United States
Countries where I've seen IFK Göteborg play: Sweden Norway Finland United Kingdom Netherlands Luxembourg Spain Portugal Switzerland Poland Slovakia Hungary Lithuania Turkey Azerbaijan Israel
svDen här användaren talar svenska som modersmål.
Denna goa tjommen tjötar göttebosska himla bra, de va la görkäckt änna?
en-4This user can contribute with a near-native level of English.
de-2Dieser Benutzer hat fortgeschrittene Deutschkenntnisse.
no-2Denne brukeren/brukaren har god kjennskap til norsk.
da-2Denne brugers kendskab til dansk er på mellemniveau.

Useful links and WP shortcuts:

Links related to my adminship:

Links that have no use:

My various sandboxes:

User .css and .js:


Assorted Wikipedia quotations:
  • Wikipedia is a paradox — it doesn't work in theory, only in practice.
    CatherineMunro
  • Vandalizing Wikipedia is like masturbating. It feels good to you, but not to anybody else, and it results in a sudden spurt of useless information that needs to be cleaned up.
    DragonflySixtyseven
  • When you start accusing everyone of being in on a conspiracy, you shouldn't be surprised if they decide to confirm your paranoia by banding together against you.
    Khaosworks
  • If enough people act independently towards the same goal, the end result is indistinguishable from a conspiracy.
    Extreme Unction
  • Editing Wikipedia is a privilege, not a right.
    Alhutch
  • I wish I could read Wikipedia as fast as it's being written...
    – Fundraise donator comment
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