Ben Kidwell

Deletionism and Free Software

Currently on indefinite hiatus from wikipedia editing due to my discouragement about rampant deletionism in the field of articles about free software. The idea that software projects need mainstream published print media attention to be "notable" within their field is absurd - its like deleting articles about mathematical theorems because they were never published in celebrity gossip magazines. It is incomprehensible to me that aggressively pruning articles about small open source software projects can possibly be regarded as improving the encyclopedia.

miscellaneous

My particular field of study is classical music, and I'd appreciate any suggestions as to useful articles to create/expand. My personal knowledge base is focused on German classical music from 1770-1920. I also do programming and work with Free_software operating systems. Other topic areas of interest are philosophy, mathematics, fundamental physics, and cosmology, but I doubt I have the technical background required to be very useful in those content areas.

Wikipedia seems to be a very important and useful project for the world as a whole, so I sometimes become enthusiastic and devote a lot of time to it, but time doesn't always permit that. I do a mixture of article space work, RC patrol, and participate in wp:afd discussions. All advice from experienced Wikipedians concerning how to be maximally useful to the project is much appreciated.

Watergate Tapes additional materials outline:

Chronology of important conversations

June 20 1972 18 1/2 minute gap

AOP: June 20 1972 Nixon & Haldeman - Hunt involvement & W.H. Tapes (!)

AOP: June 21 1972 Nixon & Haldeman - Planning the coverup, Liddy taking the fall

AOP: June 22 1972 Nixon & Haldeman - Tracing the currency

June 23 1972 "The Smoking Gun" Nixon & Haldeman

AOP: June 30 1972 Nixon & Haldeman The Liddy scenario, and a future pardon for him

AOP: July 19 1972 Nixon & Ehrlichman "Magruder is probably going to have to take the slide"

AOP: July 22 1972 Nixon & Haldeman Mentions of Mark Felt (deep throat)

AOP: August 1 1972 Nixon & Haldeman Nixon direct knowledge of money payments for the coverup

September 15, 1972 Nixon, Haldeman, & Dean Nixon praises Dean for his work on the coverup

AOP: October 19 1972 Nixon & Haldeman They learn Mark Felt is leaking, yet oddly nobody seems to make the connection to Deep Throat later

AOP: December 11 1972 Nixon & Haldeman Tracing the cash found on Howard Hunt's wife in plane crash

AOP: January 2 1973 Nixon & Colson Colson's statement on black ops in boston

AOP: January 3 1973 Nixon & Haldeman Haldeman dumps on Colson, how to "take care" of Magruder.

January 8 1973 Nixon & Colson Clemency for Hunt & vulnerabilities from other witnesses

AOP: March 2 1973 Nixon & Haldeman Details of Pappas hush money raising

AOP: March 7 1973 Nixon & Pappas Nixon thanks Papps for money

March 21 1973 Nixon & Dean Cancer on the presidency

March 22 1973 Nixon Dean Haldeman Ehrlichman Mitchell - "Stonewall it"

April 14th weekend - many conversations, Ehrlichmann's 'investigation, 'last chance to sink Mitchell' etc

Excerpts and quotations

July 19 1972 Nixon: "You cannot put John Mitchell in this thing." January 2 1973 Colson: "Well, you had one of the men who was in line at your Christmas tree lighting reception who ran 15 or 20 black projects in Boston, and that'll never be traced. No way. And I could say under oath I didn't know how it happened. And that's the way to do it."