Odercont
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My primary focuses on Wikipedia are on article work (particularly as an active member of WikiProject Albums and Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles), helping other editors at various points and addressing copyright concerns. I am a member of Wikipedia:WikiProject Copyright Cleanup. I also try to pitch in where I see an administrative backlog. Lo, they are legion.

Since joining in the OTRS mailing list, I have also tried to dedicate substantial time to responding to letters sent to the Wikimedia Foundation, frequently addressing copyright concerns or reporting vandalism. Even if I am not actively editing, I may be "working" on Wikipedia through that avenue, as responding to these letters frequently requires me to review Wikipedia's articles (or to link to policies & guidelines).

I typically do not work on articles in which I have a strong personal interest. I work on a "catch and release" philosophy, and after my involvement with an article and a brief period of nurturing will usually let it go. I have not yet encountered any kind of ownership issues, and I don't want to. :) Where you will find me watching over an article is typically when I've arrived as a result of a potentially ongoing problem. For more specifics on that, see my contributions page.

I emphasize collaboration and courtesy. Working on an encyclopedia can be very stressful; in the outer world I'm known for being rather patient, but sometimes even my temper flares. Assuming good faith sometimes requires active effort, but it's worth it. Misanthropy does not make a happy Moonriddengirl. Like many people, I sometimes get tunnel vision while working. While I hope I am never rude as a result, I know that sometimes I am more businesslike than others. While occasionally adminship may also require a businesslike approach, I generally prefer to be amiable. If I have seemed unduly brusque with you, please excuse me.

I am frequently available and willing to help, in Coordinated Universal Time, between the hours of 12:00 and 20:00. (When you opened this page, it was 23:47 UTC. Refresh your page to see what time it is now.) If you need assistance, drop me a note on my talk page. If I can help, I will. If I can't, I'll commiserate. (And try to help you figure out who can.)

I suffer migraines which have rather recently intensified. Although I am trying out several new medications under the guidance of my neurologist, my editing is likely to be limited during episodes. As long as I'm able to function, I'm likely to check in, but I won't be undertaking anything complicated at those times.

I possess one other sometimes active account on Wikipedia, User:Moonriddengirl2, created for use while traveling so as not to risk compromising the log-in information of my primary account. I have also created two doppelgänger accounts, User:Moonriddengir! and User:MRG, by which abbreviated name I am often called.

Text based copyright concerns edit

I spend quite a bit of my Wikipedia time evaluating text-based copyright problems. I am not a lawyer (though I have long addressed copyright concerns in my "day" job), and this is not legal advice. This is based on my understanding of US copyright law and Wikipedia's copyright policy. If you'd like to discuss text-based copyright concerns with me or if you have a question about text copyright that is not answered here, please feel free to leave your civil message on my talk page. If I can help you, I will. If I can't, I will try to help you locate a more appropriate resource.

Basic copyright policy overview edit

Wikipedia's servers are located in the United States, and so we are bound by US copyright law, although in an effort to keep our content free wherever possible we also attempt to respect copyright laws of other countries. (See Wikipedia:Non-U.S. copyrights.) If material is not automatically excluded from copyright (see Stanford's summary of some of the exclusions), public domain for age or other reasons, or released under a license compatible with ours (that would be CC-BY-SA for all text, with most text co-licensed under WP:GFDL), we can only use it if it meets our non-free content guidelines. In order to keep our content as freely distributable as possible, this is a deliberately more narrow range than fair use. For text, this means we can utilize limited quotations of copyrighted material—so long as that material is clearly marked, cited and used verbatim—when appropriate to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. (Some contributors are under the mistaken belief that if the source is cited, exact duplication of text is not a copyright infringement. This is not the case. United States copyright law does permit limited use of copyrighted text under fair use, but makes very clear that "acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission."[1]) Since copyright covers the creative expression of ideas, not facts, we can paraphrase external sources (though we should still acknowledge them to avoid plagiarism and meet verifiability policies). But we do have to be careful when paraphrasing that we do not too closely follow the original in structure and language.

On-Going Projects edit

  • Revise or create articles about the airports of cities which will hold venues during the 2014 Fifa Cup
  • Revise or create articles of defunct airlines of Brazil
  • Revise or create articles of current airlines in Brazil

Future Projects edit

  • Create a page about the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB)
  • Create a page about the Rio de Janeiro Synod of the IECLB
  • Update sections of Princeton Theological Seminary