User:Orange Suede Sofa/Motivation

I make most of my original contributions in areas I've been deeply involved in, both professionally and personally. These include:

• Aviation and airports
• History of software and hardware engineering
• Music, particularly synthesizers, electronic music, and the history of both
• Film and television
• The United States Navy
• Seattle and the Pacific Northwest

When I'm enjoying Wikipedia as a reader, rather than as an editor, there are some issues I will take time to fix on the spot.

Unnecessarily precise dates

Good examples of this can be found in the history section of articles that have experienced recent events, where we often see statements like "On April 15, 2023, it was revealed that Elmer Snerd was named as CEO of Yoyodyne." A good-faith editor has likely added this precise date as a reflection of the recency of the unfolding event, but readers a week or month later are unlikely to care if the event happened on the 15th or the 16th of April. Another typical outcome is that such events are added as a new paragraph in the article, leading to a proseline style which is difficult to read and edit. It is almost always safe to remove the day from the date, and perhaps even the month. When I make these changes, I try to understand the context as much as possible to ensure that I'm not removing anything that is relevant.

There are a few exceptions. One is that if the precise date is important for understanding a sequence of events, such as at Watergate scandal; another is if an event is commonly known by the full date it occurred on, such at September 11 attacks. More information about this can be found at WP:RECENTISM.

Before: On April 15, 2023, it was revealed that Elmer Snerd was named as CEO of Yoyodyne.
After: Elmer Snerd was named CEO of Yoyodyne in April 2023.

Irrelevant details

Sometimes we see sentences like "Elmer Snerd appeared as a guest bassist on Album Name, released in 1995 by HügeBänd, a dreampunk group formed in Zembla in 1992 by legendary Theremin master John Shade". In this sentence, many of the details of HügeBänd are irrelevant to the topic of Elmer Snerd, and even sound promotional in nature. Unless Elmer Snerd has some notable connection to where the band was formed or who leads the band, all of those details can safely go away, and interested readers can always read HügeBänd's own article.

Before: Elmer Snerd appeared as a guest bassist on Album Name, released in 1995 by HügeBänd, a dreampunk group formed in Zembla in 1992 by legendary Theremin master John Shade.
After: Elmer Snerd appeared as a guest bassist on HügeBänd's 1995 album Album Name.

Personal interpretations in fictional plot summaries

Plot summaries are one the few topics on Wikipedia where editors are allowed to use the subject of an article as a reliable source for itself, rather than relying on secondary sources for plot details. There is an entire section of the Manual of Style for understanding how to write about fiction, but I usually concentrate on removing personal interpretations from plot summaries. Editors should only describe plot details that are plainly evident from the work itself and do not require any further assumption or analysis. One example I've encountered recently is editors assuming that mushroom clouds are the result of nuclear weapons. However, there are many possible causes for mushroom clouds, including large conventional (non-nuclear) weapons. If a film depicts a character witnessing a mushroom cloud, then we can only say that a mushroom cloud is present and cannot make any assumptions about what caused the cloud, unless the work explicitly states so, for the specific moment we are describing.

Or, editors may sometimes impart emotions on characters to add flavor to the plot summary, but this is almost always a personal interpretation of that character's presentation. This is more common in film articles, where we are not given a reliable look into a character's mind. A character may look fearful in a given scene, but perhaps the character is experiencing an unfortunate gastric episode. We might even be 99.9999% percent sure in our own minds that the character is fearful, but unless the work clearly states it, we can't add it. Removing these kinds of details often make plot summaries feel rather dry and academic, but will result in ultimately more neutral and reliable articles.

Describing a scene where a character sees a mushroom cloud appear over a city already established as Zembla:
Before: Elmer Snerd watches in fear as a hydrogen bomb detonates over Zembla.
After: Elmer Snerd watches a mushroom cloud appear over Zembla.