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User:Jruderman

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About me

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I'm Jesse Ruderman. I worked for Mozilla a security bug hunter during my life as a computer programmer. After that, I didn't seek employment for more than a few years.

As of 26 Jul 2024, I have a new plan to save democracy from itself. It all started on Wikipedia, because of how Wikipedia defines 'consensus' for internal Wikipedia discussions.

After that, maybe I'll get another job in software security or something.

My website is https://www.squarefree.com/ and I tweet at https://twitter.com/jruderman.

My subject areas

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My approach to collaborative editing

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I am one of many autistic Wikipedia editors. Collaborating on Wikipedia is one of my favorite ways of interacting with people, as it plays to my strengths rather than my weaknesses. We're focused on a project rather than socializing in an open-ended way; I can take my time to think about my responses; my tendency to pursue interests deeply prepares me to improve articles in a way that complements others' broader interests.

Use of edit summaries

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I'm more careful about including detailed edit summaries and precise references when I'm working in a controversial area or on a page that's already high-quality. Also, a comment regarding when I use edit summaries.

Breaking up large edits

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When many are watching a page, I split up my edits into individually describable chunks. My goal is to make it easy for others to verify that each edit summary matches the corresponding changes.

Breaking up large changes is a habit I picked up from software development with versioning tools such as git. I think it's appropriate on Wikipedia for the same reason.

Identifying and avoid edit wars

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My approach to back-and-forth edits is based more around vibes than about an immutable limit on the number of revert-ish edits. If it seems like we're converging on a mutually agreeable solution, I'm more likely to continue with edits and edit summaries. If it requires more thought and broader compromise, I'm more likely to take it to a talk page. If consensus seems elusive, I'm more likely to back down.

My focus when editing articles

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A gnome by default

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My first pass reading of an article focuses on clear use of punctuation and sensitive use of language. Later, I may come back to address holistic concerns such as organization and fairness.

A reader-centric approach to neutrality

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I see NPOV as implying a requirement that we take into account cognitive biases likely to affect how readers interpret our articles:

Use of primary sources in addition to secondary sources

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Secondary sources are great for establishing notability and proper synthesis, but sometimes a primary source is ideal for establishing that something is actually true.

Asking sources to make statements so that encyclopedias can become better

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Sometimes it's just a smidge "original research" to make the article easier to understand, and emailing an actual reliable source with a suggestion is the way to go. If this approach catches on, maybe we can call it WP:!!!OR (because WP:NOTOR and WP:NOTSYNTH are taken). Examples:

Not writing articles WP:BACKWARDS

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It's a goal, at least.

My approach on talk pages

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Threaded discussion and "refactoring"

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I endorse Wikipedia:Thread-mode disclaimer: it is okay for anyone to refactor my comments in a way that preserves my meaning and improves the readability of the overall discussion.

I occasionally edit others' comments to fix small errors that have high impact on readability. I am careful to do this only when it is an unambiguous mistake, when my change is an unambiguous improvement, and when these criteria are easily verifiable by anyone watching the talk page history. If you're happy for me to make slightly bolder improvements to your comments, let me know or link to Wikipedia:Thread-mode disclaimer on your user page.

Subscribing vs Watching

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I often subscribe to H2 sections of talk pages rather than watching the entire page. This method means I sometimes miss additions to a conversation that are not written as signed replies, as those are the only ones that trigger notifications.

Linking to specific comments

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DYK: clicking a comment's timestamp copies a link directly to the comment? And that following this type of link puts a blue box around the comment?

I didn't know, so I made a terrible CSS hack in my common.css, only recently deleted.

Voting and alternatives

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:(
Jesse's device ran into a problem and needs to restart in a loop forever
Survivor of the {{{count}}}-word 2024 CrowdStrike-related article naming saga

In complex situations, I may create procedures for non-threaded forms of discussion, depending on my intuition about what next step will most help move the existing discussion forward.

My focus when editing templates

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I am interested in the accessible use of color and images:

I am also interested in ease of use of templates:

My proudest on-wiki accomplishments

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Shepherding discussions:

Lowering the temperature:

Article content:

My customizations to the editing process

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  • Settings:
    • Links to disambiguation pages – orange
  • common.css:
    • Discussion anchors – makes it easier to link to a specific comment in a threaded discussion
    • Watch page – highlight page names
    • Watch page – hide thank/rollback buttons
  • Experimenting with:
    • Definition list styling – so I can notice if ; is misused for pseudo-headings or : is misused for indentation (outside of talk pages)
    • Links through main-space redirects – green?
    • Links to policies, guidelines, and essays – various shades of green?

Templates created

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Wikipedia essays

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Beyond Wikipedia

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Consensus-based democracy

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Founder of the “New American Synthesis” party in the US.

The party is based on Wikipedia principles and made possible by procedural innovations discovered on Wikipedia.

Selected tweets

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Tweets about Wikipedia:

Tweets inspired by my Wikipedia experience: