User:DuncanHill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A few notes about me and my interests, which are intended both for the satisfaction of the curious, and to better enable those editors who so wish to read my contributions critically.

I'm 38, English and male.

Born in Bristol of moonraker stock, I grew up in Cornwall (specifically Treknow and St Austell), and retain a close interest in all things Cornish, especially mining, the china clay industry, pasties and clotted cream. I attended Tintagel County Primary School, Sir James Smith's School, Penrice Comprehensive, and St Austell VIth Form College, before going to Grey College, Durham.

Geology is a hobby of mine.

I live in Brighton, and am involved in various community groups there.

I've been involved in Scouting most of my life, and am now a Group Scout Leader.

I am a member of the British Association, the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall and the Russell Society. I am also a Buffalo (though I have not attended lodge for a long time).

I could be described as being Inclusionist, Eventualist and Incrementalist. I have also been accused of "mindless policy wonkery" for warning an experienced editor about a breach of Wikipedia's policy against personal attacks.

I have an account at Commons

Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on the style of present schools. Neither new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor the proliferation of educational hardware or software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally the attempt to expand the pedagogue's responsibility until it engulfs his pupils' lifetimes will deliver universal education. The current search for new educational funnels must be reversed into the search for their institutional inverse: educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring. We hope to contribute concepts needed by those who conduct such counterfoil research on education--and also to those who seek alternatives to other established service industries.

—Ivan Illich^[1]

Contents 1 Off-wiki communications 2 Useful things 3 To do 4 Cornwall WikiProject 5 Pages I've created 5.1 People 5.2 Places 5.3 Things 5.4 Odds & sods 5.5 Personal 6 The Generosity of Others 7 DYK 8 Some thoughts about Wikipedia and Wikipedians 9 Some boxes 10 References

[edit] Off-wiki communications

Caveat Should I receive information by private means I shall consider that the sender has waived any claim of copyright or privacy on their part of the message and has obtained such permission on the part of any third parties whose post(s) form part of the message. By communicating with me outside of Wikipedia spaces you are giving me permission to disseminate the content of any message in the manner of my choosing,and you hold yourself liable for any violation of law, Wikipedia policies, service providers Terms of Service, and other consequence of my making public such information. You may request privacy, and I may honour such a request, butI am not bound by it. DuncanHill (talk) 19:36, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Useful things

Search Wikipedia with Google [1]

WikiBlame - search article history to find when and by whom a particular piece of text was added [2]

Searching for articles in a combination of categories - Wikipedia:Categorization#Searching_for_articles_in_categories

New to Wikipedia? The Welcoming Commitee is at WP:WELCOME

Frequently asked questions is a good place to go if you are unsure on how to proceed.

{{subst:welcomeg}} Typing this on a new editor's talk page will provide them with a welcome message, and a variety of helpful links.

{{expand}} add it to articles which need expansion - a great alternative to speedy deletion!

WP:TALK will help you use Talk Pages constructively.

WP:VANDAL will tell you how to deal with vandalism.

WP:TT has a variety of useful talk-page templates, including those for warning vandals and other non-constructive editors.

WP:RPP is for requesting that an article is "protected", useful when it attracts a lot of vandalism.

WP:COI contains guidance on conflicts of interest.

WP:AUTO for policy on autobiographical articles.

WP:CANVASS contains guidance about canvassing for debates, including stealth-canvassing.

Template:Cite web, how to cite web resources.

Template:Cite book, for citing books.

And lots more citation templates here.

Part of an article disappeared? It happens to the best of us - this explains the likely cause and solution.

Article deleted? These good people may be able to help, by copying the deleted text to your userspace, so you can work on improving it.

Has your article been wrongly speedied? Check out non-reasons for speedy here.

Copyright problems with your images? First, try this excellent flow chart. Still having problems? You can ask for help here.

London Gazette search engine here [3]

Archive.org amazing!

Oxford Digital Library collection of Key Historical Geological texts another stunner!

Geograph Photos of every Grid Square in Britain! (well, not quite all yet - you can upload your own to help complete it). A great resource, as Geograph photos are available for re-use under a Creative Commons licence, why not have a gander, and upload some of them to Commons for use on articles currently lacking photos?

More than you ever realized you could possibly need to know about fish Fishbase.

[edit] To do

1. Complete work on Cornwall type localities
2. Complete work on Cornwall people RGSC and RCPS done, RIC 9 people to do, stub to write on PNHAS
3. Retire.

[edit] Cornwall WikiProject

If you are interested in extending and improving articles about Cornwall, then please visit the WikiProject Cornwall.

[edit] Pages I've created

[edit] People

Charles Foster Barham John Boson (writer) Nicholas Boson Thomas Boson Edward Budge Elizabeth Catherine Thomas Carne Charles Chorley Joseph Henry Collins Jonathan Couch Richard Quiller Couch

Richard Edmonds (scientist) Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert John Hawkins (geologist) Thomas Brown Jordan Henry Letheby John Mawe Matthew Paul Moyle William Oliver (physician) John Arthur Phillips John Ralfs

Philip Rashleigh Julian Rathbone Gordon Reid (actor) Ben Rice John Rogers (divine) Edward Smirke David Treffry Walter Hawken Tregellas Sir George Trevelyan, 4th Baronet

[edit] Places

Boscawen-Un

Maker-with-Rame

St Breward

St Endellion

[edit] Things

Andrewsite Arthurite Barstowite Botallackite Gehlenite Henwoodite

Jordanite Meneghinite Nadorite Piemontite Royal Geological Society of Cornwall Russellite

Any help in expanding these would be very much appreciated!

[edit] Odds & sods

Cornwall stubs

Cornwall building & structure stubs

Caradon navigation box

User:DuncanHill/BA

User:DuncanHill/JOB

User:DuncanHill/SupportSA

[edit] Personal

My sandbox

Sandbox2

Treasures of the Earth partwork - I use this to link my off-Wikipedia reading with articles on Wikipedia, both to improve my knowledge, and to give me suggestions for new articles.

Cornwall People - for people associated with Cornwall, who are in the ODNB but not yet in the Wikipedia.

Cornwall Resources - a place for me to bring together resources relevant to Cornwall.

Cornwall type localities - to compile a list of type localities in Cornwall.

What is to be done? - my thoughts for improving the Wikipedia.

User:DuncanHill/Science - what real scientists say about the "intelligent design" and creationism lunacies.

[edit] The Generosity of Others

		The Original Barnstar
		for all your recent hard work Reedgunner 14:52, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

		The Working Man's Barnstar
		I, Dweller, award you the working man's barnstar for your tireless contributions to the project since you joined. Wikipedia is stronger for the contributions of people like you. We're glad to have you on board. --Dweller 14:06, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		You truly showed the spirit of Wikipedia in helping our friend the sitting duck. Your kindness is not unnoticed! Love,Neranei (talk) 01:35, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		For making a difference. Sluzzelin talk 00:54, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

		The Categorisation Barnstar
		For all the nice categorization work on James Ranald Martin and several other pages. Keep going! Prashanthns (talk) 14:29, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] DYK

On 27 November 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article John Mawe, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

On 18 December 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article John Rogers (divine), which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

On 20 December 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Jonathan Couch, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

On 26 December 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article John Ralfs, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

On 12 January 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Dr William Oliver, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

[edit] Some thoughts about Wikipedia and Wikipedians

SteveBaker has written a good essay about consensus - Consensus Essay.

This has promise Wikipedia:Governance reform.

I enjoyed reading this essay - Wikipedia:Give an article a chance, and this one is good too - Wikipedia:Lurkers.

User:Bstone/sysop recall

Seeing an RfA opposed because the candidate said he wanted to make a friendlier and more progressive environment for editors just takes the biscuit!

Someone has suggested, in relation to Foundation elections "I would almost go so far as to say that suffrage should go to project admins, completely ignoring edit count". I won't embarrass the person responsible by naming them, as they did go on to say it was a random thought, but such a change would, in my opinion, be the death of Wikipedia.

[edit] Some boxes

In order for users of Wikipedia to read the encyclopaedia critically, they should have information about the social and political backgrounds and beliefs of editors.

[edit] References