User:Jtdirl
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Unfortunately Jtdirl has retired, possibly permanently, as a Wikipedia editor and may not be returning, at least not for the forseeable future. I may however make the odd visit back. Best wishes and good luck! |
I regret to say that I have decided to terminate my participation with Wikipedia. It has been a challenging, often rewarding, but all too often frustrating experience. I have come across some of the most astonishingly talented individuals who have done remarkable work and produced extraordinary articles. However I found the constant bombardment with messages from those damned bots the last straw. The idiotic things constantly bombard me with messages demanding that I supply information on photos that I have supplied repeatedly, but the damn bots through design flaws miss. Perfectly legal images, including some of my own taken by me for Wikipedia and unambiguously stated to have been taken by me, and given freely to Wikipedia, have been deleted amid snide insinuations from bots that the source of the picture is disputed when the source has been added in over and over and over.
I also found myself spending far too much time dealing with vandalism. The sheer size of Wikipedia makes maintaining quality impossible. Too many articles that were top class and the work of superb contributors could be reduced to unreadable pulp by one or two illinformed editors. I ended up giving up the fight to maintain standards.
I cannot possibly list all the great contributors I met over my four years here. Among them were Mav, Deb (Man I'll miss you!), John Kenney, 171 . . . I was going to keep going but I could fill the page with the list. To all of you, thank you for a most wonderful experience.
To Jimbo, I salute your courage in creating this extraordinary site. I only wish that we had tighter structures to help keep up standards rather than have to fight over and over again to undo vandalism.
I will drop back occasionally, probably anonymously. I didn't intend coming back at all, such was my frustration in recent times but I have been using the site tonight anonymously and corrected a few errors and thought I'd better explain my departure.
There is more I could say but . . . well may I will someday. I wish Wikipedia all the success in the world. I have been proud to have been a contributor and hopefully have been of some use. I am particularly proud of some of my work here. When I came here the Irish pages were dire and the naming conventions on royalty an international laughing stock. I was glad to have devoted so much time to repairing them. I was particularly chuffed to hear on the BBC recently an expert say that Wikipedia's coverage on titles and usage was the best of any encyclopaedia and showed that a lot of experts who knew what they were doing contributed.
I won't spill the beans on who they are but over the years I became aware through private channels of some of the identities of some of the contributors. Suffice to say that you would be surprised if you knew who they were. One of them was a senior Vatican official with an astonishing (and impressively neutral) knowledge of world religions. One contributor here was at the time a head of government and we even had a European royal on here. One of the saddest experiences I had was to see a very very senior figure, a world-renowned expert who could command fees in the tens of thousands for a ten minute speech, hounded off here by a group of ignorant fools who knew nothing about the topic but made that gentleman's life a misery. Encyclopaedias like Brittanica would have offered that person a blank cheque to write for them. A small bunch of idiots drove him away.
But enough of the cribbing. Thank you for the experience. I wish Wikipedia every success in the future. But please please find a way to control the ability of people who don't know what they are talking about from driving away though who do. And please please would someone get the photo-gestapo to start working with people rather than waging a blitzkrieg on people's work. Not every one among those solving the problem of illegal photographs has an attitude. Many work very well with people. But a few storm around hounding people. In my last month on here at least 9 people I knew and highly respected were driven away by the bot-madness, having had their work torn to shreds, their honesty impuned and their desire to help fix problems undermined by bot-bombardment day after day. It drove them away. It has driven me away. Unless something is done to fix it it will drive others away also. And Wikipedia will be the poorer for it.
And finally, as those of you who know me know, I am also a poet and lyricist (and a historian, polemist, political scientist and a couple of other things - time to get back to the real job and leave Wikipedia on its own) and occasionally leave joke limericks around. Here is my final effort.
When it comes to writing Wikipedia
There are vandals who will try then to beat ya
By savaging texts
and becoming great pests
All to earn us a criticial media.
I'll decided to call it a day Having had to add in one more say.
The curtain now drops
My editing stops
But its been fun, which I'll miss come what may.
The end.
Slán libh and God Bless.
FearÉIREANN
\(caint) 04:32, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
Or as I am known in the real world, Thom Cadden.
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Note: Jtdirl's comments on Wikipedia are a work in progress subject to the Thread-mode Disclaimer. 
 Believe it or not, many Irish people hate Guinness and are bemused at tourists flocking to Ireland to drink it. I for one think it tastes hideous. Give me Smithwicks or even Carlsberg any day! An analysis of me, done through What is Your World View? You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.
Some thoughts on President Bush and his worldview
I'm a Dublin-based 30-something writer, columnist and academic. My politics are left of centre. Since joining Wikipedia in November 2003 I have written on a broad range of topics, including Irish government and politics, religion, globalisation, folklore, republicanism, constitutions, governmental systems, state ceremonial to god knows what else.  By the way, some people have asked about my usernic. Fear Éireann means Man of Ireland in Irish. (Caint by the way is the Irish for talk) The colours used in my sig are two of those of the Irish flag, green (for Irish nationalism) and orange (for Irish unionism). The Irish tricolour, green, white and orange symbolises peace and reconciliation between unionism and nationalism.
Though I change it regularly you'll see my usernic on talk pages in the form FearÉIREANN Some of the things I have written about are listed below. A number of articles I have written have become Wikipedia:Featured articles. One example was Papal Tiara.
Ireland
Biographies
God visits President George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Ian Paisley to announce the impending end of the world. They report the news to their colleagues. George Bush announces to his cabinet: "Friends, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I have definite proof that God exists, because He has spoken with me, and the bad news is that the world's going to end tomorrow." Mikhail Gorbachev announces to the CPSU Presidium: "Comrades, I have bad news and worse news. The bad news is that the God, who we have been denying for the last 70 years, exists, for He has spoken with me, and the worse news is that the world's going to end tomorrow." Ian Paisley announces to the UUP leadership: "Friends, I have good news and better news. The good news is that I have proof that the Lord our God exists, because I have spoken with Him, and the better news is that He has told me that there will NEVER be a united Ireland!". Arwel Question: If we have to go back a while in terms of content, does this mean -
FearÉIREANN Hey, there's always Fred Bauder's Internet-Encyclopedia. http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Main_Page Anyone want to join me and get user accounts? 172 13:40 Jul 28, 2003 (CEST)
Long time no hear, me old mucker. Deb 17:39, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC) Sorry to butt in but i noticed a conversation you had on the British isles discussion page where you referred to the Book "The Isles" by Norman Davis. Can i recommend to you two books on Cornish history. Mark Stoyle "West Britons, Cornish identities in the early modern British state" Philip Payton "Cornwall a history" Both excellent and place the Cornish in their rightful context as a distinct peoples of the Atlantic Archipelago. Bretagne 44 6/02/05
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