User:History21

I am a young high school student, in my Senior Year, living in the northern US. I want to be a history major in college, and I'm hoping to go to a university in Michigan. A particularly love World War II and post-World War II history.

A Statement About Wikipedia

To those who have supported me, to those who have contributed with me, and to those whose reputations have been stained and accounts blocked because of my tangles: I address you.

I have been a relatively new editor, idealistic perhaps, and certainly earnest. I have contributed a profound amount to Wikipedia, have been involved in a number of major articles, have cited my articles so thoroughly that one user said it violated on “copyright violation” and have always done my best to better the encyclopedia.

At this hour, I have been accused and, according to a user search, confirmed of being a known sockpuppeteer. My alleged sockpuppets have been blocked, essentially undoing their many months of hard work on behalf of this project.

I am left, but my reputation is so tarnished as a result of it all that effective and constructive editing is a virtual impossibility. As such, I will leave Wikipedia. Behind me is a solid record of good editing that I hope can help some history student out there, searching frantically for information in a public library just days before a critical essay is due. It makes me laugh now: that’s exactly how I stumbled upon Wikipedia, doing a history report. That was back in November of 2004, several months before I created an account.

I found the assortment of articles helpful (in the case of that particular teacher, vitally so), the body’s practice as novel, and the very idea of it profoundly democratic. In short, Wikipedia is at its heart an excellent organization with a great purpose. The unintended consequences of its development and its greater accuracy are malicious, bitter administrators who patrol the Web with an iron fist of totalitarian command that wholly betrays the Encyclopedia’s purpose and nature.

My withdrawal from Wikipedia is motivated by my desire to escape the acrimonious atmosphere that surrounds me. I have decided that the Encyclopedia, in what it has become, is no longer for me. I will maintain my account and peek in from time to time, but my editing days are over.

Chiefly, I hope that my contributions here can be used to guide someone else, some young intellectual, thirsty for knowledge, and anxious to give knowledge to others. Several legitimate articles (oh, what understatement) have been deleted. Jehu Eyre was one of my proudest achievements: a great American who I tried to honor. Anyone who can rewrite this should. No doubt it will be a Revolutionary War enthusiast.

In closing, I counsel vigilance against such users as User: Zoe and User: Hipocrite. At the end of it all, they are nothing more than glorified vandals. My former supporters have turned on me, swayed by the incontrovertible conclusiveness of matching IP addresses, but at one time they saw it, too. Be on the guard, honest users, to brook such tyranny. Until then, good luck.

August 2, 2006

History21 03:14, 3 August 2006 (UTC)History21

A Statement About "Hoaxes"

I consider myself to be a good Wikipedia editor. One of the first things that I did upon signing up was to identify a fake article about a fictitious civil war that supposedly took place in the 2040's. I also reported vandalism of the France article. I have started or had an active role in Westminster High School (Westminster, Maryland), And Having Writ…, First Family of the United States, List of American wars, U.S. presidential elections and winners, Jehu Eyre, and more. I participated in the Maryland debate and have always tried to be honest. I've also been involved with Eyrecourt Castle and Grange Estate, both of which I sourced. I have been accused of hoaxing, some of it involving articles to which I made only minimal contributions. I posted a series of lovely pictures on First Family of the United States, only to have them taken down because of my alleged activities in collusion with several other users. This is not fair and not honorable. I have been a productive and active editor, and, despite making some mistakes of judgement (i.e., supporting Eyre Empire), a mostly accurate one. These attacks on me are unjustified. I would ask that those truly responsible be the ones under indictment by the rest of the Wikipedia community.