 | I have retired from article editing on Wikipedia, retaining my account to take care of promises I had made to help set up a small number of articles, and to be able to request edits on pages related to myself, my work, and other matters of interest. Nonetheless, if you do need to contact me on something specific, a message on my talk page will still trigger an email and thus likely be seen. ADDENDUM:Mostly retired. I still keep an eye on articles I was already following, and will undo vandalism or BLP problems. But I am still trying to avoid making individual edits where possible.ADDENDUM 2: I seem to be slipping back into things. Will try to reel myself back. ADDENDUM 3: You can treat me as not retired, I suppose. It's still aspirational. |
Rectangles about Nat
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Yes, I amNat Gertler the writer, as well as the publisher ofAbout Comics.
I don't tend to add substantial new information to pages. Generally, I correct errors, reword for clarity, note where the source cited doesn't actually state the claim made, add things missing from lists... those sort of little polishes. I edit at times on comics topics, and posted under my own name so that no one can accuse me of hiding a conflict of interest (a conflict I try to avoid, although I couldn't resist adding an info box toMister U.S..) On the rare occasions when I start new pages, it is generally quite stubby -- my motivation is not "I know a lot about this", but "this is really something that should have a page"; my hope is that more knowledgeable folks will find the stub and fertilize it. Stubs I created:
...and I worked on but did not completeUser:NatGertler/marriage, intending to install in one of the same-sex marriage articles, andUser:NatGertler/GoogleCount andUser:NatGertler/BLPSimpsons as essays.
Here's the guy I'd like to nominate as the patron saint of Wikipedia editors: "...Philitas studied false arguments and erroneous word-usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death..."
Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn't, do something else.
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
In the past, I have edited articles having to do with the comic stripPeanuts, and there may have been times when such editing approachedconflict of interest. Now that I have worked on published licensed Peanuts product (as author of the booksThe Peanuts Collection,The Snoopy Treasures,Be More Snoopy, andBe More Charlie Brown, and co-author ofCharles M. Schulz: The Art and Life of the Peanuts Creator in 100 Objects and a writer on thePeanuts comic book and doing editorial work on the final volume ofThe Complete Peanuts, among other efforts), I feel that there would be an appearance of conflict if I were to do any further editing. After all, even when I'm not working directly for Peanuts Worldwide (holders of the intellectual property), my work is dependent on their approval. As such, I am now leaving suggestions on the talk pages of the articles, rather than editing directly, except for undoing sheer vandalism.
The game ofNomic is primarily designed as a set of rules in which players can change the rules of the game, including the conditions for winning. It is an article of faith among the Nomic community that a game of Nomic is never more than three good rule changes away from becoming Strip Nomic.
In many ways, Wikipedia is like Nomic. While it is not at heart (originally) a game, it is nonetheless built around a system of policies that include within themselves the ability to change those policies. As such, it may be tempting for some editors to attempt to modify policy with the goal of turning Wikipedia into Strip Wikipedia. For a variety of reasons, this is not a good idea, and should not be pursued, in much the same way as one should nottry to put beans up one's own nose; the sense of achievement that one might obtain would be dwarfed by the negative effects.
...isthis one.
