RuWiki History (Doronina and Pinchuk)/English/Interview with Kemen
| RuWiki History (Doronina and Pinchuk)/English | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dmitri Malashonok |
| Location | St.Petersburg |
| Number of edits | 1,7К |
1. Your handle on Wikipedia?
Kemen
2. What is your educational background and where do you work?
Engineer, I work for television.
3. Where do you live (Moscow, St. Petersburg, a city with a million inhabitants, a small town, etc)?
St. Petersburg
4. How old are you?
42
5. When and how did you first hear about the Russian Wikipedia, and why did you start editing?
I no longer remember where I heard about Wikipedia, but I have always been interested in the possibility of my own encyclopedia program or technical dictionary, and Wikipedia gave me precisely this opportunity, besides which it won me over by using free licenses on its material.
6. How many years have you participated? If you ever took an extended wiki-vacation, please provide the reason (i.e., too much work offwiki, unpleasant atmosphere/events in the project itself, or something else).
I've participated since 2004, though now I write very little, and this is mainly due to a heavy workload at my current job.
7. What do you like most about participating in the project? Why do you think you and other users participate in this work?
I like that there is an opportunity to add to and refine the existing information, and I like that the project has become truly notable and reliable in the Russian Internet. I won't speak for other users, but for me Wikipedia is an opportunity to preserve information that is, in my opinion, interesting and valuable, on a reliable online resource.
8. Which events do you consider to be the most important in the history of ru.wiki?
Nothing to say here. I don't really follow the history of Wikipedia. Perhaps the writing of the first 100,000 articles.
9. Do your professional interests overlap with the areas in which you edit on ru.wiki? If not, how do you decide which articles to edit?
Partially they overlap, but for the most part the topics of the articles I edit are things that interest me.
10. Do you participate in "metapedian" work, i.e., patrolling, discussions of nomination for deletion or renaming, templates? Do you follow the discussions that take place on the Forum, discussion pages of the ArbCom, etc.? Why/why not?
I sometimes participate in the discussion and nomination of articles, but for the rest, I don't have the time.
11. How do you feel about the administration of ru.wiki? (About the system in general, about certain admins, about the ArbCom?)
I accept the current rules, but sometimes it's very annoying that the fruits of long labor, which involves consulting many sources and solving formatting difficulties, is deleted by some young administrator without just cause. I'm not interested in fighting for the reinstatement of these articles, because I really do have a lot of work to do at the present time, but of course it's a pity that there is so much wasted effort.
12. How do you feel about the rules? Which rule (which "pillar") do you consider to be most important? Do you think that the atmosphere of the project is too strict?
In general the rules ensure the livelihood of the project, but the main thing is not to degenerate into banal bureaucracy (because it certainly won't be the bureaucrats of Wikipedia that will be talked about in the future :)). Let's not get out of hand playing with legislation. This very much threatens to lead to stagnation.
13. Do you communicate with other users outside of Wikipedia? If yes, how: at wiki-meetups, by chat, or through other Internet communities (LiveJournal)?
No. At one point I wanted to participate in the meetup in St. Petersburg, but the timing didn't work out.
14. How has working on Wikipedia helped/hindered you in real life?
For me, writing articles takes a lot of time, because during their creation I have to consult a lot of related information. Due to the current workload of my job I've been forced to put off my hobbies, including Wikipedia. On the whole, sometimes it is nice to realize that your efforts are included in this massive project.
15. Has participating in the project affected you personally? How so?
I don't know. I'm not prepared to formulate an answer.
16. Do you participate actively in other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation? If so, what are the main differences (positive or negative) from ru.wiki?
Practically not.
17. What other web projects do you participate in?
I have a personal page on vkontakte.ru and LiveJournal, but recently it is practically empty.
18. What other hobbies do you have?
Astronomics, multisport (adventure racing), the history of computer technology, dancing