[[Image:Nathan-2007.jpg|200px|left]]Hi, I'm Nathan Richards. I'm 31 years old and live in [[WikiTravel:Ottawa|Ottawa]], [[WikiTravel:Canada|Canada]]. I work for [[Xytra.net|Xytra Internet Services]] as Community Services Coordinator. Basically that means: I work on our community-based services like [[XIM.ca]] (Xytra Instant Messaging) and [[Xblogs.ca]] (Xytra Blogging Community).
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I've been a [[WikiWiki|wiki]] enthusiast since Feb '06. I'm an administrator of [http://www.bluwiki.com BluWiki].
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I've been a part of [[AboutUs]] (in some form or other) from mid-January '07 onwards. I strongly believe in the [[BeTransparent|transparency]] of [[AboutUs]] which eventually led to me editing under my [[RealName|full name]]. I strongly encourage communication - please do let me know if I make a mistake and I'll be happy to discuss it with you, [[RevertsHurt|don't just blindly revert]].
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Some other stuff I've done is bugtracking/idea submitting for various scripts/software that I use ([http://www.egghelp.org/tclhtml/3478-4-0-0-1-wiki.htm wiki.tcl], [[OpenWebAnalytics.com|OpenWebAnalytics]], among others).
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==='''Social Networks'''===
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I use literally a ton of social networking sites (I'm not active on many of them!). I don't publish these openly due to some rather disturbing past experiences.
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If you have any questions about what social networking website I may or may not be on, [[Special:Emailuser/Nathan|please feel free to ask]].
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My interests are music, movies, travel, sociology, politics (I'm a socialist), [[Wiki]]s (of course) and [[:Category:Computer and Technology Law|Internet law]].
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*My website is [[nathanr.ca]]. It's a blog that I occasionally update whenever I can be bothered (usually in one week, there's a pile of posts on varying topics - from newsfeeds and such).
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*[[Gay-Geeks.com]] is also managed by me. It's a website about an IRC channel on [[Undernet.org|Undernet]].
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padding: 3px;"><font face="trebuchet ms" color="white">'''''What I've done on AboutUs'''''</font></div>
* [[User:Nathan/What AboutUs is not|What AboutUs is not]]
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* [[What is an edit summary?]]
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* [[Xblogs.ca]]
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* [[XIM.ca]]
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* [[Xytra.net]]
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Also, while at [[RoCoCoCamp.info|RecentChangesCamp Montreal 2007]], [[Ray King|Ray]] & I had a conversation which led to [[Thoughts On Negative Reviews]].
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If you can think of an appropriate one to be added, suggest or add it yourself and let me know.
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* [[User:Nathan/addreview|addreview]] - telling users how to properly add a constructive review (thanks, [[Isabel]])
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* [[User:Nathan/allcapspages|allcapspages]] - asking users not to create pages in all-caps
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* [[User:Nathan/elinking|elinking]] - asking users not to add irrelevant external links to pages
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* [[User:Nathan/hackedby|hackedby]] - to warn users who remove information (or add nonsense pages) with silly "hacked by" stuff.
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* [[User:Nathan/noblanking|noblanking]] - warning users not to blank pages
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* [[User:Nathan/seospamming|seospamming]] - warning users not to SEO-spam
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* [[User:Nathan/spamwarning|spam-1]] / [[User:Nathan/spam-2|spam-2]] / [[User:Nathan/spam-3|spam3]] - warning users not to spam
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* [[User:Nathan/testmessage|testmesssage]] - informing users about the correct place to make test edits
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* [[User:Nathan/vandalwarning|vandalwarning]] - warning a user not to vandalise
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padding: 3px;"><font face="trebuchet ms" color="white">'''''Ideas & thoughts to help improve the project'''''</font></div>
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* I'd really like to see warnings being implemented on a wider scale (so it's not just myself and a few others doing it), maybe added to the uber patrol tool (even though I don't use it, I think it would be a good idea to give the option of warnings)
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* The [[OpenID]] plugin should use "Simple Registration protocol" to bypass the data-entry step of registration. This was briefly [http://nathanr.ca/galleries/RecentChangesCamp/2007/RoCoCo-9.jpg discussed] at [[RoCoCoCamp.info|RoCoCoCamp]].
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* [[RevertsHurt]] - if you revert someone, please take the time to tell them why, even if you think it's the most insignificant of reverts. Thanks to [[Brandon CS Sanders|Brandon]] for the thought.
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* Communication is really important. It's not used near as much as it should be. This is a community, much more of a functioning community than Wikipedia, and when communication isn't as good as it should be, users feel that their thoughts, ideas and contributions are largely ignored, causing them to want to leave.
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* "I don't like it" is not a valid reason to oppose something. When you say "I don't like it", be fully prepared to give your opinion of what you would do instead and why.
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* More of a human nature question: It's mindboggling the amount of people who complain about the most insignificant of things, which they can easily solve themselves with a little reading. How do we get people to actually read the information they need to, there's the rub. We shouldn't have to spoon-feed them. Why do people (humans in general, not specific people) want to be spoon-fed? In a choice between the easy way and the hard way, why does the easy way win out? Take a little effort to do something yourself and while you're doing that, you might just learn something.
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More as I think of stuff.
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