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=My contributions=
=My contributions=


==Articles created==
V==Articles created==
* [[Encyclopedia of Homosexuality]]
* [[Encyclopedia of Homosexuality]]
* [[Nifty Erotic Stories Archive]]
* [[Nifty Erotic Stories Archive]]
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* [[Fred Halsted]]
* [[Fred Halsted]]
* [[:es:Juan López-Morillas|Juan López-Morillas]]
* [[:es:Juan López-Morillas|Juan López-Morillas]]
* [[Systemic bias in Wikipedia]]
* [[Systemic bias in Wikipedia]] (deleted)


==Major improvements==
==Major improvements==

Revision as of 01:48, 28 January 2015

{{User Copy Edit}}

Personal information

My name is Daniel Eisenberg. I have a B.A. in Romance Languages from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Spanish from Brown University. I was from 2000 to 2008 the editor of the journal Cervantes published by the Cervantes Society of America (http://cervantesjournal.com) or (https://web.archive.org/web/20140801155459/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/bcsalist.htm). In 1976 I founded and until 1992 edited and published the Journal of Hispanic Philology. I was a Contributing Editor of the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, published by Garland in 1990.

I was Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University, where I taught from 1974 to 1996. I am now retired.

You can find my personal page at https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/ You can find my Vita (Résumé) there. My articles on homosexual topics are at https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/INDEX-S.HTM, though an article from the "Encyclopedia of Medieval Iberia" is on my main page. Also there is a page on me in the Spanish Biblioteca Virtual Cervantes (http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaAutor.html?Ref=2987). My email address at present (2014) is danielbeisenberg(at)gmail.com.

Correspondence and other papers of mine are found in the Florida State University archives (Special Collections, Strozier Library), and at the Hispanic Society of America.

Wikipedia's principles

The following are principles of Wikipedia which appeal to me very much. I have deduced these from people's behavior, though no doubt they are written somewhere, or somewheres.

  • It is totally democratic. No one is better than anyone else.

  • Work is recognized.

  • It is the most anarchic organization, and I mean that in a good sense, that I've ever heard of. No one rules. There are no elections. The people themselves set up the structure. (Curiously, the only country in which Anarchism has been a real political force was Spain.)

  • A principle is "don't assume the worst, assume the best".

  • Knowledge is an unqualified good.

  • If you know something, you'll probably want to share it. In fact, there's a subtle pressure on you to share what you know.

  • No field of knowledge is better than any other. It doesn't matter what crazy thing you're interested in, if it's significant, write it up.

  • This is more than an encyclopedia project.

Here are two things I don't like, or at least am ambiguous about:

  • The burden of ascertaining the truth of Wikipedia's contents has been offloaded to externals: journals' editors and editorial boards, newspaper editors, and the like. I don't know a better system, but journal editors, newspaper editors, etc., are not exempt from influences on: what is acceptable, what will sell more papers, what is "politically correct", what will lead to the editor's career success.
  • Wikipedia does not want original research. Because it would then have to set up a structure to determine whether the original research was correct.

The following addition of mine was reversed in the article "Campaign for 'Santorum' neologism" because it constituted original research:

"After Savage began his campaign, Santorum was never to win another election, although the extent to which Savage contributed to the defeats has not been studied."

The election results are public documents and easily accessible, but I had to find _someone else_ who had made this observation. This may be according to policy, but I don't think it's good policy if it prohibits this.

As we have seen in the case of computer viruses (originally there were none), there is something criminal, evil, or at least mean in human nature -- not in everyone, but certainly in some -- and that shows up in Wikipedia just like it does in other places. Yet there is lots of altruism too.

(This added later.) wikipedia's software is a delight. Fast, clean, and so intuitive! (That's a computer term for "makes sense" "easy to understand and use" "The command you think will probably work, it'll work.)

I would encourage everyone to read Criticism of Wikipedia and Wikipedia:Systemic bias.

My contributions

V==Articles created==

Major improvements

Smaller improvements

(My contributions to es:wikipedia, in Spanish, are located at es:Usuario:Deisenbe.)

Minor edits only (selection)

Articles where I'm not happy at reverts made to my edits

Articles I intend to work on


Userboxes

This user is a
Wikipedian in the United States of America


Wikipedians in the United States
Wikipedians in the United States



This user is a participant in WikiProject Spain.
es-3Este usuario puede contribuir con un nivel avanzado de español.
pt-2Este usuário/utilizador pode contribuir com um nível médio de português.
ca-1Aquest usuari pot contribuir amb un nivell bàsic de català.
fr-2Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français.
This user is a participant in
WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies.
This user plays the piano.
This user plays the clarinet.
This user is of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry but is an Atheist.
Confusing, huh?
This user is an atheist
who defends the
rights of people of faith.
JHUThis user attends or attended
Johns Hopkins University
BThis user attends or attended
Brown University.
PhDThis user has a Doctor of Philosophy degree.
This user has published peer-reviewed articles in academic journals.
This user teaches at a university or other institution of higher education.
This user may read books
and drink tea whenever she
wishes – she's retired!
This user is a professional editor.
This user is a linguist.

Category:Bisexual men Category:Florida State University faculty Category:Northern Arizona University faculty Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Category:City College of New York faculty Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Brown University alumni Category:Excelsior College faculty

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