This user has been identified as anAwesome Wikipedianand was awarded his own day.
I'm Art LaPella. Born in 1951. I live near Seattle, U.S. When I was a kid I did well in most any class that didn't require an essay, but essays made me feel almost suicidal, because I didn't feel I had anything worth saying until I was about 30. Now it's a lot easier, although I haven't written any Wikipedia articles. I did write this financial article elsewhere. But mostly, I get a kick out of just skimming thru for typos, spelling etc., and many of the articles are fun to read anyway. When everyone else misses simple errors like these on what was then Wikipedia's most read Vital Article, I almost feel as if I'm creating Wikipedia by myself. Doesn't someone have to make edits with as many details as this one? I do as much, or more, than anyone else to keep simple errors off the Main Page.[1][2] But I should really be getting back to my real job. That's playing the stock market, controlled by a program I wrote and keep maintaining.
Here are my Points Of View on the screamier subjects no one ever agrees on: I lost my faith, but I still believe in traditional ethics, most anyone's traditional ethics, justified as kinship altruism rather than spirituality. So what you think is hostility could be what I think is justice. It would be nice if ethics could be taught rationally, but often one gets a better understanding of human interactions from the religious extremists than from the political correctness cult that has taken over the "social sciences". If we can't talk about racial differences honestly, we can't investigate what probably caused the current (2008) financial crisis for example, although the Community Reinvestment Act article hints at it. Conservatives should put less effort into persuading a majority of fools to vote for them. Instead, they should be organizing a new civilization where free lunch believers, and the demagogues who lead them, don't make the rules. See Seasteading for instance. Or even the Mars Colonial Transporter. Honesty is part of both religion and the scientific method, but dishonesty in religion is called faith, and dishonesty in science is called political correctness. I often agree with Ayn Rand, but I don't call myself Objectivist, mainly for fear of being mistaken for a dogmatic true believer.
If Wikipedia dies, it will be because: 1) An influential faction, and close to a consensus, has decided that experienced Wikipedians don't need to be as civil as newcomers. What's worse, is that so many otherwise respectable Wikipedians are pretending that we have the opposite problem, which makes a constructive discussion impossible, as well as making it hard to believe them about anything else. Or 2) Wikipedia:Link rot. Wikipedia:Verifiability is a joke when half our references are dead links. And elaborate instructions for how we can fix one link at a time are not a serious solution to millions of dead links. Nothing should be considered really referenced until we can come up with a reference that doesn't self-destruct.
Bill Gates died and went to the pearly gates. Saint Peter said "We've been waiting for you", presenting a key with the name "Bill Gates" on it. Gates confidently inserted his key into the gate to unlock it. His confidence fell suddenly to concern, as the key wouldn't turn. Concern yielded to panic as he wiggled the key and the gates, and frantically looked all over his key. The key had a help button that said: "I've got great news! Now for the first time with Key version 6.6.6, you have the power to choose your own interface between the key's tumbler pins, the encryption algorithm, and the QXZ! Enter your interface's identifier or its alias in the field below."
A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho was beaten and robbed, and left half dead. A conservative came and said, "Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps", and passed by on the other side. Then a Good Samaritan came, bound the man's wounds, and paid to take him to an inn. The man said, "But you are the same person who beat and robbed me." The Good Samaritan answered, "Where do you think the government and the IRS get my program funding?"
Awards
The Barnstar of Diligence
For tirelessly working to keep the grammar and spelling straight even in the midst of gigantic edit wars, I award Art LaPella this Barnstar of Diligence. ScienceApologist 08:36, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
For your commitment to proofreading and reverting vandalism, I award you this barnstar as a token of gratitude. Please keep up the excellent work. --Antorjal 01:15, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
LestatdeLioncourt has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling to someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Smile to others by adding {{subst:smile}}, {{subst:smile2}} or {{subst:smile3}} to their talk page with a friendly message. Happy editing!
To Art LaPella for all the little (and big!) things he does to keep DYK running smoothly. AgneCheese/Wine 05:31, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
The Anti-Flame Barnstar
Dear Art LaPella, please accept this Anti-Flame Barnstar for keeping cool in a prolonged conflict of interest debate, as well as your exemplary attempts at resolving it with Wiki best interest in mind. Poeticbenttalk 16:22, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
Congratulations, Art LaPella! According to Wikipedia Page History Statistics, you have just become the first person to make 1000+ edits at Wikipedia:Main Page/Errors. This indicates that you, in response to the many reports posted there, have been using your mop a lot to clean up Main Page. Here's a medal for you in appreciation for your hard work in keeping the face of Wikipedia neat and tidy and error-free. Thank you. Happy editing! --PFHLai (talk) 14:51, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Recovery
Dear Art LaPella. Please accept this Recovery Barnstar in gratitude for your work at helping to save Anna Borkowska from W:CP report. Thank you! Poeticbenttalk 15:41, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
To Art LaPella, with a thousand thanks for being a fantastic Wikipedia editor. -SusanLesch (talk) 23:38, 19 August 2008 (UTC)
The TomStar81 Spelling Award
Be it known to all members of Wikipedia that Art LaPella has corrected my god-awful spelling on the page USS New Jersey (BB-62), and in doing so has made an important and very significant contribution to the Wikipedia community, thereby earning this TomStar81 Spelling Award and my deepest thanks. Keep up the good work! TomStar81 (Talk) 23:17, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
The Working Man's Barnstar
For your massive and laborious effort in making the DYK rules actually readable, have this Barnstar; it's the concet of the DYK community. Yes, DYK medal would be more appropriate, but you already have one, and variety counts...I'm sure everyone agrees that whatever is the fate of your work, it was quite the effort. ResMar 21:10, 28 February 2009 (UTC)
..for keeping an eye on me --Ida Shaw (talk) 13:11, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
The Cleanup Barnstar
Thanks for your never-ending efforts to fix my typos and other mistakes in the POTD blurbs. howcheng {chat} 20:03, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
The Main Page Barnstar
Awarded to Art LaPella for becoming the first editor to make 2,000 edits to WP:ERRORS. With many thanks for all the hard work you do in trying to keep the main page error-free. BencherliteTalk 00:25, 30 March 2011 (UTC)
The Mandarax Barnstar of Excellence
I just mentioned you on my talk page, and I thought I would come here and award an MBE to you to thank you for all of the corrections which you make. I know that little gnomish edits often don't get much acknowledgement, so I wanted to let you know that your work is noticed and is greatly appreciated! MANdARAX•XAЯAbИAM 00:56, 8 July 2012 (UTC)
corrections
Thank you for quality educational correction of mistakes in spelling, grammar and meaning, to make articles look their best on the Main page, - repeating: you are an awesome Wikipedian (4 June 2010)! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:54, 10 October 2012 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Diligence
Thank you for your excellent and consistent work on the DYK queues and prep areas to make sure the hooks and image rollovers are grammatically sound and formatted properly. BlueMoonset (talk) 20:04, 25 December 2012 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
Thank you so much for helping in the cleanup of the "List of stars in x" articles! Keep up the good work! StringTheory11 (t • c) 18:18, 3 June 2014 (UTC)
corrections
Thank you for quality educational correction of mistakes in spelling, grammar and meaning, to make articles look their best on the Main page, - repeating: you are an awesome Wikipedian (4 June 2010)! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:54, 10 October 2012 (UTC)
Hi Art this is a thank you to you for fixing my abominably bad English. Greeting Brian BrianGroen (talk) 06:16, 28 March 2015 (UTC)
please help translate this message into the local language
The Cure Award
In 2015 you were one of the top 300 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs, and we would love to collaborate further.
CopyEditor's BarnStar
I award you this CopyEditor's BarnStar for insisting on clear, comprehensible, and grammatically correct articles. Art, as the West African Ebola virus epidemic, draws to an end[3] in regards to flare-ups, I wanted to say its been a pleasure working with you (lets hope it doesn't come back)...ozzie...-Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 13:10, 28 May 2016 (UTC)
The Rosetta Barnstar
thanks for the help on Panama Papers. Nobody currently working on the article speaks Spanish. Elinruby (talk) 18:23, 21 June 2016 (UTC)
The Special Barnstar
Congratulations on being the most accurate predicter of the "billionth edit" Fuzheado | Talk 16:26, 13 January 2021 (UTC)
--Ida Shaw (talk) 13:11, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
