User:ClaudeMuncey

I'm a programmer/database administrator/whatever and found Wikipedia through Ward's Wiki late in 2001. Started editing and well, you know how these addictions start . . . the first one is always free . . .

I live in Central California (check the articles below and make a guess where) but have long standing interests in film, history, theology and the spirituality of the Carmelite and Benedictine Orders.

What I have been doing lately (and have been having a lot of fun with) is to pick a "most wanted" page, or an empty link on a page I find interesting, and then roughing in something a bit longer than a stub, but not a full article -- yet. A "super stub" is usually made up of:

a proper introductory sentence or two, as all good stubs have (including, if a person, birth and death dates, as well as full name)
bullet point list of "notes toward an article"
if person, quotes (if available)
bullet point list of links for further research

What I try to do as well is fully wikify the entries, and to do some basic reference cleanups or redirects as necessary. This ensures that those who are most likely to flesh out the "super stub" to a full aricle will find it.

The advantage is that they are fast to do, can often supply a substantial amount of information where there is none currently, and provide a start for a real article. Also, they help me avoid unconscious plagiarism of the sources (sometimes a real problem for me) through boiling the language down to the basic facts.

These seem to be working out well, and the best part is when you see someone else take off with it from there.

I'm working on the following