Doncram became a fan of wikipedia in mid-2005, and began editing actively in Fall, 2007. By the end of 2016 they had created over 9,400 non-redirect articles and almost 17,500 articles in total, according to Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by article count, and sometimes was listed in the top 20 of wikipedia editors by article count or in the top 200 by number of edits. These articles and edits span diverse areas, but a large concentration was in Wikipedia's one percent (during those times) that presents historic sites of the United States. In May, 2020, Doncram's mainspace articles numbered 13,534 (21st in rank) and edits numbered 180,658 (217th in rank).
Doncram says: I have focused my contributions in non-controversial areas, such as in developing lists of historic sites, articles about individual historic sites, and articles about architects and builders. I have enjoyed learning by reading and writing about these topics, and sharing my interest with others similarly engaged. However my overwhelming personal experience in Wikipedia has been learning firsthand about bullying and harassment, which goes on too often. The issue, which can be described in various ways, about "editor retention" and so on, is widely understood to be prevalent. It obviously hurts people, and it obviously decreases the numbers of new and old active Wikipedia editors. It was a leading topic of the 2014 Wikimania conference, and variations on the issue are discussed at User talk:Jimbo Wales and in RFCs sometimes. I identified with editor Fastily's comments about a horribly negative culture that can prevail within wikipedia, posted at User talk:Fastily, when that editor retired. And I pretty much also identified with SMcCandlish's letter of resignation. And GFHandel's resignation.
In my experience, it's a bullying culture, that attracts and rewards bullying. Good people are willing to come to the free-for-all forums of wp:ANI and other noticeboards a few times, but get burnt out. The forums self-select down to those who must find the negativity personally satisfying. At personal cost to many individuals who matter, and at cost of undermining the Wikipedia project and the crowd-sourced / freeware movement generally.
I have mostly thought that what was built in Wikipedia is here to stay, that even if a large number of editors are driven away, that the past work is good, clear, etc. At times I've seen assertions that Wikipedia could really fail, and I was at first quite skeptical. But gradually I have seen how non-mainspace areas of Wikipedia can be buried permanently by bad edits, by bot notices, by dead Talk pages, dead Wikiproject pages, and links to more and more dead-ends, with signs of unresolved litigations and disputes and so on. So that anyone considering whether they should contribute or not can see this as a wasteland, clearly not updated / current / really alive. And I also see vast dead areas in mainspace. It seems more and more possible, that Wikipedia really can fail, by driving away new and old editors. Of course Wikipedia has commercial value, so it won't disappear, but it could go dead as a volunteer project.
And I've started and developed a large number of articles on individual historic sites, with one of my special interests being to provide links for readers to the great NRHP nomination documents, increasingly available on-line. And I am proud to have made many other contributions within WikiProject National Register of Historic Places, including development of featured-list-worthy list-articles such as List of NHLs in NY.
And I'm proud to have founded the international WikiProject Historic sites, which quietly serves the needs of many disparate wikipedians trying to do good work. It's actually a service to provide one forum there, even if it is relatively inactive, so that historic sites-interested editors don't miss-spend energy trying to start up narrower Wikiprojects that are not likely to be successful.
And I'm proud to have helped energize a drive centered out of a wikiproject on Unreferenced BLPs to fix up unreferenced biographies-of-living-persons articles, which met an important, very public goal for Wikipedia a couple years ago now.
During 2013 to 2017, I was under arbitration restriction preventing editor SarekOfVulcan from interacting with me, and vice versa, and my editing in the NRHP area was limited. Since then I have returned to the area and done a lot more development. Interestingly, some of those who most contended with me previously have gone away when I was no longer available to contend with; maybe their interest was never in the writing about historic places after all, I have to wonder. Anyhow I have been able to revisit all articles in a longish list, to which I had once contributed before the good NRHP documents were available online, and to expand them all. And to go on to start short- and medium-length articles on many more NRHP topics.
In recent years I have tried directing some effort to writing essays, hoping to influence how some deletion discussions go, in a less-directly-confrontational way. This allows for more reflection and perhaps better communication; it seems productive. Some of my efforts in this area include my contributing to wp:TNTTNT and wp:ITSACASTLE. Which both were nominated for deletion, but "kept" by solid consensus, and I think references to them have been helpful in changing tenor of some discussions and in heading off unnecessary AFDs.
Selected accomplishments
Participated in more than 1000 AFD discussions (see wp:AFDSTATS), very often saving an article from deletion by finding sources, by revising scope of article to cover a needed topic, or otherwise.
Started many articles on U.S. National Historic Landmarks with good starts including references to nomination forms and photos, e.g. to take a random one, see Schoonmaker Reef article started by me in 2008, since then nicely developed.
Started articles on NRHP-listed sites that add up to be more than half of all in various scattered counties and in a few states (including North Dakota and Nevada). Relatively more in New York, California, Connecticut, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam than elsewhere.
Created system of more than 800 articles on NRHP architects, builders, engineers, which has greatly enriched many pre-existing short NRHP articles, and which continues to enrich new NRHP articles created by me and others. Check out 0 articles currently in Category:NRHP architects, 0 articles in Category:NRHP builders,0 articles in Category:NRHP engineers.
Created more than 50 DYKs created (only occasionally creating new DYKs now)
Created "List of fully illustrated lists" system at wp:NRHP which took on a huge life of its own
Led campaign to table-ize NRHP lists, involving splitting out and table-izing county lists
Led campaign in 2008 to create an article for each of 2000 NHL places
Participated in campaign to table-ize all 50 states' NHL lists
Participated in developing List of NHLs in NY, table-ized by dmadeo; i created majority of linked articles and brought list-article through peer review and Featured List nomination processes.
Performed disambiguation all over. Won the August 2015 monthly disambiguation competition at wp:DPWL
Various identifications of worth topics in random areas. E.g. this edit in 2006 starting Charles Dawson article, later much developed by others.
NRHP geo lists
probably more than 1,000 NRHP geographic list-articles indexed from List of RHPs
probably 20 or so state-level NHL lists indexed from List of NHLs
Ones that are somewhat more developed/annotated than others:
Back a couple years ago now, there was quite a public flap about Biographies of Living Persons. I eventually chose to pitch in at wp:URBLP to help a good team of editors reduce the backlog of BLP articles without references, in order to meet a widely-publicized 6 month goal. I took care of more than 2,700 of them (see User:Doncram/IMDBzap) on my own, and I think I made a great deal of difference in restoring momentum forward to meet the goal, which was met. I attended to the public announcement of the goal having been being met in the Wikipedia newsletter, which I think went a ways towards mollifying various disagreements. --doncram 22:10, 16 July 2012 (UTC)
AFDs
During 2014-2015 I contributed in lots of Articles-for-deletion (AFD) processes, usually as an "inclusionist" towards "Keeping" valid topics. AFDs are by their nature negative, and too often destroy community fabric. My participation often involves me trying to reduce the negative impacts. E.g. trying to head off unnecessary deletions by creating suitable list-articles to which a topic can be redirected (saving editors' contributions within the redirect's edit history, allowing the topic to be expanded later). My creating List of books about the September 11 attacks, a pretty obviously good topic, is one example, prompted by an AFD about one of the individual books.
I'd like to clarify the AFD guidelines and related guidelines. For example I think wp:AFD is the correct process, not wp:RFD, for editors to consider the elimination of an existing article, with "Keep", "Redirect", "Merge", "Delete" being possible outcomes. RFD should be about deleting a redirect, or changing its target, not about restoring an article vs. keeping a redirect away from it, I think. I think the RFD and AFD guidelines may not be explicit about that.
Also not sure if AFD guidelines properly cover redirecting as an alternative. For most AFDs the goal of the nominator is to have the article deleted, and redirect is only a compromise outcome. I think if an editor's goal is merely to change an article topic to be a redirect, that an AFD is not necessary, if it is not likely to be controversial. It can just be done in editing, presumably with the editor merging any usable content to the redirect target. Do an explicit AFD if redirecting would be controversial. And if you redirect an article and someone objected by reverting, then it would be appropriate to discuss at Talk page or to open a formal AFD, in order to bring in views of uninvolved others. If one editor disputes at an article, redirecting it, and the redirect is showing as the status quo, I think it would be better to have an AFD, rather than an RFD.
And it's not necessary to include a separate "vote" for delete up front, if you are the AFD nominator. It's understood, and you should just put your full rationale for deletion in the nomination statement. There is wp:AFDSTATS which is a report about any editor's AFD participation, and that report understands properly that an AFD nomination is a "Delete" vote. It further properly understands if you change your mind, and say add a vote "Redirect" later....it will properly score the AFD nominator as "redirect". AFDSTATS keys off bolded words, so put your "vote" in bold, i.e. '''Redirect'''. You only need to "vote" explicitly if you change your mind from "delete".
Polite and informative and helpful interaction in AFD discussions help, and are important. It matters since AFDs by their nature are potentially/often negative experiences for article creators, especially newbies. AFDs can be humiliating and mean, and drive editors away permanently. AFDs is the main area I have been participating in recently, and in general I hope to have an effect in reducing the negative impacts (e.g. by heading off AFDs from being started in certain topic areas, by increasing choice of alternatives-to-delete outcomes like redirect, by improving guidelines on AFD process, perhaps by recruiting AFD participants). I browse in the new AFDs (linked from just below the top of wp:AFD, and in the topical categories Category:AfD debates (Places and transportation) and Category:AfD debates (Organisation, corporation, or product) (which are linked from wp:AFD#Categorized_discussions).
About AFD closures, I non-admin-closed (NADC)my first closure of an AFD, in January 2015. I got good tips from a helpful, experienced closer (recorded for myself here). That closure was actually criticized later within a new AFD, although others there agreed that my closure was proper. It seems relatively unproductive to try to perform NADC closures, because investment of my time is lost if the correct decision appears to be "Delete" and cannot be implemented by a non-administrator.
Update in September 2019: I've since created three AFD-related essays: wp:TNTTNT, wp:ITSACASTLE, and wp:OkayVsNotOkayListsOfPlaces. The first was disputed and was nominated for deletion itself, but was resoundingly "Kept", and IMO it has been fairly influential in a good way. The second has also been somewhat helpful, I believe. The third is new and in draft form and has not been invoked in any AFDs yet; I hope to develop it and use it helpfully in the future. Creating essays which can be refined to communicate a possibly difficult-to-express view in a good way, which can then be referenced in ongoing AFDs, seems constructive and seems to allow for more positive / less confrontational interactions, I think.
Technical notes, fixes
Geo coordinates
Directly revisions to {{GeoGroup}} to update for OSM replacement of Google map use, otherwise improve
In admiration for your kindness in taking the time to explain how our red-tape-entangled system works to new editor Jgstokes. E.M.Gregory (talk) 10:51, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
The Guidance Barnstar
Thank you for sources, lessons on style, and cleaning up articles. Oldsanfelipe (talk) 17:21, 10 October 2017 (UTC)
In recognition of Doncram's engaging and helpful way of dealing with people who are new to Wikipedia. Not afraid to get involved, and makes one feel welcome. A shining beacon to aspire to. A Guy into Books (talk) 13:17, 5 August 2017 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Diplomacy
For your ability to see both sides of an issue, and give sage advice gently, a rare and valuable asset to the project. E.M.Gregory (talk) 15:24, 2 May 2017 (UTC)
The Writer's Barnstar
Thank you for creating so many articles on historic buildings - your hard work is appreciated. Boleyn (talk) 19:55, 13 April 2017 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
For creating so many articles on Georgia recently. Your efforts over the years are appreciated. Boleyn (talk) 18:26, 12 March 2017 (UTC)
The Workers' Barnstar
This user has shown great editing skills in improving articles related to Communism or Socialism.
For appreciating my remarks at Bound Together Bookstore Collective, thus moving radical politics forward by allowing humor as a part of it. after all, "if i can't laugh, i dont want to be a part of your revolution"-not attributed to H.L. Mencken.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 21:13, 18 December 2016 (UTC)
~The Special Wikipedian Tribble Award~ Go forth and multiply, we need more pedians like you!
My way of acknowledging those editors who stand out above the fray. Being a mindful, considerate collaborator working to improve controversial articles, or save worthy articles from AfD for the benefit of the project is not an easy task, especially considering some of the mine fields one has to navigate in the face of relentless edit disruptions. It's not a simple Tiny TimTiptoe Through the Tulips, for sure. Thank you for all you do and all you've done to make editing an enjoyable experience for so many others. Atsme📞📧 21:04, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
The Super Disambiguator's Barnstar is awarded to the winners of the Disambiguation Pages With Links monthly challenge, who have gone above and beyond to remove ambiguous links. This award is presented to Doncram, for successfully fixing 1780 links in the challenge of August, 2015. Also, you are eligible for a free t-shirt from the Wikimedia Foundation. Message BD2412 if you need the details for claiming your prize. Rcsprinter123(notify) @ 16:50, 2 September 2015 (UTC)
The Christianity Barnstar
Dear Doncram, I award you this barnstar for your wonderful efforts in the expansion of List of local Methodist churches! I hope this brightens your day! I hope to see more great contributions to WikiProject Christianity related articles from you! AnupamTalk 03:55, 22 November 2012 (UTC)
The Photographer's Barnstar
For your participation in one of my contests, as part of the NRHP contest, I award you the Photographer's Barnstar! Buggie111 (talk) 23:58, 6 December 2011 (UTC)
The Mistagged BLP Cleanup Barnstar
This barnstar does not cite any references or sources.[1][2][3] For your work with mistagged BLPs, thank you! The list is now empty with your help. Gigs (talk) 05:27, 22 December 2010 (UTC)
The Barnstar of National Merit
for your numerous contributions to NRHP articles. I am a violinist (talk) 05:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
this WikiAward was given to Doncram by I am a violinist (talk) on 05:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
The Photographer's Barnstar
Congratulations to Doncram! You took 2nd place by adding 26 images to the Connecticut WikiProject during the Summer 2010 Photo Contest! Well done! Markvs88 (talk) 16:15, 3 September 2010 (UTC)
Keep track of upcoming reviews. Just copy and paste {{WPMILHIST Review alerts}} to your user space
The Hats Off Barnstar
This Hats Off Barnstar is awarded to Doncram for his continuing contributions to PRSHPO images added to the PD. The Sorting and verification of these Images by Doncram greatly contribute to current and future Puerto Rican related articles in the National Register of Historic Places in Puerto Rico. My Hats Off to you Doncram Quazgaa (talk) 14:57, 6 July 2010 (UTC).
Congratulations on 37 DYK's concentrating on historic sites around the world! Your help in expanding the encyclopedia is most appreciated dm (talk) 21:07, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
I award you this Barnstar for your contributions in table-izing multiple states' NRHP list-tables. You guys did a great job! I noticed that you did not get a Barnstar for your efforts (too modest to give it to yourself, I guess), so I hereby award you one. Bill Whittaker (talk) 20:29, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
Thank you SO much for helping me with Garden City High School. I really appreciate you helping me with editing and explaining proper etiquette. I have greatly improved the article thanks to your help. If you feel like it, drop me a barnstar sometime. It would be my first! JHawk88 (talk) 12:23, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Diligence
In recognition of the great job you've done with the NRHP tables, I'm awarding you this Barnstar! Rosiestep (talk) 19:32, 23 October 2008 (UTC)
The Purple Barnstar
Because like this barnstar, your work stands out with exceptional vibrancy! Ecoleetage (talk) 15:48, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
A barnstar for Doncram. For all around good editing, and essentially grabbing the NRHP project by the horns and taking it to new and amazing heights. Keep up the good work, thanks for all your contributions. IvoShandor (talk) 10:22, 20 September 2008 (UTC)
WikiProject National Register of Historic Places Award
Given in appreciation for all that you have done (and continue to do). Thanks! Altairisfartalk 00:21, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
Given with respect and admiration to doncram for all of your work on NRHP articles and especially for the recent NHL Fourth of July drive. Yours, Ruhrfisch><>°° 03:29, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
The Fourth of July, or bust, Barnstar
I'm not sure if this is appropriate or not, but right back at you. You drove this National Historic Landmarks project (with a lot of help from lvklock and others) to completion
Congratulations! The only question is, now what do we do? dm (talk) 17:26, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
For plowing through the back 50 acres of the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmark articles. SEWilco 18:15, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
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