About me and how I got here
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I am a computer scientist from Germany. I first heard about Wikipedia around 2004 when someone encouraged fans in one of my forums to write a TV show article for an online encyclopedia. I honestly expected the project to fail and forgot about it quickly. I realized Wikipedia's usefulness for initial uni research during 2005, and I made my first typo-fix edits as an unregistered user some time in 2006. After reading about Wikipedia in The Long Tail in December 2006, I was tempted to donate some money to the Wikipedia Foundation. In the end, I decided that I'd rather pay with my time. I became a Wikipedia administrator in December 2008. Working life has kept me from contributing much to Wikipedia since June 2009, but I still have infrequent bursts of activity.
- Why do you delete the contributions of others? – Because the contributions were requested to be speedy deleted by the author, were Wikipedia files available at Wikimedia Commons, or malplaced disambiguation pages. I also sometimes execute the decision of a group of editors in the WP:Articles for deletion process. Merging (and by extent redirection) is not deletion – it is a non-admin editorial decision which leaves the page histories intact for future reconsiderations. WP:Merging explains the reasoning and process behind mergers, and WP:CONTENTFORK, WP:AVOIDSPLIT, and WP:NOPAGE are relevant guidelines. WP:NOTPLOT is a relevant policy for the suitability of fiction sub-articles.
- Why don't you improve the articles instead of advocating for their removal? – Besides wrongly implying that mergers and deletions are not an improvement (see the essays WP:Delete the junk and WP:Blow it up and start over), this question does not account for scalability. I spend roughly the same time on expanding and copyediting articles, merging, and behind-the-scenes wiki stuff. Reducing bad and redundant articles takes significantly less time than writing good articles, so it is basic math that I trim more articles than I expand. My Good and Featured Articles examplify the type and extent of my article improvements and may contain merged material.
- Why must someone else do the work that you don't want to do? – We are all unpaid wiki volunteers, so no-one (including you and me) is required to do work that he doesn't want to do. But given certain circumstances, the answer to this question is a logical consequence of WP:BURDEN. If someone objects to see bad and redundant content merged or removed, it becomes his responsibility to improve the article, preferably using third-party sources. I am all for giving editors sufficient time to do so, but if there is no mentionworthy improvement for weeks, months or even years, then the option of merging, removal or deletion comes to the fore again.
A Dog's Breakfast
Carnivàle FT — 
Carnivàle • 
Episodes • 
Mythology • 
Awards
/Stargate (T • RC • WPSG • wikia) • {{Stargate}}
Teal'c • 
Ampelmännchen
A Song of Ice and Fire •