User:Avraham

Anscombe's quartet, a beautiful and elegant case for always visually inspecting your data.

Wikipedia:Babel
en This user is a native speaker of English. en-5 This user can contribute with a professional level of English. he-2 משתמש זה מסוגל לתרום ברמה בינונית של עברית.‏ tmr-2 משתמש הדא ממלל ארמיא דתלמודא בבלאה בדרגא מציעא.‏ Hebr-N ש This user has a native-like understanding of the Hebrew alphabet. Zmth-3 This user has an advanced understanding of the Mathematical notation.
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Thoughts on editing

Editing

My philosophy in Wikipedia is "No data is better than garbage data." In statistics you know you cannot extrapolate too much from nothing; but given something, one is tempted to build complicated statistical models. Same with Wikipedia; I would rather have a smaller set of useful, verifiable (and verified), clean articles than a large set of borderline trash. This does not mean I prefer to throw out the baby with the bathwater; if an article is sufficiently notable, and has room for improvement, it should be kept. Unfortunately, in my experience, I have found that to be the exception, and not the rule. ` For every article like V. Kalyanasundaram, there are a hundred others that are blatant advertisement, or {{db-bio}}'s.

Updating references

One of my favorite wiki-pastimes is to find an article which is poorly referenced, and to update it with proper, and perhaps better, citations, like St. Petersburg paradox [1] and Anti-Zionism [2].

Sources

I am also a very strong believer in having sources in articles, and quoting them. When an article is unsourced, by nature it is suspect. If it can point to a verifiable source, it is as if it says "Go ahead, check it out." We need more articles of the latter type. There are too many unsourced, or poorly sourced articles that people may take for real research on Wikipedia.

Humorous edits

Every once in a while, I come up with an edit which I (and usually only I) find funny.

• My piece de resistance
• Sean's RfB
• Mop-and-Flamethrower™
• Channeling Shakespeare--badly

Thoughts on sysop and b'crat nominations

This is an essay. It is not a policy or guideline. Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page.

Over my time here in Wikipedia, as an editor and then an admin, I think I have finally crystallized my thoughts on RFAs and RFBs. In a nutshell, a request for adminship/bureaucratship is a request for the community to comment on the judgment and trustworthiness of the individual under discussion. Do we feel that the candidate will uphold wiki policy and guidelines where they exist, and will make reasoned decisions where policy and guideline is vague?

Wikipedia seems to have a tendency to regress to number counting and cold statistical analysis when faced with difficult decisions. See Wikipedia talk:Requests for adminship/Archive 79 for a prime example, although there are many others. Personally, I think that is an error. Anything that can be relegated to nothing more than bean-counting can, and should, be handed off to bots. We have admins and bureaucrats in Wikipedia because there are times we need a human being to make a decision. Usually, those times are when the decision will be unpopular. When we opine on RfAs, RfBs, and ArbCom elections, we are actually saying "we trust so-and-so's judgment, and are willing to allow him or her to make the difficult decisions."

Of course, egregious behavior needs to be addressed, which is why we have WP:ANI and WP:RfAR. Further, it is always a good idea for the admin or b'crat in question to discuss difficult issues beforehand, but that is not a requirement. Exercising judgment is what we ask our admins and b'crats to do, and if that judgment is exercised in a non-capricious, impartial, and reasoned fashion, we cannot fault them for that.

Ask yourself before you opine on a RFA/B/etc., "do I trust this person's judgment?" Then if you do, while you may disagree with it, and post vociferously why so when that occurs, remember that is why you placed your opinion on their nomination. And if you don't, then you should have acted on that during the nomination process.

Maintenance work

English Wikipedia administration-related

If you need access to a Wikipedia article that has been deleted, ask me. If it's not a copyright violation, libel, or personal information, and has not been deleted as a suspected biographies of living persons violation, I will userfy the article for you.

Note that using the text to recreate any deleted article may automatically qualify them for speedy deletion, and copies of previously deleted content that are being used solely for long-term archival purposes may be subject to deletion because Wikipedia is not a free web host. We have a list of alternative sites which may be used to host your content.

Administrative statistics
Crat statistics Action Count Edits 48030 Edits+Deleted 52625 Pages deleted 1752 Revisions deleted 124 Logs/Events deleted 33 Pages restored 167 Pages protected 221 Pages unprotected 46 Protections modified 27 Users blocked 1351 Users reblocked 91 Users unblocked 140 User rights modified 195 Users created 21 Abuse filters modified 22 Users renamed 759

Bureaucrat activity

• Recent crat chatparticipation: Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Hawkeye7 2/Bureaucrat chat
• Recent RfA involvement: Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Hawkeye7 2
• Recent renames: See Rename Log

Cross-wiki support

I am a steward of the Wikimedia Foundation, a sysop and oversighter on the Wikimedia Commons, and a sysop on Meta. I served as a member of the Wikimedia ombudsman commission during 2014 and 2015.

Identity and secure communication

Unified login: Avraham is the unique login of this user for all public Wikimedia projects.

If a key is signed by this one, it means that I have either met face-to-face or performed an encrypted challenge-response with the user.

The fingerprint of this key is 167C 063F 7981 A1F6 71EC ABAA 0D62 B019 F80E 29F9

If you would like to have your key signed, either email me or leave a message on my talk page. I will provide a level-0 signature for a successful encrypted challenge-response that proves the relationship between the key, the e-mail address associated with it, and the wikipedia user account. Anything more significant requires face-to-face meeting.

Committed identity: 19cb1cb9cc3170fe56da8484ac1e1e62a69fde78ebfdcfad7fad73031deb2b6d2e62b6a539587d29241b4d5f763e21a4e04621bd274f01cc0b9dc8f7535c1f7a is a SHA-512 commitment to this user's real-life identity.

Doppelgänger accounts

• Avaraham (talk · contribs)
• Aviraham (talk · contribs)
• Avarham (talk · contribs)
• Avraham1 (talk · contribs)
• Avrahan (talk · contribs)
• Avi (talk · contribs)

Userboxes

47,000+ This user has made more than 47,000 contributions to Wikipedia.	This user helped promote Actuary to featured article status.	This user helped promote the article Jack Coggins to good article status.	This user helped promote the article Maximum spacing estimation to good article status.	This user helped promote the article Abbey Mills Mosque to good article status.
This user is an administrator, bureaucrat, checkuser, and oversighter on the English Wikipedia. (verify)	This user is an administrator and oversighter on Wikimedia Commons. (verify)	This user is a steward for the Wikimedia Foundation and an administrator on Meta. (verify)	This user is a member of the Wikimedia OTRS team. (verify)	127.0.0.0/8 This administrator understands and performs range blocks.
This editor is a WikiGnome.	This user is a Wikifæry.	This user is a WikiÆlf.	+ This user likes getting friendly notices.	=7 This user has an Erdős number of 7.
{#if} This user understands and uses ParserFunctions.	{{t|3|c}} This user contributes to the template namespace with confidence, even with conditional templates.	R-3 This user is an advanced R programmer.	-2 This user is an intermediate LaTeX user.	xhtml-2 This user is an intermediate XHTML user.

Barnstars and other thoughtful gifts

The Working Man's Barnstar Your dedication to the nightmarish task of updating the sources on circumcision is positively stunning. Hence this barnstar. Jakew 20:47, 2 July 2006 (UTC) The Barnstar of Good Humor For your attempt to cool down the discussion at [3] :-). --Kim Bruning 20:04, 16 August 2006 (UTC) The Random-Acts-of-Kindness Barnstar When I changed user names and was inadvertantly locked out of editting, you tried over and over to help me over a sustained period of time until final success. I really appreciate it. Thank you. LegitimateAndEvenCompelling 04:52, 1 November 2006 (UTC) The Random-Acts-of-Kindness Barnstar Thanks for going to bat for my little effort re: Deborah Frisch. Sinsblog 14:44, 30 November 2006 (UTC) The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar I award you this barnstar for your tireless and effective vandal combat. Best regards. --Payple 15:40, 25 February 2007 (UTC) Avraham has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, and therefore, I've officially declared today as Avraham's day! For being such a beautiful person and great Wikipedian, enjoy being the Star of the day, dear Avi! Love, Phaedriel 00:22, 16 May 2007 (UTC) A record of your Day will always be kept here. The Half Star of Cooperation. For your cooperation alongside Fayssal at WP:CSN. The admins' T-shirt. Acalamari 22:22, 6 March 2008 (UTC) The Barnstar of Good Humor Aprils fools day was a blast. Loads of users lightened up to have good old fashion fun. I want to thank you for taking part in editing this page in particular and even though I may not know you, embrace the same talk pages, or even edit with you in the near future, I'd like to award you this Barnstar for making Wikipedia a fun environment in which to contribute. Until next year. :) SynergeticMaggot (talk) 13:40, 2 April 2008 (UTC) The da Vinci Barnstar I'm thoroughly delighted to offer this barnstar (of which I have never crossed paths with before) to Avraham for excellent work in almost every area on en.wp. Apparently this barnstar is to be awarded to those that oil the Wikipedia cogs well and perform their functions brilliantly. This then, is well deserved. Seraphim Whipp was our last nominee (and only child to date :P) but I hear we have a new one… :) Rudget (review) 09:08, 13 April 2008 (UTC) The Socratic Barnstar For your great answers and communication with other users throughout the RfB. Acalamari 20:47, 13 May 2008 (UTC) The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar is hereby awarded to Avi for being so kind and wasting his precious WP time resolvng my archiving problems. brewcrewer (yada, yada) 22:32, 1 December 2008 (UTC) Avraham has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, and therefore, I've officially declared today as Avraham's day! For being such a beautiful person and great Wikipedian, enjoy being the Star of the day, dear Avi! Peace, Rlevse ~~~~~ A record of your Day will always be kept here. Civility Award For being kind enough to solve the mystery of my 3 deletes. It put my mind at rest that I had not done incorrect edits, as such. BSTemple (talk) 17:32, 27 January 2009 (UTC) The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar For defending the Values of Wikipedia----mbz1 (talk) 16:46, 12 March 2009 (UTC) The E=mc² Barnstar For your simply awesome work on Nicholas Metropolis LoveMonkey (talk) 14:22, 14 May 2009 (UTC) The Admin's Barnstar Thanks for sticking around at SPI even though the bot is down. It's more work, with suddenly less clerks and CUs, so thanks! Nathan T 12:21, 24 June 2009 (UTC) The Resilient Barnstar For patiently and persistently explaining policy and guideline, for putting up with an awful lot of abuse in the process, and for the boundless good humour that I've come to see as characteristic of you, I think you've earned this Resilient Barnstar. Jakew (talk) 19:00, 21 July 2009 (UTC) The Anti-Spam Barnstar Many thanks for your tireless efforts at SPI, keeping Wikipedia clear of abuse and other nonsense.--Hu12 (talk) 16:10, 26 October 2009 (UTC) Avraham, Thank you for the way you and the other Crats are handling the RfB . . . regardless of the outcome. Thanks Again - Ret.Prof (talk) 23:16, 26 November 2009 (UTC) The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar Awarded to Avraham for his willingness to sacrifice of his time and for his extraordinary efforts making Wikipedia a safe and fair place to write and edit and for ensuring total fairness whenever the tide of unreason rears its misguided head. Whenever the applecart may be up-ended Avraham will judge fairly and set it straight. Congratulations! IZAK (talk) 01:22, 11 December 2009 (UTC) The Barnstar of Integrity I was looking over a couple of your edits, and was really impressed by them, especially the diff on the "Anti-Zionism" article that you linked to from your user page. This is such a difficult and polarized issue, and I cannot even tell what you personally believe from your very neutral and excellent edits, which greatly improved the quality of that article. I was also impressed by your participation in the debate over whether User:Palestine Remembered should be blocked, because I think that too often users with strong points of view get blocked when they are willing to constructively work on improving the quality of the encyclopedia. Well done, you seem to be a great Wikipedian with a remarkably even temper. CordeliaNaismith (talk) 01:35, 26 December 2009 (UTC) The Invisible Barnstar Thank you for all you do that the general public does not see Moxy (talk) 20:44, 22 March 2010 (UTC) The Special Barnstar For being willing to act as a mentor, despite the difficulty it would entail. While it is unfortunate that the mentorship was not allowed to progress, and the user in question reverted to actions that caused the blocks in the first place, your willingness to extend the offer of help and put yourself in an uncomfortable position to try and better the English Wikipedia project is a testament to your character and a asset to the project. Thank you. -- Spartaz Humbug! 16:26, 31 August 2010 (UTC) The Helping Hand Barnstar This is technically for people helping "new editors" but thank you for your recent assistance. The Resident Anthropologist (talk) 01:40, 18 September 2010 (UTC) Thank you for always having been civil, for not having filled the conversation with ad hominems, or misquoted/misread either Talk or sources, or refused to give straight answers. I wish you well and enjoy seeing your contributions on Wikipedia in other articles. In ictu oculi (talk) 11:41, 15 August 2011 (UTC) For fixing my top icons, which is of course the job stewards are meant to do... :) Cerejota (talk) 00:19, 26 August 2011 (UTC) Leadership Thank you for your leadership.PumpkinSky talk 07:47, 21 April 2012 (UTC) The Civility Barnstar Good job on keeping a cool head with this age situation. It's starting to give me a headache. Skamecrazy123 (talk) 03:46, 2 January 2013 (UTC) The Bureaucrat's Barnstar Time and time again, the bureaucrats of en-wiki demonstrate their levelheadedness and expertise. Like an anesthesiologist in an operating room, you spend most of your time screwing around reading a magazine, but stand ready to spring into action when needed, only to fade into the background once your important work is done. Or perhaps that's more like Batman? Whatever your preferred metaphor, I am consistently impressed by the bureaucrat corps. Thank you for your service. HiDrNick! 12:46, 6 August 2015 (UTC) The Civility Barnstar Just wanted to thank you for your top work clerking this RfA. You ventured into the unknown, and it was hardly a walk in the park (even as RfA goes!) While redactions can always be contentious, I think you dealt with the whole process very well, and managed to keep things on track and pretty civil. Thanks! Harrias talk 19:26, 1 February 2016 (UTC) Hawkeye7 RfA Appreciation award Clerking is not easy. You handled it well. Hawkeye7 (talk) 22:18, 1 February 2016 (UTC) Your clerking works so well that the disruptive minority had to use cheap metaphors to describe it. Well done. Esquivalience t 02:25, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

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