HelenOnline

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

1. Avoid Alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren't necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
18. One word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

— Frank L. Visco, Writer's Digest (June 1986)

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.

— Bob Marley, "Redemption Song" (1980)

In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.

— Donny Miller, Beautiful People with Beautiful Feelings (2006)

... burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

— Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole (1865)

Suppose within every book there is another book, and within every letter on every page another volume constantly unfolding; but these volumes take no space on the desk. Suppose knowledge could be reduced to a quintessence, held within a picture, a sign, held within a place which is no place.

— Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009)

Doveryai, no proveryai
English: Trust, but verify

— Russian proverb

• My first Wikipedia edit was to correct a factual error in a biographical article about a living person in a family tree I had researched (incidentally not someone I know personally). Oops, I didn't write an edit summary so it was reverted and I had to repeat it.
• The first Wikipedia article I created was for an 18th c. German game designer (in English and German). I also donated his portrait image to Wikimedia Commons.
• The first Wikipedia article I translated for the English Wikipedia was from a German Wikipedia article about a living American geneticist who pioneered human mitochondrial genetics.
• My first DYK credit was for an article I contributed to about a recently deceased South African in the international news headlines.
• My first barnstar was actually a bribe so I don't think it counts. My first genuine barnstar was the South African Barnstar of National Merit from htonl seconded by Roger, for which I am honoured.

In recognition of your work on the article about the child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, I would like you to imagine enjoying the taste of my grandmother's masterpiece dessert. An imaginary glass of pomegranate juice would go perfectly with it! Surtsicna (talk) 13:21, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

	Glass of wine
	May you find many more ancestors! Andrew Lancaster (talk) 10:56, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

 

I hope you know there was nothing personal in the debate at T:EoW. I'm often not very concise in text communication and can come off ranty as a result. I've actually, quietly noticed many of your contributions around Wikipedia.  —Sowlos  09:32, 3 August 2013 (UTC) has extended an olive branch of peace.

---

Thanks so much for your help on my DYK nomination and good collaborations and kindness in general. Nathan121212 (talk) 15:03, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

I thought that you deserved something a bit extra for all of the amazing work you've done for the project. I've nominated you for a gift from the Wikimedia Foundation!

I live in a country with shocking economic inequality (that’s both third world and first, sometimes within half a kilometre of each other) stricken by AIDS and corruption and crime. At the same time, there’s tremendous hope and optimism and a resilience. South Africa is an incredible place that has spent the last 20 years going through interesting times (as per the Chinese curse). It’s a fascinating place to be.
... I think of myself as South African full stop. Those European ties are so old, so frayed, they’re not even a sepia photograph, they’re a faded oil painting dating back 350 years when my family first came to this country.

— Lauren Beukes, Interview: Lauren Beukes by Charles A. Tan (2009)

• South Africans are a mixed bunch. I am one part British diaspora in Africa and three parts other African of European ancestry. Although I am a South African citizen by birth, I am also a British citizen by descent as my mother was born in England. My ancestors traced so far are from England, Ireland, Switzerland, France (Huguenot) and Germany via Canada. My extended family in South Africa has British colonial and Cape Dutch ancestry.
• I was classified as white during apartheid. These days this label mainly matters when you apply for employment or are counted in a national census, where it is described as a "population group". It has a limited life span as the born-free generation has started entering the workforce.
• Most South Africans living in urban areas speak at least two languages, one being English or Afrikaans. My first language is English but the main language spoken where I live is Afrikaans. Afrikaans is related to Dutch, but it is not the same language and is not necessarily pronounced the same way.

en soms vir 'n oomblik
kan ons mekaar se taal
verstaan
English: and sometimes for a moment we can understand each other

— Johannes Kerkorrel, blou aarde, bloudruk