User:ColorOfSuffering

Before he was known as ColorOfSuffering, and long before the nickname had even occurred to him, ColorOfSuffering was a young boy with a thirst for knowledge, a 1200 baud connection, and a monochrome Apple IIe. Fortunately, he had intelligent and patient parents, as well as a full volume World Book Encyclopedia that he used to read for fun.

Slowly, and boringly, his knowledge grew and grew and grew and grew (and grew), until Wikipedia was invented 2001 -- not early enough to help him with any of his schooling. He remarked in a 2010 interview that I just made up: "Kids today, with their computers and their easy access to knowledge...boy...I tell ya'..."{{fact}}

In September of 2006, the user name ColorOfSuffering was spawned, through an unholy alliance of "wanting to correct spelling errors" and "not having anything better to do." His first edit was a thing of beauty.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Computer_Gaming_World&diff=prev&oldid=77207741 He deleted a passage about video game magazine that he read. Six minutes later, he reverted his own edit after he realized that his edit was factually incorrect.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Computer_Gaming_World&diff=next&oldid=77207741 He spent the rest of that night exhaustively correcting the article on Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull,http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Seagull&diff=prev&oldid=77254043 because he really needed a win after that embarrassment that literally no one saw.

It was this kind of diligence, and a tireless pursuit of perfection that some people{{Who?}} claim kept ColorOfSuffering from making another edit for a full five days after his first edit. This edit was made to an article about a light tank that was used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. Yes...apparently the Japanese Army used tanks in World War II -- this was news to him as well.

Eventually, slowly, , painfully, and slowly ColorOfSuffering began correcting grammar mistakes and spelling with of a good regulartiy .

As he was vainly reviewing his user contributions loghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/ColorOfSuffering for changes, he noticed that a notability template he'd removedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legacy_of_the_Drow&action=historysubmit&diff=216150513&oldid=205843821 had been restored by another user,http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legacy_of_the_Drow&diff=253566483&oldid=253402604 in spite of the fact that it now contained six references, exhaustively researched by ColorOfSuffering. Upon seeing this, ColorOfSuffering was enragedActually he was only "mildly annoyed," but the word "enraged" sounds better. changed personae from a "smart-alecky nibbler" to "an editor with a purpose." He also uttered the famous phrase:

{{quote |text = References, INCOMING!!!|author=ColorOfSufferingHe never actually said this.}}

Armed with the Google search engine, an ever-expanding knowledge of Wikipedia policy, and the Wikipedia Reference generator,https://tools.wmflabs.org/makeref/ ColorOfSuffering started getting bolder with his edits, and declared open war on notability and reference tags.

This informal war eventually abated with the Treaty of Digaff, signed in early 2008.Not really. The treaty came about after a months-long content dispute with a fellow editor, and wanting to make a positive, lasting impression on Wikipedia, ColorOfSuffering changed his persona again, and decided to start writing articles.

ColorOfSuffering was no stranger to writing new articles. In fact, fairly early in his editing career, he composed a stub for the smash hit Discovery Health Channel show Mystery ER; a show that has an estimated "dozens" of viewers.I'm sure there are more than that...but probably not a lot more. He also created an article for the legendary failed Mariner's #1 draft pick Ryan Anderson.

But, in early 2008, the Broadway show Next to Normal was becoming very popular. ColorOfSuffering decided that he needed to write an article about one of the writers of the show, who had yet to appear in Wikipedia; Brian Yorkey.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brian_Yorkey&action=historysubmit&diff=288250945&oldid=288179117 He constructed a stub, added a few references, and went on his merry way.

A little over a month later, after Mr. Yorkey had won his Tony, another user edited the Yorkey article, removing parts of ColorOfSuffering's carefully-added references, and adding additional material that was rife with spelling errors and questionable grammar.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brian_Yorkey&action=historysubmit&diff=295204000&oldid=295098091 ColorOfSuffering re-added the full references, which were promptly reverted by the other editor. This was ColorOfSuffering's first edit war, and he was determined to win. So, in an attempt to resolve the dispute, ColorOfSuffering wrote to the editor in question and cited the citation policy. A few days later, he received this response:

{{quote |text = My personal policy is never to create an article and leave it in this state [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brian_Yorkey&oldid=288179117], or to bring it only as far as this [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Brian_Yorkey&oldid=295098091].|author=LiteraryMavenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:ColorOfSuffering&diff=prev&oldid=296547472}}

While "personal policy" is irrelevant when resolving a content dispute, and the article was eventually restored to the version with the "full citations," this comment left an indelible mark on ColorOfSuffering. He was tired of laying the foundation, or painting the walls -- he wanted to build an entire house from scratch.

He got his chance, when he discovered that the Civil War regiment, in which his great-great grandfather served, did not have a Wikipedia article. So, he created the article on the 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Regiment.

He wrote this article. Want to see it? Here it is: 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Regiment. He will fill this section out a little better, if you were interested. But for right now, he's busy with other crap going on in his life.

Isn't it a little ironic that he left the section incomplete? We certainly think so.

After becoming tired of building articles, and discovering that he was actually pretty bad at it, ColorOfSuffering decided to weigh in on several articles considered controversial. Controversial articles that have received the scrutiny of ColorOfSuffering include Historicity of Jesus, Murder of Meredith Kercher, Gamergate controversy, and Canasta. It has been alleged by commentators that ColorOfSuffering edits in controversial spaces in an effort to end disputes, but inevitably he ends up posting shitloads of words on talk pages that take too long to compose, and generally accomplish very little. For example: [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Brian_Yorkey&diff=prev&oldid=296627867][https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Gamergate_controversy&diff=prev&oldid=645691477][https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Historicity_of_Jesus&diff=prev&oldid=521577051][https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Horus&diff=prev&oldid=340451166]

ColorOfSuffing has stated that he truly wishes to help resolve editing conflicts{{fact}}, while others have argued that he edits controversial topics when he gets bored.https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Historicity_of_Jesus&diff=521577051&oldid=520990931 A vanished (vanquished?) user once recommended "If boredom was the reason for your 'lengthy missive' here, please seek other remedies for said boredom." https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Historicity_of_Jesus&diff=521902068&oldid=521878573

There has been rampant speculation as to why, exactly, ColorOfSuffering edits any article, and whether he harbors some hidden agenda or inherent bias. He is on record as stating that his motivations, opinions, political affiliations, religion, and sexual orientation are none of your fucking business, and if you came here looking for a way to easily categorize him so you can infer some kind of nefarious context to his contributions, then you can fuck right off.

Ultimately, it can be agreed that he generally lacks the intestinal fortitude or the willpower to affect meaningful change. When he holds a minority opinion, no matter how right he thinks he is, he will inevitably lose interest and stop trying. What do you expect? He does this shit for free.

ColorOfSuffering is not dead, and will live on digitally for as long as the Wikipedia website survives. However, there is a good chanceI'd say 50/50. that the editor behind the username will die. Some people might argue

{{Weasel-inline}} that when he dies he will piss himself and also shit his pants,Cassell, Dana K., Robert C. Salinas and Peter A.S. Winn. The Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. but only if he happens to be wearing pants.

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