User:Josiah Rowe

Josiah is a dilettante at Wikipedia, as he is in many other fields. His work, if you can call it that, can mostly be found in various topics related to Doctor Who. Josiah also dabbles in pages related to comic books and Greek mythology, as well as other random subjects. His best work is the Featured Article Fun Home.

Other articles Josiah has created or contributed substantially to include (in no particular order): Daniel Wakefield Smith, Michelle Paradise, Helen Griffin, Bernard Krigstein, Serenity (film), Science fiction Western, Julie Gardner, James Cobban, The Pirate Queen, John Dempsey (lyricist), Dana P. Rowe (no relation), Winged monkeys, Achilles and Patroclus, Kevin Davies (director), Kate Austin, Nev Fountain, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Yasmin Paige, Gareth David-Lloyd, SantaLand Diaries and A More Perfect Union (speech). Make of that what you will.

And yes, Josiah is his real name (insofar as such a thing exists), and yes, he's aware that by putting his identity on this page he's probably annihilated whatever privacy he might ever have pretended to have. Josiah figures that he doesn't have anything to be ashamed of, and nobody's going to steal an identity as worthless as his anyhow.

In the summer of 2007 I took an extended wikibreak, for a couple of reasons. Some of them were due to real-life concerns, but others had to do with Wikipedia, its governance and its future. First, Jimbo's initial response to the Essjay controversy showed a troubling preference for loyalty over truth. Second, I was unhappy with the way that some users have been enforcing the non-free content policy, and the consequent valuing of "free" over "encyclopedia" in Wikipedia's mission. Examples of this being taken to absurd lengths include the exclusion of the International Symbol of Access from informational articles, and the removal of an image of a painting from the summary of the article about that painting on Today's Featured Article. These incidents were examples of Wikipedia allowing the "free" goal to harm the "encyclopedia" goal, as well as examples of the third problem I've been having with Wikipedia lately: the cancerous growth of the Wikipedia bureaucracy. Actually, Wikipedia currently suffers from nearly all the problems listed under Bureaucracy#Criticism. I'm not a management guru, and I don't have the solution to Wikipedia's organizational sclerosis. But I do have the choice of how much time I want to spend working in a bureaucracy-laden environment, and in the summer of 2007 the choice was "not much, thanks".

However, I still feel that Wikipedia is a worthwhile project, and I have the strongest respect for its values of consensus and civility. I have hope that these values will prove stronger than the forces pushing Wikipedia towards bureaucracy, cronyism and absurdities based on ideological purism. Wikipedia can be seen as a model of human society in general. If we can make this work, there's hope for the world.

I am only occasionally active here. I retain the admin bit, but hardly ever use it.

I recognize the dangers of factionalism on Wikipedia, and have therefore removed several userboxes and categories in accordance with the polite request Jimbo made some time ago. However, I also think it can be important for editors to know each other's standpoints and possible biases. And yes, we all do have biases, both conscious and unconscious. I think the goal for a Wikipedian should be to become aware of one's own biases and strive not to let them affect one's contributions to the encyclopedia. However, I recognize my own fallibility and the likelihood that I will not always live up to that ideal. So, in order to help other contributors recognize areas in which I may be biased, I'm listing a few of my most strongly held beliefs and groups I identify with.

I'm politically liberal. I am also a Christian. I'm a member of the Episcopal Church, and believe that Jesus' teachings don't support preventive warfare or supply-side economics. I strongly support gay rights, including marriage equality. My philosophical views are influenced by Kant, Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich. With Kant, I claim that reason should deal with what can be known, while faith should deal with what cannot be known but must be believed. Therefore, I see no contradiction between Christianity and Darwinian evolution, between the belief that God created the universe and is responsible for everything that exists, and the scientific understanding of how life has developed based on chance and natural selection. (I used to have both an ΙΧΘΥΣ and a Darwin fish on my car, which I hope made people think.)

Image:Ichthus.svg

Image:Darwin fish.svg

Again, I hope that I don't let these views affect my editing on Wikipedia, but I'm presenting them here in the interest of openness, just in case they do.

Image:Barnstar_of_Diligence.png|This barnstar of diligence is awarded to Josiah Rowe for his care in preserving edit histories
presented by Fvw
22 September 2005

Image:Lostbarnstar.jpg|LOST barnstar
In recognition of excellence in editing Lost (TV series)
presented by Leflyman
28 September 2005

Image:Original_Barnstar.png|The Original Barnstar
Thanks for all your WikiContributions! presented by FireFox
5 October 2005

image:Goldenplunger.png|Golden Plunger
In honor of
Josiah's Adminship,
14 February 2006
presented by Leflyman

Image:Working_Man's_Barnstar.png|This working man's barnstar is for making a table out of lengths of science fiction film and television series and always keeping the shows in it up to date. presented by Arctic Gnome
18 April 2006

Image:Tireless_Contributor_Barnstar.gif|Tireless Contributor Barnstar
Thanks for working hard to stop abuses and damaging behavior to wikipedia constantly! presented by  Heltec  talk 
13 May 2006

Image:Barnstar of Humour3.png|Barnstar of Good Humor
For a particularly hilarious song parody related to the debate on Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (television).
presented by BlueSquadronRaven
15 November 2006 (UTC)

Image:DoctorWho-Barnstar2.png|I, Smomo hereby award you, Josiah Rowe, the WikiProject Doctor Who Award for your outstanding contributions in the field of Doctor Who. May your good work continue. Smomo 21:07, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Image:Random_Acts_of_Kindness_Barnstar.png|The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
Awarded for Josiah Rowe for being kind. King Lopez^Contribs 08:47, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Image:Triplecrown.jpg|Your majesty, it gives me great pleasure to bestow the Triple Crown upon Josiah Rowe for your contributions in the areas of WP:DYK, WP:GA, and WP:FA. Thank you for contributions to the project, Great work, especially on Doctor Who Prom - Brilliant!. May you wear the crowns well. Cirt (talk) 09:01, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Image:TVbarnstarproposal7.PNG|I award you this barnstar for work on Kings. Hopefully it survives the first season.  Ahodges7   ^talk 02:17, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Image:Rescuebarnstar.png|This barnstar is awarded to Josiah Rowe, for his tremendous work on the M*A*S*H articles which were batch deleted. You are truly a wonderful asset to wikipedia, please keep up the fabulous job. Ikip (talk) 02:28, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

File:Barnstar of Reversion Hires.png|The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
For having identified and erased the "Ashlin" vandal that nobody noticed since it was entered on [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Man_of_Steel_(film)&oldid=565780811 25 July 2013]. Kailash29792 (talk) 10:06, 8 April 2014 (UTC)

{{adminstats|Josiah Rowe}}

• Finish James Cobban
• Fix list of graphic novels on Doctor Who Magazine
• Listen to Circular Time again to get regeneration reference for Doctor (Doctor Who) and Regeneration (Doctor Who)
• Expand List of Doctor Who writers to include non-television writers
• Find sources for Doctor Who (1996 film)#Controversy

• Wikipedia: Manual of Style
• Vandal warning templates on WP:VAND
• Table of test templates
• Full list of user talk templates
• meta:Help:Table
• meta:Help:List
• /sandbox
• /sandbox2
• /sandbox3
• /sandbox4 (currently working on Andrew Smith (Doctor Who writer))
• /sandbox5
• /Temp (List of non-fictional heroes, for use in developing List of historical people portrayed as heroes if I ever get around to it)
• /Doctorwhowarning
• /TVnote

Josiah Rowe

Josiah Rowe

Josiah Rowe

Josiah Rowe

Josiah Rowe

Josiah Rowe

Josiah Rowe