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Scam warning
If you are visiting this page because someone claiming to be me contacted you asking for any payment of any type, it is not me and you are being scammed. If they are threatening to delete or take other adverse action against some article, they can't actually do that and you should not under any circumstances pay them any money or further engage with them.
Why am I here? Why do I volunteer my time on this project?
This is a good answer to that. Wikipedia will never, ever, ever be perfect. But it is good, even great, and it is free as in freedom. That's good enough for me.
If that's not quite enough for you, consider this. In a little over a decade, a group of self-selected volunteers have constructed what is the greatest educational work ever developed by mankind. Millions have contributed and billions have learned and benefited. Please contribute here in good faith and to further that mission of education and learning.
That's me.Bear in mind that those who are finer and nobler are always alone — and necessarily so — and that because of this they can enjoy the purity of their own atmosphere. Albert Einstein
This user page has been vandalized many times, and reverted an equal number. If you would like to make test edits, you are welcome to use the sandbox or my userspace sandbox here.
Seraphimblade
This user has been editing Wikipedia for more than 15 years.
As of March 12, 2007, my request for adminship was successful with a final total of (91/2/1), and I am an administrator. I am very grateful for the community's trust, and will make every effort to live up to it.
In December 2013, I was elected to the Arbitration Committee, and served a two year term (lasting into early 2016 to finish up carryover business). I did not seek reelection due to upcoming events in my own life that I knew would not allow me the time to continue serving, but may run again some day in the future if that's not the case any more. I'm glad to have had the experience of working with some truly exceptional people on the Committee.
I'm a software developer who currently resides in Denver, Colorado. I am male, but it seems my username is rather androgynous, so I won't be upset with you if you got that wrong. I have been editing Wikipedia for approximately twelve years as of 2017, starting out as an anonymous editor doing small fixes, and eventually deciding I would like to participate more fully. My activity, of course, waxes and wanes, as inevitably real-life commitments do arise.
You're welcome to refer to me as "Seraphimblade", "Seraphim", "Blade", "Todd" (though please don't do that in widespread discussions, it may confuse others), or for that matter "Hey you" if it's clear who you're talking to.
I use the alternate accountSeraphimbladepublic to edit from potentially insecure public machines or networks, to avoid any risk of compromise of my admin account. Unless I explicitly note otherwise from this account (i.e., if that account is compromised), edits from that account are mine and I take full responsibility for them.
I believe that it is important for editors to give a general overview of personal viewpoints, so that others can call out if the editor is exhibiting unconscious bias toward those viewpoints while editing articles. This does not mean that I will recuse entirely from editing articles regarding these subjects, but rather will listen carefully to any assertion that my edits may not be neutral.
All images and text which are my original work and which have been contributed to Wikipedia are released to the public domain, or if for any reason this is not possible, I irrevocably and perpetually relinquish all rights to control the content granted under the copyright law, and grant license to anyone to use, copy, modify, distribute, and otherwise utilize the content in any way and for any purpose whatsoever.
Yes, I'm a deletionist. That's landed me in more than one conflict with other editors. Some of them, granted, are out to place nothing more than a silly vanity page or a spamvertisement, and while I'm very willing to help them to contribute better content, I'm not at all sorry they didn't get to contribute that type of thing. On the other hand, some other editors are well-reasoned, thought-out people, and have disagreed. A recent discussion I had with one such user caused me to consider this position-and ultimately, to decide to continue it, though his arguments were well-reasoned and I believe his intentions are the very best.
WP:V and WP:OR are core policies. For Wikipedia to continue to have any credibility whatsoever, these policies must be enforced and enforced strictly. The very reason we don't want a vanity bio or article from a band (with no more "sources" than a self-created page) are that no assertions about the subject can be verified. The reader has no way to check out if what they're reading is true, or if the writer of the article (who frequently, for such non-notable subjects, is the person the article is about or a member of the band) has inflated or distorted things.
Without deletion of unverifiable content, there is really no need for administrators whatsoever. We might as well call it Myspace II and be done with it. Of course, any intelligent reader knows that anything they read on Myspace may be inflated or totally fabricated-it has no credibility. To fail to remove unverified facts here would place Wikipedia in that same situation.
I believe, as the user I discussed this with, that Wikipedia should be the sum of all human knowledge. What I disagree with is what that entails. The name of my dog is not "human knowledge"-it's not verifiable to anyone here and no one cares anyway. For that matter, my own biography doesn't fit that criterion, for the same reason. Technically, someone "knows" what I had for dinner (namely me) but no one can verify that and no one cares.
The theory of relativity. World War II. The Roman Empire. Hell, even Britney Spears. These things are human knowledge in that they are important (or at least notable) to humanity as a whole, or at least to a significantly large fraction thereof. The things I mentioned above are not, they are personal knowledge-and such things don't belong here, paper or not aside.
I've been tracking with Seraphimblade for a while now, and though we differ in our wikiphilosophies I wanted to recognize his strong contributions to Wikipedia. Notably he has spend a good deal of time prodding and speedying articles that don't fit Wikipedia, to the tune of around 500 articles in the past two months. He has a keen eye for non-notable, commercial, and vanity submissions, and has been a strong force in pushing other editors (myself included) to make their new article submissions better, sooner rather than later. Through his pace, his judgement, and his firm but cordial dialog with other editors he does a great service toward keeping Wikipedia relevant and clean of bad stubs. Keep up the good work! Erielhonan 07:07, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
I hereby give you the original barnstar for the time and effort you took in the Anton Balasingham page to mediate as a third party opinion that resolved a major edit war. Thanks RaveenS 16:35, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
I, ANNAfoxlover, award you this barnstar for your works against vandalism on Wikipedia. You have done a wonderful job as a Wikipedian. Keep up the good work! A•N•N•AfoxloverPLEASE SIGN, ANYONE!!! 18:00, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Valour on Making a Difficult Decision
For closing a very contentious WP:RFCN ruling. Well done! - Alison☺ 18:02, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
The da Vinci Barnstar
I Aeon award you Seraphimblade the da Vinci Barnstar for being bold in starting a new project aimed at helping Wikipedian's in need. Love the direction you and the others are taking. ÆonInsanity Now!Give Back Our Membership! 04:49, 11 April 2007 (UTC)
I, Durova, award Seraphimblade the Sherlock Holmes Deductive Reasoning Award for an investigation that uncovered and ended a long-term vote stacking campaign by a Wikipedia administrator who has now been desysopped. Thank you for your excellent work keeping the site honest and preserving the integrity of the administrator community. DurovaCharge! 20:01, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
The Spamstar of Glory
To Seraphimblade for diligence in the tireless battle against Spam on Wikipedia. --Hu12 09:49, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
Seraphimblade has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian,
and therefore, I've officially declared today as Seraphimblade's day!
For being such a beautiful person and great Wikipedian,
enjoy being the Star of the day, dear Seraphim!
I'm awarding you this barnstar of diligence for your combination of extraordinary scrutiny, precision and community service to wikipedia. Wikidudeman(talk) 11:33, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
The Working Man's Barnstar
For clearing up image copyright problems when the formatting gets too complicated for others. ElinorD(talk) 09:34, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
On 11 September 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Kelli Scarr, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.
The Special Barnstar
Thanks for your contributions. SwisterTwistertalk 20:55, 19 May 2012 (UTC)
clean blade
Thank you for fighting for the credibility of the project, "free as in freedom", for cleanup, tighten, consolidate, - repeating: you are an awesome Wikipedian (8 December 2009, 25 July 2007: "I dreamt a dream! ... Guarded by a mighty Seraphim")!
Committed identity: 00224E32895323B352A3969B76587309BF32BB2E8D77ACDA03D5D71FAEE45F6FB8FED00F45924709720EAB0BBC7D3A459BB0AF64E5C7956E8A01E619C5CE26B4 is a SHA-512commitment to this user's real-life identity.
