I am "Brutannica" (as far as you need to know). The name goes from an apparent misunderstanding of a character in the much-missed 18th episode of
world's most renowned encyclopaedia. Anyway, I've been using Wikipedia since the fall of 2003 and started contributing in 2004 with some controversial edits (but I thought many were good) of the first 30 or so of Michael H. Hart's 100 most influential people in history
. I stopped doing that for various reasons, and now mostly check in every day and make comments on discussion pages. Lame, I know, but it's hard for me to substantially edit any articles because I'm really not much of an expert on anything! :( I tend to change interests quickly.
My overriding passion is history and global relations and cultures; I like anthropology but am somewhat turned off by its scholarly, scientific tone. I am also fascinated by popular culture and somewhat interested in "high"er culture (and loathe the distinction between the two, which, I think, tends to be arbitrary and elitist). My edits range pretty widely, since my favorite thing about Wikipedia is probably how diverse its coverage is.
As already mentioned, I rarely make substantial edits, partially because I don't have many fields of expertise and partially because I find it personally hard to justify the enormous time and effort needed to do them. I created a mere two articles (Kusaila and Dien Bien Phu (manga)) and attempted to create another (Pattenrai!) but it's been rejected. The subject I can realistically do most to contribute about is anime (I even taught a course on it in '09), and I considered using my Japanese skills to translate Featured Articles from the Japanese Wikipedia. Sadly, so far this has not gone very far.
I can say other things, but I think I'll let my userboxes do the talking. As a closing note, I'd like to say that I ADORE this site; it's easily the most dynamic, fascinating part of the Web and has a good shot at being a major transformer of society. Unfortunately, I must also concede that it has a lot of drawbacks, from the ongoing and perhaps unresolvable controversy regarding what's fit for inclusion to the hostility of entrenched editors to newcomers. Still, I hope to remain a part of it, and maybe even contribute more meaningfully someday.
