SEMI-RETIRED
This user is no longer very active on Wikipedia.
User info
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17,000 edits to Wikipedia. |
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Hello, I'm Apaugasma. Welcome to my user page!
I am a devoted student of the history of ancient and medieval philosophy. My day-to-day activities largely consist of doing original research, in which I work with ancient Greek, Latin, and Arabic sources.
I have also spent a lot of time contributing to Wikipedia, where the task is rather to summarize and present the research of others. To me, this was a way to fulfill one of my scholarly duties, i.e., to make sure that the specialist knowledge produced by the academic community reaches as broad an audience as possible.
However, the fact that incompetent Wikipedia editors are left unchecked means that anyone who wishes to keep articles up to a scholarly standard will be forced to spend an unacceptable amount of time in discussions with ignorant, clueless editors. These editors are often trying to push some ethnic, political, or (anti-)religious point of view. Even worse is that the point pushed almost invariably involves something incredibly petty. Regular participation in such discussions has a very real effect of shrinking the mind.
Editing Wikipedia in these conditions not only wastes much time (in the order of several days to several weeks almost full-time distraction), it is also mentally exhausting up to the point of becoming unhealthy. I therefore will not be working on article content again until Wikipedia has been taken over by scholars and academics. I expect (okay, I'm wishfully thinking) this to happen somewhere c. 2040. Until then! ☿ Apaugasma (talk ☉)
Wikipedia is not always a toxic place. Here are some nice things Wikipedia editors have said to me.
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The Original Barnstar
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| For your recent edits to Ibn Wahshiyya. Thank you for bringing a scholarly perspective based on recent research to the article! Cerebellum (talk) 11:21, 24 January 2021 (UTC)
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The Rosetta Barnstar
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| For deciphering Wikipedia's alchemical morass in various language traditions; a magnum opus! GPinkerton (talk) 14:31, 26 January 2021 (UTC)
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