I began editing Wikipedia sometime in 2008. However, until late in 2011, I edited exclusively under IP addresses. My primary efforts during this period were minor maintenance and drive-by sourcing of articles, often reached randomly. I kept no particular record of my anonymous work. My intention was to edit anonymously while getting a feel for the project's policies and procedures as well as its technical aspects, such as formatting and templating. I delayed the transition to a registered editor for far longer than I should have, over concerns that I would be looked upon with suspicion because "new" editors are not customarily familiar with Wikipedia processes and jargon. However, not everything can be done as an IP editor, I have come to regret having no record of my prior work in the project, and, of course, I have nothing to hide.
I am arguably a subject matter expert regarding certain aspects of operations research and queueing theory. However, in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest, I do not contribute directly to Wikipedia articles related to these topics. Luckily, Wikipedia is a big place, and there are no shortage of other topics to explore and develop.
Perhaps my favorite area of the project these days is volunteering as a reviewer of Featured Article candidates. I'm self-admittedly something of a "hard judge" there, especially regarding comprehensiveness, source reliability, and picayune matters of reference formatting. I think that Wikipedia's FA process is something to be proud of—evidence that crowdsourcing can work to produce not just informative material, but accurate content held to high standards of professionalism.
My 2019 New Year's Resolution is to return to—and sustain—active editing. I've left a lot of half-completed efforts in the project, and they deserve better, as do the other excellent editors I've had the privilege to work with. Well, that didn't go very well. But here's to trying to keep RL from interfering again as we wrap up 2019 and head toward 2020!
