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An experienced wikipedian, I focus on disambiguation and have particular interests in the geography, history and architecture of South West England.
About Me
editI was born in Ramsgate & brought up in Margate went to the University of Surrey and then trained as a nurse at Frimley Park Hospital before undertaking various courses and jobs in Accident and Emergency in the National Health Service. Qualifications from Bournemouth University and London South Bank University followed along with jobs for the NHS and University of Sheffield. Until my retirement I worked for the University of the West of England.
I am now living in Cotswolds close to our narrowboat on the River Thames having moved from the Chew Valley, south of Bristol. I'm a member of the Cotswold Canals Trust - contributing to the restoration of Inglesham lock and hold a certifcate in community boat management for their trip boat. I am a Trustee of Wikimedia UK and volunteer and director of Lechlade Community Library. I am also a community first responder for the South Western Ambulance Service. I have four kids with very varied ages and interests, who have all used Wikipedia for homework in the past. My hobbies include juggling, Real ale and travel.
All edits I make to wikipedia, wikicommons, etc are my individual contribution and do not represent any other organisation I am a member of.
Find out more at RodSpace.
Personal to do list (help welcome)
edit- Create articles for all Grade I listed buildings in Cotswold (district)
- Suggestion : Create articles for all Grade I listed buildings and churches in Stroud District
Subject matter you might find me writing about
editMost of my edits are to articles about South West England, and tend to be about geography, industrial or architectural history and related topics but also relate to other areas of interest and places I've travelled to. I'll edit almost anything as I come across it.
To help I have quite a few books about South West England (particularly Somerset). If you want me to look anything up in them for wikipedia articles just let me know.
My history and activity on wikimedia
editYou can find statistics on my editing activity here I made my first edit on 29 October 2004 and as of 12 March 2006 had made 973 edits, including getting one article, Chew Valley Lake to Featured Article Status. During the next few months edits increased (am I becoming a Wikipediholic?) and by July 2006 had over 2000 edits with another article Chew Valley making it to Featured Article Status and a couple of others gaining Good article status. By October 2006 the count was over 4000 edits and two lists List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset and Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal having achieved featured status. Various edits also made it into the Did you know section. During the later part of 2006 and early 2007 my editing activity increased, particularly around the Mendip Hills, Wikipedia:WikiProject Bristol, particularly Buildings and architecture of Bristol and I also joined Wikipedia:WikiProject UK Waterways. By April 2007 I passed the 9000 edit mark, and helped make Mendip Hills a featured article and Grade I listed buildings in Bristol a featured list.
My 10,000th edit was the start of a new article on the Bristol Byzantine architectural style and happened on 19 May 2007, and the 11,000th to update my userbox of Good Articles to 8 following the promotion of Somerset Levels on 6 July 2007. 12,000 – 15,000 went past in a hurry during August (although I was on holiday & at a conference in Brisbane where I edited Queensland Maritime Museum among others). September and October 2007 were mostly related to the creation of Wikipedia:WikiProject Somerset and the initial assessment of approximately 2000 articles. During October 2007 Buildings and architecture of Bristol became the fourth article on which I had done serious editing to become a Featured article.
The start of 2008 saw Exmoor and Somerset achieving FA status and on 3 February I passed 20,000 edits while creating stubs for villages on the Somerset WikiProject "to do" list. Edits around 22,000 and 23,000 were work on the new Wikipedia:WikiProject Museums particularly setting up templates and guidelines for the initial assessment of thousands of articles.
24,000->28,000 edits went past with mostly low level editing, particularly to stubs within Somerset but I did manage to get a few more DYKs & GAs, and maintenance tasks for Wikipedia:WikiProject Somerset and Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography. One specific achievement during that period was getting Physical geography of Somerset to Featured topic status. 28,000->33,000 included getting all parishes in Somerset to at least start class, and creating new articles (with accompanying DYKs etc which took me past the 50 DYK mark) while working on getting List of Grade I listed buildings in West Somerset to featured list status.
33,000–36,000 continued in much the same way with DYKs going past 60 and with 5 of the lists at List of Grade I listed buildings in Somerset becoming featured. I also joined the new WP:HSITES. Reaching 37,000 edits included completing the creation or improvement of the articles for all Grade I listed buildings in Somerset and getting the lists of them to FL.
The 40,000 edit mark was during December 2009 and included getting Grade I listed buildings in Somerset to GA and getting all of these to Featured Topic, and various other maintenance and development work almost exclusively relates to Somerset articles. Edits 40-45,000 involved a personal challenge to get all settlements in Somerset with over 5,000 population to GA and getting River Parrett to FA along with various other edits to Somerset geography, museum and similar articles, including more DYKs.
45,000-50,000 continued in the same vein including getting Sweet Track to FA and nearly completing the challenge of getting settlements in Somerset with over 5,000 population to GA and various further DYKs. I also helped get WikiProject Wiltshire up and running and started some articles for churches under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. My 50,000th edit was putting up List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in South West England.
In January 2011 I got an opportunity to meet Jimmy Wales and local wikipedians in Bristol and attend his public talk at the Victoria Rooms. One of the purposes of the day, apart from celebrating wikipedia's 10th birthday was to encourage outreach and as part of that I was interviewed by BBC Focus and the New Statesman. The city council has webcast the talk - my question is at 53:22. There are also videos of interviews with MartinPoulter, Ghmyrtle and myself on the same day
On March 19th I participated in the first Bristol Wiki Academy. (see my blog post). From October 2011 to June 2012 I took a wikibreak as my wife needed major surgery for a brain tumour and my elderly father had multiple admissions to hospital and then I needed to help him move into a nursing home and sell his house. Editing continued for the rest of 2012 (although at a slower rate) continuing mostly on Somerset related articles, including keeping an eye on the cleanup list and converting lots of stub articles to start class.
Editing continued in much the same vein during 2013 but included participation in the WikiCup for the first time (reaching round 3). I also got quite heavily involved in the UKs first participation in the Wiki Loves Monuments competition, not just uploading several hundred photographs but also helping with the preparation of suitable lists using appropriate templates etc.
I again participated in the Wikicup during 2014. At the beginning of February I attended a weekend workshop organised by Wikimedia UK to "Train the Trainers", as part of an initiative to accredit volunteers to run training for other potential editors across a range of projects. It was held in Cardiff deliberately to enable those living in Wales and the south west of England to participate. Most of 2014 went past with further editing of Somerset articles and in October I passed the landmark of editing wikipedia for more than ten years.
In 2015 I again participated in the wikicup progressing to the final for the first time, but loosing a a (600pt) FAC got bogged down in a complex discussion about copyright/fair use, ownership and legal status between wp and commons. A significant piece of work (larger than I initially thought) was to review all the FAs I have nominated years ago to ensure they still meet current FA criteria and standards. I agreed to do a workshop for Wikimedia UK which was held at the University of Exeter in July. For this purpose I have set up another account at User:Rodw (training) without all the gadgets and changes I have made to this account over the last 10 years. In September I attended the first Wikipedia Science Conference. In October I was nominated as Editor of the Week, an unexpected honour. I agreed to act as trainer for an event at Gloucester Archives in November.
I decided not to enter the wikicup in 2016 and have tackled the cleanup listings for Somerset and Bristol getting them from 400+ tagged articles to less than 100 each. Bristol achieved FA status on 31 December 2015 and appeared as TFA on 7 March 2016 for which I did some promotional press releases and interviews. During the summer I helped to set up and then took part in the The West Country Challenge. In 2017 I continued with articles about the local area and again took part in the WikiCup, withdrawing in the third round after my daughter suffered a spinal injury and my time became more limited. As well as continuing my usual content contributions, I started doing more to resolve the massive disambiguation backlogs. After being used as an example in the debates about vetting and the Optional RfA candidate poll/Poll candidate search, I put myself up in the system and received very positive comments from a range of editors. My 100,000th edit was to create the article for the Church of St Mary, Cheddon Fitzpaine. In November 2017 I was recruited, at short notice, as a stand in judge for The Core Contest. At the end of the year I was also recruited to help out with backlogs at New pages patrol and Articles for creation. By the end of the year my edit count was up to 117,000 as lots of the edits are fairly minor. 2018 continued in much the same way with one or two side projects including leading a workshop for medieval historians at the University of Winchester.
In 2018 and 2019 I got seriously into efforts to reduce the number of disambiguation links putting my edit count over 200,000 by June when I got involved with Wikipedia:Glastonbury 2019, a project trying to get photographs of loads of artists at Glastonbury Festival. I also decided I should stand for the Wikimedia UK Board election at the 2019 AGM, held at the Watershed on 13 July and I am grateful for the votes which got me elected. It will take a while to get "up to speed with this, but if there are issues you want brought to the attention of the board please let me know. In March 2020 I participated in the The Great Britain and Ireland Destubathon. Having moved house in January 2020, I joined WikiProject Gloucestershire and started to expand it by identifying relevant articles which were not included and particularly tackling the county cleanup list. As part of my disambiguation work I was involved in a RFC and a proposal on the community wichlist survey. In the first part of 2021 I participated in the pilot wikilearn course on partnership building on moodle. The rest of the year mainly consisted of disambiguating. My 500,000th edit was during March 2022 and the 20 year anniversary of my first edit was in October 2024.
My (out of date) wp picture gallery - see also my contributions on commons.
| Real name: Rod Ward | Email: rod@rodspace.co.uk | Home page: http://www.rodspace.co.uk | Location: Chew Valley, UK |
| I'm a member of Wikimedia UK We are a group of local Wikimedians helping to create "a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge". Love Wikimedia? Live in the UK? Donate, Volunteer, and Get Involved! |
My Geography
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| Places I've drawn a pay-cheque: | |
| Places I've visited for work: | |
| Places I've slept overnight, holidayed or partied in: | |
| Template purloined from Trident13 who shimmied it away from Bucketsofg who plagiarized it from Grutness who lifted idea from Moriori who half-inched from Calton who nicked it from Salsb who stole it from Guettarda who borrowed it from White Cat |
Awards etc
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This editor is a Senior Vanguard Editor and is entitled to display this Duranium Editor Star with the Neutronium Superstar hologram. |
* The ASCII barnstar of awesomeness I just wanted to say that I was very proud to see a fellow Wikipedian being so helpful without being asked. A fine example we should all try and emulate. Have an ASCII barnstar! Best, Neil ☎ 15:30, 9 November 2007 (UTC) |
Special edition triple crown Your Fleet-fingered Majesty, thank you very much for disproving the better/cheaper/faster theory by doing superb editing work lickety-split and free licensing it. Now all of Wikipedia's readers will need to take speed reading lessons to catch up with you. ;) DurovaCharge! 23:11, 18 March 2008 (UTC) |
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| The 50 DYK Medal | ||
| For your efforts in creating or contributing to 50 DYKs, I award you this medal. Wear it with pride. Chris (talk) 02:58, 19 March 2009 (UTC) |
| The Geography Barnstar | ||
| For all your tireless and impeccable work on the geography of Chew Valley, Somerset and the United Kingdom! Keep it up, we need you! – Jza84 · (talk) 16:16, 12 November 2007 (UTC) |
| The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar | ||
| Thanks for all your work helping me promote my first good article, Worlebury Camp. I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to do it without you. Thanks again! Reaper Eternal (talk) 01:55, 25 December 2010 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | ||
| I can't tell you how impressed I am with your contributions, esp. the recent series on Somerset archeological sites. I wish we had a Thomas Hardy-award for you. Drmies (talk) 19:35, 6 February 2011 (UTC) |
| The Featured Article Medal | ||
| Given the number of FAs you have created, this appears to be long overdue. Very Well done. MrMedal (talk) 15:02, 14 May 2011 (UTC) |
| The Featured List Medal | ||
| Given the number of FLs you have created, this also appears to be long overdue. Very Well done.MrMedal (talk) 15:02, 14 May 2011 (UTC) |
| The Special Barnstar | |
| For your exceptional efforts to write Somerset and Bristol articles to a high standard and for creating decent articles on missing Somerset villages, geo features and buildings. If only we could clone you for other English counties!! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:23, 20 July 2011 (UTC) |
| The Good Article Barnstar | ||
| Thanks Rodw for helping to make Bath Abbey a Good Article. Keep up the good work. Sp33dyphil "Ad astra" 03:29, 29 September 2011 (UTC) |
| The 100 DYK Creation and Expansion Medal | ||
| Many congratulations are in order, as you have become one of the few Wikipedians to contribute one hundred or more newly created or expanded articles to the Main page in the "Did you know?" section. You have made a huge impact on our coverage of Somerset, in particular, and are a great asset to the encyclopedia. Moonraker (talk) 23:09, 13 October 2011 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| A belated thank you for helping to raise Ely, Cambridgeshire to GA status --Senra (talk) 13:06, 1 January 2012 (UTC) |
| Project Somerset | |
| Thank you for the profound coverage of your area, beginning with the "oldest road in the world", and for your activity in the related project, a sweet track, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:12, 3 June 2012 (UTC) |
| The Good Article Barnstar | ||
| For your contributions to bring Barrington Court to Good Article status. Thanks, and keep up the good work! -- Khazar2 (talk) 15:10, 1 May 2013 (UTC) |
| The Teamwork Barnstar | |
| Good on you, Rodw! Amandajm (talk) 10:52, 12 July 2013 (UTC) |
| The Quarter Million Award | ||
| For your contributions to bring Somerset (estimated annual readership: 301,000) to Featured Article status, I hereby present you the Quarter Million Award. Congratulations, and thanks for all you do for Wikipedia's readers! Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 11:35, 15 November 2013 (UTC) |
| The Quarter Million Award | ||
| For your contributions to bring Bath, Somerset (estimated annual readership: 451,000) to Featured Article status, I hereby present you the Quarter Million Award. Congratulations, and thanks for all you do for Wikipedia's readers! Ritchie333 (talk) (cont) 11:35, 15 November 2013 (UTC) |
| The Barnstar of Inland Inundation | |
| What a wonderful and much needed article. Consider yourself awash with praise! Martinevans123 (talk) 16:57, 1 March 2014 (UTC) |
| The Writer's Barnstar | |
| Thank you for your quality improvement project on Magna Carta, and for improving Wikipedia's coverage related to WP:Human rights. Much appreciated. — Cirt (talk) 02:23, 22 January 2015 (UTC) |
| The Cast-Iron Engineering Barnstar | ||
| Awarded for bringing the article on Stembridge Mill, High Ham up to Good Article status. Mjroots (talk) 16:40, 7 June 2015 (UTC) |
| Paladin of Hampshire County Historic Places | |
| Rod, it is my sincere pleasure to hereby name you a Paladin of Hampshire County Historic Places in recognition of your thoughtful review and appreciated guidance, which resulted in the promotion of Capon Chapel to Featured Article status. This article is the first Hampshire County subject and only the sixth West Virginia-related subject to receive this status. Thank you for helping to bring awareness to Hampshire County's historic landmarks! -- West Virginian (talk) 10:56, 12 July 2015 (UTC) |
| The Good Article Barnstar | ||
| Rodw, I hereby award you The Good Article Barnstar for your outstanding work in improving Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum to Good Article status. Thank you for your continued efforts to illustrate the Listed buildings of England. -- West Virginian (talk) 11:29, 25 August 2015 (UTC) |
| The Portal Barnstar | ||
| The Portal Barnstar is awarded to Wikipedians who have made significant contributions to topic portals. For your work on the Bristol Portal, I award you the Portal Barnstar. -- John of Reading (talk) 20:42, 30 August 2015 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| For almost getting the 5 millionth article with Church of St Mary, Compton Dando! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:03, 1 November 2015 (UTC) |
| The Special Barnstar | |
| For almost making 5 millionth article. It shouldn't really matter who "won", but somehow, apparently, it does... Samsara 13:08, 1 November 2015 (UTC) |
| The Half Million Award | ||
| For your contributions to bring Bristol (estimated annual readership: 628,943) to Featured Article status, I hereby present you the Half Million Award. Congratulations on this rare accomplishment, and thanks for all you do for Wikipedia's readers! Yash! 11:18, 25 February 2016 (UTC) |
| The Special Barnstar | |
| I've been very impressed Rod with the way you've quickly set about the task of setting up this new contest. What would have normally taken weeks has largely been done in a few days. Having this level of energy and input is very promising indeed, we'll need it for running such a contest haha. It's a lot of work but if the results are anywhere near as good it will have been worth it! Drawing up these lists is important anyway, even beyond the contest. So keep up the great work Rod and here's to a productive contest!♦ Dr. Blofeld 19:13, 14 May 2016 (UTC) |
| The West Country Challenge: Bronze Medal | |
| Congratulations on finishing 3rd place in the West Country Challenge. Great work throughout the whole contest. And you won £30 for the effort too! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 09:40, 5 September 2016 (UTC) |
| The Special Barnstar | |
| You're an amazing editor Rod, fantastic stuff!! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 17:11, 6 October 2016 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Great work on all the de-stubing. Thanks. Philafrenzy (talk) 10:36, 15 October 2016 (UTC) |
| The Super Disambiguator's Barnstar | ||
| The Super Disambiguator's Barnstar is awarded to the winners of the Disambiguation Pages With Links monthly challenge, who have gone above and beyond to remove ambiguous links. This award is belatedly presented to Rodw, for successfully fixing 1431 links in the Bonus List Championship of July 2017. Looks like you're well on the way to winning both of the February 2018 Challenges :-D Have you considered signing up to Category:Wikipedians who fix disambiguation pages with links and Category:WikiProject Disambiguation participants? Narky Blert (talk) 00:08, 5 February 2018 (UTC) |
| The Disambiguator's Barnstar | ||
| The Disambiguator's Barnstar is awarded to Wikipedians who are prolific disambiguators. Thanks for resolving all those Isaiah Thomas's—Bagumba (talk) 11:58, 18 February 2018 (UTC) |
| The 2017 Cure Award | |
| In 2017 you were one of the top ~250 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs. |
| The Barnstar of Diligence | ||
| Thanks for catching that link issue on the Visakha page Wikiman5676 (talk) 01:25, 12 September 2018 (UTC) |
| The Pyramid Barnstar of Eternal Grooviness | |
| Insanely jealous..... . What a great idea!!
Give Nick and Los Straitjackets my kindest regards!! Martinevans123 (talk) 20:21, 21 June 2019 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Thanks for your dab work on Battle of Weymouth. Nice to still see your name popping up on my Watchlist after all this time. Looking through your user page, I see that you've been plenty busy! Keep up all the good work, and know that it is always appreciated. Harrias talk 21:27, 25 September 2019 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Happy New Year, Rodw! You are receiving this barnstar because, according to this Wikipedia database query, you were the #5 most thanked Wikipedian of 2019, with 1344 entries in Special:Log/thanks during 2019. Congratulations, and, well, thank you for your contributions! |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Thanks for the help. Kont Dracula (talk) 23:38, 24 May 2020 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Hello, Rodw! You are receiving this barnstar because, according to this database query, you were the #4 most thanked Wikipedian of 2020, with 1716 entries in Special:Log/thanks! Thank you again for your contributions! |
| The Minor Barnstar | ||
| Minor edits are often-overlooked, but essential, contributions to Wikipedia. The Minor Barnstar is awarded for making minor edits of the utmost quality. Thanks Rodw. your awesome. Infinitepeace (talk) 01:48, 25 March 2021 (UTC) |
| The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| Thanks for disambiguating links, you're making a difference. Ratnahastin(t.c) 03:39, 21 July 2021 (UTC) |
| The Kind Collaborator Award | |
| I just wanted to say...THANK YOU for your efforts!
Your work is very much appreciated as is your understanding |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Hey Rod,
Thank you for your time during the AdaLoveLace Edit-A-Thon. Cmwaura (talk) 16:31, 13 October 2021 (UTC) |
| Here is a semihemidemibarnstar for Cleaning up my mess |
| The Disambiguator's Barnstar | ||
| The Disambiguator's Barnstar is awarded to Wikipedians who are prolific disambiguators. I've been thinking of awarding this to you for a little bit. You seem to be the current epitome of "prolific disambiguator;" one day, I hope to be as good as you are. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 11:33, 9 February 2022 (UTC) |
| The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| For your significant contributions over the years.... Keep it going! Volten001 ☎ 02:14, 19 April 2022 (UTC) |
| The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| I wanted to let you know I noticed you cleared the disambiguation links on Border town without spamming you with WP:THANKS. I dream of horses (Contribs) (Talk) 21:37, 30 June 2022 (UTC) |
| The Malta Barnstar of National Merit | ||
| This award is given to Rodw for his edits on Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade keep up the amazing work! |
| The Minor barnstar | |
| Hey thanks for fixing the disambiguation wiki link on my edit on the article Star Trek: Enterprise. You rock! Thank you for your edits! I do similar edits with AWB. Dillard421♂♂ (talk to me) 17:52, 21 December 2022 (UTC) |
| The Original Barnstar | |
| Happy New Year, Rodw! In 2022, other editors thanked you 1,984 times using the thanks tool. This made you the #2 most thanked Wikipedian in 2022. Congratulations and, well, thank you for all that you do for Wikipedia. Here's to 2023! Mz7 (talk) 23:28, 31 December 2022 (UTC) |
| The Tireless Contributor Barnstar | |
| Thanks for your significant help disambiguating links on Canadian election articles. Very much appreciated. Yamla (talk) 10:11, 29 February 2024 (UTC) |
| The Disambiguator's Barnstar | ||
| altDear Colleague, Thank you so much for your kind assistance in disambiguating some locations in my recently moved articles: Felice Lascelles and its companion List of performances by Felice Lascelles. I am most grateful to you for your help, which is very much appreciated. Thank you also for all your other contributions to our encyclopaedia. With kind regards; Patrick. ツ Pdebee.(talk)(become old-fashioned!) 19:17, 13 June 2024 (UTC) |
Achievements in the format for "Crown Awards"
editRodw
edit- working towards Genghis Khan Edition Conquest of the Wiki World Triple Crown upgrade from Alexander the Great Edition Triple Laurel Crown (and all previous)
Authority control databases – Rod Ward | |
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| Academics | |