User:JonRichfield

I did not originally put anything into this page because there was not much to say about me. However, after some time I got all confused about my ontology and in vaguer terms, my existential epistemology and all that, and came to doubt my existence because I could not find myself on signing in. Honest, I was sober! You might wonder about my ability to locate my own fly when I am in any other condition. To forfend future repetitions of the incident I am now composing this item.

FWIW, I am South African, retired, a biologist (largely entomological; other flies I can find fairly well, thank you) and computer consultant, with wide interests in science and technology.

Not long ago I acquired a digital camera and have begun to submit various photographs, some of which I have submitted to various Wikipedia articles. Currently I intend to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. That's about it I suppose.

If I find myself here in future, I must remember to consult my talk page and contributions page. (Gallery? Whatever it might be...)

JonRichfield (talk) 14:03, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Paid contributions etc.

I write this edit after having just seen the circular on paid editing etc, so I might as well make this the occasion for the appropriate disclaimer. I have made a similar entry on my user page in Wikipedia.

In the years that I have contributed to wikis of any sort, up to the time of writing this, I have been retired and I never have accepted nor been offered any inducements, proper, improper or arguable, direct or indirect, for editing or authoring any articles or other materials such as photographs or copies. Nor have I committed any acts of plagiarism etc. In short what a good little boy have I been. I have neither knowledge of nor influence in my retirement investments in a large, dedicated company retirement scheme, nor any interest beyond a pious hope that it continues sound. Certainly nothing that I have done or been asked to do in such connections has a blind bit to do with any of my wiki work. I'll repeat this disclaimer wherever it occurs to me that it might be appropriate, but it had never occurred to me before that it might be of interest to man or beast, so this (plus the entry in Wikipedia) is the first time of saying.

Mind you, the inventiveness of some of the lower beasts can be startlingly intrusive; some semi-literate halfwit recently accused me of plagiarism purely on the grounds that many of the phrases I had used in a technical description of a certain taxon also occurred in one of my major sources. The fact that in such an article certain phrases are hardly avoidable simply made no dent in its mental zareba. For the copyright checker to react was quite understandable, but for the self-appointed Dogberry to be unable to appreciate that the likes of "in this taxon" or "many species of FGHJKK" (name changed to avoid blushes) taken out of context simply crop up in context argues shocking incompetence. Fortunately the authority appealed to accepted the facts of the matter and even offered helpful comments, but did so over the shrill admonitions of the original objector. So let me add in case any other cheaply zealous watchdogs get similar ideas, that I am happy to discuss such difficulties as they arise, but that I do not plagiarise and have no need to plagiarise.