User:CSGinger14

Bio (Please read!)

Hi everyone, I'm CSGinger14. I figure my departure from my original goals stated in February warrants a longer bio. I'm from the US State of Virginia, have worked for a long time in campaign politics (though have since stopped), and am currently pursuing a bachelors degree in international history. I have a minor in French language studies and would love to expand the American and West-Hemispheric article base of fr.wikipedia.org to anyone that would be willing to assist me. I've also studied Swahili for 2 and a half years, and would be very interested in expanding the Swahili article base for anyone that could help me with template mechanisms, image attributions, etc. I'd also like to assist in building a more cohesive listing and detailing of charitable organizations in the United States, as well additions to and creation of pages on rights violations (abuses against the homeless / at-risk youth isolation programs / psych-ward insurance fraud / etc.) that have occurred frequently in the United States in recent memory. I'd love any help anyone could provide, sourcing especially would be greatly appreciated.

You can find my Kiswahili Wikipedia User page here. I’ll add one for French soon as well.

Why I'm Here

I'm a student of every school my brain can get the slightest grasp on. I've been using Wikipedia for years, and by God has it saved me more times than I'm willing to admit. I owe an astonishing amount to this site, and I see this as my way of paying it forward. You can find me all across Wikipedia, but you'll find I'll be the most help assisting in topics related to current events, culture, history, anthropology, theology, geography, demography, sociology, psychology, environmental science, linguistics, politics, economics, ethnography, and earth science. I'll also occasionally add links and do fixes to a number of random articles at once, Link bridging and clean ups aren't usually followed by substantive additions to the article, but please let me know if I came across one and you'd like help with it.

One of my greatest blessings is an ability to quickly reason out the fundamental links between different sources of information within or between any number of topics, so long as I have a reasonable base understanding of the material; you hand me 2 sources, I'll give you 25. One of my principal goals in assisting with this project is to increase the access of all people to scholarship which I feel is needlessly restricted or hidden in the interests of profit, threatening the access of all to our species' knowledge on that topic in the future. Learning to find information on your own is a valuable skill, but I think we delude ourselves in thinking that anyone can garner that skill without first having learned where they need to look.

Feel free to take a look around my profile. If there any groups you think I could be of assistance to, by all means let me know. Otherwise, my best wishes to all of you and hopes for the safety and well-being of you and your loved ones.

Let us hope not for a better world, but for better people within it. – Unknown

CSGinger14 (talk) 00:57, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

If You Need Assistance

If there's anything you'd like my assistance with, please leave it in my talk page, truly I'd love to help with anything that sparks your interest, so long as you can provide me with some beginners resources to start with. If you're a new user, don't worry about making the referencing perfect in source editor. My advice would be to use your own user page to craft an automatic or manual reference, then copy paste the information it generates for it in source editor into the talk page editing interface. Remember that it has to be within the <ref>PUT YOUR CITATION HERE</ref> box, no spaces.

Notes

Feb ? 2025

Hi all. Will only be making minor edits on occasion. Mostly to citations and grammar. Can assist in French and English editing, and would be interested in anyone hoping to expand the Swahili article base, as I'm currently at intermediate level and hoping to improve. Will mostly focus on articles related to history, theology, geography, demography, economics, politics, or current events. Thanks to everyone who's devoted their time to this project, its kept me curious and made my life far easier on a number of occasions.

4/8/2025

To any admin that come along and view this page, likely after reversing one of my edits. Please help me. I have no idea how to use templates or transplant images from the original text to the translation. Nothing stays the same between language pages. I have no idea how to add references before publishing or creating a draft for the community at large. I am very confused and would greatly appreciate any help you could provide in understanding the many moving systems of this website. Believe me, I understand that the complexity of this site is one of its greatest strengths, but it might serve as a barrier to integrating new users into the more complex elements of Wikipedia. My thanks in advance, and best wishes to all amid a deeply challenging, painful, and nonetheless critical moment in the history of our species.

4/19/25

If there's anyone who's also on French language wikipedia, I'd appreciate them looking over several draft articles I've completed. The first article I translated was flagged for poor language, and I'd like to make sure that this one, of far greater length, is up to standard. Also noting that the draft article system desperately needs to be revamped. Templates as well. I'll make a note of changes I feel are most pertinent below. I doubt anyone will read it, but if they do, please take these points into consideration.

4/27/25

Though I'm not certain I'd be much help in teaching people about the mechanisms of this website, I've read a ton of sources over the course of my life, and will soon start categorizing them to make them available to those who are interested in researching or learning about a given topic, with some steps on how to properly contextualize what you'll see in sourcing and potentially in Wikipedia's projects. For the moment, I've compiled some of the books I've enjoyed / gotten the most out of thus far in life. This is not an endorsement of the views expressed in these books, simply a recognition that they provide a thought provoking view on the world or the people within it. I'll add more as time goes on, I remember the things I've read, or I finally go back and look through my library. I recommend that you only read the first paragraph or so of the linked articles. Don't spoil the endings, the context can wait, enjoy the content.

Book Recommendations

Fiction Recommendations:

(15+)

• One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
• The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
• Thirteen Moons - Charles Frazier
• Century Trilogy - Ken Follett
• 1984 - George Orwell
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney | Yeah you heard me go back and read it again and tell me if he was a good friend
• The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
• Lord of the Flies - William Golding
• Their Eyes were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
• The Alchemyst series - Michael Scott
• Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
• The Princess Bride - William Goldman
• Human Acts - Han Kang
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• The Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges

(All Ages / K-12 Instructional Reading)

• The Cricket in Times Square - George Selden
• Camp Half-Blood Chronicles - Rick Riordan
• Dragon's Gate - Laurence Yep
• Tangerine - Edward Bloor
• A Long Walk to Water - Linda Sue Park
• Airman - Eoin Colfer
• Eragon series - Christopher Paolini
• The Fault in our Stars - John Green
• Around the World in Eighty Days - Jules Verne
• Survivors series - Erin Hunter (pseud.)
• Because of Winn-Dixie - Kate DiCamillo
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret - Brian Selznick
• The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The Magic Tree House Series - Mary Pope Osborne
• All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
• Stuart Little - E.B. White
• The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
• Shades of Gray - Carolyn Reeder
• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
• Out of My Mind - Sharon Draper
• Guardians of Ga'Hoole Series - Kathryn Lasky

Non-Fiction Recommendations (15+) (Main Focus - Human Geography / Sociology / Theology)

For anyone who comes along who is under the age of 16, I'd caution you that some of the topics discussed in these books can be quite upsetting and difficult to process and properly contextualize without the guidance or support of an adult. It is no less important that you learn about them, but I recommend taking it gradually alongside discussion with a parent or teacher. It's important to understand that these works raise questions that humans have grappled with for millennia. You are shared by billions in that struggle, and having care for those who were forced to suffer during their lifetimes, and more importantly those who still are, shows your capacity to love beyond yourself and that which pertains to yourself, which is an immeasurably important aspect of character to possess. No one person is expected to fix the world or the people in it on their own.

For teachers that view this page, I'm leaving a few resources at the bottom with recommendations for history / science books that your students might find engaging. They're a tad bit outdated, though for discussions of general history I suppose that doesn't really matter within a span of 20 years or so. Let me know if there are any others you've found helpful and I'll leave them below. Sharing these resources and providing students access to resources that truly interest them and immerse them in the material is how we ensure that the next generation actually moves forward, not back.

• Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall
• Hello Shadowlands - Patrick Winn
• We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families - Philip Gourevitch
• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism - Shoshana Zuboff
• The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa’s Wealth - Tom Burgis
• The Sixth Extinction - Elizabeth Kolbert
• The Sacred and the Profane - Mircea Eliade
• Columbine - Dave Cullen
• Wealth, Poverty, and Politics - Thomas Sowell
• The Question - Henri Alleg
• Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes - Tamim Ansary
• Politics and the English Language - George Orwell
• Them: Why We Hate Each-other and How to Heal - Ben Sasse
• The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
• Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America - John Charles Chasteen
• Silent Spring - Rachel Carson
• World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability - Amy Chua
• The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels
• Letter from Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King Jr.
• Are Prisons Obsolete? - Angela Davis

Young Adult / Pre-Teen (10-14) Education Non-Fiction Recommendations

• Ghosts in the Fog: The Untold Story of Alaska's WWII Invasion - Samantha Seiple | Read in fourth grade, probably a little dark for a 9 year old but it was nonetheless incredibly interesting / along with Dragon's Gate encouraged my love of history on through middle- and high-school
• All About Turtles - Jim Arnosky | I'll admit I used the first and like 6th chapter of this for a book report (that was, admittedly, for the whole book) in 9th grade. It was a terrible report on the book, excellent report on turtles. Earned me an A. Nonetheless it had a lot of info therein. If you find a kid who's just crazy about turtles I suspect they'll appreciate it
• Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall | Listing this here again because I read this in 8th grade and it changed the trajectory of my academic career. It's incredibly well written and does an excellent job of simplifying complex geopolitical concepts in a way that makes it digestible for younger or less cosmopolitan readers. It provides an excellent base understanding of how the global world order came to take the shape it did. I'd recommend for history or geography teachers looking to expose their students to a range of different topics in a relatively brief but coherent and fundamental way

Issues I've Noticed (Admin please read)

1. Incredibly esoteric editing interface

1. Explanations of key concepts on instructional pages which are deeply complicated, or lacking in necessary context, or lacking in basic context, or any combination thereof.
2. Lack of template parity between different wikipedia language projects
   1. If auto licensing exists, why doesn't it between en.wikipedia and wikipedia.fr.
   2. Why can images not be attributed to the user of origin across sites
   3. Could an integrated system not exist to edit template headers while working on translating pages which would necessarily need a version of that template. It's not surprising that a fair number of non-English wikipedia or wikimedia project pages of only reasonable importance or renown lack the characteristic templates that you'd see on the English language version.
3. Lack of template parity between different wikimedia projects, especially wiktionary.org.
   1. The overwhelming lack of non-english translations between other languages speaks to how imposing the structure of the English language page is.
   2. The lack of standardization, or, at the very least, proper marking of templates between languages makes new page creation nearly impossible.
4. Difficulty supporting multiple editors amid breaking news
5. A tendency among editors to simply remove content that they feel is problematic in the interest of reducing the rate at which that information is viewed, but simultaneously wiping referencing for such content that is nonetheless relevant to the topic at hand and may be pertinent later on, though we simply don't know right at this moment. If not open to the public, there should at the very least be some repository of citations that exists for editors to work through when making additions to various pages as major events surface.
6. An additional tendency among such editors to blanket wipe entire sections of text which are appropriate and relevant to the topic at hand. Frankly I think that some of the definitions of original research for the site are absurd.
7. Despite it being marked as a page of 'top importance', The History of Zambia has not seen a single admin come along to verify edits or sourcing in months. I think this speaks to a larger issue I've seen with many pages where, despite the willingness of some editors to mark pages for deletion on account of notability, there is little effort to ensure that rigorous standards are met for the pages we deem the most important.
8. If you choose to be an admin, or are chosen to be one, I'd suggest you make an effort to pay an equal amount of attention to the interests of users as to the interests of arbitrary guidelines which can necessarily be changed at any time by verdict of the administrative body. This is especially true of users who focus on removal edits. What conveniently took you 1 and a half minutes because of the reasonable openness to interpretation of most guidelines (combined with your place in a meritocracy that is based on an amassment of edits that don't necessarily represent the actual time you've invested into the project, which earns you points with other editors in debate) could have taken someone else several hours, if not days. If you are here not to be constructive, but rather to claim you're being constructive by rigidly applying your interpretation of site policy while turning the vast majority of new users off from engaging with the project, I don't see any reason why you should be here at all.

19 April - Updated 27 April

To note, the criticism I've voiced thus far about this system is in no way meant to deride those that created or maintain it. What's been performed here, largely at the hands of volunteers, is an incredible act of service in the interests of equal access to education and Learning for All, and its stringency and rigorous standards have helped solidify this site's reputation. Nevertheless, the rate at which information is being produced globally has accelerated at such a rapid pace that this site can no longer rely on the dutiful maintenance of a small group of core editors and bots. Wikipedia seems to have gone quiet at the moment its needed most, at a moment when knowledge and the right of all to share and learn from it is under attack. We cannot allow Wikipedia to fall into decay at a time when an increasingly significant portion of official and journalistic reporting is sourced directly from it. Students rely on it as one of a scarce number of alternatives to AI simplification, and large language models like ChatGPT (for students that choose the simpler route) rely on it, for broader explanation as well as sourcing, when alternative sourcing is paywalled or does not exist.

We have lost untold sums of our history to a narrow-minded view of the world that considers profit and personal advancement as the only real and valuable facets of human experience. Encroachments on the rights, privileges, and funding of public media (PBS, NPR, VOA), Hachette v. Internet Archive, and other attacks are proof that our institutions are not, nor have ever been safe from the apathy of a compromised government authority that was assumed to always work to their interest. We cannot allow our own apathy to erase the progress that was made through the sacrifice of every previous generation, less than a tenth of whom we remember in any meaningful way, to ensure that the lives of those who came after them would be better. Who are you to wipe their faces from the history books for a lack of notability or perfectly technically appropriate sourcing? How many real and important stories or truths of the recent past are no longer known because the first or only time someone took time out of their day to write them down, you decided you needed a technical win?

I would like to be remembered when I die. I want my family to be remembered when they die. I want all those I loved and all those I didn't to be remembered, to serve as an example and guide to those who came after them. I want to show people that there is beauty and meaning that exists in the world and their lives, even when all it offers them is pain. This life is short, asks so much and yet only occasionally offers us something concrete and knowable in return. The only solution, then, is to find comfort in the abstract, the absurd, in the beautiful eccentricities of the exceptionally mundane.

Life is most livable when we laugh in the face of the horror and love and care in the face of everything that tells us that anger, derision, and cynicism are the only way. You teach yourself to learn from your mistakes not because it stops you from making them, but because it shows you the value and meaning inherent to the moments when you were wrong, and how much brighter the future might be if you choose to care. Caring forces you to look back on the truth of your experience and ask if that was really the best you had to offer to the world, or even yourself. The only thing shared by all life as we know it is our experience. When that's gone, the only thing left is what, of that experience, we've left for others.

I question God and the idea that there's anything that exists past death, but I am desperate for some assurance that the lives of pain led by so many souls weren't the only due paid to them by the universe. If it is the case, though, that this is the only life we get to lead, I'd hope that we'd choose the right path. Not one where we cynically swallow up the bounty of the earth in a nihilistic fervor, nor one where we allow our own fear and forlornness at our fate to exempt existence from its right to future generations who might be capable of attaining balance and harmony with our place in the universe. Its a middle path, a point where we choose to acknowledge our fallibility and the ultimate lack of meaning inherent to our existence while recognizing that there is nonetheless reason to care. It's difficult to imagine, believe me I know, but doesn't it sound like a better option than the one we've given ourselves? It would be hard to obtain surely, but wouldn't it be beautiful nonetheless?

- All my best, CSGinger14

Publishing companies that are particularly egregious

Am making a list of these to recommend to anyone writing a book or performing larger referencing purchases for Wikipedia, book companies that they might want to avoid if they're concerned about academic accessibility. Works published by these companies have been unnecessarily restricted from research databases that provide access to educational and philanthropic institutions.

• W.W. Norton & Company
• Heinemann Publishing (Importantly, a subsidiary of Pearson Education (bought-up, not created by))
• De Gruyter Brill Company

Citation Archive

• India-Pakistan
• Korea
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Middle East
• Abrahamic Religion
• West African Drug Crisis
• West African Political Crisis

Pages I'd Like to Create / Revise (Please leave citations if you have them)

• West African Drug Crisis
  • Red (drug)
• Apache Treaty of 1852.
• Patrick Winn (journalist)
• List of 501(c)(3) organizations in the United States

• Empire State Building
• Battle of Lashio
• Troubled teen industry

Contributions (Please notify me before removing major edits)

Major contributions to pages as of April 2025 (Reads Bottom to Top). Personal contributions over 1,000 characters marked by *, over 2,000 by **, over 10,000 by ***:

May 2025

1. Created: Touch starvation*** - This celebrates my 500th edit on the website. I'm happy to be joining the rest of you all, saying you all as I expect confirmed editors and admin are mainly the only ones that care enough to read my page. I really do hope that this serves to help anyone that's struggling, if to vindicate those struggles or encourage them to seek support/connection with others if they feel they need it. If you'd like help creating pages on similar topics, please feel free to leave a message in my talk page. | Current Grade: C
2. Hangor-class Submarine** - Moved info over from Jinnah article. Cut and shaped to fit. (Heading: Progress) | Current Grade: B
3. Jinnah Naval Base** - Added info on development of Hangor-class submarines from 2016-onwards for the Pakistani navy, and their likely positioning at Jinnah. (Heading: Submarine base) | Current Grade: Start » C
4. Supreme Court of Argentina* - Added discovery of Nazi propaganda materials in court archives. Big thanks to User: TSventon for their help | Current Grade: Start
5. Resolution Copper Mine** - Transferred over everything post-2021. Let me know if I shouldn't have done this. I might suggest it be fixed up a bit (Heading: Project History) | Current Grade: Start » C
6. Rio Tinto (corporation)** - Additions on the Resolution Copper Mine Project in Arizona. Additional sourcing beyond just Reuters would be appreciated (Heading: Resolution Copper Mine - Arizona U.S.) | Current Grade: B
7. Created: 2025 Malian protests** - This definitely needs a background page. There's a ton of sourcing out there. I'll go find some and drop it in the archive for anyone that's interested in taking a crack at it. | 14 May: Additions post-dissolution of political parties | Current Grade: Unassessed » Start » C (moved to C class, would like input from another editor)
8. David Souter* - Additional info on confirmation hearings and vote (Heading: US Supreme Court Appointment) | Current Grade: C
9. National Fire Academy - Nvm just ended up doing it here (Heading: History) | Current Grade: Start
10. Emmitsburg, Maryland - Personal note to go back and use this reference to add more, what brought me to the page originally. Added local businesses and institutions from government page. Please let me know if this shouldn't have been done. (Heading: Added [Economy & Public Life]) | Nvm it appears that shouldn't have been done | Current Grade: Start
11. Botatwe Languages** - Added Origins. Will also return to this once I have more time. Would appreciate any sourcing anyone has for other groups in the region, feel free to leave it in my talk page. (Heading: Added [History & Culture]) | Current Grade: Stub » Start
12. 2025 - Added results of the first round of the Romanian presidential election (5/4/2025) (Heading: May) | guess not. Hope to re-add with same referencing on the 18th | Added results of German federal election, crazy they switched up on the guy that quick huh? | Added 2025 Malian protests.

April 2025

1. The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories - Added references and pertinent info. In the next month or so I'll start making a lot more edits, including a ton of sourcing and additions to topics on Abrahamic religion and mysticism. I'll return to this and other works soon | Current Grade: Stub
2. Pope Francis** - Referencing and live update support. (Headings: Death / Added [Legacy]) Current Grade: B
3. Sunrise Earth - Source maintenance. For anyone coming to inspect, I assume this probably was said, the source just isn't available anymore | Current Grade: Unassessed
4. Slow television - Added info on Sunrise Earth. May need to be reformatted, but please don't remove, as I feel it's relevant (Heading: Earlier Examples) | Current Grade: C
5. Ångerman River* - Added information on Great Moose Migration and sourced tributaries from Swedish language page (Headings: Added [Elk Migration / Tributaries]) | Current Grade: Start
6. Belle da Costa Greene - Additions concerning family history and origins (Heading: Early Life) | Current Grade: C
7. Fur people** - Additions concerning history of violence in the region (Heading: History / Sub-Heading: Political Situation) | Current Grade: Start
8. Andres Reyes Jr. (Eng-Fr Translation)
9. Vernon R. Laning (Eng-Fr Translation)

Anyone who comes along and is interested in assisting me with some of these pages, please let me know. If you have sourcing for anything or would like help finding sourcing, please feel free to leave a message in my talk page.

You should never not be thankful that someone's gone and proven you wrong