User:T L Miles
Notice[edit]
This account is no longer active. Prior to 2009 I logged hundreds of hours here, and thousands at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:T_L_Miles.
These days I get the occasional email saying this or that thing I worked scrupulously on is being deleted by anonymous bozo X and I'm welcome to escalate a tedious and ultimately fruitless mediation process about it.
Having steeped myself in copyright law, and having worked hard to craft or contribute to large numbers of carefully sourced and even-handed articles in an underserved field (West African history and politics, in which I have advanced degrees and am a published author) I return to find most of my work has been deleted through the work of small numbers enthusiastic wikimedians who seem to thrive on process and forms, and who operate with no check or oversight.
These folks appear to have endless time to devote to mass-deletions, secure in the knowledge that the minutiae of Wikimedia process will eat up the resolve of any who object.
As I said, I went to great lengths to learn copyright law and Wikipedia process, but I come back to find most of what I did has disappeared: not improved, edited, built upon, or transformed by many hands, but simply deleted.
Good, useful work gone.
So consider this a warning to any who stumble upon this place before this message too is removed to save server space:
Don't bother contributing to this mess. It's built to ensure everything you do will be removed the moment you turn your back.
-November, 2017
Previous work to 2009[edit]
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:T_L_Miles