I joined Wikipedia in November 2002, following an outage at my previous outlet for writing: h2g2. I rapidly realised that Wikipedia's system corrected problems that were preventing h2g2 from achieving its stated goal, and moved over quite quickly. Initially I copied across content I'd written for h2g2, such as articles on Luke Rhinehart and gender-neutral pronouns, before branching out into other areas, notably around gender and religion. I also spent time trying to broker agreements on the never-ending IsraelvsPalestine edit war, and other contentious subjects.
Over time I became involved with policy discussions, became an administrator, and was appointed as an arbitrator in 2004. I'm glad that some of the policy elements I introduced or championed have become healthy and productive parts of Wikipedia. These include:
Introducing and awarding the first barnstar. These and similar awards help to motivate contributors in a positive way.
Introducing or promoting a variety of on-page disclaimers. These help reduce the perceived urgency of problems, thus reducing social stress and heated arguments.
Introducing the three revert rule (here). This helps limit the maximum damage that can be inflicted by edit wars, and promotes co-operation amongst contributors.
Of course, in doing so I contributed to the ongoing problem of instruction creep, so it wasn't all positive.
I left around February 2005, though I have made occasional edits since then. I am thankful for the things I've learnt from Wikipedia, both factual and social. I am glad I was part of something that is now so useful to so many people. I regret those problems with Wikipedia that still persist, and hope they will be resolved.
What's this? Some sort of star, it seems... Well, I see that people are giving them out to useful Wikipedians, but you don't seem to have one, and if anyone deserves a star for good deeds (keeping Wikipedia running smoothly and all that), you do, so here you go. -- Oliver P. 09:22, 11 Jan 2004 (UTC)
I award you this barnstar for saying exactly the right thing to a departing Wikipedian. UninvitedCompany 14:27, 23 May 2004 (UTC)
For inventing the barnstar (my most popular act - summarized here):
