S Marshall
British Wikipedian Fields Historian, translator, biographer
Born	(1971-02-28)28 February 1971

I've just discovered that I'm not receiving emails from Wikipedia because I use Yahoo and, well, this. I do want to talk to editors, but you'll just have to use my talk page I'm afraid.

Hi, I'm Stuart Marshall. I live in Cambridgeshire in England (but am originally from Hertfordshire). I have varied interests on Wikipedia; look for me in unlikely places!

I edited occasionally as an IP in 2004 and 2005, and I registered this account in 2006, but was only sporadically active until 2008 or so. In 2009 I nominated two people for adminship: User:Fences and windows and User:LinguistAtLarge. Although they both seem to have worked out rather well, I've never nominated anyone since.

It's 00:47 on 27 March 2024.

We're here to write an online compendium of knowledge ( Traditional English: encyclopaedia; Simplified English: encyclopedia), and to share it with everyone in the world in freely-reusable format without cost. That's a profound thing to do.

Historically, what people who had knowledge did was to monetize it. In the past couple of decades, Wikipedia, together with other more reliable, but less broad, knowledge-sharing initiatives driven by universities and libraries, have started to subvert that monetization. We're slowly but I think importantly disrupting the knowledge economy.

Editors get various benefits from contributing, the most important of which is learning the right kind of skepticism. We learn to analyze sources. When I started contributing to Wikipedia, early during the rise of social media, I didn't know how important the right kind of skepticism would become. Editing Wikipedia over the years has made me brighter, which is an outcome that the person I barely remember any more, S Marshall in his thirties, wouldn't have expected for a moment. But it's true. Now that I can find the right information in the right source more quickly and surely, I make better decisions, faster, than I did in the past.

Wikipedia is of course deeply flawed and heavily distorted in many, many respects. But, whether you measure it in terms of the labour that went into it, or its importance to our culture, it's reasonable to call it the first Information Age Wonder of the World.

The best edit summary ever

Userboxes

Wikipedia:Babel en This user is a native speaker of the English language. fr-3 Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau avancé de français. de-3 Dieser Benutzer hat sehr gute Deutschkenntnisse. ((Wiki)) This user is just starting to learn to write in the MediaWiki language. en-us -0 This user has very little understanding of American English. Search user languages Userboxes This user has been on Wikipedia for 17 years, 10 months and 13 days. UK This user uses British English. This user lives in Great Britain. This user has helped promote 4 good articles on Wikipedia. This user has written or expanded 14 articles featured in the Did You Know section on the Main Page. Userboxes - This user is a translator and proofreader from French to English on Wikipedia:Translation. - This user is a translator and proofreader from German to English on Wikipedia:Translation. 53Y This Wikipedian was born on 28 February 1971 and is 53 years, 0 months, and 30 days old. 4+ This user has made more than 4 contributions to Wikipedia. This user was a participant in the 2009 Great Wikipedia Dramaout, improving articles from July 18–22.

Awards

The Barnstar of Recovery The Article Rescue Barnstar The Guidance Barnstar The Socratic Barnstar I hereby award you this barnstar, for saving the Level bomber article from deletion by vastly expanding the article and your continuing efforts to improve it. Ryan4314 (talk) 20:43, 5 March 2009 (UTC) Awarded to S Marshall for a fine, fine job saving Level bomber. Your efforts at "filter[ing] for relevance, brevity and clarity" are greatly appreciated. Drmies (talk) 17:22, 9 March 2009 (UTC) For exceptional guidance towards a less-experienced Wikipedia editor, and for becoming a de-factor mentor; you have my eternal thanks! Ks64q2 (talk) 02:11, 20 March 2009 (UTC) For your plain English answer at this DRV. Sometimes you make some very good plain statements like this that many people can easily understand. MuZemike 05:54, 19 June 2009 (UTC) The WikiChevrons The Anti-Drama Barnstar The Psi The Article Rescue Barnstar Let it be known that when S Marshall wrote Battle of Bilin River, it was well referenced, decently lengthed, of NPOV, and interesting for this new page patroller to read. I dream of horses If you reply here, please leave me a ((Talkback)) message on my talk page. @ 19:49, 19 July 2009 (UTC) Thank you for participating in The Great Wikipedia Dramaout 2009, avoiding drama for a full 5 days!--The LegendarySky Attacker 04:35, 26 July 2009 (UTC) I hereby award you the PSI ! Awarded to helpful users as a blessing for good mental health. Thanks for your perspicacity and taking the time to get involved at the DRV I filed.- Simon Dodd { U·T·C·WP:LAW } 20:21, 21 August 2009 (UTC) This barnstar is awarded to S Marshall for his suggestions about making WP:Before a guideline. On behalf of wikipedians everywhere, thank you. Ikip (talk) 23:01, 22 August 2009 (UTC) The Article Rescue Barnstar The Barnstar of Diplomacy A brownie for you! The Original Barnstar John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland is finally a Good Article! It was rescued from failing thanks to your vital help! I am happy you enjoyed it. Buchraeumer (talk) 12:21, 26 June 2010 (UTC) Thanks for your involvement with 5 base yoga - You have tipped the issue from a problem to a solution! BO; talk 01:42, 2 May 2012 (UTC) A brownie for your strong work on Flying freehold Cheers! Vonfraginoff (talk) 07:17, 13 May 2012 (UTC) I know we have a long way to go, but with the RFC launched, this can't wait forever. For your immense efforts to improve wp:verifiability. Through your persistence and brilliant and direct writings, you have been one of the primary driving forces for improvement of this policy. North8000 (talk) 16:15, 29 June 2012 (UTC) The Brilliant Idea Barnstar The Rosetta Barnstar The Tireless Contributor Barnstar The Barnstar of Diplomacy "Carcasses are destroyed rather than eaten", loved the way you've phrased it. Yogesh Khandke (talk) 13:22, 4 April 2013 (UTC) For all of your translations from French and German! Ensignricky (talk) 18:55, 28 August 2013 (UTC) I've been meaning to leave this for you for a while. Your contributions at WP:DRV have always impressed me and yours is often a welcome dissenting opinion. I might not always agree with your take on things but I find myself regularly swayed, at least from my initial knee-jerk opinion, by your thoughtful commentary. Keep up the great work. Stalwart111 05:52, 14 February 2014 (UTC) Perhaps I should wait to award this until the conflict is resolved, but however it turns out, I feel this was very tactfully handled by you, in how you recognized the contributions and perspectives of the two entrenched editors while urging things forward toward a more stable solution, a recommendation which seems to have been taken to heart by the involved editors. Wikipedia needs more bridge-building of this nature and so I hereby award you this Barnstar of Diplomacy. Snow (talk) 03:06, 21 April 2014 (UTC) The Tireless Contributor Barnstar The Cure Award The Original Barnstar The Working Wikipedian's Barnstar For your diligent work closing various RFCs and discussions (including specifically the ones from WP:ANRFC) I hereby award you this Tireless Contributor Barnstar. Your closes are direct and to the point and include wisdom many of us wished we had. Keep up the good work. TLSuda (talk) 01:14, 18 August 2014 (UTC) In 2015 you were one of the top 300 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, and we would love to collaborate further. Thanks again :) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 03:59, 29 February 2016 (UTC) For excellent work, steely resolve, and good humour at the Elizabeth Koch AFD and DRV. Lankiveil (speak to me) 12:09, 24 April 2016 (UTC) For your valued work in the July 2021 GAN Backlog Drive, which, in a single month, helped to reduce the backlog by nearly 50%. --Usernameunique (talk) 05:07, 19 September 2021 (UTC) For your well-done closure at Talk:Race and crime. ––FormalDude talk 02:43, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

DYKs : 14

GAs : 4