Category Archives: Being a Wikipedian

Articles on promotion of Wikipedia and Wikimedia.

Siesta Key – Sarasota wiki vacation part 4

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This is part four of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme.

This one is about Siesta Key. We visited three beaches on this barrier island: Siesta Beach, Crescent Beach and Turtle Beach. Continue reading →

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Lido Key – Sarasota wiki vacation part 3

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This is part three of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme.

This one is about our trip to Lido Key, comprising an ecotour in the morning of the Sarasota Bay and its red mangrove trees, and a visit to the Lido Beach in the afternoon. Continue reading →

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World’s Largest Miniature Circus – Sarasota wiki vacation part 2

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This is part two of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme.

This one is about The Howard Bro. Circus, undisputedly the world’s largest miniature circus, located within John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
Continue reading →

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Anna Maria Island – Sarasota wiki vacation part 1

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This is part one of the Sarasota Wiki Vacation series. This trip to the Sarasota barrier islands yielded a large number of pictures which I’ve added to various Wikipedia articles. The unusually-long post I wrote became too long and unfocused. It is about 90 pages long. I am now breaking it up into specific posts by location and theme. This one is about Anna Maria Island, also known as the Anna Maria Key, where we explored Coquina Beach, Cortez Beach, and marveled at cast-net fishing at beautiful sunset.

Continue reading →

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Sarasota, Florida 2017 – an iPhone Wiki Vacation

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

Here is the latest installment of my series of Wiki Vacation posts, from a short stay in Sarasota, Florida. The timing could not have been better – daytime temperature was around 85˚F. Not too hot – a quick application of sunscreen was good enough for walking on the beach all day long. And not chilly – Gulf water was warm enough for swimming.

The range of day trips covered Siesta Key, Lido Key, Longboat Key, Ana Maria Island, and Sarasota City itself. Activities included paddleboarding by the beach, tunneling through red mangrove trees on kayaks, looking at manatees at the aquarium, and marveling at the world’s largest miniature circus at the Ringling museum. It’s amazing that we managed to visit 7 beaches in just a few days: Coquina Beach, Cortez Beach, Lido Beach, Siesta Beach, Crescent Beach and Turtle Beach. In addition, we also packed fine dinning into this busy schedule. For lazy people who woke up every morning to look at a tourist map gotten at the airport before figuring out where to go, this trip was a resounding success. Continue reading →

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Wiki Vacation 2009: Saint Thomas

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生


This article is part of my Wiki Vacation series of posts from my tour of the US Virgin Islands in 2009. The first leg of the trip was to Saint Thomas, where we joined a destination wedding. A short detour to Trunk Bay was documented here. And the second leg of the trip to Caneel Bay can be found on its on article. Continue reading →

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Wiki Vacation 2009: Trunk Bay

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

This is a mini-post, a part of the Wiki Vacation series of posts from my tour of the US Virgin Islands in 2009. The trip to Trunk Bay was our first visit to Saint John, and was limited to half a day, where we went with family and friends. Our second trip to Saint John followed a few day after, where we went alone, documented on the post on Caneel Bay. Continue reading →

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Wiki Vacation 2009: Caneel Bay

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

I dug up more Wiki Vacation pictures from my 2009 to Caneel Bay, following the first in the series from the trip back to Taiwan. Caneel Bay is a resort on the northwest side of St. John, one of the US Virgin Islands, with seven private, picturesque beaches. Continue reading →

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My Favorite Wiki Vacation Pictures: Taiwan 2009

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生


I’ve been uploading vacation pictures to WikiMedia since 2015. I call some of my vacations Wiki Vacations, because I go to places with an explicit intent of taking pictures, processing them afterwards, and then uploading them to WikiMedia, for use on Wikipedia articles. I don’t actually know how other Wikipedians refer to this mode of vacation. But I do know the official definition of WikiBreak, nicknamed Wikivacation, means almost the opposite.

Regardless of the terminology, I do find the experience rewarding. As reported earlier in Some of my Most Popular Pictures, time spent getting good, useful pictures for Wikipedia is more than made up by seeing some of these pictures widely distributed online, with or without credits. Here I posted a few of my favorite Wiki Vacation pictures. Not all of them are well appreciated though. But it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Continue reading →

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Some of my Most Popular Pictures

Posted on February 20, 2017 by Xinhai Dude 辛亥生

I have been uploading my best photographs and images to Wikimedia since 2005. Some of these pictures have made it to major Wikipedia articles in many languages. A few have been voted as Quality Images. As a result, I sometimes come across my own pictures when browsing reddit and other online media.

For instance, this autostereogram (MagicEye picture) of a shark is often pirated by online media, even though it is of relatively low-resolution by today’s standard. This is because I made it the article picture of Autostereogram on Wikipedia when I wrote that article. Continue reading →

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