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| The Wikimedia community was deeply saddened in early May of 2021 at the death of ], also known as SarahSV and Sarah. She had been an integral part of English Misplaced Pages since 2004, had a wide range of interests, and was foundational in developing and gaining consensus on many of Misplaced Pages's core policies. Her 177,000-plus edit history gives us an insightful view of the evolution and history of Misplaced Pages over the past 16 years. Reflecting on her significance within the community, a number of editors offering condolences on her talk page spoke of the ending of an era. | |||
| Even from her earliest time on Misplaced Pages, SlimVirgin had no fear of participating in controversial subjects. Within a week of starting to edit in November 2004 she had created the article on the ], which was related to the ]. By January 2005 she was involved in her first ], which revolved around the LaRouche topic area. Many other new editors would have been dissuaded by this level of dispute; but she ''increased'' her participation in the project, determined to ensure that only high-quality sources should be used in articles, eventually leading to her establishment of the cornerstone principle of ],<ref>{{diff|Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, not truth|205259083|144173144|Diff of Misplaced Pages:Verifiability, not truth}}</ref> which later influenced the principle of the project not being a vehicle for ]. She was ] in March 2005 by {{u|Michael Snow}}, the first editor of '']''; a candidacy that was widely endorsed by the community. For many years Sarah's talkpage was the second-most-watchlisted after {{noping|Jimbo Wales}}'s. | |||
| ==== Policy development ==== | |||
| Sarah ] crucial to the project. She was instrumental in creating the early draft of the ] policy and negotiating its pathway to fully-accepted community policy. Work began in December 2005, following the ]. She continued to watch over this policy throughout her time at Misplaced Pages, and made nearly half of the edits to this policy, the last in December 2020. | |||
| In 2006, SlimVirgin proposed that the ] and ] policies be merged into a consolidated attribution policy. Although that merger did not proceed, her leadership in this area led to significant improvement of both policies, which in turn have informed similar policies on over 70 other Misplaced Pages projects. In more recent years, Sarah was very active in simplifying, clarifying, and structurally improving the ] guidelines and related pages. | |||
| Sarah was subjected to extensive harassment, stalking, and misogyny, both on- and off-wiki, particularly in the early years of her Misplaced Pages career. Her experiences helped to inform the community's policies on ], ], and the use of external attack sites. Over time, many of these principles have been incorporated into policies developed by the Wikimedia Foundation and the broader Wikimedia community; the current draft ] reflects many of those principles. | |||
| A selection of the ] shows the degree to which her work influenced the project as it continued to grow. | |||
| ==== Gender gap and creation of the Gender Gap Task Force ==== | |||
| In May 2013, Sarah initiated the ]. Its purpose is to gather information on the existing gender gap (both editorial and content), and to promote reduction of that gap through recruitment and content development. Starting with just a few editors, the GGTF now has more than 170 participants, and works closely with other Wikiprojects focused on similar topics. | |||
| Since her early years in Misplaced Pages, Sarah actively sought, in multiple ways, to reduce the gender gap on the English Misplaced Pages, including participating on the Gender Gap mailing list, helping to promote editing salons focused on relevant subjects, and writing and improving articles about women. Of particular note, Sarah brought the ] article to ] status in 2014. The article was described by the late ] as covering "a difficult and challenging topic" as well as being "an important contribution to Misplaced Pages". ] agreed with this, and went on to congratulate Sarah "for her fortitude in tackling such a difficult and yet important subject". On the ], on February 6, 2015, it was ]. It was later recognized with a ]. | |||
| ==== Featured and good articles; topics of particular interest ==== | |||
| SlimVirgin was an eclectic editor who worked on a ]. Her interests included literature, current events, philosophy, race relations, the Holocaust, religion and faith, conspiracy theories, human and animal rights, and justice. She was highly respected in the FAC community, and the quality of her nominations set new standards for others to aim toward. In addition, Sarah was active on FAC talk, where she was instrumental in setting and improving the standards for successful FA candidates. | |||
| She improved ] to featured article status in December 2004. In 2006 she wrote three featured articles: ], ], and ]. ] was written in 2007 in collaboration with other editors. In 2009 she wrote ], ], and ], followed a year later by ] and ]. In 2014 she was part of the collaboration that took ] to FA standards. Later that year she completed her promotion of ] to FA. | |||
| When Sarah worked on articles she intended to bring to ] or ] status, she would often make major improvements to many related articles. Some of these articles are ], '']'', ], ], and ] in 2006; and '']'', ], and ] in 2014. She was continuing her work on ] and ] until her very last edits in mid-April 2021. | |||
| ==== Recognition and awards ==== | |||
| Sarah worked in many areas and was recognized often by her peers. Along with the Million Award and ], she received more than 120 ] from a multitude of fellow editors. | |||
| Sarah's work was featured over 40 times on the ] of Misplaced Pages as ], and in ] and ] sections. | |||
Revision as of 18:39, 27 May 2021
This article will be compiled by Signpost staff