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You've done some substantial contributions to the community. It would be better if you can get an account. That way, people can recognize you and you can have your own signature. Thanks, 🍗TheNuggeteer🍗 (My "blotter") 14:20, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I'm flattered that your find my edits substantial, I thought I'd barely done a thing since I got this IP. But I'm fine with not being recognised, being a transient shadow suits me. I have edited with a periodically changing IP for about 20 years now, occasionally making rather more substantial contributions than I've done with this one, and I don't mind that nobody will ever know that they were all made by the same person. We are all transient shadows in the end of the day anyway. :) --62.73.72.3 (talk) 20:58, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for your contributions to the community.
Well, thank you, that is very nice of you, and I wish you all the best, too, but I do wonder - what edit of mine prompted you to write this to me? I am not even sure that you are not confusing me with someone, because I really don't think I've done anything noticeable lately - just tiny edits and remarks on talk pages. And a lot of those are tags and objections, i.e. the kind of edits that usually irritate people rather than make them feel a desire to thank the editor.--62.73.72.3 (talk) 11:31, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, well I didn't actually read any of your edits.
I've been using Wikipedia for the better part of 15 years and I recently made my first edit. I can't remember how exactly I came across you but I know it was purely coincidental as I was exploring what the "User Page" and "Talk" page is.
I read the suggestion that said "You've done some substantial contributions to the community"; a few clicks later I verified that that is infact true. I also read your reply where you've stated that you've been contributing completely anonymously for the past 2 decades,
Which both proved that your genuine selflessness.
Additionally, since I'm a heavy user of Wikipedia, there's a good chance that I have benefited from your edits, either directly or indirectly in the last 2 decades.
I see - thanks for satisfying my curiosity! Wikipedia is so vast that you personally may not have encountered anything I personally have done, but it is certain that you've encountered the work of many other volunteers like me, and others like you have encountered my work, and that's what matters, IMO. Both what I've done and what you've benefited from is due to the same desire to be helpful and improve things that is present in multitudes of Wikipedians - and, indeed, in multitudes of humans - so that is what you are thanking in me. That's also why I don't care about being credited - people will credit the 'spirit' that caused it and that is both correct and the most important thing. On a somewhat related note, I agree that there is no God - and I don't even wish there were one in the predominant sense, considering the problem of evil - but there is goodness in people (along with a lot of not-so-good things, of course), which unites us and transcends our individualities. Well, I hope you enjoy exploring the world of Wikipedia and I wish you happy editing! --62.73.72.3 (talk) 14:32, 19 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree, and you're right.
To be honest, you gave me hope of exactly what you said: "there is goodness in people". Something I've always had faith in but never actually believed in, until now.
I am really glad to have been a good advertisement for Homo sapiens from your perspective. :) Of course, my first reaction would be to point out that there are far better examples of selfless acts in the world than my tinkering on Wikipedia, but I can see where you are coming from - as long as it is visible who performs them, there can almost always remain some doubt whether there isn't some element of trying to look good, impress, gain a reputation, etc., so the anonymity of an impersonal and constantly changing IP does happen to have the peculiar advantage of making for something like a 'chemical experiment' that 'teases apart' the element of benevolence from everything else and proves its existence to the sceptical mind. But, again, I am sure that it really is also present in many, many other cases where it cannot be so easily isolated from other motives. --62.73.72.3 (talk) 00:07, 27 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for linking to the Errors page, I might use it myself in such cases in the future (if I manage to remember it). I wish you pleasant holidays, too.--62.73.72.3 (talk) 09:25, 25 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
