Volunteering Portal/Featured volunteer/1

User:HJ Mitchell is an experienced Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons editor with over 60,000 edits on the English Wikipedia

I've been editing since March 2009, first on the English Wikipedia before also becoming active on Wikimedia Commons. I'm an administrator on both projects these days. Like many other editors, I was browsing a Wikipedia article and saw the edit button, and thought "well, that looks interesting", so I clicked on it and started editing. Now, nearly five years and 60,000 edits later, I'm still around, so obviously the experience wasn't too traumatic!

These days, I'm probably best known for my admin work on the English Wikipedia where I've been known to handle both the routine stuff that just involves a few clicks and some of the more complex tasks that require thought and judgement. I would hope that people think I do a reasonable job and tend to make the right decisions. Having said that, I'm a writer first and foremost, having been the main contributor to six featured articles and also dozens of others that are considered to be of a good quality. One of these featured articles appeared on the frontpage of the English Wikipedia in April, which resulted in over 36,000 visits to the article on the day.

While what I do on Wikipedia every day is different, which is what makes it so interesting, most of my writing has been about military history. There's a great support network among editors in that area, where we all pitch in to make sure each others' articles are up to scratch before they are put forward to Wikipedia's more formal assessment processes.

To learn and improve as an editor over the years has take plenty of trial and error, with the aid of guidance and advice from some friendly experienced editors along the way. Being an editor on Wikipedia has definitely made my writing better. I thought it was pretty good to start with, but the feedback you get when you put your articles up for the higher levels of assessment really helps you to make your writing stand out. My admin work has also made me a more patient person - evaluating everything to make the right decision, rather than rushing in and making a quick but possibly incorrect decision.

If you're thinking about editing Wikipedia or one of the other sister projects but haven't done so yet, I would highly recommend and encourage you to take that step. If you're passionate about a subject, or you know about something that you think is overlooked, you like working with other people, you like being part of a vibrant community where you're judged on the merits of your contributions alone, or if you just have some spare time you want to fill, you'll enjoy being a Wikimedian! The best way to start is always to just dive right in. Find something you're interested in, find some sources and start adding information. Don't worry too much about the formatting - you'll pick the basics up pretty quickly, and other people will help you out.

If you ever get stuck, or find yourself lost and confused, don't be afraid to ask for help. A good place to look for help from more experienced editors on the English Wikipedia for example might be the list of active admins. Alternatively, just type your question on your user talk page which you can find on the top of any page once you're logged in and write "{{help me}}" after it - someone should then be along to answer your question shortly.

Harry can be contacted on his user talk page here