Teenage Subway Aficionados Help With the Upkeep of Every One of New York City's 472 Subway Stations -- At Least on Wikipedia (nytimes.com) 54
The New York Times has a feature story about two incredible teenagers who work behind the scenes to improve all of the Wikipedia articles about the New York Subway system. An excerpt: Ryan Ng is a 19-year-old freshman at Baruch College in Manhattan. He studies finance, lives at home with his parents in Queens and is a member of the college's "League of Legends" video game club. But in the somewhat fanatical world of Wikipedia supercontributors, he is best known by his alias, Epicgenius. As Epicgenius, Mr. Ng has made over 180,000 edits to Wikipedia and created more than 17,000 pages for the site. Most of his work is in the service of his particular fixation: updating the articles associated with all 472 stations of the New York Subway system.
"Sometimes I edit before I do homework, which is not a good thing," Mr. Ng said. But he finds his hobby satisfying. "When I improve an article, I feel like I've accomplished something. I see my editing as more of a mission." Mr. Ng discovered Wikipedia editing when he was 13. He recalled wanting to collaborate on the page for "Gangnam Style," the hugely popular 2012 hit by the South Korean performer Psy. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Ng decided to specialize in public transit, which he considered a somewhat more useful pursuit. He knows his hobby can become obsessive because it's happened before.
"Sometimes I edit before I do homework, which is not a good thing," Mr. Ng said. But he finds his hobby satisfying. "When I improve an article, I feel like I've accomplished something. I see my editing as more of a mission." Mr. Ng discovered Wikipedia editing when he was 13. He recalled wanting to collaborate on the page for "Gangnam Style," the hugely popular 2012 hit by the South Korean performer Psy. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Ng decided to specialize in public transit, which he considered a somewhat more useful pursuit. He knows his hobby can become obsessive because it's happened before.
Ng implies South-Southeast Asian. (Score:2, Insightful)
So given his parents likely first or second generation upbringing being an aspie probably comes with the territory, based on individuals I knew through my college years with similiar names and ethnic backgrounds.
Having said that, good for him, we need somebody to contribute to American academic pursuits, even ones sometimes seen as banal, like subways in New York. Personally I find this quite interest and hope to read up on these pages more when I have time. So long as he's being relatively impartial in his
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I doubt it. They will all be voted "articles for deletion" on the grounds of "lack of notability".
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I didn't get the headline (Score:2)
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There's a couple of guys who spend most of their time on Wikipedia writing about subway stations. Apparently they're "incredible".
Re:I didn't get the headline (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a couple of guys who spend most of their time on Wikipedia writing about subway stations. Apparently they're "incredible".
More like half crazy but it's obsessive people like this that makes Wikipedia have huge, detailed articles on an absurd number of things. I mean how much would you pay someone to write on the New York subway for an encyclopedia? Even online where printing cost is not an issue you'd probably pay someone a buck or two for a tiny subsection. Instead you have a guy who'll write hundreds of articles for free out of some sense of public service. Some other dude will be an astronomy nut and write articles on stars and so on for every event, time period, area, species and whatever. Of course the downside is that many of these will treat their area as their own fiefdom, but the good crazy mostly outweigh the bad crazy.
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Now the presents a new question, should it be free or should there be a resource pool providing rewards for that kind of voluntary work. It is a good idea that it happens, should not an effort be made to promote it and provide some sort of reward for those who do it 'on spec' https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki... [wiktionary.org], for a job well done and the service it provides.
Subway Upkeep (Score:4, Funny)
So, not actually mopping up hobo piss?
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Sinclair Broadcast group is a huge player in the USA local TV station business. At present it owns over 25 stations across the country. Recently; every single station broadcast an editorial as part of their evening news show. They all used the exact same script. Every. Single. Station. Youtube has supercuts of this remarkable "coincidence" for those
somewhat disappointed.. (Score:2, Funny)
that this had nothing to do with sandwiches.
Donatello arises (Score:2)
Monday News Item (Score:1)
"In local news tonight, two teenagers are in jail, awaiting questioning by Department of Homeland Security officials. Ryan Ng and Shaul Picker, both of Queens, were found to be obsessively documenting sensitive information on the city's 472 subway stations on the popular website, Wikipedia. When asked why the teens were being kept in jail pending questioning, DHS officials said that they were taking the actions 'out of an abundance of caution.' Neither the teens parents, nor Wikipedia representatives, ha
An actual "thing"... (Score:4, Informative)
Many would not think so, but the NYC subway system (and the London tubes as well. Not to mention the Moscow subway) has a big following that includes lots of YouTube videos and actual established tours. Check out: https://www.youtube.com/result... [youtube.com]
Re:An actual "thing"... (Score:4, Interesting)
A few weeks ago I was in a pub and a guy at the bar was involved in a talk to the next guy.
Turned out he was retired and his hobby was "subway", "metro" or "tram" explorations. He was in my town to basically ride every city train from end station to end station and and watching the city/landscape.
I actually considered something similar in Paris, I was so often there, but basically only know 0.5% of the city.
But for that guy it was a typical holiday. He informs himself about the town and then books a hotel an then only rides around in trains ... kinda absurd.
Just the facts (Score:2, Insightful)
Ryan Ng is a 19-year-old freshman at Baruch College in Manhattan. He studies finance, lives at home with his parents in Queens and is a member of the college's "League of Legends" video game club.
And has a fixation on Wikipedia subway articles...
The is certainly one thing we can say for sure: Young Mr. Ng is not getting laid.
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Ryan Ng is a 19-year-old freshman at Baruch College in Manhattan. He studies finance, lives at home with his parents in Queens and is a member of the college's "League of Legends" video game club.
And has a fixation on Wikipedia subway articles...
The is certainly one thing we can say for sure: Young Mr. Ng is not getting laid.
Geoff Marshall has a bit of a fascination with with the rail system(s) in Britain, and he seems to have healthy relationship with his partner (fiancee?). They spent a few months visiting all 2,563 railway stations in Great Britain last year:
* http://allthestations.co.uk
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The is certainly one thing we can say for sure: Young Mr. Ng is not getting laid. :D However he is not looking like an athlet.
I would not be so certain about that
Is editing Wikipedia really work? (Score:2)
but as a conservative Jew, he can’t edit on Shabbat
Has he asked his rabbi about this? It hardly qualifies as 'work' if you ask me.
To bad rhe MTA doesn't feel the same way (Score:2)
Subway Aficionados (Score:2)
hobby can become obsessive ... (Score:2)
One reason why I don't edit anymore.
I used to maintain the german "Scrum" site (some morons put complete bullshit there), but I'm no longer doing that, mainly because I lost my password. And Wikipedia has a broken password recovery page since 5 or 6 years, no one is fixing it ... funny somehow, but actually sad.