User:Jruderman

I'm Jesse Ruderman. In the past, I worked for Mozilla a security bug hunter.

My website is https://www.squarefree.com/ and I tweet at https://twitter.com/jruderman.

• My professional interest in computer security, including: Fuzz testing, Memory safety, Attack patterns, Vulnerabilities
• The politics of economic policy: YIMBY movement, Gini coefficient
• Applications of genetics, such as exploring ethical boundaries related to Eugenics... and maybe someday doing it right.
• Whatever I'm reading on my phone because someone just brought up the subject at a dinner party.
  • Gotta be polite by having something to contribute to the conversation!

I am one of many autistic Wikipedia editors. Collaborating on Wikipedia is one of my favorite ways of interacting with people, as it plays to my strengths rather than my weaknesses. We're focused on a project rather than socializing in an open-ended way; I can take my time to think about my responses; my tendency to pursue interests deeply prepares me to improve articles in a way that complements others' broader interests.

I'm more careful about including detailed edit summaries and precise references when I'm working in a controversial area or on a page that's already high-quality. Also, a comment regarding when I use edit summaries.

When many are watching a page, I split up my edits into individually describable chunks. My goal is to make it easy for others to verify that each edit summary matches the corresponding changes.

• For potential-controversy reasons:
  • on YIMBY movement (July 2024): Some edits required justification, and some were necessarily interleaved with copyedits. I ended up making about six changes in a row in order to separate substantive shifts from style switches.
  • on IDN homograph attack (August 2024): Uncontroversial edits (one blob) followed by a small edit related to renaming the page.
• For technical reasons:
  • on Template:Infobox Japanese, the diff algorithm was confused about how to display an insertion and number-bumping of subsequent items. (Compare: overall change is confusing, but renumbering followed by insertion is clear.)

Breaking up large changes is a habit I picked up from software development with versioning tools such as git. I think it's appropriate on Wikipedia for the same reason.

My approach to back-and-forth edits is based more around vibes than about an immutable limit on the number of revert-ish edits. If it seems like we're converging on a mutually agreeable solution, I'm more likely to continue with edits and edit summaries. If it requires more thought and broader compromise, I'm more likely to take it to a talk page. If consensus seems elusive, I'm more likely to back down.

My first pass reading of an article focuses on clear use of punctuation and sensitive use of language. Later, I may come back to address holistic concerns such as organization and fairness.

I see NPOV as implying a requirement that we take into account cognitive biases likely to affect how readers interpret our articles:

• Do not connect a topic to an emotionally salient category earlier than necessary (non-central fallacy) (example: The YIMBY movement and "supply-side economics")
• Avoid introducing incorrect claims, even if described as incorrect (anchoring bias) (example: IQ heritability estimates and economic policy)
• _____ (reification bias) (example: "Dysgenics is...")
• But don't name cognitive biases in article text (e.g. when describing someone's terrible opinion). We don't want visitors to feel like the article is demanding to debate them on its podcast. The language of cognitive bias is for edit summaries and talk pages.

Secondary sources are great for establishing notability and proper synthesis, but sometimes a primary source is ideal for establishing that something is actually true.

• Reason magazine says Scott Wiener is part of the YIMBY movement. And so does Scott Wiener.
• This reliable source says Rust's lifetime analysis is a key part of its approach to memory safety. And so does official documentation.

I endorse Wikipedia:Thread-mode disclaimer: it is okay for anyone to refactor my comments in a way that preserves my meaning and improves the readability of the overall discussion.

I occasionally edit others' comments to fix small errors that have high impact on readability. I am careful to do this only when it is an unambiguous mistake, when my change is an unambiguous improvement, and when these criteria are easily verifiable by anyone watching the talk page history. If you're happy for me to make slightly bolder improvements to your comments, let me know or link to Wikipedia:Thread-mode disclaimer on your user page.

I often subscribe to H2 sections of talk pages rather than watching the entire page. This method means I sometimes miss additions to a conversation that are not written as signed replies, as those are the only ones that trigger notifications.

DYK: clicking a comment's timestamp copies a link directly to the comment? And that following this type of link puts a blue box around the comment?

I didn't know, so I made a terrible CSS hack in my common.css, only recently deleted.

In complex situations, I may create procedures for non-threaded forms of discussion, depending on my intuition about what next step will most help move the existing discussion forward.

• House demolition move discussion (still stalled)
  • Big table
• 2024 CrowdStrike incident move discussion (proceeding superbly; winding down)
  • Suggested majority-judgment voting during a mid-discussion poll for the best title
  • Wrote a Recap section to help everyone prepare for the final discussion
  • Transitioned us back from polling to focused, organized, policy-based discussion about the top candidates and individual words
  • Reminded everyone that sometimes a little focused !vote is a good idea.

I am interested in the accessible use of color and images:

• Infobox for US Supreme Court rulings – text–background color contrast (completed)
• Infobox for countries – use of color to indicate whether a stat is good or bad (under discussion edit request submitted)
• Full-URL_wiktionary_link - created with detailed instructions for accessibility

Shepherding discussions:

• 2024 CrowdStrike incident move discussion (ongoing)

Lowering the temperature:

• Stopped an edit war (about whether to include a section) by boldly imposing an compromise based on the magic of hypertext
• Stopped a heated talk-page argument by explaining how following policy can address each side's concerns

Article content:

• Wrote a good portion of the Fuzz testing article.
• Contributed to lists in articles: Types of software vulnerabilities and Types of memory safety errors

• Settings:
  • Links to disambiguation pages – orange
• common.css:
  • Watch page – highlight page names
  • Watch page – hide thank/rollback buttons
• Experimenting with:
  • Definition list styling – so I can notice if ; is misused for pseudo-headings or : is misused for indentation (outside of talk pages)
  • Links through main-space redirects – green?
  • Links to policies, guidelines, and essays – various shades of green?

• User:Jruderman/If I were King of Wikipedia

Tweets about Wikipedia:

• My tweets with #Wikipedia and related hashtags

Tweets inspired by my Wikipedia experience:

• hatnotes
• sans-serif
• "dysgenics"
• "eugenics"