User:EF5/2024 year in review

I think I'll start doing this every year, where I make a timeline of major events/milestones I've been involved in. Anywho, this year was my first editing, and was relatively chaotic, to say the least. I accumulated a total of [wait till year is over] edits over a span lasting from February 13 to December 31. I created a total of ____ articles, and racked up over 1,400 edits to my userpage. 2024 was marked by my heavy creation of animal-related stubs, astronomy articles, and a heavy interest in tornadoes which I still continue to write about. Hopefully I've made myself at home with the community, but you never know.

Timeline

Phase One: Getting started

February 13: My first edit of 2024, which was awarding myself a barnstar for surviving COVID-19. Funny, isn't it?
- Another userpage gem from this day is "The legend of MemeGod".
- On the same day was my first non-userspace edit, which was voting on an RM.
March 4: My first "new section" on a talk page. Also the first tornado-related edit I made.
- Also on this day was my first mainspace edit to Tornadoes of 2024. As expected, it was unsourced.
March 5: My first article creation, which was hastily redirected as a content fork.
- My second article creation, also about a tornado.
- My first FP nomination, which to this day still has zero votes because I forgot to transclude it.
March 6: My first page move, to a high school article. Also first time I linked policies in an edit summary.
- Gave my first barnstar to AWolfSpider because I liked their userpage.
- Made my first userbox, albeit it's hard to call it a "userbox".
- Joined WikiProject Weather, which I am still active in today.
March 10: Wrote my first essay, which gets a monthly average of three pageviews.
March 13: First vandalism revert to Ashtar (extraterrestrial being).
- At the same time, I made my first AIV report.
- Joined WikiProject Ohio, which I'm not active in anymore.
- First article creation that still exists (Batumi Tower), I started to pick up my article creations around this time.
March 18: Second article creation (Porta Batumi Tower).
- For those of y'all wondering, my userpage looked like this around this time.
- First featured article candidate, was withdrawn by me the following day.
March 19: First astronomy-related article creation (P/2003 T12 (SOHO)). I would continue to write about astronomical objects throughout the year.
- First galaxy article creation (NGC 2523B).
- Also on this day was my first star cluster article creation (NGC 2006), which later ended up getting redirected.
- Other notable creations on March 19 include GRB 200522A, J0439+2B1634 and NGC 2012. I was just getting started with my space articles, which would peak mid-year and then drop.
March 20: Made the table for every article I've made, it originally had 14 entries and now has over 400.
- This day would also mark my first run-in with HamiltonthesixXmusic; me and him had a storied year together.
- Signed my first guestbook, it belongs to Utopes.
March 21: My first Did You Know nomination for G299.2-2.9, it ended up passing but not without it's troubles.
March 28: First World Trade Center-related edit. I would be prevalent in the 9/11 and WTC project spaces throughout 2024, peaking in mid-September for obvious reasons.
April 1: Made my first non-redirected tornado article (Tornado outbreak and derecho of April 1–3, 2024), which would spark a massive projectspace debate, but that's for April 3.
- On this day, I also filed my first AfD for April Fools' Day 2024.
- My first RfA, for the same reason as above.
- Wow, today had a lot of firsts! On April 1 was my first common.css edit.

Phase Two: Astronomy and settling in

This phase was marked by my heavy creation of astronomy articles.

April 3: Had my first run-in with TornadoInformation12, who highly influenced how I write today.
- First warning I've given to someone (PeaceLover23).
- Was non-voluntarily blocked for the first and only time of 2024; it ended up being an autoblock.

April 4: My 1,000 edit, which was to Tornado outbreak and derecho of April 1–3, 2024.
April 16: Created over five galaxy pages, including NGC 5777, NGC 1009, NGC 945, NGC 747 and NGC 5850.
April 17: Wrote Kiso 5639, which would mark the beginning of my consistent galaxy article creations.
- Along with the article came my second Did You Know nomination on the same article.
April 19: Asked the Teahouse how to report an Administrator, for some reason.
- Notable creations from this day include NGC 833, UGC 4881 and NGC 3125.
April 20: First time attributing a translated galaxy article, which I now know you're supposed to do when translating.
April 21: I believe my first template edit, although I may be wrong. Either way, it was to a constellation box.
- Notable creations from this day include Arp 251 and NGC 7393.
April 22: Practically every edit on this day was to something astronomy-related, like this and this.
- Notable creations from this day include NGC 5278, NGC 5279, NGC 6742, NGC 6563 and NGC 7829.

Phase Three: Tornadoes

This phase was marked by my heavy involvement with tornado-related articles. I guess you could say that I am still in this "phase", but y'know.

April 26:
- First April 26 tornado outbreak edit. The reason why I'm including this is because I was heavily involved with tornado-related editing right after the outbreak happened.
- Other notable additions from this day include my first PROD and my first article on an individual tornado (which was merged a while back).
- For those wondering, this is what my userpage looked like around that time.
April 27: I correctly predicted the intensity of the 2024 Elkhorn–Blair tornado (EF4).
April 30: First time welcoming somebody. Funny enough, they'd be indeffed not long after.
May 2: Slowly lost my cool over a massive content dispute; the other user involved ended up leaving the project in mid-May.
- Other moments from this day include canvassing, playing the "family issues" card and worst of all, me leaving the project.

In focus: Me leaving

So this is a bit of a story that culminated in me leaving the project on May 2; I'd end up coming back the following day. Starting in early April, me and another user would get into constant scuffles and it got to the point where a third user, KingSmasher678, would end up breaking our fights. Now, we later apologized and made up, but it was definetely one of the defining days of my early editing career. My leave message is as followed:

Hey there. I'm done with WikiPedia for today, maybe a week, maybe a month, maybe forever. I came here to express my love for something, and got extremely toxic messages and conversations back. It's nobody in specific's fault (so no pressure) but yeah. See ya'll when I get back, if I do. Thanks in specific to WeatherWriter, GhostintheMachine, ChrisWx, TailsWx, JoBonSer and KingSmasher678 for at least remotely caring about me through my WikiJourney. One last smile: :)

It was probably just me over-reacting, but I'm glad I came back, just look where I am now. :)

May 3: Ended up coming back just a day later.
- Also on this day was my first monobook.js edit.
May 9: First time reaching out about my signature; I still make sure mine is as unique as possible.
- May 9 was the start of my involvment with the tornado outbreak of May 6–10, 2024 article, which included adding an image I took and making sure my grandparents were okay on the talk page.

May 10: Got some nice talk page messages about people thanking me for not leaving.
- Also made my first "Weather of YYYY" article (Weather of 2001).
- Started work on what would eventually become 1997 Jarrell tornado, one of my most-read pages.
May 11: First image addition using the "mobile image adder" feature.
- For those wondering, this is what my userpage looked like around that time.
- The Jarrell tornado article went to Articles for Deletion, and I got a little pent up.
May 12: Received my first barnstar, from Hurricanehink.
May 16: First time welcoming someone to Wikipedia using a formal template.

Phase Four: More tornadoes

If you've been reading this in a chronological order, you probably know by know that my main interest is in tornadoes.

May 21: Worked on List of Ohio tornadoes, my home state. I would later go on to make several more tornado lists, including List of Illinois tornadoes.
- Was also the first person to add a section on Tornadoes of 2024 for what would later become the 2024 Greenfield tornado.
May 22: Lied (quite a few times) about me storm chasing in Iowa; I've never actually been there. Not sure why I did that, probably just for "cool points".
- For those wondering, this is what my userpage looked like around that time.
- Realized I messed up by lying, and so took a wikibreak.
May 24: Made "List of tornadoes in ____" pages for Alaska, Washington and Iceland.
- Also on May 24 was my second creation of an individual tornado article (1930 Montello tornado).
May 29: Revamped my userpage.
- Also added two images I took to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Glen Arbor, Michigan; both images are still there as of December 2024.
- Requested a username change to "WxTrinity", which was later completed.

In focus: Username changes

So I have a history of changing my username, for various reasons. I started off with "MemeGod27" (I thought it was funny in 2020), and retained that username for over four years until May of 2024, when I changed my username to "WxTrinity". I'm not sure why I changed my username, I think I was just experimenting with my own "style". Anywho, I ended up hating the username, and would get it changed to "Sir MemeGod" in June, less than 20 days later.

MemeGod27 > WxTrinity > Sir MemeGod > EF5

I would keep the "Sir MemeGod" moniker for several months until November 2024, where I changed it to "EF5" for obvious reasons. As far as I'm concerned, I'll likely never change my username again, as it just brings more trouble than not.