User:Mdennis (WMF)
This is not the actual quote, which is a fine quote - "Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional" - by Max Lucado. It has a better ring to it, the original, but my alteration suits me better. Nothing kills a quote, even an altered one, like overexplaining.
About me
Hi. Call me Maggie. Please don’t call me Angela (my legal name) unless you’re my mother.
A happy reader of Wikipedia, I edited as an IP a few times before deciding finally to register an account Moonriddengirl in April 2007. Not entirely sure how to help out, I pressed "random article" in the toolbar until something came up that looked like it needed fixing. This was the article I found. I didn't exactly know what I was doing (obviously), but I left it better than I found it. The next day I found w:en:Wikipedia:Cleanup and things progressed from there.
From the beginning, I loved Wikipedia. I love that a diverse group of people from all over the world can come together to build something so incredibly useful. While not without challenges, it is an ambitious and admirable goal, and I have tried to do my bit towards advancing it since 2007. My enthusiasm for our work only increased as I discovered the diversity of our projects. While I have put most of my volunteer time into Wikipedia, I have tried my hand at some of the other projects as well, contributing content to Wikimedia Commons, Wikiversity, Wiktionary, Wikinews, Wikisource, and Wikidata.
I am not in the San Francisco office, but am based on the east coast of the United States with my family. I have previously worked in education, publishing and law (as a paralegal). I understand a lot of living languages a little bit and a few dead languages fairly well, but am all too aware of my shortcomings to claim fluency in anything outside of English. (I am, however, very good at finding translators to help me, so don't let a lack of English fluency on your part prevent your sending me a note!)
My work
In January 2019, I became Vice President of Support & Services for the Community Engagement, after a three year transitional role as Chief of that department while the long-term needs of the movement, the Foundation, and the department were better understood via the 2030 strategic direction and the right fit for those specific needs could be located. CE is a Wikimedia Foundation staff department of over 40 people focused on the goal of increasing the quantity, quality, diversity, and reach of free knowledge by supporting people and organizations aligned with the Wikimedia Foundation mission. We support contributors by representing them in the development of new technical tools, by supporting community governance and innovations, by implementing trust & safety, by scaling strategic programs, and by making grants to individuals, groups and organizations working on building community and growing content on Wikimedia projects and sites as well as related open knowledge projects. We are committed to supporting under-represented contributors and emerging regions, languages, and communities. The Support and Services function of CE is expected to comprise around half of the department once we have finished structuring to support the 2030 strategic direction.
Contact me
You can reach me at my email address at mdennis
wikimedia.org
For general concerns about content on Wikipedia or matters related to Wikipedia, contact:
infowikimedia.org
For questions about the Wikimedia Foundation, see Answers.
