"I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
- George Bernard Shaw (1907)
When someone thinks of Wikipedia, we think about the unreliability. However, I'd like to put this behind to honor the greatest editor to pass through these halls. I first met User:Durova back in 2007, over some featured picture related matters. I first talked to her on Google Mail, but then soon moved to Skype. Durova, a resident of Southern California, is a person who you like to get to know. She is probably someone who would make you more knowledgeable in knitting, learning how to restore pictures that have stood the test of time, and just her time learning German and being in the Navy.
Durova is known on Wikipedia for her great featured contributions, which he got over 400 of them. If we ever needed a Guinness Book of Wikipedia Records, Durova would be on a number of them, including one of the most popular editors and most featured contributions. Wikipedia has seen major improvement in the featured media processes due to her support and work as an editor like the rest of us. A lot of us Wikipedians do laugh at us considering ourselves nerds. However, I and others hold her to a higher level. Durova has spent over four decades on this earth making her statement. Her level of knowledge and honor goes beyond the normal human. We on Earth all stride to make our statement in the history books. Five years on Wikipedia, Durova definitely made hers.
I don't usually like comparing people to celebrities, but I know of one person, who reminds me of Durova. I admit this is kind of biased since Fleetwood Mac has been my favorite music group for many years, but Durova reminds me a lot of Stevie Nicks. We've got this compassionate woman who puts her heart out for people on Skype and on Wikipedia that she's never met. It takes a kind of woman, one of a few, who don't see the normal basis of life. Stevie Nicks believe that way, look at "Dreams", "Gold Dust Woman" or "Rhiannon", they had this dreamy yet mysterious quality to them. Durova, to me, despite being this outgoing, greatly humorous person, has that dreamy and mystic quality that Stevie Nicks displays in every song. She can make you think in a different way of this different world, and Durova has almost always done that with me.
I spent a-many Sunday afternoons with Durova on Skype, along with many other Wikipedians who have spent their time recording NotTheWikipediaWeekly episodes. We loved her as a host and I have every single episode on my iPod to listen to. She just comes out as this person everyone would like, yet she could come out as a Dalai Lama, a diplomatic queen. She always had a good opinion on a situation and could take each situation from a different angle. People had great respect for her. Friends with many of us on Skype, she could be the best topic creator and knew always a good reply to someone's comment.
I admit when other things came about, especially college, I started to lose track of time, coming back to the old stomping grounds of Skype and not finding her around. To me it felt like a loss, she suddenly vanished, and it broke my heart. You don't find people with the kind of knowledge she maintained and I strike a large heart and saying how much tears come to my eye writing this that I miss her dearly as a Wikipedian and as a friend. No one quite made me feel better than Durova when Wikipedia could be at worst. And in fact, my mother and my sister loved talking to Durova not on Wikipedia matters, but just as a friend. That's how she came to me, as a friend not just this person who liked working on the same website with the same mission that I did.
Many a-Sunday afternoons recording NTWW sessions with her, talking serious topics but having that humorous spin. Her classic rendition of "I'll get you my prettttty!" is something I always remember and in that honor, I bow my sword and armor in honor, as the Great Salem Witch of Wikipedia. In honor of Durova, I cry a tear, and I hope many a Wikipedians read this and feel the same way I do, she was just that kind of person.
Bowing my hat for the night,
Roadgeek Adam/Mitchazenia
