William E. Hillis[edit]

I divide my time between my book-cluttered home, the UT El Paso library, and my backyard.

I am announcing up front that I derive no income from, nor own any financial interests in any of the subjects I write about or edit here on Wikipedia. At college, I studied history and public administration, but I have current and past personal and professional experience among a wider range of fields that enables me to contribute to relevant encyclopedic references.

Before moving to El Paso, I spent most of my life in western Washington State, with another twelve years spent in the People's Republic of China. I lived eleven of those years in Jing'An District at Shanghai.

Interests[edit]

Having studied history at college and graduate school, I am not really interested in editing submissions in regard to current events, because I prefer to avoid arguments in relation to matters as yet unsettled. I would rather submit and edit content relevant to facts and events in the relatively distant past (70 years or more), such as documented facts regarding the following:

Local history and historic preservation
Chinese history, culture, and language
Military history
Tabletop wargames (i.e., concerning events long past)
Geography
Classical music and hymnody
Church history and biblical study
Botany and horticulture

Sources and subjects in the Paso del Norte[edit]

Among my other interests above, I joined Wikipedia as an editor to correct my impartial* perception that it suffers from an information desert on the Paso del Norte, a rather isolated cross-border region that is home to at least 2.7 million U.S., Mexican, and indigenous residents. (*I only recently moved to the region, and have only my immediate family and few friends here.) This is not due to a lack of publishing interest, notable subjects, or reliable sources; yet many subjects and their sources do not appear to have received balanced and warranted treatment on the platform. Nor is this a question of advocacy, but of vacancy. Within the bounds of WP:EXCESSDETAIL, there is room to improve Wikipedia for people with interest in this region. There are no doubt language issues involved, but among the challenges is a correct understanding of the reputations and influence of the well-established news organizations and scholarly publications in the region.

The Paso del Norte is not itself a state, but it hosts a greater population than 15 U.S. states. In relation to the region's news organizations, this may raise issues for editors who strictly interpret the P&G for reliable sources, especially pertaining to notability of subjects. From content guidelines, according to WP:NEWSORG and WP:SOURCE/WP:SOURCES, it appears sufficient for newspapers to be "well-established" and "reputable." As for notability, WP:AUD allows that

Significant coverage in media with an international, national, or at least regional audience (e.g., the biggest daily newspaper in any US state) is a strong indication of notability. Attention solely from local media (e.g., the weekly newspaper for a small town), or media of limited interest and circulation (e.g., a newsletter exclusively for people with a very unusual job), is not an indication of notability. At least one regional, statewide, provincial, national, or international source is necessary.

Since U.S. states are not uniform in size, it may be useful to respectively compare the population of Paso del Norte and, as an example, the circulation of the El Paso Times with those of other states and their leading newspapers as indicative of notability, as provided below:

Leading state and regional newspapers that are "reputable," "well-established"
State or region	Population	Leading newspaper	Daily circulation	Sunday circulation	Year of latest data
Nebraska	1,978,379	Omaha World-Herald	58,514	63,319	2023
Utah	3,417,734	Salt Lake Tribune	36,000	N/A	2021
Paso del Norte	2,700,000	El Paso Times	35,023	117,715	2023
Kentucky	4,526,154	Louisville Courier Journal	29,818	40,898	2022
Iowa	3,207,004	Des Moines Register	27,446	39,773	2022
Oklahoma	4,053,824	The Oklahoman	25,304	33,047	2022

The figures above are demonstrative and of course subject to change, and I don't plan to regularly update them. As this is not encyclopedic content, I haven't documented them, but will if someone makes a fuss.

WilliamEHillis (talk) 23:59, 3 June 2024 (UTC)