User talk:SoWhy/Archive 3

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Your comment in my RfA

Regarding that diff, I saw no point in having "Snappy Answers…" and the "Fold-in" in the infobox since Mad was already in the infobox field, and those two features are his regular contributions to Mad. Obviously, I meant to type "fixes", since I also did a little copy-editing in that same diff. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • ^{(Broken clamshells • Otter chirps • HELP)} 23:16, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Oppose on Nev1's RfA

I have clarified my oppose here.  Asenine  10:22, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Language identification

While it was not necessarily to mention me at the needing translation page, i do appreciate the thought :). Apart from that, If you need a language identified again you will probably find this link just as useful as i find it.

Kind regards, Excirial ^{(Talk,Contribs)} 17:21, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Credit to those who deserve credit, I always say :-) Thanks for the link, it might be useful. Have a nice day! So#Why ^{review me!} 17:25, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

MARRS and Pump Up the Volume

Per your observation in the RfA, I re-created an article on MARRS with sources. In a case like that, the band is most certainly notable, and the single is notable because it was a Number One chart single. My IARs are only for cases where the single didn't chart and is a permanent substub (e.g. "I Hate Love" is the first single by D.G. Whatshisname and it'll be the first release from his 2010 album Whatever), and the act clearly meets A7 (e.g. "D.G. Whatshisname is a singer from Battle Creek, Michigan. He will release his album Whatever in 2010 on his personal Yakkafoobmog label). Had I been there for the deletion/redirection of MARRS, I would have defended MARRS as a keep without redirection because of their chart single. Just thought I'd clarify that some. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • ^{(Broken clamshells • Otter chirps • HELP)} 17:29, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Nice idea but it does not remove my concerns, sorry. But good work with the article. I hope you do not take my oppose personal and will continue all the good work even if you fail it. So#Why ^{review me!} 17:44, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Bachmann article

Page number added as suggested. Thanks for the guidance - I never did master the art of reference addition! Buistr (talk) 10:20, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Re:Barnstar

Gee, thanks so much! It's my first barnstar of that kind...

You yourself are a really great and kicking vandal butt, too. Cheers! —LaPianista! ^«talk» 23:19, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

—LaPianista! ^«talk» has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Cheers, and Happy editing!
Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Thankyou

Just a little note to say thankyou for participating in my successful RFA candidacy, which passed with 96 supports, 0 opposes, and 1 neutral. I am pleasantly taken aback by the amount of support for me to contribute in an administrative role and look forward to demonstrating that such faith is well placed. Regards, WilliamH (talk) 09:19, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Editor Review thanks

Thank you for your feedback at my Editor Review. I appreciate the comments. As for the admin thing, if I decide the process is worth going through maybe I'll look you up again after a few thousand edits. Thanks again. Jim Miller ^{See me | Touch me | Review me} 12:09, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Adopt Me!

I need help and would like to know if you would adopt me!! My Account (talk) 17:18, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Sure, if you like that. Of course I must warn you that I live in Germany and you live in the US and thus I might not react as fast to your questions at certain times. Please leave me a note, if you want to be adopted nevertheless and then place {{adoptee|SoWhy}} on your user page. Regards SoWhy ^{review me!} 17:23, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes that would be great thanks so much! My Account (talk) 17:45, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Sure, no problem. First off two things then: You can indent your posts on talk pages like this by using ":" instead of "*" ("*" is for lists). You just use one ":" more then the guy to which you reply to. Second, you should use edit summaries, please make yourself familiar with that guide, it will make people appreciate you much more :-)

Feel free to ask more questions as you see fit, I will do my best to help you. SoWhy ^{review me!} 17:49, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Ok thanks for the tips! My Account (talk) 18:05, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to know how to fancy up my signature like you do. My Account (talk) 18:15, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Sure. Head to "my preferences" and look for the "Signature"-field. Check the "raw signature"-box to disable automatic conversion of the content to links and then enter your signature in complete HTML- and Wiki-Markup. You should try it out in the sandbox or a similar place to see how to get it to look good (you don't even have to save the page, just preview them until it looks like you want it to and then copy + paste it to the aforementioned text field.

For example, to create my signature (SoWhy ^{review me!}), I entered the following into the text field:

'''[[User:SoWhy|<span style="font-variant:small-caps; color: #AC0000">So</span>]]
[[User talk:SoWhy|<span style="font-variant:small-caps; color: #1F3F53">Why</span>]]'''
<sup><small>[[Wikipedia:Editor review/SoWhy|review me!]]</small></sup>

Note, that in order to format links differently, you need to place the formatting within the [[ ]] tags, in the section for the link name (i.e. after the "|") and not around the [[ ]] (as my example above shows for my signature). Also, be advised not to overdo it. If you use too much color or annoying tags, fonts or stuff like that, people will dislike you. I think mine is quite sensible but I think you can see more examples at this RfA for example, where many admins signed. Note that while some signatures stick out, none of them are really annoying. You should try to keep it at that level :-) SoWhy ^{review me!} 18:54, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Ok, Thanks My Account^Talk 20:39, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

You need to learn about how to make links first I think. Your have to change your signature to reflect the correct links. The name should point to [[User:My Account]] (i.e. [[User:My Account|<span style="font-variant:small-caps; color: #AC0000">My Account</span>]]) and the Talk-page link to [[User talk:My Account]]. Also, I advise you to use the "Show Preview"-button much more often. It just generates unnecessary page revisions if you save all little changes. Those are not necessary for the project and just hog up server resources. You could do all the testing with your new signature without saving a single page and I think that is what you should do.

Also, a tip btw, in the preferences in the edit-tab you can activate the option "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary" to remind you if you forget to enter an edit summary. SoWhy ^{review me!} 20:50, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

thanks i'll try to figure it out My Account ( talk ) 17:51, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

inuse

I didn't even notice that tag, sorry. MrKIA11 (talk) 14:17, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Administrator

You should totally become an administrator. You have enough edits and experience, as long as you answer the questions intelligently you could get it. Don't worry I won't nominate you unless you want me to! "MyAccount 01:19, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your kind words. Well, yes, I could be but I strongly advise you not to nominate me. You are my adoptee and a nomination by you would look like you want to do me a favor or worse like I manipulated you to do it. So no thanks, I think I will wait until someone neutral decides to nominate me. Adminship is no big deal anyway and thus I have no problem to wait for that. I just put that infobox on my user page to show people that I would accept a nomination, if someone wants to nominate me. Thanks again though :-)

Nice signature btw, I wonder though if the " in the beginning is intentional or just a typo. Also, you may want to consider to make it easier for people to identify your user-page and your talk page link. You could put a space back between "My" and "Account" or write only one of them in italics (like MyAccount for example). Also, you need to clean it up, you have two excess ' in the end of it and you need to place a "#" in front on the color code (i.e. #AC0000). Last, be advised that if you want the whole thing to be in bold type, you can just put ''' around the whole thing. So for example the one I suggested (with only one part in italics) would need the following wiki markup:

'''[[User:My Account|<span style="color:#AC0000">My</span>]][[User talk:My Account|<span style="color:#AC0000">''Account''</span>]]'''

Have fun with it :-D SoWhy ^{review me!} 11:01, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Fasach Nua

I've ameneded the request for comment about the user Fasach Nua concerning his editing of 'National Football Team' articles.

I'd invite you to comment as you were involved in this issue.

Aaron carass (talk) 02:34, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Created a new 'request for comment' specifically about 'National Football Team' articles for the user Fasach Nua.

Aaron carass (talk) 18:55, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to move the discussion to the talk page (Wikipedia talk:Requests for comment/Fasach Nua 2), as that's where it's really meant to be. x42bn6 Talk Mess 23:45, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Feature-Request:: More descriptive error messages / error logs

Hey, I think in the next version, the error messages should be more informative. I think "Unable to login" or "Failed to load global configuration page" could include information like "Cannot find server" / "No internet connection" / etc so that people know why it did not work. Also, I'd like to see error reports generated on crashes to allow better identification of a problem that caused a crash. SoWhy ^{review me!} 17:05, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

What data should said error reports contain? -- Gurch (talk) 17:22, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I replied at Wikipedia:Huggle/Feedback, which I will monitor for replies. SoWhy ^{review me!} 17:37, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Colors in template boxes

Hello, it's me User: My Account again I was wondering how to change the colors in like a box on my user page (See User: My Account's Navigation bar I want to change the color of it but I don't know what combonation of letters and numbers make which color! MyAccount 02:46, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

If you are using Firefox then I would suggest installing the ColorZilla extension, which allows you to pick colors from websites and has a few palettes to choose from. If not, I advise you to use Firefox, but you don't need to. There are plenty of websites allowing the same service, like this one: You click a color and it will change the background of the test page to show you. If you like one, the hex code to use is the one below the color table prefixed with "background:". Don't forget to add a "#" before the code when using it. Have fun! SoWhy 08:26, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

My RfA

SoWhy, thank you for your contribution to the discussion at my recent RfA, and for commenting in particular on the Polish reggae AfD. If ever you have any concerns about my actions, adminly or otherwise, don't hesitate to let me know. Best wishes, Paul Erik ^{(talk)(contribs)} 20:27, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

You know that huggle is not to be used to revert good faith edits as vandalism, right?

So how do you explain this. I explain the context and the source in the edit summary - under no circumstances can my edit be described as vandalism. As an administrator hopeful, I'm surprised you are using tools in such a manner. Your warning template is false to boot - "ensure that you provide an informative edit summary" - which I clearly did. So you falsely templated a good faith edit. Would you like to remove your false unhelpful warning from my page - or shall I report you for misuse of the tool and have it removed from your preferences. If I look into your edit history, am I likely to find more misuse of this nature? --87.114.131.159 (talk) 14:19, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

No, you will not. I am very sorry about this. I know it sounds like a lame excuse to say but I had problems with huggle in the last days (see my related posts on the feedback page for Huggle) and well, I pressed revert and then realized my mistake and tried to stop it from doing the revert and it crashed. I thought it did not revert it but apparently it did. So please forgive me for this mistake and rest assured I will be more careful. We all make mistakes and luckily the Wikimedia software allows us to undo such mistakes without any further complications. So, again sorry for that... SoWhy 16:34, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

thank you for clearing up the matter in such a prompt and professional manner. --87.114.131.159 (talk) 17:33, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Just so you know, that IP is either banned User:Fredrick day or, very unlikely, another vandal -- see the contributions and what he's been doing to some user pages of mine -- and Fredrick day edits, of just about any kind, may be reverted on sight. And then it would be up to other editors to restore them if, on review, they are willing to be responsible for them. You may have made a mistake, sure. But he has no right to edit here, and because he is subtly destructive, sometimes, it can be better to revert all his edits, just be careful about restoring WP:BLP info that is improper, he's been known to set traps like that, i.e, remove something questionable from a BLP, which then can get a user who restores it in trouble, which is exactly what he wants. FYI, Fredrick day IP can come from many different provders, he uses proxies and alternate providers and local open wireless networks, but it's obvious that the range 87.112-87.115 is convenient for him, most edits certain to be his are in that range. Not all edits from that range are his,, but, actually, when I've checked, most of them have been likely or reasonably his, and, in this case, the same IP was vandalizing, so the ID is a practical certainty. In this case, you had an IP editor quite familiar with policy, good sign of a sock. Good luck.--Abd (talk) 00:36, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

That might be or might not be the case but he/she was correct though. It was an edit with (not nonsense) edit summary and thus I should have assumed good faith and used WP:UNDO to revert it, specifying a reason, instead of doing it with Huggle. Problem is, even vandals can have a point sometimes and that was one of the rare times. Of course, the edit has to be reverted nonetheless, because it's unsourced, but rollback was the wrong tool for it. Ah well, we live and learn after all, so thanks for the info, I appreciate it :-) SoWhy 07:03, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Re: Adoption

Hellooo, So Why! Thank you very much for offering to adopt me, I'm delighted to accept! I've been slowly making some edits, both here and on Wikiquote, and feel somewhat confident, but get frustrated when there is no one to answer my questions. I'm in the UK so I'm only an hour behind you, which is quite good :) Anyway, thanks again! Maedin\^talk 11:55, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

You are welcome. I noticed your location, which was part of why I offered it to you. It might allow me to respond faster. So, now that I have adopted you, you should change the infobox on your userpage to {{adoptee|SoWhy}}. Then, to make it clear: I know some other users who adopt people have classrooms and assignments. I don't work in such a way. Adoption means that I will be here to help you with any questions you have and will give you tips when I notice them. I hope, that is what you are looking for.

As for those tips, here is one: I saw how you work on your talk page and I think it splits discussion when you answer somewhere else. Instead, I would suggest you use the way I use: If someone leaves you a message, you should reply to it on your talkpage and then leave them a {{talkback}}-notice on their talkpage. That is what I will do with this reply. It allows to keep the discussion in one place. Also, you can use {{talkback}} with an additional "tp=1"-parameter to point people to an article's talkpage where you replied to them, if you are not sure they watch that page.

That said, I wonder about your new user page. I like the style but are the "=="-headings really intended or did you try to create level-2-headings there? If so, you will have noticed that they do not work within tables. You could try replacing the table with a <div>-container. Just wondering though...

Well, I write too much, let me just finish with this: I am happy to have adopted you and please do not hesitate to ask me anything! Have a nice day :-) SoWhy 12:22, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Quick response, ty! I've changed the infobox. I'm glad you don't do classrooms and assignments, I really just want (need!) someone who I can abuse with questions at any time, lol. Some of them might be obscure and "unimportant", but I am curious and like to know the little things as well as the big.

Thank you for the tips about the talk page, but I'm torn! I noticed that there didn't seem to be much consistency in how talk pages are handled among users, and that made me think about how I was going to work with mine. I've decided that I like how I've done it, though I have no problem with users who do it differently. I can work "both ways", as it were, as long as mine ends up looking consistent, and I think it does. I can see the benefits of your way, but it feels more impersonal to me. I dunno. I shall have to think about it some more, but I'll make sure that my discussions with you are kept on the same page to keep it together.

I didn't realise that ==headings== wouldn't work in the table, but once I did it I decided to leave it because I needed some way to show that it was a heading! I'm not sure how else to do it, apart from bolding the text or making it bigger manually, which I could do if I hunted around for a way (for making the text bigger, not for bolding!). I don't know how to use <div> markup. If you feel inclined, you could try it on my userpage; I'm not the sort of person who will just get others to do things for me, so I would check out what you've done so I could learn from it.

Well, I write too much, too, and thank goodness I have to get back to work so I don't carry on here! And I'm really pleased that you've adopted me. And I love your grammar. Cheers! Maedin\^talk 12:50, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, I am at work and the system here (typo3 that is) does not work properly, so I have time to surf. So, good to know that we are compatible in that way, it makes it better to work with you :-)

Second, you are free to handle your talk page as you think it best. It was merely an idea to ponder, in case you have not thought about it. I will keep my way, you have yours. You should just, as a matter of common courtesy, try to handle other people's talk pages in the way they think best. For example, if someone placed {{usertalkback}} on their talk page and they leave you a message, you should follow what the template tells you. You don't have to but it's just a nice thing to do :-)

As for your userpage, I went and changed it to use <div>-containers. As you can see from the markup, it is quite simple and actually works nice. It uses CSS to place the container. You can, like I did with the links in the upper right corner of my userpage, even use it to place stuff freely anywhere on your page using the "position: absolute" definition and left:, right:, top: and/or bottom: to indicate how many pixels it should be from the left/right/top/bottom of the page. But I'm being to specific here, if you'd need something like that and want help, just drop me a note :-)

Well, have fun at work. Thanks for the compliment on my grammar, I appreciate it. Think of how good it would be if I had lived in England or an English-speaking country for some time but alas I never did. Just learned it in chat rooms and on forums, apparently with some success (now that I come to think about it, I did have better grades in my English final exams than any of those who did live in England or the US for some time...) Have a nice day! :-) SoWhy 13:19, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

(un-indent) Using the <div> containers has worked a treat! Thank you, I had a look at what you did and figured out what NOTOC was, lol. Now that I'm more or less done with playing with my userpage, I might look a bit inactive, but that's only because I'm working on a long Spoken article. Although there's always office lunch time for some Wiki edits! Cheers, Maedin\^talk 19:44, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

You are welcome. Have fun with the spoken article and do not hesitate to ask me anything, if you need help. Have a nice evening :-) SoWhy 19:55, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Request for participation in User:Abd/RfC

Because my participation as a Wikipedia editor has been questioned, and if I continue as I have in the past, I can expect future challenges as well, I have begun a standing RfC in my user space, at User:Abd/RfC. There is also a specific incident RfC at User:Abd/RfC/8.11.08 block. I understand that you may not have time to participate directly; however, if you wish to be notified of any outcome from the general or specific RfC, or if you wish to identify a participant or potential participant as one generally trusted by you, or otherwise to indicate interest in the topic(s), please consider listing yourself at User:Abd/RfC/Proxy Table, and, should you so decide, naming a proxy as indicated there. Your designation of a proxy will not bind you, and your proxy will not comment or vote for you, but only for himself or herself; however, I may consider proxy designations in weighing comment in this RfC, as to how they might represent the general community. You may revoke this designation at any time. This RfC is for my own guidance as to future behavior and actions, it is advisory only, upon me and on participants. This notice is going to all those who commented on my Talk page in the period between my warning for personal attack, assumptions of bad faith, and general disruption, on August 11, 2008, until August 20, 2008. This is not a standard RfC; because it is for my advice, I assert authority over the process. However, initially, all editors are welcome, even if otherwise banned from my Talk space or from the project. Canvassing is permitted, as far as I'm concerned; I will regulate participation if needed, but do not spam. Notice of this RfC may be placed on noticeboards or wikiprojects, should any of you think this appropriate; however, the reason for doing this in my user space is to minimize disruption, and I am not responsible for any disruption arising from discussion of this outside my user space. Thanks for considering this. --Abd (talk) 02:48, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Geni's RfA & some other things

Hi there! I like browsing through Requests for Adminship, and I became interested in commenting on Geni's current request. Is it "ok" for me to Support or Oppose RfAs, being a new user? It does say that all account holders may contribute, and I wouldn't add support or opposition without thinking and investigating first.

Having said that, is my contribution there ok? I added a Neutral. I didn't want to be too strong, I hope I didn't come across as pig-headed or something! Also, I mentioned a comment that Iridescent made: would it be polite to let her know on her talk page, especially seeing as I am disagreeing with her rationale? Or would that just be silly? Oh, and I said balls. Is that bad?

Now for something completely different: In editing on Wikiquote, I see that <br/> is used quite a lot to give returns that align perfectly with * bullets.

• Like this.
  Par exemple

However, I've also seen the same thing done, but with <br>. Is one way better than the other? I tried to approach it as an "is it better to leave it unopened or unclosed" argument but got nowhere. Too late at night on a Friday for logic! Any ideas?

Regarding my links to the RfA: it took me several previews to get it right, because I was trying to use the short cut WP:RFA with the /Geni_3. Is that the case with all short cuts, that they only work if used on their own? Sorry for all the questions, there are rather a lot of them. Oh dear!

One last thing: if I'm going to be this bothersome, would you rather I emailed instead of cluttering up your talk page? Thanks for listening! P.S. I got rather keen on the ":" didn't I?  :))) Maedin\^talk 22:14, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, first off, you can of course vote there, noone can forbid it. RfAs are not about democracy but about consensus. If you can present reasons for your vote, it will be as good as anyone else's (and probably better than "oppose because selfnom"-votes and suchlike). It is the closing bureaucrat's decision to weigh the votes and decide which arguments did shape consensus. So I encourage you to participate there. You did very good :-)

Then, about Geni's current RfA. I voted support in this case, as you might have noticed, judging that we can always take it away if he misbehaves again. You voted neutral. That's your decision to make. As for the way you wrote it, you should probably avoid such language. It borders on personal attacks if you write that someone is too scared to do something. Ad hominem attacks should not be used, even such weak ones - but that's about how you phrase it not what you say. As for your reply to Iridescent, you are free to let her know but there is no need. Users as experienced like her have the RfAs they participated in in their watchlist (as have I) so they can reconsider their votes when new information surfaces. I think if she thinks she should comment on your vote, she will see it and do so. Nice of you to think about it though :-)

Now for your different direction: The difference between <br> and <br/> is currently non-existent. The first one is old HTML standard and is discouraged to be used by the W3C as the latter one is (the new standard) XHTML (which expects closing / in all tags that are single used (e.g. <img ... />)). Current web browsers will understand both but I suggest you use the <br/> standard if you add new content.

The WP:-shortcuts are actually just redirect pages. That's why you cannot interchange them with the full-length-names. But that's what preview buttons are there for fortunately. Point it, Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Geni 3 is a subpage and as such a separate article which needs an own shortcut to be linked to. I hope that is clear...

It is your preference. I prefer talk pages because it allows me to wikilink you to what I think is important. But if you prefer email, you can use it too. But do not fear about cluttering up this page, that's what it's here for and I will archive stuff once the page is filled up enough. And do not worry about bothering me, that's why I adopted you after all. You do great and when you make adminship in a few months or so I can proudly claim to have helped you ;-) SoWhy 22:47, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

You know, I can hardly believe that I thought the "balls" was the important thing, I totally missed the fact that I was saying he was too "scared" or not gutsy enough to do something. I feel quite bad about that, I've changed the wording now. Thanks for pointing that out!

The reason I've actually come back at half past midnight is that I suddenly realised that it wasn't </br>. I had been seeing it that way in my head. Now that I realise it isn't a mis-placed end of a <br>, it makes much more sense! I'll make sure I use <br/>, thanks for explaining :)

I understand about the shortcuts now, too, ty!

I don't prefer email necessarily, talk pages are fine! Just making sure it was ok for you.

Me making adminship in anything short of a few years is a very silly idea! But you making adminship isn't a silly idea at all, perhaps I will make some noises :) Maedin\^talk 23:48, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, I think I misphrased that. I didn't mean it's important and I think most people will ignore such language, but someone might be offended. It's not really a personal attack but some people will misinterpret everything and you shouldn't give them any possibility to do so. But otherwise you already use civil language and there is nothing to criticize on the way you write. Don't feel too bad about it, the important thing is that you thought about it :-)

No problem. It's just a thing to keep in mind and it's not Wikipedia-related. It's the same with <hr /> for example, which is just short for <hr></hr> because such tags (as <br /> which is short for <br></br> actually) are not around some text.

We live and learn :-) Actually, my answer was technically incorrect. See, I think you know there are different namespaces here, like User:, Wikipedia:, Image:, Special: etc. Well, WP: is just another namespace that is a shortcut for Wikipedia:. You cannot edit WP:SOMESHORTCUT because that does not exist per se. You can edit Wikipedia:SOMESHORTCUT and WP:SOMESHORTCUT will work because the SOMESHORTCUT part is the actual article. That said, WP:Requests for adminship for example is a valid link and you will notice that it does not say "(Redirected from...)" below the article name as it does with WP:RFA. This explanation is more complicated but it's the correct one :-)

As I said, I will use whichever method you deem best. Talkpages it is then. Thanks for asking though :-)

Nah, don't sell yourself cheap. I think you'd make a great admin in a few months if you keep up the good work. I have seen people pass RfA after 6 months on the project and if you work in internal areas for some time and prove yourself you can do it easily. It's not about how you feel or how much you know, it's about the willingness to learn and understand and care. And from what I have seen so far, you are willing. It's no big deal anyway (or at least it shouldn't be). As for me, well, I put the userbox on my user page that I consider it a possibility. But I would ask you not to get involved in it (well, you can participate in an eventual RfA of course but I meant in the process of a nomination). I prefer to wait for some other admin or experienced user to nominate me. I am thankful that you want to "make some noises" but you have to see also that that would rather look like nepotism to most people and that's not a good idea. Have a nice day :-) SoWhy 07:36, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Should I un-indent here, or is it ok to go to 4x:?

Anyway, I've done it now, lol :)

I realise that a nomination coming from me (or any of your adoptees) wouldn't look good or inspire confidence, or at least wouldn't strengthen your case, so I wouldn't. I guess I just meant that I would keep your eligibility in mind; if situations pop up in the future where it isn't out of line for it to be mentioned, then I'd be able to see the possibility. I didn't realise at the time that "perhaps I will make noises" sounds pretty immediate, but I meant it in a more vague and undefined way. (Or at least I think I did! It was 1am after all!) Cheers :) Maedin\^talk 14:14, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

I usually think up to "::::::" is safe to use before un-indent. If unsure, resize your window to see how it would look for someone with 1024x768 (I got 1600x1050^^). If you think it's too crowded, unindent. It's a matter of personal taste imho.

Ah, I understand now, well, you are free to discuss whatever you think right with other people. I just wanted to advise you not to make it too obvious or otherwise people will suspect nepotism. There is no harm to praise someone else's work on Wikipedia as long as it's not sucking-up ;-) Have a nice day then and remember, I'll be here if you need me^^ SoWhy 15:06, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

Admin hopefuls

I've created an initial (partial) version of Wikipedia:List of administrator hopefuls. What's missing is the separate list of folks with less than 30 edits in the last 3 months. Any feedback on what's there so far would be appreciated. -- Rick Block (talk) 23:50, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Nice work. Few things maybe:

1. It would be nice if that page could show a count of how many admin hopefuls the page displays for each category,

   Adding an overall count, per category (there will only be two) will be no problem.

2. it would be nice, if the RfA-links were only displayed if such RfAs exist (because it is kind of hard to distinguish blue :from red links and because it's not possible to sort by number of RfAs because it shows the same number for everyone)

   Yeah, I thought of that as well but didn't get around to coding it yet (adding the links was trivial, figuring out if they exist is less trivial). This could be done with a template, making the existence check happen on the Wikipedia server (rather than on my PC when I run the tool) which would make the code in the tool trivial, but I'm not sure there wouldn't be performance ramifications (this list will contain over 1000 users). I'll attempt to get an answer on whether doing this Wikipedia-side might be an issue.

3. Maybe, adding to that point, it would be good if the date of the last RfA was shown (in a seperate coloum), if there were any for this user of course.

   I understand the point. This is another instance where it would take more code. Would you be OK leaving this (at least for now) as a potential future enhancement?

4. the date could be wiki-formatted to allow for the user's personal preferences to be applied (i.e. [[2008-08-25]]).

   Actually, I don't think the date can be both sortable and sensitive to preferences - I'd rather have sortable (the current format is at least unambiguous).

That's what I saw so far, thanks again for your work :-) SoWhy 07:28, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback. Responses inline above. BTW - you don't need to ping me with db. I watch all talk pages on which I leave messages. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:46, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

First off, thanks for your work and sorry for the talkback. I am just used to it. As for your answers, well, I guess a template cannot be too heavy on resources, it has just to be using that {{{if:-thingie (I never understood that but it can't be hard) I think to see if such article exists. As for the dateof the RfA, well that would be more complicated I guess, the bot would have to check the time the RfA was closed by reading the history and that can't be done by template afaik. As for the normal date formatting, I think I see your point but maybe it could at least look nicer with "07-Jul-2008" instead of "7-Jul-2008"? SoWhy 13:56, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Also, to notify you, I posted this at the original village pump topic to generate more feedback :-) SoWhy 09:34, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Image source problem with Image:Red Alert 3 - Premier Edition Cover.jpg

Image Copyright problem

Thanks for uploading Image:Red Alert 3 - Premier Edition Cover.jpg. I noticed that the file's description page currently doesn't specify who created the content, so the copyright status is unclear. If you did not create this file yourself, you will need to specify the owner of the copyright. If you obtained it from a website, then a link to the website from which it was taken, together with a restatement of that website's terms of use of its content, is usually sufficient information. However, if the copyright holder is different from the website's publisher, their copyright should also be acknowledged.

If you have uploaded other files, consider checking that you have specified their source and tagged them, too. You can find a list of files you have uploaded by following this link. Unsourced and untagged images may be deleted one week after they have been tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If the image is copyrighted under a non-free license (per Wikipedia:Fair use) then the image will be deleted 48 hours after 15:20, 22 August 2008 (UTC). If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. MrStalker ^(talk) 15:20, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Pray explain to me why "Electronic Arts" is not a clear source? It's a game cover and its creator is the same as the publisher which is Electronic Arts. And that's what the image description page says... SoWhy 15:41, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

As said above: "If you obtained it from a website, then a link to the website from which it was taken, together with a restatement of that website's terms of use of its content". --MrStalker ^(talk) 21:03, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, I have not. I just re-uploaded it because the original uploader used a non-descriptive filename. But I did a quick Google Search and provided one. You might want to consider doing so yourself instead of tagging images like that, if it's as easy as in this case. SoWhy 21:10, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

I need help with my article *sigh*

Well, I searched and searched (honest!), but I couldn't find help on Infoboxes. I tried to put something resembling an Infobox on an article I've created (don't worry yet, it's still only a supbage, lol), but the infobox and image aren't showing up. I think I'm supposed to find some sort of template for the infobox? Also, for some reason, the myspace link shows up with my name and I can't work out why. I copied that link from Mariah Carey's external links and just changed the name after the |, really thought that would work! I'd really appreciate it if you could take a quick look, and you'll probably go, "ah, yes, that's because..." and then tell me what the "yes, because" is!

I guess I'm also a little worried about the style, the headings, the notability, etc. I'll be adding (or trying to add) a lot more references and citations and such, it's definitely not finished. But if, in the meantime, you see something that you think I should be aware of now, then please do let me know!

No rush, of course, I'm off to bed now anyway :) Thank you! Maedin\^talk 21:23, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and, by the way, I'm watching your page so you don't have to give me a talkback if it's easier for you not to do it. Even if it is pretty exciting for me to get the "you have new messages" orange header :) Maedin\^talk 21:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, my tip is usually simple: Seek an article about a similar topic and look how it's done there, then copy the infobox-code and just change what you need. As for your above try, {{infobox}} is, as you will notice if you click on that link, named as a meta-template, that is, a template that's used when constructing other templates [...]. For an artist you need {{infobox musical artist}} (click it!) - that template's page has a complete documentation that should be easy to understand.

As for {{myspace}}, the name it shows is the article name, in this case it's like that because it's not at Piotr Tomaszewski but within your userspace. You can use {{myspace|piotrtomaszewski|Piotr Tomaszewski}} to manually change the name that is displayed.

As for the rest, looks nice. Always try to get a complete birthdate and try to find some more sources if possible. You might want to use {{reflist}} instead of <references /> and do not forget Categories and official homepage-link and suchlike, if possible.

As for the talkback - It's not hassle and I like giving people the orange header :-D SoWhy 21:44, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

You're right, the musical artist template has a huuuuge guide, and is easy to use. I've added it now, looks so cooool! I'm so pleased, my first infobox & picture :)))) I won't fix the myspace thing, I will just wait—it will sort itself out when I put the page on . . . on . . . the article namespace? I get confused with all these portals and namespaces and projects and meta stuff.

I'm definitely going to get some more sources into the article, but I am wondering how to cite the CD liner notes, where I got some of the information. Am I even allowed to use CD liner notes?

It's about time I ended my two-hour lunch break that was only supposed to be 45 minutes, so I won't pester you more. Thank you for your help! P.S. Loved the orange message (and your edit summary!) Maedin\^talk 13:34, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Told you. Glad to know it worked. I saw you have a commons account, if you haven't noticed yet, you can have a single account for all Wikipedia/Wikimedia projects, just visit Special:MergeAccount to merge your existing logins to a single unified one. Just a tip that came to mind just now :-)

Yes, the article namespace. There are a few namespaces, all of which are actually quite simple to understand: the article one (without a prefix), Image: for all media files, Wikipedia: for all internal discussions and information about the project, Special: for pages generated by the software that can't be edited, Template: for all templates and User: for the user pages. Quite simple I think. As for the myspace-template, I suggest you do what I said above and add the link name. That way it will stay the same, whatever name the article might have.

I would like to help with those CD liner notes - if you tell me what those are. I am not sure I understand the term...

Hah, two hour lunch break, nice. But I do not mind you pestering me, I like it. Great to hear I could make you happy. I like making people happy and if those people are pretty girls, it's a not to a bonus to be sneezed at ;-) SoWhy 15:18, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi again :) I've changed the myspace link, as you suggested, has worked a treat, ty! And I do have a unified login, I did that quite early on: wanted to have a monopoly on Maedin! I shall probably never make use of any more of the projects except the three I'm on already though. Maybe someday when I'm educated and can actually communicate in a foreign language.

I have Piotr's CD and the paper insert/booklet (liner notes) includes some biographical information—more than I've been able to find on the web, so I have used it as a source. Actually, the article I've just linked to includes a link on how to cite liner notes, so I've just found what I need! Well, you have inadvertently answered my question, simply by inspiring me to link to the article which I didn't even know existed, lol ;)

Thank you for listing the namespaces, I had seen each of those "around" but hadn't really sussed that they were namespaces. Now it makes sense!

I'm very pleased that you are of that disposition, because I confess that I rather like pestering you, lol. I wish I had more to ask! Maedin\^talk 13:03, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Good to know. See, told you that you figure it out by yourself mostly. It's not that hard anyway.

Good. Remember of course that those inliners are primary sources and should be supplemented by secondary ones if possible.

Well, I am happy to help you. And of course it's nice to know that you like it too ;-) I am sure you will find more reasons to pester me soon, I am looking forward to it^^ SoWhy 17:19, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Me again

Hi, hope you had a good day.  :)

I had a look at the recent changes pages and have noticed that the recent changes listing that I see doesn't include any of these: ! and that I am unable to mark edits as patrolled. In the Patrolled edit page, I see that I need to have this function enabled, and it even looks like the function might be restricted to admins. Do you know if it's restricted to admins or not? I had a look at the localsettings.php guidance and even if it isn't restricted to admins, I'm still lost — where exactly am I supposed to find and edit my php files? I have done some scripting (and by some I mean a little teensy bit) and recognise the changing of parameters, but I have to find the parameters first! Am I just being thick?

I also had a peek at Twinkle, or, at least, attempted to. Something about monobook.js? I think all I need to do is create a subpage for it and then paste in the code (as instructed)? Are the steps: create User:Maedin/monobook.js, then paste in the code as indicated, then refresh bypassing cache? Part of the instructions says to "Copy the text below and paste it into the bottom of your monobook.js file" which I suppose is what's confusing me; I haven't got a monobook.js "file". Or do I?

As far as Twinkle goes, it looks useful, it looks like it *might* save me from having dozens of tabs open, and that has to be a good thing. I would at like to see what it does, even if I am not in a position to use it that much. I've seen warnings about it being mis-used, so I wanted to let you know that I'm just . . . not the sort, lol. If I'm not sure about reverting something, I wouldn't do it, and I don't edit count, so I'm not going to go on reverting sprees just to look useful and helpful and active. I would be conservative in my use of it. I said all of that because I didn't want to be told off for considering it, so I thought I would try to silence objection before it comes, lol. However, if you do think I shouldn't use it (yet) then just say so :) Cheers, Maedin\^talk 18:52, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for asking. Yes, it was okay, worked for 9,5 hours :-)

If you look at Help:Patrolled edit it tells you that new pages patrolling is restricted to autoconfirmed users. But you should be autoconfirmed by now. Do not worry about the localsettings.php thing, it's just an instruction for people who run their own MediaWiki project. It has nothing to do with Wikipedia, the localsettings.php here you will never see. I'd suggest you have a look at Special:NewPages and see if you see the yellow highlighted links. If so, click on one of them. If you see a "[Mark this page as patrolled]" in the right lower corner, you can patrol. But keep in mind to read WP:NPP before starting :-)

You have, see Special:Mypage/monobook.js (= User:Maedin/monobook.js). Well, you might not yet, but you can create it. It's the control file to allow more JavaScript to be executed on your account. See my monobook.js for example.

As for Twinkle, I cannot help you much, I prefer Huggle to Twinkle. But I think you should give it a try, if you think that it could be useful. After all, nothing is permanent on Wikipedia and thus the worst you can do is make a mistake and fix it. Keep that in mind, as a core principle (i.e. "Wikipedia is a wiki"), then you will not worry too much about making beginner's mistakes. We all make them, it's just important that you learn from them. So go ahead, try it out. But you have to set it up yourself, because noone else can edit User:Maedin/monobook.js ;-)

Have a nice evening :-) SoWhy 19:31, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Ouch, 9.5 hours! I sympathise completely, am having quite a few of those myself recently :(

I have done some new page patrol in the past, and the yellow highlighting shows up for me, and I can mark things as patrolled. But still not working for me at the recent changes. I've refreshed half a dozen times in a row, just in case people are really fast, but still haven't seen a single red exclamation mark. I wonder why that is? More importantly, I wonder how I can fix it!

Cool, I will create the monobook page and check out Twinkle, at least for a little while. But not tonight, it's bedtime! Cheers :) Maedin\^talk 20:59, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, then you know it works in theory. I do not think that patrolled edits are activated at Wikipedia. That would be rather much work on the servers with thousands of changes every minute. So that might explain the missing "!"s. Patrolling is, iirc, only activated for new pages through Special:NewPages.

Have fun. Bedtime at 9 pm? That's weird...I usually get into bed at 1 am these days ;-) Ah well, good night :-) SoWhy 21:16, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Does iirc mean "if I recall correctly"? I had to think and think about that one!

I shall give up on seeing the "!" at the recent changes. But it hurts to think of all the duplicated work going on!

My bedtime was 10pm, actually (9pm UTC), and I ended up reading until 11:30. I have to get up at 5:30 and I rather enjoy sleeping, lol, so I always regret really late nights!

Anyway, good morning :) Maedin\^talk 07:02, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it does. Sorry, I use such IRC abbreviations once in a while without noticing. "iirc" is one of them (like np, afk, afaik, etc.) Do not think about it too much, just ask ;-)

What do you mean, duplicated work? Because multiple people might review the same changes? I would not bother about that, for example using Huggle, there are people 24/7 monitoring changes but Huggle has a white list and so only certain changes are reviewed. It's quite fast, as you can see for example in my contribs, I can review and revert 50 changes in a few minutes if necessary. So don't bother, rather concentrate on New pages or fixing stuff or writing new stuff. It's much more rewarding anyway :-)

Oh, right, DST. I forgot ;-) Still, it's kind of early in my eyes. I ended up in bed at 2 am and had to get up at 7:30...ah well, a girl kept me awake by chatting, I will not complain about that :-D But I rather enjoy sleeping as well, but these days it's mostly work or university (work)...anyway, good morning, have a nice day :-) SoWhy 07:18, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

It's np, imho they are easier to use, afaik pretty standard now, too, so pls carry on. Soon I will have to ttyl tho, because I must brb and go afk.

Just trying to fit in ;) You can pretty much ignore that sentence, lol.

New pages and adding to articles is certainly rewarding, but I'm not all that educated and have trouble finding places to contribute. Checking out new pages and recent changes is a nice thing to do in a short lunch break when I don't have the attention that a new article requires. Besides, it's kind of fun :)

2am, good grief! Well, I don't have any nice guys to keep me up chatting, so it's early nights for me, lol. Maedin\^talk 09:33, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Luckily, I learned my English in chat rooms rather than at school, so I am quite at home with all those abbreviations. Nice try tho ;-)

You are right of course. I am faced with the same thing, I have a certain amount of knowledge but most topics I know about are already well covered. So I spent my time improving, i.e. being a WikiGnome. The place needs us too after all. It's equally rewarding of course to patrol new pages, sort them, tag those who warrant it for speedy deletion and improve those where some newbie tried to create a genuine article but failed to use proper wikimarkup. It's a nice way to make the place better. Or fixing citing problems, looking for missing sources, fixing typos and grammar errors, you name it. There is always something to do :-)

Ah, well, I need to change that too. It's taxing to live on caffeine alone. ;-)

You have no nice guys to keep you awake? Hard to believe, but it does at least allow you to get some sleep :-D SoWhy 09:43, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

I have a new (genuine!) question for you

I just reverted an edit made by an IP address to the featured article of the day, Walter de Coventre. I was going to put a warning on the talk page for the IP, but unfortunately, they've already been warned 3 times, and apparently, the next step is a block. What am I supposed to do now? Isn't there some page for "administrator attention"–do I list the IP address there for a block? Or should I give one more warning? Maedin\^talk 10:01, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the usual number of warnings is four ({{uw-vandalism}}, {{uw-vandalism2}}, {{uw-vandalism3}}, {{uw-vandalism4}}). In this case you mean this IP I guess? You should have placed a final warning ({{uw-vandalism4}}) there, which you can identify by the hand-symbol it uses. But please remember that user warnings have to be substituted when used. Also, you should include the article that was vandalized, i.e. the complete code would be: {{subst:uw-vandalism4|Walter de Coventre}} ~~~~

After you placed such warning (which is kind of late now because it was an hour ago but I could not reply sooner because my laptop crashed) and the person keeps on vandalizing, you can report them at WP:AIV to get them blocked. Remember to specify why you report them and if possible provide one or more diffs to prove it. SoWhy 11:29, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I screwed that one up, didn't I? I wonder why I thought it was 3—perhaps I was thinking of the three revert rule. So, you imply that I shouldn't leave the message now, becuase it's been more than an hour since I reverted the edit. What if the vandalism hadn't been reverted for more than an hour after it was made? I'm just wondering what the reason is for not going back and leaving a message; perhaps the editor won't know that it's been more than an hour since I reverted.

It's quite ok, laptops crash and you're not at my beck and call, so I didn't (or at least shouldn't) expect you to answer right away! Oh, and I'm sorry I didn't link to the IP's talk, that would have made sense and been helpful, but I didn't even think of it. Sorry :(

Thanks for your help, and for your super talkback edit summaries! Maedin\^talk 12:28, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that might be the case. You can read WP:UW for more info on those warnings and stuff. The reason I advised against warning now is, that the user might have seen the light so to speak and stopped vandalizing and another warning now could throw him/her off track. Also, even if you warn him/her now, it will be no good because any block request based on the warnings will be denied (as there is no recent vandalism activity). Just have a look at the user and if he/she vandalizes again, you can warn him/her then. And if not, there is no reason to do so because he/she stopped it then - no reason to tell them to stop then is there? ;-)

Yeah, well, my laptop is completely crazy now...and I have to write a 25 pages essay on it...kind of annoying. No problem for not linking it, it was easy to find. And as I said once before: We live and learn :-)

Sure, no problem, that's why I'm here after all. And I will see if I can keep up the quality of those summaries ;-) SoWhy 12:45, 29 August 2008 (UTC)

Edit warring

You appear to engaging in edit-warring on Sarah Palin. I urge you to get consensus at the talk page first before simply reverting the changes of others. The material you are seeking is controversial and you need to discuss this first. Ronnotel (talk) 13:20, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

I am sorry to disappoint you but I do not think I was edit warring. All my reverts were made to unexplained removals of multiple paragraphs, which is a definition of vandalism. I do not endorse the content but rather think those removing it should discuss those removals first. As I said, I have not added this material nor have I reviewed it for controversy. I just revert vandalism. I hope you understand that these were no content-based reverts and that I in no way have a desire to edit war. Regards SoWhy 13:29, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks for the explanation. I am was concerned because, IMHO, the material being added back in seemed POV and OR. That said, I think the recent changes in the section have helped to make it less so. In any case, discussion is always better than reverting. Cheers. Ronnotel (talk) 13:33, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Sure, no problem. Of course discussion is always better, that's why you told me above stuff instead of blocking me^^ But unfortunately, I fear that those people who just blanked the section were not here to discuss. I think that article needs semi protection (and I requested that) so that these removals will not happen in this manner again and those who really have concerns about such sections will be forced to use the talk page to discuss those. Have a nice day :-) SoWhy 13:45, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, I think it makes sense to have a section labeled 'Reaction' that gets filled out with a reasonable assessment of the political reaction across the spectrum. I suspect that's where we're going to end up. Good luck! Ronnotel (talk) 13:50, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Foosh

Hi. I restored the article to the last "good" version. Hope this is acceptable. Deb (talk) 14:53, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Piotr

Thanks for that, I couldn't work out why it was " " around the text for the web link, lol. Maedin\^talk 21:35, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and thanks for the talkpage headers! That didn't even occur to me! Maedin\^talk 21:41, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, you live and learn. You should convert the sources you added to {{cite web}} if you have the time (or {{cite book}} or similar). I will watch the article and make changes if necessary (if you have further problems with such markup I can fix them). Nice work for your first article, you rarely see such good first articles here :-)

PS: Not in this case, but if you use article names in a section header on a talk page, you should not use another name then the article's full name (i.e. "Piotr Tomaszewski" instead of "Piotr"). That is less confusing ;-) SoWhy 21:50, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

Thank you :) I was nervous about moving it, having something out there in the namespace to be criticised, lol. I did notice though that moving it from my subpage meant that it didn't show up in the list of new articles. Doesn't that mean that a clever vandal could create a lot of vandalism pages (relatively unnoticed) by moving them into the namespace instead of creating them there?

I will work on the {{cite web}} later today, and I will remember to use full names :)

Oh, and sorry to be thick, but I didn't understand your edit summary for the talk back; I did search on talk back and to talk back but didn't find anything except the template, lol. Have I missed something? Maedin\^talk 09:31, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Hmm...good question. I think not, because it will still be listed on Special:RecentChanges as a move and thus someone will notice it via Twinkle or Huggle or suchlike.

Well, you are the native speaker, so I probably made the mistake. My dictionary said it means "to reply to someone in a cheeky manner"... ;-) SoWhy 11:21, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Oh I see, to talk back and not in the Wikipedia way! You didn't make a mistake, I was just being narrow in my definition. You are indeed getting away with an awful lot of talking back; but I like you being so cheeky so I shan't complain :)

I've just redid all of the citations for my article using {{cite web}}. Looks sooooooooooo much better! Maedin\^talk 14:38, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah. So, you like cheeky boys? Lucky for me ;-)

Told you. That's something you can do for other articles as well: If you look at an article and see refs used improbably, instead of being annoyed, edit it and improve them using {{cite web}}. If we all do so once in a while, it will make Wikipedia articles look much nicer in a short time. :-)

As for the Piotr-article or new articles you create, always remember, as I said above, to look at other similar articles, preferably FAs or GAs and copy style and formatting from them, if you are unsure how to format an article :-) SoWhy 16:53, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

More like lucky for me! I'm the one who gets to enjoy it ;)

This is an edit just to say: my 300th! And gosh, have you been busy tonight! You are fast.

(Please ignore. I promise I won't always post useless stuff on your talk page!) Goodnight. Maedin\^talk 20:55, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Lucky for us both it is then? It's kind of the same that I hear from my gf as well, she calls me cheeky all the time. ;-)

Congrats. You are on a good way, trust me, although reviewing your contribs, you might want to edit a bit more in the Mainspace. But hey, it took me almost 3 years to amass 300 edits - I just started much much sooner ;-)

I was busy? Nah, I just had some free time on my hands and decided to fire up Huggle. Such sprees are quite helpful for the project I think :-)

Oh, and I do not mind you posting such things here. It's for talking after all ;-) Good night! SoWhy 21:10, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, she would certainly know best, and just goes to show that you are consistently cheeky, which makes you cheeky indeed, :)

You're right that I should get into the Mainspace more; I plan/hope to. But while I "find my feet" (which is a silly expression, because I know exactly where my feet are), I am trying to not fret about where I manage to "contribute". But thank you for reminding me, I can always wander astray! Maedin\^talk 21:18, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, but I hope I am cheeky in a nice way and so that's not so bad. :-)

Sure, I understand that. I just wanted to point it out. If you have some time on your hands at work or suchlike, you can always use Special:Random and fix stuff that is obviously in need of fixing. I just mentioned this, because you know, I want you to become an admin someday ;-) Have a good night ^^ SoWhy 21:25, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect

You recently undid a edit(s) by User talk:68.196.61.0, I wouldn't say that was Netural POV, I'd say the edit was vandalism. Message from XENU^{u, t} 19:22, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

As you can see by the other contributions of this user, he/she is clearly vandalizing. See the other warnings. I reverted several of his/her edits, all of which were vandalism. If you think I made a mistake, please supply the diff of the edit in question. Regards SoWhy 19:25, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Ah sorry, I didn't exactly see the problem. Sorry for the misunderstanding. Message from XENU^{u, t} 19:27, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

No problem. I am happy that you considered talking to me about it. Have a nice day/evening :-) SoWhy 19:29, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

RfA thank you

SoWhy/Archive 3, I wish to say thanks for your support in my successful request for adminship, which ended with 82 supports, 3 opposes, and 1 neutral. I will do my best to live up to your expectations. I would especially like to thank Rlevse for nominating me and Wizardman for co-nominating me.
                                                  — JGHowes ^talk - 19 August 2008

"Bristol palin" ?

Done. ~! Dlohcierekim

Have yourself a..

Barnstar!

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		For irritatingly beating me to reverting vandalism on Huggle. —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 20:49, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Coolio. Thanks! :-) SoWhy 20:54, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

You're very welcome, keep it up! —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 20:55, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

How else can I get all the edit count people expect from admins these days? If someone wants to nominate me in some far future, I should be able to please all those edit count fanatics :D

Nah, just joking. You keep it up too, you do a great job, not only in vandal-whacking but I noticed you in a positive way multiple times. I should give you a barnstar but if I did so now, it would look like a cheap thanks for this one. But I will get you one - when you stopped expecting it ;-) SoWhy 21:00, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Haha, you should be very aware, then, that this has an edit count section ;) Why haven't you self-nommed or been nominated by someone yet? I demand an answer! And thanks for the compliment, I've noticed the same from you. I'd give you another barnstar, but hey, two in one day is a little excessive, don't you think? ;) —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 21:20, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

See, I told you there are such people ;-)

As to nominations, well, I don't want to self-nom because I want a real reason for opposing from those people, who oppose all self-noms. And noone else wanted to do so yet (Rudget once offered to do it in October 2008, but he is quasi gone now). But hey, it's no big deal, I'll just wait if someone thinks I should do it. And while we are on topic, I could ask you the same thing! :P (I'd nominate you but now it would look like doing you a favor for the barnstar^^) SoWhy 21:30, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, I've had two RfA's. One was very premature and the other failed because.. I don't know really. I'm waiting for admin coaching with Malinaccier and then I'd consider getting nominated or self-nominating after that ;) But it'll probably be a while! To be honest, though, Kurt is the only one who opposes the self-noms. There should be plenty of support to counteract that? I'd be happy to nominate you, if you want. —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 21:44, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Stupid me. I remember that RfA, even if I have no idea why I didn't vote. But I think you should keep it up, if you do admin coaching, I am sure your coach or some other admin will be happy to nominate you. I might consider it as well, once this discussion now is well in the past because some people like to see conspiracies everywhere. :D

And yeah, I know about Kurt, but I didn't want to mention him by name. I'd like to evade a self-nom-oppose from him anyway because he does have a point, it does look a bit like power hunger. I'd prefer some beloved admin to nominate me so that his/her glamour reflects on me ;-)

Still joking, I think I will wait some time before I ask someone else to nominate me, but thanks for the offer. It means much to me. But currently my activity, as you can see by my edit count, has started only in the last four months and I have seen good editors being opposed because of that. But, to any nice admin reading this^^, I will still be happy about a nomination from those people. If it fails, I can still blame that admin for making a wrong nomination :P Okay, I am jesting too much today^^ SoWhy 22:00, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Haha, fair enough! Well, best of luck, I'll see you around somewhere again, I'm sure of it. —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 22:24, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

So THAT's Why you removed it

Sry. I hadn't seen your comment on why you removed the SPEEDY tag. Thanks for clarifying! ←Signed:→Mr. E. Sánchez ^{Get to know me!} / _{Talk to me!}←at≈:→ 21:12, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

I replied on your userpage because I left you a note at the same time :-) SoWhy 21:18, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

RfA thanks

Thank you for voting in my RfA, which did not succeed with 47 support, 21 oppose, and 1 neutral. I appreciate both the supports and the opposes. Thanks again and cheers! TN‑X-Man 18:26, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

List of administrator hopefuls

Hi - I'm not sure if you're watching WP:HOPEFUL, but it is now updated per most of your suggestions. I think the only pending suggestion not implemented is to add counts for each section. If you have any other feedback, please let me know. -- Rick Block (talk) 18:40, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I am watching it. Great work! :-) SoWhy 18:41, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the barnstar. Oddly enough, it's one I didn't already have. -- Rick Block (talk) 23:45, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

You are welcome. And good thing I picked you a new one :-) SoWhy 23:50, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

My RfA

Thank you for your support in my recent RfA, which was successful with 58 support, 4 oppose and 1 neutral. Kind regards. --Malcolmxl5 (talk) 21:41, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

my error

My sincere apologies for the problem caused by my use of WikiCleaner. I was using it to pinpoint pages in need of corrective action and was indeed viewing and fixing each individually. I wasnt aware of glitches or problems with the 'tool' and had no idea that it was automatically making so many inaccurate changes, entirely independent of myself. The realization of this dilemma is frustrating because I honestly contributed a significant number of accurate, productive edits. Thanks--1oddbins1 (talk) 22:18, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

RfA thanks

Thank you for voting in my RfA, which succeeded with 71 support, 14 oppose, and 5 neutral. Thanks for your participation. I hope I serve you well!

--Smashville^BONK! 23:25, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

RfA oppose

Why hazard a guess? Let the opposer respond for themselves. --Dweller (talk) 10:21, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Because it is a similar behavior often found in many RfAs - and sometimes the opposer does not re-visit the RfA to explain it. So I thought it might be helpful to write what is likely, allowing the opposed to reflect on this interpretation (which might not be obvious to the candidate). After all, it does no harm, or does it? If so, tell me please, because I just tried to be helpful. Thanks SoWhy 10:28, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, I'm not sure it's a great idea. First, I want to reassure you that I can see your intentions were good and I'm not having a go at you. OK, that said, you don't know what he was thinking - he may have made a mistake (looking at his recent RfA activity that's more than possible). I left him a note earlier about his recent RfA contribs and after seeing your note asked him to return and clarify. Your suggestion doesn't really help because a Crat would ignore it as groundless speculation over the !voter's intentions. All you've done is note your own concern over the candidate, which is confusing, as you've supported him. It's just a bit of a mess. NB there's plenty of behaviour at RfA that's not ideal - let's, bit by bit, start raising the bar? :-) --Dweller (talk) 10:39, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I just pointed out, what could be a concern for some. As I wrote in my support, I firmly believe we need more admins and we need those especially, who, like this candidate, are good in fighting vandalism (with 200k edits a day, 1500 admins are not really much^^). But I am sure you know that there are many opposes of this sort imminent, mostly those who are based on "not enough FAs/GAs" / "not enough article building" which I never understood, because an admin should, as I see it, be able to clean up - you do not need those tools for writing articles.

I have no idea of course, how a crat will judge such opposes (although I guess ignoring them would be a good guess here) and thus I did not have in mind to try and imply anything. I guess you are right about one thing: I should have looked how this user acted in other RfAs and then directly asked him to clarify him-/herself. Well, we all make mistakes, good thing you told me, so thanks for that. I will do my best raising the bar (but not that high, considering that I entertain the thought of wanting to jump over the bar some day^^) :-) SoWhy 10:50, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Heh, bar for behaviour, not bar for admins :-) Any puzzling/inexplicable oppose would have to be ignored. I hope (expect) he'll return and clarify next time he's online. Cheers. Anyway, when do you think you'll be ready to attempt RfA? --Dweller (talk) 10:59, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, then it's okay. :-D

Ah, I see. Yeah, let's hope it :-)

PS: Hmm, good question, I discussed that with Cyclonenim few sections above this one. I think I am ready now, but I would value the input of some admins and/or crats before I attempt it and as I said to Cyclonenim, I will wait for some admin/crat to nominate me, because I want to avoid opposes based on "selfnom=power hunger" (even if those opposes are ignored, I'd rather prefer to force those users who oppose on those grounds to have to supply some better reason than that :-). SoWhy 11:04, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Nice hint. :-) I'll take a look at your contrib history when I get a mo. Have you had a recent WP:ER? --Dweller (talk) 11:14, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Hint? Me? Never! ;-) Nah, I don't think I had to hint, I got the Userbox which exclaims "Wanna wanna wanna!!!" and it is on this talk page, jsut a few sections above...okay, maybe a little hint. I am grateful, if you could do so of course, not solely with RfA in mind but on a general basis as well. I had an ER in August, it's at Wikipedia:Editor review/SoWhy. I have closed it after 3 weeks then, because apart from Rudget, there were no real comments for 3 weeks and ER has a huge backlog anyway, so I didn't want to take more space than I needed. I think Rudget's comment was quite nice and helpful and I tried to improve by what he told me, unfortunately he left by now so I could never thank him for that. SoWhy 11:21, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

(←) You have my support. I have been waiting for this a while now. Btw, deine Englischkentnisse sind bemerkenswert. :) --Cameron* 10:06, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, thanks, those are nice words. As I said above, I would be honored of your support once and if someone nominated me. But I will await Dweller's judgement first in any case because I value his opinion very much. Btw, ich freue mich, dass du denkst, meine Englischkenntnisse seien bemerkenswert, vor allem, wenn man bedenkt, dass ich über das Internet gelernt habe (and yes, I usually write such long sentences. One of my friends recently complained about that again, saying that she is not able to grasp them at 1am ;-)) SoWhy 10:19, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Honoured, Ich sagte Englischkentnisse nicht American-Englischkentnisse! ;) I too found the internet (and books) more helpful than my German teacher! Mind you I still get "der" and "das" muddled up! All my German friends don't correct me! They just said it sounds cute! :) --Cameron* 13:18, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

I mix British and American spelling often, it's just something you do when learning British in school but seeing American all the time on the web ;-)

Well, I guess schools, here as in the US, are often quite incapable at sparking the students' interest in a foreign language, so I am not at all surprised. Of course that means in my case (as I guess it does in yours) that I know how to write English but I still have problems pronouncing all those words. Fortunately, that's not needed here :-D

True, the German way of gender-ising nouns (as in the Romance languages for example as well) is quite hard for someone who learnt English. Because there are no rules that determine the gender of those words, just tradition. And in some cases ("Butter" for example) der, die or das can be correct, depending on where you are. That's one of the reasons I like English (that and the fact that irregular verbs are few and there are no cases). SoWhy 13:43, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

German spelling (I love it, it's so logical) and English grammar would be ideal! PS: For the record, I would have said die Butter! :) --Cameron* 13:50, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

True, but we can't have everything. :-) PS: You'd be correct - in my opinion. But alas, as I said, opinion differs ;-) SoWhy 15:40, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Rollback

Hiya! Been a while! Thanks for fixing the birth year on the Piotr Tomaszewski page, can't believe I missed that for so long! :)

Just wondering if you think I could request rollback. Just now had several vandalising edits taking place while I watched and all I could do was go through and "undo" each one – silly really! I think that I have some sort of rollback capability with Twinkle, but it was all so big and bold and cluttering up the screen, which is why I got rid of it. Is regular Wiki rollback that annoying? I think they'd let me have it, but I'm not sure, and I'd rather not embarrass myself trying if they say no, lol, so I'm wondering what you think. Thanks :) Maedin\^talk 17:00, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

No problem. You should still try and find out his full birthdate. Maybe someone speaking Polish can.

Hmm, I'd give it to you but alas, I am no admin. I do not think it will work because admins usually look at the number of edits and will not give it out too soon. You could try but it might fail. If you like, I am happy to ask an admin for you, maybe some admin will be more willing if some established user suggests it to be a good idea. Just tell me. If you don't want that or if it fails, you can use the "revert tools" (adding importScript('Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/Revert tools'); to your monobook.js), which mimic the ability but by undoing automatically instead of really reverting (revert does not open an edit window but just removes a revision fast). I'd suggest you ask for rollback first or let me ask some admin for you before you use that tool. And keep in mind, never be embarrassed by someone denying your request. Things happen...and some admin denying your request just based on numbers is nothing to be embarrassed about. And if there was a real reason not to trust you with the tool, it'd be just a reason to learn from it. :-) SoWhy 19:39, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

I would really appreciate it if you could informally ask an admin on my behalf, or at least inquire as to whether or not they think I'd be likely to make it. But you don't have to :) You're right that my edit count is quite low; I guess I was hoping that the nature of the edits would overcome that! Anyway, thanks, :) Maedin\^talk 20:40, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

It's no problem. I have asked Xenocidic (talk · contribs · blocks · protections · deletions · page moves · rights · RfA), whose judgment I value much, to consider it [1]. I am sure he will at least make a decision that is not based on edit count. :-) SoWhy 20:53, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Danke schön! Your message to Xenocidic looks ideal :) I've seen him around and would say something really nice about him, such as I actually think, but I don't want it to look like I'm sucking up as he's probably going to click on that link and see this whole message, so I'm going to try and remain neutral ;) <Ahem> Xeno, who's he...? lol :-D Maedin\^talk 21:26, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay, you should have noticed it already, you got your rollback. Have fun with it but remember to heed Help:Reverting#Rollback. If you are unsure whether you should revert something, use UNDO instead to specify a reason. Rollback is for vandalism only :-) SoWhy 17:53, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Gotcha, I'm off right now to read the rollback rules, :) Really appreciate your asking Xenocidic for me, and I promise you won't need slapping with any trout! Maedin\^talk 18:44, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome, it was no problem. Xeno is a really nice guy after all. ;-) Have fun and do not get me trout-slapped. SoWhy 18:55, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

My RFA

"You cannot know all rules by heart but you should be able to make yourself familiar with them if needed."

I had never heard "the most basic rule" worded that way - but I thought it was very nice :). Thank you for voting on my RFA. It was unsuccessful, but I am nevertheless grateful for your support. I hope to see you around the wiki!--danielfolsom 02:53, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

You are welcome. I am sorry to hear that it has failed. There are really not enough people who want to face the RfA-challenge and who would be great admins (but fail over such trivialties). I hope you will not stop making great contributions. And if you liked my little piece of philosophy, check my main user page, I got more of it ;-) SoWhy 09:07, 8 September 2008 (UTC)