User talk:Uncle G

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Contents

[edit] Southern Baptist navboxes

Southern Baptist state convention boilerplate article cleanup to-do list (feel free to check off)

Have some more redlinks:

Uncle G (talk) 2010-09-02 14:44:24 UTC

[edit] Thank you so much. Please continue helping!

Thanks a lot, Uncle G. Your edits at the Reproductive Health were all very helpful. Please continue helping as we improve that article. :) 03:49, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Most of what I did was citation cleanup. I hope that future editors can follow the pattern, now that it's laid out. If you've seen your watchlist notice, you'll have seen that I'm a bit busy at the moment, busy enough that it has severely impacted my content editing. So I cannot help much with that. Even the Baptists are on hold. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 13:16, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit]  :)

Barnstar of Humour3.png The Barnstar of Good Humor
For finding 19 ways to say "stolen". Congratulations, you made reading a list of copyright violations fun ^^ ResMar 21:03, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

Where did you see that...I've got an unwritten parody running around through my head and its not going to leave me alone until I try tot write and I can't write until I find the 19 ways to call it copyvio.... :-P--*Kat* (talk) 01:35, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Signpost

  • Three important factual corrections:
    • Not all of the articles are copyright violations. Three people have independently reviewed samples of the articles to estimate the percentage that are expected to be copyright violations: me, Carrite, and llywrch. We all broadly agree on a very rough estimate of 10% of the total.
    • The CCI report came before the ANI discussion.
    • Your quote of me is a misquote that is going to read as false to any readers who know me. I don't write "s/he", and I didn't write it there. The wikitext that I wrote was "{{gender:Darius Dhlomo|he|she|xe}}".
  • Uncle G (talk) 22:58, 11 September 2010 (UTC)
    • Was intending for the contrib total/copyvio estimates to carry this over. ResMar 02:07, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
    • Sorry, I'm not on the inside of the discussion so I glanced over that point :) ResMar 02:07, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
    • Can you fix this one yourself? I kind of have no clue what you mean. I input gender command and I get...xe. And I doubt people would know enough to litteraly detect that kind of to-the-letter inconsistency (and if they did, it would be downright creepy). ResMar 02:07, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
      • This was the intervening fix it. ResMar 02:08, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
  • As noted below, I've been a Wikinews editor for a long time. Even on wikis, it's not a good idea to let the subject write the piece. ☺ I know that I wouldn't want subjects writing the piece if I were the reporter. So I've gone with the usual route of supplying the fact corrections for the reporter to review, research, and update the piece accordingly. I even tried to do so well before your deadline. ☺

    As to recognizing what isn't my writing: It wouldn't be creepy. You'll be surprised how many people know this. Uncle G (talk) 14:20, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

  • As I understand from looking over the template:gender, you don't list the various forms expected to be displayed ({{gender:User|he|she|xe}}); you just list the TYPE you want (nominative, accusative, genitive, reflexive, etc), and it checks on the User to get the right one. Am I understanding the template correctly?? WesT (talk) 17:58, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
    • It's a magic word, not a real template. If it were a real template, the username would be part of the template name. Uncle G (talk) 21:05, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Secret pages 2

Because you participated in Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not/Archive 34#Does WP:NOTMYSPACE apply to secret pages?, you may be interested in Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Secret pages 2. Cunard (talk) 07:05, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] CCI bot

I see it is active (or has been). It would be nice if you updated the CCI or BRFA discussion saying how big a chunk it is doing. I see some of its edits have already been reverted, restoring apparent copyvios ([1] seems to copy text from [2]). I think the bot should do just a fairly short blanking run (few hundred articles) and then give us a few days to see what happens before continuing. 67.119.12.29 (talk) 22:56, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I suggest that you and others go and have a long talk with Trackinfo (talk · contribs). See Wikipedia talk:Contributor copyright investigations/Darius Dhlomo/How to help for why. Trackinfo seems to be of the opinion that things that are largely sentence-for-sentence identical and turned into a derived work by Trackinfo are "I reworded all of those sentences." There are also statements by Trackinfo that the "legwork" in creating "these highly accurate wikifications of public record documents" is "so valuable" that "I would be willing to overlook the occasional tendency toward copyright violations in prose". You and others are best placed to disabuse xem of these notions, right now, before things get out of hand.

    As for the rest: That was the short run, that I said I'd be doing a while back, to test the 'bot script and demonstrate it in action so that people can look at the edit rate and so forth. (I even found and fixed a problem with the category handling, you'll notice.) Uncle G (talk) 23:25, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

    • Oh cool, yes, I see the bot stopped after 40 articles, which seems like a good number. I posted a message to Trackinfo here. Thanks. 67.119.12.29 (talk) 23:35, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
      • Actually, it was 22 articles (one of which is now redlinked on the list) twice. I ran the process twice, expecting the second run to be a batch of null edits that wouldn't show up. They did, revealing a problem, that I then found the cause for and fixed (by explicitly filtering out that particular category). Uncle G (talk) 23:41, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
        • Ah, I didn't notice the duplication. Anyway, nice work. 67.119.12.29 (talk) 23:48, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikinews

Hi, you don't know me but I know you. You were an admin on Wikinews, and seeing as you're active here on Wikipedia, may I ask you if you could comeback to Wikinews? We are in desperate need of contributors, and from what I've seen you were great on your job. Cheers, --Diego Grez (talk) 01:53, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

I'd love if you could respond this... --Diego Grez (talk) 17:24, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Exact time of going to bed

Ah, but how do you know I didn't just take my laptop upstairs? :) Black Kite (t) (c) 09:40, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] CCI

You should probably announce the results of the test run at Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents/CCI so people can comment. 67.119.12.29 (talk) 14:55, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Is this true?

  • Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2010-09-13/News_and_notes
    "The bot will roll back every article to the version immediately prior to Darius Dhlomo's first edit, based on a master list generated by VernoWhitney. The articles he created will not be deleted, but the bot will blank the page completely."
  • - jc37 05:50, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
    • Also: will articles which have already been reviewed be excluded from the main bot list? There are at least a few hundred between the first and second pages of the CCI. SFB 07:10, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

I have a short test list of articles that I've run through the 'bot; so you can see from the 'bot's own contributions history what the 'bot does. Notice that I've addressed one discovered problem and one further request. This is just the created articles pass, at this stage. I'm not even set up to roll back articles, yet. I'm looking into how that can be done; and the 'bot would need a new tool written to be able to do it. Plus, of course, that second pass as a whole is still up for discussion.

Moonriddengirl has already said that xe is working up a list of pages to be immediately rolled back. If xe gives me a list of pages like Margaret de Jesús ahead of time I can remove them from the list given to the 'bot in the first place. For reasons noted above on this very page and on Moonriddengirl's talk page, Moonriddengirl is a good clearinghouse for such a list. I suggest that you two help Moonriddengirl concoct that list. Uncle G (talk) 11:44, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Are you planning to do the rest of the articles at any given time? Or are you going to do them one page a day or something of that sort? I can't really generate a list for you at this point because the list is in flux. People are still evaluating this content. :/

    What we could do is add an "edit notice" to each of the CCI subpages asking people after a certain timestamp to watch the articles they've cleared so that they can remove the bot notices themselves. That way, I could generate a list of exclusions for you from before the timestamp and people who are still working after will know to keep an eye. That would work best, I think, if you plan to do the rest of the list all at once. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:18, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
    • Actually, what we're going to have to ask them to do at the CCI is to remove the blanking template from the pages anyway when they evaluate. Otherwise, there will be redundancy of labor. And we may need to change the template to ask them to mark the clearance at the CCI for the same reason. What do you think? --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:26, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
      • I was wondering whether VernoWhitney can come up with a way of refactoring the CCI list to take out the blanked articles after they are blanked, so that people didn't have the extra task of ticking articles off, there, and we could just rely upon the category to depopulate. Xe did say that the current list on the CCI pages was in two parts, with separately numbered sequences. Uncle G (talk) 16:26, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
        • Then we might want to delay action on this until if we know whether Verno can have his bot do this. I'm not sure. The actual CCI list is generated by a Tool, not a bot. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 20:20, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
          • Okay, so while I could come up with a way of removing blanked articles from the CCI list when they are blanked (it would take me a few days and probably another BRFA, but it's possible) I don't think that just using the category is a good way of doing things. If we did that it would remove transparency so that nobody could follow up on which articles have been marked copyvio and which have been cleared, and ofttimes more importantly: by whom. I note that there's already at least one editor who has been working fairly extensively on this CCI who really shouldn't be (have been? not sure if they're still at it) due to past copyright problems. If it was all just in categories they could clear them and noone would know without specifically checking up on their contributions. VernoWhitney (talk) 20:30, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
            • Who said just the category? ☺ See Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Darius Dhlomo/How to help#Things that you can patrol. Uncle G (talk) 22:58, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
              • Thanks for the link, I've been working on other CCIs and forgot about that recent changes list. That would help, but it wouldn't leave an easily accessible permanent record though, so I'm still not sold on the idea, but if others want to go ahead with it let me know and I'll put code to edit the CCI pages on the top of my programming to-do list. VernoWhitney (talk) 23:13, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
                • I am prepared to go with either direction, once I know which we're taking. :) Uncle G, do you want to make the call or should we raise it at the ANI discussion? Do we rely on impermanent records or alter the instructions to ask people to coordinate the lists? There are disadvantages to each approach, obviously. But, either way, we should move forward soon. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:31, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
                  • I'd like to. I'm waiting on Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Uncle G's major work 'bot, where there has been dead silence for several days.

                    We really have two separate things here.

                    I'm willing to take a list of articles already reviewed and exclude those articles from the 'bot run. But Jc37 makes a fairly persuasive case against that, below, and you don't like the idea either. I have no complaints. Performing the exclusion would be more work for me to do, after all. ☺

                    Then we have the issue of what to do about the redundancy between the CCI list and the category, when it comes to the rôle of worklist to be ticked off. That's probably something to ask other people about. Uncle G (talk) 13:29, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

                    • All right; I'll bring up the question of redundancy at the ANI discussion. I do actually like the idea of not blanking the ones that have been checked already. :) If we just want a note in history, perhaps we could run a separate task for the list of "already checked" articles, making a null edit with an appropriate edit summary or putting a template on the talk page? At this point, hundreds of articles have been evaluated, and I doubt very much that most of these are being watched. I don't watchlist articles that I have cleared through CCI, as I'd never be able to keep up with them. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:36, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
    • I'm probably going to do the list in batches, but only so that I can recover from errors and restart the process partway through more easily, if such becomes necessary. I might not even need to do that. It's best for you and others to approach this as if all of the articles are going be done in one long run. As I said on your talk page, I'm ready, with list and scripts. Uncle G (talk) 16:26, 14 September 2010 (UTC)
  • When I asked, I was hoping it would be true : )

    Just a suggestion, but perhaps it would be better at this stage to do the blanking/reversion "cold".

    In other words, do it regardless of whether others have "fixed" the page.

    For one thing, it would add the template in the edit history, which would give a nice head's up to anyone who might go through the edit history in the future thinking to restore something, not knowing to look out for a CV.

    And those that are already "done" will presumably be on the watchlists of those who worked on them, so they should have little problem identifying already completed work, and going through and undoing the reversion/blanking as appropriate. Which also places that as an edit in the edit history as well. - jc37 20:01, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] bot task explanation

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Hello, Uncle G. You have new messages at Moonriddengirl's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

75.62.2.105 (talk) 02:27, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] blue code of silence?

You wrote: "Darius Dhlomo's user talk page is not for disabusing other people of their misconceptions of copyright policy. "

Fair enough. And if that's what I was asked not to do, that would have been fine. But this admin went way beyond that, and accused me of not only engaging in harassment, but declaring I went "too far" with harassment, when I did not harass anyone by one iota! I just think admins should not be allowed to throw their weight around like that on editors' talk pages, putting up intimidating images of stop signs, etc. But I suppose there is something of Blue Code of Silence with respect to admin reluctance to sanction other admins, sadly. --Born2cycle (talk) 02:38, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

  • It's exactly that sort of hyperbole that was unwarranted on Darius Dhlomo's user talk page. The rest of us can see that right now you are talking directly to Bwilkins, in two different forīs no less, and discussing your differences. You've even had suggestions on how to address that from third parties. Uncle G (talk) 11:58, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
  • I'm talking to you, Uncle G. I mean what I say and I say what I mean. If you want to read something else into it, that's on you. --Born2cycle (talk) 14:07, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] A different view

Thanks for this edit. Cheers! Location (talk) 03:32, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that was a good decision. 75.62.2.105 (talk) 07:53, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Darius Dhlomo

Sorry but I find your comments very patronising. I certainly did not visit his talk page to muck around like a child and I find your claims that everybody apart from yourself is lazy misguided. I'd be more than happy to help you clean up his violations if I had a list but my point is I do not think this prolonged block is helping the situation. Its Darius's mess and I believe it is his responsibility to clean it up not yours or mine. It is not my fault that he has attracted some people who think he is nothing but a vandal and have resorted to attacking him on his talk page. Its a mess alright and inexcusable to plagiarize alright but I do think Darius has done an awful lot of good for wikipedia and should be permitted to sort out the mess he created which I believe was done in good faith. If my viewpoint that the more constructive thing would be to unblock him and allow him to cleanup it up himself is to be termed "mucking around" or "childish" I'm very disappointed that you would think that, if your comments were directed at me. Dr. Blofeld 11:42, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

  • You, of all people, should know who was mucking about like children there. Please put the old thinking engine into gear. I shall say no more. Uncle G (talk) 11:45, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

As for as I can see there is only one particular editor who is particularly angry with him. You said "Editors should not be here" as if you were referring to everybody who commented on his talk page.... If you weren't then I apologise. But my viewpoint on this stands and I think we should be letting Darius clean up his own mess, you or anybody else shouldn't have to do it. Dr. Blofeld 12:09, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, how many articles are we talking about needing vios removed? Dr. Blofeld 12:12, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I actually said, "Editors should not be here to take actions X, Y, or Z.", which quite clearly refers in the main to the editors taking actions X, Y, or Z; although I'm sure that Darius Dhlomo appreciates the fact that xyr user talk page is now quiet and not the complete disaster area that it was rapidly shaping up to be. If you want an object lesson on how these things get out of hand, see how CheckUsers/Administrators/Bureaucrats handle blocks at Wikinews. (There's a lot more to that sorry story. I won't relate it here. But almost none of it has been good. It's a good lesson for other wikis to learn from.)

    There are in fact quite a lot of people who are angry. The irony here is that I'm one of the people with the most real cause to be angry, and indeed I was quite annoyed when I went through those several hundred articles and found the copyright violations, as well as being annoyed that I knew well ahead of time that this sort of grief was coming to my talk page as a consequence of this; yet, of all people, I'm the one stopping people going to Darius Dhlomo's user talk page and demonizing xem.

    You have an idealized world view that, unfortunately, doesn't match stark reality. We all started there. Even I didn't know that this was on the scale that it was, at first, until I went looking myself and ended up doubling the theretofore claimed size of the problem from a rapid scan of a few hundred articles that skipped a lot of them. So here's some catching up.

    If you look at #Signpost above, and on Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents/CCI, you'll see where three separate people have rolled up their sleeves and ploughed through a small sample of the pages. We've all come to the very same rough figure of a copyright violation rate of 10%. Out of 10,000 article creations that's a lot. And as you yourself observed, the additional more than 13,000 other articles are also problematic. We have over 23,000 articles with non-trivial contributions here. Even five percent of that is a lot.

    Now contrast that with Darius Dhlomo's "no more than fifteen" (which, as I said, I rapidly doubled). Go back through the history of the talk page. See Sillyfolkboy's attempts to engage in order to obtain information about where prose was taken from and Darius Dhlomo's responses.

    As I said, you have an ideal view that does not, unfortunately, match reality. If as an onlooker new to the situation you want to attempt to persuade Darius Dhlomo to engage and to help clean up xyr own mess, then that's well and good. I've already said that other people are better placed than I to do this. Good luck to you in doing so. When the current outrage dies down, after the news has become less news, you'll even have Darius Dhlomo's user talk page, without the in-rush of the angry, the provocative, and the childish to cope with, available to make that attempt on. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 13:03, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Well I'd have to agree with you that perhaps it is best to let the situation die down and you did the right thing by blocking his talk page. 10% of his edits means 1000 odd articles with vios which is very serious. It has to be said that it is extremely disappointing from an editor viewpoint, he was one of our most trusted and prolific editors who should know that it is not acceptable to copy chunks of text. If there literally is 1000 of his articles with pasted text then this block is fully justified, sorry from what I gathered it only seemed a small number. As if there wasn't enough cleanup/development work needed from articles by lesser contributors. A bot would indeed be best to do it, best of luck. If you need a hand in anything which isn't too mind boggling and time consuming I'll see what I can do. Dr. Blofeld 13:46, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Hake fillet

Whoa there! I think that there's a lack of good faith somewhere in your reasoning. Where exactly did I warn the user and bite the novice? Please explain. :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 23:43, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I've fixed the diff for you. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 23:59, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
  • You consider that a warning? It was meant to be advice. :| TelCoNaSpVe :| 00:04, 16 September 2010 (UTC)Well, I tried my best.
    • Telco, I think your approach to MFD's is not very good. This one also wasn't very nice. 67.119.14.196 (talk) 07:10, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] The article list

Mr G, I see that in the CCI task infobox, there is a related changes link to the article list page I created in my user space. Given the high profile nature of this task, and the haste in which I created that list, I think it would be better to have an "official" (fully protected?) list somewhere in the WP namespace, ideally with links to other more dynamic/editable working lists (ie those done, to be checked etc). Thanks, The-Pope (talk) 03:59, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Welcome to the joy of userspace. If your work is useful and good, people have no qualms about pointing to it and using it. That's happened to me before now (and to many others). ☺ If you want to rename it to, say, Wikipedia:Contributor copyright investigations/Darius Dhlomo/Created articles list, go ahead. Don't forget to then adjust all of the links in the several navigation boxes, in the executive summary, and on the "how to help" page, though. Uncle G (talk) 11:51, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
    • The issue is more that I just did a 2 minute cut and paste from the two old revs that I found linked to in some other post to make that list. Is this really what your bot is going to use? I'm not so concerned about accessing userspace, more that when you are ready to load the bot up, whatever list you use should be the one that gets duplicated into "official" WP space and used to track what's happening. As we've seen with the "second wave" (or is it the 3rd or 4th wave) of users commenting on the proposed actions in the last day, this will stir up a lot of people, and any signs of "amateurism" will only fuel the fire.The-Pope (talk) 12:07, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
      • I did no different to what you did. I took a simple copy of what was in the revisions hyperlinked to. (I was probably the one who hyperlinked to them.) As you note, it's not a particularly long procedure. Uncle G (talk) 12:17, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
        • We're talking about a list of DD-created articles, right? Soxred's toolserver script takes about 15 minutes to make such a list; that's a pretty simple approach. I made one that way and can upload it. 67.119.14.196 (talk) 15:46, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Your friendly comment

Hi, Uncle! I wanted to let you know that I appreciated your kind remarks here, at BLPNB where you said, among other pleasant things, "You absolutely should not feel that you are prevented from helping just because you don't have page deletion and protection abilities." Thanks for that: I'm sometimes unsure of the extent to which non-admins are routinely welcome to help with the needed work on various boards. I suppose it's best to just ask directly when in doubt. I did once see a two-weeks-new user close an AfD at five days, which I thought was kinda over the top. He screwed up the process though, perhaps not surprisingly, and an admin had to come by anyway and straighten things out. :-P

Say, if it's not improper to ask you ( and I don't think it is, since there's no dispute under discussion ), would you be able to take a look at a policy question I posted at AN? I had trouble getting to the question I was trying to ask, trouble formulating it exactly and concisely, but it pretty much comes down to this example:

Can an editor use "his daily 1RR" revert to delete some content added by an opponent an hour ago, and then also walk through the article like a shopper pushing a cart down a grocery aisle and just remove (or restore) whatever additional content he chooses to suit his POV? Merely because that additional content was added (or removed) a year ago or a month ago, and is thus not under current dispute? Doing so might violate other policies, but does it violate 1RR or not?

The thread, entitled, "What's a revert?" is here, at AN. I wouldn't ask, except that I think people might have become frustrated with the discussion becasue my initial phrasing of the question was a little vague, and I'm a bit concerned with the possibility that no one will reply to the reformulated question, the one I should have asked in the first place, before it rolls of to archives. Thanks again,  – OhioStandard (talk) 09:23, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I'll get to it if I can. But I make no promises. As you may have noticed, I have a rather large task looming. I've already had to drop several other things that I would normally be doing because of it. Uncle G (talk) 11:44, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I hadn't noticed, or I wouldn't have asked. Nevermind my request; it's small potatoes in comparison. Thanks for your work, very much. Best,  – OhioStandard (talk) 20:38, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Theft!

I realise that this is a horrible subject that we're dealing with (and I'm a few days behind as usual), but your vocabulary in describing DD's copyright theft did make me smile and I learnt a new word: 'ganked'! Keep calm and carry on. GedUK  14:02, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you very much for your work on CCI

Hi Uncle G. I just wanted to thank you very kindly for your work — and the bot's work — on the recent CCI. I was hoping to see 1,000 "thank you"s on your talk page, but maybe that will come later. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you very much and I'm sure that there are many others that appreciate your efforts. Thanks. -      Hydroxonium (talk) 17:04, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

  • We're at what seems to be the last call at Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/Uncle G's major work 'bot. So we're almost to the point where 1,000 people will descend onto this talk page. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 17:08, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
    • I love your sense of humor. :D And I also appreciate your work here. It is in large part due to your efforts that we have the workforce lined up that we do, so massive kudos to you! While I'm here, do you agree with this? If so, can we tweak the instructions accordingly? They can easily find the subpage it links to by following "what links here" (which is what I've done when coordinating). If so, I'll go ahead and generate a list of articles to exclude from blanking based on what's already been addressed. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:16, 16 September 2010 (UTC)
      • First 1,000 listed: User:Moonriddengirl/checked. Each of the ones on this list have been marked checked by one of the volunteers. I'll get the next 9,000 tomorrow. It's past my shut-down time. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 01:12, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] RE: Your comments on WT:RFA

This is off-topic, so I'm posting it here rather than there; but for the record, Ron Ritzman is almost certainly male (judging from his name, and the fact that he hasn't objected when others refer to him as such). There's no need to use this confusing 'xe/xem/xyrself' business, which makes your posts quite difficult to read. Robofish (talk) 10:45, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Biographies

I can put Pearl Rivers in my to-do list, but right now am on a roll doing a series of kingdoms and kings, like Nembe Kingdom and Okunade Sijuwade, and then trying to clean up the redlinks, an almost hopeless task. Sometimes I am a bit uncertain about the value of scrabbling together bios from online sources. It gives a rather fragmented view. Some value, maybe, and with luck someone else who actually knows something about the subject will improve them. :~) Aymatth2 (talk) 15:32, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] your bot is destroying wikipedia

lol 10,000 articles gone in a flash. Turn it off ffs. Bigdottawa (talk) 03:47, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Talkback

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Hello, Uncle G. You have new messages at TFOWR's talk page.
Message added 10:32, 19 September 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Simultaneous reply to you and Chzz, but written in pirates' cant for (what I hope are) obvious reasons. You may want to remove my reply... TFOWR 10:32, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Tangential musing about security hole in blanking process

Hello, you don't have to reply if you're too busy, but I was curious about the fact that although I'm not an Admin I can easily bypass your blanking to read the talk:Darius Dhlomo talk page you recently blanked. It would seem that there must be some way of blanking a page so that it's history would be blocked from the sight of the plebss. This is merely an exercise in rhetoric for such a page but it occurs to me that such a security hole could be really damning for a page which had more dangerous content. Regards.Trilobitealive (talk) 02:44, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

  • There is. It's called deletion. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 07:01, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
Thanks. Trilobitealive (talk) 01:37, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] COPYVIO

I just wanted to let you know a couple things... (1) I've seen the work you (and numerous others) are putting into resolving this copyvio issue, and I for one greatly appreciate the effort. I've had to deal with similar things elsewhere on a much smaller scale, so I've got some understanding of all the hard work you're putting into this; and (from having to know the affects such issues can have on sites) have a good understanding of how poorly this can impact WMF. So again, to you and the other diligent editors plodding through this situation, my sincere thanks. And (2) though I'm not yet very up to speed on dealing with such copyvio issues here, or the tools in place to do so, if there's some way I can help out, please let me know. This seems (err... is) a lot more important than what work I manage in RecentChanges during my spare time. So please, if there's a way I can help out, and someplace I can go to get up to speed on what I need to know procedurally and in relation to any tools being used, do not hesitate to let me know, and I'll lend whatever help I can. Best, ROBERTMFROMLI TALK/CNTRB 08:58, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

  • One pretty easy (but tedious) thing you could do is look over wp:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents/CCI and archive older discussion, since that page has gotten so big. I started doing this but I put it aside for a while when it got tiring. I've been meaning to finish it off but if you'd like to do some that would be great. I think it's not necessary to parse out stuff as carefully as I was doing it at first. Just archive anything older than 5 days or so and leave mentions of anything that looks important. 75.62.108.42 (talk) 10:06, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
  • Additionally, if you want to pitch in on copyright work beyond this specific cleanup, please feel free to drop by my talk page anytime. :) This CCI is larger than most, but we have dozens of them open and waiting reviewers. We can use all the volunteers we can get! --Moonriddengirl (talk) 11:18, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK nomination of Society reporting

Symbol question.svg Hello! Your submission of Society reporting at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! Yoninah (talk) 11:25, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Can you take another look at this? Smartse (talk) 15:15, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Question about my list

I've been stripping it down to just the name of the article, but would it function for you okay if I left the diffs and usernames attached? I could probably generate my list much more swiftly if so. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:38, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Just the names is very convenient for me. I'm blanking all of the articles on your current list (as it stood a little while ago) in one batch, right now, so it should be fairly easy to quickly stalk the 'bot's contributions. This batch should be processed in under 2.6166666666667 hours. Uncle G (talk) 17:46, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
    • All right. It'll take a while, though. It took me an over hour to complete the first 1,000. At that rate, it'll be a few days before I can get the next 8,000 finished. :/ I'm making a separate page for the next batch, so the lists don't get confused. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:48, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
      • The 'bot should be done well before then. So don't expend all of that time if it's purely for my benefit. Uncle G (talk) 17:51, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
        • I'm not sure yet how much it slows me down to strip away the diffs and usernames. Usually, diffs are replaced with usernames in CCIs, but in this one for some reason contributors have been adding the sigs and comments to the diffs. I have to visually scan each line to the end anyway. It may not be much of a time saver. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:54, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
          • And it probably isn't worth doing unless you want a list that you can scan to quickly unblank, which (if you are scanning the CCI list for "n"s) you already have anyway.

            On the point of quickly unblanking, this will give you something to chuckle over. Uncle G (talk) 17:58, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

            • Oh, my. :) I'm beginning to think it would be quicker for me to just follow the links of the articles that have been checked and revert the blanking. Then we'd have the record in the history anyway. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 17:59, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
              • I agree. You might want to point this editor to the right place. (Related changes on that page makes for interesting reading at the moment, by the way.) Uncle G (talk) 18:04, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
                • She seems to have found the proper place. :) I've put up another edit notice and removed her annotations from that page. We may want to include a notice that these articles may have been evaluated? Unfortunately, both of the ones she marked had already been checked. :/ I'll go ahead and finish the second thousand, since I'm almost halfway through, and tell people that instead of continuing the list I'll just be manually clearing the remaining "checked" articles after the bot does its thing. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 18:18, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
  • Okay, list 2 is up for the second thousand article at User:Moonriddengirl/checked 2. I'll announce that I'll be removing the template from subsequent articles that have already been checked. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 20:03, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
    • I'll look at the overlap and see whether it's worthwhile doing anything. If I leave the 'bot running continuously, it could do the remainder of the task in some 32 hours at this point, by my calculations. In the meantime, you could always enlist the help of Bigger digger (talk · contribs) in the unblanking of reviewed articles from your earlier list. Uncle G (talk) 20:16, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Current list

While watching the contribs I noticed that the bot blanked Athletics at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metre hurdles which has already been checked and is listed at User:Moonriddengirl/checked. Isn't that supposed to be the thing that these lists of MRGs were supposed to prevent? VernoWhitney (talk) 18:26, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I was rather persuaded by jc37's points, earlier on this page. So I'm running everything that Moonriddengirl has already found immediately, ahead of the rest, in one single batch, so (a) it will be easy to stalk the 'bot's contributions for these pages, and (b) it will get these pages out of the way right now. For numbers, see what I added to Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents/CCI a little while ago.

    One benefit of this, that I didn't even think of, is that the people who do what Pelmeen10 (talk · contribs) just did will be unwittingly helping the effort. Best that that sort of thing happens now, before we get to the articles where reflexive unblanking is a bad thing. Uncle G (talk) 18:41, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

    • Gotcha. I didn't see a firm explanation anywhere that that was the current plan. Thanks for the explanation. VernoWhitney (talk) 18:45, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Copyvio of a different nature

So I was reviewing DD's 1979 FINA Men's Water Polo World Cup for copyvio and I thought I found something. Because the second paragraph seemed to be a word for word copy of the exerpt of this book: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fina-Water-Polo-World-Cup/Books-LLC/e/9781155445021. But there's the thing. The second paragraph was published in 2008. That book was published in 2010. The author copyvio-ed us! Nice, no?--*Kat* (talk) 18:15, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I think I'm working with the right lists now.
Figuring out what is a vio and what's a reverse vio is pain in the arse. Most sites are good about crediting WP when the publish the site's content but some aren't.
Happy to help out with this and will continue to do so...at least until the headache gets to be too much. Then I'll need to take ten.  ;-) --*Kat* (talk) 03:14, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
  • There are 1000's of those Books LLC books and they are basically spam. People pay $20 and get a handful of wikipedia articles printed out and sent to them. That is permitted under the CC license but obviously it's not a good deal. By "publishing" thousands of them, the operators get a lot of hits in the Amazon and BN search engines and manage to find some undiscriminating customers now and then. 69.111.195.229 (talk) 07:00, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Talkback

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[edit] Ron Ritzman

So what was the big secret that we all missed? —UncleDouggie (talk) 08:43, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

Also, did I miss something, or did you elect not to vote? Bongomatic 13:34, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] CCI task completed

You have new messages
Hello. You have new messages at Bigger digger's talk page.

All the redirects are now back to redirects. I did most but others had looked at some. All of the targets were blanked, since have some been reviewed. Bigger digger (talk) 00:20, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Thank you. I'm hoping that that will be the last of those. It might be worth checking that contributions history again after the 'bot has processed everything, though. If you have the opportunity, a week from now, please have another quick look at it. Uncle G (talk) 01:17, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Are you being on the level?

Your comments at AN/I regarding the old Arbcom case, my editing, and the disruptive IP strain credulity. Have you taken any time to understand what is going on? You call me the other party to an edit war, which is misleading. If you think you're going to get me to listen to your advice with that kind of pompous scolding, please get real and think again. Your accusations are not helpful, and not welcome. The issue is exactly as I framed it, a difficult IP editor who we need to deal with. Please, either deal or don't, but don't interfere with the process. Thanks, - Wikidemon (talk) 03:32, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

This[3] is your reaction? Even if you were right about any of this, there's no way you're going to get through to a person by scoring cheap rhetorical points (this is not a sock swarm...) to try to belittle them. Again, please back off and deal with a problematic IP who clearly has a problem abiding by the rules. If you want to give the legitimate established editors some advice on dealing with an area of considerable mischief and contention, first you need a realistic understanding of the situation, which you clearly do not have, and then you are welcome to offer some polite, constructive advice. - Wikidemon (talk) 08:44, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] In regards to CCI

Perhaps you should __NOINDEX__ his user & talk pages and the CCI case pages until this rolls over to prevent as much of this from circulating on search engines as possible. Regards, —Ғяіᴆaз'§Đøøм • Champagne? • 7:18pm • 09:18, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

  • The various CCI pages already have been, as far as I am aware. I didn't do it, but I saw some edits by others doing it. The CCI main case page was marked as such right from the start. I suspect that that's CCI standard operating procedure. I'll double-check the other CCI pages. Uncle G (talk) 09:27, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
  • I've double-checked and added some missing ones. One thing that we could do to divert Wikipedia's significant search engine presence in this area is write an article on Darius Dhlomo (q.v.). I've been thinking about doing that. I'll see whether I can rustle up a very measely stub. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 09:36, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] List of blanked articles by WikiProject?

Hi, would it be possible to get a list of articles that your bot blanked sorted by WikiProject (based on banners on talk)? I would think that would help with the eventual clean up -- I, for example, would be motivated to help out on Lithuanian athletes. I am sure other countries would also step in. Just a thought. Renata (talk)

[edit] Boo!

You bar steward! Beat me to it. I've been incubating something a little larger for two weeks now but didn't have the time to wrap it up. I now give you the fuller story...apologies for essentially obliterating your first effort! SFB 22:13, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Pearl Rivers

I made a start - probably a lot more could be added. It should say somewhere she was a tiny woman, but I can't see where to put it. Nice photo. Back to Nigerian Emirates. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:06, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I noticed. Thank you. Uncle G (talk) 08:07, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
I have to thank you: she was an interesting woman. The article does not do the subject justice. The problem as always is lack of online sources. Any thoughts on the name? I used "Eliza" throughout, because she had three surnames in her life plus a pseudonym but always retained the same given name. Not sure if that is quite according to guidelines... Aymatth2 (talk) 13:13, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] About your bot

Hi there. Just wanted to let you know that your bot's changes appear on the recent changes section even when the hide bots option is enabled. If you could put it on whatever list the rest of the bots are on, its changes won't be accidentally reverted by people that don't realize it is legitimate. Sven Manguard (talk) 03:15, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

  • That's a worry that simply hasn't been borne out by experience. The only such reversions so far have been two people using Igloo, for which a suggestion at User talk:Ale jrb/Scripts/igloo#suggestion 2 has been made. Both people quickly rolled back the Igloo changes. Uncle G (talk) 08:22, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Darius Dhlomo

Hi. Doesn't his user name violate the BLP thing then if Darius Dhlomo is a real celebrity? Surely its too unusual a name for him to have made it up. Of course it could actually be this person himself. Any thoughts?Dr. Blofeld 18:44, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Yeah what Blofeld said. With all the commotion maybe give him a new name and put him in the wikipediaist protection program.Wlmg (talk) 19:39, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
  • I'm unsure. At the start I wasn't aware that there was a real person by this name, but I was still concerned about the Wikipedia editor having xyr (account) name all over the World Wide Web. That's why xyr name isn't in the blanking notice, for example, and all of the pages are {{NOINDEX}}ed.

    Then I found nl:Darius Dhlomo. At that point, I was even more determined that this name should not be splashed about via Wikipedia articles. #In regards to CCI above spurred me into the obvious action, which should redirect (and indeed, from my recent checks with search engines, has redirected) Wikipedia's considerable search engine weight somewhere more constructive. For preference, I'd like another, independent, administrator to decide on whether Wikipedia:Username policy#Real names applies. I suggest that the two of you quietly drop by Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention.

    I do wonder why, after several discussions on several sports WikiProjects and one football-related AFD discussion involved this editor over the years, none of the sporting articles editors spotted this in all this time. Uncle G (talk) 20:32, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Uncle G recuses himself cool. D.D. is too much of a hot potato, and I'm not going anywhere near him again. I googled D.D. at the height of the plagiarism controversy to see if the MSM had picked up on it, but got only the sports guy. Perhaps I'm exaggerating wikipedia's importance, or maybe we caught a lucky. Wlmg (talk) 21:07, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
I wonder if a ip check on Darius would reveal a South African ip address. Curiously it might be this sports personality himself. Long retired from sports but still having a major passion in it like Darius the wiki editor has. The reason why it is a possibility it is Darius is because if it wasn't then surely he would have started an article on him. I just think the name is too rare for it to be a coincidence. Might just of course be a fan boy but something doesn't add up. To my knowledge Darius is highly interested in football and athletics more than boxing though.. I suspect it is probably a fan from the Netherlands though who saw him on TV.. Darius is a Persian name and Dhlomo is a southern African surname. Its a peculiar combination which I don't think he could have made up. Dr. Blofeld 21:13, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
The real Darius Dhlomo is a bit of a cult hero, as you can see from the article I recently wrote. Call me ageist, but I highly doubt that a guy who is almost 80 years and plays in a jazz band will have either the time or the computer proficiency to behave in the way that Wiki Darius does. My money is on him being a late-twenties Dutch guy who lives/grew up near to one of Darius Dhlomo's former clubs. SFB 21:33, 23 September 2010 (UTC)
Yeah I think you're right. Also he would show an interest in jazz which Darius never has to my knowledge although I'm a muso and barely ever edit music articles myself. I think it more likely that it is a fan boy living in the Netherlands who has heard of him. But if it is not this gentleman then Darius as violated something else... User:Darius Dhlomo should have known that it is againast our policies to assume the identity of celebrities. I can't believe he edited under that account for so long before anybody realised who the person is if he is really a cult figure.Dr. Blofeld 21:36, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

Quote "The first black footballers to leave South Africa were Darius Dhlomo and Steve Mokone, who made a major impression at Heracles Almelo in the Netherlands". Yep you're right Sillyfolkboy. It would make sense that the wiki editor is a Dutchman with an interest in African football and athletics and football in general and is a fan.Dr. Blofeld 21:42, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Earl McCarthy

I did review the few statements in the article. I could not find any instance which would not withstand any challenge in the highly unlikely event that anyone would feel aggrieved. Silent Billy (talk) 01:19, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

I have found a nice bio of this bloke and will paraphrase it with details of his full career properly referenced over the weekend. This global tagging of quite innocent articles seems.... perhaps... all a bit... erm... obsessive? Silent Billy (talk) 01:47, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Skinners

See also Cyriack Skinner, truly a stub, which suggests maybe Bridget Coke and probably Rota club and/or Turk's Head coffee house. Enough of these sidetracks from sidetracks! Aymatth2 (talk) 14:36, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Your aim is off. ☺ I did wonder about Cyriack, but I didn't go looking. I suspect that there's a big rescue, along the lines of Loyalty (AfD discussion), looming. And I'm still in the middle of the CCI work. Uncle G (talk) 16:49, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

Certain people who obviously have far too much time on their hands seem to be cluttering up the encyclopedia with articles on four boxes. Aymatth2 (talk) 20:45, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

  • I'm going to have to find some more biographies for you to keep you occupied and out of such mischief, I see. ☺ Of course, if I wanted to soak up all of your spare time like a sponge, I'd throw Betrayal (AfD discussion) at you. … Uncle G (talk) 22:55, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AfD discussion hortizontal line

Hi. I noticed that you reverted my removal of the horizontal line at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Cardiff kook. I don't actually understand what it's doing there so perhaps you could explain? Cordless Larry (talk) 21:11, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

  • It's a practice of long-standing. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jamie Kane for one of its more memorable uses. I tend to understate it nowadays. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kaicho for a more recent example. If you look at the chronological position of the horizontal rules within the discussions, and line them up against the edit histories of the articles, all should become clear. Uncle G (talk) 21:19, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
    • OK, so it's to mark when the article under discussion was significantly changed? Cordless Larry (talk) 21:22, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
      • One of the fun parts is when it turns out that all of the delete opinions are before the rule and all of the keep opinions are after it. Uncle G (talk) 21:30, 26 September 2010 (UTC)
        • Understood. I initially removed it because I presumed it was a mistake, but it seems potentially useful now you've explained. Cordless Larry (talk) 21:32, 26 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Four boxes - again

Check the latest Four boxes of democracy. A DYK tagline could be "... the concept of the four boxes of liberty (soap, ballot, jury, cartridge) often quoted by conservative groups in the USA is based on a saying by Frederick Douglass, a former slave". But perhaps it is too frivolous to nominate an AfD article for DYK. Aymatth2 (talk) 16:02, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Note that it may predate Douglass - see the earlier source I found on the article's talk page. VernoWhitney (talk) 16:34, 27 September 2010 (UTC)
But that messes up my tagline! :~) I have added in the two early sources. Think it is turning into a useful article. Aymatth2 (talk) 17:49, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

After some barrel-scraping I think the article now technically qualifies for DYK. 5 times larger than any previous version with the expansion started on 25 September, all new verifiable material. I don't know whether it is a suitable topic, although the history seems interesting to me. But I am very uncomfortable about nominating an article that is in AfD, however likely it is to survive the process. Not sure what to do. Aymatth2 (talk) 19:56, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Wikipedia:Did you know/Additional rules says "Articles nominated for deletion won't be used unless or until they survive the deletion process", but it doesn't say that it can't be nominated for DYK while still at AfD. VernoWhitney (talk) 20:03, 28 September 2010 (UTC)
  • I realize that I'm braver about this than most. But I've had more experience than most, too, and I'm surer based upon my experience about where the outcome is likely to be positive and where it is not. (Cardiff Kook (AfD discussion) is now a DYK nomination, for example.) For the fainter of heart, I suggest a first step of asking Xanderliptak (talk · contribs) to revisit Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Four boxes, since xe is one of the two people that you have to persuade. Uncle G (talk) 20:08, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for both those opinions. I have canvassed both Evil saltine (talk · contribs) and Xanderliptak (talk · contribs) and will wait a bit. But the more I tinker with the article (don't know why, maybe because it is such a challenge to find usable content in the mass of search results) the more I think it is an interesting subject. Aymatth2 (talk) 23:57, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

  • Launched. Enough of this foolishness. Time to unwatch and move on. Aymatth2 (talk) 13:49, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
    • Rejected on a technicality. See DYK entry. Something to remember another time: "expand in user space". Aymatth2 (talk) 16:46, 1 October 2010 (UTC)
      • If I'd had the time, I'd have pointed you at Emily Perkins Bissell, anti-suffragette who added "sentry box", or James G. Watt who suggested that perhaps the cartridge box should be used against "environmentalists", or William F. Butler who mentioned three boxes (in the reverse order to Watt) in his inaugural address to the Kentucky Negro Republican Party in 1867. Uncle G (talk) 10:38, 2 October 2010 (UTC)
        • I will put those in, but not right away. I will wait until this discussion has died down. I have also come across mailbox and moving box, but not with what I would call reliable sources. This has been an entertaining article. :~) Aymatth2 (talk) 14:14, 2 October 2010 (UTC)
          • If you want a biographical challenge in the meantime, see whether you can dig up something on Priscilla Leonard's lecture "The Mistaken Vocation of Shakespeare's Heroines", which we don't seem to have anything about. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 16:57, 2 October 2010 (UTC)
          • Bongomatic is obviously very bored. I have therefore created a cure for xem. Uncle G (talk) 18:44, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
        • This is getting ridiculous. Perhaps you can help improve William F. Butler and the Negro Republican Party, very weak links in the chain connecting Pearl Rivers to the Four boxes of liberty - or at least suggest sources. Aymatth2 (talk) 14:07, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
          • I wasn't sure about either of those, which is why I didn't redlink them. I didn't come across any sources documenting Butler directly. I could have a look, but I currently have 10 sources to deal with for society reporting, and I already have a fair idea of what I'm going to do after that, given that the DYK hook for the Cardiff Kook was watered down unilaterally at the last minute. Uncle G (talk) 14:57, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
        • Beats me how you are going to connect Cardiff Kook with Society reporting, but I am sure there is a way. Aymatth2 (talk) 12:26, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
        • I keep drawn back to those Baptists. There are ancient emirates with no article, and I start another backwoods preacher! See George Washington Dupee. Forget the text. I think the reason is that I like the visual layout with the old photograph. Aymatth2 (talk) 14:16, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Society reporting

Updated DYK query On 29 September 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Society reporting, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

-- Cirt (talk) 00:03, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AfD List of British regional nicknames

It's not been cleaned up precisely because of people doing as you are doing here.
Well said!

Sadly, you may quote me on that at your unblock request. It's not a view that finds much current favour, serious problem though it is. Andy Dingley (talk) 16:58, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Pearl Rivers

Updated DYK query On 29 September 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Pearl Rivers, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

— Rlevse • Talk • 18:02, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

[edit] You're "advanced certificate" test, what' was the "score"?

Ok, so I passed the RFA but failed the test due to not answering the AFC questions. On that. I first indented to do those last but your "dazzling headlights" warning got me picking over the ones I had already answered (and answering the new ones) and while I was doing that, some were already closed so I never got to them. I now suspect that the real reason you gave me the warning was because you wanted to flush that BLP nightmare as quickly as possible. On the ones I did answer, how did I do IYHO?

The DRV one may prompt me to start a WP:BPP discussion on this whole issue of whether or not something marked as "policy" should always trump something marked as a "guideline" in AFDs. I think it should for certain "prescriptive" policies like WP:BLP and WP:NFCC but not for anything in WP:NOT. --Ron Ritzman (talk) 18:21, 2 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Darius Dhlomo

Updated DYK query On 4 October 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Darius Dhlomo, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

— Rlevse • Talk • 06:03, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Talkback

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[edit] hindu jihad article

Hello, Article Rescue Squadron invite. You have been invited to join the Article Rescue Squadron, a collaborative effort to rescue revised hindu jihad articles from deletion if they can be improved through regular editing. For more information, please visit the project page, hindu jihad and help rescue articles tagged for deletion and rescue.total irrelevant data's in this article is removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.58.82.131 (talk) 05:18, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Cardiff Kook

Updated DYK query On 5 October 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Cardiff Kook, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

The DYK project (nominate) 12:03, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

You got 5,200 hits even with the rewrite! I added it to the DYK:Stats page. Congratulations! Yoninah (talk) 19:40, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Back room conversations

I see that the MfD I started on Dream Focus prompted you to start a bunch of discussions on user talk pages about me [4][5][6].Your apparent attempts to quietly promulgate an artificial reputation of me being a "battlegrounder" are not appreciated, and neither are your attempts to portray me as someone who is equally as extreme as someone like Dream Focus but just on the opposite side of the spectrum. If you have a problem with my behavior, or if you think the MfD on User:Dream Focus was inappropriate, then I'd appreciate it if you discussed it with me directly rather than mass-posting on the talk pages of unrelated users. SnottyWong express 22:54, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Your reputation is not artificial, but earned over months, widely observed, and characteristic in this very message; and I'm not buying this "back room" nonsense of yours when you were right there at User talk:VernoWhitney#Two battlegrounders five days ago. Now cut this silliness out. Uncle G (talk) 00:51, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
  • I only found out about the conversation at VernoWhitney's page by pure luck, and didn't realize you had started two other similar threads on other users' talk pages until today. I don't know where your animosity towards me originates, but I am just registering my wish that if you have a problem with something I've done or said, then bring it up with me rather than gossiping with other users about me behind my back. It's just a request and you're under no obligation to follow it, but I don't think it's an unreasonable request.
Furthermore, it would seem to me that if you are concerned about divisiveness and battleground mentalities, then approaching me directly would be a more effective way to go. Starting clandestine discussions about how one could send me a message to "give it a rest, so that us peaceable grownups around here can have some respite from this constant sniping" (which I read as, "find a legitimate way to temporarily block SnottyWong to send a clear message", but I could be misinterpreting) only serve to create a divide between you and I. Again, I don't know why you feel this way about me, or why you label my contributions as "constant sniping" despite the fact that Dream Focus and I have almost never interacted before this MfD. If you'd like to talk about it, I'm here, and I think you'd find me more receptive to criticism and more open to changing my ways than Dream Focus. SnottyWong communicate 01:38, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jennifer Chang

Out of curiosity, why have none of the SPAs been blocked as sock puppets if the checkuser investigation showed deception? Thanks LittleOldMe (talk) 14:26, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

I have no problem with that close, my suggestion was made when I thought it might have hope, but I couldn't find sourcing and absurdity only continued downhill.--Milowent • talkblp-r 17:00, 6 October 2010 (UTC)
I see that MuZemike has blocked all the socks now. LittleOldMe (talk) 19:41, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Google Street View

I have replied to you on Google Street View page. It was indeed my fault that I didn't provide precise information on my addition to the article before.--89.110.232.235 (talk) 16:50, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Let's now see whether the other disputants come to the table. Uncle G (talk) 13:30, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I've noticed that you have removed Mexico from the article and thanks for that but it remains in the template on the right under "Stable release Release 27 / September 30, 2010; 8 days ago (2010-09-30)

More locations added:" so you should remove it from there too. There is another issue that I've just noticed, that someone blindly reverted my tidying work on the future section, you can see my thoughts in the talk page. Maybe you could place that back. It said

According to media, there are also plans to introduce Google Street View to Argentina[1], Chile[2], Croatia[3] and Latvia[4].

I wrote a more detailed explanation over at the section "Edit request from EstGun1, 7 October 2010" on the talk page.--89.110.232.235 (talk) 14:57, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] A chilling thought....

A disproportionate number of the Darius Dhlomo's articles are about Dutch atheletes. And a number of those articles cite Dutch sources. Which makes it very possible that DD knows Dutch himself. Which brings me to my chilling thought: What if he has been editing the Netherland's wikipedia too? What if he is editing it now?--*Kat* (talk) 02:55, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

  • (talk page stalker) If they are, it's under a different user name per nl:Gebruiker:Darius Dhlomo, so it could take some research to figure it out if they are. There aren't really any effective interwiki communication channels, so following leads like that is generally left to whichever individual editors approach dual-fluency and are actually interested. In practice, this means that everyone just deals with local problems. VernoWhitney (talk) 03:14, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
    • All they really need to do is keep an eye out for a sudden influx of new sports articles. I wonder if they have an embassy like Japan's....--*Kat* (talk) 05:19, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
  • The fact that, as above, the Dutch Wikipedia was where I found nl:Darius Dhlomo, which we didn't have at the time, leads me to believe that when it comes to Dutch athletes, at least, the Dutch Wikipedia's coverage has been written by other people. Uncle G (talk) 11:01, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Revdel request

Hi Uncle G. Following your revdel at Obsession there is still one remaining at: [7]. Thanks. Dr.K. λogosπraxis 03:38, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) No there's not. :) --Ron Ritzman (talk) 03:42, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
Excellent. I just saw it from the deletion log. Thank you very much. Dr.K. λogosπraxis 03:45, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Jennifer Chang AFD courtesy blanking

FYI: I also courtesy blanked the closing. I don't disagree with it. But people searching for her on Wikipedia may get to the deletion discussion with its descriptions of extensive deception, misrepresentations, and falsehoods associated with her.--Chaser (talk) 00:48, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Midnight Peacocks

Since you are "Mr. Notability" here, could you comment, either here or at the AFD, on my last "keep" !vote, do I have it right? (and to those who would say I'm canvasing, Uncle G could easily say I'm way off base and !vote to "nuke it into the stone age") --Ron Ritzman (talk) 13:30, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Where's Capitalistroadster when we need xem, eh? I am currently steering clear of Bands, Biographies, and Businesses for Deletion, simply because I don't have the time right now to do the research. I might take a look. Uncle G (talk) 19:44, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Talkback

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A draft route for Ribble Way is in User:Senra/Sandbox/Ribble_Way_route. Pop to my talk page for some thoughts that you could help with Senra (Talk) 16:12, 8 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Invisible Pink Unicorns

Hi, I've removed the notinsource tag from IPU for cite #3 after reading the preceding pages through the one listed (as well as page 146 and it's preceding pages). I'm guessing the cite itself simply links to (one of) the page(s) that mention of the IPU is on, instead of to the section that defines the premise for it's mention. In reading the whole thing, it seems to support the premise indicated in cite #3. Best, ROBERTMFROMLI TALK/CNTRB 18:51, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Bill Waggledagger

Good work on that dismal Shakespeare list. I certainly would not tag the article as it exists now for deletion - I do think the declaration has sufficient notability to stand alone. Let us see if your change sticks, however. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 20:38, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Pad feet

Please see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Pad feet which recapitulates issues which will be familiar to you. Perhaps you might provide some pointers to your essays on such matters. I'd do it myself but I'm not sure how to find them. Colonel Warden (talk) 10:18, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

On reviewing its history, I find that you have been there before and on the very issue in question. Small world. Colonel Warden (talk) 12:23, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Speedy deletion nomination of Clyde Lucas

Ambox warning pn.svg

A tag has been placed on Clyde Lucas, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section G4 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be a repost of material that was previously deleted following a deletion debate, such as at articles for deletion. Under the specified criteria, where an article has substantially identical content to that of an article deleted after debate, and any changes in the content do not address the reasons for which the material was previously deleted, it may be deleted at any time.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hangon}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag - if no such tag exists then the page is no longer a speedy delete candidate and adding a hangon tag is unnecessary), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the page does get deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that they userfy the page or have a copy emailed to you. Sven Manguard Talk 04:38, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Desert bands

Right now I am sort of lost in exploration of the Sahelian kingdoms, and trying to resist nominating Parfait-Louis Monteil for DYK. I have dumped in too many obscure Nigerian articles lately. The reviewers seem to automatically accept them as long as they are sourced, new enough and long enough. A long way from the world of Clyde Lucas and His California Dons. He would not have been a big hit in Sokoto. :~) Aymatth2 (talk) 15:53, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

But who knows? Maybe the District Officer in Sokoto was a big fan. (Click here). Perhaps as the sun sank over the residency, the strains of "Dance with a Dolly" could be heard faintly through the braying of camels and the calls of the Muezzin. Aymatth2 (talk) 19:28, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Did you know … that Monteil regularly visited Louis Faidherbe, in his apartment, in the 1880s; but Mogho Naba Wobogo refused to see him at all in 1891 (instead signing a treaty with G. E. Ferguson)? ☺

    Oh, and

    Did you know … that Wobogo's given name was Boukary Koutou, and that he lived in perpetual fear of assassination according to Dr Crozat?

    ☺ Uncle G (talk) 19:21, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Did you know … that Oko opposed Jaja in Bonny, and declared Bonny to be no longer JuJu on Easter Day 1867? Uncle G (talk) 02:04, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
  • Did you know … that the fact that George, who was not a fan of the Iguanas, allowed Oko to effectively control Bonny was one reason Jaja left to go solo? Uncle G (talk) 02:36, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Now those are taglines. My big mistake has been to do the article first, then try to thing of a tag. Back to front. Aymatth2 (talk) 12:38, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
      • I've been tempted to point out to the DYK people that we appear to be travelling backwards in time, here. I notice that they are now travelling backwards in time, too. Uncle G (talk) 13:41, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Pad Foot

Windsor Georgian Double Bow with cabriole legs.jpg

An excellent image; I wasn't aware that one could search and upload photos from Flickr. Good to know.  pablo 20:30, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Just remember to check the licence that the photographer uploaded it under. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 20:32, 12 October 2010 (UTC)
    • … a fact that can be frustrating at times. When I rescued Cardiff Kook (AfD discussion) I went looking for pictures. There are a fair few pictures of the Kook on Flickr. But almost no-one had decided to release their pictures under a free copyright licence. Uncle G (talk) 00:39, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Profanity in Science Fiction

Your reversion cites your own edit summary from August. The cite, if you are referring to [8] is a dead link, with nothing in the Internet Archive. (I found a couple of other cites, searching for the article title and the author, so I can confirm that he uses "feldercarb", for what it's worth.) I can pull it up at the university library tomorrow if necessary, but I also note that a search of the two terms shows more hits for "fergercarb" than "feldercarb", and the Battlestar Galactica wiki redirects the latter to the former, and here on WP, Felgercarb is a redirect to Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)#Language and Feldercarb is a redlink. (Yes, I am aware that none of these are reliable sources, either.) However, this reference, from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is a reliable source, using the "felgercarb" spelling. So is this one, from Entertainment Weekly. Arguably, this editorial from the Roanoke Times and this blog from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel also qualify. It's not terribly important to me, since it's all fiction, but I do have a bit of trouble with you using your own edit summary as a justification to revert, when there are obviously other sources which indicate otherwise, and apparently more than one other editor has noted the same discrepancy. Horologium (talk) 02:43, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

  • You are not reading. The edit summaries are amply clear that I'm using the source cited, right there in the article, as justification for having the article say the same thing as the source says. As I pointed out in the first edit summary, the talk page arguments were not verifiability in action. Neither are your counting Google hits or looking at what redirects we have and haven't yet created. Google hits have zero meaning. All of the things cited at Wikipedia:Search engine test#References should be enough to disabuse anyone of any erroneous notions to the contrary.

    It is a falsehood to say that anyone at all has pointed out a discrepancy. Not even you did in your edit summary. Certainly the other editor didn't. See what is actually written on the article's talk page. I am the only person to have pointed out a discrepancy, namely the discrepancy between the spelling changes made and what the source cited says. It's only now that you're doing the right thing, that actually makes a proper argument, which is citing more sources. That's what you should have done at the time, rather than make an unsourced change where it had already once been pointed out that the change made the article not match the source actually cited for the content.

    However, you should note that Dudek2009 makes no mention of profanity and is talking about toothpaste on eBay. There's no indication that xe's using the spelling from the show itself, or the spelling of the profanity rather than of the toothpaste brand name. Bernardin2009 is talking about toothpaste, too. Trejbal2006 is better than either of those two, as is Linn2008, since at least they are talking about profanity rather than toothpaste. So the question, which should be raised on the article's talk page, as really this here should have been, is whether they defeat Tabott2008, since that latter is the only one of the three that explicitly pays attention to spelling, and the only one where it seems likely that the journalist at one point asked "How do you spell that, please, Mr Larson?". Uncle G (talk) 13:28, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

  • The reason I didn't go to the talk page or the edit history first is that I didn't realize that a) the dead link was being used as a reference for the spelling of the word (which I didn't consider to be particularly contentious), and b) I didn't realize that the spelling change had been reverted before. I normally don't check for disputes when wiki-gnoming in generally non-contentious areas; it looked like a typo to me. Only after you reverted it (with a rather testy edit summary) did I go and look at what you were going on about. As I clearly noted in my first response, I am fully aware of the limitations of open wikis and Ghits (I explicitly stated that I knew that they were not appropriate sources), which is why I followed up with the reliable sources. (I actually spent about 30 minutes on that reply, adding and subtracting text as I found references. I had intended to remove the section about going to the library, since I found copies of the dead linked article in newspaper websites.)

    Bernardin is not talking only about toothpaste, he is also talking about the profanity; read the last sentence of the first paragraph. And it's not at all apparent that Talbott asked about the spelling of Felgercarb/feldercarb, because it is only mentioned once as an aside; the rest of the article focuses on frack/frak, and the variable spelling of that word is a topic addressed by Talbott. (FWIW, I am reading a copy of the Talbott article here; if there is more to the article, I don't have access to it.) I may take this to the article talk page, although I originally had not planned to do so; I have never edited the article before, and probably would not have edited again if not for the sharp tone in your edit summary. I encountered the article by chance when following links, and fixed what appeared to be a minor error (and note that my edit summary made it quite clear what I had changed). I didn't expect such an abrupt reversion without any discussion at all. (And no, you haven't discussed it on the talk page either.) Horologium (talk) 15:23, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Traumatic grief

Notice
Someone has poured you tea.


Pmedema (talk) 13:45, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Doubts on harvardification

I am not convinced this is a useful style for Wikipedia. It is a carry-over from print book style, where a page footnote gives source and page (e.g. * Smith 2007 p71.) and then an appendix at the back of the book gives the full citations of the referenced works. A Wikipedia article has only one page, so it seems a bit complicated to separate the footnotes and references. There could be a case for it if the article mainly quotes different pages scattered within one or two books, but that is rarely the case. My guess is that very few readers look at the citations. The triple-entry approach is going to be tough for most editors to maintain:

<ref name=smith2007/> ...
<ref name=smith2007>{{harvnb|Smith|2007|}}</ref> ...
*{{cite book|ref=harv|title=Harvardization|first=J.|last=Smith|publisher=ABC|year=2007}}

Not a strong feeling. Aymatth2 (talk) 15:16, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

  • This is not separating the footnotes and references. Ironically, what you're talking about is this sort of edit, which I don't do because I think it to be wrong. As you say, the use of {{harvnb}} here is a way to ensure that we don't have either (a) multiple {{cite book}}s that differ in page numbers or (b) single {{cite book}}s that point to multiple pages of the same book making it difficult to find the page being cited for any given content. I've done enough writing from books as sources, and grown my own fair share of pages=32–35,87,126–128,543 citations expansion by expansion, to know that the latter is fairly important and also common for subjects that are treated more than incidentally by the books. It's not in my experience rarely the case at all.

    So I go with a single References section (not separate Notes and References sections as you made them there), with the books ref=harved into a subsection of that. It doesn't matter in such a system that other future editors don't do the same. If someone adds a new citation and simply uses <ref>{{cite book|…}}</ref> inline in the prose body, then that nonetheless slots in quite simply to the top of the References section alongside the {{harvnb}} cross-links, especially if one uses {{reflist|1|refs=…}} rather than multiple columns. (Multiple columns can be reserved as a space saver for the case when everything is {{harvnb}}ed, such as here for example.) In other words: It's a system that allows editors of varying proficiencies with citation templates the flexibility to mix and match. It's the separated Notes and References sections system, which as I said I think to be wrong (not least because true notes are something else entirely), that forces people into one triple-entry scheme, and where it does matter if someone else in the future uses the inline-in-the-prose-body style.

    Uncle G (talk) 21:15, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

    • Just passing through, but thought I'd say thanks for that suggestion. I hadn't thought of doing it like that, but that would work very well for an article I'm currently editing which has about 8-10 separate references, and another 8-10 all from different places in two sources.Elen of the Roads (talk) 17:52, 22 November 2010 (UTC)
    • I did not spot your response before - my fault. This example was my attempt to follow the structure suggested in the guideline Wikipedia:Citing sources#Shortened footnotes. I don't particularly like it. I do quite like putting the {{cite}} details down at the foot of the article, because it unclutters the text and makes it easier to shuffle sentences into a natural flow, and have been doing that recently. Maybe the compromise is to normally just put the citation with all its details in the {{reflist|refs=}} area, but when citing from different non-consecutive pages in a book, move the detail out to a sub-section and link using harvnb. The result is not symmetrical, but once other editors start adding sources it will start to look like that anyway. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:46, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Your DYK submissions

Hi, I've completely reformatted all four of your recent DYK nominations. I've had to guess whether to give you creation or nomination credit. Please check to see if I've guessed correctly, and please review the proper way to submit DYKs at Template:NewDYKnomination/guide. Thanks. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:55, 14 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AfD Emily Schooley

Thanks for protecting that - it was a mess there today. I suspect it's not over yet, either. In hindsight, getting myself involved was a mistake, but then I had no way of predicting it would be such a fiasco so quickly... Again, the protection probably saved a ton of time and effort, so thanks! -Addionne (talk) 23:29, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Frozen North, etc.

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[edit] Baker's Cross

More on the brewery here. Mjroots (talk) 13:25, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Thank you. I'm looking for things on the listed buildings, in order to start a section on those, at the moment. Then there'll at least be an outline for other editors to build upon. Uncle G (talk) 15:17, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    • You may already know this website, but I'm posting it here in case you weren't already aware of it. Mjroots (talk) 08:36, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Talkback

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[edit] Google Street View (2)

Talk:Google Street View#Mexico 2

Hi Uncle G. I'm having a slightly surreal conversation with an IP editor at Google Street View and I wanted a quick sanity check, as I gather you have some history there. You protected the article and fulfilled an edit request (I think). I responded to an {{editprotected}} (which I declined) and then got drawn into subsequent requests. The editor was initially fairly co-operative - I fulfilled their request - but they've followed it up with what they claim is a very, very minor request related to your edit. It doesn't seem that minor to me, I'm not sure why they didn't simply ask you to do it, and I can't seem to impress upon the editor that I'm being deliberately cautious because I don't know the first thing about the subject (and fully-protected articles are a huge taboo, even for admins). So - my question is: am I being too cautious? Could you take a quick look and see if I'm digging my heels in dickishly? Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by TFOWR (talk • contribs) 22:54, 17 October 2010 (UTC)

  • See above ⇑ and Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive642#Google Street View for some of the background, here. I didn't actually fulfil a protected edit request. I took disputed content entirely out of an article that was being edit warred over. Uncle G (talk) 23:41, 17 October 2010 (UTC)
    Got it, thanks. I found the above thread (I "had" to rename this one as a result) but the ANI thread is also useful. So, in summary: you deliberately protected the article at The Wrong Version, and now one of the participants in the edit war is wanting me to create The Right Version?! I feel reassured about my heel-dragging - thanks! TFOWR 10:27, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Stub categories and Uncle G's major work 'bot

  1. When dealing with copyvio pages, please don't replace stub tags with stub categories. Instead, please either leave the stub tag, or remove the stub category entirely.
  2. Please also leave {{DEFAULTSORT}}s alone.

עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 09:20, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Go and read the main CCI discussion where both of these points have already been discussed. And also note that the 'bot run has long since been done. Uncle G (talk) 12:38, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Re "collars"

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[edit] Pevsner

From talk page stalking I gather that you might need to consult Pevsner. I have Cheshire and Staffordshire, and more usefully I have access to a library with a complete set, which I visit once or twice a month; I shall be there this coming weekend if you have any current queries. Regards, JohnCD (talk) 20:54, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Parfait-Louis Monteil

Updated DYK query On 19 October 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Parfait-Louis Monteil, which you recently nominated. If you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

— Rlevse • Talk • 12:02, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Clyde Lucas

Updated DYK query On 19 October 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Clyde Lucas, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

— Rlevse • Talk • 18:04, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] One Minute of Silence

To mourn the fact that "Oko Jumbo said Iguana was not Bonny Juju" did not survive as a DYK tag. So sad, particularly for some of those who had bets riding on the outcome. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:35, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

  • Did someone nominate it, then? I didn't. What happened? Uncle G (talk) 00:05, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Come to think of it, maybe it never got nominated. A truly great tagline went to waste. Tragic. Aymatth2 (talk) 00:37, 21 October 2010 (UTC)
      • You should have let me know that it hadn't been nominated.

        Did you know, by the way, … that in the Cincinnati Riots of 1884 many troops from the Ohio National Guard refused to report for riot duty, and one was even spotted joining the rioters? Uncle G (talk) 01:59, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

    • I thought Cincinnati was somewhere in India, part of Mahratta or somewhere like that. They have riots there that put this one to shame. Aymatth2 (talk) 03:16, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
      • I was going to mention that Cincinnatti does have a couple more riots in its history. But you wouldn't want to know that … any more than you'd want to know that hidden in one of the sources cited as further reading is the name of the first person to die in the 1884 riot. I'm keeping that to myself, so that I get to write a bit more content. ☺ There's more to say about Thomas C. Campbell's status within the city prior to the riot, too. I recall that I saw the name of the shop owner who shot the three rioters in a source somewhere, as well. … Uncle G (talk) 03:26, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Cincinnati Riots is waiting for entries for 1829, 1834, and 1841, then the articles need a navbar to tie them together. But I will leave that to you. Template:Protected areas of Nigeria is calling out for its articles to be fixed up. Karnataka is what I was thinking of. It does not sound anything like Cincinnati. Aymatth2 (talk) 12:34, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Starts to look like a category is needed, not just a navbar. I can do the even-numbered years. There are plenty of sources, e.g. [9], [10], [11], [12], [13] Aymatth2 (talk) 13:21, 24 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I am starting to suspect that you are suffering from a short span of attention, hopping from one subject to another. I will not mention Baptists. But the article on the Cincinnati Riots is full of redlinks, mostly odd-numbered years. So far there are only three main articles. I may start working up from the bottom. Easier to get pictures pre-1923. Aymatth2 (talk) 03:16, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
      • It all comes from doing AFD patrol and article rescue. In essence, what I end up working on is often the result of what someone else has nominated for deletion, and fall out from my reearching it. The Baptist articles were nominated for deletion, for example. I just wrote driving club because of Boston Gentlemen's Driving Club (AfD discussion) being nominated for deletion. Uncle G (talk) 03:32, 25 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Just kidding. I think I am much the same, and have started or rescued quite a lot of oddball articles when I stumbled across a subject that seemed to have potential. I like driving club. I will probably keep tinkering with the Cincinnati riots though. It is surprising how varied the causes were it what seems to have always been a rough city, and the series will give a slightly unusual thread through its history. Aymatth2 (talk) 13:01, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Unprotection request

See this. Regards, Dabomb87 (talk) 04:24, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Please help or the article will stayed lock forever

"LOL are you thick? .. just go to Google Maps and see for yourself if that isn't a "external source" then I don't know what is. Maybe you should get out more whoever you are and see how the world really works."

"89.110.232.235 THE source-MAN"

etc.

What you can see is a total lack of understanding for how Wikipedia sourcing policy works and even users making fun of me as thick and being "the source-MAN" for trying to follow those rules. Those are the same users that removed fact templates because "you can see for yourself that this is true, what else do you need" etc. and then the edit war over the maintenance templates brought the article to locked state.

For as long as an admin doesn't step in and gives a clear explanation of the rules for sourcing, the article will stay locked. What is also needed is a clear explanation of what happens to those who insist on adding unreferenced original research and to those who remove maintenance templates. Can you please help? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Google_Street_View#UPDATED_ANIMATIONS

--89.110.232.235 (talk) 10:08, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Wobogo

Updated DYK query On 21 October 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Wobogo, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

The DYK project (nominate) 00:03, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Note

I have referenced you at User talk:Cunard#Request. Cunard (talk) 05:46, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Herb Wiedoeft

Updated DYK query On 23 October 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Herb Wiedoeft, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

— Rlevse • Talk • 18:04, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Blanking unsourced BLPs

I don't think I've seen anyone opposed to blanking as yet (most of the argument seems to be on basic principles that are a bit beside the point, really).

I really love this idea. Have you expanded on this in an essay anywhere? If not, would you like to? --TS 13:24, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Talk:Google street view

Hi, I have contacted the two users and the IP accounts in an attempt to resolve this issue at Talk:Google_Street_View#Dispute_solution the IP commented on the article and one of the accounts commented on his talkpage User Sebwite and the other account did not reply User Simon 14. IMO there is no remaining issue, and there is or was no real dispute against the IPs edits, he added fact tag and the content should haver beren cited but it was not, and the accounts have not explained their position, I suggest unlocking and watching, but no discussion is happening so there is no value in keeping it locked. Perhaps a note to let the users know that you are unlocking the article and to avoid repeated reverts. Off2riorob (talk) 17:03, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Do you mind if I request un-protection or semi-protection at WP:RFPP - Off2riorob (talk) 16:29, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

  • (talk page stalker) Hi Rob How on Earth are you involved with this? Small world, eh?! Semi would be a bad idea. One of the sides in the dispute is the IP on their lonesome, and they would be disenfranchised by semi (the other side could then edit with impunity). I'll leave it to Uncle G to consider no protection - I've not looked at the article or its talkpage for a week or so now (and don't Ἔreally plan to, to be honest). TFOWR 16:40, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Hi amigo. I was just attempting to mediate the issue. I think the IP has enough edits to overcome auto-confirmed, what about pending protection? - Any de-escalation of the imo not needed full protection that is currently applied. The two named accounts have not clearly expressed any actual policy issues after my asking them to explain. Off2riorob (talk) 17:13, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
      • Auto-confirmed only applies to accounts (unfortunately - there are a few IPs I can think of that I'd cheerfully trust with more than we currently trust them with...) so semi and pending will both hurt the IP but not the other editors. It's either full-prot or nothing, I'm afraid. No worries about you mediating it: I lost patience with the IP but I suspect they're in the right here. TFOWR 17:37, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
        • Ah, thanks for the explanation.Off2riorob (talk) 17:58, 29 October 2010 (UTC)
  • Do you think that you can mediate to resolve the dispute? Uncle G (talk) 13:08, 30 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I didn't find a dispute remaining, if it rears up again I would be watching and don't see why it shouldn't be easy to resolve , so .. yes. Off2riorob (talk) 13:28, 30 October 2010 (UTC)
  • Fair enough, I will step back and unwatch it. I don't see any reason for its continued to be locked though and that in itself is against one of the main reasons for our existence .."You can edit this page right now" is a core guiding check on everything that we do. We must respect this principle as sacred. Off2riorob (talk) 12:24, 31 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I'm sorry that I've been delayed in coming back to this. Something seems to have come up each time. I'm currently quite busy with a copyright violation challenge to the currently featured article on the main page, for example. You may have read the kerfuffle on the administrators' noticeboard. ☺ I do have it as an outstanding matter to come back to, though. Uncle G (talk) 12:32, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I will keep an eye on it. Off2riorob (talk) 09:38, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] The reality of blanking

This is very timely. I had seen the watchlist notice and the discussion of how to resolve the problem (I understand the editor's name was "Darius Dhlomo" or something like that) but never thought we could do that with BLPs.

When you first mentioned the idea of blanking crappily sourced and unsourced BLPs my first thought was to ask "we can actually do that?" and my second thought was to wonder "will the wider community accept this idea to resolve a problem that for many years it has steadfastly denied even exists?"

Then I saw the first favorable responses and I thought "we have the makings of a solution." I still think that, and so far it looks better every minute. Thank you. Tasty monster (=TS ) 19:57, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Consensus building

I know I'm not seen as the most co-operative Wikipedian. However, I'm beginning to wonder if there's any possibility of exploring common ground and seeing if there's any way to build coalition behind some modest agreements. I've set out my thoughts at User:Scott MacDonald/Pragmatic BLP. I'm thinking to invite some thinking people who radically disagree with me, and see what's possible. Do you think this has any merit?--Scott Mac 10:39, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Blanking and pure wiki deletion

I noticed your blanking proposal on the BLP discussion page, and I see that it is being used in that CCI case as well. The idea looks very good, and I was wondering if you came up with the blanking idea originally, or whether it was others as well. It also reminds me of pure wiki deletion, but it's better in that it retains tracking information. The similarity is that it keeps editors in the loop, rather than restricting access to deleted content to admins. Carcharoth (talk) 05:50, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

  • For the CCI case, I blame (and blamed at the time) Rd232 for the original suggestion, which I picked up on. ☺ Yes, I remembered PWD too, although as you point out this isn't quite the same thing. Uncle G (talk) 13:31, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

[edit] FAC v FAR

Query for you at Wikipedia talk:Featured articles#Problem article. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 02:51, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Easby Cross

I just removed a copyvio para here before expanding, but I suppose it should be blanked. It was all in the very first edit, which can be totally blanked - it's all gone now. Is that something you do? Many thanks if yes. It's now up for DYK btw. Johnbod (talk) 04:39, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

  • That's something that I and many other administrators do, yes. Uncle G (talk) 09:56, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
So I see, thanks! Johnbod (talk) 13:49, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed merge of List of magical negro archetypes in fiction into Magical negro

Hi, As you participated in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of magical negro archetypes in fiction, I am notifying you of the proposed merger. Please comment at Talk:Magical negro#Proposing a merger. Thank you, Bigger digger (talk) 16:50, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Cincinnati Riots of 1836

Updated DYK query On 2 November 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Cincinnati Riots of 1836, which you recently nominated. If you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

-- Cirt (talk) 00:05, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] On WT:DYK

I was thinking of posting this to WT:DYK, but that place is already getting to large to navigate. The part about the bot in this diff isn't quite accurate; the bot was unhappy that the queue hadn't been tagged as "ok". (If you notice, the queue was full when the bot posted that message.) Just FYI. Shubinator (talk) 04:27, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Cincinnati Riots of 1884

Updated DYK query On 2 November 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Cincinnati Riots of 1884, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

-- Cirt (talk) 12:02, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

  • It was mostly your fault that this whole series got started - almost entirely your fault. I have never even been to Cincinnati. And with what I have found about the constant riots, will give it a wide berth in future. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:08, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
    • Thinking on, you should stay clear of the place too. Your bright idea to start this series has probably wrecked the tourist industry for years. Mass unemployment, broken lives, then they hear that the person who started it all is visiting town. What are they going to do? What else do they do in Cincinnati... Aymatth2 (talk) 18:25, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
      • I sense a challenge. Hmmm. I wonder if there are any Baptists in Cincinnati. … Uncle G (talk) 19:58, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
    • They do have a river, which I understand is one of the requirements. But I don't know. I have a growing list of unfinished projects. They can wait. Somewhere tropical maybe. A dam project perhaps, or nature reserve, plenty of them with no articles. Sokoto river basin is on hold for the map: I should bug User:Kmusser. Or listen to user:jomillsjo and do some weaver bios. But no more USA ones for a while - too many articles already, and it is past its prime... I just fool around picking topics and writing them up for my own amusement, like doing jigsaw puzzles. How do you stay sane arguing over sockpuppets (which I cannot take seriously), copyright violations, edit wars and all the other flak? Don't bother to answer. Aymatth2 (talk) 00:34, 3 November 2010 (UTC)
      • I was looking at Quadripoint (AfD discussion) some little while back, and wondering whether we have the issues surrounding the Kazungula Ferry fully and correctly covered. Certainly the two articles appear to contradict each other on their faces. Uncle G (talk) 00:51, 3 November 2010 (UTC)
    • Someone I know started Botswana–Namibia relations long ago, and obviously only scratched the surface of the subject. No mention of the quadripoint ferry. Part of another unfinished series. Not really tropical. It gets quite cool in winter, but Ice hockey in Africa (see also Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ice Hockey in Mali) is still not very popular sport, although they do play inline hockey in Namibia. I urge you to disassociate yourself from frivolous editors. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:19, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Cincinnati Riots of 1836

Updated DYK query On 2 November 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Cincinnati Riots of 1836, which you recently nominated. If you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Gatoclass (talk) 18:03, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Darius

Hey Uncle, I just came across Ricci Luyties. I could go and rewrite the whole thing from scratch (there are sources available, even books), and remove the template you placed on it, maybe, but I looked through the history and there have been no helpful (or independent) edits made to the article, ever--so should it be db-copyviod? Thanks, Drmies (talk) 19:45, 2 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Strictly, yes. But the quicker route, especially for those without administrator tools, is to rewrite the prose body from scratch (The old prose does indeed all appear to come from that source.) and tell me, Moonriddengirl, or some other administrator about it so that we can revision delete the prior edits. Uncle G (talk) 00:45, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Driving club

Updated DYK query On 3 November 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Driving club, which you created or substantially expanded. You are welcome to check how many hits the article got while on the front page (here's how, quick check ) and add it to DYKSTATS if it got over 5,000. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Orlady (talk) 12:03, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Re Sherwood

I am, but I'm right now emailing the church website if we could use their content with full attribution, and sent it (if they allow us to use it) through the WP:OTRS system. If they approve it, it would be a great help to the article. Thanks Secret account 16:24, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Maybe then, although possibly not even then. It wouldn't now. Go and take a look at User:Uncle G/Grace Sherwood. The only major things that the church text will get you above what's there now are all of the "Before the day be through" type dialogue, which isn't in any of the history books that I've read, and (by the citations at the foot of the church WWW page) seems to originate with the re-enactors, as I've noted elsewhere. Uncle G (talk) 02:09, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Stoush

Hi, I've carried out the redirect as per your suggestion, but it's occurred to me that I may have jumped the gun somewhat... Have I closed the AFD discussion as per accepted procedure? Catfish Jim & the soapdish 12:42, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

  • That did seem rather sudden. It was just a suggestion, added to the discussion. What do JamesBWatson and Hairhorn think? Uncle G (talk) 12:49, 5 November 2010 (UTC)
Yes... I was curious about how AFD closure worked, having never done it before, and kind-of got carried away with the moment... I'll be more patient next time! I've placed messages on Hairhorn and JamesBWatson's talk pages to alert them to it. Cheers, Catfish Jim & the soapdish 13:32, 5 November 2010 (UTC)
I seem to have got away with it this time... Catfish Jim & the soapdish 23:24, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] G.M.-Cupertino

Jpgordon confirmed my block. That means there is meaningful checkuser information available to check any other suspicious accounts against.—Kww(talk) 22:12, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] The Tireless Contributor Barnstar

Tireless Contributor Barnstar.gif The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
I am honored to present you with The Tireless Contributor Barnstar for your wok in turning a sow's ear into a silk purse. At Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lisa Loopner you took a look at what was nominated and saw the potential through alternatives to deletion to then turn it into The Nerds... and by doing so created something that serves both the project and its readers. Nice job! Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 08:20, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Email

You got email regarding some sources that I received from Rlevse, your rewrite is enough I believe, I can't expand it further without using those unreliable retelling stories from USA Today, etc. Secret account 16:58, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

  • The place where, as far as I can see, the thing needs rounding out is the folkloric Sherwood. Unfortunately, as noted at Talk:Grace Sherwood#Source query, I don't have full access to Tucker1969, which would seem to be a good source for that. Uncle G (talk) 20:38, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Emily Schooley

Hi Uncle G,

I think the furore after one AFD and two DRVs is about to finally recede since it appears (perhaps unsurprisingly) that almost all of the "pro" editors were socks. One of them signed off with some vandalism before saying goodbye.

This is all just info, but my query is the userfied article at User:Misssinformative/Emily Schooley because it is 4th in a Google search for "Emily Schooley". Is the way to fix this:

  1. Noinclude the userfied page so it (hopefully) won't show up on search engines?
  2. Move to article incubator (although the article won't be improved as such, it's just waiting for more evidence of notability)?
  3. Userfy to someone else (I'd happily look after it)?
  4. Delete (bit of a waste, but still an option)?
  5. Other thing that I can't think of (Reading Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab)#WP:COLDSTORAGE I thought it was a bad idea, but it could be useful in this case!)?
  6. Ignore – it's not actually a problem?

Sorry to bring this to your door, but you've been involved with bits of it, so just give me a number (and maybe a reason to satisfy my curiosity) and I'll try to do the necessary. Thanks, Bigger digger (talk) 11:06, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

  • In looking after it, do you think that you could fix any of the problems identified? Uncle G (talk) 11:44, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
    • I see that 1. was the beginning of an answer. The problem is that there is not yet sufficient coverage in WP:RS, so the problem is one of notability, which can really only be resolved by waiting, and hoping others take an interest. It's close, but it's not quite there, and I looked really hard! Bigger digger (talk) 11:55, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
      • Given that Misssinformative (talk · contribs), EmilySchooley (talk · contribs), and Bytemeh (talk · contribs) are all one person, it seems clear, from the fact that xe went to deletion review as Bytemeh immediately after requesting and obtaining userfication as Misssinformative, that that person had no intention of working on the userfied article. So the first question to ask yourself is whether you want to retain a draft article, that by your own account is unlikely to reach article-worthy status, in your userspace. Uncle G (talk) 19:50, 9 November 2010 (UTC)
        • Well I think the work done is worth keeping so that if/when she becomes notable editors don't need to reinvent the wheel. Given that the article at Emily Schooley was moved to User:Misssinformative#Emily Schooley, and that will probably be deleted as it's in the userspace of a sock, it's unclear to me how someone in say a year's time will be able to follow the trail to get the presumably then deleted information reinstated. I think I've made that confusing enough. I would be happy for it to sit and wait in my userspace – even if I get hit by a bus tomorrow it would still be relatively easy for someone to search for and find as it wouldn't be deleted, if it escaped WP:FAKEARTICLE. Wow, I've made this more confusing than I first suspected, but my motivation is the sentiment in the first sentence, and I'm not sure of the best way to achieve it! Bigger digger (talk) 12:07, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Hook needed

Since Palo y hueso has been rescued from AfD it goes automatically to DYK. But I can't think of a hook, so am asking the hookmaster. Aymatth2 (talk) 20:43, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I'm not sure that I should support that name by responding to it. However …
  • Uncle G (talk) 21:18, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
    • I didn't mean to be insulting - that was meant to be a compliment. Now you got me stumped. 5,500,000? Are you sure? Aymatth2 (talk) 22:55, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
      • The source actually said 5.500.000 . I transliterated. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 23:06, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
  • Furthermore:
    • Did you know that the release date of Palo y hueso in IMDB is wrong? Contemporary sources say "4 de junio de 1968", in Santa Fe.
  • Uncle G (talk) 23:37, 10 November 2010 (UTC)
    • This is cruel and unusual punishment. Hakenmeister, Gancho principal, Maître de crochet... you choose. I need a URL. Gimme a break. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:45, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
      • A URL for what? Uncle G (talk) 05:59, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
    • Snippets!!! Aarrgh. Like pulling teeth from a baby. :~) Thanks. See Template talk:Did you know#Palo y hueso. Three (3) serial DYK nominators implicated in one suggestion. :~) Aymatth2 (talk) 21:13, 11 November 2010 (UTC)
      • I hope that you fix the filming date information in time. I've given you the phrase to look out for. I suspect that the peso figure is the original, by the way. Uncle G (talk) 04:26, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
        • I found the date, fixed it one place, left the wrong one another place. I default to "Preview and full view" on a book search, so "palo y hueso"+5.500.000 does not find anything. That was bugging me. The dollar equivalent probably means more to English readers. Thanks, Aymatth2 (talk) 12:55, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Geoffrey Crawley at DYK

Stray notes: "civil" referred to kiddo, which some might find offensive (Physchim is rather a teacher than a pupil - a very knowledgeable chemist actually - and winding him and yourself up is hardly constructive). You might be setting the plank too high for volunteers. We all make mistakes and you've got a sharper eye for that. Please help and fix, and teach others how to spot them. It would be really great if people like you, DS, Sandy would scroll the queues from time to time (ideally T:TDYK, but queues are faster to read). Another note - I myself never read TFA and ITN and could not know that a hook was featured - here extra eyes always help. Regards. Materialscientist (talk) 02:00, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I do when the whim strikes, as you know from experience. There is, of course, only one of me and many patrols to do. ☺ The problem in this specific instance isn't reading FA, or even being involved in FA. It's checking that the boldfaced article isn't simply regurgitating a fact that was in one of the other linked articles already, making the answer to "Did you know X?" be "Yes, thank you. The other article that you linked to has said it for some years.".

    The problem in general is not my patrolling DYK at all, but the people who so want change, or indeed who so vehemently argue that they can fix without change, aren't doing the same. They aren't doing a thing. Point to a problem entry — one of at least three currently listed, one of which is an outright factually inaccurate article — and they do nothing at all about it, except more talk page argument of course. That inaction makes the former group people who just waste hundreds of KiBs in talk page discussion that they themselves won't in fact follow through on; and the latter group people who are going to encourage greater pressure for change by their complacency. Both are being foolish, and yet will almost certainly express surprise and outrage when the obvious consequences of their inactions come to pass.

    Uncle G (talk) 04:46, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

    • (i) We require the DYK articles to be new, we do not require the hook facts to be new - maybe we should. Such proposal are hard to push through (akin rejection of boring hooks), but there is no such proposal yet.
    • (ii) We do not require checking unbolded articles linked in the hook - many wlinks are actually added at later stages. Again, maybe we should, but there is no such proposal yet.
    • (iii) Shouting at talks while doing nothing is a WP norm :-) which has annoyed DYK regulars not once (i.e. outsiders propose something and who will implement that? When the DYK bot broke down and we're doing manual updates for weeks, we desperately needed and asked for help with fixing the bot and updates. Nobody stepped out).
    • (iv) "If you want a thing well done ..", meaning if DYK is really important then best editors might think about making time and screening it on a regular basis. Another way is to educate and stimulate other reviewers, by showing them common errors, etc. - many editors whom you review are reviewers themselves. DYK has lost a few experienced reviewers several months ago (well before rlevse). Your help is much appreciated. Materialscientist (talk) 05:11, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
    • The Crawford case is simply not a problem under the DYK rules, as 3 editors have now pointed out to you. If you don't think articles should be on DYK then reject/query them using the symbols. In this case I'm sure it would have been reversed but in others there may well be problems. Johnbod (talk) 05:33, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
      • You and that other editor (There are only the two of you.) are wrong and by your inaction when it comes down to it are actually part of the problem that people have identified and discussed over the past fortnight. You support changes in talk page polls, but when it comes to practical applcation, you fight tooth and nail to defend the status quo even in the most obviously problematic of cases. Uncle G (talk) 15:08, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK

Regarding that review, I understand that you're trying to help, but do you really have to be that aggressive about it? Your condescending tone was not constructive. I can sympathise that you've been stressed after arguing with Physchim on DYK talk, but please don't transfer that stress on to me, or any of the other nominators. I assumed, with good faith, that the New Yorker article was accurate, since they're generally known for having high editorial standards, and they did directly interview Mischel. This was an honest mistake, but please don't attack me for it. However unintentional, from my perspective your tone was highly inappropriate and your reaction went overboard for something relatively minor.--hkr (talk) 06:03, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Don't confuse detail with aggression. And don't read attacks when the subject of you yourself didn't even come up in the first place. Uncle G (talk) 15:13, 12 November 2010 (UTC)
    • As I said, it may have been unintentional. I just didn't like the tone, and wanted it to be known. No hard feelings. --hkr (talk) 20:58, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

Thank you, Uncle G, for your comments at WP:ANI regarding THF (talk · contribs). Please see also Wikipedia:COIN#User_THF_and_subject_Arthur_Alan_Wolk. Thank you for your time, -- Cirt (talk) 17:18, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Question re: DD CCI Work

Uncle G: I've seen you around, "in the trenches," and I'd like to offer some help on the DD CCI cleanup project. Since you appear to be the man in charge, and very busy, could you direct me perhaps to another, experienced editor who might be willing to hold my hand on my first cleanup, to ensure I don't screw things up? I'm looking for someone who might be willing to donate 15 minutes, show me how things are done, and then perhaps look over my shoulder as I try to clean up an article on my own. I have read the various pages associated with the cleanup project, and I'm still having questions. Thanks in advance for your time. Saebvn (talk) 02:44, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] U7

As an editor who does a lot to maintain the integrity of DYK, you will agree that it would be frivolous and irresponsible to nominate seven articles in one submission: U Ba Nyan, U Ba Gyan, U Lu Tin, U Kin Maung, U Aung Khin, U Ngwe Gaing, U Ba Kyi, even if a hook could be found to link them all, which would be impossible. Aymatth2 (talk) 17:46, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

The above is not serious - looking at the queues, the editors working on them seem to be falling behind and certainly do not need a massive checking job like this. :~) Aymatth2 (talk) 17:54, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Do they all have their own sites on the U tube? ☺ Uncle G (talk) 17:58, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I had not thought of that aspect. Some of them did work on propaganda posters during WW2, and possibly a few were shipped to Berlin via U-boat. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:42, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
    • The posters, that is. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:47, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

At least you are on the right continent, now. I've just spent some time researching what to do about Boita (AfD discussion). It's like putting maritime history of California under boat. Uncle G (talk) 19:29, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I imagine that the Boitas stopped in at Yangon, later to be home of U Ba Nyan's pupil U San Win (189? - 19??), and of his pupil U Lun Gywe (b. 1930). Seems like a topic. Aymatth2 (talk) 20:33, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
    • I have helped you two with a very poor stub on Bagyi Aung Soe. You're welcome. U G (talk) 22:23, 15 November 2010 (UTC)
      • To fit the pattern, a more appropriate name would by U Aung Soe. See [14]. I wonder if anyone has ever put ten articles into one nomination? Aymatth2 (talk) 00:05, 16 November 2010 (UTC)
      • I am slow. You two. A play on words. Very droll. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:21, 16 November 2010 (UTC)
    • By the way: You can read all about U Nyan Shein on Htun 2007, pp. 89. U G (talk) 02:47, 16 November 2010 (UTC)
      • Htun, Hla Tin (2007). Old Myanmar paintings in the collection of U Win. Thavibu Gallery. ISBN 9789749931820. 
  • You are confusing Baptists (e.g. George J. Geis) and Buddhists. They are not the same thing at all. I am unsure if there is a need for any more of these U articles. To be clear, the 13 articles so far, which cannot possibly fit into one DYK nomination, were triggered by Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Air Myanmar, leading to Major General Hla Myint Swe. What followed was unavoidable. Don't blame the Doctor, although his pictures and improvements are certainly welcome, particularly the clarification to U Aung Soe, previously a rather puzzling article. The Harvardization is a still bit difficult to follow, but I can fix that. Aymatth2 (talk) 03:09, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I'll probably use those sources though to create further stub articles like Yadana Cave Festival... I can't believe this is our first article on a Burmese festival. Category needs populating badly!! Any work you can do on Burma, whether its starting stubs or whatever all helps..♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:04, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

  • It seems that the mass DYK nomination for the seventeen Burmese artists has been preempted by nomination of U Ba Nyan. Never mind. See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Boita. Interesting. But seriously, there seems to be a problem on the DYK queues - not enough in the pipeline. Is this just normal fluctuation or is there a real need for reviewers? I have never done this before, am not really a critic (no insult - that is clearly valuable work), but could help out if it is needed. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:00, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Aircraft design

I have mentioned your good example in this discussion. You may wish to comment and perhaps provide some insights from your long experience, as you so often do. Colonel Warden (talk) 14:34, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Thanks for your action in clarifying the title of that AFD. Note that the matter is now under discussion at ANI where I mentioned some of your similar actions which may have led me to believe that such boldness is proper. Colonel Warden (talk) 23:47, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

Civility barnstar.png Civility Award
For maintaining a high level of common sense and civility in recent ANI discussions. --Nuujinn (talk) 12:19, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
  • Hear, hear. You are the Winston Wolf of Wikipedia - a prodigious solver of problems. It was a pleasure watching you work, sir. Colonel Warden (talk) 15:20, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Ordinal optimization

Dear Uncle G!

Thanks for closing that Afd discussion.

I am sorry that I found (and still find) it difficult to find the appropriate templates for speedy deletion and notification. (When I couldn't find the correct template, I did try to notify everybody informally on their pages, though.)

Thanks again for your help. Best regards, Kiefer.Wolfowitz (talk) 00:13, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

P.S. Does Christian Morelein beer still flow in Cincinatti? (I saw that you wrote about riots in Cincinnati.)

  • No worries. Uncle G (talk) 00:19, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Rename sysop/admin bit

Do you think we'd ever be able to rename it? I saw your comment on AN, and I've thought the exact same thing before... it's a truly unfortunate name. At least bureaucrat is a silly enough name. Gigs (talk) 14:45, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Wikiversity did. Citizendium did. I'm not stating that their choices of names ("custodian" and "constable" respectively) are better. But they are existence proofs that such a thing is possible, albeit that MediaWiki and its various interfaces still use the software's own terminology. Now whether it is practicable for this project, with so much inertia behind the current names, and such a comparatively large community, is a different matter. Uncle G (talk) 14:56, 18 November 2010 (UTC)
    • Good info, thanks. Gigs (talk) 15:02, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Louise Glover

[edit] edit

I see you protected and edited the article and I just want to point you to the AFD for it since you might want to chime in. Tabercil (talk) 14:51, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I was already there, notice. Uncle G (talk) 15:25, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Glover

Seems to be edit protected? as in fully protected? and pending protected at the same time...I just wanted to repair those redlinked named citations. Off2riorob (talk) 15:18, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Yes, several of the edit-warring accounts are autoconfirmed. If you can help with what I asked at User talk:Scott MacDonald#Louise Glover that would be good. It's a little more complex than just putting the citations back, which is why I didn't do so. I believe that the subject objects the hyperlinking to several sensationalist tabloid news stories. And I think that we ought to check what we are actually citing before thinking of putting the citations back. Uncle G (talk) 15:25, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

this is very weak indeed to claim anything on. The Daily Mirror is such a scandal rag and shouldn't be used for any BLP content, imo, many people share that feeling also ,it is a poor quality citation to use in a BLP that is for sure, imo, if she says she never went to Israel I believe her, but thats not policy. It needs a fair trimming imo, if they insist on keeping the disputed content. I personally wouldn't mention the trivia but if they insist then just trim it to the bones to take the weight out of it. Off2riorob (talk) 18:30, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Hello, I never heard of Louise Glover until I noticed the AfD. I took a look at the whole situation and want to commend you for your efforts to trim the article of sensationalist garbage. Wikipedia is not a tabloid. Thank you. Cullen328 (talk) 04:46, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Matheus Reis

If you delete an article, don't forget to delete the talk page too. :) Ten Pound Hammer, his otters and a clue-bat • (Otters want attention) 21:53, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-Objects

No, I just happened to have that one on my book-shelf and in my memory. The fundamental theory (of matter/anti-matter symmetry breaking) has come a long way since 1976, and the AMS has the potential to give us important new observational data in the next couple of years. But there should be more recent references out there. The AMS science team should have referenced the most recent literature extensively (er, one side of it, anyway) in their efforts to keep the science justification for the instrument solid during the travails of getting it launched. You might look around in their materials. Wwheaton (talk) 00:15, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Do we have anything newer that contradicts the 1976 conclusions about the Milky Way, though? That's what's important for the task at hand. Uncle G (talk) 00:27, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Arbcom

Any chance of convincing you to run for arbcom? - jc37 05:49, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to second the motion. You make too much sense, and therefore must be punished. ;D Jusdafax 23:15, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AfD

I found your comment a bit bite-y, I'm still relatively new, so I don't know all the kinks to Google Books searches. I consider this a learning experience. :) --res Laozi speak 22:56, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

  • That's weak. This is not some Wikipedia-specific thing that a novice to Wikipedia cannot be expected to know. This is basic when-was-the-book-written stuff, which isn't Wikipedia-specific in the slightest. Uncle G (talk) 23:10, 20 November 2010 (UTC)
    • I thought Google Books kept track of publication dates? I assumed that specifying "21st century" would be enough, but it seems it isn't. I'll admit that I'm wrong, and I've learned something new today. I'm still new to researching regarding notability, which is a "Wikipedia-specific thing", and the part that I consider to be bite-y. But must we fight over this? I've already admitted I'm wrong, and I've remained civil throughout. Please understand, I'm trying to do my best here as a new editor, and my intentions have been good.--res Laozi speak 23:26, 20 November 2010 (UTC)
      • Nobody said that your intentions were not good. That would — possibly — be "biting". But pointing out bad research and a wholly flawed argument is not. Trying to turn a refutation of such bad research and flawed argument into "biting" is a poor show. Uncle G (talk) 23:37, 20 November 2010 (UTC)
        • That's the point! I didn't know that Google Books, as opposed to a general Google search, is considered to be a "flawed argument" on AfD. This is the Wikipedia-specific thing that I wasn't aware of. And I admit I'm wrong, but I'd like to point out that this is where the misunderstanding lies over why I called the comment "biting". I didn't know that the Google Books rationale on AfD is considered a flawed one, and appreciate that you've attempted to help, so hopefully that ends this dispute.--res Laozi speak 23:48, 20 November 2010 (UTC)
          • I'm nosey, so had a look at Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Evangelical_mysticism. HKR, if an admonishment to you begins "Tut tut!", points out the mistakes and then suggests ways to improve I don't think that could be considered bitey – can you suggest a better way of phrasing it for next time? A bigger problem is the fact that your signature doesn't seem to match your username! Bigger digger (talk) 14:45, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Here's a Rhinoceros

... as the King of Java said in his message to the Emperor of China. Any advice on how a hook can be constructed for this important subject? Aymatth2 (talk) 00:59, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I stuck it in under steam-powered submarines - realized the deadline was passing - but any improvements welcome. Aymatth2 (talk) 15:23, 22 November 2010 (UTC)
    • I've not had the time to do anything other than read through. I've been working up User talk:Pfagerburg#So ... and looking for copyright violations on I felt a Funeral in my Brain. Uncle G (talk) 15:30, 22 November 2010 (UTC)
      • No problem. The hook works. Don't know why I didn't see it at first. Thanks for suggesting the article. I wish I had the ability to do it justice: it really is a huge subject. Aymatth2 (talk) 16:50, 22 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Redlinks

The Bourbons of India may well have visited Manikapatna, Chelitalo, Pithunda, Khalkatapatna, Jharkharo, Harishapur, Chandabali and Dhamra. Aymatth2 (talk) 15:49, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Indian placenames. There'll be multiple spellings of all. But we do find ourselves in India again, don't we? ☺ Uncle G (talk) 16:49, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
    • Seems unavoidable. There must be a name for people who write bios of people like Aroon Tikekar, who wrote a bio of Dennis Kincaid who wrote a book full of bios of people like Thomas Stephens, who wrote an epic poem (in Marathi) on the life of Jesus Christ. Pentabiographers? Aymatth2 (talk) 20:29, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
      • It doesn't count if the sixth one is not Kevin Bacon, you know. Uncle G (talk) 22:00, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
    • That would be sextography, which someone else may want write up. A young person I know told me the other day that Santa knows if you have been naughty or nice because he is watching you through the security cameras in the shopping malls. Probably a more suitable - and seasonal - subject for an article. Aymatth2 (talk) 00:32, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Windows API and fork()

Hi. I happened across your comment re: some improvements that could be made to Hamilton C shell when I clicked what links here on that page. I'm pretty new at this but I'd like to get things right. I don't have a copy of the Nebett reference you mentioned in your note; can you summarize the points? I'm wondering if perhaps there's a disconnect: I'm aware the underlying kernel does support fork(). That was needed for the POSIX subsystem. But it's not exposed in Win32 and I cited an old post by Hamilton relating reasons given by Mark Lucovsky related to the Win32 GUI (which was not accessible from POSIX.) Is there more to the story? I'd appreciate suggestions, corrections and pointers, please, if you have time. Msnicki (talk) 09:42, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Finished

Nuvola apps edu languages.svg
Hello, Uncle G. You have new messages at Silver seren's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

SilverserenC 18:27, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] {{search for}}

Wow, this looks really handy. Thanks Uncle. --Vejvančický (talk | contribs) 22:16, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

  • ...what about adding WorldCat to the section "In books/documents"? It is a great search tool. --Vejvančický (talk | contribs) 22:22, 24 November 2010 (UTC)
    • I've added it, although it's not a full text search like the others. There are actually several more that I would have liked to have included, except that they don't have ways to encode their database searches into URLs. Uncle G (talk) 02:04, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Notability

You are probably too concerned about creating a bio when so far there is only one source directly discussing the subject. More will be written. In fact, he had a very interesting career. Convicted of horse stealing in 1872, he designed many golf courses before being shot in September 2010February 1924 while serving as a Rural Police Officer. Three ISBNs is enough to establish notability, my view. Aymatth2 (talk) 20:55, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I always look for multiple published works, independent of the subject and by people with good reputations, documenting the subject in depth, yes. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 01:47, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

I think I have been suckered into something that may impair my reputation as a serious editor, if that is possible. When I worked for a big corporation I saw no connection between the puffy journal I got every month and the Hammond that helped me relax. Jharkharo is still a redlink. Hilly tracts. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:54, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

  • I actually had Chandabali on my to-do list. You've saved me some trouble, by already covering some of the things that I had sources for. I've fleshed it out a tiny bit with one of the sources that I had remaining. Uncle G (talk) 13:40, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
  • That's an OCR error for Jharkhand, by the way. Uncle G (talk) 13:59, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

I wish I knew who you were talking about—certainly notable for a long life (138 years plus the age to become a convicted horse rustler!). The only golf course designer I could find with a connection to horse theft was this one (check out Tehachapi). Bongomatic 13:46, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

  • Use the handy tool at upper right ⇗ and all should become clear. Aymatth2 forgot that all-important "T.". Uncle G (talk) 13:59, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
    • Off topic, see Ismaël Touré for a hybrid, half-Harvard referencing style. This is what would be expected if an article started out with Harvardization and then had other sources added by less experienced editors. It is not symmetrical, but I think it works o.k. I am inclined to follow it going forward, just Harvardizing books for which there are scattered page references. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:30, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Geier

Whaddya reckon? (link in case it is reverted). Fences&Windows 21:57, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

For your answering the copyright issue on Canada Command. CETTALK 01:45, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Banana powder AfD debate

I had a few minutes to give to Wikipedia before leaving for work this morning, and for some reason "banana powder" caught my eye. I noted two sources and left. A few hours later, I saw a full blown debate. Thank you for your kind words about my little effort, and thank you especially for insisting on adherence to policy. I try to learn and apply policy correctly, but have much more to learn. I am frustrated sometimes at certain editors who seem so eager to delete rather than investigate and improve. I have also thanked Silver Seren for improving the article dramatically. Thanks again. Cullen328 (talk) 05:10, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Time for another one

Tireless Contributor Barnstar.gif The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
Uncle G, the most tireless, indefatigable fixer of the apparently irredeemable, rescuer of lost causes and all-round good egg. The ultimate good cop to the evil bastard JzG bad cop, exemplary Wikipedian and embodiment of all that is fine and upstanding. I salute you once again. Guy (Help!) 22:21, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] User:Uncle G/Cargo cult encyclopaedia article writing

User:Uncle G/Cargo cult encyclopaedia article writing is a great essay! Jayjg (talk) 01:07, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] w:Articles for deletion/Criticism of Twelver Shi'ism

I palced notice on article, created nomination page (it was not there before), added a sub-section on talk page, notified creator of article and put notice on talk page of recent editors. --Sayed Mohammad Faiz Haidertcs 16:05, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

  • You didn't do the first of those. Uncle G (talk) 16:22, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] About mumijo

The article is a content fork of the article shilajit, which is the more widely used name for the substance. SilverserenC 23:38, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

  • You never responded. I hope I didn't offend you. ^_^; Please feel free to let me know about any other AfD discussions (or other articles in general) that come up and i'll do my best for them. SilverserenC 18:40, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
    • It didn't seem that you were looking for a response. I suggested a possibility, one of two. You gave your opinion, based upon what further work you have done, that that possibility was indeed the correct approach, and took steps. The thing that concerns me now is a general concern that shilajit is not necessarily inclusive of all points of view, having seen some non-Ayurvedic sources that are sharply at odds with the article. Mind you, the article has been in worse condition. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 18:54, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
      • The issue is separating the sources that have a separate point of view. For now, it would probably be better to build up the shilajit article and then split mumijo if enough sources are found later on that make it large enough that that would work. SilverserenC 19:07, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
        • I think that you should have a little more courage about being right, here. ☺ To split this into the Russian name and the Indian name, and have the Ayurvedic point of view in the latter and the non-Ayurvedic point of view in the former seems too much like POV forking. Now if there were differences in the geographical origins of the twain, they might warrant a split; but, at least from what sources I've seen so far, that isn't truly the case. Did you see anything indicating a geographic split into two distinct things? Uncle G (talk) 19:15, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
          • No, I was going off of what you said. :P They all seemed to be pretty specific about being on that topic, it's just that the sources jumped around with different names for it. But it seemed to all be about the same "mysterious" substance. SilverserenC 19:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] "Historic recurrence"

Thank you for participating in the current "Historic recurrence" AfD discussion.
Would you consider augmenting the article with the work of the scholars whom you mentioned there? Nihil novi (talk) 08:13, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Silk Purse Award

WikiMedal for Janitorial Services.png Silk Purse Award
I am both pleased and honored to present you with the Silk Purse Award in appreciation for your assistance with improvements to the Banana powder article, essentially changing what was seen as a sow's ear... and making it into a terrific silk purse. Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 00:57, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AfDs

Hi. As you just participated in discussions on a closely related topic (also a current AfD re a Jewish list), which may raise some of the same issues, I'm simply mentioning that the following are currently ongoing: AfDs re lists of Jewish Nobel laureates, entertainers, inventors, actors, cartoonists, and heavy metal musicians. Best.--Epeefleche (talk) 08:01, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

If any lurkers reading this are interested, out of the 66 user talk pages that this message was sent to, the most active ensuring discussion is at User talk:DGG#Deletions of Jewish lists. Uncle G (talk) 20:27, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

(talk page lurking pedant) "ensuing", perhaps? pablo 22:25, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Instead...

I think i'm going to focus on Unsourced BLPs rather than AfDs for a while. Much less contentious and argumentative that way. :P Look, I just finished this one.

What do you think? SilverserenC 22:10, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

  • Less contentious? If you want non-contentious, I suggest a biography of a dead headmaster, who had nothing to do with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Uncle G (talk) 22:45, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
  • Less contentious in the sense that I don't have to argue with people while i'm working on them. And the more I get done, the sooner we'll be done with all of them. And, hey, I can even submit them to DYK if I get them referenced. SilverserenC 23:25, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
    • (lurking) yes, working on the unreferenced blps is less contentious. Arguing about what to do with them is another matter. (; --Nuujinn (talk) 23:50, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
      • But if we get them all done, then there won't be any more arguing. ^_^ And the cool thing about working on them is that they can occasionally introduce you to something that you can make an article on. Like how working on Katy Munger has now shown me what Tart Noir is, which i'm going to go make an article on now. SilverserenC 23:53, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
        • Yeap,. But then an afd led me to Michael_Davitt_(poet). But I've been banging on the blps for a while now, it's nice busy work and pretty relaxing. --Nuujinn (talk) 23:59, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
          • It was The Durham Proverbs (AfD discussion) being nominated for deletion that led to that dead headmaster. Uncle G (talk) 00:02, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
            • That's true. :P I think i've just gotten a bit burned out with AfDs. I'm rather just happily work on things on my own for a while, rather than trying to think on how to phrase arguments. I've got so many things in my sandbox that are all half-finished or less. SilverserenC 00:05, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
  • Tart Noir

And there you go. Now to put it up for DYK. SilverserenC 01:58, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Short Span of Attention

I am struggling to give adequate coverage of the role of Orissan-influenced Burmese artists and Baptist jazz musicians in Guinean politics and Nigerian national parks. The problem is serious, and hard enough as it is. Dead headmasters? Aymatth2 (talk) 00:51, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

  • Dead headmasters who had a handbag fight, no less.
  • Uncle G (talk) 10:14, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
    • The world needs to know - you should post it. An interesting article with well-formatted footnotes, unlike some. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:46, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
    • There is no value in books on dead headmasters that refuse to provide even snippets. The article is closed and complete. He never played jazz, never went to Guinea. There is no more to be said. Aymatth2 (talk) 00:14, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
      • Thanks to your recent edits, the magnetism is now twice as powerful. Uncle G (talk) 02:09, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
      • Make that three times as powerful. Uncle G (talk) 02:32, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
    • That was someone else with the same userid. Happens all the time. But maybe there are a few more malformed refs to add over the next few days or weeks. Maybe not. I notice that the Grammarians' War has joined the same illustrious company of unusual articles as Roadkill cuisine. Be warned that the roadkill article only lasted an hour on DYK before it was yanked due to howls of protest from Vegans. The grammarians may be at the same risk, although I can't quite see how. Aymatth2 (talk) 02:47, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Simon & Simon

You may have thought that Henry Churchill Maxwell-Lyte will end the magnetism, but unfortunately you are creating further magnetic attractions for yourself, at Arthur Francis Leach#Further reading. You now have to work out what to do about Joan Simon

who was the wife of Brian Simon

who was the son of Ernest Simon, 1st Baron Simon of Wythenshawe. There's a whole family, here.

  • McCulloch, Gary; Woodin, Tom (April 2010). "Learning and liberal education: the case of the Simon family, 1912–1939". Oxford Review of Education 36 (2): 187–201. doi:10.1080/03054981003696697. 
CorenSearchBot

And I haven't even linked Myles Davies#References for you, yet. Uncle G (talk) 11:34, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

  • Sir Lyte was single-barreled, I think. At least Davies was connected to jazz, although his biography was quite unknown. Not sure about the others. This seems to be another of those long regressions of people who wrote about people who wrote about ... The chain could start in a 21st century Wikipedia article, I suppose. Talking about that, you may be interested in this early video of an AfD nominator arguing his case before the Review Board. Aymatth2 (talk) 14:19, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
    • Single-barrelled, you say? Much embarrassment for the people who spell it otherwise, I'd say, then.
    • A fairly significant embarrassement for Arthur Maxwell-Lyte, his son, for having the wrong surname, too.
      • Savage, Gail (1996). The social construction of expertise: the English civil service and its influence, 1919–1939. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 199. ISBN 9780822955962. 
    • As well as for silly M. Hyamson, who listed him under Maxwell-Lyte in his dictionary (Hyamson 1951, pp. 408).
      • Hyamson, Albert Montefiore (1951). A Dictionary of Universal Biography of All Ages and of All Peoples (2nd (republished Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9780710015808) ed.). Routlege & Keegan Paul. 
    • Uncle G (talk) 14:52, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
  • I doubt that they were all that embarrassed, even his son. Living in a pre-Wikipedia age, they had no way of finding the correct spelling. The links below are for pentographers, I believe. Triographers I can accept, quadrographers maybe, but pentographers. What next? Aymatth2 (talk) 19:58, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

When you get around to needing them, here are the sources that I found:

{{sfn|Landman|1941|pp=509}}
{{sfn|Patai|1971|pp=527}}
{{sfn|Endelman|2002|pp=219}}
{{sfn|O'Sullivan|2004}}
{{sfn|Townsend|1868|pp=77}}
* {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|article=Hyamson, Albert Montefiore|encyclopedia=The Universal Jewish encyclopedia: an authoritative and popular presentation of Jews and Judaism since the earliest times|volume=5|editor1-first=Isaac|editor2-last=Landman|publisher=The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, inc.|year=1941}}
* {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|article=Hyamson, Albert Montefiore|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel|volume=1|first=Raphael|last=Patai|publisher=Herzl Press|year=1971}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|title=The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000|volume=3|series=The S. Mark Taper Foundation imprint in Jewish studies|first=Todd M.|last=Endelman|publisher=University of California Press|year=2002|isbn10=0520227190|isbn=9780520227194}}
* {{cite journal|journal=The Journal of Jewish studies|volume=5|publisher=Society for Jewish Study|year=1966|title=Albert Montefiore Hyamson 1875&ndash;1954}}
* {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|first=Margaret|last=O'Sullivan|article=Bigsby, Robert|encyclopedia=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/2383}}
* {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|encyclopedia=Men of the time: a biographical dictionary of eminent living characters of both sexes|first=George Henry|last=Townsend|location=London|publisher=G. Routledge and sons|year=1868|edition=7th|article=Bigsby, Robert}}

Uncle G (talk) 17:13, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Grace Sherwood FAR

Hi Uncle G - If you could revisit your comments at the Grace Sherwood FAR (review page located at WP:Featured article review/Grace Sherwood/archive1) it would be much appreciated. After the push to get it to FARC early, there has been no activity on the FAR page since the day it was moved. Thanks, Dana boomer (talk) 18:51, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Colonel Warden RFC/U

FYI - A request for comments has been started on User:Colonel Warden. Since you participated in this ANI thread which preceded this RfC/U, you might be interested in participating. If so, please see Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Colonel Warden. Thanks. SnottyWong spout 00:59, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Waipoua Forest Trust

I'm sure that it was just an oversight that you added this to the NZ deletions list but forgot to put a delsort in the AFD, so I fixed it. (I always add the delsort template first - easier to remember!) dramatic (talk) 00:56, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

  • This one needs a few more sources first. Aymatth2 (talk) 02:24, 9 December 2010 (UTC)
  • First treehuggers, then dead American chemists! James Curtis Booth is full of redlinks. Biographers of biographers will have to wait. Aymatth2 (talk) 20:18, 9 December 2010 (UTC)
    • "...that John Fries Frazer, Campbell Morfit, Martin Hans Boyè and James Curtis Booth are dead chemists?"
    • Dead chemists are fascinating, but somehow the tag is lacking something, can't put my finger on it. Aymatth2 (talk) 21:17, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
      • Chemistry? Uncle G (talk) 23:03, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

        I might have a look, if I have time, to see whether there's more to write about John Fries Frazer. Someone is going to complain about that one.

        • The sources said he was very knowledgeable, knew which book had the answer to every question. That could be added. But perhaps some readers may not be interested in breakthroughs in the manufacture of soap and candles. The DYK addicts (readers, not editors) could be discouraged when they click through to this kind of article. Maybe the heptagraphers would be more interesting to them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aymatth2 (talk • contribs) 2010-12-11 00:28:15

    • Ombudsmen, even live ones, although also fascinating may rank below dead chemists in terms of general interest. I suspect that nobody would look at a series on either. Thinking of moving on to a series on notable chartered accountants[5] Aymatth2 (talk) 00:36, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
    • I may be a bit confused. It happens. Fintan Connolly, right? Aymatth2 (talk) 02:03, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] bibiography

If you want to read about writing the biography of a biographer's biographer's biographer, see Dunn 2000, pp. 51 who discusses that very thing. And there are in fact already coined words for what you're discussing, which are not, in contrast to your nonce words, incorrect back formations that misconstrue "bio-". "bibiographer" is the word for a biographer of a biographer, for example, and was first used on 1973-03-30 in the Times Literary Supplement with reference to a life of Plutarch, according to Winslow 1980, pp. 4. Uncle G (talk) 11:20, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

  • I think there is some linguistic confusion here. According to Kindred 2006, pp. 329 a tri-biography is one written by three people, while a dual biography is one written about two people. An article about Kindred, the biographer, would be a triography. The word "biography" (gr:βιογραφία) is of course derived from "bios" (life) and "graphia" (writing), while "bios" in turn is derived from "bi" (two) and "o" (oh). Thus "pentagraphy" (πεντάγραφία). (five + ah + writing). Aymatth2 (talk) 14:18, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
  • Seriously, check the reflist in Cincinnati Riots of 1836: colwidth=30em rather than cols=3. Resize the window and see what happens. Nice trick. Aymatth2 (talk) 15:23, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
    • I'm way ahead of you, not least because I saw the kerfuffle about this on the Village Pump. Edokter switched the template over for a while so that it always did this (for numbers greater than 1). It's reversed again, now. Uncle G (talk) 16:32, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
      • colwidth=30em makes sense to me. I don't want the references broken up over too many lines, but want to save vertical space, and don't really care how many columns there are. Maybe there is some drawback I can't see. Aymatth2 (talk) 19:19, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AfD question

In the past few weeks, I've noticed that various users have brought articles to AfD that they don't want deleted, but merged. You then suggest that they merge the article instead and close the AfD thread. Out of curiosity, why don't you ever merge the articles? (I'm always tempted to, but I figure since you didn't and you're an admin, you wanted to keep the discussion open for some reason.) Erpert (let's talk about it) 18:14, 10 December 2010 (UTC)

  • I do AFD patrol, and I'm usually at the input end of the AFD process in doing so. I'll happily speedily close a discussion if a speedy deletion criterion applies, or if a nomination is vandalism. But otherwise I find that persuading people to learn better, to learn to be braver, more willing, and more inventive with the tools that they themselves possess, is a lot more productive than simply shutting down discussion by fiat. There are of course many other reasons aside from this, and I could go on at length. I don't have the time to do so, so I'll give just one and a half: If it were to become the habit for administrators to shut down and speedily merge things, then people would start to rely upon administrators as article merger services. It's happened before in the history of Wikipedia that people have felt less and less empowered to enact solutions to problems themselves, and that sort of thing is generally how it starts. The truth is that everyone with the edit tool can do mergers, rewrites, cleanup, expansions, redirects, vandalism reversions, fact corrections, source additions, talk page cleanup, and a whole host of other ordinary editorial actions. Administrators aren't edit-on-demand services. Which of course means that if someone starts a discussion, and is rapidly persuaded that an ordinary editorial action will suffice without the need for an administrator to be called upon to use one of the administrator-only tools, another ordinary editor can come along and helpfully enact the consensus. (There have been non-administrators who have helpfully enacted speedy mergers and redirects in the past.) That has to be done with care, to avoid giving people the feeling that their toes are being trodden upon (which touches upon another reason not to be too quick to shut down discussion). But as Wikipedia:Editing policy and Wikipedia:Be bold have for a long time pointed out, this is a wiki, and what can be done with the editing tool can be undone with the editing tool; and administrators are not funnels through which every ordinary editorial action must pass. Furthermore, and indeed, AFD isn't "Articles for merger" and it is high enough in traffic already, without passing requests that don't involve any administrator tools, including Wikipedia:Requested mergers and Wikipedia:Cleanup through it as well. That's not a slope to start sliding down, either, and it's a bad idea to encourage people to think that they can make three edits to make an AFD nomination, and thereby hand off the burden to someone else to enact a merger (as well as add burdens to all of the people who variously patrol AFD) when the original nominator, who had the itch that needed scratching, could have enacted it xyrself in two edits. Uncle G (talk) 22:59, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
    • And that wasn't going on at length??? LOL, I see your point. :) Erpert (let's talk about it) 07:48, 11 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Inappropriate talk page practices

At Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ellen Kristin Dahl-Pedersen you have in several instances inserted you comments inside other users' posts. Admittedly this has been done in a transparent fashion making no ambiguity about who wrote what, however, I believe this is not an accepted practice. WP:TALK should provide more background to this. __meco (talk) 10:47, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

  • I suggest that you go and read it, then, since you've clearly missed an important part of it. Refactoring discussions is a practice of such long standing that it goes all of the way back to WikiWikiWeb. After you've read the very page that you're waving around, go and familiarize yourself with the Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons policy. Uncle G (talk) 10:57, 12 December 2010 (UTC)
    • My apology, I didn't read your edit close enough to ascertain you were intervening on BLP grounds. Faux pas on my part. __meco (talk) 11:44, 12 December 2010 (UTC)
      • No worries. It is, alas, something that has to be done on rare occasion at AFD. Uncle G (talk) 11:48, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Search tools

"MLA/LION"? Uncle G (talk) 10:55, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

What does MLA/LION mean? Anyway I've expanded Anne Rouse and think it should be withdrawn.♦ Dr. Blofeld 14:08, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Christmas lights

I mention your name at User talk:Phantomsteve#Oxford Street AFD. This seems a messy situation as we now have multiple articles about the same topic and there may be some need for a history merge: Oxford Street#Christmas_lights, User:Colonel Warden/List of people who have turned on the Oxford Street Christmas lights and Oxford Street Christmas lights. I thought of you, following your comments about the aircraft design snafu. As always, your advice would be welcome. Colonel Warden (talk) 16:26, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) I've stuck the content from the page into Oxford Street which is probably where it should stay (am unconvinced enough content could be garnered for a merge). But rather idiotically never attributed it. Not entirely sure the best way to manage that now. During the AFD I fixed the content fork by redirecting it. As it is; I wonder if we should restore the list article and redirect it to the Oxford Street article page. That way everything can be attributed. (edit: and simply delete the content fork & recreate it as a redirect) --Errant (chat!) 16:37, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

I appreciate THIS You beat me to it. I have done what I could so far for Fintan Connolly. A bit more and there's a 5x expansion DYK possible. Troublesome that there are many sources referred to in the reference section HERE for which I have no access. However, I think I made it a keeper. Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 16:56, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

  • All that I did was simple deletion sorting. It wasn't anything to do with the article itself or the outcome of the AFD discussion.

    The Irish Times is searchable. Uncle G (talk) 17:43, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

    See... already I learned something I had not known before. Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 19:37, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] A535 road AFD

I don't think oppose is ambiguous. I've proposed the article be deleted; they are presumably opposed to that happening. AD 23:34, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

  • We've just had an AFD discussion go through Deletion Review because "oppose" is ambiguous and unclear. One could be opposed to all sorts of things, from the nomination through the existence of the article to the statement of the immediately preceding participant. This ambiguity comes up from time to time over the years, and it's best to nip it in the bud. Uncle G (talk) 23:41, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AFD Botch

Hey, thanks and sorry, I am new to this process. Seniortrend (talk) 21:38, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Your bot...

Could you check out what your bot keeps doing here: [15]. I can't find any copyvios, and it keeps tagging this article as such. --Jayron32 06:36, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

  • No, it doesn't. Look carefully at the diffs and at the timing of the edits relative to the CCI discussion. Uncle G (talk) 15:08, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] inre this diff

Your comment is pertinant to Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Daran Norris. In learning that the fellow had a much more significant career than the nominator alluded to at the AFD, I've done some major re-structuring and minor sourcing of the Daran Norris article.[16] What creates a difficulty is that he appears to keep his private life very private and avoids publicity, and is searchable under six different spellings of his own name as well as under seven different pseudonyms. I believe I have shown his meeting WP:ENT, but considering how little personal information for this guy is online, it's kind of difficult to expand. Yikes. As I have great respect for your own google-foo, care to help out? Thanks, Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 20:36, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Splitting Resolution

If you wish to discuss your concerns, please do so in a reasonable maner, on the talk page Wikipedia_talk:Splitting_resolution or in bullet points below! Tim.thelion (talk) 16:41, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Seven dots

Thanks. I've self-closed that, maybe IAR but it seemed appropriate. I then realised what I'd done wrong. I mean, the title of the article does say glyph, right? So my search was "seven dots" glyph -- I carefully didn't put 'glyph' within the inverted commas. And that doesn't work. Mind you, there's some OR in the lead which I see you've noted. I haven't seen the 'span' bit of the template, is that new or just rarely used? Dougweller (talk) 19:31, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

  • That material could possibly have come from another part of the book. Other entries in it cross-reference that one, I notice. The article's creator is the person to consult on that. I just cross-linked for the part of the book that I read. Talking of creators: You might like to see who the creator of Template:cn-span was. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 01:41, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
    • Very nice, are you doing anything to make this template known? Dougweller (talk) 14:20, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
      • Not apart from just using it in everyday editing, no. It wasn't my idea, by the way. Uncle G (talk) 18:46, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Changes to WP physics article alerts report page

Hi! I see you added an entry to the Physics article alert report page. Do note that the bot will overwrite this addition in its next run. The entry will also not be added automatically unless you tag the page's talk page with Physics project banner. Thanks. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 19:42, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] AfDs on video game composers

Hi there! Apparently, I did something wrong when I added the deletion sorting templates to, e.g., Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hajime Wakai. What do I have to consider when I select the templates? I thought since these were Japanese composers of video game music, all of the added categories would apply. Would be nice if you'd clear that up for me. Prime Blue (talk) 19:46, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

  • It's simpler than that. The notices said that the discussion has been deletion sorted into various bins. Those notices were erroneous. The article wasn't deletion sorted into any bins at the time of the notice removal. I left the notice on for the bin that I was sorting into in another tab. Gene93k has just applied notices for the bins that xe has — now — sorted into. Uncle G (talk) 19:51, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
    • So basically this means I don't have to add any deletion sorting templates since I did no sorting before? Prime Blue (talk) 20:00, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
      • Don't add the notices if you haven't done (and aren't immediately going to do) the sorting work. Think about it. Would the discussion actually get deletion sorted that way? Uncle G (talk) 20:04, 20 December 2010 (UTC)
        • Actually, I thought the templates would do the sorting. At least the manual gives off that vibe by not explaining the previous step. Anyway, thanks for clearing up! Prime Blue (talk) 14:58, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Speedying of South Indian Food in New Zealand

Hey, I was wondering why you tagged the article South Indian cuisine with {{db-advert}}. While I agree that the article should be deleted (I'm the one who nommed it at AfD), it's not really an advertisement or spam, so I removed the speedy template. However, if you explain why it's an advertisement/spam, I'd be fine with you reinstating the speedy template. Thanks! --- cymru.lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 06:24, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

  • The explanation was already given at length in the AFD discussion and on Commons. I'm not going to re-type it all again here. Uncle G (talk) 06:27, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
    • Your comments on the AfD discussion seemed to classify it as copyright infringement, not advertisement. Maybe the thing on Commons goes into more detail? If so, could you put a link here, so I can look at that? Thanks Face-smile.svg --- cymru.lass (hit me up)⁄(background check) 06:36, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
      • You just need to look at the creator's contributions on Commons. That's what I did. It's a global account. Uncle G (talk) 06:42, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

Thank you for catching my error here. I must have hit "show preview" and not save.--ARTEST4ECHO (talk/contribs) 15:20, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia analysis

See User:Aymatth2/Expandstats and User talk:Aymatth2#Expandstats. Do you know of anyone who has the tools and ability to run analyses of this sort? This was triggered by Wikipedia:Templates for discussion/Log/2010 December 16#Arbitrary break 5, but lot of debates of this nature (e.g. ongoing BLP discussions) could benefit from hard facts. Thanks, Aymatth2 (talk) 00:10, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] inre Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/A Little Soap and Water

Well.. sourcing has begun... and it is not difficult to do at all.[17] Seems a pity that deletion policy is so often ignored. Merry Chrismas Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 02:14, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] DYK for Cincinnati Riot of 1853

Updated DYK query On 25 December 2010, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Cincinnati Riot of 1853, which you recently nominated. The fact was ... that the Cincinnati Riot of 1853 involved Germans objecting to the presence of an Italian cardinal preaching in French in the United States on Christmas Day? If you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Materialscientist (talk) 12:04, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Premium (marketing)

Hello Uncle G! Thanks for coming to the rescue for Premium (marketing). My question is concerning the link to Captain Midnight premiums reference that looks like this "sfn|Widner|1998". Now it links back to the page Premium (marketing) and not to the citation. I am sorry that I don't know enough wikilingo to communicate more effectively about this, but I don't know how to fix it and hope you can. Please forgive my ignorance, but I am trying to learn. Thank you for your time and consideration. --Jeffrey Scott Maxwell (talk) 17:51, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Howes

I couldn't remember if the contents were the same - so I db-bioed it and was declined. I didn't know about the earlier prod. Thanks anyway. Peridon (talk) 14:07, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Nuvola apps edu languages.svg
Hello, Uncle G. You have new messages at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ocean colonization.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

[edit] NARAL/PP state-level deletions

Er, what was wrong with those category listings? Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 20:53, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

  • They were falsehoods. They stated that the discussion had been deletion sorted. It hadn't been. Don't apply the notices unless you've actually done the sorting work that you are stating has been done. Uncle G (talk) 21:25, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
...This whole time I've thought that putting the template automatically added the discussion to the appropriate list. God, I am dumb. Thanks. Roscelese (talk ⋅ contribs) 21:27, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Ademar José Gevaerd

I stumbled on this one just after watching Men in Black, and it struck me that the world ought to know the truth that the government is trying to hide from us. It fits DYK criteria of being lighthearted and trivial, at least that was the spirit of the expansion, but perhaps I went a bit overboard. Also, I am not sure if it presents Wikipedia in its true light as a serious source of information about serious subjects. And I can't think of a good tag. You are the expert on those. What do you think? Aymatth2 (talk) 02:21, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

  • Serious information about serious subjects? You've come to the right place.
  • One cannot get much more serious and further away from the fringe of human thought than Big Brother, ne?

    Now you can tell me what the proper name of Wisdom Christianity (AfD discussion) is. It's probably in one of the several books cited at the bottom of the article.

    Uncle G (talk) 03:40, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

    • Monchanin? Maybe, but I think you are trying to distract me from the more important task of rescuing Gevaerd, whose article is being attacked on the basis that his views may not be entirely plausible. Personally, I find them very informative. For example, I always thought the flying saucers were manned by little green men, but apparently they also come in grey and brown varieties. The world needs to know. I am not sure about the tag. I was sort of saving it for the important series I was planning on Brazilian Big Brother contestants. Daniel Gevaerd is clearly notable in his own right. Aymatth2 (talk) 16:13, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Check the deletion debate on this guy. Seems a bit frantic. Do you think there is some hidden reason to get rid of the article that I can't spot? It seems harmless enough to me, sort of amusing, plenty of sources. Aymatth2 (talk) 21:40, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Of awakening sleeping giants

I came, I saw, I answered.

Also I immediately got around to issuing a warning to someone who has been misreading some of the policies. Joy and happiness. Mind if I return to my peaceful slumber? ;-)

Apparently this one person deletes warnings from their user talk page. Keep an eye on them. If they cause any more trouble and you want to start an RFC, I'll certify the RFC: relevant diff .

--Kim Bruning (talk) 19:52, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Your recent AfD comments

I think that your recent comments were unacceptable. I found your comments rude and aggressive. It's funny that there's a discussion at WT:RfA about a difference in standards and how some current admins behave unacceptably. I have replied to your aggressive and rude comments. I would appreciate an apology. — Fly by Night (talk) 00:49, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

  • It anything it is you should be apologising for wasting everyone's time and trying to beat other editors into doing work that you want done, and can do yourself, with repeated AFD nominations where you do none of the work yourself. There's nothing rude in pointing out that that's exactly what you're doing, and your trying to portray yourself as the victim when someone else (administrator or no) points out your fault is actually what is unacceptable. You are not the victim. You are someone who is doing nothing yourself whilst berating others about the fact that after a mere three days something that you wanted done, agreed should be done, and even had the tools to do, wasn't done; and abusing AFD as a big hammer. You are the problem. Uncle G (talk) 01:45, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
    • I'm sorry, but you made an overt attack on my editing abilities. Saying that deletion was the only song in my repertoire. Your rhetoric continues to be both unfriendly and aggressive. I'm sorry, but that's out of line. Whether or not you agree, you have clearly upset another editor. But you have made no attempt to make peace. You're more than happy to continue with conflict escalation. Have a happy new year. I think we're about finished here. — Fly by Night (talk) 02:40, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
      • Untrue. You're the one waving your editing abilities around, remember. No-one else even brought them up. I'm the one asking you why you didn't use the tools that you have rather than do nothing at all except renominate a page for deletion again and again. I've asked you three times, now, and here you are trying to play the victim again, rather than answering the very simple and straightforward question of why on Earth you didn't pick up your tools and do. Stop putting up this smokescreen. You didn't do what you yourself wanted to do, agreed to do, and could do; but just tried to abuse AFD to hammer other people into doing for you. Because of that you're the problem. Indeed, you're the very problem that you're complaining about. As I've already said, {{sofixit}} applies. Uncle G (talk) 02:59, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
        • For God's sake: stop it! you brought up my editing abilities with this edit when you said " Is nominating things for deletion the only song in your repertoire?". This was your first, and the first, comment in this AfD. So you just went straight for my throat. There is no smoke screen. I've said again, and again, on the AfD why I won't work on the article. It's a waste of serve space, I don't think it should be on here, it needs a rewrite and a rename. I'm not going to do either of those things because it's a two sentence, self sourced stub that doesn't meet WP:ORG. Please, don't make me repeat myself for a fourth time! I hereby make a formal request for your personal attacks to stop, e.g. saying "you're the problem".— Fly by Night (talk) 03:33, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
          • Nonsense. That's not bringing up your editing abilities. It is, however, asking you if nominating the page for deletion is the only thing that you do. I could have indeed, just observed outright that the evidence is that this is the only thing that you do, with a page that you think should be renamed and rewritten (which is cleanup not deletion). It's the only thing that you've done. You've done nothing at all — no article edits rewriting what you say should be rewritten, no use of the rename tool to rename what you think should be renamed — to fix the problem that you knew how to fix, wanted fixed, and had the tools to fix. You are doing one thing over and over here, and your only way of dealing with an article that you keep saying should be cleaned up, with renaming and rewriting, is not to actually clean it up, but nominate it for deletion again and again. And you complain that no-one else did your bidding after a mere three days, on top of that. You are the very problem that you complain of. (That's not a personal attack, either, unless your making the complaint about people not renaming the article for you is also a personal attack on everyone else. You're hiding behind that "I'm attacked." smokescreen again. Stop that silliness.) You've failed again and again to explain why you keep saying "it needs a rewrite and a rename" and why on Earth you did not just rewrite and rename, then, but came to AFD demanding that since neither anyone else nor you had done this you were going to expend loads of edits (It's somewhere in the 10s, now.) on another AFD nomination instead. You've not even explained that once, let alone four times. Now stop hiding behind smokescreens with silliness about nonexistent personal attacks. That's dodging the question, not answering it. Uncle G (talk) 04:08, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
            • You're making me repeat myself. I'm sorry to ask: but have you been drinking? Let me repeat AGAIN: "I've said again, and again, on the AfD why I won't work on the article. It's a waste of serve space, I don't think it should be on here, it needs a rewrite and a rename. I'm not going to do either of those things because it's a two sentence, self sourced stub that doesn't meet WP:ORG." I will not work on the article because it is a waste of space and need deleting... PERIOD! I'm finished here now. You ask the same questions in an ever more verbose way. I supply the same answer, and get asked the same question in an ever more verbose way. The edit histories will provide you, and all those interested will all the facts they need for the rest of time. Once again: Happy New Year! — Fly by Night (talk) 04:36, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
              • That's the sad thing. They already have provided it to people such as me who've looked at your edits to that article. You did nothing. No rewrites. No renames. Two AFD nominations, taking far more edits to do than rewriting and renaming would have taken. It's entirely unimpressive. But yet less impressive still is your response to being asked why you did nothing except nominate for deletion again and again, which is to dodge the question again and again in various ways, laughably try to claim that it's an attack even to be simply asked why you did nothing when you could have just done what you wanted, and (quite ironically) make personal attacks, yet more of which (alongside yet another failure to answer why on Earth you don't use your own edit and rename tools to do rewrites and renames that you want done, but try to beat other editors into doing the work for you with repeat AFD nominations after a mere three days) I note in the above.

                Do nothing. Demand that everyone else do something for you. Abuse AFD. Argue and dodge incessantly the question of why you don't pull the tools out and just do renaming and rewriting in a case where you keep saying an article "needs a rewrite and a rename". Your edit history shows it all, alas. Uncle G (talk) 04:59, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

                • My edit history shows that I've created scores of nice new articles, I've helped out at the reference desks and I've rolled my sleaves up and got stuck in vandal fighting and at WP:AIV. Just because I think an article is a piece of rubbish and needs nuking doesn't take anything away from my track record. I can sleep soundly knowing that I have made a profoundly positive net improvement to the project. You'll never admit that, just like you won't return my wishes of a happy new year. But hey... C'est la vie. — Fly by Night (talk) 05:06, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
                  • And now we see a distraction fallacy. Two, in fact. Still no answer to the question of why you don't use your own tools and want everyone else to do the work for you, and will happily abuse AFD to that end, though. Uncle G (talk) 05:22, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
                    • I'm sorry, Uncle G, but I have to agree with Fly by Night; you have been unnecessarily aggressive in these AfDs lately. And when someone says so, you either ignore it or dismiss their disagreements as "nonsense" ([18] [19]) Just what kind of example are you trying to set? (Newcomers aren't the only users that can be bitten, you know.) Erpert Who is this guy? | Wanna talk about it? 08:03, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
                      • When someone puts forward rubbish like that, one tells them that it's rubbish. And it is. Should we not go around saying that something is wrong when it is wrong? Don't be silly. Disagreeing with things that are wrong is not aggression. However, claiming "I'm attacked." and "You're drunk." and so forth are bad ways of replying to simple questions and making one's argument, and quite transparently so. As is, too, riding the coat-tails of a bad argument in order to decry the fact that one was told that one should actually check things out, and put content and deletion policy into action as they are intended to be put. Uncle G (talk) 12:14, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
                        • What aren't you understanding here? You just said "rubbish" in the first sentence! It isn't rubbish just because you say it is. Do you even care about other users' opinions? Erpert Who is this guy? | Wanna talk about it? 20:02, 31 December 2010 (UTC)
                          • When something is rubbish, it's rubbish. And silliness about not saying that something is wrong when it is wrong, somehow because of "caring" (which is in reality completely unrelated to the issue), is just absurd. Read the absurd argument that you're making here. Try thinking about what you would think if someone told you not to tell xem that xe was wrong and tried to make out that it was because you didn't care about xem. That's absurd and transparent manipulation, not to say a foolish over-relativistic argument that the erroneous should be given equal validity to the correct because it's better to pander to manipulative "Don't you care about me?" arguments than it is to be concerned with doing things correctly and to the benefit of the encyclopaedia and to point out when things are being done wrongly (Fly by Night) and to ask for explanations when something is wholly unexplained (you). You should know that that's daft. Think! Uncle G (talk) 21:07, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

  • Uncle G's stylistic proclivities aside, renominating an article for deletion instead of renaming it is highly counterproductive and wastes a great deal of time that community members could otherwise be spending productively. On the substance, Uncle G is unquestionably right. Arguments that the renominator has done other good deeds in the past are wholly irrelevant. If one wants to be easily bruised and treated with kid gloves, don't interact with Uncle G. If one wishes to become a more productive volunteer, understand what he's saying (and if you don't like his tone, boo hoo hoo). Bongomatic 22:47, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] For you and your TPS

Popcorn.jpg

unomi has given you some popcorn. Popcorn is crunchy goodness, and is wonderfully delicious!


To spread the goodness of popcorn, you can add {{subst:Popcorn}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message.

[edit] Merging mid-AfD

Hello, this is regarding your comment on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Unwinnable about me copy pasting material from article to another one during an active AfD. Sorry, I was not quite aware that that was frowned upon. I was certainly not circumventing the "delete" outcome. I added {{Copied}} to Talk:No-win situation and I hope this sufficiently preserves attribution. My goal was really to preserve material which I thought was decent and could expand the target article. Thanks. —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 10:07, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

  • It's a laudable goal, but the copyright licences simply don't permit it. That's frustrating to people at times, but the simple maxim to remember is this: If one wants to copy and use content elsewhere, one may not have it and its supporting edit history deleted. One has to pick either copying, using, and keeping the edit history, or deleting, losing, and not using the content anywhere.

    Personally, I thought that it was a poor article at a bad title (Subject names are generally not adjectives.), whose content is probably wrong anyway. (I just, as a result of the AFD discussion at CSI (pinball) (AfD discussion), came across discussion in a book of termination conditions and victory states in games, and I suspect from that and other reading that the bad names and poor explanations that we have aren't supported in the actual literature on the subject at all, and that the encyclopaedia isn't doing a very good job of passing along the actual knowledge of the subject to those who don't know it.) The comments by Niz and others in the history of Talk:Unwinnable tend to bear that out. Uncle G (talk) 12:35, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Hogmanay greetings

Whiskyhogmanay2010.jpg Thank you very much for working with me in 2010 to make the encyclopedia a better place. Regardless of any disagreements we may have had, I want to wish you all the very best for 2011. I look forward to working with you, and I hope for health and happiness to you and your family in the year to come. I therefore send you this glass of the cratur, so you can celebrate, whether it is Hogmanay or New Year's Day where you are. Warmest regards, --John (talk) 04:58, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Thomas Howes (actor)

Dear Uncle G, can I recreate a page for Thomas Howes (which you and others have deleted) - I am just watching Downton Abbey again - a major (judged by viewing figures and comments) UK TV series, and Howes has what seems to me a sufficiently prominent role to warrant a page. I have added further refs. to his stage and radio career also, which helps I think. I have a draft here: User:Msrasnw/Thomas Howes (actor). What do you think? The Downton Abbey page's redlink on Howes looks anachronistic. Best wishes (Msrasnw (talk) 15:43, 2 January 2011 (UTC)) PS - I have also asked User:Ronhjones

[edit] Wisdom Christianity

I found some sources here and here. I made no assertion of how useful they were, and "voted" very weak keep. Bearian (talk) 14:39, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] National RTI Forum

Hello, Please take a look at this AfD debate, and in particular, the late November deletions and accusations of vandalism by RobertRosen. Your opinion would be appreciated. Thank you. Cullen328 (talk) 22:47, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] ET etc.

After my researches into Ademar José Gevaerd (who survived AfD but had too many dubious sources for DYK) I may have a touch of Neilasparophobia myself. But not the little green ones, who are sort of cute. Aymatth2 (talk) 15:16, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Indef. Full Protect of Georgie Anne Geyer

Hi Uncle G. I was reviewing pages with indef. full protection in case some pages where the remaining protection might have been inadvertent. When I came across this page, it looks like you fully protected the page to stop an edit-war, although it also looks like there might be some form of pending changes protection on the page as well. Shortly after your edit, it looks like disputing parties concede the current revision is fine. Since that was in 8/2010, I was wondering if you thought the protection might be removed, or at least reduced to pure PC protection or semi. It's your call, but I thought I'd point it out in case you didn't intend the page to be protected this long. Hope all is well!--GnoworTC 16:47, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

  • Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive215#rangeblock of 96.231.x.x provides some background. Uncle G (talk) 16:51, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
    • Got it. Perhaps semi protection might resolve the issue, along with removal of privileges of review for user in question, and SPI if user continues to vandalize page through socks. Although this seems a lot of work when full protection would solve the same problem, the the third pillar seems to suggest indef. full protection might not be appropriate if other options are available to resolve concerns. It's your call, which is why I bring this here rather than at WP:RPP (not trying to start any wheel-wars). Still, I'd hate to see some random new user that is chased away if this is the first article which they want to contribute, and they don't understand how to do that based on the full protection, perhaps we lose a potential member of the community.--GnoworTC 17:09, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] User:Christopher Carrie

Hello Uncle G. Please see User talk:Christopher Carrie#Your recent mention of off-wiki legal disputes. There was a legal dispute involving this editor and members of the Tolkien family. You expressed a previous opinion (now archived). The editor is now adding a self-description to his user page that mentions the lawsuits. This is contrary to an agreement that he made in August 2010. Time for a block under WP:LEGAL? He is not threatening a specific editor, but he is going back on a previous deal. What he posts on his user page is not a bona-fide rebuttal of material that he deems incorrect, for which he deserves some protection under WP:BLP. Thanks, EdJohnston (talk) 22:16, 12 January 2011 (UTC)

  • Resolved, editor is now blocked and some edits were oversighted. EdJohnston (talk) 21:57, 14 January 2011 (UTC)
    • I apologize for not paying close attention. I was distracted. Uncle G (talk) 23:38, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Technical question

For some reason I started a unforgivably unhavardized article on Jacob Vernes, a prominent pastor in Geneva in the 1700s who had arguments with Voltaire, Rousseau and D'Alembert. Moving on, I started a highly havardized article on Jacob Vernet, a prominent pastor in Geneva in the 1700s who had arguments with Voltaire, Rousseau and D'Alembert. The David Jan Sorkin reference on the Vernet article has a chapter on Vernet, but some of the pages referenced are not in the chapter. As a message to deletionists, I would like to make it clear that the subject is the subject of a chapter in a book. How do I do that? Aymatth2 (talk) 00:20, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

  • I thought that you might have Vernes in the pipeline, from reading the sources. I recommend against even thinking of people as "-istas" of any stripe. The "-istas" were bad ideas from the start. Anyway, we don't cite sources for people who choose to foolishly polarize over a mechanism of the tool that we happen to use to write the encyclopaedia. We cite them for readers to follow up on and for fellow editors to employ. Are you looking for something like this? There are alternative ways of doing the same thing, including specifying the chapter and page number with the loc= parameter to {{sfn}}. Uncle G (talk) 00:43, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
    • I did not know about loc= - should read the documentation more carefully. Loc= and page= seem to be mutually exclusive, but the page number can be put into the Loc parameter, and that would work. Your solution with two versions of the {{cite}} works too, maybe better.

      I think by "istas" you mean "inclusionist" vs. "deletionist". I tend to look at topics in terms of what can be done to make a useful article rather than why it should be scrapped, but have no problem with the basic notability principles. Most AfD nominations seem entirely reasonable. I watch a lot of pages and quite often revert a POV attempt. They do not bother me - just someone who does not understand what the project is about. The same applies to the attempts to start articles that do not belong. Nice try, but no banana. What bothers me much more are tags like {{I don't like this}} or AfD submissions for subjects that are obviously appropriate. Seriously though, how about inflicting total boredom on the DYK readers with "..that Jacob Vernes and Jacob Vernet were completely different people?" Forget it. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:50, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

      • Yes, the "You dirty -istas!". They've only ever been used to call other people names, and their use has never improved a discussion.

        So, you got Vernes and Vernet mixed up when reading the books, eh? ☺ Did you notice the dictionnaires of biography in Antoine-Jacques Roustan#References? I wouldn't be surprised if there's a whole WikiProject, akin to Project:WikiProject Dictionary of National Biography, there that Anglophone bias causes people to ignore. I didn't look too hard, but I have my suspicion that Marc-Michel Rey, Amsterdam bookseller and Roustan's publisher, is encyclopaedic. Apparently Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau did some work for him in 1776–1777.

        Uncle G (talk) 10:57, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

        • I saw "not to be confused with ..." early on, so avoided confusion, but kept coming across Vernet when reading about Vernes, so thought there may as well be an article for each of them. The other day I did get mixed up with Kagara, Nigeria which had a lot of trouble getting a dam built, and then a couple of months ago was flooded when the dam burst. Fortunately, I spotted a couple of discrepancies in the sources (Kagara is well south of the Sahel and quite a large place, unlike Kagara) - otherwise the article could have been spreading confusion for years. ☺

          I agree that there are huge gaps in coverage of non-English subjects. Bios of people like Jacob Vernet tend to be fairly easy, since they have good coverage in copyright-expired and therefore full-view books. Bios like Lansana Diané are much harder, often with unsatisfactory results, even though the subjects may be equally important. Part of me thinks the latter type deserves more effort, part of me likes bashing out the bios of dead Americans or Europeans where there are lots of sources. No shortage of topics, either way. Aymatth2 (talk) 14:41, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] A dead encyclopédiste

... that Adam Smith thought Claude Yvon was indulging in OR, and proposed Amour for AfD?
... that Claude Yvon had to edit as an IP from 1754 to 1762?

  • I didn't know that. Aymatth2 (talk) 02:55, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
    • I'm surprised that we didn't have an encyclopédiste. I'm not surprised that parallels can be drawn. See the debates on the subject of biographical articles, for example. Or Leslie Stephen on the subject of notability when discussing the Dictionary of National Biography. Indeed, see how long it takes to write an encyclopaedia. If you want someone else to write about:

      Did you know … that Johann Heinrich Zedler was the first encyclopaedist to include biographies of living persons, and didn't just use bare URLs as his source citations (Collison 1966, pp. 105)?

      Uncle G (talk) 03:26, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

      • Collison, Robert Lewis (1966). Encyclopaedias: their history throughout the ages: a bibliographical guide with extensive historical notes to the general encyclopaedias issued throughout the world from 350 B.C. to the present day (2nd ed.). New York: Hafner Pub. Co.. 
  • We have about a quarter of the Encyclopédistes started, very few with book urls so the sources can easily be checked. Claude Yvon was a break from depressing articles on Camp Boiro and Diallo Telli. Maybe a rift or craton could be more relaxing. See this image for a view of Africa from below. Front row, left to right: West African craton, Congo craton, Kalahari craton. There are plenty of cratons with no articles. Bigger and older than encyclopedists, and fundamentally important. Aymatth2 (talk) 04:17, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
    • I just checked de:Johann Heinrich Zedler. Just slightly more complete! I suppose it could simply be translated, as long as we give attribution to the German version? I could do that. Aymatth2 (talk) 19:27, 20 January 2011 (UTC)
    • I need help on this. I started expanding Johann Heinrich Zedler but got stuck on making a ref to Quedenbaum 1977 from an explanatory note. Apparently #tag:ref solves the problem, but I can't see how to get it to work. I could avoid the problem, but would prefer to solve it. Help! Aymatth2 (talk) 02:12, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
      • Your bigger problem is {{Zedler Online}}. Our version doesn't have many of the mechanisms that the German Wikipedia's one does. But since it isn't transcluded to the extent that the German Wikipedia's one is, it might, in contrast, be easier to update. Wikisource has a copy of the text at s:de:Zedler:Zedler, (Johann Heinrich) and for now you can probably get by with linking to that manually, specifying the numbers explicitly, and simply not using that template in the footnote at all. Uncle G (talk) 02:41, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
    • I can get round the links to the sources. They are there, online, I can point to them. I can handle the extraordinary propensity of the editors of the version of the article that is found in the German language version to state everything using the maximum number of words, with no concerns about the repetition that sometimes results from stating everything using the maximum number of words, a propensity that I find reflected in the number of words that are found the German language version of the article, which in some cases (at least in my view) indicates a propensity to repetition. But how do I link from an explanatory note to a source? Aymatth2 (talk) 03:30, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] About: Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#Neutral

Hello. This message is being sent to inform you that there currently is a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents regarding your status as an exemplar of all that is great about the Wikipedia project. Thank you.--Shirt58 (talk) 11:33, 15 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] re Mark Coreth

I just wanted to say thanks for the links you left at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Archive220#OTRS about Mark Coreth - the section dropped off the page before I got back to it, but I think they'll be very useful if/when I manage to produce an original article on the subject! --Kateshortforbob talk 14:40, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] E-learning

[edit] Authenticity_in_art

Beautifully focussed answer. I added my bit, to give outside confirmation of the book's authority. DGG ( talk ) 15:08, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

  • I've mentioned your comments at the ANI discussion on Black Kite. Sorry, but if BK's uncivil comments are being discussed, I thought your comments should be added to give the context. Interesting how heated some people can get over art. :-) Dougweller (talk) 09:01, 26 January 2011 (UTC)
    • Actually it's philosophy of art, ironically one of the areas where Wikipedia is traditionally said to be weak even though philosophy articles were amongst our very first edits. Uncle G (talk) 09:06, 26 January 2011 (UTC)
      • Agreed. I've got no comment on the article as I haven't looked at it. But I think 'twat', like 'bloody', is viewed very differently by different people and I'm sure a lot of people, like me, used them both for a long time before discovering some people were deeply offended by them. The OED gives twat both meanings, and AGF suggests to me we should never assume someone knows them both - I don't think it's like 'cunt' - I'd expect almost everyone to know what that means. Dougweller (talk) 12:29, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Crazy really how anybody could not see its potential...♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:55, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Ambassador Program is looking for new Online Ambassadors

Hi! Since you've been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, I wanted to let you know about the Wikipedia Ambassador Program, and specifically the role of Online Ambassador. We're looking for friendly Wikipedians who are good at reviewing articles and giving feedback to serve as mentors for students who are assigned to write for Wikipedia in their classes.

If that sounds like you and you're interested, I encourage you to take a look at the Online Ambassador guidelines; the "mentorship process" describes roughly what will be expected of mentors during the current term, which started in January and goes through early May. If that's something you want to do, please apply!

You can find instructions for applying at WP:ONLINE. The main things we're looking for in Online Ambassadors are friendliness, regular activity (since mentorship is a commitment that spans several months), and the ability to give detailed, substantive feedback on articles (both short new articles, and longer, more mature ones).

I hope to hear from you soon.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 18:47, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Semi-pro football discussions need feedback

Hello! You have participated in WP:AFD disucssions involving semi-pro football teams in the past. The following two AFD discussions could use additional weigh-in as they appear to be stuck in "relisting" mode:

I am placing this notice on talk pages of users who have shown interest in the past, regardless of how they !voted in the discussion. If you do participate, please mention that you were asked to participate in the discussion.--Paul McDonald (talk) 21:55, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Suspected copyright infringement

Hello, your bot marked this article as possible copyright violation. You know for sure there's a source where the article has been copied from? -- SERGIO aka the Black Cat 23:50, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

[edit] King Bell

You have gone quiet lately. Maybe you need the challenge of formulating a DYK hook that does not involve 90 wives. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:41, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Harold Kittermaster was less than 3 meters tall. Aymatth2 (talk) 02:23, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Everything alright Uncle G? Irritating conflicts inevitably happen on here. If you feel strongly enough about content then there is nothing you can do about it.. . Please return when you feel better.♦ Dr. Blofeld 18:54, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

  • Better? Irritating conflicts? I am, as alluded, simply very busy elsewhere. Uncle G (talk) 02:36, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

Oh, it just seems since that incident occurred you've barely been on here... A coincidence then.♦ Dr. Blofeld 11:54, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

  • I was very busy before it came up, which is why I said that I didn't have the time. If anything, I'm even busier now than I was then. I shouldn't really be spending the time doing even this. ☺ Uncle G (talk) 13:25, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Nomination of Black Screen of Death for deletion

A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Black Screen of Death is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Black Screen of Death until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on good quality evidence, and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion template from the top of the article. Onthegogo (talk) 01:40, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Authenticity in art (2)

When you are not so busy, check the current version. This is still just a superficial view of the subject. It does not do justice to the sources it draws upon, and there are many more sources that could be used for additional content. When several books have been written about a subject it is reasonable to give it an encyclopedia entry. Aymatth2 (talk) 12:19, 3 April 2011 (UTC)

You may be interested although it seems unlikely given your prolonged abstention perhaps because sometimes life is more important then editing from discussions on this site in the fact that some advice you gave a while ago led to Lagos Colony using the {{#tag:ref|text {{sfn|text}}|group=fn}} construct. The article justifiably has a footnote within a footnote. A unique case. Aymatth2 (talk) 00:18, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Notability discussion

As the father of the GNG, I was wondering if you might take a look at the question that I just posed on the WP:N talk page. Thank you for your diligent work to improve the encyclopedia. Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 19:59, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Request for comment

This message is being sent to you because you have previously edited the Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English) page. There is currently a discussion that may result in a significant change to Wikipedia policy. Specifically, a consensus is being sought on if the policies of WP:UCN and WP:EN continues to be working policies for naming biographical articles, or if such policies have been replaced by a new status quo. This discussion is on-going at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (use English), and your comments would be appreciated. Dolovis (talk) 17:26, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Walking

Uncle G - I have noticed that you have contributed to the List of people who have walked across the United States, and cordially invite you to participate in a new WikiProject Walking that I have proposed. Your support for the project, active or passive, would be appreciated. Bezza84 (talk) 19:42, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Anthony Stabile

Back in November last year you put a PROD on Anthony Stabile, and I subsequently deleted it. The article has recently been recreated, using a copy of an earlier version of the article. Since this amounts effectively to a belated challenge to the PROD, I have restored the history of the article. You may like to take it to AfD if you still think that the deletion reasons you gave apply. JamesBWatson (talk) 16:32, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

[edit] You are cordially invited....

You are cordially invited to User:MichaelQSchmidt/Newcomer's guide to guidelines as I feel its going live is imminent and I value additional eyes and input. With respects, I have included a link to your exceptional User:Uncle G/On notability.[20]

Also, there has been a suggestion for a possible name change. Maybe a contest? The only caveat being that it must be simple and easy to remember, and give a clue to what the essay contains. I'm thinking maybe WP:Newcomer's guide to policy, guideline, and editing or WP:Newcomer's PG&E or WP:NGPGE.

If I use WP:Newcomers Guide as an alternate title, shortcuts could be WP:NEWGUIDE (WP:NewGuide), WP:NewbieGuide, WP:NEWBGUIDE, (WP:NewbGuide), and WP:NewcomerGuide. Join in. Schmidt, MICHAEL Q. 01:46, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Edit notice

Hi Uncle G. I just came across the Stephen Donald article and noticed that it has an editnotice (Template:Editnotices/Page/Stephen Donald). I'm sure you had a good reason for creating it at the time (glancing at the article history, I see some edit summaries about BLP issues), but it seems fairly outdated now, as it's referring to a match from last October. Not sure if it should be simply deleted or changed to make it less specific (and, to be frank, less confrontational), but I thought I'd ask your opinion before doing anything myself. Best, Jenks24 (talk) 16:49, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for deleting it. Cheers, Jenks24 (talk) 21:29, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

[edit] I'd like your opinion on an essay I wrote

It seems you have a reputation for "fixing" bad articles, including some articles that most editors would think are hopeless. (this being a good example) I have even heard this referred to as being "Uncle Gd". Therefore I would like your opinion on this essay. I wrote it in response to a number of cases at WP:REFUND where an editor goes through the process of getting OTRS clearance to include material from another website on WP only to see it immediately deleted, example here.

While I'm basically trying to argue that it's better to write a new article from scratch in these cases, it does touch on the issue of an article possibly being so hopeless that it's best to "blow it up and start over" so I would like the opinion of someone for which there is almost no such thing as a "hopeless article". --Ron Ritzman (talk) 00:42, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Burjair chair

Wikipédia ne devrait pas perpétuer cette orthographe barbare. Aymatth2 (talk) 23:57, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Nomination for deletion of Template:Noarticletext preload

Ambox warning pn.svgTemplate:Noarticletext preload has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for discussion page. Bulwersator (talk) 09:22, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

[edit] Can you help with a copyright cleanup issue?

Hi. :) I'm hoping to find somebody with tool skills who can help create a list of edits from 950 articles that use the text string "merg". (The articles are listed at User:Moonriddengirl/Wtshymanski article edits 2 and User:Moonriddengirl/Wtshymanski article edits 1.) Unlike with Darius, this is a copyright situation that should be easily cleaned, as we just need to check attribution where content is copied from one article to another. The contributor is evidently also checking his edits manually; this is intended to help ensure that nothing is overlooked.

Can you help in compiling such a list? I checked with User:Dcoetzee, since he created the CCI tool that created that list, but he is not available at this point. Of course, I had immediately thought of you, given your fabulous contribution to the Darius Dhlomo CCI. :) If you're not able to help out, please just let me know, and I'll poke around elsewhere. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:10, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Just to let you know that User:Flatscan caught wind of the need and provided the list. Thanks anyway. :) --Moonriddengirl (talk) 12:23, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

[edit] MSU Interview

Dear Uncle G,

My name is Jonathan Obar user:Jaobar, I'm a professor in the College of Communication Arts and

Sciences at Michigan State University and a Teaching Fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation's

Education Program. This semester I've been running a little experiment at MSU, a class where we

teach students about becoming Wikipedia administrators. Not a lot is known about your community,

and our students (who are fascinated by wiki-culture by the way!) want to learn how you do what

you do, and why you do it. A while back I proposed this idea (the class) to the community

[[Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Archive_82#Learn_to_be_a_Wikipedia_Administrator_-

_New_class_at_MSU|HERE]], where it was met mainly with positive feedback. Anyhow, I'd like my

students to speak with a few administrators to get a sense of admin experiences, training,

motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. We were wondering if you'd be interested in speaking with one

of our students.


So a few things about the interviews:

  • Interviews will last between 15 and 30 minutes.
  • Interviews can be conducted over skype (preferred), IRC or email. (You choose the form of

communication based upon your comfort level, time, etc.)

  • All interviews will be completely anonymous, meaning that you (real name and/or pseudonym) will

never be identified in any of our materials, unless you give the interviewer permission to do so.

  • All interviews will be completely voluntary. You are under no obligation to say yes to an

interview, and can say no and stop or leave the interview at any time.

  • The entire interview process is being overseen by MSU's institutional review board (ethics

review). This means that all questions have been approved by the university and all students have

been trained how to conduct interviews ethically and properly.


Bottom line is that we really need your help, and would really appreciate the opportunity to speak

with you. If interested, please send me an email at obar@msu.edu (to maintain anonymity) and I

will add your name to my offline contact list. If you feel comfortable doing so, you can post your

name HERE instead.

If you have questions or concerns at any time, feel free to email me at obar@msu.edu. I will be

more than happy to speak with you.

Thanks in advance for your help. We have a lot to learn from you.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Obar --Jaobar (talk) 07:26, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Young June Sah --Yjune.sah (talk) 21:58, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

[edit] Burmese literature

I tried to sort out the list in Burma National Literature Award by linking the names, adding dates and putting it into some sort of organization. Also I added some actual award winners for a couple of years. Now I am not sure how to handle it. This is indeed a legitimate list of well-known authors, some of whom may have won prizes. The ones who died before the prizes started up probably did not win, although perhaps they could have posthumously. I hate to throw out a good list. It could be moved over into Burmese literature. Or just turned into a stand-alone list. Not sure what is best... Aymatth2 (talk) 17:29, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I thought of that, but I started a couple of missing articles and did not get the big red previously deleted warning. I may start a couple more and think about it. Something tells me that the awards have not always been entirely to do with to literary merit. Men and women of letters will be dutiful to nation only if their works serve public interest. Internal and external elements resorting to various means to tarnish Myanmar’s image. It is time to compile mass of literary works designed to rebut various forms of accusations and made-up stories created at home or abroad. Quite so. Aymatth2 (talk) 01:11, 18 February 2012 (UTC)
I find that most of the authors with articles did not get an award, and vice-versa. Only government-approved authors get prizes, and these authors seem less notable than others. I find it hard to find much about them. That could be partly a language problem, but only partly, I think. Aymatth2 (talk) 18:15, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

[edit] Abuse scandal articles

Hi! Just in regard to a point you raised at the AfD, I've been following up on all these articles for year a year or so, but due to the sensitive nature of them I've been taking it carefully. Well, that and it is a topic that is difficult to work in, and not really handled by many editors, so I tend to manage them when I'm up to working through the sources, taking a break when the subject matter is a tad much. Lately I've been more focused on linkvio in these articles and copyvio elsewhere, so it was the prompt from the user that made me think about AFD.

It is a difficult area to work in - the editors who create a lot of these articles have very strong feelings that warrant respect, but at the same time there are a lot of problems in the articles. - Bilby (talk) 12:06, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

[edit] I can't do your job...

Uncle G, to followup on my reply to VPP-- I can't do the job people at AFD do. I don't know how admins keep patrolling, day after day after day. I can't do your job, and I know your job NEEDS to get done and done right. I'm not the person you are, and I want you to know that. You are more vital to Wikipedia than I am.

I used very emotional language to make the connection between Notability and Retention clear for the readers. I wanted it to be crystal clear to anyone who read it that there is a straight line between deletions and editor attrition.

But I made a mistake in that my initial words made it seem like I was just whining or criticizing people who do your job. I wasn't.

I cannot do you job, but maybe I can do something else-- maybe I can make your job easier. Maybe I can look at the needs of newbies and the needs of patrollers and see a way to make both their lives easier.

For example, it's been suggested to me that creating articles in userspace and getting others to help with them before putting them into Wikipedia is a good way to ensure high quality. I think that's a great suggestion that should become more widespread.

I just didn't want you to think I was bashing-- I'm trying to figure out a way that poor quality authors can still write without their work automatically becoming part of Wikipedia articles until they've reached good quality. --HectorMoffet (talk) 07:35, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation link notification

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[edit] WikiProject Cleanup

Edit-clear.svg
Hello, Uncle G.

You are invited to join WikiProject Cleanup, a WikiProject and resource for Wikipedia cleanup listings, information and discussion.
To join the project, just add your name to the member list. Northamerica1000(talk) 12:29, 29 February 2012 (UTC)



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