User talk:Mandarax

This editor is a Labutnum and is entitled to display this Book of Knowledge with Coffee Cup Stain, Cigarette Burn, Chewed Broken Pencil, and Sticky Note.

Welcome!

Hello, Mandarax, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  -- Infrogmation 05:07, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

March 2008

Hi, the recent edit you made to Zora Neale Hurston has been reverted, as it appears to be unconstructive. Use the sandbox for testing; if you believe the edit was constructive, ensure that you provide an informative edit summary. You may also wish to read the introduction to editing. Thanks. -[[Ryan]] ^{(me) (talk)} 00:10, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

My reply on Ryan's talk page:

Hi, you left a note on my Talk page about my edits to Zora Neale Hurston being reverted by you. I'm glad you notified me so I could go back and see that I only undid one edit instead of reverting multiple ones. The changes made by my "undoing" looked completely reasonable and I thought that was the extent of the vandalism. But I suspect that you edited using a bot, because the changes resulting from your reversion were quite obviously wrong. For example, in your version, Zora's parents are "Micheal Jackson Hurston and Jessica Simpson Hurston" and her mother died in "2015" when Zora was "one hundred-thrity five". I have since reverted the article to what I believe is a good version, but I thought I should mention this to you in case you have a misbehaving bot. Mandarax 01:02, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

I was an error on my part. I do not use a bot, I use the tool huggle. Thank you for leaving a message, or else I probably wouldn't have known. Again, thank you. -[[Ryan]] ^{(me) (talk)} 18:11, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

April 2008

Hi, in the Austin, Texas article you made an edit to which you stated Austin was in the Southern US, it is not. If you have been there it is quite clear it is not southern. The large Hispanic community with great Tex-Mex flavor is not southern and is not found in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, etc. Please do not state Austin is southern as some might take offense to that, (I know I do)...

My reply on Guanako512's talk page:

Hi, you left a note on my Talk page accusing me of making an erroneous edit to the Austin, Texas page. You've got the wrong person. I've made one and only one edit to that page. My edit simply reverted vandalism, removing sentences stating "Texas as a whole is a terrible state to live in, don't move here." and "Jordan was here." Mandarax 04:39, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, My apologies, I appreciate your edit, I guess I should have looked more carefully. Again my apoligies... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Guanako512 (talk • contribs) 17:50, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

warning vandals

Hello. Regarding the recent revert you made to The Importance of Being Earnest: You may already know about them, but you might find Wikipedia:Template messages/User talk namespace useful. After a revert, these can be placed on the user's talk page to let them know you considered their edit was inappropriate, and also direct new users towards the sandbox. They can also be used to give a stern warning to a vandal when they've been previously warned. Thank you. Enigma ^message Review 06:28, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I hadn't been notifying them because the overwhelming majority of the garbage I've been reverting has been from anonymous IP users who are obviously committing blatant vandalism. I figured such vandals would be unlikely to read and even unlikelier to heed such warnings. But after reading your recommendation, I reconsidered, since sufficient warnings are required before a user can be blocked. So I have been trying to leave notifications of the proper severity level on the Talk pages of users whose vandalism I revert. Thanks for the suggestion.  ‑ MANdARAX XAЯAbИAM  (talk)  06:32, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

The main reason I warn vandals is to make them easier to block. Most of them are unlikely to reform their ways because of a warning, but at least then we can block them faster. If no one warned, we basically couldn't block any IPs. It's like in some religious law: Someone has to be warned first and then do the wrong thing anyway in order to be punished (a block is not supposed to be a punishment, but you catch my drift). Enigma ^message Review 06:54, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

You use Twinkle? Enigma ^message Review 04:09, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Nope. I do it the old-fashioned way. I just manually check the Recent changes without using any tools. BTW, thanks again for suggesting that I warn vandals. (Sometimes there's a bit of a delay before I post my warnings since I'm doing it manually, and sometimes checking for other vandalism elsewhere before I go back and do the warnings.) I realize that I was only doing half a job when I was just reverting the vandalism.  ‑ MANdARAX XAЯAbИAM  (talk)  04:23, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Sure thing. Anyway, I was suggesting Twinkle because it really can help speed up the process. Automatically opens the talk when when you revert via Twinkle, and you just hit warn instead of manually inserting a template. Enigma ^message Review 04:43, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

IMHO, Mandarax ought to increase productivity by using Twinkle. For the same amount of effort and energy, so many more vandals could be thwarted, IMHO. --Seans Potato Business 09:25, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

206.54.207.157

hey wats up guys just a question how do I correctly fix profanity would it be okay? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.54.207.157 (talk) 22:48, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Constructive edits, including removal of vandalism (which may include profanity), are always welcome and encouraged. Please note that blanking a page, as you did twice to Invasion of Normandy‎, is considered vandalism. See some of the following pages for information about Wikipedia:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

Good luck.  ‑ MANdARAX XAЯAbИAM  (talk)  23:11, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

Reverting

Hi, the recent revert you made to Puerto Rico has been undone, as it appears to be unconstructive, and allowed vandalism to be reinstated. Please use the sandbox for testing and make sure your reverts are done in a controlled and conscious manner. ~RayLast ^«Talk!» 22:52, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

My reply on RayLast's (Mistman123's) talk page:

Hi. Thanks for catching my error. I had reverted a particularly nasty bit of vandalism to Puerto Rico then went on searching for more vandals. I found a persistent one vandalizing Children's Day‎ that I kept having to revert and I eventually got 'em blocked. In the middle of all of that, I returned to the Puerto Rico page and mistakenly thought someone had added some nonsense characters. I reverted the last edit, thinking I was removing the garbage. It turns out they had instead caught and reverted some prior vandalism and my reversion accidentally restored it. I almost always go back and check my reversions, but this time I was distracted by that persistent vandal. I apologize for my carelessness.  ‑ MANdARAX XAЯAbИAM  (talk)  23:50, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the revert

Thanks for the revert of the Fred W. Tanner article earlier today. I really appreciate it. Chris (talk) 20:12, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

you got it right

... I just decided to try to fix that table the other user removed. Thanks so much for the message, and happy vandal fighting! :) --JaGa (talk) 06:22, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Reverting

You need to be more careful with your reverting. At the unmaintained article ecological succession, you reverted this anon, but the revision you reverted to was another anon who had vandalized the page. This has remained like this for weeks. I've also told a newer editor who did the same thing just after you. Of course, if anyone was actually watching the article and taking responsibility for its care, this would have been fixed long ago. Richard001 (talk) 08:21, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for reverting the older vandalism which I had missed. I wholeheartedly agree with you that people need to be more conscientious. I'm afraid that everyone who works on expunging tons of vandalism will occasionally miss some prior vandalism after reverting the most recent instance. But I do make an effort to leave articles in a clean state. I looked through some of my most recent edits for a few examples:

• I could see right away that there were big problems with Mark Zuckerberg. Immediately after reverting the newest vandalism on 27 April 2008, I set out to pore through the edit history in search of a clean version without missing any possible constructive edits in the interim. It took me 13 minutes to be fairly certain I could revert to the correct version. During that time, 13 additional edits were done by others -- 4 vandalisms by 3 different IPs and 9 attempts by 2 other users to repair vandalism. It's amazing to see how much vandalism remained after those 9 attempts, before I reverted it.

• On 29 April 2008 I reverted some obvious vandalism to Gentoo penguin. I then checked the edit previous to the one I had reverted. It had been done five days earlier and it was not vandalism. Still, I checked further and discovered that it was a good faith edit, but duplicated information already on the page. I fixed it, leaving the article in good shape.

Anyways, thanks again for taking care of my oversight and for your efforts to improve Wikipedia.

 ‑ MANdARAX XAЯAbИAM  (talk)  01:59, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

how do you make your name like that?

It's so frickin cool, what alphabet do you use? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.205.144.94 (talk) 00:09, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I think it's cool too. The "backwards" И and Я are from the Cyrillic alphabet.  ‑ MANdARAX XAЯAbИAM  (talk)  06:32, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

thankspam

In thanks for fixing the vandalism/blanking/attack on one/some/all of my userpages I reward you this bootleg CD of your favorite band/musician.

Enjoy! --[DeadEyeArrow – Talk – Contribs] 08:55, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

You're very welcome. And thanks for the CD.  MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM  08:59, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Reverting

I got supermodels on my D.

Thanks for being a grammer facist. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.220.198 (talk) 01:16, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

I assure you that my revert of your edit had nothing to do with any grammatical error. By the way, I noticed that you misspelled grammar and fascist so I guess I just might be a spelling fascist too.  MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM  03:06, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Graham's Number

As I told User:OwenX, I don't understand why my edit to Graham's Number was considered by you to be vandalism. Everything I put in there was completely correct, and I had no intention to vandalise wikipedia. Please if you have an issue with my edit talk to me about it, don't just call me a vandal. You might consider to read this Thank You --58.169.166.143 (talk) 08:53, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

I have made a userspace hopefully now I will be taken more seriously --CallumBrowne (talk) 09:19, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

I removed it as trivial and unencylopedic. Theresa Knott | The otter sank 09:47, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I was just writing a reply when you left your note. Turns out I was saying pretty much the same thing you wrote in your edit summary when you reverted. But since I started, I'll go ahead and finish....

To CallumBrowne:

The first sentence of your edit which I reverted is:

Many Mathematicians have challenged Graham Number’s status for being the largest finite number possible.

But no mathematician has ever believed that Graham's number (or any number) is the "largest finite number possible" since there are an infinite number of them. The rest of your edit depends on your first fallacious statement, rendering it all a hoax. Yes, be bold in updating factually, but don't fabricate and don't enter anything which is not verifiable. Provide reliable sources whenever possible.

I can see that you put some effort into what you did. I hope that you can try to channel that creativity into something constructive.  MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM  10:02, 3 August 2008 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Article Rescue Barnstar
		For rescuing Bert Glennon from a CSD, I, LAAFan, award you this barnstar LAAFan 14:43, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

J. C. Massee

Hi. I'm working on the article now. I didn't actually mean to create the article until I had the material put together. Please hold on. thanks. --Firefly322 (talk) 07:28, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay. I replaced the speedy delete template with a construction template. The article may still get deleted since there's nothing there now, but if so you may recreate it when you have your materials together. For future reference, it's better to wait until you've put together at least a stub with a minimum of an introductory sentence. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:42, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Donny Tourette

Please read the article before using scripts to see what I was bringing attention to. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.240.133 (talk) 23:34, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

I can see very well what you were "bringing attention to". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:39, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

And you ignore the blatent trolling on the remainder of the article, interesting... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.240.133 (talk) 23:40, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Rob ihasz

The entire original consisted of the following, "Rob Ihasz is one of the great American swimmers. He swam for Ohio University, and was a MAC champion. He was lucky to have swam with Donald Jupp, who is a living legend." Fails WP:ATHLETE (with a side order of WP:NOTCONTAGIOUS). --Orange Mike | Talk 13:53, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Okay, thanks a lot for checking. When I saw in the history that an IP had gotten to it before I tagged it, I just wanted to make sure, since you had deleted it before I got a chance to see the original. I've changed the author's talk page (which had my speedy deletion vandalism notice) to reflect that the article failed to establish notability. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 18:14, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, California)

Please do not revert my changes to Mater Dei High School. After doing several weeks of research I uncovered many facts about that High School. I was simply attempting to correct Wikipedia's mistakes, for the benefit of the commonpeople, right? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.194.118.105 (talk) 08:21, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Your edits which I reverted certainly do present some different information. I had no idea that this high school was actually a Buddhist concentration camp run by Adolph Hitler in Auschwitz, California. Please restrict your fiction writing to your class assignments, and stop vandalizing Wikipedia. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:46, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Anne Welles

Thank you for tagging the Anne Welles article with an Irish peer stub. Thanks as well for moving the Anne Boleyn association to the top of the page. I am trying to save it from deletion Some editor feels she doesn't meet notability requirements. As the wife of a premier Irish peer, I insist that she does. As I explained on the article's talk page, there's a dearth of articles relating to Irish peeresses. I have spent considerable time trying to add articles on some of the Countesses of Ormond.--jeanne (talk) 15:24, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. Good luck with the article. I hope it survives and that you continue to contribute to Wikipedia. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 15:32, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

Thank you for correcting my error.I really appreciate it.Pharaoh of the Wizards (talk) 22:34, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. I decided to investigate when someone commented "Wait until the user edits" after you had clearly stated that the user had already created a page. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:49, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Mind Game

Cherish life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Momentary (talk • contribs) 08:40, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Orphan??

You tagged Gaute Kivistik as an orphan. Considering that it falls into the categories, Category:Estonian humorists, are you sure it is appropriate?

Most of the Estonian editors on English Wikipedia left during and after this arbcom from last year, so Estonian-related topics develop incredibly slowly, but my understanding is that the orphan tag is intended for articles not tied to the rest of Wikipedia -- which is not the case when they belong to larger categories. Διγουρεν_{Εμπρος!} 23:52, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

An article is considered to be an orphan if fewer than three other articles (not counting redirects, disambiguation pages, or list articles) link to it. The number of categories which an article belongs to is not relevant to orphan status. There are currently no articles other than redirects linking to Gaute Kivistik. The orphan tag should not be considered a negative, as it encourages Wikipedians to integrate the article into the encyclopedia by introducing appropriate links to it.

I'm sorry to hear that so many Estonian editors left. Thank you for remaining and continuing to contribute. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:41, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

User:Bashereyres "funny five minutes"

Sorry about this- I was too eager. Creating an article about it later today. Bashereyre (talk) 07:32, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Okay. I had noticed that you created Hugh Maudsley Hordern, consisting of a template intended for talk pages, in the middle of rapidly creating identical talk pages for a bunch of your other articles. Since it looked like you just accidentally created that article, I figured I should point it out in case you weren't aware of it. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:48, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Sandbox and categories

Hi Mandarax

Why I can't use categories in my Sandbox? You wrote: "this page is in User space, so don't include it in categories".

For testing, please use the sandbox instead, yes or not.

With regards,

Dr Karel J. Labberté

--

KJL 68 Watchdog 20:00, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Hi. You're working on an article about Anastasiya Markovich on your page User:Labberté K.J./Sandbox. Yes, a sandbox is a good place for testing, but it should not be included in categories. I added a colon in front of each Category so the sandbox article wouldn't appear in those categories. Please see Wikipedia:Categorization#User namespace. The relevant passage states:

"..user subpages that are draft versions of articles should not be categorized into mainspace categories."

I like Markovich's paintings. Good luck with the article.  MANdARAX_XAЯAbИAM_ NOTЄ ЭTOИ  22:21, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Guy Harvey

Nice edits on the Guy Harvey page I started (my first page to originate) - thanksMmyers1976 (talk) 20:10, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. It's nice to know that my minor enhancements are appreciated. Congratulations on your first article, and thanks for contributing to Wikipedia. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:48, 13 November 2008 (UTC)

I got a bit of a shock

this morning when I checked my watchlist and discovered a bunch of very odd edits that, to me, could only be the work of a wikistalker, vandal or something even worse. It turned out to be you changing, Icelandicizing if you will, the name of Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson in several articles. it turns out that many of the occurrences of his name here were ones that I had done, so were on my watchlist. Anyway, I would like to thank you for doing this clean-up task behind me. Carptrash (talk) 16:05, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. I must say I got a bit of a shock when I read the first sentence of your note. I'm glad you figured out that my intentions were only to improve Wikipedia. I would like to assure you that my edits had nothing to do with you. I had never examined the article histories, and was actually unaware that any one person had worked on all of those articles. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:17, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Life is good. Carptrash (talk) 05:12, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Changes made by SmackBot

Hi, thanks for your message, SmackBot makes a number of changes that are available to all WP:AWB bots - in general these provide a number of non-controversial minor improvements.

The issue you raise is related to these, it is an issue known to the developers of WP:AWB.
Regards, Rich Farmbrough, 21:44 21 November 2008 (UTC).

Mhm

Np. M.H.^{ITrue Romace iS Dead} 21:39, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Rodan / Rodin

Hi Mandarax, and thanks for your little note. I use wikipedia partly to educate myself, and that's the day I learned to spell. Best! --Lockley (talk) 16:50, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

YOB instead of DOB. Check instructions

Hi. Concerning this edit of yours, I would like to inform you that for article pages we use Category:Year of birth missing instead of Category:Date of birth missing. If, there is a reason to add the latter, please add it to the Talk page instead but first read WP:PRIVACY and the instructions in the categories above. Thanks. -- Magioladitis (talk) 18:49, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I was actually aware of the correct one to use. The edit you found was an accident. Thank you very much for correcting my mistake and pointing it out to me. I've looked through some of my edits, and in all of the other ones I've found, I did use the correct category. Still, I'll be extra careful in the future. Thanks again. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:00, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Arthur L. Tuuri NEED LINK BETWEEN Charles Stewart Mott AND William C. Durant

Can you go to Charles Stewart Mott to write some where it say about Arthur L Tuuri and make it link... and also in Arthur L Tuuri make link to Charles Stewart Mott? By the way... Thanks YOU for wonderful EDIT (so that way it can remove orphan) CFBancroft (talk) 05:22, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

One More Thing... Can you write up something it say about three people have honor to name Elementary School "DTM" ... You can write up inside William C. Durant, Charles Stewart Mott and Arthur L. Tuuri... and make it all three link each other? Thank You! CFBancroft (talk) 05:45, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Please go to website and look at DTM School It will helpful for your write up. CFBancroft (talk) 06:02, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

need update this one and make new "Durant - Tuuri - Mott" in wiki then all three people and with school so that way all 4 across reference!!! Thanks... CFBancroft (talk) 06:08, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

good info for you to add more refer to three people and school also it talk about Mott give $100,000.00 to help set up DTM school ... I let you read that article ... it will help us to write up better "meat" to three people and school... Oh by the way I went to that school 40 YEARS AGO... that is long time ago. CFBancroft (talk) 06:25, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome for the edits I made to Arthur L. Tuuri. I did the editing because it was an article in need of some work, but I don't really have much interest in the subject. You, on the other hand, seem to be very passionate about it, and you should be the one to continue with the project. Good luck with your editing. - mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ  08:33, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Speedy deletion of Arthur L. Tuuri

Wikipedia:Don't demolish the house while it's still being built

Wikipedia:Give an article a chance

You may said Speedy deletion on Arthur L. Tuuri itself in Wiki... But do NOT say anything in my user talk... just be nice said "Please look at Arthur L. Tuuri that you already wrote recently... I did tag it." So that way I will go to that page and I will find out myself... I don't need TWICE... you can said "it rub my nose twice"

So... Please change your software or script to reduce info inside user talk... Thank You... CFBancroft (talk) 09:06, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I really don't have a clue what you're talking about. I tagged the article which did not seem to establish notability of the subject. I'm not sure if you're complaining because I left a note on your user talk page notifying you about the tag, or if you somehow erroneously think that I either notified you twice or didn't notify you at all. It is standard Wikipedia practice to notify the author (once), and that's exactly what I did.

When I returned to the article later, I saw that you had added some information, so I went to the effort of cleaning it up. I was happy to do so, because that's what I do here -- I work on improving articles. Maybe you're upset because I didn't carry out the assignments you gave me, but, as I mentioned, I'm not interested in the subject and I have no desire to research and write or edit extra articles just so your article can get the Orphan tag removed. - mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ  10:07, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I am sorry that I am not clear first time... I talk about I do not need FULL two Paragraph in in my user talk... Can you write just one or two line... (in software or script) tell me go to see the main page then I can read whole two paragraph itself in article... I am NOT complain that you send direct to AUTHOR... Thank you for notice... I am sorry ... I am excite... because you write good english... not me... I understood that you not interest... I will try my best to write myself in article and let some body clean up later. once again thank you for your wonderful time to respond on this!!! CFBancroft (talk) 10:26, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

The notice is a standard one used whenever a page is nominated for speedy deletion. Yes, it's somewhat redundant with what's on the nominated page, but I guess the idea is to make sure that the user understands why a page may be deleted, how to contest its deletion, and other information. I've removed the notification from your user talk page so it's not cluttering it up any more. Thanks for continuing to contribute to Wikipedia. - mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ  11:06, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I see your Point of View... There is no right or wrong... What you just did redundant that is good to some of people... Anyway many thanks!!! for your input! CFBancroft (talk) 11:58, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Your note

Thanks for the acknowledgement and for introducing me to the WikiGnome concept. I love it! LilHelpa (talk) 03:57, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, I'm glad I mentioned WikiGnomes to you. How ironic that such a shining example of them wasn't familiar with them. Keep up the good work. Oh, and I noticed the new Gnome mushroom on your User page -- looks good.  mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ  09:57, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Galib is wishing you a Happy New Year. This card promotes WikiLove and hopefully it has made your day much better. Best Wishes and Happy Editing!

Best To Reply At My Talk Page. Thanks.

Just Stopping by. Yours Truly, M.H.^{True Romance iS Dead} 15:03, 1 January 2009 (UTC) .

Re:Signing

Thanks for the heads up, its been a while since i've edited. Have a good one! Matty (talk) 12:00, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Hehe, the whole current Enigmanman controversy started with his reaction to an unsigned !vote. I'm glad this went more smoothly!  mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ  12:30, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism

Hi, I came upon your userpage by chance and read your thoughts on vandalism. I think the vadalism patrols and admins in Wikipedia work far too hard, because they have been given antique tools. I started writing an article about it on my user page, but I wish some admins would start on their own and make a "Admin wish list" of additional tools that would save them effort. Then those tools will eventually get built. If you know other admins, please consider creating such a wishlist somewhere and I will add some computer thoughts to it and it may lead to tools that will mak elife harder for vandals. Cheers History2007 (talk) 00:17, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi. First, in case you think I'm an admin, I'm not. Yes, vandalism fighting is hard work and any tools to make it easier would certainly be appreciated. I read your article on Content protection. Have you considered taking your ideas to the Village pump? Good luck.

BTW, I like the Descartes joke on your user page!  ^mandarax _{xɐɹɐpuɐɯ}  02:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, ok, I will think about the Village pump. I did not know about it. Thanks. History2007 (talk) 23:18, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

01C

Thank'ee much for joining! Your request has been approved and you are now a proud member of Wikipedia's only counter-vandalism cabal! Want a userbox to go along with it? (Also, we've got an InvisionFree board; check the cabal page.) 21655 ^{ταλκ/01ҁ} 20:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the approval! Yes, I am proud to be a member. (Now, the rules are the same as for Fight Club, right?) User box is in place, although modified for uniformity. MANdARAX XAЯAbИAM (NOTЄ ЭTOИ) 01:38, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Chris Webster

Hi

I may be working with Chris Webster whose wiki you edited a bit. Great range of work on American Art, thanks. I am working on some art.videos, based out of London, UK. Sure to use this resource for inspiration:

search_maxusart

Camdentowner (talk) 19:16, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I only made a very minor edit to Chris Webster. I'm not familiar with his work at all. Good luck on your project.  MANdARAX_XAЯAbИAM__NOTЄ_ЭTOИ  20:09, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Fra Angelico

The vandalism goes on and on. What is the point? Why that article, in particular? Does some school system do a project on him, or what? What does one do to get it protected? Amandajm (talk) 04:59, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I'll never understand why people vandalize Wikipedia.

Maybe I'm just too used to seeing too much vandalism, but the Fra Angelico article doesn't seem to me to be having unusually high levels lately, and enough people have the page watchlisted that any vandalism seems to get reverted pretty quickly. But if you feel there's enough vandalism to warrant protection, you may request it at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection. - mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ 07:41, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Removing dead link

I've removed a dead link today at List_of_minor_characters_in_Dilbert (not logged, from 217.172.29.23). Because dilbert.com changed design, this link will never work. You reverted this change, so can you restore my deleting? Sorry for editing pages without summary from anonymous ip. Lopatoid (talk) 00:49, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Okay, but instead of deleting it entirely, I've replaced the dead link with a link to the main dilbert.com page. When anonymous IPs remove content without an edit summary, it's often vandalism. It really helps a lot to always leave a summary. Also, note that you could have taken care of it yourself, but I do appreciate your bringing this to my attention. mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ 01:03, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

204.8.199.97 (talk)

On 27 January, 204.8.199.97 (talk) performed some vandalism on Aerodynamics. I was about to post a caution message on the IP address Talk page but I saw that, on 16 January, you gave this User a final warning, saying that any future vandalism would cause the account to be blocked. It looks like the time has arrived for this IP address to be blocked! (Please let me know if I should draw this to the attention of some other User or WP address.) Dolphin51 (talk) 02:03, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi, you may report a vandal at Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism (WP:AIV for short). However, in this case, a block is not called for (yet). One cannot generally assume that today's anonymous IP vandal is the same person who received a final warning eleven days ago. You should only report users who are actively vandalizing now, and have been sufficiently and recently warned. I have issued a level 2 warning to the user concerning the vandalism you mentioned. There's no firm rule about which level to use in situations like this. Just use your best judgment. Thanks for helping to fight the war against vandalism. mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ 03:41, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Mandarax. Dolphin51 (talk) 06:29, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks-

Thanks for helping me with the WikiProject Tennessee templateRFD (talk) 20:38, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

You're welcome. mandarax xɐɹɐpuɐɯ  (talk ʞlɐʇ) 20:42, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

An amusing dilemma

I reverted a couple of edits by an IP, and they retaliated by changing a number on my user page. Now, when this happens in an article, it's a form of vandalism which I particularly loathe because it's so insidious. In contrast, for example, when someone adds obscenities, it's obvious that the page has been vandalized. But subtly changing a number is a form of vandalism which often goes undetected for extended periods of time. However, in this case, the number in question was the count of the number of times my pages have been vandalized. This presented me with quite a philosophical contradiction. When they vandalized my page by incrementing my vandalism count by one, the user had actually made an accurate edit. Then, was this vandalism? If so, I should revert the edit, but then I would proceed to increment my vandalism tally, putting it right back where it was. How can it be vandalism when the result after dealing with it is identical? But if it wasn't vandalism, that would mean that the number was wrongly incremented, meaning that it was vandalism. I've decided to let the number stand as is.  MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM  11:23, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Your note

Heh. Thanks for the heads-up. Will go read all about it tomorrow. Thanks, too, for the encouragement. LilHelpa (talk) 04:11, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Arthur McIntyre

Interestingly, looking at the category "English wicketkeerper", in spite of your correction to the defaultsort, John MacLean (English cricketer) appears before Arthur McIntyre, when if I understand it correctly he ought to come afterwards, since I precedes L. JH (talk page) 10:13, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

That's because I hadn't gotten around to correcting the DEFAULTSORT for John MacLean (English cricketer) yet. I've now fixed that one too, and they display in the correct order in Category:English wicket-keepers. Thanks for pointing it out.  MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM  10:29, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you

Hello, thank you for correcting my two spelling errors on the Bianca Riario article. Having lived here in Italy for so many years, I occasionally forget my English spelling! Thanks again.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 06:03, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

You're welcome.  mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ  06:44, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks, Mandarax, for your welcome message. I used to have an account, but have gone out to pasture, and return only to perpetrate occasional minor contributions. Cheers, 99.184.128.247 (talk) 22:29, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, those contributions are appreciated. Keep up the good work. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:37, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Elijah McCoy

I note that you changed the default sort to "Elijah Maccoy", which I believe is inconsistent with the spelling of his name. I don't know why you made the change (AGF), so I didn't revert it. But it seems wrong to me. Please take a look and see if you got it right. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 14:39, 24 February 2009 (UTC) Stan

Strange as it may seem, the sorting I changed it to, Maccoy, Elijah, is correct. I figured that people might wonder about this, which is why I include a link to WP:Categorization of people#Other exceptions in the Edit summary when I correct any "irregular" DEFAULTSORT (or listas on talk pages). The relevant passage is:

For a surname which begins with Mc or Mac, the category sort key should always be typed as Mac with the remainder of the name in lowercase — for example, Macdonald, Maccluskey or Macmorris — regardless of how the surname is actually spelled. Remember that the sort key only affects where an article is listed in alphabetical order — it does not alter the appearance of the title.

Thanks for not reverting it even though you suspected that it might be incorrect. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:27, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Given your edit history, you bear the presumption of credibility to me. It would have been patently unwise to proceed precipitously. I recognize that wikipedia is a lot like life, and who you are is more important than any one edit. And who you are may explain the edit entirely. Thanks for explaining what you did, as some of us are not conversant with the convention. Best to you. 21:32, 24 February 2009 (UTC) Stan

Thanks for your nice note. BTW, I've also changed the listas in {{WPBiography}} on Talk:Elijah McCoy. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:39, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Adding links

I have added links to the Mildred Thompson page that include lists for "notable people from Jacksonville","notable people from Tampa", "Howard University Alumni" and the article for "expatriate." Is this enough to take the Mildred Thompson article out of the orphaned category? If not, your recommendations, please? Glassnote (talk) 19:28, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

The Expatriate link helped. Unfortunately, the "list" pages do not count when determining Orphan status. However, I have added a link to Mildred Thompson in the article Art Papers, making three non-list articles linking to the page. I have removed the Orphan tag. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:41, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Mandarax. I had put Mildred Thompson on some other Wikipedia lists as were appropriate, but as you point out, they do not count as links. I think that I could put her name on the James A. Porter page and the Audre Lorde page, both of them were important to her (M.T. was a protege of the first and a lover of the second), but the biographies on those pages do not go into much depth. I don't think it would be appropriate to stick something about M.T. in there without building up the Porter and Lorde articles a heck of a lot more. Laziness triumphs for now. Glassnote (talk) 18:51, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

You're welcome. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:00, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Changing last names to wrong spelling (fix listas per WP:Categorization of people#Other exceptions using AWB)

I know this was probably an accident because you were using AWB, but I wanted to lent you know that you had incorrectly changed a couple of last names in the (WP:Categorization of people). So far I have found three examples the talk page for David McReynolds where you changed the last name to the incorrect spelling (Macreynolds) and the Cynthia McKinney article and talk page were you changed the spelling of the last name to (Mackinney). It's no big deal, but I wanted to lent you know about these errors. Highground79 (talk) 21:45, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Please see my response above, to the second topic before yours, pertaining to Elijah McCoy. The edits I made were, in fact, correct. As I mention above, I include a link to WP:Categorization of people#Other exceptions in the Edit summary to explain my edits which may seem peculiar but are correct. The pages are now back to the correct sorting (I undid two, and someone else had already taken care of the other one). The rules for sorting names are complex. Thanks for letting me know about your concerns. Also, note that, even rapidly editing using AWB, I inspect every edit before I save it. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:57, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Error

Apologies if I don't understand the talkpage coding correctly, but why did you change McPherson to Macpherson at Talk:John McPherson? Timeshift (talk) 07:56, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

It is not an error. It is the correct way to sort the name. See the link which I included in the Edit summary, WP:Categorization of people#Other exceptions, where it explains:

For a surname which begins with Mc or Mac, the category sort key should always be typed as Mac with the remainder of the name in lowercase — for example, Macdonald, Maccluskey or Macmorris — regardless of how the surname is actually spelled. Remember that the sort key only affects where an article is listed in alphabetical order — it does not alter the appearance of the title.

I have undone your reversion, so it is once again correct. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Mac/Mc

Well, I have to say that's a bizarre sorting method! Can't really deduce the internal mechanisms and benefits from doing it that way... Sillyfolkboy (talk) 00:12, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I agree that it is somewhat bizarre, but it is the correct way to do it here. I guess it's because McDonald and MacDonald are often really two different ways of spelling the same name, so they should be listed together. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 06:18, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Cookie

Its the Cookie Monster (talk) has given you a cookie! Cookies promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a cookie, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy munching!

Spread the goodness of cookies by adding {{subst:Cookie}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message, or eat this cookie on the giver's talk page with {{subst:munch}}!

Listas changes

My apologies, I didn't read the rules for sort keys before I started making changes. Thanks for fixing my errors. You should have said something to me earlier, I would have changed my ways (earlier, that is).

Thanks! Matt (talk) 07:26, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, as a matter of fact, I was just in the middle of writing you a note when I received yours. I'll just abandon that note now. Thanks for graciously accepting my corrections. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:33, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

No problem. Don't be afraid to take a whack at me if I get out of line. Matt (talk) 08:04, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Hehe, funny thing is, I began writing you another note on your talk page about hyphens. I took one more look at your contributions before I was going to save it, and I saw that you had already corrected the incorrect corrections, so I abandoned that note too. Keep up the good work. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:14, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Mc/Mac

I have noticed in my watchlist your edits indexing "McX" ans "macx", and just wanted to drop a quick note to say "good work". In my earlier days as editor, I spent a lot of time trying to do this, but had little support. I'm pleased to see that the guidelines now recommend this as standard practice for indexing on wikipedia (as it is elsewhere), and it's great to see an editor devoting so much energy to implementimg it. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 06:13, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your note. It's nice to know that my efforts are appreciated.

I'm not surprised that you didn't get much support when you worked on this. I expected to encounter some resistance, but putting a link to the Wikipedia guidelines in all of the Edit summaries helped, and out of all of the DEFAULTSORT and listas corrections I've done to Mc/Mac articles and talk pages (I estimate I've fixed about seven thousand of them), I've only discovered a few instances in which my edits were erroneously reverted. mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ 08:37, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

7,000? That's a lot of work! But there must be tens of thousands left.

Are you using some sort of bot or script? If not, it may be worth asking at WP:BOTREQ whether anyone can help. There are lots of very helpful bot-owners out there, some of whom are very clever programmers. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 10:07, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

I did a lot of them manually, but I couldn't have done the vast majority without the assistance of AWB. I had considered applying to do it with a bot account, but as it is now, I inspect every edit before I save it, and I find that a small but significant percentage benefit from a human taking care of irregular situations. Thanks for the suggestion, and I may consider going that route at some point. mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ 19:05, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

The work of deleting IP vandalism on chem element pages

Since you're involved, I wonder if you'd like to comment on this discussion on semi-protection for element articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Elements Thanks! SBHarris 23:43, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Hmmmm, I'm not sure what you mean when you say I'm "involved".... I may have reverted vandalism on some "element" articles, but if so, I don't recall any specifics, and it would've just been part of general vandalism scans -- I don't have any element articles watchlisted. While I do find IP vandalism frustrating, one of the core principles of Wikipedia is that anybody can edit, so I would generally not favor protecting articles unless the level of vandalism justified it. Good luck. mandarax • xɐɹɐpuɐɯ 00:22, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, what level of vandalism do you think justifies it? 10% of edits? 20%? 30%? It's typically more than 30% for school edits.

As for the "core principle" that anyone can edit Wikipedia, you'll find it more honored in the breatch than the observers, I'm afraid. For example, most of the BLPs of WMF employees are sprotected, while other heavily vandalized bios of living people are left chronically unprotected. Mostly you'll find that articles sprotected by admins are special interests that the admins just got tired of watching. See the sprotection history of Kiev for example. Wikipedia in practice does not follow its own stated policies, and never has. In practice, any rule is changed locally whenever anybody gets annoyed and has the power to do it. SBHarris 00:57, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

Mac sorting

Thanks for this. I had no idea. I am learning new thingees every day at WP. Bearian (talk) 19:42, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

You're welcome. Judging from the number of pages I've been fixing, a lot of people are unaware of the Mc/Mac sorting guidelines. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:50, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

A Comun Mistake

Hi there. I was going back through the history of Uncontacted peoples edit by edit (if you ask me why, I might have to go and figure that out, so please don't), and I noticed that you and others using AWB made this[1] edit. I changed it back to the correct spelling, which is not the same as in English. This can be verified here[2]. Also I want to thank you for the fact that I am still laughing at your 'Amusing Dilemma', and probably will every time I think of it. Eleven even (talk) 12:20, 25 March 2009 (UTC) Clarification: I only changed the place names, by hand. I let your other spelling fixes stand. Eleven even (talk) 12:25, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much for correcting my error and for notifying me about it. I'm usually very careful to recognize words which AWB thinks are misspelled English words but are actually correct foreign words; in this case I obviously missed it.

I'm glad you appreciated my Amusing dilemma. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 18:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

You're welcome. And I did just laugh again.... Also: Good signers borrow. Great signers steal. Thank you. ElEvEn EvENИ3v3 n3v3l3 19:11, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If you don't mind my making a suggestion, I'd recommend:

<FONT COLOR="green">Єlєvє<SMALL>N</SMALL> єvє<SMALL>N</SMALL></FONT> <FONT COLOR="#ffcc33">иэvэ иэvэl3</FONT>

which produces: ЄlєvєN єvєN иэvэ иэvэl3

MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:40, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I.....really.....like that. I flatter you some more. Though, using a Spectrophotometer, you will notice that I've raised the 3rd couplet of the hex value for the second (yellow) color by 9. I do maintain some originality! ЄlєvєN єvєN иэvэ иэvэl3 19:56, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

And here's the final daily build. I feel so much realer as a Wikipedian now! I mean because I stayed up all night editing, and started using Twinkle. But the sig gives me fuzzies for sure. ЄlєvєN єvєN||иэvэ иэvэl3 20:21, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Helping you with your signature inspired me to update mine yet again. If I had it to do over again, I might've selected a username which was better suited to this sort of thing. Oh, well. Anyways, congratulations on your beautiful new signature! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:05, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

46 or 47 X vandalism

Depending on how you count. Unless your counter is automatic, you need to update it. I followed up, and got WP:AIV involved, and they took appropriate steps. Happy editing. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 16:33, 31 March 2009 (UTC) Stan

Thanks for reverting the vandalism to my user page, and for getting the vandal blocked! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 17:09, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

That name was a dead give away -- he came alookin' for trouble. He was a vandal "to the max", but his max came up sooner than he might have expected. Usually they don't wear such a large target. So was that 46 or 47? Hah-hah. Just kidding. Glad to have your back, so to speak. 7&6=thirteen (talk) 18:20, 31 March 2009 (UTC) Stan

Talkback

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

–Drilnoth (T • C) 17:41, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

Re: About ListasBot

Thanks for the heads up. I'll hold off running ListasBot again (or at least the portion of it that makes changes to listas entries, since I have ListasBot 2 open for approval) until we get a resolution on that issue. Matt (talk) 02:27, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, no biggie. Magioladitis had actually suggested some changes that would become ListasBot 2, so that's been at least keeping my computer busy. Matt (talk) 00:28, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Duncan McNair

I want to add Duncan McNair http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Duncan_McNair,_3rd_Baron_McNair&action=edit&redlink=1 to WP but don't know where to start. I see you have edited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_McNair,_1st_Baron_McNair (his grandfather?) so I thought you might be the right person to ask, when it comes to entries for Lords etc. Here's info on him http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/people/mr-duncan-mcnair Johnalexwood (talk) 22:39, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid I'm not the right person to ask about this. My only contribution to Arnold McNair, 1st Baron McNair was to edit the DEFAULTSORT and category sort keys, and, although I made them more correct than they were to start with, I don't think I got them completely right. I've been fixing the sorting on thousands of Mc/Mac names, but I've usually been skipping nobility because I'm never quite sure of the rules. Having said that, my unqualified opinion is that Duncan McNair, 3rd Baron McNair looks right, and if it's not, I'm sure that someone knowledgeable will move it to the correct place. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:40, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Sandbox for user warnings

Would you please copy the small text on User:Sandbox for user warnings to User talk:Sandbox for user warnings, I would do it myself but I want to make it crystal clear that it is your words and not mine.--Emmette Hernandez Coleman (talk) 14:41, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

I can think of no reason why that text should be there. People using the talk page to make test edits don't need to be distracted by a note about who created the account, and anyone wishing to know can go to the user page, just as you did. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:09, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Leo McGarry and sorting

Hi!

I saw this edit and it confused me (easily none, I'm afraid!) It looks wrong to me ('''{{DEFAULTSORT:Macgarry, Leo}} ), but I suspect there's a technical reason for it - is there?

Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 19:06, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Never mind, I've just realised what it is. I'm slow sometimes! It's so that "McX" and "MacX" appear before "Ma"s. That'll teach me not to pay attention to edit summaries. Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 19:07, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Hehe. Thanks for coming here instead of reverting it when you thought it might be wrong. If you're interested in the reasoning behind this sorting rule, check out a couple of discussions at WT:Categorization of people. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:25, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

No problem, your edit summary looked too sensible to be vandalism, so I figured it was either a mistake (in which you deserved the courtesy of a nudge) or I was being stupid (in which case asking you about it would serve to educate me). As it happens, your edit summary was even more sensible than I first thought - and with its help I eventually figured it out! I'm a techy person in real life, so I do kind of understand the logic behind it (I'm one of those strange people who quite like "2009-05-12" dates, for example, because they're logical). Cheers, and apologies for the noise on your talk page! This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 19:30, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

BTW, thanks for the link to WP:No self attacks. I hadn't seen that before, and it was amusing. But your "being stupid" comment raises a red flag. If this sort of behavior continues, you may have to report your self attacks to yourself. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:45, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Re: Thanks

No problem! It was actually an editor who I respect - I normally wouldn't monitor or revert their edits - so I left them a message explaining why I'd reverted. I suspect they just weren't familiar with the issue.

Cheers, This flag once was red^propaganda_deeds 10:15, 15 May 2009 (UTC)