User talk:Doug Weller

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Coming here to ask why I reverted your edit? Read this page first...

Please leave me new messages at the bottom of the page; click here to start a new section at the bottom. I usually notice messages soon. I attempt to keep conversations in one location, as I find it easier to follow them that way when they are archived. If you open a new conversation here, I will respond to you here. Please watchlist this page or check back for my reply. If I have already left a message at your talk page, unless I've requested follow-up here or it is a standard template message, I am watching it. If you leave your reply here, I may respond at your talk page if it seems better for context. If you aren't sure if I'm watching your page, or I'm slow to reply, feel free to approach me here.

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Welcome to my talk page! I am an administrator here on Wikipedia. That means I am here to help. It does not mean that I have any special status or something, it just means that I get to push a few extra buttons to help maintain this encyclopedia. If you need help with something, feel free to ask. Click here to start a new topic. If I have not made any edits in a while, (check) you may get a faster response by posting your request in a more centralized place. If you need to get a repeat vandal blocked, you can report them to Administrator Intervention against Vandalism. If you need a page to be protected from editing, try Requests for page protection. If you would like to request rollback rights or account creator rights, Wikipedia:Requests for permissions is, well, that way... :) If your problem does not fit into any of the above criteria, and your issue is urgent, you can: Make a post on the Administrators' noticeboard, the Incidents noticeboard, or one of the other noticeboards. Ask another administrator for help. Here is a complete List of Wikipedia Administrators. If you want to ask for help, you can ask at the help desk for questions about Wikipedia, and at the reference desk for more general questions. You may also simply ask a question on your talk page and add {{helpme}} before your question. This will attract the attention of experienced users who will most likely be able to help you.

Did I delete your page, block you, or do something else that I should not have done?

First, please remember that I am not trying to attack you, demean you, or hurt you in any way. I am only trying to protect the integrity of this project. If I did something wrong, let me know, but remember that I am human, and I do make mistakes. Please keep your comments civil. If you vandalize this page or swear at me, you will not only decrease the likelihood of a response, your edits could get you blocked. (see WP:NPA) When posting, do not assume I know which article you are talking about. If you leave a message saying "Why did you revert me?", I will not know what you mean. If you want a response consisting of something other than "What are you talking about", please include links and, if possible, diffs in your message. At the very least, mention the name of the article or user you are concerned with. Also, if you sign your post (by typing four tildes - ~~~~ - at the end of your message), I will respond faster, and I will tend to be in a better mood, because unsigned comments are one of my pet peeves. If you are blocked from editing, you cannot post here, but your talk page is most likely open for you to edit. To request a review of your block, add {{unblock|reason}} to your talk page. (replace reason with why you think you should not be blocked.) I watch the talk pages of everyone I block, so I will almost definitely see you make your request. If I am making edits (check Special:Contributions/Doug Weller) and I do not answer your request soon, or you cannot edit your talk page for some reason, you can try sending me an email. Please note, however, that I rarely check my email more than a few times a day, so it may be a couple of hours before I respond. Administrators: If you see me do something that you think is wrong, I will not consider it wheel-warring if you undo my actions. I would, however, appreciate it if you let me know what I did wrong, so that I can avoid doing it in the future.

Talk archives:
User talk:Dougweller/Archives/2008/February
User talk:Dougweller/Archives/2008/March
User talk:Dougweller/Archives/2008/April
User talk:Dougweller/Archives/2008/May

You can email me from this link but in the interests of Wiki-transparency, please message me on this page unless there are pressing reasons to do otherwise. Comments which I find to be uncivil, full of vulgarities, flame baiting, or that are are excessively rude may be deleted without response. If I choose not to answer, that's my right, don't keep putting it back. I'll just delete and get annoyed at you.

Hello Dougweller. As you know i'm Ryan (User:Ryanbstevens). Thanks for offering to encourage me. Yes, other editors are frustrated at me, and i know now to add references, sources, and categories. I do apologize to the editors. Thanks for leaving the message. If you have any more comments for me, just post them on my page like you did before. Thanks. —Preceding undated comment was added at 02:55, 7 January 2009 (UTC).

Luxeindia

As the royalrajasthanonwheels.co.in is only website for the new luxury train "Royal Palace on Wheels" so we have given two links. One link redirected to government offical website and one is to royalrajasthanonwheels.co.in. We would like to give information about the new train. We dont want to put our link. Please suggest us further. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.95.235.57 (talk) 15:50, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

It won't be notable until it gets reviews, articles, etc in newspapers, etc. Not blogs. Wikipedia articles are about subjects that other reputable sources have written about, so most new things can't have articles until this happens. 18:10, 26 December 2008 (UTC)dougweller (talk)

Luxindia

I would like to inform you that we have created the wikipage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace_on_Wheels not for the promotional purposes. We have provided the information about the new product and given relevant links to the website. I would request you to please update the page or give us an approval to add the content again about Royal Palace on Wheels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Luxindia (talk • contribs) 07:12, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

It read purely as an advertisement and Wikipedia is an encyclopedia which publishes what reliable and verifiable sources have said about subjects. It had no sources other than its own websites, and to be recreated would required sources that meet our criteria here: WP:RS and it wouls also need to be notable by our standards at WP:ORG. dougweller (talk) 14:25, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

phalanx

it is me (scott) im hoplite well anyway i guess your correct on your statments and verified infotrmation is better and i have been looking on how to contact some sort of historian group or history scholars not much to go off of but do you know anything that might help me in my quest? (quest from anglo french queste an act or instance of seeking)<- just to verify i am using it in a ccorect instance not a nerdy way ya know just a more scholarly word then ending it with, help me with my search. oh and i hope there is no hard feelings hope we can be freinds (not litteraly i mean like we are okay with eachother and i can refer to you if i need help with this or somthing)--Hoplite54 (talk) 00:10, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Sodom and Gomorrah

The reason I posted the change, I wanted to see how long conservative truth lasts on the Wikipedia page of a controversial subject and what kind of PC police force Wikipedia has, if any at all. Unbelievable! That revision lasted only minutes!

What I'd said was truth exposed, and that cannot be bigotry.

When you'd said that I'd removed "existing text." So, what's your point? That's what Wikipedia is all about. Wikipedia encourages people on this site to add, subtract and edit content with wreckless abandon, and you have to know that already. You've made it sound like nobody can touch this page, because it's set in stone. Well, let me give you the same advice that was given to me on this site. You don't own the "Sodom and Gomorrah" page. But, obviously, the page has people watching the site so closely that it not only doesn't pay to try to edit this page, it's shown itself to be of no value to anyone seeking conservative scholarship, if I'd have chosen to include some of that on that page.

However, I have to add that in order for me to have been really legit, I did need to cite sources. If I would've added sources to my comment, then what you did would've been really wrong, because all you seem to be about is slandering, marginalizing and eventually silencing the conservative voice. Canihaveacookie (talk)

Olsson "Editors"

Hey Doug, I would like your help again. Paul Smith and another editor 'Loremaster' have repeatedly harrassed Olsson at Wikipedia. Time after time they have removed all positive references and sources from her Wiki page. I cannot continue to deal with these people. Is there someone I can turn to for mediation? Thank You. Alexis

Sorry

I grew up in school with BC and I'm just not used to BCE yet. I'm not doing this for religious reasons. But sorry for the edit. AaronPaige (talk) 14:57, 22 June 2008 (EST)

I sorta agree with this guy. I'm a pretty devout Western Roman Catholic and dang proud of it. I was raised on B.C., before Christ, and I don't appreciate these "threats" being made to me. And make no mistake, every time I see BCE or CE, I will change it.

You have been warned.

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Jaet —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.148.126.104 (talk) 23:16, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Edit-warring against "the unofficial global standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations and the Universal Postal Union"? You are asking to be blocked from editing. --Hans Adler (talk) 09:45, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Midewiwin

I see now that that was an unproductive edit. My apologies. ClovisPt (talk) 19:37, 2 July 2008

SmackBot

Thanks. Rich Farmbrough 10:30 21 September 2008 (UTC).

Image

Hi Doug, I was wondering if you know how where I have to go to give a reason to keep this beloved image for a GA review for Battle of Hyrba, here are the links that will help you answer my question, [[1]], [[2]]. As you will find out, it will be deleted tommorow, so I will greatly appreciated if you respond on my page today. I solemnly apolagize if I might have ever offended you earlier, and I want to thank you for your helping hand in previous events. I can honestly say you have helped me here more than anyone else on Wikipedia, a true mentor. Best regards and goodbye.--Ariobarza (talk) 23:10, 21 November 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza talk

edit on Papua mythology moved out of this section. dougweller (talk) 18:01, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

You guys lost me, (are these two comments above in relation with my question) and how is this answering my question? Doug if the comments do not have anything to do with what I am saying here, tell OXQ to comment somewhere else, so please reread my question, I thank you.--Ariobarza (talk) 07:29, 22 November 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza talk

It's too late now, the image is now deleted. Thanks for helping me save the image...--Ariobarza (talk) 07:46, 22 November 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza talk

I have been away all day being taught by an Italian chef how to cook exotic meat and game. I am afraid I only noticed OXQ's edit -- you are right, he definitely should not have done that. But looking at the links, I don't think I could have come up with a way to save it, sorry. Please though, stop the sarky remarks, they show a real lack of good faith. dougweller (talk) 18:01, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Come on... Sarky comments? Doug you know, as an adult, one should not be offended by sarky comments. This has nothing to do if I have good faith with you or not. A joke is a joke, you must evolve into a new state of conscienceness, I am always happy, and I had a smile on my face when I said that. A big smile! "Don't worry, be happy." Byebye.--Ariobarza (talk) 02:59, 23 November 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza

Doug, you have been warned. ----Shadow

Egypt list

I don't personally don't update it as I am unfamiliar with it. It is Captmondo (Keith) who does the updating here. Thank You, --Leoboudv (talk) 21:47, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

I assume anyone can update it. I certainly have added several articles this week which should be in it. I use it to check on vandalism. I guess I should check with Keith though, thank you for mentioning him. dougweller (talk) 21:49, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Indefinite IP blocks

Hey again, I noticed you indefinitely blocked the following IP addresses:

• 68.153.118.30 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)
• 213.100.68.170 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)
• 67.186.20.215 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log)

Per Wikipedia:Blocking IP addresses, IP addresses should almost never be indefinitely blocked (as you probably now know due to the message you recently left on my talk page). Do you have a problem with unblocking (or at least reblocking these IPs for a set period of time)? I've reviewed the history of each of these IPs and I personally would have blocked the first for a month (would be expired by now), the second for no more than a week (would have been expired by now), and the third for no more than a week (also would have been expired by now). From my understanding we should only indefinitely block IP addresses in extreme cases, such as a WP:OFFICE or perhaps an OTRS action. Thanks, VegaDark (talk) 22:34, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

I've unblocked 215, but I'm a bit uncertain about this still as I note another administrator, User:Zzuuzz put an indef block noticed on the user page it and also for 170, thus obviously agreeing with me about the indef blocks. Should I contact them to say I've unblocked? What do I do about the notices on user/talk pages, remove them or add another notice? Thanks. dougweller (talk) 06:42, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, and you don't need to leave a message to ZZuuzz. I'm pretty sure he was just matter-of-fact tagging it so the IP would show up in the proper category. I'm pretty sure he or a bot goes through every once in a while to remove/add the indefblocked IP template from pages, I'm not sure if he reviews to see if he actually agrees with the blocks or not. Thus, you can remove the template if you want but it will eventually be removed whether you do or not. As for removing indefblock notices on talk pages, you can if you want. I don't when I unblock, since usually the pages are so scattered with warnings that I doubt it would make a difference. VegaDark (talk) 07:09, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the explanation. I won't remove them and doubt that the users involved even read the pages themselves. dougweller (talk) 07:16, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

If an IP continues to disrupt after being unblocked, feel free to re-block for whatever time you feel is justified, as long as it isn't indef (usually 1 year is the max regular block length, but a few months is a lot more common). Since they are discussing it on the talk page though, you may want to hold off unless they ignore consensus. VegaDark (talk) 16:01, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm holding off, but if he continues to edit in contradiction of the references, etc, I may block him again. I appreciate your advice. dougweller (talk) 17:05, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Sofia Shinas

Hi. I hate to drag up old stuff, but I wanted to direct your attention to Talk:Sofia Shinas#Birth Date - This may solve it.... A Los Angeles Times article seems to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the birth certificate forwarded to OTRS and the 1974 birth date alleged by it. Wildhartlivie (talk) 08:24, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Florentino

Doug, could you explain to me why you blocked User:Florentino floro? I would like to facilitate his unblock if possible, and I am hoping we can determine some reasonable conditions for that. Everyking (talk) 09:22, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

You'll need to take this to ANI. He appears to be mentally ill and no one objected to his block, quite the opposite.You've seen the discussion about his user page, also see [3] and [4] although hopefully you already have. Start a new ANI section on unblocking him would be my suggestion. I will oppose it given his refusal to acknowledge any wrongdoing at the very least. I don't think he is able to function as a Wikipedia editor, and given his threat to use sockpuppets and the earlier creation of sockpuppets, I expect some will oppose him just for those reasons. I also will say that I don't think he can work within a community on a truly collaborative basis, probably because of his evident mental problems. dougweller (talk) 12:34, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

What if he acknowledges wrongdoing? Everyking (talk) 17:43, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

I think his problems prevent him from doing this meaningfully, for a start. Also, scroll just up from here: [5]. He has also said he would continue editing, he has at least 3 now blocked sockpuppets (he vigorously denies this [6] one, although it seems pretty clear that it is a sockpuppet of his). As I said, you can and more or less must take such a request to ANI, but I don't think it will fly. dougweller (talk) 19:28, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

I am well aware of the difficulty of obtaining a consensus in that setting, particularly considering that people have taken to characterizing him as an lunatic, and I would much prefer it if you would agree to unblock him, or at least outline some conditions. Is it your position that Florentino is fundamentally incapable of functioning as a worthwhile editor and that there are no conditions in which an unblock would be appropriate? Everyking (talk) 04:58, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that is my position, but even if I felt differently I would still take it back to ANI considering the response to my blocking him. I would not consider doing it unilaterally. dougweller (talk) 06:12, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't think your position is compatible with the some of the philosophy behind Wikipedia; I think it's necessary that, if someone is going to be blocked, we need to articulate reasons for that block that can actually be addressed by that person within the context of Wikipedia if he or she wishes to resume editing. That way, we give everyone a fair opportunity to get back in. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to articulate something like "needs to be more civil"? Florentino could then undertake to be more civil and we could watch his behavior carefully for a while to ensure that he was sticking to his promise. Everyking (talk) 07:26, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Did you not read the original discussion? He has been politely asked to be more civil many, many times before. He has also been politely asked to refrain from doing the things he does--adding useless trivia, prophesying disaster, threatening people with curses. Each time he was asked to, he replied with an incomprehensible rant, followed by edits that clearly showed he did not follow any of the advice. And keep in mind that people have been asking him this since 2006. Check his talk page and the archives for yourself. He was not blocked for being a lunatic but for harassment, and there are plenty of non-derogatory reasons to keep him blocked, as articulated in the original discussion and even the RfC. I realize that people are coming down hard on him in the ANI page, but that's no reason to make the jump from defending him to saying he should be unblocked. There are plenty of valid reasons to keep him blocked. --Migs (talk) 08:47, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

On a few occasions early in Florentino's editing history, I gave him some editing advice and he reacted positively; I was subjected to no incomprehensible rants (although, of course, I have seen him indulge in such rants when talking to others—I just want to stress that's not the whole picture). I also think we need to keep in mind that Doug's block is only the second block Florentino has ever received. It's not exactly normal to move so quickly to an indef block when dealing with a long-term, industrious editor. Isn't it reasonable to think that a series of short blocks might have helped guide his behavior? We don't know how he would have reacted because we haven't tried that approach. Everyking (talk) 09:25, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

(unindent) Please keep this discussion on ANI so everyone can see it. No one else wants to unblock him, and what is strange is that he only has one block. Even his response to the block shows that unblocking him wouldn't bring about a new Floro following Wikipedia guidelines and policies, by the way. And that blog of his... if he had a clue and an interest, he'd have wiped most of it. dougweller (talk) 10:02, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Protection for Hatshepsut

Dear Doug, If you please, I request some form of page protection for Hatshepsut ASAP.

• There has been massive and repeated vandalism of this article by numerous anonymous IPs: [7] Just go through the edit history. I don't know why almost every anonymous editor has to vandalise her page...just because she was a great female pharaoh. How many times is the article going to be vandalised until no one can make sense of its content? Thank You, --Leoboudv (talk) 01:20, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Done, I've protected it in the past but they just keep coming back. dougweller (talk) 05:29, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

• Thanks for acting here. It was painful seeing all the anon IP's placing words like mother f..., btch, etc in Hatshepsut's article. It was brutal. By the way, I created this article: [8] Feel free to place a banner or category for it. Personally, I just create articles and try to source images for them. I got the 3 flickr images from my contacts within the past two days. Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 06:47, 24 November 2008 (UTC)
• Note: Captmondo posted a short response regarding the list here Basically, he says no problem. Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 20:52, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm unwatching all the Egyptian stuff from my watchlist to make it easier to read and making sure it's on the AE list. Good article by the way. dougweller (talk) 22:07, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

• You're very welcome. Since the tomb of Senenmut's parents were found intact, they certainly merited an article here. Sadly, you likely won't find one on Brittanica. Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 20:57, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Unblock request of Lux Lord (talk · contribs)

Hi. Could you comment on that request? I'm asking because it's not immediately evident to me, judging from the contributions, that he's indeed a sock of Florentino floro (talk · contribs). Thanks,  Sandstein  08:42, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm not dougweller but Lux Lord has many of the same speech patterns and obsessions exhibited by Florentino Floro. He also obsesses over similar topics. I'd be more specific, but Floro actually reads other talk pages and I'd rather he didn't know how we're able to tell it's him. I think, though, that a comparison between Lux Lord's messages and Floro's should suffice. Floro himself admits to having sockpuppets so this is a reasonable assumption. In any case, Lux Lord probably isn't who he claims he is; knowing quite a number of faculty at that school, I can say with reasonable certainty that Lux Lord's concerns are not something Ateneo would concern itself with. --Migs (talk) 08:55, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

User:Laa_Careon

And speaking of Floro's sockpuppets, I suspect this might be one but I'd like a second opinion. Laa Careon. He also follows similar editing patterns and concerns, but he hasn't seen fit to deliver a long incoherent rant yet. I've also posted a notice in the ANI topic. --Migs (talk) 08:55, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Yes, he shows up about 5 hours after Floro's block. I don't understand why some people think a promise to be civil is enough in the face of all of this. dougweller (talk) 09:10, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Article protected for 6 weeks

I think you're entitled to an answer and/or a discussion on the application of "original research" at the RSN. Otherwise it looks rather as if we're seeing a POV attempt to block the discussion that the page is intended for. PR^talk 18:10, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. As it happens, another Admin took the bit between his teeth and unblocked it. And now the article on the author is a redirect to his book, Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War‎ and that is up for AfD!. I'm particularly annoyed still that people think they can quote 'book reviews' that are just Amazon blurbs (and tell me that 'blurbs' isn't encyclopedic). There was a discussion here [9] that was just completely ignored. Another editor has tried to fix that however. This is all basically a POV push for a particular writer, who himself seems to be aware of what is going on here and indirectly taking part. dougweller (talk) 15:55, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Atlantis Location

I tried to be helpful by including links to Philistines in the Crete location, and Coordinates to the Mount Sipylus under the Turkey location. While I don't particularly lend credence to either location, people examining the merits of those ideas would be better served by having links to inter-related data (eg. Keftiu = Caphtor = Origin of the Philistines, so the Philistines origin may determine the validity of the Minoan postulation) or simply coordinates for all the locations for some Google Earth amusement. I know you chimed in on the edit wars, I wonder if you have any insights regarding why these types of edits would be rescinded. It seems that Georgeos Diaz-Montexano has a strong inclination to promote the Andalusia Hypotheses... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.127.128.2 (talk) 23:17, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for this. I have to admit that an IP editor coming along and adding coordinates without a source is pretty much fodder for reversion. Why not start a new section on the talk page first? And what did you want done with those quotes you put on the talk page? dougweller (talk) 15:58, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I will post the coordinates request in the Talk area. With regard to the quotes, many of Mr Diaz-Montexano's rebuffs against the Minoan theory have to do with the fact that Plato never claimed that Atlantis had such and such attribute. I just tried to post sections of Critias that have correspondece with the History Channel's version of events. While Mr Diaz-Montexano is technically correct, I would say that Critias's comments (in the same document where Plato has commented) count as part of the historical Atlantean cannon.

Battle of Thermopylae

Hi there, You protected this article yesterday after a content dispute. For my part, I am sorry for becoming involved in it, although I didn't really realise I was, until I was, if you see what I mean.

Anyway, I see that I am not the first to come up against Ariobarza and fail to get through. I left a not-especially-polite response to his edits on the discussion page after you protected the article, to which he responded in typically rambling , and equally not-very-polite fashion. Feeling a little guilty, I proposed a compromise (still on the talk page). However, since then I have been now exploring Ariobarza's history a bit more, and I'm not sure that changes should be made to the article purely to please him/her.

I would therefore be happy for the article to remain protected for the time-being. However, given that the current version is a mess of edits which pleases no-one, could I suggest that the whole article be reverted to this version: 18:51, 25 November 2008. This would remove all of yesterday's edits. Not because I believe that that version is the best, just better than the current version. Obviously I understand if you just want to leave the article as it is.

Thanks, MinisterForBadTimes (talk) 11:47, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

I can only do that if Ariobarza agrees, I'm afraid, however much I'd like to. dougweller (talk) 15:11, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Seth Material

You may be interested in commenting here. Verbal chat 12:12, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Those are perfectly good paragraphs that have been removed. If they are no longer part of the article, other authors won't have the opportunity to add references. Since I have reverted two bad revisions already today, I will restore them after midnight.--Caleb Murdock (talk) 18:37, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

No, I will put them on the talk page. You can't just put them back and hope something will happen. And midnight has no significance. Nor in fact is there really a magic number 3. dougweller (talk) 18:47, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Excuse me, but if every paragraph on Wikipedia which did not have a reference was deleted, two-thirds of Wikipedia would disappear. Articles are not developed on Talk pages, and you know that.--Caleb Murdock (talk) 08:59, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Talk pages exist purely to develop articles. And there is a lot of cleaning up to do on Wikipedia, WP:OTHERCRAPEXISTS is never a good argument.

If the standards that you apply to this article were applied to every article from the beginning, nothing would ever get written.--Caleb Murdock (talk) 09:43, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Sheer nonsense. What happened is policies and guidelines were tightened up a couple of years ago, leaving a lot of articles which have to be improved. I've only written one short article from scratch, and I wrote that all in my userspace, making sure it met Wikipedia standards before it was placed in article space. That's how all articles should be written now ideally. dougweller (talk) 10:04, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

You have a point, but when people see one article being held to a higher standard than many others, its quite easy to think that it is being unfairly targeted. The subpage allowing the "tenets' to be worked on until proper references have been established I think is a good solution. 70.186.172.75 (talk) 20:47, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I wish you could convince Caleb of that, maybe if you said something on the article talk page he'd stop thinking it was simply an attack. I guess the problem is that some people, eg Caleb, have a very narrow view of Wikipedia as they only work on one or two articles. dougweller (talk) 22:13, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I'll try to smooth things over. I did mention to him about attacks on others based on religious persuasion (or lack thereof). His approach does not encourage cooperation. 70.186.172.75 (talk) 22:48, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Could You Please Ban Me?

Could you please block me from editing? I have told myself I will stop editing time and time again because doing innocent and supposedly helpful things like adding infoboxes or persondata boxes tend to upset a lot of people here, but usually I end up adding some information anyway. Wiki-addiction maybe. Maybe if you banned me from editing it would be easier for everyone. i am not joking or being sarcastic by the way. Its annoying to get reprimanded over and voer for trying to help but kind of hard to resist editing. Thanks. 70.186.172.75 (talk) 22:40, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

I've replied on your talk page, it would be better to ask to be adopted. Maybe you could find other outlets for your addiction. :) dougweller (talk) 06:26, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Historical Basis for King Arthur

Do you have a reliable source that says that Goodrich is not a reliable source? If so, isn't the proper response to put something into the article indicating that she's wrong, rather than to revert it? I'm not being sarcastic, I actually think that's how NPOV is supposed to work when you have conflicting sources, unless one of the sources is genuinely presenting a fringe argument. Goodrich might be "dreadful" (I'll take your word for it that you have reasons to believe so), but I'm not aware of a reason to think that she's completely goofy. I'm unreverting. Cheers. DCB4W (talk) 15:18, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

I put a flag on the talk page for that article, if we could address it further there, in case there are other editors with opinions on the issue. I kind of liked Goodrich's book, so if there is a reason to disregard her I'd like to know that. I look forward to the discussion. DCB4W (talk) 15:32, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

moved section from my talk to WP:IPNA

Hi Dougwellwer. I just wanted to let you know that I had moved the Gender roles in First Nations and Native American tribes section from my talk page to the discussion page at WP:IPNA as it seemed a bit more appropriate there as I would be able to address some of the "Algonquian" section, but the article is more than just that. At IPNA, I have posed some additional comments for the rest of us to think about as well. CJLippert (talk) 15:44, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Floro's latest

Sorry to bug you but here's his latest sockpuppet. It's patently obvious that this is him. Here. He's been using it to mass revert the edits to his contributions that were made by max and me. --Migs (talk) 13:31, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

I think you'll have to take it to ANI, it isn't obvious enough to me to block it on my own I'm afraid. And if it is a sock it still should be at ANI so others know. dougweller (talk) 13:35, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Seth Material 2

Another discussion here Verbal chat 12:09, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head

Hi Doug, I'm really not sure of the correct procedure, but there is a little situation at Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head involving an individual editing from an IP account who is consistently vandalizing the article, at least by my interpretation of vandalism. Of course, I may be incorrect, and the IP's edits may be in the best interests of the 'pedia, but that really doesn't seem likely to me. Could you perhaps take the time to initiate whatever process that will result in blocking this editor, or at least take a look at the article? Thanks, ClovisPt (talk) 09:56, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Editing from a Barclays Bank computer, lots of vandalism from that account and in fact I just reverted vandalism from the same address on James D. Watson, and gave an anonblock of 1 month -- just the latest of a number of blocks on that account. Whatever they were doing on the head article, they needed blocking for their other vandalism. dougweller (talk) 10:11, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Gracious. ClovisPt (talk) 10:20, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Seth Material mediation

A request for mediation has been filed with the Mediation Committee that lists you as a party. The Mediation Committee requires that all parties listed in a mediation must be notified of the mediation. Please review the request at Wikipedia:Requests for mediation/Seth Material, and indicate whether you agree or disagree to mediation. If you are unfamiliar with mediation on Wikipedia, please refer to Wikipedia:Mediation. Please note there is a seven-day time limit on all parties responding to the request with their agreement or disagreement to mediation. Thanks, Caleb Murdock (talk) 19:19, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

I've dropped my opinion into the case as an "additional issue". Mangoe (talk) 23:09, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks, some good comments there. I still don't feel I have a complete grasp of [[]WP:UNDUE]] but I do think it probably applies to the Seth article. dougweller (talk) 06:29, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

External Link in Sheol

Hi Dougweller, I added the the external link from the article about Sheol, and it was promptly removed. The article I was linking to is a chapter in a free online book, and the chapter deals with the subject and concept of hell in the OT, specifically with the word Sheol in its various usages and contexts. I know the links are "no follow", but I thought the article might have something to offer to a person interested in Sheol and its usage in the OT. The Wikipedia article is low traffic, and only has one external link, so I thought I could put the link in there without a problem. What is the protocol for adding links? I've "suggested external links" before in the talk section, and too often they seem to get ignored. What do I do if I don't get a response one way or another?

Take a look at WP:RS, WP:SPS, and WP:EL. Basically links to personal websites unless they are the site of the author/subject of the article are deprecated. Ditto commercial links. If you don't get a response, I guess you can add it but don't be surprised or upset if it gets removed (we all get stuff removed, it's not worth getting upset over). I've added a welcome menu to your talk page with loads of links, and you really should get a regular account if you plan to stay around, but not everyone does. dougweller (talk) 22:17, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry

Hey, sorry if you think I was being rude over at the Seth discussion. I am writing here because the other discussion is getting so convoluted I am having trouble following the thread. All I meant to say was that to me pseudoscience as far as I am aware is an attempt at making something into a science which really isn't. The Seth Material is more philosophy/magic . . . it is not an organized religion, but part of a "New Age" religious view . . . a kind of mishmash of religious ideas that a good number of people hold. As usual, in situations like this, I try to help and end up getting kicked by both sides. Sorry if I lose my temper on occasion. See why I wanted to be banned? 70.186.172.75 (talk) 20:45, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

-) No problem, really. I agree about your characterisation of the ideas of the Seth Material, what makes it fringe is simply the psychic element. I hadn't realised until today that it is actually Caleb's religion, which I guess explains his anger and I think makes it difficult to work with him (you, on the other hand, even if you may lose your temper, are trying to work with others). Anyway, I'm definitely not banning you. dougweller (talk) 22:12, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

He does get a bit hot under the collar which is a pity because it seems the people involved are trying to work with him pending sources for the tenets section. The odd thing is that Roberts herself wanted to avoid having her work turned into a religion. Go figure. Take care. 70.186.172.75 (talk) 22:47, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Request for mediation not accepted

A Request for Mediation to which you were are a party was not accepted and has been delisted. You can find more information on the case subpage, Wikipedia:Requests for mediation/Seth Material. For the Mediation Committee, WJBscribe (talk) 17:35, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

This message delivered by MediationBot, an automated bot account operated by the Mediation Committee to perform case management.
If you have questions about this bot, please contact the Mediation Committee directly.

Article splits

Interesting. I think [10], on or about 3 December, renamed Biblical Archaeology and made a mess of things. (The new name he wanted to give it was Biblical excavations and artefacts - which seems pretty sensible and I'd support it). I don't have the skills to fix it. PiCo (talk) 22:30, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

It was the talk page for Biblical archaeology, which has now been retitled Biblical excavations and artifacts. Somehow it's been orphaned. PiCo (talk) 23:18, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Temp protect

Can you place a temporary protection on Land of Punt and give a warning to Dragonfire 123? Someone seems to be really obsessed with placing sexual 'stuff' in it from the article history By the way, that was my Anon IP which removed the 3D image here as it is a relief, not a painting or papyri which are 2D art. It has been placed for deletion on Commons. Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 09:07, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

ArbCom vote

I noticed your vote to oppose me in the election and I felt I should clear some things up. Yes, I have as an aside mentioned that I am not opposed of the idea of a parliament on Wikipedia. Would this affect my work as an arbitrator? No. Would I be actively campaigning for a parliament as an arbitrator or even as a regular administrator? No. Would I propose such a thing, or do I plan on proposing it? No, not even close. I give you my complete assurances that a parliament is not and will never be part of the reforms of ArbCom or Wikipedia in general that I seek or propose. I urge you to please reconsider your vote. Thank you. --Hemlock Martinis (talk) 17:41, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi Doug

Thanks. Redirect sorted now. And thanks for your earlier message. Thinking about it... Itsmejudith (talk) 16:21, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

read this please

this is scott. well im okay with you deleting it though i call it a theory since it is testable and i have studied history since the age of 5 and probably know more then you (no offence intended) i do know more then most people i even match the historical knowlegde of my social studies (history) teacher. im in 8th grade so he knows a good deal meaning i know more since he is only teaches part of history. i knew more then my 7th grade history teacher who taught about the greeks. so i may not have credentials and everything but hey if this is an editing site how come we cant add if it actually matters and isnt random crap and just deletings? im aspired to be a historian since age five. ive read the odessy, the illiad and many history based books that span from the ancient to medieval times and not only am i the same level of intellegence as my history teacher im in advanced so there you go as i said before im not mad im just a little confused as to why you even allow edits also how do i make an account and what does it accomplish for me? --24.44.51.17 (talk) 23:02, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Appietas

I left some comments on User_talk:Appietas. He is making a large number of Roman history articles unreadable. I can't even understand a lot of what he does, and I am fairly proficient on the topic. Part of the problem is the sheer volume of seemingly irrelevant information he adds (such as quoting contemporary historians in the original Greek), not to mention how disorganized his edits are. RomanHistorian (talk) 00:32, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Senenmut

Dear Doug,

• I am leaving this message here as a minor request. If possible, please try to 'move' or change the title of this article: [11] from Senemut to Senenmut. (with the second 'n') You did this with the titles for the Psamtik kings. I have read Dorman's 1988 classic on 'The Monuments of Senenmut' and even he spelled this person's name with two n's--and this was 20 years ago. The same happened to Dorman's 1991 book 'The Tombs of Senenmut at Thebes.' My guess is someone started Senenmut's article here on WP with the Senemut spelling which is slightly wrong. I tried to move the title from Senemut to Senenmut and was blocked but you can use your Admin tools. I'm just aiming at historical accuracy, nothing more. Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 10:24, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

• As an Aside, please consider placing temporary protection on Ramesses I. Someone with two different anonymous IPs has been targetting it in the past 2-3 months--stripping out chunks of the article. He got blocked temporarily on 1 IP and soon used another IP...and has not been warned. If you look at the article history, I just added back a huge missing chunk which had been lost for 2 weeks. Some people have too much time on their hands! Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 10:39, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

• That's OK on Ramses I. And thanks for helping out on Senenmut. I'lll standardise the spelling there. Enjoy your holiday in Prague. I'm currently snowed in in Metro Vancouver--the first winter storm in Western Canada! Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 23:01, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Sofia Shinas

Hi. I apologize upfront because I realize this is going to sound like nagging and obsessiveness, but nevertheless, I feel the need to revisit this since the article Sofia Shinas was unprotected this morning. To review, an SPA, one of a slew of the same who variously insisted they know Shinas, insisted they knew she had to have been born in 1974. When pressed for proof, one of them suddenly came up with an alleged copy of her birth certificate obtained from Shinas' brother who "who wouldn't mind" if [the SPA] sent it in (which raises the question of permission to release it). You protected the article because of the edit warring from the SPAs, at which time someone working in OTRS changed the article through the full protection, which you questioned here, which included my recap of the situation. Note my posting was not responded to. At that time, a question was raised on AN/I [12]]. After my posting, nothing further was posted on this.

The issue of the apparently connected SPAs was raised in a sock puppet case, which was closed because the page was protected, rather than the inquiry be investigated or action taken. I approached the person who closed the SSP here, which you'll note was also not responded to. Everything seems to just wither on the vine and no one seems concerned with this, although I still think OTRS was duped, especially since the following has since been raised on Talk:Sofia Shinas. An editor posted Talk:Sofia Shinas#Birth Date - This may solve it..., which included a 1992 article about an interview with Shinas from the Los Angeles Times, an archive of which exists here. The article gave a chronology that absolutely refutes the alleged birth certificate authenticity. I gave my reasoning on this here. I then contacted you above, User talk:Dougweller#Sofia Shinas.

What I'd like to know is what can and should be done about correcting this? At some point, I believe I read that at the AN/I that Lucasbfr at OTRS was trying to locate the ticket and then someone was trying to contact a Shinas representative to try and verify the birth date, but I suspect that also died a natural death. I honestly don't usually keep revisiting this sort of thing, but everything I've read and know tells me the birth certificate submission was phony, the article in the LA Times supports it, and Wikipedia currently supports a "fact" that is not a fact. Please help. Thanks. Wildhartlivie (talk) 11:43, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I have absolutely no problem with your request (other than how to answer it, minor detail) - it doesn't seem nagging. I've raised this at AN, see here: [13] dougweller (talk) 15:03, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for looking into this. Wildhartlivie (talk) 15:36, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

I second that. I originally opened the AN/I about this but had pretty much give up hope on it. If it's ok, I'm more than willing to remove the DOB because, as Wildhartlivie stated on the AN/I thread, there are sources that contradict the unverified OTRS request. From my personal memory, I know Shinas isn't four years older than me and I'd rather have no information available than false information. Do we need some sort of consensus to remove the date of birth or can it just be removed? Again, thanks for looking into this. Pinkadelica ^{Say it...} 17:21, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Just remove it. dougweller (talk) 17:24, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

The long promised ban proposal

Hi Doug. After some three weeks away from Wikipedia, I have finally come arround to draft the proposal to ban Ariobarza (at the moment less concise than I initially expected). I still have to look into Talk:Battle of Thermopylae. You may want to take a look at it before I present it at the administrators' noticeboard (no hurry). Feel free to edit it at will. - Regards, Ev (talk) 20:59, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Response on Ev's talk page; Ariobarza's topic ban

Please read the entire message with an open mind, so Ariobarza does not have to repeat it.

Hi Ev, talk about deconstructive comments. I thought we had put this issue behind us. Since November 2008, I have quietly gathered sources, and minded my own business. And now you want to propose a topic ban on me? This is dissapointing. First of all, for the Siege of Gordium I have giving up, and no longer care if it happpened, because overall consensus of the users here determined probably nothing happened, and I have even agreed with them, so Siege of Gordium is over (I was not the originater of the idea, like I said a thousand times, I copy pasted the info, added 1 sentence from the Gordium article itself). And at the end of the deletion debate, I agreed to delete Siege of Gordium. This is the last sentence I said at the deletion debate; Feel free to delete, it would have been interesting if there was a siege, but guess not, nothing happened at Gordium. Bye.--Ariobarza (talk) 07:48, 15 November 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza talk

For Battle of the Tigris, this issue was between me and ChrisO (which I now Do Not have anything against or any problems with that user), it is not your business, I suggest not to involve yourself in this highly sensitive article which I am sure you know nothing about. I NOW have damning evidence of what I said before as the mostly the truth, yet now that I am so close to presenting the evidence, you come up with a topic ban for me, nice job.

I consider your proposal to be highly rude and disheartening at this time. You are attempting to waste my time and others for the next month over a topic ban debate on me. I am tired of waisting my time on quite frankly stupid (I don't care anymore, I said the word stupid, big deal, I am guilty as charged) and endless debates with revisionists with no lives, other than to waist others time.

Misrepresenting the issue, and presenting false information is not helpful here. I {suggest} if you have a personal grudge against me to say it to my face on my talk page. And not spread "Off with Ariobarza's head" pamphlets around the town. You stalking my movements on Wikipedia to see if I am breaking the rules has itself inspired me to leave Wikipedia. Coordinated group personal attacks on me shows how much Wikipedia is in danger of developing close nit gangs within its topics.

Of course its not Wikipedia's fault, its the fault of users that don't know squat on a subject, then when they see something they THINK is OR SYN, they jump on that user without looking or researching the evidence for it. So when Ev assumes its OR SYN, and later gets proven wrong (this time by another user who presents the evidence), Ev develops a grudge, and revenge sets in when out of nowhere a topic ban on Ariobarza pops up! A coincedence?

If you do not stop (what I consider a personal attack from you), I will never stop until your true intentions are exposed, possibly an RFC for your other menions too. You spending months on this issue to get me banned from the topic shows how determined you are to get rid of me, actions speak louder than words.

Me being not in contact with my Unofficial mentor or continueing making deleted articles in my userspace is not a violation of any law here. So with the little good faith I still have in me, I ask you to abandon this inapropriate proposal, you must either present the ancient crimes I commited here (which everybody got over) or present new evidence, which does not exist.

I am not saying you have a grudge against me, though it is a possibility. Anyways, I urge you to please stop this, and if you have any concerns with me, to come to my talk page so we can work something out, can we agree? Thank you.--Ariobarza (talk) 05:16, 17 December 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza talk

Ramesses II

Dear Doug, I hate to say this but it may be time to consider placing an indef. protection on Ramesses II. Due to the nature of this king's monumental rule, his web page seems to be the victim of an abnormally large number of vandalism by anon IPs according to this article's history If it cuts down on vandalism by 80% (I don't pretend it will be 100%), it's still better than nothing. Of course, you could always discuss the matter with other experienced Admins first if you wish.

• I should note that WP's article on Terry Fox, one of Canada's greatest heros is also protected since it kept attracting constant IP vandalism. Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 23:37, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
• Note: I see Ramesses II got vandalised again today. A pity! --Leoboudv (talk) 21:22, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Anglosphere

Hello, there are now over 500 links to this page all over Wikipedia. I think most of these should be replaced with synonyms of some kind. You're welcome to comment at Talk:Anglosphere. 67.150.252.18 (talk) 07:33, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Newport Tower

Hi Doug. You recently removed some stuff from Newport Tower (Rhode Island) on the grounds that it is original research, or the bad kind of synthesis. I feel like some version of the material could be re-added to the article, since it is accurate, as far as I can tell. Of course, we have the problem here that we always run into with fringe archaeology, that of credible sources not bothering to deal with the multitude of wacky fringe claims. Can you think of anyway to add the basic, sourced point that astronomical alignments didn't disappear from European architecture after the Mediaeval Ages? I kind of thing it would aid the article in it's attempt to present an accurate and reliable collection of information. Regards, ClovisPt (talk) 22:09, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

David Trochos (talk · contribs) is the most likely person to be able to help with this. I suggest you ask him, sorry, I'm a bit, well very, busy. dougweller (talk) 22:12, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Dougweller, I am highly dissapointed with what you said about me on my ban page. I already resolved the issues, and I am in the process of doing it. This is the worst time, and it is the worst mistake to ban me. Just 3 days ago was I fine, and now I am about to get banned based on 3 elitist users opinions. They have not gave one shred of evidence that I broke any rules after my block was over, if I get banned my currently SOUrced articles will be gone too. How could this happen? What the hell did I do in the last month to deserve this? You protected the Thermoplyae battle for no reason, I resolved that issue right away with that user, and everything was fine, lies upon lies. People get banned for the worst of reasons, why me, Why me! I have 1% good faith for you now, unless you recount your statements on the page, and acknowledge that ChrisO is now proven to be hypocrite, and wrong on the Tigris battle because I now have the damning evidence that your ignoring too. Other than saying I waist time, why don't read my post once and get it over with, why prolong this dispute? With my last best regards(don't forget to respond on my page), goodbye!--Ariobarza (talk) 05:00, 20 December 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza talk

I have kindly accepted a new proposal by user:rouix on my ban page. Please, if you could just go there and vote yes or no for it, much appreciates.--Ariobarza (talk) 05:24, 20 December 2008 (UTC) Ariobarza talk

Thanks Doug for clearing up the point on my talk page. I just think some users have used the excuse of neutrality to balance articles that are in no need of balancing. With respect to others, I still keep an open mind about people, and simply don't appreciate the labeling of them as nationalists and vise versa. If I like editing computer articles, I don't think I should be called a computer nationalist. Its really a simple concept. For you, I have never and will never accuse you of being desrespectfull to other users. In fact, I think that you have helped me on Wikipedia more than anyone else. And I thank you for that. Best regards.--Ariobarza (talk) 09:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)Ariobarza talk

scott

im looking for ancient through medieval history modern is not my subject :). i know ancient greek, middle ages europe, and medieval europe. paricularly good with the crusades, spartans. but i have a good knowledge of everything.--Hoplite54 (talk) 00:52, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Happy holidays

Thanks for making 2008 an interesting and enlightening year for me; at some point, our paths have crossed and I've found your comments amusing, helpful or thought-provoking—I'll let you guess which!

Wishing you and yours a joyous holiday season, and happiness, health and hopefulness in 2009. I trust you'll enjoy this little token, a favourite performance of Baby, it's Cold Outside, for your holiday amusement.
Best, Risker (talk) 03:09, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Middle Ages

When you protected the Middle Ages article, you set the protection level to "edit=sysop". The article has been vandalised frequently, but all vandalism I can see since the last protection expired, with the exception of one edit by J295 (talk · contribs), is from IPs and new accounts. Was full protection intended or should it have been semi-protection with a continuation of the existing move protection? —Snigbrook 20:20, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Oops, my bad. Meant to be semi-protection with full move protection, but I can't change it for some reason, it keeps complaining about the expiry time. dougweller (talk) 20:26, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Something was definitely wrong there, but it's fixed now after a 3rd Admin tried. dougweller (talk) 06:26, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Re: Horus

If the sources are unreliable, it should be pointed out within the article. There is this theory floating around, and it's being heard by lots of people across the world: by simply censoring it, we're not going to help anyone make up their mind.--Exidor (talk) 19:22, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

The 'theory', a hypothesis really, is already mentioned in the article. It is a minor fringe idea, and the table has so many inaccuracies it simply should not be in the article. And as I said, it's a minor idea and WP:Undue would I think suggest that a mention is all that is appropriate. dougweller (talk) 19:25, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Noob Needs Help

Hi Dougweller,

I started on an Aubrey Organics article to keep adding to it as I believe they play an important role in the industry I am in but most of Aubrey Hampton and his company Aubrey Organics' role is unknown to most. I had no intention of advertising in any way. My first article was deleted the same way so I tried to improve on it with my wording and links, references, which was deleted by you. I have looked at some of the other entries that are similar such as Redken and Dr. Hauschka etc. and I don't see why my entry is classified as advertisement and they are not.

I had to keep it short due to the available time I have on my hands right now and have not had a chance to work on the important information such as when and what was achieved in their 42 years of work in the natural cosmetics industry.

Could you please let me know what I'm not doing or doing wrong? If possible I would like it to be available as it is, I will keep working on it or perhaps let me know what is causing the problem so I can fix it.

Thank you

PS: Under "Did I delete your page, block you, or do something else that I should not have done?" above, the link "let me know" to create a new entry goes to J.delanoy instead of your own. I ended up asking J.delanoy :)

JollyJelly (talk) 21:01, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Answered on your talk page. I thought I'd fixed that, thanks! dougweller (talk) 06:18, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, more reading before more typing. JollyJelly (talk) 21:56, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Tundrbuggy's language

Hi Doug. Tundrabuggy's language on Ariobarza's talk page has become unacceptable. Since TB has not been involved in any editing of Persian/Greek ancient history, his contributions on the talk page are purely trolling. He seems set on gratuitously annoying other wikipedians by posting hate messages. If he continues, I hope that somebody blocks him. He doesn't seem to realize that Elonka dropped Ariobarza's cause some time back. Best regards, Mathsci (talk) 05:38, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Original Research.

I believe simply that the original research policy is that you must cite what your sources state rather than your own opinion. I did not say there was no OR in the article, but it can be correctd. I don't think thats a reason to delete the entire article. What I think is the main problem of the article, is that, yes there is some synthesis in it. That is why I have removed several sections that directly compare the two empires, and retained sections which explain the empire in each area. E.g. Roman economy(explained) Han economy(explained) and so on. I do not believe putting facts right next to each other is synthesis. If you have any doubts, check the sources of each paragraph. Thank you. Also, i hope you can reverse your delete vote as I have now found several new sources and rewritten part of the article. I have presented my case on why it should not be deleted in Afd template. I look forward to working with you if the article survives Afd. Teeninvestor (talk) 18:06, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

I can't check the sources easily because of lack of page numbers. Some of the sources fail our criteria for reliable sources. An article about comparing two things should be based on sources that compare the two things, otherwise it is synthesis. I see where you are coming from, but that would justify an article comparing the Roman Empire with any culture or civilization, ie it would be literally pointless. dougweller (talk) 18:24, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

What I'm saying is that what I think two sections of facts right next to each other with different sources isn't synthesis. It's used in the most featured articles of wikipedia. Teeninvestor (talk) 14:16, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree article about comparing two things should be mainly based on sources that compare two things, but that doesn't prevent details from being added by sources that cover one spectrum of the article. For example, on the article "Comparing American and Canadian health care systems" the main sources are about comparing, with minor sources comparing details. In this article, it is structured similarly. Most sections have two or three paragraphs of sourced from a source that compares both of them, and one on each empire from a source that covers only one.Teeninvestor (talk) 14:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Do you still wish to delete the article? Teeninvestor (talk) 00:52, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for bring Wikipedia; Comparison articles to my attention. see discussion;Teeninvestor (talk) 17:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, see this section:

"The best practice is to write Wikipedia articles by taking information from different reliable sources about a subject and putting those claims on an article page in our own words, yet true to the original intent — with each claim attributable to a source that explicitly makes that claim."

Therefore, as long as all your claims are sustained by your sources, it is not original Research. I believe this settles our discussion about whether putting two bodies of facts next to each other is synthesis. As long as the sectiosn are true to their original content, they fit with wikipedia guidelines. Also, please do not attempt to interrupt in my private discussions; I for one do not endeauver to find out who you talk to when you are not discussing the comparison article. During the public debate, I have been (from my POV) relatively courteous to you. Teeninvestor (talk) 19:47, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid it isn't that simple. And on the OR talk page, you must have found that the other editors disagree with you.

As to private conversations, I'm afraid they don't exist on Wikipedia. Chiming in on conversations on other editors' talk pages is quite normal. One of the great things about Wikipedia is its transparency. dougweller (talk) 20:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

IP 194.176.105.40 talk

I see this block is for 1 week; the last was for 6 months, and the one before that 3 months. Is there as reason for the short block? Is the problem getting better? I’d have thought (as someone who works in the NHS) the longer the better.
I thought I’d written to Ryulong about this last week (see here), but it seems the NHS has more than one IP address.Xyl 54 (talk) 17:18, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm a bit confused here, why are you asking me as it was User talk:Sam Korn you need to talk to as he did the block. dougweller (talk) 17:50, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry; you're right. I made an assumption because your name was on the note with the CU block. Xyl 54 (talk) 09:34, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Mistake

I may have indeed made a mistake, but I'm confused about what current Wiki-culture is about withdrawing nominations. In my mind, it's better to let AfDs run their course in order to establish a community consensus. What do you think?

ScienceApologist (talk) 08:20, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I've seen noms withdraw nominations recently, and as your recent AfDs are now being used to attack you, it would show GF. In this case I think it's pretty clear cut that it is going to be a keep anyway. It wouldn't hurt and I think would help to withdraw it - in this specific case. dougweller (talk) 09:21, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

That's fine, but I've also now been attacked for not "properly" withdrawing AfD nominations. I'm going to wait for an answer on what the "proper" withdrawl procedure is. Unless you can tell me. ScienceApologist (talk) 09:29, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I see, chiming in there. dougweller (talk) 09:53, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Han/Roman comparison

Happy New Year, Doug. I think you're right that all the material referenced to the WW Norton book needs to be taken out. It will take a bit of time though. Whether it needs to be protected after that depends on whether TI takes on board what we are saying about copyright. Yes, after lengthy ;-) consideration, I do want to run for admin. Do you want to nominate me? Itsmejudith (talk) 17:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

One alternative is to put the copyvio template on that blanks the page until the issue is settled. Moreschi offered to nominate you, take him up on it and I'll second you if that's procedure, what do you think? dougweller (talk) 17:22, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I can see that so far you have deemed me unfit to edit wikipedia; although I disagree with your contention, it is within your abilities as an administrator to prevent a user from making edits. Therefore, in order to save you the displeasure of banning me, I will stop my editing of "comparison between Roman and Han empires" and other articles I have been working on until such time as you feel that I should be able to edit wikipedia. Please inform me of your decision if you do feel that way. Thank you.Teeninvestor (talk) 20:39, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

????? I didn't write any article about tv shows. I have written three articles so far. Also, not to be complaining, but i would welcome it if you found a source about this article yourself and added information to the article; your criticism is very welcome, but work is helpful too.Teeninvestor (talk) 16:56, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Working on sources that I can afford, but it may take a few weeks I'm afraid. You did create a talk page for the 100 best comedy shows/episodes/whatever asking what made it notable, a good question and the reason for the template on the article. I've run out of time for a few days to do anything lengthy, if no one comments on what you've written I'll try to find time. remember, there is no real rush (except of course for copyvio problems which I don't think exist anymore, there we do act fast and sometimes drastically). dougweller (talk) 17:44, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh that article. I didn't put up the template because I didn't have much knowledge on the subject, so I merely raised a question to the user. Any contributions by you would be appreciated. Just to note, I am in the process of rewriting paragraphs based on Norton(e.g. restoring the material so it doesnt violate copyvio{I have yet to receive a letter from the publisher, therefore I assume it is copyvio). I'm sure you will agree Norton is a credible source. As to the 5000 years book, I have found you A description of the books the publisher (A big publishing firm in China) has published(It's in Chinese unfortunately). As you can see, the publisher is quite a big and relatively reputable publisher in China. http://www.haotushu.com/press/61/ , http://www.bookschina.com/publish/204/, These websites are lists of books they have published.

search:内蒙古人民出版社 in any chinese book site, and im sure you will get results. Here is the website of the publisher: http://www.ilucking.com/press/neimenggurenminchubanshe/. I know it is preferable to have english sources, and i am in process of getting these sources. search neimenggu renmin chubanshe (pinyin rendition of the publisher's name)in google, and you will see it is cited in even english books. Teeninvestor (talk) 18:14, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

I have added page numbers for all my book sources except a few secondary sources e.g. I checked an article found some claims that were sourced to that book. See structural history of the Roman Army in that respect. In terms of the 5000 years book and sun tzu's art of war, I do own them and so I have added page numbers. Sorry that was me I forgot to log in. Also, can you help me rewrite several paragraphs that were deleted because of copyvio and now I have to rewrite based on the source Norton books. We can settle the OR, and 5000 years thing later. I believe getting that information restored is first priority. Do you have any problems with the economics section(proposed restoration)????(teeninvestor)76.70.109.189 (talk) 17:11, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Did you see my suggestion regarding the chinese history book? Although I see your objection, I believe it would be a good source for say, description of han agricultural methods, equipment and other noncontroversial details. However, the statement han economy is largest needs more verification. Teeninvestor (talk) 15:32, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Dougweller, when will you be able to get the conceiving empire book? We're waiting for that. As to the chinese source, I believe it can a temporary solution.Teeninvestor (talk) 16:17, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I have no idea how long it will take to get it. I don't think we can have 'temporary' solutions, it's either suitable for a WP encyclopedic article or not. WP:There is no deadlineand it's better to have a shorter, good article than a longer one that for instance can't be verified by most of our readers.

Most Common Name "Shedu"?

Hello Doug, seeing your knowledge in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, I would like to get your input here [[14]] . I wanted you to look over my findings, on the grounds that the current name of the article is not the most common name in the english language. Perhaps you can validate this finding or make your own suggestion to what is the best name for the article. I would appreciate your input here, perhaps you can come across some findings of your own. Thank you in advance. Ninevite (talk) 20:58, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Happy Darwin200 Year! . dave souza, talk 22:27, 1 January 2009 (UTC) (for story line see Darwin's Rhea#Discovery)

Dear Dougweller,

Wishing you a happy new year, and very best wishes for 2009. Whether we were friends or not in the past year, I hope 2009 will be better for us both.

Kind regards,

Majorly talk 21:02, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the wishes, Doug. All the best to you and yours, too! . dave souza, talk 22:27, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Restoration of material from Norton.

I have decided to restore several paragraphs rewritten because no one seemed to have objections to them. This is NOT an attempt on my part to restore copyright vio material. Although I am not a big fan of copyright law, I don't want to break it or cause wikipedia to be sued over it. I only reinserted it after putting it up for a day and no one submitted objections(I knew you were on at that time because you posted several messages on the talk page). If you had complaints, please address them on talk page. Right now, it seems like no one has objections. Don't worry; I will only restore the paragraphs I have written in talk page. Also, regarding inline citations, I'll get to that after we deal with some other concerns(finding another source, adding technology section, etc...). Also, regarding Original research, I believe that sources that only compare one empire can be used to provide context. The reader could make his own comparisons from the facts. As to direct comparisons, I think Norton could be a good source.Teeninvestor (talk) 00:33, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Can you show an example of inline citations? cause WP: Citations isnt very helpful. i used the first method I found for most citations.Teeninvestor (talk) 15:47, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

As well as WP:CITE, see [15], [16], [17], [18] - it's hard work. :-) dougweller (talk) 20:19, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

RE: Do you know why H5+R1A (talk · contribs) is editing your User page?

Hi there,

I'm not sure why he's editing my user page actually, I don't think I've blocked the user or his socks.

The Helpful One 22:49, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah ok, thanks for clearing that up! :) The Helpful One 18:41, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

RFC at WP:NOR-notice

A concern was raised that the clause, "a primary source may be used only to make descriptive claims, the accuracy of which is verifiable by any reasonable, educated person without specialist knowledge" conflicts with WP:NPOV by placing a higher duty of care with primary sourced claims than secondary or tertiary sourced claims. An RFC has been initiated to stimulate wider input on the issue. Professor marginalia (talk) 06:07, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Sphinx

Hi there. You deleted some of my additions to the Sphinx article. I accept some of your corrections, and have added the required extra references etc as suggested. However you also deleted some significant extra material, seemingly on the grounds that you supposed it to be original research. These OR assertions are incorrect. I have therefore reinstated the original text (more or less) but have included the necessary references to the work of the original authors from whose voluminous papers I have extracted and summarised these points. I hope this now meets the standard. I don't understand your assertion about the "errors such as that about the Geological Society meeting" - I have deleted it meanwhile, but please clarify?Wdford (talk) 23:10, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Schoch had a booth at the meeting, with photos, etc, for a morning or an afternoon. It's called a poster session, and there are perhaps hundreds of them at a GSA meeting. Other geologists wander among them and perhaps chat a bit. Schoch never claimed this as an endorsement of his work, this all comes from John Anthony West in the first place, and was just an anecdote with no evidence behind him. dougweller (talk) 06:43, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, it is still OR, because you are using statements by others to come to a conclusion. Eg, unless Lerner connects the channel he discovered to the age of the Sphinx, then you can't use that. If he does, fine, tell us what he says. The paragraph starting 'per Doctor Schoch looks like OR also, and as Giza still receives heavy rainfall so far as I know it's incorrect anyway. The para starting 'the primary counterargument' is all OR (see WP:SYNTHESIS. Ditto the para starting 'However the erosion. You are clearly coming to conclusions yourself based on other people's work. That's fine in an essay, but here we just report what reliable sources have to say and let our readers some to a conclusion. See WP:NPOV about the weight given to various views (not that I'm raising that as an issue here now), and WP:NOR. dougweller (talk) 07:00, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the very useful feedback. I have left out the less-important elements, and have now inserted only the important but disputed material using direct quotes from the original texts. I hope I have done it correctly. I agree that Lawton himself is not generally an objective source, but Reader's paper is being published here in full and without Lawton's censorship.Wdford (talk) 18:10, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

And thank you. I tried to go through the article bit by bit detailing what I was doing and why. I think it's still necessary to have a bit of why Bordeau disagrees with Reader, and more about why Egyptologists disagree (the archaeological reasons). Then the thing to do was to think about WP:UNDU and WP:NPOV, so ideas are given coverage that their significance shows they should have, or however it's worded. A bit tricky, but the idea is that an idea not taken very seriously doesn't get the same attention as one taken more seriously. I will say that I think Schoch's prominence over Reader and Coxill's ideas has more to do with publicity than anything else. dougweller (talk) 18:19, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

I think Schoch gets the nod because he came on the scene first - Reader has added a lot of extra value, but in most things he agrees with Schoch, and so naturally it is "Schoch, supported by Reader" rather than the other way around. I also think its wrong to suppose that Reader is more credible than Schoch - scientifically their methodology does not seem much different - all that Reader has done differently is to deduce that the Sphinx may have been carved hundreds of years earlier rather than thousands of years earlier, which makes the Establishment a bit less unhappy, and he has done so with less publicity.

I am happy to enlarge the reason why Egyptologists disagree, in this section as well.

However, I disagree with your removing "what the authors didn't say". In all cases the rebuttals failed to explain all the evidence, namely why did their proposed process affect only the one small area and not all the other rock of equal age as well? Both Schoch and Reader clearly stated that no explanation other than water erosion could explain ALL the evidence, and Gergis is already complaining that inserting detailed quotations each time is more than is required. Surely it is not OR to word a point so as to make it clear what it says and what it does not say - especially as this is scientific evidence rather than just an opinion (perhaps we should move the deductions re the timing to the end, to correct the UNDUE??) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wdford (talk • contribs) 13:26, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Of course, neither Schoch nor Reader are full-time professional geologists. One reason not to use Lawton's site is that he calls Schoch a Professor of Geology, which is not at all accurate, geology is part of what he teaches (at a non-degree level), but only part and not a minor part, and he does little if any serious geology research. As far as OR goes, we report what authors say without getting into our own discussions about it, and certainly without making any deductions of our own. And there is still the issue about the mainstream view being given much less coverage than other views. dougweller (talk) 14:27, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

True - but the fact that they are not full-time professors does not invalidate their observations, and it should not undermine their deductions either? If so, the world would not know that Troy really existed? However I agree with your concern about UNDUE - this extra material was only included in an attempt to address OR - so I have greatly reduced the size of the section to comply. I am happy with the current version, if its acceptable?Wdford (talk) 15:52, 5 January 2009 (UTC

Schoch is a full time professor, I meant that neither of them are full time geologists so far as I know. I started a discussion on WP:UNDUE on the talk page, let's see how that runs. dougweller (talk) 15:58, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Re: Martinjacobson1

Hello. I noticed you detagged Martinjacobson1's userpage. I'm fine with that, I had only tagged it as attack because of concerns that it may have violated WP:BLP. Saying someone was addicted to heroin isn't exactly flattering. But of course, it does seem to have some legitimacy; I had some reservations about CSD'ing the article and they were obviously founded. Apologies for the inconvenience. » \ / (⁂ | ※) 13:50, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

No problem. I did tell the editor I thought it was inappropriate for his userspace. dougweller (talk) 15:59, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Deleted: Egolf Tarheel Tour

Why was this article deleted? I wrote this wikipedia page as a project for my internship, the first thing I did was just to get it up there. It got marked for speedy deletion, so I changed and added a bunch of stuff to insure that it would not be seen as advertising which it is not. I added a schedule of tournaments and past winners of events as well as references. Egolf Tarheel Tour is a legitimate Developmental Golf Tour, similar to NGA Hooters Tour, which has a wikipedia page. Please help me to make this page so that it meets your guidelines. tarheeltour.com

Thank you, Robert Friedman —Preceding unsigned comment added by Refriedm (talk • contribs) 17:17, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

I just saw what you wrote on my talkpage. I am working on getting it userfied and will then add outside sources. Thanks Refriedm (talk) 17:51, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

2012

Indefinite protection of articles is prohibited by policy (and that's especially true for "preventive protection"); that was the sole reason behind my unprotection action. Seeing the influx of activity you are referring to, I would say that using long-term semi-protection would have been a wiser course of action, but that, of course, would have been impossible to predict when I lifted the protection this morning. Rest assured, it was my intent to watch this article further, but, as you realize, one cannot watch everything full time, so others had to deal with this in the past half day. At any rate, I semi-protected this article for one month due to the reasons you laid out above. If you still disagree, feel free to bring this to ANI. Best,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 20:36, January 5, 2009 (UTC)

Happy with this, but after the month I shall probably reprotect, this has a few year to run and it will get wilder as it goes on. I may take it to ANI later this year to see how long we can run at a time with semi. Thanks. dougweller (talk) 21:55, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, but we shouldn't be depriving good editors a chance to make useful contributions to this article, even if it means more work for us reverting all that end-of-the-world crap. Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 22:02, January 5, 2009 (UTC)

Ah, I think it may be or become eligible for indef semi - "Administrators may apply indefinite semi-protection to pages which are subject to heavy and persistent vandalism or violations of content policy (such as biographies of living persons, neutral point of view)." Did you mean indefinite full protection? dougweller (talk) 22:08, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that's what I talked about originally. Indef semi in this case may be fine; or we could try one-months increments to see how it goes.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 15:19, January 6, 2009 (UTC)

Talkback

Wikipedia:An#Copyright_vio_needs_speedily_deleting - John Sloan (view / chat) 22:34, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks - I asked too soon, I managed to get there in the end. dougweller (talk) 22:36, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Promised Land

Hi there,

Just checking the reason why my 'good faith' edit was removed. I thought I included a citation...

Cheers,

Ojh23 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ojh23 (talk • contribs) 01:38, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

You sort of included a citation. But you removed the 'reflist' template which made the other references invisible, you should have used the 'cite your sources' ref /ref with <> -- look in the edit window, bewlow the tick box for watch this page, next to sign your posts. You called the author 'Dr' which we don't do, and you didn't mention that he is speaking from a Muslim tradition which I think is an important part of the context. I have one other non-technical concern, is he speaking for the Muslim tradition or is this just a personal opinion of his? Do you know? dougweller (talk) 06:10, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry - didn't realise about the 'Dr.' etiquette and I'm afraid I don't understand technical computer-speak stuff. I should have edited without the refs disappearing, but didn't realise I'd done this. On the last point about Guillaume, he was a professor of Old Testament studies at the University of London; generally when scholars are writing scholarly treatises and books they are written in the spirit of rational, academic debate, and not opinion. If you would rather, I can mention that my citation of Guillaume takes account of the fact that he was also a prominent Islamic scholar. However, his commentary on the Scriptures was frequently published by the SPCK - Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, which would suggest he was not 'speaking for the Muslim tradition'. I will wait to hear back from you before changing anything.

Cheers,

Owen —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ojh23 (talk • contribs) 15:36, 6 January 2009 (UTC) Sounds good. Use the Preview button next time, when I forget I often have it wrong. I'm sure Guillaume is ok, just add that he was an Islamic scholar (don't call him prominent as that would be a personal opinion). As we have an article on it, put his name within [['s, so it shows up Alfred Guillaume. Look at this Land==ki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources#Footnote_system to see how to do references, they go between the ref and /ref (both surrounded by <'s and >'s. Which are, as I said, on the 2nd line below the edit summary window. I'll tidy it up if there is a problem. dougweller (talk) 16:24, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

External link in [Borongan Airport]

Yeah, I linked to a blog. Yeah, I linked to a self-published source. Guilty. Now, please allow me to respond:

• RE: Wikipedia:EL

The link is to (AFAIK) a unique resource (Borongan Airport is very remote). The info and photos are unique, reliable, not misleading. This is not an exercise in self-promotion. WP:EL # 11 - I do have some claim under "recognized authority" and will try to point this out without grandstanding ...

• RE: WP:N:

- Significant coverage (which is not available elsewhere)

- Independent of the subject

- The source may be assumed "reliable" due to the scope, and period since publishing.

• RE: WP:SPS:

- the material used is relevant

- the link is NOT self-serving

- does not claim anything, entirely objective

So, I think there is a case for an exception within the WP guidelines ... No?

User:Davidx5

I just want to bring to your attention that User:Davidx5 went ahead and re-created his Hispanic (updated) article again, this time as Hispanic (European View).-5- (talk) 14:14, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

I requested CSD as a recreation of deleted material. Verbal chat 14:34, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks everyone, nothing for me to do then! dougweller (talk) 15:10, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Hi Doug. Hope your quiet evening in went well. We did much the same, but it seems like a long time ago. Co-nom would be absolutely great. A bit busy at work this week, but haven't forgotten and hoping to put the RfA in say by the start of next week. Cheers. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:50, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

Many thanks for your co-nom - hard to recognise myself in your description ;-) Have done draft answers to questions now. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:58, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Rules of the game

Hi: I don't mind if pages are undeleted or whatever but could you possibly arbitrate this whole charade? Obviously there are things I just cannot discuss and since this is an anonymous place you must appreciate that right? Sincerely, Manhattan Samurai (talk) 16:08, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

EEStor advert tag

Hi, I removed the advert tag from the EEStor page after doing a minor edit to make it sound less like an advert. Since you added the advert tag I thought I should let you know. Please see my entry on the EEstor discussion page for more info about my thinking on this. Thanks, Stephen Luce (talk) 19:41, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for this. dougweller (talk) 21:11, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

Davidx5 (talk · contribs)

Thank you. As far as I can tell, this user defines as American anyone who does not agree with him. I suspect that this is a fixation which we are not going to eradicate. --Anthony.bradbury^"talk" 12:57, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Just as a headsup, it looks like he's back to changing the statement by Anthony. I honestly don't think he'll ever change. Templarion (talk) 20:16, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

I doubt it. Right now I've reblocked him so he can't use his talk page. Thanks for letting me know. dougweller (talk) 20:21, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Bronze Age

Respectfully, I propose to reinstate your deletion. What do you mean the article does not exist? I provided a full citation for it? It is a journal article (ie. hard copy), not a web article as the citation indicates. If you supply me with your email address I can send you a scanned copy. Then, after reading it, if you wish to critique its contents you can do so on the Talk page and comment accordingly. The article appears to be written by Mr Keys based on the work of others - it does not claim to be his own research. Kind regards--Calabraxthis ^(talk) 16:10, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Ok, but I know it is a magazine article (journal usually implies academic), it is just that the BBC doesn't list it as in the magazine issue you mention. That confuses me. If you click on the email this user at the left of this you can email me, and if you can't add an attachment I'll email you back, I'd rather not put my email address on my talk page. dougweller (talk) 16:14, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks - I have sent you through an email with a message so that I might send you an attachment of the scanned article. Kind regards--Calabraxthis ^(talk) 17:23, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Paper folding

Was it really necessary to remove the entire edit? You could have just asked for a better reference. Please do try to bite less (even though I'm not a newbie). — sjorford++ 18:31, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

My experience is that that rarely works, although what I could have done and perhaps should have done is removed it and notified you why. dougweller (talk) 14:35, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Missing a pair of curly brackets at Sovereign Grace Ministries I think.

The template does not appear, only {pp-protected}. All the best, and I am so very glad to know I am not the only one who does that from time to time. Thanks! :)sinneed (talk) 23:33, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

On the BLP board, I have a post that has both right-hand square brackets... but sometimes they both appear, and sometimes only one. Something odd going on. :)sinneed (talk) 13:35, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Copyright issue; may I refer a contributor to you?

Hi. I'm getting ready to go out of town for an extended weekend (though I'll be here some hours yet), and I have discovered a rather large copyright concern with User:Redpathanderson. He had an article listed at cp which came current today. As standard operating procedure for active contributors, I checked his other contribs and have so far located 14 other articles that either consist of or include large chunks of text copied from other sources. (I'm processing them, of course, and they're at Wikipedia:Copyright problems/2009 January 16.) I've spoken to the contributor about it at User talk:Redpathanderson#Copyright problem: Reculver Castle, but he may have questions or concerns, particularly since his contribution here suggests he may not understand the issue. Do you mind if I refer him to you if he has questions that I am unable to address before going? If you don't have time, please let me know, and I'll track down somebody else who may be available or just tell him that we may not be able to discuss the matter before the 19th. (This, of course, presumes you'll be around before I go. If not, I'll think of something.) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 14:25, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

My only problem is that I still don't feel I'm up to speed on handling copyright issues if they aren't straightforward. But otherwise, I'm around and am happy to talk to him. dougweller (talk) 14:28, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

It shouldn't really be complicated. Thanks. I'll give him your name and let him know when I'll be back. He can also, of course, address questions at WT:CP, but that's hardly a quick forum. :) --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 14:45, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you

I do. I am happy to give them. Thanks for the heads up anyway. AF-H —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fiskeharrison (talk • contribs) 16:22, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Fringepedia

Don't despair, just learn German and seek exile at de: ;-)

Or more seriously speaking, whereas I'm rather skeptical about the Wikipedia in general, the handling of fringe theories and crackpots on enwiki rather made me (nearly) to stop contributing here. It just wasn't possible to stop the snake oil sellers here.

--Pjacobi (talk) 12:59, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I think I've had more successes than failures. Please don't give up! I've done a bit more tidying of Die Glocke. Warrington seems to have a lot of time on his hands. :-)

Flexibility

I originally created this article as a redirect. I don't think a deletion is appropriate. Deletion just creates a void where someone else will inevitably create an article or redirect anyway, one that might not be appropriate and be less informative or even trolly. If you would like to improve the contents, please try to improve the article itself. Deletion is not a solution at all. If you don't like the changes all these other people have made, then restore it to the redirect please, don't delete it. People have done a lot of work compiling information there, and it has historically existed for a couple years now, so why throw it out? Tyciol (talk) 21:51, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I am pretty sure it will end up as a redirect. Hopefully the AfD process will tidy up the bits that have accreted. dougweller (talk) 22:02, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

My RfA

Doug, thanks very much for your confidence in me and sorry it didn't work out. I'm going to thank everyone who contributed, then take a short break, then considering being adopted, which I've always thought is a nice idea. Keep up the good work! Itsmejudith (talk) 22:57, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Christopher

Ta for noticing. I must have overlooked that one. Tresiden (talk) 13:27, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

Oops

Mea culpa, I'll be more careful next time, thanks for pointing that out. — PhilHibbs | talk 20:59, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

help!

please, please ... at Culture. Over the years, thanks to too many cooks, this article turned into a disaster. Mixing up different POV's even from different disciplines, lots of redundancies, no distinction between fringe and mainstream theory. I just did a major overhaul (with explanations on the talk page) - basically deleting fringe materials, cutting repetitions, and reorganizing. My intention for now was to clearly lay out different approaches to "culture." I do not think this article should just repeat stuff in Cultural anthropology and in Cultural studies for example but it does need to explain the relationship and differences between their respective approaches to culture. But (1) my revision is incomplete, (2) I surely made mistakes, and (3) a lot needs to be fleshed out. I would really appreciate it if you would go over it and fix any glaring errors, see if you can improve the organization, and then perhaps flesh out parts that need developing. Wikipedia's article on culture was awful - yet it ought to be great! I'd appreciate your help (current archeological methods and theories for material culture are surely relevant, highly relevant), Slrubenstein | Talk 05:48, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Ouch. I don't think I have time right now, as I am going to see my aged father shortly and will be away from my library. Maybe when I get back, it does look like a big job though! I'll think about it and look at it again next month. Sorry about that. dougweller (talk) 13:29, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Totally understandable. On the talk page I summarized specific areas I think still need considerable work, and besides, I value your judgment. I hope when you come back you will give it serious consideration, I am sure it would benefit from your efforts. Good luck with your father, I hope it is a positive visit. Best, Slrubenstein | Talk 15:54, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I wrote up a section on archeology and material culture - next month when you have time I would appreciate it if you would go over it and make sure there are no glaring errors, I would appreciate it. Also, if you have time to develop it, please let me know, I have a few specific ideas but would rather an expert do any further development. The trick is to make it about "culture" from an archeologist's POV rather than about "archeology" as such. Best, Slrubenstein | Talk 15:08, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

ancient-wisdom.

Hi Doug.

It appears that ancient-wisdom has been banned from Wikipedia.

Honestly...Im not sure exactly whats happened here, or why... I first find myself defending a charge of misrepresentation of the facts, to which I believe I have responded sufficiently well in that ancient-wisdom.co.uk is an exploration of prehistory. The aim of the site is to research the boundaries of prehistoric research and as such some of the content is speculative, but it is no way incorrect, nor aimed to prejudice the reader. The site is fully referenced and is intended to be as unbiased and unprejudiced as Wikipedia says it is. As such - I asked for the errors I was accused of making and offered to correct them.

In reply, I found your note on the megaliths discussion page which seems to suggest that I am breaching Wikipedia guidelines by neither referencing material (which can be seen to be a false statement), or that I am prejudiced in my approach. It is ironic that your response was to block me, whereas mine was to accept criticism and alter the site according to your original request.

I once again ask you to specify the mistakes I was originally charged with (the 4-5 errors my 2 year old Top-50 stones page), in order that i can correct them ... As the site is clearly referenced, and I am openly offering to alter incorrect information on it... it will be interesting to see if you will allow ancient-wisdom to be part of the Wilkipedia future.

All the best..Alex.

(alex@ancient-wisdom.co.uk) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.154.132.175 (talk) 23:36, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

I haven't blocked you, I have said that your site fails our criteria for reliable sources, see WP:RS. If you disagree, you can discuss it at the appropriate noticeboard at WP:RSN. It is your personal site, and I'm afraid neither you nor I are reliable sources on this area. Now if your name was Timothy Darvill or another noted archaeologist, it is possible but not certain that your personal site could be considered a reliable source. This has nothing to do with any specific errors. dougweller (talk) 13:26, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Protect this article

Can you please place some kind of protection on this article: George Vancouver

• There is quite a bit of vandalism in his article and I just restored a large chunk of info that had been stripped from it. It is a popular site for vandals since the city of Vancouver, Canada derived its name from him. Thank You, --Leoboudv (talk) 05:51, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't think there is enough day-to-day vandalism, at least recently, to justify protection. Take a look at WP:Rough guide to semi-protection. I have found some broken text that I didn't feel I could fix, see the talk page.

If vandalism does grow to a daily basis, let me know. dougweller (talk) 13:23, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Block of 205.236.31.238

I used the wrong template, I did mean to only block for 24 hours. Feel free to bump it higher if it's warranted (I did notice they'd had lots of previous warnings and blocks). Sorry for the confusion. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 15:28, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Myspace Farm

Saw your notice on the admin noticeboard; I looked a bit deeper and found a few more of the chatters: Donnawood123 (talk · contribs), Laneyboi (talk · contribs) and DANHOWARD2K9 (talk · contribs) and it looks like the geezer character is back as Geezer1003 (talk · contribs)... Aunt Entropy (talk) 20:12, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Blocked Geezer1003 for his legal threat, put them all on ANI to see if anyone can block their IPs. dougweller (talk) 22:17, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

RfA thankspam

		Thank you for your participation in my recent RfA, which failed with 90/38/3; whether you supported, opposed or remained neutral. Special thanks go out to Moreschi, Dougweller and Frank for nominating me, and I will try to take everyone's comments on board. Thanks again for your participation. I am currently concentrating my efforts on the Wikification WikiProject. It's fun! Please visit the project and wikify a few articles to help clear the backlog. If you can recruit some more participants, then even better. Apologies if you don't like RfA thankspam, this message was delivered by a bot which can't tell whether you want it or not. Feel free to remove it. Itsmejudith (talk), 22:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Denbot (talk) 22:42, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Lindisfarne

Hi Doug,

Many thanks for your message.

I am unsure why there is an issue adding the safe-tide website to the lindisfarne entry. You provide a link to a version of the tidetables which is not covered by indemnity insurance or a strict data integrity policy. In addition to this, you link into a website selling a dvd about Holy Island and the 'Island Website' which is packed full of adverts for Holy Island related businesses and products. The castle also runs as a commercial venue, yet a link to their website is also displayed. Please can you explain why it is acceptable for one business to have an external link and not others.

Thanks,

James —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.41.27.190 (talk) 01:23, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

The castle is National Trust, not a commerical venue. The island website is so far as I can see their official website, so is ok (see WP:EL and bring it up on the talk page if you are unhappy, but you'll be told the same thing. dougweller (talk) 09:16, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by an official website? Anyone could claim to have the official website for a place. In this situation it is an individual who has set up a website about the place they live and sell advertising and products on the site. You are keeping the link for the Diary of an Island DVD (http://www.holyislanddvd.co.uk) - set up specifically to promote or sell? That would appear to be contrary to the policy you refer to. It is not a case of being 'unhappy' but I would like to see a consistent approach to the application, if certainly raises the issue of integrity over the data and those editing it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.41.27.190 (talk) 19:24, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

No reason you couldn't have deleted them, but I have now. Things get missed, not enough editors watching every article. dougweller (talk) 19:36, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello Doug,

I have removed links selling photography from the Lindisfarne site on several occasions, as have other users. More of less as soon as we remove them they end up being added again. Can you help?

Larry —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.251.52 (talk) 00:07, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

A notable essay or not?

A minor point - I'm not interested in the entry - but please view latest article in Prospect - the blog entry for which which cites my bullfighting piece as a "much-noted essay for Prospect on bull-fighting (a piece which sparked one of the most in-depth discussions ever to feature on this blog)" - First Drafts --Fiskeharrison (talk) 01:57, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Manion

Hi Doug

Thanks for your message explaining. I am brand new and simply read around to see what to do, followed the rules as far as I was concerned as I was in the process of making a page for Manion which is a mascot. Im not sure about the parameters of "notability", but there's a few relatively notable online followings.

Thanks, Simon. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Simanion (talk • contribs) 08:58, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

modern geocentrism: some scientists do believe it.

You said that no scientist believes that the earth is the center of the universe. That is shown to be false if you consult the following papers and monographs.

"Galileo Was Wrong: The Church Was Right, Volume I, The Scientific Case for Geocentrism" by Robert A. Sungenis, Ph.D. and Robert J. Bennett, Ph.D,

"Geocentricity, Relativity and the Big Bang" by Russell Arndts, (PhD in Chemistry from Louisiana)

"Geocentricity" by Gerardus D Bouw, (a mathematician)

Additionally, non-relativistic models of the universe which has the universe floating around a fixed earth have been developed by Moon and Spencer: "Binary Stars and the velocity of Light" Journal of the Optical Society of America (1953); and Barbour and Bertotti "Gravity and Inertia in a Machian Framework" Il Nouvo Cimento (1977).

Finally, an inverted universe, which claims that the surface of the earth is the inside of a hollow sphere, plausibly counts as geocentric and has been advocated by Fritz Braun, and by an Egyptian Mostafa Abdelkader: "A geocosmos: Mapping outer space into a hollow earth" in Speculatinos in Science and Cosmology (1983).

With the exception of Bouw these are all (to my knowledge) professional scientists, and so I would appreciate it if you let my edit stick. Pretending that scientific minority opinion does not exist because it is from a minority is not the attitude of the intellectually honest.

Perhaps "Modern Geocentrism is rejected by the vast majority of the scientific establishment" would be better?

Regards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.17.180.41 (talk) 19:51, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

It would be. Bouw is an astronomer but I don't know what he actually taught. I do think that this scientific minority is infinitessimal, but it is there even if you can count them on your fingers. Put the list on the talk page, make it vast majority of scientists ('establishment' is not necessary, is it now?). dougweller (talk) 20:34, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Ole Miss

Ah! I didn't notice that one; never heard the nickname before, and thought it was a Norwegian University or something. Gordonofcartoon (talk) 03:10, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Now why didn't I think of that, of course it's Norwegian! dougweller (talk) 21:07, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Admin help

I would like this page moved to that page, but with the edit histories merged, if that is at all possible, if not, can you direct me to some way to do that sort of thing? TARTARUS ^talk 02:18, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I was in the air (literally). Why not just copy and paste your version over the current one? Does it matter that you would lose the history from the one on your page? dougweller (talk) 15:27, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

No, not really, I just heard that that was the way to do it... But if not, then I will just copy and paste it. TARTARUS ^talk 20:55, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

James Cameron Bio

Dougweller: You made an edit to the page of filmmaker James Cameron on 12-13-08 which did do two things, one (in my opinion) quite right, but the other (as far as I can tell), quite wrong. You deleted somebody's listing of Camoern as an "Anti-Christian". However, you apparently also listed Cameron as Jewish. It was my understanding that Cameron was raised only vaguely religious, but that he is entirely of Scottish ancestry with a light Protestant upbringing. I've read and heard him say this in numerous interviews (I'm a large fan of his, and run a blog about his works). For my citation, please see the "discussion" page at Cameron's own page.

If indeed you were correct and I am wrong, please contact me with your sourcs and also please incorporate these into his bio. Thank you.

Sorry, that must have been an effect of my edit. I would probably never add religious cateagories to an article. I'll undo it. dougweller (talk) 11:05, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Dougweller: Thank you for your rapid response, explanation for the error, and correction. Just one experience, but that's professional behavior through-and-through! —Preceding unsigned comment added by CameronFanSite (talk • contribs) 04:22, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Rktect

I agree. I can only revert the same article once a day, so there's nothing more I can do there, but he's clearly got a monomania about this, and doesn't much care about how Wikipedia works. Maybe an RfC? -LisaLiel (talk) 16:46, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

RfC means what? Cush (talk) 18:28, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

User:Rktect

I'm afraid I'm too uninvolved. To give this proper attention I'd need to spend too much time reading the relevant discussions. I suggest you report this to WP:ANI instead to get responses from people with more time on their hands. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:20, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

OMG, would you take a look at Pi-hahiroth, please? Cush (talk) 17:01, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

I just did. I hadn't realised he'd re-added those references early and messed up the bottom of the page (why does he say they are from the talk page). He is adding OR and editing against consensus. I've got some stuff to add to it, I was working on Baal-zephon and got distracted. Maybe not until tomorrow, meanwhile, as I say, he is editing against consensus. dougweller (talk) 17:05, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

OMG, would you take a look at Pi-hahiroth, please? AGAIN!!! Cush (talk) 20:12, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Link to Roman Empire.

I tried to put a link on Roman Empire for Comparisons between Roman and Han Empires but Gun Powder Ma reverted it supposedly because the article has "no information". He retained other links I put though(Roman architecture, History, etc...). I haven't worked on the article for a while(busy with other things, such as Economy of the Ming dynasty) but would you think that comparison article is ready for a link to the Roman Empire article? Also, Dougweller, not to be rude, but when will schiedel arrive? if the book arrives, can you inform me as soon as possible. Thank you very much for your help. Regards.Teeninvestor (talk) 23:59, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

I have no idea and no way to find out when the book will arrive, sorry. I'll think about the link question. dougweller (talk) 05:41, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

I just think it is better if you put it(if you agree that article should be linked to wikipedia) because I don't want to get into an edit war with gun powder Ma, who has heavy anti-Chinese prejudicesTeeninvestor (talk) 17:11, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

RfC on use of myth in religious articles

Hi. I have raised a RfC at Proposed change to policy on ambiguous words in religious articles. I feel this is an important issue and wanted to get an interested admin involved in the issue. Any input appreciated. Thanks--FimusTauri (talk) 09:21, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Sources

Hi! Thanks for the heads-up on the dead-end source. I didn't know the source was unreliable, but it is a personal website from someone so I agree it's best not to use. I took your advice and looked for better sources. Are these sources okay?

http://www.arkamani.org/arkamani-library/meroitic/brustein.htm

http://www.nps.gov/archive/hofu/teachers/timeline.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=PZcX2jQFTRcC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=Nubia,+iron,+furnace&source=web&ots=WJzolQaCH5&sig=VPOhOXewQAF5hSLwuZ8QWh0NLwQ&hl=en&ei=_cCKSaDqBYqhtweSn-yeBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result

http://books.google.com/books?id=6tsaBtp0WrMC&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=Nubia,+iron,+furnace&source=web&ots=ZnEjQi52NG&sig=WRvnLo72eW1qNGPQtid36tcAttM&hl=en&ei=_cCKSaDqBYqhtweSn-yeBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=11&ct=result

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab24

http://books.google.com/books?id=JAca1F3qG34C&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=Africa,+neolithic&source=web&ots=wWVGAvbwDC&sig=oLsfZADAq2fplcionxe5hXjBgXw&hl=en&ei=V8GKSaSbO9eitge6-eibBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA71,M1

Please let me know. Sorry for the cumbersome format, I'm still not completely used to the formatting scheme of Wikipedia.Full Shunyata (talk) 10:39, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

It takes time to get used to it. :-) Except for the 'teachers' guide' and historyworld.net, they look good. Did you see the pdf article on AMS dating? It looks good (although of course it itself is over 2 decades old, always check for more recent stuff). dougweller (talk) 10:44, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks again for helping me out with the sources. ;-) I found a few more sources on wheels in ancient Africa, particularly in northeastern Africa. Do these sources look okay?

http://books.google.com/books?id=JAca1F3qG34C&pg=PA278&lpg=PA278&dq=Nubian+horse+chariots&source=web&ots=wWVGBxkwJD&sig=4wS7bIPBseMDkQJxC_7iT3oYyZo&hl=en&ei=fbmMSe2mKY60yQWF8a2_Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

http://www.thenubian.net/chronology.php

http://hf.uib.no/smi/paj/Masonen.html

http://books.google.com/books?id=oMgkHFiBTMEC&dq=African+metallurgy&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=r1Wz2rUbts&sig=ostwX7AzD2aelo4CR4wIWRMpocc&hl=en&ei=1ruMSaP3LaKBtweg0IGbCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPP1,M1 (metallurgy in ancient Africa)

Do these sources seem to be on the level? Thanks again! Full Shunyata (talk) 22:40, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

The 27s

Greetings, Dougweller. I have removed the "speedy deletion" template from "The 27s". See Talk:The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll#Proposed deletion of this article. — Mudwater ^(Talk) 12:30, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Ok, it is self-published and doesn't meet our notability criteria (eg multiple non-trivial sources) so I've taken it to AfD. dougweller (talk) 12:43, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, that's the best approach in this case. — Mudwater ^(Talk) 13:03, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Cryptoarchaeology

Hi Doug, do you mind taking a look at the article Cryptoarchaeology? I can't make much sense of it. I think it's an attempt to rebrand pseudoarchaeological ideas. If anyone felt like suggesting the article be deleted I wouldn't object, but I'm not sure enough to do so myself. Regards, ClovisPt (talk) 21:42, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

I've just taken one article to AfD you might be interested in, I'll think about this one tomorrow. dougweller (talk) 22:03, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

User:Rktect

I really don't have the patience or the interest to follow him around Wikipedia generally, but a number of articles are on my watchlist, and I'll certainly appropriately deal with relevant edits of his as I notice them. AnonMoos (talk) 14:50, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Testimonium Flavianum - Additional EL

Doug,

The proposed addition for EL under "Josephus on Jesus" is indeed posted on a "blog" which promotes interest in a forthcoming book. The article is actually Appendix I from the book, and has been provided because the Appendices tend to be short, stand-alone arguments, with less copyright restrictions.

If the proposed new EL fails Wikipedia standards, it might be a good idea to review several of the existing Wikipedia EL's on the referenced topic:

Josephus' Account of Jesus: The Testimonium Flavianum http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/2008/11/06/hometown-has-been-shutdown dead link

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/scott_oser/hojfaq.html I am not sure how this is any less a blog, promoting a POV (although the opposite POV). "...dedicated to defending and promoting a naturalistic worldview on the internet..." Also markets numerous books and products: "Get the Official Internet Infidels T-Shirt! Now only $16!!"

http://www.bede.org.uk/Josephus.htm A well researched article, but not a POV? "Here you will find my writings on faith, science, history and philosophy as well as loads of annotated links and book reviews. The aim of Bede's Library is show how a person from a scientific background came to Christianity and has had his faith strengthened rather than weakened by argument and reason. It is intended for anyone who is interested in these subjects and wants to see how having faith does not mean sacrificing intellectual integrity."

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=0406-marks A Catholic Newsletter...good article, but must be purchased for $1.50

http://www.geocities.com/b_d_muller/appe.html Arguments for a POV...I think it provides value, but again a POV

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/josephus-etal.html Kenneth Humphreys' site? blog? promoting his book 'Jesus Never Existed'

Other than the fact that many of these sites are more commercial, I don't see the distinction? If you read the proposed article, you will find that it contains period sources not present in the other EL's, and it certainly adds something to the discussion. http://www.mortalresurrection.com/2009/02/09/the-testimony-of-joseph-ben-mathias/

I appreciate your thoughts,

Mortalresurrection (talk) 23:27, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

You are quite likely right about the other links, to be honest I was tired and didn't look at them. Far too many articles have links like that. We have a saying 'Other***exists' which means that just because other stuff is bad is no excuse for leaving a particular case. dougweller (talk) 06:25, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Nativity of Jesus

Doug, would you mind commenting on a content dispute at Nativity of Jesus. It concerns a table comparing the accounts of Matthew and Luke. There are concerns over the use of primary sources, OR, novel synthesis, lack of explanation/context which would be afforded by prose, and even its necessity, given the section "The nativity as myth". The table can be seen at this version of the page: [19] at section 1.3, "The narratives compared". Discussion on the issue can be found at Talk:Nativity of Jesus, in the threads "The two narratives compared", "The two narratives compared, part 2", and at "Task List (January 15, 2009)". Your input on the issue would be greatly appreciated, as very few persons have commented on it. Thank you, Doug. carl bunderson (talk) (contributions) 19:49, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Probably tomorrow. I've raised the issue of Rktect's edits successfully. [20] - a shame in a way, but I've known him for far too long and he hasn't changed. dougweller (talk) 20:12, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I saw it all unfold on my watchlist. I think it was resolved well; he obviously wasn't going to change/improve. I look forward to hearing what you think about the Nativity stuff tomorrow, thanks. carl bunderson (talk) (contributions) 20:32, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I wanted to ask you something, would you mind emailing me so I can get in contact with you? Mine is my user name here at gmail dot com. Thanks Doug. carl.bunderson (talk) (contributions) 21:18, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

rktect and Mount Horeb

Thanks for you note. I didn't realise that rktect was about to get blocked, although I certainly understand why. As far as Mount Horeb is concerned, I and another editor had already done a complete revert of his contributions on three occasions previously, so there wasn't much damage, and I was actually beginning to get the glimmerings of real co-operation going. You can therefore relax and leave it, and if anything needs doing I'll do it. Many thanks. SamuelTheGhost (talk) 22:34, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Somehow it is even sad, considering how much effort Rktect puts into his edits. It is quite unfortunate that most of it is plain nonsense (and I am just too lazy to pick out the good bits and pieces from the abundance of OR and SYN). I wish he would express his ethusiasm in a less intrusive way and not go overboard in every article he touches. Cush (talk) 23:14, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Rktect

File:3kr.jpg

Sorry, I do not look at my e-mail as often as I visit Wikipedia. I see no reason why we need to discuss Rktect in private. He is an utter pain in the proverbial. I fully endorse the current indefinite block. Feel free to "out" his Usenet activity. But I think it has already been done here - indeed I may have done it myself!

Since you ask, I first encountered him in 2005 in connection with this ink blot (see File talk:3kr.jpg) and similar nonsense. — RHaworth (Talk | contribs) 01:24, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Actually you did, but I'd feel uncomfortable outing him. We used to get along relatively well even while disagreeing strongly. I was just wondering how you first encountered him, thanks for the explanation. dougweller (talk) 06:26, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your response to my edit on Tale of the shipwrecked sailor. After seeing the AfD for his Western Semitic calendar, I thought it would be good to track what other unsourced original research he has been adding. Edward321 (talk) 00:18, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Pyramid Construction Techniques

I recently added my external link to my paper The Great pyramid - How on Earth did they build it? http://www.farmhall.com/drupal/files/GPpaper.pdf

I did this because I notice that you have allowed F Steiger to do the same with his 'Pyramid construction using movable wooden ramps' paper.

I take your point that the hosting site offered to me by a friend for my paper is also an aviation training site. I had forgotten this aspect because the link is just a pdf download. If I now host the paper on my own site with no kind of commercial advertising at all, will it be acceptable for me to have the same opportunity as Mr Steiger to provide a link to my own paper? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mehtopa (talk • contribs) 18:54, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

I haven't actively looked at the external links and dealt with them, but you may be right that others shouldn't be there. WP:EL says no personal websites with some exceptions, a personal website run by Mark Lehner would be ok for instance. Read WP:EL, if you think some links shouldn't be there, remove them. dougweller (talk) 19:08, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

I have not suggested that any external link shouldn't be there.

I am requesting that my own link may be placed in the EL section of the Egyptian pyramid construction techniques page provided that I ensure that in all respects the hosting site linked to is appropriate as defined in WP:EL. Mehtopa (talk) 20:53, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

I can't give you or deny you permission to do any edits. All I can do is point out the guidelines, which say avoid links to personal websites and also " you should avoid linking to a site that you own, maintain, or represent — even if WP guidelines seem to imply that it may otherwise be linked. When in doubt, you may go to the talk page and let another editor decide. " dougweller (talk) 21:43, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Antarctica= Atlantis

How can you say the truth violates the NPOV policy when your vandalism prevents my POV from being presented? Where is the neutrality in censorship? Wikkidd (talk) 06:46, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

There's so much wrong in your statement above that it doesn't seem worth commenting on. I will just note that you have had 3 blocks, one for bad faith comments on talk pages (like the above) & tendentious editing, one for gross abuse of civility in edit summaries, and a 3rd for personal attacks/harassment. dougweller (talk) 08:32, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Release of New Book To Be Included

You have deleted my contribution. Professor Fida Hassnain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fida_hassnain) and I have researched Roza Bal tomb for years and now our book is released. The Title is Roza Bal, The Tomb of Jesus. We have spent years investigating the name Yuz Asaf associated with the tomb and with Jesus. We investigate the claims that Yuz Asaf could be Jesus and that he survived crucifixion. We investigate the history of Roza Bal tomb and the claiments of a bloodline to Yuz Asaf and Jesus. We are actively seeking the DNA from Yuz Asaf and Roza Bal. The book is self-published in America. However it is also published by Gulshan Publishers in India, a reputable Publishing house with years of academic books listed in their titles. We do not need to provide a link to the amazon site. It just seemed the most convenient way for readers to locate the book. What would you suggest replace this? Further, there are numerous authors associated with Wikipedia who have self-published fiction and non-fiction books even including fiction titled Roza Bal. You have no difficulties with those, nor with their links to amazon. If they are in compliance here, I am sure we can be too. Please advise me how you would like the reference to this important book to appear here. If there is a special formula, please show me. The presence of a link to a reliable, up to date and well researched history of Roza Bal is much needed here. It does not have to be linked to amazon or the self-published version. But it is important that it be inlcuded here for other scholars and researchers. SuzanneOlsson (talk) 17:14, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

I always have difficulties with self-published books and links to Amazon. When I see them I delete them. It's unusual for a book to have be both self-published and properly published. I suggest you just list the book with both publishers and put a note on the talk page (and in the edit summary say 'see talk page'. If you include the ISBN13 number users can click on it and find the book - you need to do it this way -- ISBN 978-1413304541. dougweller (talk) 17:40, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Deep sigh of relief here. I will go back and redo the page(s) as you suggested. Thank you and Happy Valentine Day.OH! By the way, the aforementioned book with the same title Roza Bal was also self-published in America and became a best seller that was picked up by an established publishing house in India...seems to be a trend nowadays.SuzanneOlsson (talk) 18:09, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Issues Just Arose

Doug, I just checked the page on Roza Bal and on Fida Hassnain...I am going to continue checking various pages at Wikipedia. It appears someone is again going around inserting derogatory statements on Wiki pages. His ISP is 24.39.124.4. I traced this ISP to a suburb of New York, but I expect it did not originate there. Paul Smith lives in England. Due to ongoing legal problems, he is very careul about ISP's being traced to him. What he inserted on the newly created Fida Hassnain page was this line: "However, many genuine historians are skeptical of the imaginery claims of Hassnain. " This is typical Paul Smith, whom many of you knew here as Wfgh66 who was permanently banned from Wiki. There is no one else who would zero in on all things bloodline sucvh as Loremaster's page, which he had previously been hacking regularly, and anything Jesus in India, which he regards as heretical. He will also be hacking pages of people such as Laurence Gardner, where some Paul Smith derogatory remarks still remain, Kathleen McGowan's page, and others. I have been hesitant to make the corrections myself although I have seen his trail in and around wikipedia.It might be necessary to protect the Fida Hassnain page from now on.. Your call. SuzanneOlsson (talk) 00:34, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

The IP editor has interests very different from Paul Smith's, I really don't think they are the same person. I see someone else just reverted him. dougweller (talk) 20:46, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Chedorlaomer

Here is a link to a new thread about this king http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chedorlaomer which is not very informative. While it does not offer much information, for some reason it comes up with Google links to it while your article on him does not. The possible reason is that your articles start like this User:Rktect/chedarlaomer and thats what Google see's. If you could correct this somehow, you might save a lot of repeat posts about the same subject matter you address as people duplicate topics because they don't realize you already have one.

I don't contribute because I find Wikipedia's edit options difficult to understand and even finding the option to communicate with you was a bit difficult.

Anyhow, is there another way you could credit yourself as the person posting the article with maybe your nick after the title? Google would pick up on all of your articles more easily then which is the whole purpose of Wikipedia...the free exchange of knowledge and if we can't find your articles, then there is no exchange.

Not trying to be difficult, just can't find your articles when I do a search using Google and other search engines.

Thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by Armorbeast (talk • contribs) 01:25, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi - ordinary articles aren't written by any one editor, anyone can add/delete/change them, and who does what is shown on an edit history page. Sometimes people keep versions of articles in their own personal space, which is what Rktect has done. I have to say that Rkect has been banned from editing because he broke one of our main policies, which is that articles should be about what reliable sources have to say about a subject and that users should not be adding their own personal research to articles. So anything that has Rktect's name in it is probably not very reliable. A good article will have every important claim referenced to a reliable source, eg for history articles, academic books and journal articles.

A lot of the old Chedorlaomer article has been moved to a new article - click on this Battle of the Vale of Siddim. I hope this helps and doesn't just confuse! dougweller (talk) 21:26, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

Atreus

Why don't you want information relevant to Atreus included on his page? This is vandalism in my opinion. Wikkidd (talk) 22:36, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Then you need to learn about Wikipedia considers vandalism. WP:Vandalism says "Vandalism is any addition, removal, or change of content made in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia.". It goes on to say "Any good-faith effort to improve the encyclopedia, even if misguided or ill-considered, is not vandalism. Even harmful edits that are not explicitly made in bad faith are not considered vandalism. For example, adding a controversial personal opinion to an article once is not vandalism; reinserting it despite multiple warnings is. Not all vandalism is obvious, nor are all massive or controversial changes vandalism. Careful attention may need to be given to whether changes made are beneficial, detrimental but well-intended, or outright vandalism.

"

You added four paragraphs which was basically an argument about planetary orbits changing, Velikovsky, etc. Although Plato mentions Atreus in his Statesman, the mention is just coincidental, a quarrel between Atreus and Thyestes being mentioned briefly as a 'hook' to hang a story on. The story itself is not relevant to the article on Atreus. You are using it to insert material about Velikovsky, etc.

Hello

Hi, I saw that your the one of the first to write a message on the Persian Revolt page, and have an important question to ask you, its on User:Mathsci talk page, I didn't want to retype it here, I skipped user foconoway, because he responds late to the messages on his talk page, therefore you were my next choice to contact. I am about to go somewhere tommorow, that is why your the third person I have contacted so far. Sorry, I'm just in a hurry. And by the way, I just recently joined Wikipedia. Thank you Doug.--Amerana (talk) 07:19, 18 February 2009 (UTC)Amerana talk

Hi again, thanks for the message. I have searched some of her activities on Wikipedia, and found that most Users did not like the articles she was creating. Is it possible that some of the articles (once edited or created by a an knowledgable person) be created? Please don't take this the wrong way, I totally disagree with the tactics she used to create them. But, think that a dedicated user (like me) could remake some of the articles with carefull precision and include the actual known information about them. Not only that, I will also create my own articles.

But because here "proposed" articles have now caught my attention, I think that I am responsible enough to work on them ("her articles" are technically not even her's, she didn't even make half of them). If you check my userpage, I am mostly eager to improve or create Military History articles that pertain to the worlds greatest conqueres, Cyrus and Alexander. I am currently taking a class on them in school, and I'm working towards a degree on Classical Antiquity. I read the Wikipedia guidelines, and do not need a mentor. I wanted to contact her because I found that she has great knowledge about Cyrus's battles, that I am now only studying.

It's too bad/ironic she packed the articles with excessive OR and had CIVIL problems, I guess if she was more mature, she could have been a good contributer to wikipedia (as well told me were she got here info from). I am very eager to engadge in article making soon, that is why I when I found her proposed "ideas", I thought that at least I could save them for the time being, so I put them on my drafts, its only one draft. Here it is, (on its talk page) User:Amerana/TigrisKapisa, I made a mission statement there, and seeing how unpopular these articles are, I promised to change everything, the titles, make total rewrites, and I'm thinking to put the battles and sieges that have too little information for an article, on a large "Campaigns of Cyrus article", a good example is the Siege of Thassos. It has it's own section, but its part of a larger article in the Greco-Persian Wars article. So finally, do you think my proposition (to revamp the articles) is good enough to be undertaken by me? Respond on my page, Thanks.--Amerana (talk) 08:03, 18 February 2009 (UTC)Amerana talk

Hello

What have you been working on, friend? I got bored with sectarian arguements over at the Christianity projects, so I figured I would move over to the Ancient Egypt projects, where the gods and goddesses are all dead. I already feel like I scored some points by finding that bogus Neteraantmwmw.

Can we get Great Pyramid back to GA? It does't have far to go. -- Secisek (talk) 20:31, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I've been working on Tale of the shipwrecked sailor and Tjekker (and Venetian People but that's not AE, just pov nationalistic OR.

I will see if I can add anything to those articles. -- Secisek (talk) 20:38, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Take a look at the history of both. I can't recall, have you ever run into now indef blocked for OR User:Rktect?

I looked him over and I don't think we have crossed paths. Can I be of any help? -- Secisek (talk) 23:02, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't think so, but I do want to make sure all his etymologies are removed as I know from elsewhere that when he discusses such things with professional linguists they -- well, they ridicule his lack of understanding. dougweller (talk) 10:53, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

What professional linguists are involved here on wikipedia? Levalley (talk) 20:39, 27 March 2009 (UTC)LeValley

I'm not sure, why? Dougweller (talk) 21:46, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

The Return of Ariobarza?

Hi there, I strongly suspect that User:Amerana is none other than our old friend Ariobarza in disguise. I first suspected that he/she was back on Wikipedia last week when I saw the edits by this IP address [21]. It wasn't so much the edits themselves, as the rambling, self-justificatory edit summaries. However, one of the edits was a classic Ariobarza edit - compare: [22] and [23]. Note that these edits took place about 30 minutes before Amerana's account was created (not that that proves anything). Today, I saw another very similar edit [24], which made me think that Amerana is Ariobarza. Everything I have subsequently found out seems to confirm that hunch!

The evidence:

1. Amarena's strange fascination with Ariobarza and Ariobarza's orphaned articles - why, when it is clear that they were universally disapproved of (and based on OR), would anyone try and re-instate them as articles? Unless that person was Ariobarza?
2. Second, and this for me is the clincher, Amerana has transferred Ariobarza's stub user page articles to his/her own user page. Ariobarza's user page was deleted on the 23rd January. Amerana joined on the 15th February (as he/she is keen to stress in their messages). Although Ariobarza's talk page still exists, and lists three of the user-page articles (User talk:Ariobarza#One Final Clarification..., it does not list "Battle of the Tigris" User:Ariobarza/Battle of the Tigris. Yet Battle of the Tigris is one of the rescued articles on Amerana's user space User:Amerana/TigrisKapisa. There is almost no way of finding User:Ariobarza/Battle of the Tigris unless you already know the page exists - i.e. you are Ariobarza.
3. The style of writing and use of English is very similar (though he/she hasn't STARTED USING BLOCK CAPS yet)
4. Although Amerana has gone to some length to say they want to know how to contact Ariobarza, I suspect this is just a smokescreen. And this (quoted from above) is just weird: "It's too bad/ironic she packed the articles with excessive OR and had CIVIL problems, I guess if she was more mature, she could have been a good contributer to wikipedia (as well told me were she got here info from)". Especially since you never mentioned WP:CIVIL in your reply to Amerana.
5. For someone who claims to be new to Wikipedia, Amerana seems to know a lot already about processes and past disputes. For instance, on her user page:"Remember, Wikipedia is as reliable as its editors and many of its editors with regards to social sciences are not reliable." She has also marked herself out with the "This user rejects using notability as an inclusion criterion on Wikipedia." banner. Pretty strongly opinionated for someone who has theoretically not yet had an article deleted.
6. After approximately three hours of having a wikipedia account [25], they wrote: "Eventhough I have contributed to different articles in Wikipedia, I will still be somewhat busy." Amerana currently has made 1 edit to an article (today). This suggests that they are not a new user at all, but someone trying to evade a block.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the general idea. I know there are ways of checking this kind of suspicion out, but that is the limit of my knowledge - I thought I would bring this to your attention because of your previous experience with Ariobarza. I apologise in advance if this turns out to be a wild-goose chase, but I'm there's something very suspicious about it all. Cheers MinisterForBadTimes (talk) 17:17, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. I'll give it some thought. dougweller (talk) 17:53, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I'll add to that list:

7. Same fascination with the Thermopylae infobox: [26]

8. Same inability to correctly add up numbers in from Herodotus

9. Same angry, ranting style of responding to messages here

10. Same paranoia as Ariobarza:

"But because your head is too clouded with getting back at Ariobarza, you'll do anything to make sure her work stays buried. I for one, plus some other users agree that Ariobarza, though given a lot of chances to improve herself, was ultimately treated very badly by some users on Wikipedia." (Quoted from the message they left on my userpage - I'm not sure how they managed to reach those conclusions based on the message I left here).

Me think they doth protesteth too much. MinisterForBadTimes (talk) 09:43, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Inappropriate warnings

Just noticed your warnings to User_talk:124.168.155.86 - all of their vandalism had been reverted by the time I'd given their first vandal warning, and they hadn't made any edits since then. If we notice that someone's quickly vandalised four different articles, we just warn them once for all four (either a friendly level one warning, or a harsh level4im if it's seriously abusive) and wait for them to react to that, rather than doling out four escalated warnings at once. --McGeddon (talk) 13:08, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

My bad, although I admit to seeing it as a record for other users more than anything else. But thanks, I'll remember that. dougweller (talk) 14:02, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Slight Tag Mistake

Hi, I was looking at the article 2012 Doomsday Prediction and had noticed that you had inserted a "citation needed" tag incorrectly. I've corrected it now, just wanted to let you know. Thanks, Darrenm540 (talk) 21:50, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Oops. More haste, less speed, (and preview!). Thanks. dougweller (talk) 21:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Mistakin Identity

Hi, I think you should check this out, [[27]] scroll down to my message, sorry it's a little long. Please read it carefully once, I don't feel like typing twice, also User Ministers additions now have been refutted in a new message on his page too, you'll know the ranting and paranoia first started with his theoritical speculation. Thanks.--Amerana (talk) 05:36, 21 February 2009 (UTC)Amerana talk

Fascism article

I wonder if you could look at Fascism#Political spectrum. The introductory sentence of this section is not supported by the footnotes, and much of the section is devoted to "left-wing fascism", which is not described elsewhere in the article. There has been discussion, but it has not been resolved. The Four Deuces (talk) 05:48, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I am very sorry, but I just don't have the time to spend on this. I do see that the problem has drifted over to the article Left-wing fascism. I suspect that a better source can be found for the introductory sentence, and because of the very differing ways the term fascism is used, it's no wonder that people see it all over the place (and others have presented it as, for instance, a center position to win popularity/votes, whatever, in my opinion. dougweller (talk) 19:56, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Solomon's Temple

There is a picture (Image:Jerusalem Ugglan 1.jpg) reappearing that depicts some kind of megalomaniac version of the temple at issue. Could you please remove this propaganda piece for good? Cush (talk) 18:18, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Smile!

A Nobody^{My talk} has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend, Go on smile! Cheers, and Happy editing!
Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

G. Vancouver

Please consider partly protecting George Vancouver's article here: [28] I just had to revert vandalism with my anon IP (forgot to sign in) and notice it has been the target of a large number of anon IP vandalism in February 2008 due to his profile. George Vancouver is the origins for the city of Vancouver, BC and the site of the 2010 games. Thank You, --Leoboudv (talk) 21:13, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

• Thank You for protecting George Vancouver for 1 month. The amount of vandalism in February 2008 to his article was really sad and it was likely frustrating for a registered user to repeatedly hit the revert or huggle button. Regards, --Leoboudv (talk) 20:48, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

crop circles "mainstream media" section

Reason noted for deletion. Please see comments (and a request!) at the foot of the discussion page.

H2onE2

Thanks for the clarification. But I'm not sure whether they're vandalizing or just trying to draw attention to the fact that they're still editing the page. If they're really a professional geologist, it's more likely to be the latter. Gail (talk) 16:53, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

I think he is really a geologist (Australian), who wrote the book (he says, not me) to make money. dougweller (talk) 17:07, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

I was going to suggest that he continue developing the article is his userspace, but after reading the AfD, I'm finding it unlikely that it will ever qualify as encyclopedic. Gail (talk) 17:21, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Evidently a she, not a he, spamming her book all over == a discussion of Ronald Reagan? Why not. Pakistan? Why not... dougweller (talk) 14:03, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

The True Furqan

Hi. I can assure you I have nothing to do with the book. I copied the info from amazon. It is a quite controversial book and I was surprised to see it is not on Wikipedia. I had put a proposal in village pump earlier on.--Abuk SABUK (talk) 22:35, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Ok, sorry about that. But it doesn't belong on Wikipedia as it is a self-published book. Also see WP:BK. dougweller (talk) 22:40, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Hatshepsut

FYI: [29]. Cheers, Tiptoety ^talk 04:56, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

2-24-2009

Thank You ...

• Jeff (talk) 09:03, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

Dude!

Now I'm on the damn #cvn-wp-en greylist :( --Closedmouth (talk) 13:41, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

So you are, and I didn't even know it existed. Is there a way I can get you off? Stupid dog nudged me as I was going after a real vandal. dougweller (talk) 13:46, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Nah, it's fine, it expires in about five minutes. It just keeps pinging me every time I make an edit :P --Closedmouth (talk) 13:48, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Vandalism

Is there anything you can do to discourage 'Chrisbom' from vandalising Hatshepsut's article here. It feels like a vandalism only account and the kind of gross stuff he places there is terrible. 4 of his 5 edits are on her thus far. Thank You, --Leoboudv (talk) 01:50, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

He's had two warnings and then stopped. If he continues, report him to WP:AIV. 06:24, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Re: Jeff Griffin's threats

Hi, thanks for all your help in stopping this guy. I have left a list at User talk:DarkFalls of other user names and IP addresses that he has used to harrass me. It seems that he has far too much time on his hands! Best wishes, WWGB (talk) 11:45, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks once again Doug. You admins have my sympathy for having to deal with this stuff on a regular basis. Regards, WWGB (talk) 22:33, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

March 2009

Hi! Wow, I want to thank you for pointing this out, and want to say I'm really sorry that happened. I had assumed that when seeing the link in the siege of halicanarssess, I guessed that the paragraphs had been copied from livius.org, so I later copied info from that site to created the siege of miletus. But now after carefully looking for the rule I broke, plus your warning to me, I promise I will never do that again. As it was a wrong way to make a good faith contribution on my part to Wikipedia. Much appreciated.--Amerana (talk) 19:49, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Looking for help with arbitration or deletion of biography

Doug, you checked in on my father's biography a couple of times and moved my comments about article bias to the talk page. Sorry that I'm not proficient in wikipedia but I could use some help. The biography is currently dominated by an anonymous user who is clearly one of a small number of detractors who participated in extensive usenet discussions with my father about the propagation speed of gravity. This is an extremely contoversial topic but the tactic he's employing to to personally attack my father and delete all references to the speed of gravity (replacing them with distorted and out of context claims about aliens and free energy). There's a clear agenda here and the article clearly violate NPOV. I'm not a wiki expert and I need help. I'm not looking for a piece that glorifies my father's work, there are plenty of articles like that on the web. Rather, I'm looking for a minimal statement of the facts with links to the appropriate information (both pro and con). Can you help me? As the article stands it's slanderous. I'll need to continue to make that clear in the text of the article as other media sources are attaching the wiki article to biographies about Tom. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikevf (talk • contribs) 18:08, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at Agnon's two comments today on the talk page. I am not at all clear why you think that comments about extraterrestrials and free energy are slanderous, and as I said on the talk page, he is notable for claims such as these. Btw, my own web page probably still links to an article by him debunking Sitchin. dougweller (talk) 18:53, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Triple Goddess

Hi Dougweller. Thanks for "completely agreeing" with me on Talk:Triple Goddess. I knew if I kept editing wikipedia, eventually someone would agree with something I wrote! A small aside - would you mind to sign the comment? Anyway, that made my day! --Davémon (talk) 20:17, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

Ariobarza

Hi there,

Thanks for the update! I'm just glad to know that I wasn't seeing things! I initially came to the conclusion on the basis of not very much evidence, but it just seemed too unlikely to ignore. Anyway, I figured that eventually they would "out" themselves as Ariobarza, given enough time. I almost contacted you earlier in the week, when I saw this edit [30]; it was too much to believe that two people could willfully misinterpret Herodotus in the same way [31]! I'm glad it's all sorted now though, and I'll keep my eyes open for any future avatars <sigh>. Thanks,MinisterForBadTimes (talk) 08:30, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that edit was pretty much a giveaway and probably the thing that spurred me on to do something. dougweller (talk) 08:32, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know about this. I agree that this was clearly a sockpuppet of Ariobarza - the editing and language made it very clear. I deleted the redundant copy of the old "Battle of the Tigris" article in userspace. One thing I'm curious about; was there a request for checkuser made somewhere? -- ChrisO (talk) 23:37, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, an CU was done and Amerana blocked by the editor who did the CU, it's in the block log I think. dougweller (talk) 19:48, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

No

If you looked, I have not been reverting back to exactly the same version every time (unlike the two of you combined), and notice, the 3RR rule does not consider two people reverting to the same thing, as separate people, but as one. 89.240.193.223 (talk) 18:15, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

You've misread the 3RR page entirely. It says "The rule applies per person, not per account." And it doesn't say anything about same version, it says "that reverses the actions of other editors, in whole or in part". But I won't block you if you revert again, just report you and let others decide. dougweller (talk) 18:20, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Your last two edits

The source [32] explicitly states: "The Achaemenids’ role in universal history lies in their fashioning a model for centralized rule over various peoples with different customs, laws, religions, languages, etc. to the advantage and profit of all and their achievement of a unified Iranian nation for the first time." and "Within a few years he founded a multinational empire without precedent—a first world-empire of historical importance, since it embraced all previous civilized states of the ancient Near East."

I am assuming that you did not bother reading the source, so please undo your edits and restore the sourced items. --WrongDude (talk) 19:20, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

You need to read WP:AGF. Two things - the link I found was [33]. Also, the article says "In universal history the role of Cyrus and that of the empire he founded lies in" which is not at all the same as what you quoted above. dougweller (talk) 19:36, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Why do you think I did not WP:AGF with you? I could have undone your edit, but instead chose to notify you of your mistake and politely ask you to correct it. I am not sure how or where you found that link, but that's a separate article, and not the link that was cited by the previous user. [34] --WrongDude (talk) 19:42, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Because you claimed I didn't read it. My fault is that I found the wrong link, which I did read. dougweller (talk) 19:46, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, you hadn't read it. I didn't mean to offend you or anything, I had no way of knowing that you had read a different article by mistake. --WrongDude (talk) 19:57, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the explanation. dougweller (talk) 19:59, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikileaks Edit

I am new to editing Wikipedia so forgive me if this isn't the best way to contact you. I have seen your notes on the editing of the wikileaks page. It was me that did them, I changed the link to a site which linked directly to the wikileaks article directly from it. Whereas the article currently there mentions the articles yet doesn't link to them. I have not intended to link to "racist" websites. Do you have any examples of racism in said website? Thanks for your time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maximumrebel1 (talk • contribs) 03:42, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Here is a link prominently displayed on the website [35]- and another 'useful link' as it calls it [36]. One a scurrilous attack on Martin Luther King, another anti-Jewish. The February archives have a disgusting cartoon about the Holocaust followed by a letter 'In defense of the white man'. I hope you see my point dougweller (talk) 07:57, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't see how the MLK link is in anyway "racist". It provides the facts and although those aren't heard in the mainstream media doesn't negate them as facts. Secondly, the Real Jew News is written by a Jew and is the World according to a Jew who had converted to Christianity. I also fail to see how an article that defends the white man is a bad article. It is from newswithviews.com hardly a racist website so don't let the title throw you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maximumrebel1 (talk • contribs) 22:16, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

The MLK site is hosted by stormfront.org, you don't get much more racist than that. There is really nothing to discuss here. dougweller (talk) 06:03, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

So because it is hosted by Stormfront.org, that automatically negates the facts? There most certainly is something to discuss here, I will leave you with a quote and hopefully some food for thought from a great American.

"It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the numbers of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it."

Anything supported by Stormfront is likely to be a tissue of lies. Patrick Henry I understand, at least during the years just before he died, was an opponent of States rights and a Federalist. There's no point in quoting him unless you also support him in that. dougweller (talk) 22:31, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Well since this is wikipedia, how about citing a source on the Patrick Henry Federalist issue. Also I find it very short sighted to say the least that since Stormfront promotes pride in white heritage than everything they support must be a pile of lies. Facts are facts regardless of who happens to host a website. I challenge you to refute any claims made on truthinourtime.com or on martinlutherking.org/

If you cannot I see no reason why the truth should be censored here at an "unbiased" site. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maximumrebel1 (talk • contribs) 23:53, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't need to, you need to justify itthat those sites meet our WP:RS policy. That's the way Wikipedia works. Go to WP:RSN and ask if you can use them. So, someone's not been telling you the truth about Patrick Henry either? The article Patrick Henry references Moses Coit Tyler's biography -- I've just read the relevant pages and fixed the citation, and it verifies it. So does the article The Republican Party in Virginia 1789-1796 Harry Ammon The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Aug., 1953), pp. 283-310 -- eg Among those whose afterthoughts led them to regret their previous posi- tion were Henry Lee and Patrick Henry. By 1792 both had abandoned their opposition to assumption and adopted the view that it was necessary to support Hamilton's program in order to avoid civil disturbances. By the way, what you originally did was remove a reliable source on the story, replacing it with a source full of lies which only led to the Wikileaks site anyway. There was no point in that except to publicise the site, as it would have been easy to link to the Wikileaks site instead. dougweller (talk) 10:43, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

So your source is someone who was born 36 years after Patrick Henry died. How reliable. I am being targeted because I present facts that aren't nice. The current link in the wikileaks article is nothing but an attempt to get pageviews as well, his article doesn't even link to the relavent wikileaks page. The truthinourtime.com article is far more relavent and links right to the article in question. However obviously I am in a battle I can't win with a close minded moderator, I won't waste my time. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maximumrebel1 (talk • contribs) 23:52, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Ironic. And Patrick Henry ran and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates as a Federalist just before he died. But that's an inconvenient obviously proven fact that gets in the way of your beliefs. Yes, you are wasting your time, Wikipedia will simply not accept a hate site as a reliable source. dougweller (talk) 06:05, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

ChrisO talk page vandalism

Hey Doug, I just reverted more vandalism on the talk page of the IP you blocked for a week here. I don't know if you want to sprot it or what, but I thought I would let you know. Cheers. IronDuke 17:24, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Extended the block rather than prevented editors from using the talk page, I thought that was more appropriate as the edit made it pretty clear that when the block is released we'll get more. Thanks for letting me know. dougweller (talk) 18:18, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Lists of Jews

What is the purpose of such lists on WP?? List of West European Jews, List of French Jews, List of East European Jews.

Hi Cush, you forgot to sign. :-) I hate them. But see WP:Articles for deletion/List of Jews. I suspect an AfD on these would result in the same result, but who knows? dougweller (talk) 19:26, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

I misread the date, that's old. More research needed I guess. dougweller (talk) 19:50, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Blue Lacy

I am a Lacy family descendant and have worked really hard to help maintain this breed and it's rich Texas heritage. We work very hard to keep Internet information accurate regarding the history of the breed and it's originators. The author of this article is not just on wikipedia spreading misleading and false information with links back to their other web pages. I thought wikipedia was for accurate information. I tried to edit by striking through the incorrect information. That has already been reversed. There are legal actions pending on this authors group and this is just another attempt to try and gather credibility when there is none. The State of Texas has the true facts on the breed and if the page is to stay up, this is the reference and material that should be applied to the page. You can also reference the Atlas of Dog Breed of the world. Lacy do not have English Shepard and wolf.

The Lacy have not been accepted in the CDHPR or UKC at this time. There is much more and to a Lacy lover, this is just crazy. I feel wikipedia would want the true facts. Please let me know what is the next step to keep this information on wikipedia true and correct?

We are not seeking any group for reference, there are great references already with the State of Texas links and the Atlas of Dog Breeds of the World, ect… without trying to give credit to any Blue Lacy group. This new group is a fraud and I have documented proof if it is needed.

What can be done to help the Blue Lacy not to be misrepresented on wikipedia? --Bluelacy (talk) 16:55, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia is basically about reporting what reliable and verifiable sources have to say about an article, which is not quite the same thing as trying to represent the truth. You need to read WP:Reliable and WP:Verifiable to understand what these terms mean. Certainl the State of Texas would be accepted as a reliable source. It might also be ok to quote what kennel clubs other than the AKC have to say so long as it is clear that that is their opinion. Disputes as to what should be in the article should be on the talk page of the article in an attempt to gain consensus among editors. dougweller (talk) 21:45, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Your comments would be appreciated

As someone who has contributed to a thread about terminology on WT:NPOV/FAQ, I'd like to point you to a thread that attempts to bring the issue to some sort of closure, here. It's important we try and get to the end of this debate, so your comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time. Ben (talk) 08:00, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

On behalf of the Wikipedia:Kindness Campaign, we just want to spread Wikipedia:WikiLove by wishing you a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Sincerely, --A Nobody^{My talk} 15:56, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

hi

AgentSpy101 (talk) has given you a bubble tea! Bubble teas promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a bubble tea, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy drinking!

Spread the bubbliness of bubble teas by adding {{subst:bubble tea}} to someone's talk page with a friendly message!

User:Tiramisoo and User:GodivaCake

Note that following voting twice at Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2009_March_12#Category:Digital_Revolution, User:Tiramisoo decided to do this. I'm not sure what to do. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 22:29, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

I've started a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#User:Tiramisoo. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 22:48, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

ura lifesaver

Thank you, thank you,thank you. Phil_burnstein (talk) 09:54, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

your question

I completely rewrote the article Jewish commentaries on the Bible in my own sandbox. Instead of junking the old version, I decided to bury it somewhere underneath where my new version would be, blank it out and then move my new article to where the old one was. I asked at [helpme] over a month ago and whoever answered said I can just use <x,<c,<v. I left a note on the articles talk page saying where the old article could be found. I'm not sure what I did, and I don't know what should be done. Enlightenment is always welcome. Phil_burnstein (talk) 13:07, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

your question

Hi Doug Weller, I added the page "Scott Herford" that has been deleted without References from National Geographic Channel and Variety Magazine, Hollywood Reporter, I ask that the page be re-enstated. I have produced feature films distributed internationally and I hope this can be done.

Many thanks Scott

Scottherford (talk) 16:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Cooking dinner right now - look at your talk page in a couple of hours. If I just undeleted it it would be deleted again, I shall put it in your user space and on your talk page explain what you need to do. dougweller (talk) 17:57, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I've explained on your talk page now. dougweller (talk) 19:35, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Noah's Ark FAR

I have nominated Noah's Ark for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. --Vassyana (talk) 15:35, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Micro-vandalism?

Hiya Doug,

This is in reference to that Zodiac article. While checking its history, it seems the writer (CPlot) of that now deleted section originally wrote it as the Zodiac being around 4,000 years old. Then someone made it 5,000, and then later another made it 10,000. Then finally you and that other guy deleted that section altogether.

(As a sidenote, I believe CPlot largely wrote the main section "Zodiac celestial coordinate systems". I don't know if you'd delete that as well.)

However, my main concern is this: How can we detect micro-vandalism (a change of a date, name, number, formula, etc) especially if it gets BURIED under several days' (or even weeks') worth of multiple edits by different people? :-( Titus III (talk) 18:32, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

That worries me too. I almost always revert unexplained changes like that, especially if it's an IP who is editing, eg at List of Empires but also smaller stuff. I've asked if the new abuse filter will help [37] but that won't catch the buried stuff. I'll take a look at Zodiac again, thanks for pointingout about CPlot. dougweller (talk) 19:14, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The Zodiac stuff is OR but I'm a bit loathe to delete it right now. CPlot was wrong about 4000 by the way. I may put a few sources on the talk page. dougweller (talk) 19:30, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks ...

... for the heads up. By the way ... any chance you would be willing to work on the "culture and language" section of the "culture" article? I put as much work into it as I could and there is where I ran out of steam. The trick is not to make it a section on "linguistics" of even "language," just what one needs to know to understand the role of culture in language and of language in culture ... without being too detailed! Slrubenstein | Talk 00:42, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I really wish I could help, but it simply is not my field and I've got too many other things I should be reading up on (and have bought books to read for) to add this. Apologies. dougweller (talk) 15:26, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment

There's a related discussion in this section on ANI that is related. The discussion wasn't referenced on my talk page, but I thought you might want to know. Toddst1 (talk) 19:54, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

More Wikkidd?

I see you've been active with this. Per this diff, it would seem that User:OBlackthorn is a tad suspicious as another puppet. Tim Shuba (talk) 13:20, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Looks like he's using an IP now: User:64.131.168.30--Mike - Μολὼν λαβέ 12:57, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Blocked him earlier. Thanks, if you see him again please let me know. dougweller (talk) 14:03, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

NPOV board

Thanks for correcting my note. On a completely unrelated issue, the BLP dispute at Gilad Atzmon is mentioned in an increasing number of places (BLP board (which is how I came across it), NPOV board, OR board, RFC, RFPP, etc), with so far very little success getting additional input. Any suggestions? Rd232 ^talk 13:27, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Using various forums is usually considered forumshopping, and the main place is the BLP board, so I really don't have any further suggestions, sorry. dougweller (talk) 15:25, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah I know - it wasn't me that did that (apart from the RFC). The user that did it even posted at WikiProject Israel... I thought to ask (or perhaps just wonder out loud) as in 2 BLP posts I was the only new person to contribute. Rd232 ^talk 16:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

By the way, Rd232 has initiated an RfC on the Gilad Atzmon article, and your comments are welcome. Malcolm Schosha (talk) 16:09, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

User:Spider2200

Hi Doug. I see you've come across this user already. He seems some kind of Iranian chauvinist judging by his edits. I've asked him not to keep adding the Persian names for Najaf and Karbala irrelevantly to the middle of the article on Shah Ismail I but he's just done it again [38]. Could you revert this as I'm worried about crossing the 3RR threshold. Cheers. --Folantin (talk) 22:42, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Doug. While you're at it, we have another editor User:Jackiestud adding some really cranky scholarship to the Berbers, Amazons, Mosuo and Kabyle articles (among others), trying to prove Berbers, Amazons and an ethnic group in China are all related and all matriarchal (it's all in the "Ama" of "Amazons" and "Amazigh" apparently). I've tried to explain this isn't exactly scholarly but she isn't having it. --Folantin (talk) 09:30, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I use Google Chrome to edit (I always have huge numbers of windows open so my other browsers are not really 'available' as they have so many windows open'. Upgraded to the new Beta, no edit summary which is bad, bad, bad. I'll have to sort that first. Silly eh? dougweller (talk) 09:33, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

I've been following this Spider guy around and I've never seen such a blatant nationalist disregard for proper evidence. He just seems to make random stuff up to promote the glory of the Persians (e.g. [39]). I'm not sure any of his edits have been worthwhile. --Folantin (talk) 09:34, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Wrong?

Iam sorry, I Provided many, many sources for all those articles. What you mean by wrong? Jackiestud (talk) 11:32, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Wrong, as in not right. I see one of your reliable sources is a web journal studying Xena, the tv warrior queen. You really need to learn about reliable sources. dougweller (talk) 11:38, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

The german and french Wps DO NOT accept the amazons as "no breasts" --not at ll: "L'étymologie populaire admise pendant l'Antiquité décompose le mot en un ἀ- privatif et μαζός / mázos, « sein » en ionien : « celles qui n'ont pas de sein ». Elle ne repose en fait sur rien[1]. On a proposé de faire provenir le terme du nom d'une tribu iranienne, *ha-mazan, « les guerriers »[2], ou encore du persan ha mashyai, « les Peuplades [des steppes] »[3".

Are they also WRONG? Jackiestud (talk) 11:54, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

You left a new msg, I didn´t revert anything. Another provided source: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2133/whats-up-with-the-amazons (no Xena here). Jackiestud (talk) 12:03, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Um, the English WP doesn't accept the 'no breasts' etymology either. We don't use other Wikipedias as sources though, or assume that they are right. We don't assume our articles are right either. But the etymology in our article clearly does not argue for a 'no breasts' meaning. You are at 3RR at Amazons, read WP:3RR carefully. Avoid the article today. dougweller (talk) 12:07, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Iam not at risk with the WP:3RR, since I no longer reverted the page. Iam discussing it. I offered the Wps, two acholar sources, and two articles --and only picked the xena thing. Are these scholar, articles and Wps WRONG? Jackiestud (talk) 12:12, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

These are all wonderful sources and studies made by people who spend their life, money, time, energy to research with honesty --don´t you think it should be made available? Jackiestud (talk) 12:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

This discussion belongs on article talk pages, please. And we have to follow WP:RS, not our opinions of how hard working people have been. dougweller (talk) 12:18, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

This very academic, scholar philologist may helpe you forget Xena: Philology is also not without its interest in this matter. Mr. J. C. Prichard, quoting M. Venture, says that the Berbers (of unquestioned Asiatic origin) inhabiting the Northern Atlas call their language Amazigh, which has been translated as "the noble language." There have been some authors who trace the word Amazon from this term. However that may be, it is certain that these tribes of Northern Africa have bred many valiant fighting women. When in the seventy-seventh year of Hegira the Moslems under Hossan Ibn Annoman captured Carthage and sent the Imperial troops packing in hot haste to Constantinople, they suddenl.... http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/ama/ama08.htm Jackiestud (talk) 12:22, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Which bit of 'this discussion belongs on article talk pages' don't you understand? An early 19th century author (Venture) who thinks the Berbers are of 'unquestioned Asiatic orgin' is clearly not a reliable source. Please go to the relevant talk pages if you want to respond, I am going to start removing your edits from my talk page if you persist. And please be sure you understand what WP:3RR says. dougweller (talk) 12:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

This is ridiculous. There is little difference between this sort of willful ignorance and trolling. --Folantin (talk) 13:01, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

At the moment I will AGF and assume ignorance. But the editor has been pointed towards WP:RS several times, and if this continues we will need to refer it elsewhere. dougweller (talk) 13:18, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Schoolblock

I'm not sure the situation really warranted anything more than a month. Still, I'm not contesting your change. bibliomaniac15 03:21, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

external links

I'm not related to the website, just found the articles interesting in a sense that provide information about the political affiliations of those individuals. I read the WP:EL still, thanks for pointing it out. You were right about some of the sources. Just a note, although it's easy to scream about anti-semitism, I didn't see any hate or vulgar language anywhere. Unless of course is prohibited to state that someone was in fact one. I hope not. Wikiboomboom

Responded on your talk page with a note about one article in particular. Dougweller (talk) 17:58, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

MADDISON

This article does not seem to be notable. Can you check it out, see if it is notable or speedy deleted???? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MADDISON Teeninvestor (talk) 01:00, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

I usually don't touch that sort of thing, but it was only Myspace, etc, so I've speedied it. Got the book but it is disappointing, the articles are not comparative, just about a specific aspect of one empire. I'll look in more detail but that is the design of the book. Dougweller (talk) 06:15, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

That's too bad. in the meantime we improved the format of the article a bit; there's no hurry. I'm involved in writing user:Teeninvestor/sandbox/Economic history of China anyhow.Teeninvestor (talk) 22:09, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Genesis

Doug,

Just1Word is NOT a social networking site -- it is something new on the web. It's a mashup of the Bible, social networking elements and a topical search engine for the Bible. Unlike some of the other bible sites, Just1Word is completely a ministry site without a theological position that it is trying to advance. It is not attempting to bring new community to people like social networks, but merely utilizes tie-ins to the social networks to allow people to discuss the bible.

In addition, Just1Word does not push a particular version of the Bible but rather has all of the popular versions available and uses a random one for new visitors. Unlike most of the other Bible sites which are owned by for-profit entities, Just1Word is not-for-profit and has no ads on its site.

Neither does it post teaching or allow others to post teaching that can be seen by everyone on the site.

I hope this helps explain the background. I'm new to Wikipedia and am trying to figure out the best way to provide helpful additions to some of these posts -- but in no way do I want this to be perceived as spam or some type of commercial outreach.

Any advice that you provide would be appreciated. Thanks.

Bryan —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bpmiller (talk • contribs) 16:04, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

First, if it is your site, read WP:COI and don't add links to it. Secondly, it is still a social networking site, almost all social networking sites have other features. Debate started here [40] Dougweller (talk) 16:26, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Earth Hour

Earth Hour has been taken over by AGW activists and they're using it to advance their partisan POV. The are undermining the credibility of Wikipedia by deleting "opposing" contributions. Thus I am attempting to maintain the integrity of Wikipedia by adding balanced content related to the topic. If you believe that my addition is POV, then you're supporting the POV of the surrounding content and the actions of the WP activists. Or possibly you are being contentious, which is contrary to WP's intent. I'm going to replace the wrongly deleted content, so please leave this content within Earth Hour because it is factual, notable and balanced. I really don't like arbitrary censorship, especially on Wikipedia. Bushcutter (talk) 16:42, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

It isn't censorship, it is saying you need to follow our guidelines and policies. This has had an insignificant amount of coverage in comparison to Earth Hour, thus it is barely worth a mention if even that. 'pov edit' is really shorthand for breaching WP:UNDUE in most cases and in this one although it was also a comment on your deleting a section and calling it nonsense. 'Balance' depends on weight, and the weight of HAH is insignificant. Dougweller (talk) 16:56, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Excuse me, but it is indeed censorship. It was clumsy, ham-fisted, ignorant censorship. All Wikipedians should be ashamed of such ignorant and boorish mob behaviour. Bushcutter (talk) 00:18, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Yawn. It gets really boring hearing people on the losting end of the process cry censorship. And you really should be careful about what can be construed as personal attacks. There's a process hammered out by long discussions, and it's being applied. Calling people names and whining won't impress, nor will unscientific assumptions that those you don't like are young. And you are treading on very thin ice right now, I suggest your rein in your rhetoric. Dougweller (talk) 05:03, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Of course, Dougweller, you were entirely innocent of such low, immoral, dishonest, and scurrilous actions and you should be praised for being such a paragon of Wiki-virtue. It was probably other villains who are clearly lacking in any moral direction who were responsible for this disgusting act. We all thank you for being so helpful in sorting out such a nasty problem, and we are begging your forgiveness for causing you to be exhausted and tired after thinking about this issue so much. I know that you wouldn't be like the other partisan admins who are just itching to ban anybody who complains. Wikipedia would be such a sensible place if only we editors would stick to approved topics. Please don't ban me, I beg you! I will never write on unapproved topics again! I promise to never again contribute to incorrect topics not approved by senior Wiki administrators. There's entirely too many people contributing to unapproved topics. I humbly implore you to use your high position to help me to stay listed as a humble and respectful contributor to approved topics. I will make every effort to stick to approved topics only. Please, I'm imploring that you forgive any who incorrectly complained about the ignorant, disgraceful deletion of the unapproved Human Achievement Hour article! I should have known that Human Achievement Hour was not an approved Wiki-topic. I'm on my knees, and tears are running down my cheeks, begging you to allow this simple uneducated scribe to continue editing. Please don't ban anyone! I promise to confine myself to supporting approved topics such as Global Warming only! I know that you are powerful and can ban anyone with a snap of your fingers, so I promise for the next 12 months to only write supportive statements about Earth Hour and never again mention Human Achievement Hour if only you will not take me to admin-court! Please! I beg you! Bushcutter (talk) 16:55, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Great, I'm glad that you realise that whining, attacking other editors, and then shooting yourself in the foot is a bad idea. It's reassuring to know that if you want to be blocked or banned you know exactly what to do. Dougweller (talk) 17:03, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Human Achievement Hour

Your deletion of HAH is based on a previous page that had no notability. A brief even callous glance at the new page placed up today would make it very, very obvious that the event is notable now. It appeared in the USA TODAY this morning, and two national news papers yesterday. This is censorship at it's finest. Especially being that the event is tomorrow. It needs to be reinstated now. Thelobbyist (talk) 22:06, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

• Agreed. Reinstate. thehondaboy (talk) 22:07, 27 March 2009 (UTC)
  • It was deleted through the correct process. It should stay deleted unless the next process, DRV, overturns the original decision. This is nothing to do with censorship, this is to do with Wikipedia processes. And looking at the DRV right now, it looks as though the original decision will be endorsed. DRV is not a means of getting 5 days more exposure for an article, or a repeat of the AfD, it is there to review the AfD process. Dougweller (talk) 06:05, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Earth Hour

Thank you! Grundle2600 (talk) 17:26, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Stop redacting criticism entries. Don't you get that there is already enough suspicion about your actions? Your the worst most biased admin on this project. A criticism section is there for, you guessed it, criticism. Trying to make it look small as possible and erasing counter information is censorship. I'm suggesting you be put up for review because of your actions on Human Achievement Hour and your censorship in Earth Hour. Thehondaboy (talk) 17:54, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Funny. You are trying to bypass the AfD and DRV process and when other editors (plural) don't let that happen you get all shirty. You also need to read WP:UNDUE. Dougweller (talk) 17:59, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

No, Thehondaboy your edits are irrelevant and not constructive to the article, you are skating on thin ice, pal. If you put him up for review, I will testify for him. Your doing fine Dougweller Creez34 (talk) 19:15, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

DITO and thanks (Dougweller) for cleaning up the article a bit since yesterday. ;) --The Magnificent Clean-keeper (talk) 19:36, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Pakistani nationalist IP

99.228.164.238 (talk · contribs) is insisting on adding irrelevant mentions of Pakistan to historical articles which have little or nothing to do with the term. I caught him at it on Nader Shah (18th-century Persian ruler who invaded India) where the relevant contemporary states and regions are Safavid Persia, Mughal India and Afghanistan (then a region divided between the two). Post-1947 events in the sub-continent have little or no bearing on this piece of history and vice versa. Judging by his contributions log and a message I've received from User:Gurkhaboy, he's been at it on several other articles. --Folantin (talk) 08:52, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel

Hi, thanks for your remarks. I wont revert her anymore. I may raise this at the Fringe theories board, but it is a difficult issue. Hammerschmidt-Hummel is a relentless self-promoter (if you can bear reading the article she has written about herself you will see what I mean). Art historians completely reject her approach, which contradict all established methods. But to rebut her additions would just take yet more space devoted to s fringe source. She does have a genuine, if relatively minor, academic career but is mostly good at getting herself into newspapers and magazines, which means she can cite her own promotional statements, often published uncritically by magazines. Demonstrating the fringe status of her views is a thorny problem within WP policy. Paul B (talk) 12:53, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

talk page

Doug, I appreciate what you are doing but it looks to me like Populares is a classic disruptive editor using a SPA, and also clearly making personal attacks ... you are removing evidence of this and maybe the thing to do is get to the root of the problem. Slrubenstein | Talk 16:40, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

It has to be removed, but it is still there in the history and my diffs are easily found if necessary and will be evidence if it comes to that. And it sends Populares a very clear warning -- I'll take him to ANI if he does it again (I'm involved, so couldn't block him myself). Dougweller (talk) 16:59, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Pyramid construction

I realise that Houdin's theory on Egyptian pyramid construction techniques has only been published for 3 years, but a huge amount of work, by trained architectural minds and specialist 3D CAD builders has gone into it. It's already been re-published with another author. It's far more significant than either the kite-theory or (almost certainly) than the limestone concrete theory. If you don't like some of the evidence for it (other pyramids have internal ramp, the notch, shadowed ramps) then by all means put scare-quotes or similar round them, but don't simply take them out. MalcolmMcDonald (talk) 17:16, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

I've put it back, for some reason I thought it was longer than it is. However, I've also added some citation requests which I hope you can meet, and removed the word 'significant' as it isn't our role to decide what is significant or not, just to report what reliable sources have written. Dougweller (talk) 17:36, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Ancient Egyptian Religion

hi Doug, I have left a note on the articles talk page regarding the edit you have just undone, hopefully you can point out the error of my ways. Taam (talk) 18:26, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you

... for fixing this blunder. I think the problem was that instead of writing "{{subst:DATE}}" for the date parameter in the {{fact}} template, I apparently wrote "{{subst:date}}" instead.
—David Wilson (talk · cont) 19:10, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

No problem. Dougweller (talk) 05:04, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Wittenberg University

(Samual890 (talk) 03:49, 30 March 2009 (UTC))

Hi, I was wondering if Wittenberg University can have their article back to editing. Currently it is semi-protected and I don't think it should be blocked to the public for as long as it has been.

I don't see any sign on the talk page that the edit warring will stop. Dougweller (talk) 05:07, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

It seems to have stopped. But other people are not able to edit anything on there and that's just not fair. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Samual890 (talk • contribs) 06:56, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I still see a lot of argument about possibly copyvio pictures. Dougweller (talk) 07:20, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

(Samual890 (talk) 07:25, 30 March 2009 (UTC)). Oh haha, I wanted to add some pictures and I needed advise on how to do it. And there were some pictures I asked if I could use and he told me I wouldn't be able to post them. That's all. Nothing serious. I promise no intention to do any copy right.

Alan Cabal

To save the discussion clogging up ANI, I've sent it to DRV where you might want to comment. Wikipedia:Deletion_review/Log/2009_March_30#Alan_Cabal. Black Kite 12:43, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. It should have gone there instead of being recreated anyway, I thought that 'new information' was a good reason to ask for DRV. Dougweller (talk) 13:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Offer of help re neutrality

I tagged an article, Nathan Salmon, for neutrality because it contends that he successfully argues against Kant (and Fripke, too, I think), but there are no objective citations beyond his own work for making that claim. I think it would be better to state "he argues against Kant," rather than that he bested Kant (I'm butchering the language of the actual article, but if you have time, go look at it - I am practicing my biographical skills here). I did an article on John Collier (anthropologist) that I do not believe has any neutrality problems, but I have gone from occasional grammar-checker to article-editor and need all the help I can get. Thanks for any you can give!--Levalley (talk) 02:39, 31 March 2009 (UTC)LeValley

From Twinsday

Can you please clarify what article you were refering to? Page moves are automatically labeled minor, not under my control. I tried to undo a page move one time, but it didn't work. I think you have to ask an admin to do it. --Twinsday (talk) 07:06, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

All of your edits are marked M, check your preferences, it's a tick box there. And the article is Giza Necropolis- I've raised the issue on the talk page. I presume you think that that is it the most common name used? Dougweller (talk) 08:29, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Citations

Please put ISBN numbers in book citations and not links to Amazon. Thanks. Dougweller (talk) 17:44, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Thankyou - can you show me the proper way of dealing with all of this by reference to the MOS? MalcolmMcDonald (talk) 18:13, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have pointed you to WP:Cite - which doesn't mention the Amazon bit, that's elsewhere. I've rewritten the Houdin article a bit, it read more like a publicity brochure than a biography I'm afraid. There's also too much bio in the pyramid articles, which should only have stuff about his hypothesis, not about any of the history of how he got to it. Dougweller (talk) 18:19, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

If I have this right, I should leave out these links entirely, because I don't have copies of these books and I'm not citing them for anything. I agree that the Houdin bio was badly written. It's well referenced that he stopped doing regular architecture and one of my references describes his subsequent work as an obsession. MalcolmMcDonald (talk) 18:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Your references to Houdin's books where they are just general references need to go author book publisher, etc with the ISBN 13 number which allows people to click on it to find it. Where you want to make a specific point you'd need to cite the book similarly but with a page number. If you want to use a quote with 'obsession' in it from a WP:RS you can, but you shouldn't use the word without a quote or I guess a citation to a specific source (page number if a book, no page number if an article) - the ref could come after the word obsession. Dougweller (talk) 18:37, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I think I understand now, the two books should be in the Bibliogr aphy at the end, not amongst the references/notes. They're there because, as you say, there could be too much biography in the explanation of the theory. But I'm not sure how much you can take out without upsetting the narrative of a rapidly developing piece of science. MalcolmMcDonald (talk) 18:47, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

366 degree geometry

So why do you keep the article "Civilization One"? It doesn't make any sense since this is just part of a broader subject, i.e. Megalithic geometry. So according to your logic "Civ. One" should have been deleted for a long time. --Little sawyer (talk) 19:15, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

I understand what you are saying. The logic isn't quite right, as I was talking about Wikipedia processes, and probably you are talking about notability. I haven't looked at that article for a long time, but I'll look at it again. They are different issues though. Remember, I'm not saying no article, I'm saying that the original issues need to be dealt with, and that WP:Fringe is relevant and would need to be applied. Dougweller (talk) 20:48, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Is this article really current and objective?

I can't really imagine an unbiased article failing to comment on or direct a reader to this page on the Chronognostic website: http://www.chronognostic.org/over_touro_park.html

I'm not a wiki member and I don't add edits, but the absence of this reference in the article is, to me, conclusive evidence of its bias. I find it hard to believe anyone can read it and still find a colonial origin for the Newport Tower credible. Is that why it isn't in the article?

On the basis it says the tower was "probably not built in the 17th century"? Even they aren't willing to say more than that, despite a convoluted argument that it may have been a complex form of observatory (although there is no evidence of any pre-colonial community or agriculture that would have made it useful). There are two links to the website in the article and a mention that having failed to find any archaeological evidence they were concentrating on astronomical alignments (and we don't 'comment' on websites). Dougweller (talk) 08:39, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

  No-one can make a cogent argument that the alignments in the tower all happened by accident although thearticle now says they could have been with no support. I really believe the neutrality of this article should be in dispute.

Date autoformatting poll

Hi there, Doug! I noticed that like me, you are opposed to any form of dates autoformatting. I have created some userboxes which you might like to add to your userspace to indicate your position. You will find the boxes here. Ohconfucius (talk) 06:47, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Conficker

Hey - you deleted my contribution, OUTSCAN does infact detect the Conficker Worm and I added a source - this should not have been removed. Why did this happen?

Lokacit443 (talk) 08:59, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

Because this is an encyclopedia, not a how to do it website. Everyone would be advertising on Wikipedia if they could (not saying you work for them). If Outscan were notable, like Norton, just maybe, but the article isn't a directory - see WP:NOTADIRECTORY for virus checkers. Dougweller (talk) 09:23, 1 April 2009 (UTC)