User talk:Doug Weller

User:Doug Weller	User talk:Doug Weller	User:Doug Weller/Workshop	Special:Prefixindex/User:Doug Weller	User:Doug Weller/Userboxes	Special:Contributions/Doug Weller	Special:Emailuser/Doug Weller
home	Talk Page	Workshop	Site Map	Userboxes	Edits	Email

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.

---

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.

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 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.

Merry Christmas!

Sue Rangell ✍ ✉ is wishing you a Merry Christmas! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year!

Spread the cheer by adding {{subst:Xmas2}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Seasons Greetings

SH is wishing you a Merry Christmas! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year!

Spread the cheer by adding {{subst:Xmas2}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Wikipedia: Daniel Whyte III

jwales@bomis.com

Mr. Wales:

We trust that you are doing well.

My name is Syntyche with Gospel Light Society Intl.

In December of 2008, we filled out the details on the Wikipedia page for our founder, Daniel Whyte III. Over the years, we have edited the page a couple of times to add information to it. We want to thank you and the Wikipedia staff for providing this free service that we and many others have benefitted from.

However, recently, we found out that some of the information on the page was removed by a user named Dougweller who stated that certain portions were not properly sourced. We attempted to add information to the page on yesterday with better sourcing, however, the same user took down the majority of content on the page as of this morning, December 31, 2013.

We do not want to cause any trouble regarding this matter, because if you knew Daniel Whyte III, you would know that he is not someone who is ineterested in being promoted, or desirous notoriety or fame. However, we found two articles online stating that Dougweller has been accused of removing factual information from other articles on Wikipedia. The links to those articles are below:

• • • • We sent the first link to you in a direct e-mail message as it was unable to go through.

The second link is: http://www.jasoncolavito.com/1/post/2013/03/scott-wolter-and-richard-thornton-accuse-wikipedia-cherokees-and-forest-service-of-anti-wolter-conspiracy.html

Honestly, we really do not know what is going on. But we cannot imagine Wikipedia or anybody else having a problem with a Christian minister and writer who has authored 34 books that do nothing but glorify God, proclaim Jesus Christ, and encourage young people and others to live good, decent, quality lives. If you feel like Doug Weller is just doing his job as you have instructed him, we are willing to be educated as to how to put things on Wikipedia so that they will not be taken off. We have no interest in supplying misleading information in this forum as we are Christian people who are striving to do the right thing. We were just taken aback and disturbed to find this negative information about someone editing Daniel Whyte III's Wikipedia page who claims to be associated with Wikipedia.

We would like to re-list the bio information along with the following information (which Dougweller removed) on the page:

1. Daniel Whyte III's degrees from accredited universities. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion and a Master of Divinity degree from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.

2. The list of Daniel Whyte III's books which have been published by Torch Legacy Publications (www.torchlegacy.com), which is officially registered in the State of Texas and is a part of GLM Omnimedia Group, LLC. Torch Legacy Publications has been around since 1992 and its books have been distributed through major distributors such as Choice Books, Bookworld, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and STL Distribution, which have sold books to major bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, Family Christian Stores, Lifeway and others.

3. The list of radio broadcasts and podcasts which Daniel Whyte III is the host of.

Is there an editor/administrator who we can go through in order to make these changes and have them approved so that we will not have any further issues. We can provide proof for the three items mentioned above. Please let us know what we need to do. Your help is greatly appreciated.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Syntyche

P.S.: We just found Doug Weller's name on your site as an administrator. That makes us feel a little better. So, we are going to forward this e-mail to him as well.

Also, we are going to resubmit the bio, as it came from our president's website. We didn't think we were violating any copyright issues by taking the information from our president's own website. If you do not mind, we are going to rewrite it and submit it with the proper sourcing. Or, if someone at Wikipedia needs to do it, we will be glad to send it to them for posting.

Happy New Year, Dougweller

Soham — is wishing you a Happy New Year! Welcome the 2014. Wishing you a happy and fruitful 2014 with good health and your wishes come true! This greeting (and season) promotes WikiLove and hopefully this note has made your day a little better. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Happy New Year! May the 2014 goes well for you.

Spread the New Year cheer by adding {{subst:User:Pratyya Ghosh/Happy New Year}} to their talk page with a Happy New Year message.

AN You May Have Interest In

This message is being sent to inform you that there is currently a discussion at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard regarding an issue with which you may have been involved. Thank you.

Message on my talk page

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

Books & Bytes New Years Double Issue

Books & Bytes

Volume 1 Issue 3, December/January 2013

(Sign up for monthly delivery)

Happy New Year, and welcome to a special double issue of Books & Bytes. We've included a retrospective on the changes and progress TWL has seen over the last year, the results of the survey TWL participants completed in December, some of our plans for the future, a second interview with a Wiki Love Libraries coordinator, and more. Here's to 2014 being a year of expansion and innovation for TWL!

The Wikipedia Library completed the first 6 months of its Individual Engagement grant last week. Here's where we are and what we've done:

Increased access to sources: 1500 editors signed up for 3700 free accounts, individually worth over $500,000, with usage increases of 400-600%

Deep networking: Built relationships with Credo, HighBeam, Questia, JSTOR, Cochrane, LexisNexis, EBSCO, New York Times, and OCLC

New pilot projects: Started the Wikipedia Visiting Scholar project to empower university-affiliated Wikipedia researchers

Developed community: Created portal connecting 250 newsletter recipients, 30 library members, 3 volunteer coordinators, and 2 part-time contractors

Tech scoped: Spec'd out a reference tool for linking to full-text sources and established a basis for OAuth integration

Broad outreach: Wrote a feature article for Library Journal's The Digital Shift; presenting at the American Library Association annual meeting

...Read Books & Bytes!

2013 Bosnia census

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

Thank you for the welcoming!

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

Your revert on page: Vikings

Hello. You reverted an edit of mine on the page and I am here to explain why you were wrong, to avoid an edit-war.

I removed the unreferenced-tag on the section mentioning "Well known Vikings and Norsemen of the Viking Age", because all the references to specific individuals are given on the pages on these individuals. The section at hand just present a list of them.

You reverted that edit and wrote "we don't use other articles as references or for references, references must be in the article itself".

This would be true if we were talking about a normal text-block containing information on the subject for the specific page. This is not the case here. Not only is the situation different, it would also be unnecessary and a waste of efforts to duplicate references that is already given on a wiki-page that a list is linking to. One one point though, I would agree with you (and the one inserting the unreferenced-tag): It would be nice to have a reference to official lists of Well known Vikings and Norsemen of the Viking Age. But I am not aware of any official lists of that sort and if anyone feel they need them and tell the world, they could do so by writing on the talk page or insert a source needed template.

Unless I hear from you, I will removed the unreferenced-tag in a week or so.

RhinoMind (talk) 05:30, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

Rhino, as a page-lurker... I think Doug was right here. This isn't a simple list of plain wiki-links - it includes a lot of textual claims, in some cases up to a paragraph long. They do need to be referenced in the article concerned. Hchc2009 (talk) 05:44, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

I'll take your point. But was this why Dougweller reverted my tag-edit? I would like to get his opinion, but he apparently refuse to reveal it, as he have intentionally neglected this post. If this is indeed the reason, it should at least be explained on the talk-page. Edit tags are intended for improving articles and clear up murky spots, not to attack editors or as mocking tools of selfrighteousness. Whoever inserted the tag in the first place, was apparently too lazy to make the needed improvements him/her-self. At least he/she should help and support future editors to make them, by explaining the underlying reasons. If we dont hear from Dougweller I'll take it, that the reasons are as you have explained here Hchc2009. RhinoMind (talk) 04:19, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

I have 13,391 pages, not including talk pages, on my watchlist. I don't always have time to reply, especially when someone else has. I didn't see any need to amplify my comments on the talk page and Hchc2009 is correct. I have no idea what you are talking about when you use the words "attack editors" or "mocking tools of selfrighteousness", are you accusing me of doing these things? I think you need to read WP:AGF. Dougweller (talk) 08:26, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

No, Im not accusing you specifically. Sometimes I am just fed up with people tagging everything and not caring to edit anything themselves. Im sorry if my frustration scorched anyone. Apart from that, thank you for replying, now I/we know what should be done. Great. RhinoMind (talk) 20:01, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the civil reply. I probably tag quite a bit, but I spend a lot more time adding sources than tagging. Dougweller (talk) 20:20, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Pro-Semitic Arab Supremacist allegations

On the one hand, you are correct that those accusations, as normally used, are inconsistent, and so you must be in a middle ground. On the other hand, of course, technically an Arab supremacist IS pro-Semitic, since the Arabic language is a Semitic language and the Arabs are a Semitic people (descended from Ishmael, who was descended from Shem). The term "anti-Semitic" as a synonym for anti-Jewish has been nonsensical and obsolete in the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, now that Arab anti-Jewishness (too often covered up as being only anti-Zionist) is a problem. Carry on. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:21, 15 February 2014 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Being nonsensical has never disqualified an idiom or expression from widespread use; to insist on a literal or logical reading is a form of etymological fallacy, no matter how much cognitive dissonance it may create for those ‘in the know’. Despite that no modern ethnographer could credibly refer to Jews (or anyone else) as “Semites“, the meaning of anti-Semitic in English is still “prejudiced against, or hostile to, Jewish people”, so I would challenge your “technically“ and “obsolete“ both. The expression is opaque, like a dead metaphor, to the extent that its users (and listeners or readers) are thinking of neither the Shem legend nor the language family when they say (or hear) it. I’ve certainly seen it applied to Arabic-speakers without the faintest sense of irony. That said, the neologistic pro-Semitic has nothing like the currency of anti-Semitic, and I can’t imagine a Jewish organization describing itself so—but only time will tell whether or not it gets any traction in the language. (I would hope not.)—Odysseus1479 03:31, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I agree. "Anti-Semitic" has always meant anti-Jewish. And the editor calling me pro-Semitic is a known anti-Semite. Dougweller (talk) 06:05, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Indeed. I will agree that I was being pedantic. Odysseus at least agrees with me that when the term "anti-Semitic" is applied to Arabs "without the faintest sense of irony", the lack of irony is itself ironic. I agree that the neologism "pro-Semitic" is not only nonsensical but useless. I would add that the expression is not only opaque, like a dead metaphor, but opaque in the sense of obscure. That is, if one doesn't know that anti-Semitic means anti-Jewish, one doesn't know that anti-Semitic means anti-Jewish. It isn't intelligible by anything other than a dictionary lookup. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:16, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Cro Magnon

Hello my friend

Can you help us improve the Cro Magnon page rather than undo edits, i think there is a lot of important information not covered--Kovkikz (talk) 03:57, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

That was an improvement. Removing badly sourced and inaccurate statements is always a good thing. Dougweller (talk) 06:05, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

What is inaccurate about it--Kovkikz (talk) 15:46, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Kovkikz, a discussion like this belongs at the article talk page. The source itself fails WP:RS quite clearly. Dougweller (talk) 15:59, 16 February 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Wikipedia talk:Signatures

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Wikipedia talk:Signatures. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:06, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Regarding your comment on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Articles_for_creation/Professor_Govinda_KC#Nepal

Thank you for the information regarding improper references (ireport cnn). I have cleaned that up.Rabindahal (talk) 03:02, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Someone trying to delete Degen's Eight-Square Identity

Doug, I believe in the ideals of Wikipedia, but I also believe that for it to work, we should focus on our strengths and areas of expertise when editing, and tread cautiously when we are on unfamiliar ground. There is someone trying to delete Degen's eight-square identity simply because he finds it "uninteresting". (It being a consequence of Pfister's theorem, no mathematician in the world would think that.) If the results of difficult subjects like mathematics, the sciences, and others are deleted (not just edited, but total deletion) by the "preferences" and "interests" of laymen, then the scholarly integrity and content of Wikipedia will be in trouble.:-( Titus III (talk) 07:37, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

• Thanks for the prompt action! By the way, someone inserted the phrase "Painfully Ordinary" into the first line of my comment in the Deletion sub-page. Since the page now says "please do not modify it" (which I believe moderators are exempt), are you still able to delete that phrase? Titus III (talk) 19:23, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Withdraw nomination

I don't know how to withdraw an Afd nomination. Georgia guy (talk) 17:19, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Bat Creek Inscription

Dear Dougweller: Thanks for your interest/assistance regarding the Bat Creek article--I'm not a Wikipedia expert, obviously. I read the links that you provided me with regarding the no-no's of "original research" &c, but am still confused as to why you deleted the addition, in part because nothing that I posted seems to violate any of the criteria: all of the references are factual, readily verifiable, and so on. Macoy's book doesn't (of course) mention the Bat Creek stone, but it is referenced in the discussion, so I'm not clear as to why a list of the sources that he might have borrowed from can't be mentioned. Nor am I clear as to why the fact that the "Holiness to the Lord" inscription appeared frequently in nineteenth-century theological works should be considered irrelevant to the larger discussion. I'm sure that you are as busy as I am, and I hate to take up more of your time, but I did spend some time writing the business up, and don't like to think that it was wasted! Zimiamvia (talk) 19:49, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

@Zimiamvia: - off to bed soon, I'll look at it again tomorrow in more detail and reply. Dougweller (talk) 21:34, 17 February 2014 (UTC)

Zimiamvia, Looking again, it is very good stuff but not for Wikipedia. It is your own research about a list of the sources that he might have borrowed from, ditto the "Holiness to the Lord" material. I would like to see it in the article myself and agree with you, but it needs to come from a source that meets our criteria at WP:RS and WP:VERIFY. You can ask again at WP:NORN to see if anyone takes a different view. I'm really sorry about this. Dougweller (talk) 11:49, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

BLP issues

I've just redirected a new article here on the grounds that it is a coatrack job and in grave danger of breaching BLP.

Some of the issues mentioned are noted in the Jayalalithaa article and many more have been discussed at that article's talk page. Mostly, the things mentioned were allegations rather than charges, and they got nowhere. Maybe Jayalalithaa is good at avoiding court cases etc or maybe this is just the usual Indian political game of unsubstantiated muck-raking supported by a hyperbolic, breathless media but - either way - the article seemed to be quite a jump.

Was I wrong to redirect? I did leave a note at the creator's talk page. - Sitush (talk) 09:45, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

@Sitush: No, you were correct and there were BLP problems in that article. Dougweller (talk) 11:46, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Hi, I don't want to run a fight here in a user talk page, but adding here for the sake of continuity. The article about Jayalalithaa does not carry most of the details listed in the new article. It doesn't even have a word about the major scams where there have been convictions. The discussion in the article talk page were debatable as they were abt her attitude towards alliance, media and a few abt the scams- the claim of "many have been discussed" is not "many charges". She is the first chief minister in India barred from contesting an election, one of the few to have been convicted, one of the few to have been made to appear in court during tenure and only one made to pay losses - all related to the scams/convictions and not merely charges. The claim that it is a media induced story is actually superlative, considering the court verdicts. The political implications were too large and i feel it is necessary to have the article like we have for filmography and discography of individuals. Each of these scams can have separate pages IMO. Please suggest what portion is a potential BLP issue, so that I can look at correcting this article and in my future creations. I have used "alleged", "accused", "convicted" and "charged" as-is, so there is no exaggeration or bias. Also, I was involved in quite a good portion of the parent article to included most references - so i was wondering about the claims of a coatrack cited for the redirect.Ssriram mt (talk) 01:53, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Evidence of camels in Messopotamia

Regarding your recent edit :Recent excavations in the Timna Valley discovered what may be the earliest camel bones found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE. This is seen as evidence that the stories of Abraham,Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written after this time.[68][69]

Can you please note that the evidence of pictures of people riding on camels on cylinder seals contradicts the claims made last week that the patriarchs did not ride on camels. I suggest the following text to replace your original:

Recent excavations in the Timna Valley discovered what is claimed to be the earliest camel bones found in Israel or even outside the Arabian peninsula, dating to around 930 BCE. Some have argued that this is evidence that the stories of Abraham,Joseph, Jacob and Esau were written after this time.[68][69] Nevertheless, the presence of camels on cylinder seals in Mesopotamia dating as far back as 1800BCE is seen by many as evidence that camels were already domesticated in the days of Abraham. See for example http://art.thewalters.org/detail/27381/cylinder-seal-with-a-two-humped-camel-carrying-a-divine-couple/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.147.96.91 (talk) 22:35, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

86.147.96.91 (talk) 22:46, 18 February 2014 (UTC)shirawiki@jewishspark.org

Hi. Every archaeologist in this area knows about the Sumerian seals, etc and that applies to Erez Ben-Yosef and Lidar Sapir-Hen. I'll reply on the article talk page with some references. Dougweller (talk) 09:30, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Yes, of course they all know about the seals (except for Ben Yosef, it appears). So this one secular Israeli guy finds a bone and makes the outrageous claim that camels weren't domesticated until 900BCE when we all know they were domesticated much earlier. (Camels were used by important wealthy foreign folk like Abraham, who was not from Canaan, and were considered exotic and a sign of wealth. See the letter below.) How arrogant and ignorant for someone to assume that the lack of bones in Canaan is evidence that no one used camels in the middle east until 900BCE when other documents show that camels were used a millennium earlier! And he uses this 'evidence' to score points against religious folk by claiming that this is evidence that Genesis could not have been written at the time of Moses. And your recent edit makes his outrageous claim look like fact.

This is why it needs rewording, as I suggest above. It's unprofessional to allow one's political agenda to skew one's interpretation of facts. You and Wikipedia are being used by Ben Yosef to promulgate his [redacted] agenda when you have a duty to be objective and neutral. His claims should be stated as claims, conjectures, nothing more.

See also http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/10625036/Camel-bones-do-not-cast-doubt-on-Bible-stories.html

Thanks, 86.147.96.91 (talk) 11:59, 19 February 2014 (UTC)Shira.

As I said, Talk:Timna Valley. Your comments on Ben Yosef are a WP:BLP violation and I've redacted them - you don't know his religious views but your agenda is very clear. I'm not replying here again. Dougweller (talk) 12:09, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

With respect, you do not know my agenda. For your information, I am not a fundamentalist. People in that camp would consider me to be a heretic. I simply want you to remove an inaccurate statement, by qualifying it better. It is a matter of simple professionalism, not allowing ideology to bias interpretation of facts. The facts are clear that Ben Yosef's argument is hogwash. Anyone who knows anything knows that he has jumped to conclusions, but it makes a nice sound-bite so everyone repeats his claim without questioning his logic. Presenting it as fact undermines Wikipedia's reputation. Thank you. 86.147.96.91 (talk) 13:50, 19 February 2014 (UTC)Shira.

A barnstar for you!

	The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
	For your ability to edit in a neutral manner. Pass a Method talk 03:38, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Help with reflist

Created a new page for academic Kurt Noll but can't seem to fix the reference error even after reading the help page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Radath (talk • contribs) 10:05, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

@Radath:Fixed, turned out to be a missing </ref>. The error message wasn't helpful! Dougweller (talk) 10:12, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Doug please email me

Doug, I'm trying to recover a password, but I've forgotten which email I used. I tried sending myself an email but found I needed to be logged in (Catch 22) So, I saw you were online - could you email

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Isonomia 82.6.107.192 (talk) 13:10, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Done, @Isonomia: Dougweller (talk) 13:37, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Camels

I put that article in, the camels refer to copper mining of which no mention in the bible of the Patriarchs being involved. In the area where the Patriarchs came from North we have pictures of men riding or leading camels that date to the early second millenium BC. The are also mentioned as domesticated animals in Ugarit, which dates to the Old Babylonian period. It is an issue but it does not rule out the Patriarchs being real people. BernardZ (talk) 16:24, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

No it doesn't. One suggestion is that the stories were written down in the 6th or so century BCE and of course the writers assumed they had camels. But we have to go by sources that discuss these particular finds. Dougweller (talk) 16:34, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

February 2014

Hello, I'm BracketBot. I have automatically detected that your edit to List of the oldest mosques in the world may have broken the syntax by modifying 1 "[]"s. If you have, don't worry: just edit the page again to fix it. If I misunderstood what happened, or if you have any questions, you can leave a message on my operator's talk page.

List of unpaired brackets remaining on the page:

• *[[Al-Aqsa Mosque]

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, BracketBot (talk) 16:50, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Humility and contributions to world peace

I have read your email. Perhaps the best bit of it was the quotes in the subject line: that the editor can describe him/herself in those terms is interesting, and the other self-description which you quoted from him/her in the email even more so. However, I strongly suspect that he/she really means it, and is genuinely blind to the nature of what he/she is doing. JamesBWatson (talk) 21:20, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

I agree. That's the most parsimonious way of explaining their actions. Dougweller (talk) 21:59, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Hello! There is a DR/N request you may have interest in.

This message is being sent to let you know of a discussion at the Wikipedia:Dispute resolution noticeboard regarding a content dispute discussion you may have participated in. Content disputes can hold up article development and make editing difficult for editors. You are not required to participate, but you are both invited and encouraged to help find a resolution. The thread is "Basic income". Please join us to help form a consensus. Thank you! EarwigBot ^{operator / talk} 22:50, 19 February 2014 (UTC)

Strange formatting goes across the page

There is something strange in the formatting at the criticism section of Christ Myth Theory. The paragraph has lost soft line breaks, and I can't seem to fix it. Radath (talk) 15:47, 20 February 2014 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:I Love Rock 'n' Roll

Greetings! You have been randomly selected to receive an invitation to participate in the request for comment on Talk:I Love Rock 'n' Roll. Should you wish to respond to the invitation, your contribution to this discussion will be very much appreciated! If in doubt, please see suggestions for responding. If you do not wish to receive these types of notices, please remove your name from Wikipedia:Feedback request service. — Legobot (talk) 00:07, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

On Fitz-Stephen

I wasn't using Stephen Fitz as source, neither I ever did on main page. I was only discussing about him. James Fitzjames Stephen is him.

BTW, what you thought about Talk:Caste_system_among_Indian_Christians' requested move? Moves are obviously based on consensus. Excluding my vote, there were 3 votes for "Caste system among Christians in South Asia", and one oppose. Bladesmulti (talk) 02:19, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Dorje Shugden controversy page

There is a user called "Truthsayer62" who called edits, which were a million times better referenced, as "Vandalism". Truth is that "Truthsayer62" is part of the Shugden cult. If you look in his history, all he promotes is the Shugden cult. If you are unfamiliar with this whole topic, please ask a Buddhist. TiredofShugden (talk) 04:49, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

On Hungarian turanism

Dear Sir,

The quality of the Hungarian Turanism article was very poor. It stressed the fascist and antisemitic aspects of it, but those are a minor part of the matter. Turanism, e.g. the belief that the Hungarians have an Asian origin and Mongol and Turk kinship played and still plays an important role in Hungarian culture, including science.

The two Gestas do not mention "Turanism", but describe the Hungarians as the descendants of Huns and Scythians. I added links to these texts, available on the pages of Országos Széchenyi Könyvtár, our national library. Körösi Csoma Sándor was a follower of the Uighur-Hungarian kinship theory, this belief motivated his travel to Asia. I linked in the web page of MTA (the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) about Körösi Csoma Sándor's life.

Perhaps I broke editng rules linking to wikipedia pages, but I have not know that it is forbidden. But each and every of my edits was objective and neutral, in strong contrast with yours.

I know Hungarian history well, and believe in the power of good, quality science, and not least honesty.

Your attitude is well represented in restoring this sentence:

"According to Hungarian researchers the modern Hungarian Turanism became a kind of business called "Szittya biznisz" (Scythian business) and it has not got much to do with ancient Hungarian traditions."

The reference given is an interview, published in a weekly political magazine, with one historian, Igaz Levente, who expresses his personal opinion about the souvenir and merchandise business grow around reenactment and traditionalist groups. Leaving a sweppingly generalizing, unfounded sentence in place is not a telltale sign of a good editor.

Your work destroys the quality and reliability of, and the trust in Wikipedia, as a source of quality knowledge.

Have a nice day,

Maghasito — Preceding unsigned comment added by Maghasito (talk • contribs) 15:04, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

@Maghasito: Sorry that I didn't get back to the article as quickly as I'd planned - I had other things to do as well, but it was open in my browser for me to work on today. Insulting me because I've been doing other things isn't going to be helpful. I've replaced Levente's name - not sure that he meets WP:RS. I've also turned a copyright violation into a quotation from Krisztián Ungváry. I removed the "seen as heresy" that you added as it wasn't in the source. As you say, "The two Gestas do not mention "Turanism"" so the article shouldn't suggest that, although it might well discuss their influence on Turanism. What I suggest you do is to build up the material on modern Turanism. Sources must discuss the subject Turanism, and our criteria for sources is at WP:RS and WP:VERIFY. We can't call Turanism a scientific notion, that is clearly a violation of WP:NPOV. So was adding "state controlled" to Hungarian Academy of Sciences, a deprecating term that looked to me as though it was casting doubt on the Academy (which says it is self-governing in any case). Our Ural–Altaic languages article doesn't mention Turanic. You would need to link the term "dignity of humgary" and the metaphor of a raped woman to Turanism (with sources). As you can see, I've reworded quite a bit and explained in edit summaries what I was doing. Some of your edits were good, others clearly were not. Between the two of us I think the article is better now than it was before your edit. Dougweller (talk) 16:13, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

The Signpost: 19 February 2014

• News and notes: Foundation takes aim at undisclosed paid editing; Greek Wikipedia editor faces down legal challenge

• Technology report: ULS Comeback

• WikiProject report: Countering Systemic Bias

• Featured content: Holotype

• Traffic report: Chilly Valentines

• Read this Signpost in full
• Single-page
• Unsubscribe
• MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 15:10, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Request for Adjudication

You clearly are abusing your powers arbitrarily. I demand redress of superior jurisdiction. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.52.186.148 (talk) 19:08, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

If I block you you can always appeal. Dougweller (talk) 19:16, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Well, Dougweller being an Auspicious Looshpah, there's not many who outrank him. (I myself am merely illustrious.) But I will ping Mandarax, who is a Most Plusquamperfect Looshpah Laureate. Drmies (talk) 20:06, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

All I know is that if I were an admin, I would not abuse my powers arbitrarily. I would abuse them very methodically. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:17, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Mock the caged beast. Yuck it up, real impressive. Karma exists, the world sees your pettiness of spirit and lack of equity.

Oh no, I am not American English by birth, curse my inferior blood! Thus my diction and lexicon and verbose meandering can be dense and difficult and almost unintelligible at times - yet, it is still better to be a good-willed person who lacks rhetorical sophistic skill than a mere amoral rhetorician of a dessicated scholarship. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.52.186.148 (talk) 22:50, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

• Nor am I. I'm not any kind of English. It's not that you meander verbosely, although that doesn't help, it's that you couch rather ridiculous assertions, suggestions, and accusations in such diction and syntax. And at some point you were making fun of our pedestrian dumbed-down language, weren't you? Well, it's called encyclopedic language, for a broad readership. Drmies (talk) 22:59, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Tarkhan-related articles again

Did any of the people involved in the recent Tarkhan-related mess end up being referred to SPI? I had some involvement in it and Sikh-history (talk · contribs) was also there, trying to stem a tide of poor POV edits etc. I ask because the contributions of Singh31689 (talk · contribs) seem to be following a broadly similar line of interest, including recreation (IIRC) of an article about the Ubhi clan that had been deleted. If there was a prior SPI then there might be justification for requesting a checkuser. - Sitush (talk) 22:35, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

In regards to Kevin Strom's continuation of NA>

This information is false and misleading. Strom is illegally using copyrighted names an logos of the National Alliance. See: http://www.narrg.com/2013/12/response-to-illegal-attempt-at-appropriating-national-alliance-assets/