User talk:StrangerInParadise

What are you talking about?

I added to the talk page; I didn't change the article. CJCurrie 01:24, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

I think I can explain this mystery: in your most recent reversion of the Buors page, you only removed the link (not the actual quote). This didn't make any sense to me, but I refrained from comment.

I plan on holding to our policy of not changing this section of the page until someone else weighs in.

I don't have any objection to you expanding the Compassion Club section, though I'm not sure what you mean by "restorations" -- I don't think anything was deleted from this section. CJCurrie 01:48, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Compassion

Stranger,

There's already a link to Compassion Club, earlier in the article. Hence my confusion.

Since you've adopted a more civil tone, I'll reciprocate (and maybe explain why I've been so resolute with my position):

About a month ago, an anonymous poster added three unflattering quotes from Buors on the article page. I didn't like the way this was done -- the three quotes were lined up one after an another, and were obviously posted with the defamatory intent. The only problem was, at least two of the quotes were accurate (I couldn't find a reference for the third). What's more, the quote on homosexuality struck me as entirely relevant for the page, coming from a public figure.

I recognize that Buors may not want the quote retained, but this ultimately isn't my concern -- I can't think of a more divisive social topic in Canadian politics today, and any public comment on the subject by a party leader has to be considered "fair game" for inclusion. (I did, however, try to mitigate the intentions of the original poster.)

There is no doubt in my mind that the quote is reliable, nor that it is relevant. Attacking the CC's reliability because the original post has been deleted does not strike me as a cogent objection -- especially when the Google cache is still available. Similarly, I can't see the "expectation of privacy" comment holding water on a public discussion forum. (Note that these statements are not made with hostile intent.)

I agree that the "Chomsky" quote was gratuitous, and I don't have any intention of restoring it.

Feel free to forward this message to Buors. Looking at the matter objectively, I hope he'll agree that I've taken the correct approach. CJCurrie 02:27, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Electoral record

I've been adding these tables to a number of different pages. I agree that they take up a fair bit of space, but since they're all clustered at the bottom of the article I don't see this being a problem.

My general approach is that if a public figure is important enough for a separate bio page, that person's electoral record is also appropriate for inclusion. Wikipedia has a clear policy permitting bio pages for party leaders, ergo ... CJCurrie 20:59, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Hi,

Sorry about the broken nature of this discussion. I responded to your message just before Ground_Zero's came in.

If the consensus is against having these elaborate charts on bio pages, I won't object. I don't see them as problematic, though I can accept that others might.

The "highlighting" is simply to draw attention to the subject in the context of a chart format; I hadn't thought of this as contentious, and I never considered doing anything similar for biographical information. CJCurrie 22:14, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Official welcome

Welcome!

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

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

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! , SqueakBox 01:37, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Chris Buors

Thanks for flagging the existence of this article and person. I had never heard of him but the article is now on my watchlist, SqueakBox 01:37, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Buors update

Stranger,

I should inform you that I've done some expanding/referencing work on the Buors page. I don't think any of the changes are particularly controversial, though you may which to review them (and alert the subject) in any case. If there are any factual errors, please alert me/correct them/etc. CJCurrie 21:36, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Flourishes and sources

I won't dispute the quote if you can find it, regardless of the source.  ;)

(Just remember to update the endnotes section.) CJCurrie 03:03, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Square brackets

My understanding is that these are standard usage when indicating that text has been deleted (particularly when "..." also appears in the source material). I don't see this as particularly controversial, in any event. CJCurrie 03:47, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Buors retires from politics

Buors's decision does not come as a complete surprise to me. The impression I took from reading his posts (and particularly his reaction to the recent controversy) is that he never considered himself a "public figure", and wasn't ready for dealing with this sort of criticism. To some extent, I can understand his position -- he became the leader of a political party more-or-less by accident, and probably wasn't expecting the degree of scrutiny or publicity that he's received on Wikipedia. If he isn't able to deal with this, perhaps political life (even on the fringes) isn't for him.

You might be interested to know that I allowed Buors to vet the original page, when it was created in 2004 (this was long before the present controversy). At the time, he said it was fine. I'm not certain he remembers this exchange now. CJCurrie 23:47, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Marinol

Well, you're more involved with the article so I'll defer to you. I removed the anon's link at first because all the other links directly related to Steve Kubby, whereas that one was more tangential. --Malthusian (talk) 22:52, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

So I see. I'm glad that I came across it, it's a very interesting issue but being in Britain I wouldn't have heard of it otherwise. --Malthusian (talk) 23:24, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Help has arrived

I noticed your call for help. I guess that's your question on your user page, you want to get the Kubby story into the {{In the news}} section of the Main Page? I'm looking into it and I'll get back to you. If you can expand on your query do so here. Also, where are the related Wikipedia articles?--Commander Keane 05:54, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I found the related articles, don't worry about that. It looks like there are Wikipedians that are conscious of the story at the Candidates page, so I'm not sure what else I can do. Perhaps it will be picked up by more international outlets and make it onto the Main Page.--Commander Keane 06:01, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for getting back to me. The idea that more international press should pick this up ignores the fact that on the merits this matter already more than qualifies. I understand the value of having an objective rule of thumb, but the shear dimensions of this case coupled with the international exposure it has already surely already passes the objectivity test! StrangerInParadise 06:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Cheers for the link. Can't help on current events (I am not surprised at what happened, though) but will certainly help with the article, etc. Very depressing news. I know both Honduras (whaere I live) and the UK (where I am from) suffer from the same problems of people being criminalised for their use of medical marijuana except that there is no legal recognition of medical marijuana, not that I personally believe medical marijuana should be treated as an exception as I believe the total legalisation of marijuana for all purposes (licenced like alcohol or tobacco) is the only way forward and a recognition of the powerful role marijuana can play in helping give up addictions to a whole range of noxious substances from tobacco and (the out of control drugs of) alcohol, heroin, cocaine and crack, etc, an area in which there has been little or no research. If this issue is debated on any article talk page please send me the link as I am happy to weigh in, and good luck with what you are doing, SqueakBox 14:10, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Hello, to propose an addition to the "in the news" section on the main page, please see Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page, as someone has mentioned above. Unfortunately we can't really be of any other further help in this, other than pointing you in the right direction to raise your query. Talrias (t | e | c) 16:09, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I read the request and I understand your mission. However, I don't think a heading like this is will be included in the main page. The main page has room for only 5 or so headlines, and those headlines are a necessarily a very small selection of all news events. Many news events that are important to many people never make it to the main page, for several reasons, but one of the most logical ones is that there's just too much news to choose from. This does not make the news any less important, of course! It's just not as relevant to as many people as some other news items are. I understand that a lot of this is very subjective (a news item about a sports event might not seem as important to you as this case is) but unfortunately, that's reality... I will remove the helpme tag from your page. Please do not re-add it, it won't get you more response than you are already receiving right now. Sorry! --JoanneB 16:12, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

War on Drugs article improvement

Hey there. Just letting you know that the War on Drugs article has been nominated for improvement. Perhaps you may want to add your supporting vote or a comment on the process. Thank you and take care. --Howrealisreal 18:15, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Userbox

Hey man. I really like your userbox, but I removed it from Talk:Health issues and the effects of cannabis because it is not really appropriate. That article is very controversial and needs to remain NPOV. Including a pro-cannabis userbox advertisement on the page doesn't help that article stay objective. Thanks and take care. --Howrealisreal 23:37, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I see your point, but you are absolutely right: I am concerned about the appearance of POV at the article because it is already easy for detractors to dismiss the content over there as being biased, POV, and pro-cannabis. I understand that you want to spread the use of the userbox, but in an article talk page it is not appropriate. Please see Wikipedia:Talk pages, which states "article talk pages are used to discuss changes to the particular article," and "Wikipedia is not a soapbox; it's an encyclopedia. In other words, talk about the article, not about the subject." The use of the article's talk page to promote the userbox has nothing to do with the content of the article. I'm sorry, but I'm just trying to keep things professional, and that is totally different from the mindless censorship that you are accusing me of. --Howrealisreal 00:16, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

The problem here is that there is no definitive policy about userboxes. Regardless, the use of such templates, as their name implies, is that userboxes belong on user pages. I have seen your views on userboxes in general at Wikipedia:Userbox policy poll (which you also linked in your comment) and cannot help but think that your pro-cannabis userbox advertisement doubles as a means of politicizing that un-related issue further. On the other hand, Wikipedia has established policies about no self-promotion (being that it is your userbox you are trying to get others to use), and about not using article talk pages as a soapbox. You claim that "I've announced a userbox, this hardly qualifies as mounting a soapbox," but by definition announcing or proclaiming something of unencyclopedic and questionable relation to the specific article at hand, surely can be seen as a soapbox. Lastly, I am not an admin and personally I do not care about userboxes for people who want to use them on their user space. Please, use the right platforms that have been established (directly relating to userboxes) and stick to discussing the health issues and effects of cannabis at that article and its discussion page. Regards, --Howrealisreal 21:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Template:User pro-cannabis

The category associated with this template was deleted. Please stop adding it to the template. Thanks, --MarkSweep (call me collect) 06:24, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Just to note that you walked very close to the WP:3RR block there. I understand that you were frsutrated, but edit warring isn't productive, it's just a test to see who is more stuborn. Talking is better! - brenneman^{T}{L} 11:24, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Edit warring and vandalism

Edit warring is frowned upon even when you don't break WP:3RR and I'm frowning. Another, even more serious matter is calling editors who disagree with you "vandals". Please don't do that, it's considered a personal attack. Zocky | picture popups 11:33, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

MfD - community assent

Wanna look? Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/Wikipedia:Community_assent — Dzonatas 14:43, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

In answer to your question

No, I wouldn't want you not to revert vandalsim on my page. I wasn't really sure what was going on and thanks for clarifying, SqueakBox 21:15, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Community assent

Thank you for your vote on Wikipedia:Miscellany_for_deletion/Wikipedia:Community_assent. A deletion of a proposal seems irregular when the guidelines state to use the approval and rejection system. Hopefully, this does move forward the efforts to validate pages. — Dzonatas 23:09, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Re: In addition (re MarkSweep)

Thank you for the comment/clarification. Flcelloguy (A note?) 02:20, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

No; I will not take action when I have not spent time carefully reviewing the entire situation. In addition, because you've already posted the matter at WP:AN/I, if immediate action is really needed, I'm sure one of the many administrators will act after discussion. Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 02:43, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

It is not a matter of right versus wrong, or clear-cut, immediate reversion needed. As I haven't had the time to fully review the circumstances of the dispute (nor do I wish to at this time), and the matter has already been placed for discussion, I will not act. Thank you for your understanding! Flcelloguy (A note?) 02:57, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

mark sweep and guanaco again

Hi, please don't go "looking for bail" for users who are blocked. I think presently the situation has enough attention to it that people will do the right thing -- given time. I know it seems urgent now, but twelve hours in the face of finally reaching a compromise here seems small. thanks, ... aa:talk 07:29, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks about the userbox deletetion warining ~ Trisreed my talk my contribs 23:47, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Your messages

Greetings. I noticed you sending a message in highly loaded language on dozens of talk pages about the userbox policy poll. This is a pretty unacceptable way of going about things, and it does not in any way help to find consensus on the matter; you've gone beyond simply informaing into presenting a highly loaded presentation of the issue designed to encourage people to "vote" a certain way. I urge you to take back this message and not to continue such behavior in the future; I'm placing a notice about this message spamming on the poll so those closing it may take its effect into account. Thanks, Mindspillage (spill yours?) 00:04, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Here are two big reasons why this is inappropriate:

1. Massive assumption of bad faith. "Rogue admins", "sabotage", "reported damage". This is the language of someone who thinks people holding the other view are deliberately out to destroy something.

2. Vote stacking. It's not good. This is the reason people are against userboxes in the first place. It's just not on to go rally people you think will support you and urge them to sway a discussion a certain way.

This sort of thing only exacerbates any factionalism that was already there. This doesn't help solved the problem; it only makes it worse! Instead of making a solid, well-reasoned argument against the points of the proposal on the talk page and letting that stand -- which is the only way consensus can work -- you're going around doing the equivalent of putting up flyers on everyone's door, and it becomes a game of numbers; who can go rally the most support for their position. This is more damaging than any placement or remvoal of any brightly-colored box. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 00:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)