User talk:Mandarax/Archive 16

This is an archive of past discussions about User:Mandarax. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

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Archive 14

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A peaburger for you!

Guess who's making totally animal-free burgers today? Drmies (talk) 21:35, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the burger, and congratulations on making 'em. This is quite a coincidence. Just yesterday I was going through some papers, and came across a recipe I've had for a long time, but never made. I set it aside to be sure to make it soon. Now, it'll be a super-coincidence if they turn out to be the same recipe. I printed my Split Pea Burgers recipe years ago from the foodnetwork.com site after seeing Alton Brown make it on Good Eats. Could that possibly be the one you're using? MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:54, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

It could possibly be, and in fact of veracity, going forward AND backward, it IS! Drmies (talk) 17:52, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
- Wow! Well, how did they turn out? Should I go ahead with my plan to make them? (Of course, my taste in burgers may skew slightly differently than yours.) I'm amazed at the coincidence. That recipe really was buried in that stack of papers literally for years until I excavated it just before you left your note. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:32, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
  - They weren't bad, Mandarax--really, though, they were a bit too solid for my taste. But not bad. Drmies (talk) 03:22, 10 August 2014 (UTC)
    - Thanks for the report. A "not bad" from a meat eater actually sounds very promising, so I'll probably make a batch one of these days. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:07, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

Mandarax's disappearance and the WT:DYK cesspool

Note: I inserted the above section heading. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:41, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Mandarax Mandarax, where art thou? Mat ty.007 08:15, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Hi Matty. I left a brief explanation at User talk:Drmies#Mandarax is not dead, since the good doctor had emailed me, wondering if I was alive. Considering my extensive editing history around here, me being dead would certainly be the most logical explanation for my disappearance. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 11:16, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Isn't an animal free burger a salad? Glad to see you are still on the green side of the grass. --kelapstick^(bainuu) 11:47, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

I noticed your absence. At first, I thought it was an extended vacation. But in the back of my mind, I wondered if it was what we have all experienced at DYK lately. The admin activity has abated, but someone else seems to be full steam ahead. At the least, as witnessed by a rather recent revert of a long-time and valued admin. And there is such a viciousness to the communications. And, oh my goodness, the absolute arrogance of someone who has to come along behind and re-edit what you wrote because they know better than God Awmighty. Quite frankly, I don't even feel like gnome work over there these days. I miss the old gang over there, but no contributors should experience that kind of non-stop attack, I-know-better-than-anyone-else-in-the-world attitude, and downright nastiness. I unchecked WTDYK from my watchlist a while back - can't stand to see it happen to anyone else, either. Best wishes to you and all the old DYK gang, but drinking turpentine would be more pleasant than DYK is right now. — Maile (talk) 19:07, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Ah, I remember Christmas when it was just Kierano, Maile66 and I holding the fort. Good times. I ventured to start building a prep today for the first time in a while, waiting for results. Mandarax: so are you going to return to DYK? And Maile, are you going to keep gnoming? I don't want to loose 2 such valued contributors... All the best, Mat ty.007 19:26, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

I've been gnoming on things having nothing to do with DYK. At the moment, participating at DYK seem to be like giving an-attention-needy peacock a forum. I choose not to do that. Nothing at WP is forever, people drift in and out. We'll have to wait and see. To quote Sean Connery's wife Micheline Roquebrune, "Never Say Never Again". Oh, what a good name for a movie! — Maile (talk) 19:43, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Thanks everybody.

I obviously agree with everything above. I'll probably return to editing (there are still plenty of artists without articles, or with inadequate ones), and will probably even return to DYK. I may further expound on my feelings about the deplorable situation at WT:DYK when I'm more in a mood for writing. For now, I'll just mention my first encounter with the "attention-needy peacock". It was when he asked me why I had changed something on his nomination template, and I gave him three reasons. None of them was the answer he'd apparently been anticipating, but evidently not wanting to waste his outrage at receiving that expected response, he replied, "just so long as you're not one of those idiots saying [what he expected me to say]". I thought "uh oh, this guy's gonna be trouble". Sure enough, soon after that he made his first appearance at WT:DYK. I think I remember one thread a long time ago where he actually didn't feel the need to join in (or, more likely, he just accidentally missed it). But I think he's the lesser of two evils, and he even takes care of some of the errors and other issues created by the eviler evil. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:41, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

See ya around. — Maile (talk) 22:54, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

That DYK nom was an interesting read. There are few things I hate more than this ant-fucking "Oh it's not in the rules so you can't not promote it". Sometimes shit is shit. Those ant fuckers who can't be bothered to nominate a clean article need to clean up their act and not expect others to do the dirty work for them. There's already way too much work done by reviewers--or, way too much work not done by writers/nominators. I will try and keep an eye on matters, Mandarax--in the meantime, welcome back. We sorely need you. Drmies (talk) 23:44, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. But I dunno if I'd say I'm "back" yet. My only edits so far have been to user talk pages in response to pings from during my absence. Then again, Wikipedia is a social networking site.... MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:36, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

As it happens, a certain painter you and I both know showed up on my Facebook feed today--I wonder how Facebook knows that I know them. I'm still awaiting your friend request, Mandarax. Drmies (talk) 01:11, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

The WT:DYK Cesspool: The Sequel

As semi-promised above, here's a little about the situation which drove me away from Wikipedia. Anyone familiar with my work here knows that I just keep plugging away as a very active user no matter what, but an administrator's reign of terror at WT:DYK was so horrible that I was strongly motivated to discontinue my contributions, and I simply left for an unprecedented nine weeks.^[1] None of the attacks were directed at me or anything I did; as a matter of fact, if he were aware of me at all, he would certainly approve of my activities: fixing syntax, grammar, spelling, and accuracy issues, plus the occasional finding of gross factual errors, all done quietly without complaining or objecting to everything the critics point out. But I couldn't stand the extremely oppressive, contentious and antagonistic atmosphere which had been created and perpetuated for so long. (For anyone unfamiliar with the situation, to see the full extent of the problem, you would really have to suffer through reading several months worth of DYK archives.)

This has absolutely nothing to do with error reports, corrections, or suggestions, and it's certainly not because I'm a "regular" who resents an interloper trying to change our flawless DYK system. This is entirely about the unrelenting incivility (I'll use "incivility" as shorthand for the whole range of negative behavior exhibited).

Every time anybody complained about his incivility, the response was that DYK regulars say that there's no problem and they resent outsiders coming in and suggesting otherwise. What the "outsider" refused to see was that, while helpful suggestions and error reports are welcome, incivility is not. I know that there are problems with DYK. After all, I've made sixteen thousand corrections to DYK.

What this admin did was much worse than vandalism. You can deal with a vandal, and when you've done that, you can feel a sense of accomplishment, that you've done something to help the encyclopedia. What this supposed crusader did was alienate everyone involved, creating bad feelings and destroying morale. If everyone is driven away, there won't be any encyclopedia for him to defend.

He repeated over and over and over that people claim there's no problem with DYK. But I never saw anybody say any such thing. The irony is that many people repeatedly told him about the problem with his incivility, yet he failed to see this problem. He was content enough to discuss DYK's problems with Shubinator, until he realized that it was really about his incivility, at which point he abruptly and childishly terminated the conversation.

It made me sick when he sarcastically and repeatedly claimed that the DYK regulars think "There is no problem. Repeat." Everybody knows that there are problems, but the one HUGE problem was him.

He said if "we lose people who can't see there's a problem, so be it". What he refused to see is that he drove away people who do see that there are problems, and would help to solve them if he didn't drive them away. Shubinator's insightful but unappreciated comment to him: "You are driving away the very support you need for positive change."

Sometimes I felt bad about abandoning the people left behind to work on DYK. But, although it may sometimes seem otherwise, this is not a job; if it were, I would have filed a complaint with the HR department about the hostile work environment. But, since this is all voluntary, I simply left, as I didn't wish to contribute when such an unfriendly, uninviting, unsupportive, uncivil atmosphere had been created.

I'll never understand how an administrator could be allowed to rampage so shamefully through DYK. I know that admins are just regular users, but I think that admins should be held to a higher standard of conduct. His conduct was simply despicable.

It was all supposedly done to help Wikipedia, but the horrible manner in which it was being perpetrated was doing far more harm than good. I actually agree with many of the points he was attempting to make, but his conduct while expressing them was absolutely despicable.

I think that conventions concerning wikicivility are somewhat murky, but basic practices of decency should dictate that no user (especially an admin) should be allowed to behave so horribly that it creates conditions which are so intolerable that they drive away innocent users.

I apologize for this being too long, repetitive, and (appropriately enough) rambling. But if I had to edit it down, it might've taken another nine weeks. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 03:08, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Ah yes. Him. Ordinarily I'd suggest an RfC/U. Drmies (talk) 03:31, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

That was hinted at by Prioryman, but nothing ever came of it. Hopefully it's over now, so this can all become nothing more than a horrible, bitter memory. The aftereffects, however, remain, including the users who were driven away and still have not returned. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:15, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Since he appears to have given up (at least for now) I didn't think it worth taking that forward, but it remains an option if there is a repetition. I agree wholeheartedly that it was a deeply unpleasant episode and it's very regrettable that it ended up driving away not only you, but others as well. Prioryman (talk) 21:46, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I sure hope there's no repetition! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:00, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Mandarax, I feel for you. And I feel guilty that not only do I not have any suggestions for improving DYK, but I abandoned it over a different issue that for me is a deal-breaker. But ... if you look back at WT:DYK prior to my leaving in November 2012, you'll see the exact same thing happening, with different editors doing it. I only recently realized that that was what drove Sharktopus away - and he had been one of those working hardest to help DYK. This is a long, long-running issue, with the same drumbeat of attacks on "the regulars" and the same red herring about "regulars" supposedly saying there's nothing wrong with DYK. It may well pre-date my involvement - I haven't looked into the discussions that led to the institution of QPQ reviewing, but I know that came about as a result of criticism of DYK. This all doesn't make it better, but this admin is just the latest point person for this attacking of DYK participants. As I say, I wish I could offer any useful suggestions. I valued DYK, I enjoyed helping there, I miss helping there, and I've slaughtered many, many electrons defending it and trying to make it better. And some good and hardworking editors have been badly burnt over its unpopularity. Yngvadottir (talk) 12:41, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you, Yngvadottir. Your thoughtful, intelligent, and helpful input is very much missed at DYK. Yes, there have been previous periods of intense attacks on DYK, but the recent one was by far the worst. I don't recall any other time when there was such a high level of extreme, unrelenting incivility continuing for months. I found the viciousness of attacks by the admin and his sidekick (who eventually became a critic of the admin's methods) to be unbearable, even though none of it was directed at me personally. There may have been some kind of mob dynamic wherein one person's incivility induced other critics to join in. I'm proud to note that the "regulars" did not succumb to this affliction (possibly with some very minor exceptions where a user may have responded in kind). There was another admin who had been a harsh critic of DYK for a long time, while always managing to remain civil in their criticism, but during these dark days turned uncivil too. As for me, I'm resuming my DYK gnoming, but I think I'll be avoiding WT:DYK. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:15, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Sadly, we have lost another one, hopefully only temporarily. I won't "out" the person here, but the one who is retiring has not cited DYK specifically, but the overall culture being too weighty to deal with at the moment. One benign editor who sincerely tried to sidestep all the nonsense and work with everybody. The admin sidekick is more of an irritant to me than either of you, I suppose. Besides being the needy peacock who will not give up the stage, I have been concerned of late that this individual is targeting one of the good admins, to the point of well..you can figure it out. That targeting really surprised me, and I have no idea why the peacock feels so threatened by this admin. Does this seem like it all came out of the blue, with no warning? The demoralizing of the troops at DYK could not have worked out better if it had been planned that way on some other site. Disruptive in a way that is hard to prove in the WP set up. Why is little old DYK is so threatening to some people? The only thing that comes to mind is that one or more persons want their own show on the main page, but first they have to clear a block of space. — Maile (talk) 21:50, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

It sometimes seemed to me that the admin wanted to hailed far and wide as the brave individual who singlehandedly either saved or destroyed DYK, preferably the latter. He may misguidedly believe that he actually achieved some positive results, but all he accomplished was the creation of a bleak period of oppression and disruption, and DYK is now simply proceeding the same as it always did, before his unwelcome intrusion. As for the "peacock", yes, I do find him incredibly irritating, uncivil, and disruptive, but I focused above on the even more heinous party. I wish the peacock would leave here and go on the road as a stand-up comedian. That would provide him with the attention he so desperately craves, and he could see if anybody appreciates his humor. At least he does some good. In a bizarre exchange, the admin showed that he's so sure that he's always right that he edit warred with the peacock in a ridiculous attempt to push through his ungrammatical, nonsensical hook, then accused the peacock – who tried to restore it to a grammatically correct hook that made sense – of edit warring.

I can think of two good admins who have both been particularly abused in all of this, and I hope it hasn't prompted either of them to consider leaving. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:00, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

The admin I was thinking of is American. But now that you mention it, I think at least one in Asia and at least one in the UK have also taken substantive hits. Thanks for the link - you're right, it was "ridiculous" edit warring. You know...are you familiar with George Costanza's parents on Seinfeld? I mean, if the two of them went on the road together, it would almost be the same thing.— Maile (talk) 23:53, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure we're thinking of the same American, and the other one I had in mind – who had to endure harsh personal insults – is indeed from the UK. As for the only DYK admin I know of in Asia, I'm not aware of any particular abuse he's been subjected to, although I believe his quarrel with the peacock is what prompted the peacock to begin his occupation of WT:DYK. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:32, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

We're on he same wave length straight across it all. The quarrel, from my reading, was the warm-up act to the rest. — Maile (talk) 21:30, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I was right. He really thinks that he whipped DYK into shape and made a positive difference. Let me repeat what I said above: "all he accomplished was the creation of a bleak period of oppression and disruption, and DYK is now simply proceeding the same as it always did, before his unwelcome intrusion". In any case, I'm certainly content to let him live in his little fantasy world as long as his delusion keeps him away. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:02, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Few things around here make me literally laugh out loud, but this is one of the most sadly hilarious things I've ever seen! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:48, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

I certainly don't go around looking for threads with people complaining about this horrible user, but I happened to run across this. (Apparently there have been many ANI threads about his despicable behavior, but I almost never read ANI.) There are lots of people who agree that he's "one of the worst admins" ever. (That thread also discusses his anti-American bias, which I was quite aware of, but didn't mention above because there were so many other issues.) I remain thankful that he's mostly staying away from DYK these days, but apparently he's exhibiting the same abusive behavior at ITN as he did when he terrorized DYK. (I haven't seen any of the ITN garbage myself; just going by the ANI thread seeking to topic ban him from there.) There's a Grateful Dead song, St. Stephen, which includes the lyrics "Wherever he goes the people all complain"; well, this uncivil admin is the St. Stephen of Wikipedia. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:35, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

^ Plus, I realize that I'll never catch up to Bgwhite.

St. Stephen

I'm gonna to sing you a hundred verses in ragtime. Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 22:10, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

That sounds wonderful! (As long as I can leave after the first three or four verses.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:31, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

You'll probably leave halfway through the first verse- I make Phil Lesh sound like Caruso. Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 23:07, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Hehe. Phil is fine. Now, Donna's another story. I've got a bootleg that I simply cannot listen to because of her screeching. (And for anyone reading this who is unfamiliar with her, that's not a metaphor; her "singing" is often literally screeching.) As a matter of fact, I try to avoid all Dead songs where I can make out her voice. (And I'm not a fan of Keith's either.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:26, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Keith sings?. I heard he fell asleep on stage once, and his head hit the keyboard. Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 23:58, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Not often. Actually, he's not so bad. The one whose singing I really didn't like (second to Donna, of course) was Brent. It's funny that I consider myself to be a Deadhead in spite of all this. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:18, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

I quite like his voice- but maybe not the songs he sung, like "Gentlemen, start your engines". Talking of keyboard players, the one with the worst singing voice has to be Glenn Gould- here Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 09:23, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

Well, at least he's got a robot piano and a ghost pianist to accompany him. And then there's Robert Hunter. I've heard some recordings of him in which his voice is almost comically bad. (I'll have to find my tape with him singing a particularly fun version of Promontory Rider.) But for him, I see it as endearing. I really like his singing, and as for his lyrics, well, he's a genius! He's the only non-performing member of a band ever inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And, of course, he co-wrote St. Stephen. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:20, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Agree about (most of) his lyrics- not sure about "It must have been the roses"! And of course there's Touch of Grey. Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 23:55, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Something to cheer you up

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/08/j-michael-straczynski-wants-to-reboot-babylon-5-as-a-big-budget-movie/

Thanks, that's good news!

Now, I'm about to do what I intend to do every Sunday through October 5, which is turn on AMC for what they call the Breaking Bad Binge: eight glorious continuous hours every week of the show including bonus features about each episode. I've only seen the entire series twice, and I'm excited to embark on number three. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:43, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

This is the very reason to get Netflix... every Braking Bad episode commercial free. I'm almost finished watching The Wire. I hadn't seen it before. Alot of critics name it the best TV show ever. I can't name any TV show the best ever, but I would put The Wire in my top 20. The writing and the intricacies of the plot are what makes the show. One writer was a Baltimore Cop turned teacher. They other writer was a Baltimore newsman turned writer, which includes the TV show Homicide: Life on the Streets. The first season is cop vs drug dealer, 2nd adds in crime at the docks, third season adds politicians, 4th season adds in schools and the 5th adds in the newspaper. The character, Omar Little, is one of the best parts on TV. The only other show I've seen recently that I would recommend is Orange is the new Black, but that is only on Netflix. Bgwhite (talk) 04:26, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

My first instinct is that I would watch a lot more TV if I had Netflix. But, realistically, I think the opposite would be true. I would always think "oh, this is on Netflix, so I don't have to watch it now; I can see it anytime", and I'd end up never watching anything. Promos during last night's episodes announced that Better Call Saul would premiere in February. By the way, I recently made a second-hand recommendation of Orange Is the New Black to a friend with Netflix. Even though I've never seen it and don't even know what it's about, your recommendation was all I needed. (By the way, I commend you on your self-control for not blocking the admin who reverted your post above.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:46, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

I finally found the article. I think this article says why I like Orange. The last paragraph sums it up perfectly. It is probably the closest to Breaking than any other show I can recall. First season was funny and set things up. Second was still funny, but it turned dark and had amazing acting. Bgwhite (talk) 05:35, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, and a question about . . . you guessed it . . . DYK

Thanks for your comments on my nomination at Template:Did you know nominations/Bart Bok. When I raised this nomination, I selected the option for "BLP expansion" (or something very similar). I realize now this was a mistake, because the subject passed away some years ago, and you made that correction for me - thanks again.

My question is: by choosing "BLP expansion", it automatically added the additional criteria for "2x expanded and sourced" when it was finalized and added to the list at T:TDYK - is there a way to avoid that? Or to ask another way: if I expand a BLP which originally had sources, which option should I choose when creating a DYK nomination so it is classified correctly? --Gronk Oz (talk) 03:09, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

I must admit that I didn't even notice that the subject was no longer living. I'm just used to people selecting the unsourced BLP option when the previous version was not unsourced, so that's all I checked. I would recommend using the "expanded" option for any expansions unless you're sure the subject is living and the prior version had no sources of any kind. What I've found is that the "BLP expanded" option is almost always invalid. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 03:48, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Great; thanks for that, Mandarax. It makes me wonder whether it is worthwhile proposing a change to the process which generates the DYK nomination templates. At the moment, the option simply says something like "BLP expansion" but does not mention anything about sourcing etc. To my naive eye, it looks like it should be a relatively simple change of wording to something like "expansion of previously unsourced BLP", and it should cut down on this unproductive admin "busy work". Do you know the mechanism to suggest such a change? --Gronk Oz (talk) 06:56, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, I don't know if it's worthwhile. The option is used very, very infrequently. If you want to suggest a change, you could do so at WT:DYK. Alternatively, since this seems like an uncontroversial change, if you're adept at working with templates, you could just edit Template:NewDYKnomination. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:06, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Okay, I'll take your judgement that it isn't a big problem. Keep smiling! --Gronk Oz (talk) 06:24, 15 August 2014 (UTC)

New day

So good to see you doing the daily adjustments to T:TDYK again. I did my best while you were away, when I remembered (and when was online myself), but it wasn't nearly as satisfactory in terms of timing. (At one point, the "Current nominations" section was up to 13 or 14 days, and the daily headers lost their instruction comments on more than one occasion.) BlueMoonset (talk) 00:11, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks; it's nice to know that my little contributions have been noticed and appreciated. As I mentioned above, after being driven away by all of the extreme incivility, I sometimes felt bad about abandoning the good people left behind to work on DYK, so thanks for being one of those who managed to put up with the unpleasantness during the Dark Days, and keep DYK running.

Upon quickly scanning just a little bit of the DYK talk page and archives to see what I'd missed, I had noticed a few pleas for help with problems that people couldn't figure out. Well, these were things that I would've normally stealthily fixed long before anybody else even discovered that something was wrong. More often than not, you were the one who fixed these issues in my absence, so thanks again. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:06, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

JimCubb passed away.

I was always worried about his sudden departure. Unfortunately, he passed away due to lung cancer back in 2011. JimCubb, Chzz and you are the reasons that I stayed around here. Darn. Bgwhite (talk) 21:42, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. I remember that he posted a note with the simple but ominous edit summary "I'm sick", and I've always wondered. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:47, 15 August 2014 (UTC)

Stats

The new version of the Edit count tool on Labs includes some interesting statistics. My edits have only been reverted 63 times, and I know that a significant number of those are self-reverts and vandal reverts. I think that's a very low number. And out of 248,679 live edits, I've included an edit summary on all but three. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:32, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Jimbo is on vacation so someone else will have to mail you the medal. I'm afraid to look what my stats are, but just to make sure I'll leave an edit summary for this one. Drmies (talk) 20:33, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Hehe. Well, after that, I guess I have to check. You've been reverted 885 times, and you've failed to leave an edit summary on 7,767 of your 155,452 live edits. But you put me to shame in the important area of using the "thank" feature. I've only done it 31 times, while you're at 978. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:49, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

I hadn't seen the new tool and WOW, it is impressive. Thank you for sharing. 330,786 live edits, 628 reverts and an edit summary on all but 2,500. I bet when I hit "rollback" on an edit, that counts towards not having an edit summary. #1 user talk page I edit on, Drmies, #2 Magioladitis and that vile Mandarax at #3. Did you notice at the bottom that it lists the amount of semi-automatic edits, such as AWB and Twinkle? The gadget is also impressive Bgwhite (talk) 21:02, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

I've done plenty of rollbacks, and it does count those as having an edit summary (unless it counts admin rollback differently, which seems unlikely). You're my number three also, after Drmies and LadyofShalott. I actually thought a larger portion of my edits were AWB; it's about half for me, but I see that it's 88% for you. THAT vilє MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM эliv TAHT 21:37, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm very grateful that you and so many others enjoy my happy place. Mandarax, you're a fantastic editor and I'm glad you're back. Drmies (talk) 21:52, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for providing a happy place, although, since it's also a very busy place, I haven't been posting there with the frequency I used to. Thanks for the kind words. It was prudent of you to wait a bit before welcoming me back, since the last time I was back, I wasn't. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:10, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Military history of France just brought up my number of reverts. I run into so many edit warriors I'm becoming one myself. Drmies (talk) 21:59, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, that's what happens when you delete content so lightheartedly. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:10, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Yes it do. Hey, I'll never forget your kind help with Pindakaasvloer and associated articles. I thought about that the other day. Drmies (talk) 14:50, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

I think about that exhibit whenever I see art on the floor. Sometimes you're not allowed to walk on it (in one instance, I saw people stepping on fortune cookies piled up on the floor, and the guard just brushed the broken pieces back into the pile), sometimes you're allowed to walk on it, but most people avoid it, and sometimes the whole point is to walk on it, such as an ethereally illuminated room which visitors step into after putting on booties to protect the exhibit. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 18:59, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

The Xtools gadget is proving interesting.

Drmies talk page: 39,587 Revisions, 2,978 Authors, 623 Page watchers, 8,898 Pageviews (30 days)

Mandarax talk page: 3,305 Revisions, 444 Authors, 94 Page watchers, 540 Pageviews (30 days)

Bgwhite talk page: 6,113 Revisions, 992 Authors, 198 Page watchers, 1,794 Pageviews (30 days)

Jimbo talk page: 107,255 Revisions, 11,252 Authors, 3,137 Page watchers, 32,466 Pageviews (30 days)

I'm really surprised at how many revisions Drmies' page has compared to Jimbo's. I would have thought the spread would have been more. But it proves how popular Drmies is. Bgwhite (talk) 01:06, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

Popular? You should see who I'm involved with these days. Wait--you did, haha, and reverted a warning they made to another helpful editor. Drmies (talk) 14:22, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

My head is spinning; my entire concept of consensus has been turned upside down (assuming we're talking about the same user). MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 18:59, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm reading my watchlist for the first time today. I read this page and I think, they will be blocked by Friday. Two messages up on my watchlist and they are blocked. Wow. I need to set aside an hour, make some popcorn and have a drink ready before I start reading anything about that mess.

Well, Floq doesn't fuck around, that's clear. Yes, Mandarax, that's a new idea of consensus, as Gerda pointed out as well. Bg, sometimes things happen more quickly than one thinks they might go. Mind you, I would not oppose an unblock if they managed to say a couple of things, but it's clear they can't. Also, please, no popcorn on my talk page, I don't like the smell. :) Drmies (talk) 21:48, 19 August 2014 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Cross-border Terminal, Tijuana International Airport

Fixed Keizers (talk) 08:48, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

No, you didn't fix it – you made it worse. I pointed out that the original hook, at 231 characters, was over the limit of 200. Your edited hook was 241. I've taken the liberty of editing it myself. It wasn't easy, but I managed to retain all of the information (except the "construction is underway" part, but that's more or less implied by the "will") while getting it down to 198 characters. Feel free to edit it further, but make sure it stays at 200, or preferably fewer, characters. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:09, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

OK so is there any recommendation/assessment? From What I'm seeing there is none. Keizers (talk) 20:11, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

I merely worked on the hook length so the nomination wouldn't get bogged down by that. Someone else will come along and review it. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:19, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

Burning Man

Just a reminder that you can get a hint of what's happening in Black Rock City by listening to Burning Man Information Radio. The Man burns in four days. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:23, 26 August 2014 (UTC)

You can also follow some of the action via webcam, such as this one. The Man burns in three days. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:10, 27 August 2014 (UTC)

The Man burns in two days. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:08, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I looked at the web cam at 1am Burning Man time. It was hypnotic watching all the colored lights moving around on vehicles. Bgwhite (talk) 21:29, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm glad you checked it out. It's an other-worldly experience actually being out there. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:23, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

I plan to email the second and final installment of my Burning Man accounts to those who requested Volume One last year (and who were blissfully unaware that there was a second one looming). If anyone else is interested in receiving them, let me know.

The Man burns tomorrow! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:23, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Happy burnday! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 18:23, 30 August 2014 (UTC) For those of you who watched it live last night, I agree that The Man took an extraordinarily long time to fall. Remember that the Temple burns tonight; you can have that on while you're watching the Breaking Bad binge on TV. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:46, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Do you have any good websites for photos? I'm not artistic and not into art, but boy, most of the photos are beautiful. I look forward to this time of the year. Looking at photos of Burning Man and then looking at photos of the past Gathering of the Juggalos. One leaves you in awe and the other in disgust, but both amaze. Bgwhite (talk) 23:35, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

I can't really think of any specific places for photos – I just search, and there are always plenty of sites. I must confess that I haven't really looked for photos yet this year. I'm really glad to hear that you appreciate the ones you've seen. I heard that Peter Hudson was back with another of his famous zoetropes this year. I've experienced three of them, including the spectacular Homouroboros.

On another topic which I discovered in this thread.... They must have recently changed the software, and, as is usually the case, it's not for the better. I used to be able to use <p> wherever I wanted without causing any problems. But I used one above, and it now causes all following paragraphs to be clumped together into one, even when they're separated by blank lines. I was able to fix it by adding </p>, but that's an added annoyance that was never necessary before. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:51, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Excuses

Keep making those excuses why you have turned into a lazy butt. Bgwhite (talk) 06:16, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Sorry. (For anyone in the dark, this is about this.) As further evidence, I hadn't even updated the burn countdown above until now, after you pointed out my slothfulness. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:08, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Enlightened: I failed to note your absence in our sad list, would you like to be mentioned? I mentioned strike a year ago and then listened to an unforgettable concert and decided to dance, not strike. (I confess that it has been hard at times, even afterwards.) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:42, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Gerda, my absence may not have been so immediately obvious – unlike some users who dramatically post a manifesto before they leave, I just quietly left, until Drmies sent me an email inquiring if I was still alive. (Then I posted my manifesto.) I probably shouldn't be listed, but it's up to you if you feel otherwise. I wasn't really gone that long (nine weeks total), but if you think that highlighting the unrelenting incivilities perpetrated by an abusive administrator and others might help to prevent similar incidents in the future, that's fine. By the way, I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I love your title as "the Notorious Infoboxen wikiCriminal". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:34, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

The problem with Gerda's list, it is a list of missed users. Mandarax has to be missed first. Nobody here left messages inquiring where Mandarax had gone. Bgwhite (talk) 20:02, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

You're right. (* sniff sniff *) Nobody missed me. Now I will leave for good. Manifesto to follow shortly. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:28, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

(ec) I missed you, Mandarax, as soon as Drmies gave you a ~~pie~~ peaburger. But I tend to wait a bit, holding my breath. After the third time back and forth, I let them sit. Sometimes I ask, see? (I didn't ask the second time.) So I asked you. Some would not like to have their name in the company of outcasts, see the talk ;) - I love the title, too. The one who gave it to me is also missing. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:38, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

ps: the one who said to me "I think you are the most cuddly friendly wikiCriminal, and hope to one day see you free to place infoboxen as you see fit." Let's keep dreaming. Another good editor just finalized leaving. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:29, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

I don't know any of the circumstances which led to the restrictions, but whatever happened, it all seems quite ridiculous, and I also hope you'll be free to do as you wish with them. While you have to live with infobox limitations, someone else is free to go around removing galleries, and then, astonishingly, leave a note below informing me that my edit which restored a gallery (to an article I had written) was disruptive. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:52, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

I also don't know any of the circumstances, but was just asked on my talk to let go of the past. (Wonder if Dave knew it's my motto.) - Hafspajen is much better in pictures and Swedish than English, and also close to leaving, allow for misunderstandings and be gentle please ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:06, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

No, no, no; I think you may have misread it (maybe because of some unusual indenting). I was not at all complaining about Hafspajen. As a matter of fact, I thanked Hafspajen for defending me and my position! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:24, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Yes, I misread and have enough concerns not to dig into another one ;) (I should go over all Bach compositions to improve formatting, for example.) - However, yesterday I looked at some articles on a tablet for the first time, and found that some galleries which look good on a PC look not well organized/arranged there, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:04, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Whenever I write an article, I always view it in many different window sizes, and try to make it look as good as possible in all of them. The image placement may not be optimal for any one particular window size, but it's always as good a compromise as I'm able to come up with. Although we were talking about galleries, this mostly pertains to non-gallery images. I always reserve the right to hop to related, or totally unrelated, topics. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 17:29, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

ps: I just mentioned you here --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:06, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

LadyofShalott is extremely deserving of that award (especially the part where you highlight her wisdom)! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 17:29, 1 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Gerda. It's nice to know that you care, unlike some people. It's easy for gnomes to quietly slip away without it being noticed for a while. I guess I really didn't handle it optimally when I left. I was just so disgusted by the WT:DYK situation that I simply wanted to leave. But I should have left that manifesto first; maybe if people were made aware that the deplorable circumstances had driven me away, it might have helped to bring it to an end sooner. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:27, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I have a red category which helps me to resist leaving for deplorable situations, - they come for sure. "Disgusted" was a term Alan also used, did you see? - I didn't edit for 4 days in a row last week (not on strike, but for pleasant private reasons), - did anybody notice? If yes, it didn't show ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:35, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

I've managed to stick around through many other horrible situations, but this one was just too intense, and went on and on with no end in sight. In case I didn't mention it above, I'd like to say that I have the greatest respect and admiration for those brave souls who stuck around and kept DYK running through the Dark Days, with special recognition for Gatoclass, who already received a Mandarax Barnstar of Excellence for "heroically assuming responsibility in order to keep DYK going".

No, I didn't see Alan's "disgusted" comment. I'm not sure who you're talking about, or where. No, I don't think anyone would miss anybody else who was gone for just four days; I'm glad to hear that you had "pleasant" reasons for being away. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:12, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot to add the picture. (My forgetfulness almost got me blocked for a month, DYK?) Sitush worded "triumph of hope over experience", - I don't see triumph yet, but still have a great amount of hope, ready to share it, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:20, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Ah, I didn't realize we'd lost Boing! It is sad that good users keep leaving.

No, I didn't know that your forgetfulness almost got you blocked for a month. I'm guessing that you absentmindedly did something infobox-related that someone objected to.... MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:15, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

You are so right ;) - Archived from my talk under "Again" but not worth reading, do something better with your time, such as review the article in question for DYK ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:44, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Did you know that Carmen has a happy ending? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:25, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

DYK review on John Rey Tiangco

Hi, please see note on your review, Cheers! -PAPAJECKLOY (hearthrob! kiss me! <3) (talk) 03:28, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Well, that wasn't a "review" – I haven't even read a single word of the article. But I replied at the template. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:21, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Hi, please see note on your reply on the discussion at the nomination page, Cheers! -PAPAJECKLOY (hearthrob! kiss me! <3) (talk) 03:28, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Okay, I'm through with my part. Now it needs someone to do a full review, preferably someone who speaks Filipino. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 18:16, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

RfA?

Are you interested on being an sysop? I want to nominate you there. -PAPAJECKLOY (hearthrob! kiss me! <3) (talk) 03:29, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for asking, but no, I'm not interested. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:28, 30 August 2014 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maria_van_Oosterwijck&oldid=623476557&diff=prev

Hi, Mandarax, in noticed your edit.

Wikipedia:Image use policy#Placement
Pieter Leermans --> if you take a look at that article, you will notice he made a painting: Portrait of unknown lady as Mary Magdalene, possibly Maria van Oosterwijk.

In my opinion, this edit of yours was what I call "disruptive". Lotje (talk) 05:36, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Per WP:IG: ON English Wikipedia the galleries are NOT descuraged for quite a while. Like since 2009. Please see also this discussion here, Talk:Charles Marion Russell.

It is standard actually to have galleries, so please don't remove them. Images in the gallery collectively do have encyclopedic value and add to the reader's understanding of the subject. Galleries are not discuraged. See also Rembrandt, just look at THAT gallery.

The same for using image size larger than thumb, exception from the general rule is most art and art related articles that they do fall into this cathegory,.

See here art and art related articles, and architecture articles. These articles do use images larger than thumb. Michelangelo, Ancient Greek architecture, Anglo-Saxon art, La maja desnuda, Stained glass, Sandro Botticelli, Yixian glazed pottery luohans, Wells Cathedral, Romanticism, History painting, Romanesque architecture, Ambrosius Benson, Portrait of Francesco d'Este, Andrea Mantegna, Crucifix (Cimabue, Santa Croce), Danaë (Titian series), Cambrai Madonna, The Werl Triptych, Portrait of a Young Girl (Christus, Berlin), Léal Souvenir, Braque Triptych, Death of the Virgin (van der Goes), Miraflores Altarpiece, Madonna of the Dry Tree

See here also featured articles - art and art related articles, and architecture articles do use images larger than thumb; as exception to the general rule : Early Netherlandish painting, Holy Thorn Reliquary, The Magdalen Reading, Royal Gold Cup, Madonna in the Church, Stanford Memorial Church, Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents, The Entombment (Bouts), Crucifixion and Last Judgement diptych, Las Meninas, Dresden Triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights, The Magdalen Reading Funerary art

Hafspajen (talk) 07:46, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Hafspajen.

Lotje, I read the entire text of the Pieter Leermans article (which took about ten seconds), and didn't see any relevance to Maria van Oosterwijck other than that they were both Dutch Golden Age painters. I thought that was the reason the "See also" was added, which would be an extremely poor reason. I didn't notice the image caption until you just pointed it out. The reference provided in the Leermans article for the painting gives a very detailed description of all aspects of the painting, yet makes no mention whatsoever that the "unknown lady" could "possibly" be Maria van Oosterwijk. Maybe there was some Original Research being done to somehow turn "MARIA. VANDE (..)OEDE" into her? The image's Commons page includes a link to the painting's entry in the RKD, database of the Netherlands Institute for Art History; this also makes absolutely no mention of van Oosterwijk. Plus, in all of the research I did when writing the van Oosterwijck article, I found descriptions of paintings of her, but never encountered anything which suggested this might be one of them.

Your interpretation of the gallery policy is wildly out of line with how galleries are used in art articles. Look at the articles for any artists with a significant number of works in the public domain; virtually all of them have galleries of their work. Is it your intention to systematically remove all of those galleries? The portion of the policy mentioning inappropriate galleries advises against a "gallery consisting of an indiscriminate collection of images of the article subject". But these galleries are not images of the subject – they're creations by the subject.

Removing galleries and then calling my edit disruptive.... Some would say that that is disruptive. It seemed like a strange, very unfunny joke. Was I being punked??? MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:43, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

No, I don't think so, but it is soo 2009... removing galleries. I am just telling -> you look at Rembrandt, well good luck removing that one. You will be reverted in 2 seconds. Hafspajen (talk) 09:50, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Troy Kastigar

Hi Mandarax--can you do a bit of magic here? Thanks! Drmies (talk) 18:35, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Done. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:13, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

You're a good man, darax. Drmies (talk) 02:10, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

Psst! - it's a secret

Secret headquarters of The International Society of WikiGnomes, working tirelessly underground to serve editors better

:Oooooooooh! Thanks, Maile66! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:48, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, Mandarax. You have new messages at Template:Did you know nominations/Seafood pizza.
Message added 19:40, 5 September 2014 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

NorthAmerica¹⁰⁰⁰ 19:40, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/The Fifteen Whispered Prayers (Munajat)

Hi, the name of the page has been changed to The Fifteen Whispered Prayers. Could you adjust the nomination template for me? Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 21:37, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Done. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:47, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Yoninah (talk) 22:53, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Metaphor

Thank you for your concern and contribution. However when an IP address erases a properly sourced edit, without reason or explication it is a form of destruction and vandalism. Your own concern about the quote from Leonardo, steams from the metaphor Leonardo used. The story Leonardo told used bats to explain his own views on sexuality. metaphor [met-uh-fawr, -fer] noun 1.a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to somethingto which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest aresemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”. Compare mixed metaphor, simile (def 1). 2.something used, or regarded as being used, to represent somethingelse; emblem; symbol.

It is only reasonable to allow Leonardo to speak his own mind, in a paragraph entitled Leonardo’s Sexuality. This metaphor is straightforward and reveals Leonardo’s opinion about homosexuality. There is no reason to silence Leonardo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Historical Agreements (talk • contribs) 16:12, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Everything about Leonardo has been intensively studied by scholars for five hundred years, and yet they have not determined his sexuality. But you see that he wrote "The bat, by reason of its unbridled lewdness, does not follow any natural law in pairing, but male goes with male, female with female, as they chance to find themselves together." and you definitively state "Leonardo was a heterosexual". That is not even the tiniest bit close to being a "properly sourced edit". (You also conclude that he "refers to homosexuality as unbridled lewdness", but I interpret what he actually wrote about "unbridled lewdness" as referring to the sexuality of bats in general, of which homosexuality is one aspect.) This is an encyclopedia; I won't be incredibly condescending, as you were, by defining that for you, but I'll just point out that this is a place for verifiable facts, and not for asserting your personal theories and conclusions as facts.

Yes, it would have been much better if the IP had explained their revert. But a simple failure to explain absolutely does not make it vandalism, and your labeling it as such was very wrong. By the way, in addition to the factual problem, your edit was not syntactically "properly sourced" either. According to WP:External links, external links "should not normally be placed in the body of an article". See WP:Citing sources for the truly proper way to add references.

Some required reading that you desperately need to be familiar with: WP:No original research, WP:Verifiability, WP:Vandalism, and WP:Assume good faith.

I have no doubt whatsoever that some reasonable person who's familiar with Wikipedia policies and has some common sense will revert you again. Here's a link to your edit for anybody wanting to revert it. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:49, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

I've reverted. If this continues without the user gaining consensus on the article talk page I'd pursue the usual channels re: edit warring and original research, and if necessary page protection. The inference being drawn is beyond credible. And by the way, from one retired editor to a still very active one, I hope you're well, Mandarax. Cheers, JNW (talk) 00:06, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you very much, JNW. I see that that nonsense had also obscured some section blanking, which you also took care, so thanks for that too. I was thinking about you recently. Until now, I think this was the longest I'd gone without you showing up on my watchlist. The last time I recall was your edits to your user/talk pages. Y'know, you do very little that I would ever disagree with, but I do take issue with you blanking your user page. Whether you're active here or not, your splendid accomplishments remain (even if vandals or, even worse, well-meaning but misguided non-vandals, get to your articles, your superb prose is still there in the history). But, of course, it's your page to do with as you please. As for me being "still very active", it's certainly much less so these days. I left for about nine weeks because I was repulsed by some vile ugliness at DYK. I discuss those Dark Days on my talk page, but please don't waste your time reading about it. While I was away, I came to very much appreciate my time away from Wikipedia, and I realized how wrong it was to try to coax you back. I will always appreciate having you around, but I'll also try not to entice you back against your will. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:52, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

I'm glad to see that you've restored your user page. (But if you decide that you prefer to blank it again, I won't heckle you.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:06, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

DYK nom in need of removal

Hi. Hope you're well. Template:Did you know nominations/Jashodaben Chimanlal is based on an article that has been Afd'ed three times and has been restored to a redirect which was the result of the last Afd so should probably be removed, if that's possible for a DYK nom. Cowlibob (talk) 18:20, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

I explained and marked it as ineligible. Another DYK user will come by shortly to close the nomination. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:05, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

James William Lair

Hello,

Thanks for the clean up of my DYK nomination. I DO struggle with the DYK process at times, and help is definitely appreciated.

Georgejdorner (talk) 14:42, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

You're welcome.

You look familiar... I seem to recall you writing a bunch of articles about World War I flying aces. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:36, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

You better call Saul

link. Bgwhite (talk) 17:30, 6 October 2014 (UT:C)

Thanks. I saw its premiere last night during the Binge. It's fine, but it's no Ballad of Heisenberg. Last night was the final night of the nine-week Binge, and I watched all 71 hours. Since there were just 62 mostly-hour-long (including the original commercial breaks) episodes, you can do the math to figure out how much they padded it with commercials. Of course, they had about five minutes of Breaking Bad Binge Bonus material before each episode except the first one each night. I must say I don't understand why they showed the bonus material before the relevant episode, requiring a Spoiler Alert. You've gotta figure a lot of people were watching it for the first time, so why not unspoilerize that material by showing it after the episode? The show is just as great watching it for the third time. At the end, I again felt overwhelming sadness and emptiness. I'm not sure how much of that is empathy with WW and how much is me just realizing once again that this epic adventure is over. By the way, I've grown castor beans and stevia, as well as chamomile – all of the ingredients necessary to make a nice cup of tea for Lydia. (BTW, the actress who plays Lydia appeared briefly in a Bonus, and I was surprised to see that in Real Life she has a Scottish accent.) I should complete my Breaking Bad garden by planting some lily of the valley. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:43, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Note for anyone unfamiliar with Breaking Bad who may see this and think I've presented an actual recipe for chamomile tea: Walter killed Lydia by putting ricin (derived from castor beans) in her stevia. So please don't put castor beans in your tea. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:42, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

I just went through the third post-Breaking-Bad-Binge Sunday, and I'm still experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The big question: the next time they have a marathon or binge, will I go for a fourth watching? I'm thinking ... probably yes. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:31, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

I've somewhat eased the symptoms by watching a few episodes On Demand. So I've seen some episodes four times, and some maybe even five, because I watched some of it when it was on the Sundance channel. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:57, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Well, Bgwhite, the answer to the above question is yes. I'm currently heading into my ninth hour of the latest marathon. (Walt has cooked up his first batch of ricin.) Unlike the last binge, in which they showed eight hours every Sunday until the whole series was done, this time they're playing 19 hours today and 20 hours tomorrow, taking it through just episode 24 of 62. Since they're not showing the whole series, and I did just see the whole thing not that long ago, I don't plan on being too religious about seeing it all this time; i.e., I may not watch all the way through 5:15 am both days. BTW, they announced that the two-hour premiere of Better Call Saul will be February 8 and 9. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:22, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

I have this strange feeling you kinda like the show. I'll have to wait for Saul to come out on Netflix or DVD. I've got two episodes left of Fargo and I really love it. It's not in Bad's league, but then nothing is. It has the exact same flavour of the film, something I wouldn't think is possible. As with the film, it is the little things that make it a great show. The ice scraper in the frame on the wall or the shootout at the Fargo Mob boss' place. Fargo mob boss... classic. I've been watching some Swedish TV shows. They aren't great, but better than US shows. I've also started watching Helix. It's sort of Andromeda Strain meets The Walking Dead. I only started watching it because it comes from Ronald D. Moore and he is a TV God. Bgwhite (talk) 06:08, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

Update: It seemed very odd that they wouldn't show every episode. I had only checked the schedule for the next few days, since that's how marathons usually work. But when I looked further, I saw that it's a non-contiguous marathon which continues irregularly starting January 5. I don't see the end scheduled yet, but I'm guessing that the finale will be scheduled immediately before the Better Call Saul premiere. My feelings about Fargo are exactly the same as yours: great but no BB. As for The Walking Dead, it's got a marathon coming up which is one of the things breaking up the BB marathon. I've seen about five minutes of the show, which was enough to determine that I didn't like it. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:36, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

You are lucky. I watched three seasons of The Walking Dead. I somewhat enjoyed the first two seasons. The second season really only had zombies at the beginning and end of the season. It was about the people and not fighting zombies. The third season became stupid and there were zombies all the time. The network fired the series creator/show runner just after the second season. Network wanted more zombies. The show is filmed outside of Newnan, Georgia. I lived in Newnan for a very short period before moving to Athens. I do miss the country side of northern Georgia, especially north of Athens. Bgwhite (talk) 08:10, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

The bits I saw just looked ridiculous. Sorry you had to sit through a third season, probably hoping it would return to the quality of the first two. The numbers of the BB marathon didn't make sense. Even padding it with tons of extra commercials, how does it take 39 hours to show 24 hour-long episodes? Turns out that from 9 am to 1 pm today they repeated the episodes they'd shown from 1 to 5 am. Still, that's 35 hours for 24 episodes. Before I discovered this, I did end up staying up til 5 am to watch it. It's just slightly ironic how addicted I appear to be to the show. I love it when Jesse does things such as saying that Walter treats him like a "dentured servant". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:54, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm sure you don't care, but here's an explanation anyways. When I said they were showing 24 episodes, that was on the assumption that they were playing them in order without repeats, so I had only checked the last scheduled episode. But it turns out that the last four episodes tonight are repeats of ones shown earlier in the marathon. (Yay! I don't have to stay up past 5 am again tonight!) The last episode before the repeats was number 29, so it was actually 29 episodes in 31 hours, which is obviously a lot more reasonable. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:41, 30 December 2014 (UTC)

A cup of coffee for you!

Thank you for my points and for fixing the template - I've decided to use my points for awarding you this cup of coffee (it's far too early for beer) ... I won't start an edit war over my usual insistence that my name must be removed from any DYKs

but don't you feel we could squeeze at least three commas in the hook "that Florence Nagle was Britain's first official lady racehorse trainer?" SagaciousPhil - Chat 05:38, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

Awwww, thanks. If I'd known you'd be redeeming the points I awarded to you on a gift for me, I would've given you more points! I'll put some stevia in the coffee (but I'll be careful where I get it). Someone else who's credited on that nomination (Dr. B) vowed to never return to DYK, so you're not alone. Commas are always good! But in my opinion, "lady" has got to go. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 06:42, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks once again for sorting out the Nagle and Wilmot DYKs - I would be lost without your help; as always, you just quietly (and very efficiently) get on with the necessary work - you worked so quietly this time that I hadn't noticed it right away! SagaciousPhil - Chat 09:45, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

You're welcome. It's a pleasure to help out someone who's always so appreciative and kind. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:47, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar is awarded to especially tireless editors who contribute an especially large body of work without sacrificing quality. Hafspajen (talk) 15:01, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you very much! It's greatly appreciated! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:54, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

Hafs beat me to it by awarding you this barnstar ... thank you so much for all the tweaks and fixes you do, it really is very much appreciated. SagaciousPhil - Chat 21:33, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks again, and you're welcome for the tweaks. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:37, 19 October 2014 (UTC)

I don't have any barnstars laying around but I'll share my lunch with you. Drmies (talk) 18:12, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Church.

15 - 7 =8. Hafspajen (talk) 00:16, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Well, you've got me there. There's no denying that. However, I'm more than a little puzzled (translation: I have no idea what this could possibly be about). Sometimes cryptic is a good thing.

The Church I see most frequently is the large 4-by-7-foot (1.2 m × 2.1 m) Chimborazo. It's very impressive, and I'm surprised to see that it's not on Commons. I should remember to photograph it next time I'm at The Huntington museum and upload it. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:47, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Yes, it would be surprising for it not to be on Commons. But it is there. Somehow I missed it. Well, I may still take a higher resolution photo to upload. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:01, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Good idea! Huntington Library is in US, so no competition for Scotland. What I meant that the Church article was nominated for DYK on the 8th day... isn't that too late? Or to late for the special holding area? It say it has to be nominated seven days from creation. Hafspajen (talk) 14:09, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Ah, I see. Well, in general, reviewers will often give you some leeway if a nomination is a day, or even more, late. However, in this specific case, you won't have to rely on that, because the rule is different for April Fools' Day submissions – the creation/expansion/nomination is acceptable any time during the year between April Fools' Days. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:17, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

We think it was a good idea to submit at april's Fools. What-how should we do? Hafspajen (talk) 21:34, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

I nominated it for AFD.^[1] It should also remain on the main nominations page until it's approved. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:55, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

^ This might be considered a minor pre-April Fools' Day joke. People who see "AFD" may think "Articles For Deletion" rather than "April Fools' Day".

New user

Hello excuse me. Iam new here and I try to add some info on italian art but I have problem in listing my information reported that Iam vandalize May u can help me to know why I can list this italian art movment ?

I check and that a lot of art movement like super flat art that are even younger and not really popular the art movment I talk is very we'll know exhibitin in the universal expo next year but it still not going on and I risk to get stop from editing that unfair cose I will never learn how to edit nobody answer me back when I ask for help I hope u will be more friendly regards Gerardo pisone — Preceding unsigned comment added by Canscomic (talk • contribs) 01:29, 21 October 2014 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia! It's unfortunate that your edits have been misinterpreted as vandalism. Please don't be discouraged. Other users are merely trying to protect the encyclopedia (and "oroccoccoro" does look like nonsense). I see that you're received a Welcome on your user page; I encourage you to follow some of the links listed there and read up on some useful information. I also see that another user is giving you some guidance on your user page. Good luck!

Also, please note that new comments should be added to the bottom of a talk page, and you should sign your comments by adding "~~~~" at the end. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:54, 21 October 2014 (UTC)

National Sculpture Society

File:Omaha Beach 712 cropped.jpg

Spirit of American Youth

Hey Mandarax, you old artist and critic--I suppose this outfit is notable, but it's an awful article. I'm also looking at Sculpture Review, whose only reliable source (the NYT article) appears to make fun of it. Then there is American Artists Professional League, another problematic article. Your editorial insight and help is appreciated. Drmies (talk) 16:09, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

I just sent you the article. It is such severe criticism that I barely know how to paraphrase and include it in one of these articles. It rephrases the Society's goals thusly: "To stifle good sculpture; to foster the taste for, and encourage the production of, quasi-ideal sculpture for the esthetically illiterate household and the atrophied museum; promote the disfigurement of public and other buildings, squares and parks with sculpture of 'high class', with every implication of that term as synonymous with slick vulgarity". Looking at Donald De Lue's Spirit of American Youth, I can't but agree with that reviewer, on the many statues blessed by the club that commemorate suffering and sacrifice: "At best innocuous, it becomes offensive when its stale, trite, and altogether specious idealism is compared with the bloody tragedy it supposedly commemorates". The reviewer, by the way, is John Canaday. Not a nobody. Drmies (talk) 16:22, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

What a spirit. Hafspajen (talk) 16:37, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Wow, that's a pretty harsh assessment of their goals. To be honest, I'm simply too tired to look at any of that stuff. I could barely muster the energy to read your note. My contributions have slowed to a trickle, and I'm too tired to even think about whether "slowed to a trickle" is an appropriate expression here. Sorry.... MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:55, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Hmm. I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe a Dutch expression will cheer you up, on the topic of slowness: "as slow as thick shit going through a funnel". Also, I have sent you copious amounts of cocaine in the mail to cheer you up some; in the meantime, I hope you can catch some zzzzzzzzs. All the best, Mandarax. Drmies (talk) 01:19, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

That is a colorful expression. Thanks! That should help. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 05:42, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

I read the section heading as "National Scripture Society". I know in Alabama that the Holiest of scripture are the Bible, Crimson Tide's football playbook and the collected quotes of Bear Bryant, not necessarily in that order. I'm trying to think of what Mandarax's scripture would be besides the Book of G'Kar. Bgwhite (talk) 06:05, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:39, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

Wouldn't you like to know what's in that playbook, Bg. I do like the chapter that Lane Kiffin added, and the one note in the margin of the "Third Down" section: Throw ball to Amari Cooper. Mandarax, I'm listening to an oldie: The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Great napping material. Drmies (talk) 20:48, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Never heard of it, but I should check it out. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:01, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

I don't know if you should or not, Mandarax, but it should probably be The Official Music of Burning Man. I hope you're doing well, old friend. BTW, for some reason our mutual painter friend keeps showing up in my "suggested friends" list on Facebook: how on earth is that possible? We have no FB friends in common. I wonder if I should send a friend request; it's kind of like crossing boundaries, isn't it. Best, Drmies (talk) 15:35, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

There are usually huge sound camps at either end of Black Rock City's main thoroughfare which primarily play varieties of electronic dance music. I can barely tolerate small quantities of it, but in general attendees love it, and it's THE place to be (if two places can be the place). It's probably the reason most people go in the first place. The last time I was there, I asked people why they came. I discovered that shockingly few people were there for the art. Many more seemed to have come to dance to that dreadful beat. Facebook is becoming omnisciently evil. He invited me to keep in touch with him through his Facebook page, but, as you know, I never go to Facebook. I should one of these days, because, among other reasons, he said he includes pictures of his paintings and links to some of his (non-Wiki) articles. I'm not exactly sure what you mean about "crossing boundaries", but since you're both active there, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't send a friend request. You might even be able to figure out how he became a "suggested friend". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:11, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Halloween cheer!

Happy Halloween!

Hello Mandarax:
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve Wikipedia, and have a happy and enjoyable Halloween!
– Hafspajen (talk) 05:11, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Send Halloween cheer by adding {{subst:Happy Halloween}} to user talk pages with a friendly message.

Thanks! I hope you have a good Halloween too! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:05, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Hafspajen (talk) 13:55, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Doughnut

Sorry, I had no idea it was ineligible. Thanks for all your stellar DYK graft. Gareth E Kegg (talk) 22:13, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

No problem. I probably wouldn't recognize 99% of DYKs if they were nominated again, but yours must have made an impression on me, because I did remember it. Thanks for the "thanks" (but, hehe, as for the "graft", I assure you that I've never taken money for shady DYK edits). MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:26, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

Benedict Cumberbatch's Personal Life section

Hi there! Favor? Would you mind amending the paragraph regarding Cumberbatch's engagement to Sophie Hunter? It's rather ambiguous and I think a good context is necessary. I have checked Hunter's page and the paragraph about her engagement is just right.

On 5 November 2014, The Times announced that Hunter and actor Benedict Cumberbatch became engaged.[26] They met on the set of the 2009 film Burlesque Fairytales but didn't start dating until early 2014.[27][28][29]

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.191.69.127 (talk) 00:27, 11 November 2014 (UTC)

Well, I must say I was initially confused about what you were requesting, since the article already said almost exactly what you suggested. Then I realized that you'd asked other users the same thing, and one had already taken care of it. For future reference, it's probably better to make your request using {{edit protected}} or {{edit semi-protected}} on the talk page of the desired article. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:44, 11 November 2014 (UTC)

Adding a co-editor

I have added User:7&6=thirteen as co-editor for my last 4 articles I submitted for DYK. Can you look them over to make sure that the automatic credits are set up correctly that when the time comes that we both get DYK credits accordingly.

Thanks! --Doug Coldwell (talk) 19:10, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

You did everything perfectly! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:45, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Great to hear - thanks for looking at it.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 22:04, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/Messers Run

Hi, the nominator has taken your suggestion and added Template:Did you know nominations/Negro Hollow to this hook, to make it a double hook. Could you kindly do your magic on subpage-ing this on the template so we can close the Negro Hollow nomination? Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 01:31, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Done. Integrated noms and closed the one that's no longer needed. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 05:46, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/From Elvis in Memphis

Mandarax, Could you add the picture, if you will. I have asked the creator whether he agrees to putting it into the hook, and he has not yet replied. Thank you. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 12:54, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

User:GDuwen replied, "Yes." The only question would be fair use on the main page, and I leave that to the experts at DYK. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 13:13, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

Answered there. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:48, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

Addition

I actually hope to be able to nominate that Caravaggio picture as an FP (Featured pic) - hope it is OK, because it has to be used or it won't work. Maybe together with an other one in the article. Hafspajen (talk) 20:03, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

I must say, you've mastered the art of the cryptic note. Was this intended for someone else? You refer to "that Caravaggio" as if I would have any idea which Caravaggio you're talking about.... MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:55, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

Sorry. My fault. It was intended for Modernism, and I was to tired editing the Signpost - so I posted here. Remove it and hoped that you never noticed. (which you did ) Hafspajen (talk) 20:54, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Ahh, I figured it had to be something like that.... MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:08, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Sigh.

Hafspajen (talk) 21:10, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Charles D’Almaine

Thanks for moving the page, I can't do that over a re-direct. However shouldn't Charles D’Almaine now be modified to be a redirect to Charles D'Almaine? We have duplicate content. Again, thanks! 78.26 _{(spin me / revolutions)} 23:52, 26 November 2014 (UTC)

Any autoconfirmed user can move over a redirect whose history consists solely of the creation of the redirect. (I'm not an admin.) Thank you for pointing out the duplicated content. I'm extremely puzzled as to how that happened. Apparently I accidentally edited a copy of the article with the old title which I had open in my browser instead of the one with the new title. But I think that should have given me an edit conflict. In any case, I've restored it to a redirect. Thank you very much for telling me about this. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:09, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

Oh? I didn't know that. You would have thought I would know that by now. Thanks for the explanation, and all the work you do around here. 78.26 _{(spin me / revolutions)} 00:23, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

It is literally ironic.

For some unknown reason, I thought of you while watching Captain Literally and Captain Irony Bgwhite (talk) 08:46, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Hehe, thanks. I even saw the second episode of Captain Literally. I always thought it was odd (if not ironic) that Jimmy Carter, who had been stationed on a nuclear sub, mispronounced "nuclear". It's more understandable that [let's see ... I'll try to phrase this to avoid a BLP violation ...] other, less intelligent Presidents such as those with a middle initial of "W", have also mispronounced it.

Oh, and speaking of irony, the person who just criticized us for "chatting" on your talk page uses the word "chat" for the talk page link in their signature. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:11, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Lor wasn't criticizing us, just making fun of us. We give each other a hard time. I'm disappointed in you for making fun of the mentally challenged. My parents think a certain "W" was the best president in the last 100 years after Reagan. Dang, I just made fun of my mentally challenged parents. Found another episode... Grammar Avengers Bgwhite (talk) 06:06, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Ah, I obviously didn't know you knew Lor. (If they spelled it "Lore" I would've figured they took the name from Cdr. Data's "brother".) My assessment of W goes back much more than a hundred years: he was the worst President ever. That Grammar Avengers episode is ironic. A member, Dangling Participle Dude, pronounces his name "par TISS uh puhl", as though it were pronounced like "participate" with the "pate" replaced with "ple". Well, unless I'm somehow wrong about this, it should be pronounced "PAR tuh sip puhl", kind of like "particle" with the "cle" replaced with "ciple". The Grammar Avengers needs a new member; perhaps the Pronunciation Protector (oh, but he may render the Nuclear Ninja obsolete). MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 12:00, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Birth announcement

I am proud to announce the birth of a new word: litterally. I litterally created it just this second. Of course, I literally created the page a day ago, and I had coined the term long ago, but didn't get around to formalizing it until prompted by the note above. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:31, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Bgwhite puts fist in air and says, "Balance restored". Bgwhite (talk) 18:25, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

'

Mandarax, or Crisco 1492 will you close this nomination, Template:Did you know nominations/Niagara Falls, from the American Side - I had enough of nonconstructive criticism from inexperienced editors with an account since October 2014 jumping around telling me what to do. If we were to participate to DYK, the tone has to be more civilized and not : Let me see who I can kick in the as soon - power abuse style. Withdraw, not interested any more. Hafspajen (talk) 17:51, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Xanthomelanoussprog Sagaciousphil - hope you don't mind. Hafspajen (talk) 17:55, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

No, Hafs, if you're getting fed up with it. Gotta go see a film about Rem Brandt tonight (as a favour). Exhibition on Screen: Rembrandt Xanthomelanoussprog (talk) 18:22, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Hope is not a Coat sock again, Crisco 1492 Hafspajen (talk) 18:52, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Mandarax, - I was thinking a bit - but I was rather xx because this guy butting in where he had nothing to do - att Template:Did you know nominations/Computer Engineer Barbie ‎- and was doing the same thing on my DYK nom. First I want to ask - what has he to do there? Jumping into my nomination and giving me advice what to do, telling Yngvadottir what to do, closing things and acting as an admin. How come that that one has SOO much experience? The account is not even 2 month old. Hafspajen (talk) 20:42, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

No, I will not close the nomination. I won't deprive the world of the opportunity to see it on the Main Page just because of one difficult user. I've collapsed the discussion which is irrelevant for DYK purposes. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:38, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Well, thanks. This has to do with our affair, and its outcome - it was a little annoying. She doesn't wanted that - and she said that clearly on her talk, - but since she doesn't want to do to DYK to often for some reason of her own, (which we should of course respect)- the question was pushed further . And Drmies meant well, but I guessed didn't read her talk - either way -it was not a welcomed intervention from this user -I think maybe things could have been settled differently - AND I still don't know what to do with that nom. - Hafspajen (talk) 21:43, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

I don't know what to do with it either. Arrrgh. It looked hopeful that Yngvadottir might ease back into DYK, which would have been great, but now it appears that that won't be happening. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:40, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

btw - he thinks he is reviewing it. Now he put a red tick on it. too Hafspajen (talk) 22:17, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Oh when you said "red tick", I thought you meant "

", but it's just a "

", which is fine, since it just means someone else should finish the review. And hopefully it means he won't be adding further disruption. I was going to reply to his ridiculous statement about "pointing out copyvio" when in fact he had done no such thing, but I figured if I did, then he would reply again, and it's better to just hopefully be done with him. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:40, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

No, I cannot return to DYK since it still has GAs mixed up in it. I have been accepting partial credit for articles where people have been kind enough to offer it (seems churlish not to!). Computer Engineer Barbie really should appear on the Main Page - it's a fantastic story and I'm hoping other editors will take the hint and write up some of the other Barbie doll sets. And we had an embarrassing collision whereby two of us started articles independently, so I want Tokyogirl to get credit for the DYK. But what's happened has frankly made me very angry. First the reviewer raised what I consider a non-issue, at best a personal preference or something applied to GAs and FAs. Then along comes this relatively new editor and makes a threat: that he will have to close the nomination if this personal preference - which he admits is not a DYK rule - is not satisfied. Drmies tried to make a compromise - then the reviewer made one edit to the article for which I thanked him, and then in a series of edits gutted half the references. I will not be associated with the DYK with the article in that gutted condition, I don't consider it justifiable, I intend to restore the article after it runs on the Main Page, and ... I shouldn't say anything more. But since you pinged me. Yngvadottir (talk) 23:04, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

I also don't like how DYK has been diluted, with GAs, plus extending the time limit from five to seven days, and who knows what's to come? Some day maybe every article will be eligible. It's very irritating when someone insists on something which has nothing to do with the DYK criteria, especially when it's just a personal preference. I'm sorry you've had to endure this. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:00, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

I think in my reading that it means he will be adding much more further disruption. I added references and cited everything very carefully that was removed and nobody opposed it - and now he wants me to redo my article, not cite fully valid viewpoints, AND - I have definite sense of deja vu here. Oh, yes - I do. I just think I join the club of the people who will stay away from DYK from now on. If this editor is going to continue in the same manner at DYK, I am not DYKING any more. I had enough of the FP- blasting. Hafspajen (talk) 23:05, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

This kind of reviews became a possibility of abuse of power - just because you can - you can commend editors here and there instead of working together, respecting each others work. If you want that tick, you do as I tell you. - I think DYK manners should be revised instead.Hafspajen (talk) 23:20, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

I'll say to you what I just said to Yngvadottir above: I'm sorry you've had to endure this. And I'm sorry to see you leaving DYK. But if you think there's a problem with "DYK manners" now, see my notes on my talk page from July and August about the exceedingly toxic state that WT:DYK was in. It's improved considerably since then (or I wouldn't be here), but there are still toxic outbreaks. It's truly a shame that some disruptive or uncivil or just plain moronic individuals can spoil things for people who are here to contribute constructively in a nurturing environment. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:00, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

I am sorry too, but I am telling you - this user has an account that is less that two month old. Where from the experience? Det ligger en hund begraven här. Hafspajen (talk) 01:43, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

You're not the only one wondering about that. Someone else asked on their talk page, and they acknowledge that they've used two previous names, without disclosing what they were. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 03:34, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

MMmm. Removed now, it is not there any more. Template:Did you know nominations/Niagara Falls, from the American Side - I don't know how you do, delete it or what, but here it is. Hafspajen (talk) 04:12, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

BlueMoonset, I did asked, it is somewhere in the beginning of this section. Than you for taking legitimate care of Xanthomelanoussprog opinion too, Hafspajen (talk) 04:38, 3 December 2014 (UTC)
BlueMoonset . Hafspajen (talk) 04:47, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

I am sorry - but sometimes one get one or two reviewers that they just do the most unknowledgeable changes and then expect that one should do what they want you to do. This time it was bad luck - and it is weird to be forced to accept downright wrong content change - when it is just plainly wrong. And after you made them right again, there comes the other one - that was not necessary... your edits has nothing to do with the subject... oh, really? I know what I am talking about when it comes to art history - it DID everything to do with the subject. And on top of evrything that sneaky -we need a new review because copyvio issues? Hafspajen (talk) 16:16, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

PS: Just read Romantic movement - and you will understand why that edit was so wrong. Hafspajen (talk) 16:25, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

LUCy

Happy Saint Lucia's day!

"Good Morning"Mandarax :
Thanks for all of your contributions to improve Wikipedia!
13 December is the day when Swedes perplex the rest of the world by showing up way too early in the morning dressed in white tunics, candles in their hair, singing and bringing saffron buns and breakfast in bed to nice people. Hope you have a bright day! Hafspajen (talk) 09:23, 13 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Those hair candles look dangerous, and the buns look delicious. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:40, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE)

I reduced it below 200 ch. Hope its ok now. Pklease advice if any more corrections are required in nomination or article. Regards :)--Omer123hussain (talk) 13:53, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Well, no you didn't. It started out 322, I did a preliminary trim down to 263, and your edits took it down to 239; better, but still too long. I've edited it again, so it's now 193. If you don't like how I trimmed it, please feel free to edit it further or replace it with a new hook of appropriate length. I also added a simple "(pictured)". Note that, although "(pictured)" doesn't count towards the 200 limit, if you add something like "(pictured on a Gulfstream)", everything beyond "(pictured)" does count. As for anything else about the nomination or the article... all I looked at was the hook length; someone else will be along to do the review. Lots of patience is required at DYK these days. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:44, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Not a valid page name...

Hello Mandarax,

Regarding Template:Did you know nominations/Zareh Sinanyan, do you know why it's saying not a valid page name? Étienne Dolet (talk) 22:20, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Nevermind. I fixed it. Étienne Dolet (talk) 22:23, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm glad you were able to take care of it yourself. I fixed the {{DYKmake}} so the bot can issue the proper credit. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:12, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

Tb

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

Template:Did you know nominations/Olim le Berlin

Hi, I moved the page to Olim L'Berlin. Would you mind putting the subpage template on the nomination? Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 23:08, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

Done. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:18, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! Yoninah (talk) 23:33, 22 December 2014 (UTC)

Best wishes for a happy holiday season

		Happy Holiday Cheer
		Season's Greetings! This message celebrates the holiday season, promotes WikiLove, and hopefully makes your day a little better. Spread the seasonal good cheer by wishing another user an Awesome Holiday and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone with whom you had disagreements in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Share the good feelings! Joys! Hafspajen (talk) 01:53, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! I hope you have a great holiday season too. And I'm glad to see that you're still around here! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:13, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Something beautiful for the holidays

[1]
[2]...Modernist (talk) 13:52, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks! I hope you've been having wonderful holidays. Happy New Year! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 00:37, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Happy New Year Mandarax!

Happy New Year!

Mandarax,
Have a prosperous, productive and enjoyable New Year, and thanks for your contributions to Wikipedia. Hafspajen (talk) 10:52, 31 December 2014 (UTC)

Send New Year cheer by adding {{subst:Happy New Year 2015}} to user talk pages.

Thank you! Happy new year! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 17:20, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Mandarax, Hafspajen is a much better friend than I am. Happy new year, old friend. Drmies (talk) 03:19, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Drmies. Happy new year to you too! I certainly don't judge a friend by how often or how timelyly they contact me, and I definitely hope they feel the same. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:28, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/John Geoffrey Bruce

Hi, I just changed the page name to Geoffrey Bruce (mountaineer). The nomination is already in Prep 1. Does the credit line need to be fixed? Yoninah (talk) 19:06, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for pointing it out. It's a lot easier to take care of it now than to have to manually issue credits later. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:50, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! Yoninah (talk) 21:01, 5 January 2015 (UTC)

Template:Did you know nominations/San Lorenzo in Piscibus

Hi, I moved this nomination to prep, but the page didn't close correctly. Can you help? Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 00:53, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

That one took me a while to figure out, but it's done. As you probably know, you did the close correctly; there was just a stray html element which broke the template. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 02:56, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I know I can always rely on you! Yoninah (talk) 18:32, 7 January 2015 (UTC)

You might be wondering

You may be wondering about [[3]]. Well [4] will explain it. But I don't think it matters anyway, so no worries. --Mrjulesd (talk) 21:32, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

No, I wasn't wondering; I saw the link. I deleted it because:

It was below the line which says "Please do not write below this line". When a nomination is closed, anything below that line causes problems.
The template is transcluded on the huge T:TDYK page, which shouldn't unnecessarily be made any larger with test edits.
There's no reason for a "ping" test to hang around cluttering things up. Once it's saved, the ping test is complete, and the edit should be reverted immediately.

MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:02, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Well that's fine. But I'd thought I'd give you my reasons. And info about pings not coming through on these pages, might be interesting to you.

You're probably right, since the ping didn't come through immediately it probably would never. --Mrjulesd (talk) 22:10, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm already familiar with the subject. I've even left messages for people explaining why their attempted pings didn't work. As for your "since the ping didn't come through immediately it probably would never", there's no "probably" about it – it definitely wouldn't. Pings happen only at the time an edit is saved. Unless they're in sandboxes or your own user space, any ping tests should be reverted immediately after saving them. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:22, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Thats interesting. Have you got any examples? --Mrjulesd (talk) 23:14, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Examples of why pings don't work? Well, these days it's mostly people who post a note, then after it's saved, go back and add what they think is a ping. But notifications are only generated if you link to a user's page and sign your note, all in the same edit. Obviously another possibility is if they forget to sign. What used to be an issue was that pings didn't work at all in Template space, which was a problem for DYK, since that's where nominations are discussed; but that's been resolved and pings do work there now. I think pings also didn't used to work unless they were in a section, but that may also no longer be an issue. I discovered one bug, which is likely to be uncommon: notifications are not generated if you create a section and at the same time mention a user in a subsection of that section. I'm sure there are all kinds of quirks. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 07:50, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. Interesting, especially about changes in template space.

Now my current view is that certain pages are not, for some reason, generating pings. But there doesn't seem to be anything particularily linking these pages. I have made a list at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Current view. Now if you know of any counter-examples I'd be most interested. Or any other thoughts on the matter. --Mrjulesd (talk) 11:42, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

It would be very odd and surprising if pings didn't work on specific pages. I performed a test on one of the pages listed in that Village pump section and, as I noted there, it did generate a notification for me. (Incidentally, I noticed that someone tried to ping me yesterday, forgot to sign, then signed afterwards; as expected, this did not result in a ping.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 20:49, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

OK thanks for trying that out. It maybe that, just as you first noted, pings in general are unreliable. Having said that, maybe some pages are less reliable than others. I say that as at the village pump I always seem to receive pings, as quite a few have been generated for me there recently and as far as I know I have received them all. But this has not been the case on other pages.

If you look at the diffs I listed, there doesn't seem to be much wrong with them, so it doesn't look like, in these cases at least, human error being the culprit. --Mrjulesd (talk) 00:59, 16 January 2015 (UTC)

The apostrophe thingy

Hey, I'm trying to figure out the reasoning for that template for apostrophes that you fixed in this diff. When I copied that hook over, the formatting didn't come with it, but for you it did. Curious why we do the formatting that way and what makes it look right... Montanabw ^(talk) 06:37, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

I hadn't looked at the nomination page until now, but I see that the formatting there is the same as what I changed it to. When you say "the formatting didn't come with it", do you mean that you copied the rendered text, pasted the plain text into the Prep, then manually added formatting (links, bold, italics)? If so, I would recommend that when you edit the page to close the nomination, you copy the wikicode for the hook and paste that. If that's not it, then I don't understand what you mean.
To answer your question about why: as you know, italic text "slants" to the right; when you stick an apostrophe onto the end, it can smash up against the slanted letter. The template compensates for this by adding a tiny bit of space before the apostrophe. The amount of visible difference it makes can depend on the specific letter involved. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 08:34, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

OK, so what happened for me was exactly the opposite: I initially did a copy and paste from the DYK nom. But when I did, the 's was neither bluelinked like the rest of the word, nor did it look italicized. So I removed the formatting and just tossed it inside the brackets, making it a piped link instead, so I'm trying to figure out: ''[[The Guardian|The Guardian]]''{{'s}} versus ''[[The Guardian|The Guardian's]]'' renders as The Guardian's versus The Guardian's which, as you can see, the version with the brackets and 's is not bluelinked or italicized. Simply putting the 's inside the brackets as a piped link (like I did) gets it bluelinked and formatted. So...why not just use the piped link method Montanabw ^(talk) 06:56, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Because the apostrophe-s is not supposed to be part of the link or in italics. The title of a newspaper is italicized. "The Guardian" is the title of a newspaper, so it should appear in italics, but "The Guardian's" is not the title; the possessive part should not be included in the italics. I'm sure I've seen this in the MOS. I can't find this specific issue right now, but the general principle is covered at WP:Manual of Style/Titles#Punctuation, which says: "Place adjacent punctuation outside any italics or quotation marks unless the punctuation is part of the title itself."
The DYK rules do specifically address possessives with bold or bold italics. DYK rule C7 states:

If the hook uses a possessive apostrophe after the qualifying article, use {{`}} or {{`s}} to keep the bold text and the apostrophe distinct e.g. "... that John's house (etc)?" If the article is in italics (e.g. a ship's name), use the slightly different templates {{'}} or {{'s}} e.g. "... that HMS Hood's anchor (etc)?"

MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 11:21, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Page move

Hi, I just promoted Template:Did you know nominations/UK encryption ban proposal to Prep 4. The page has been moved to Encryption ban proposal in the United Kingdom. Does anything need to be done to the credits? Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 22:59, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for pointing it out. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:07, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Grammar Nazi

Grammar Nazi video. Bgwhite (talk) 23:30, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. Hey, they pronounce "participle" the same way as those other guys I mentioned above. I'm starting to wonder if that's a valid alternate pronunciation. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 03:35, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Mandarax to the rescue!

Please see Template:Did you know nominations/Otro Día Más Sin Verte/Angel (Jon Secada song)/Do You Believe in Us/Sentir. Thanks, Yoninah (talk) 20:29, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Done. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:38, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

About your (non)participation in the January 2012 SOPA vote

Hi Mandarax. I am Piotr Konieczny (User:Piotrus), you may know me as an active content creator (see my userpage), but I am also a professional researcher of Wikipedia. Recently I published a paper (downloadable here) on reasons editors participated in Wikipedia's biggest vote to date (January 2012 WP:SOPA). I am now developing a supplementary paper, which analyzes why many editors did not take part in that vote. Which is where you come in :) You are a highly active Wikipedian (43rd to be exact), and you were active back during the January 2012 discussion/voting for the SOPA, yet you did not chose to participate in said vote. I'd appreciate it if you could tell me why was that so? For your convenience, I prepared a short survey at meta, which should not take more than a minute of your time. I would dearly appreciate you taking this minute; not only as a Wikipedia researcher but as a fellow content creator and concerned member of the community (I believe your answers may help us eventually improve our policies and thus, the project's governance). PS. If you chose to reply here (on your userpage), please WP:ECHO me. Thank you! --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 16:53, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy tenth birthday!!!! Bgwhite (talk) 01:01, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! Nine was a tough year, because it's the first one without a Service award. Thanks for upgrading me from the lowly Most Plusquamperfect Looshpah Laureate to Looshpah Laureate of the Encyclopedia! (Although, frankly, those sound like they should be reversed.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 01:47, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Simple thank you for excellence! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:49, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, Gerda! I'm glad I clicked on that tiny thumbnail to see your beautiful photo. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 10:06, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

... from my garden and heart! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:24, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Precious again

knowledge and precision
Thank you for sharing your profound knowledge, your viewpoint on art, your patience in repairing the same formal mistakes over and over, your review of one Bach cantata to improve them all (with more patience, of course). Did you know that there is now a better list of the Bach cantatas, transferred from Germany? - Repeating: you are an awesome Wikipedian (6 July 2010, 6 January 2011)!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:03, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Three years ago, you were the thirteenth recipient of my Pumpkin Sky Prize, --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:15, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks again, Gerda! As I've said before, you're one of the nicest people on Wikipedia. And you're probably one of the nicest people in the whole world! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 19:05, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

Your judgement is in kafkaesque contrast to that of or highest jurisdiction, so you must be wrong and I don't need to blush again ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:24, 14 February 2015 (UTC)

?

Hey, why isn't anybody giving me that wow, you have 25 DYK thing? It was 25 diffcult moments ... some more difficult than others.... Hafspajen (talk) 11:17, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Well, you've got to add yourself to WP:List of Wikipedians by number of DYKs. Otherwise nobody knows how many you've had. Of course, that means you'll have to figure out how many you've had, and as far as I can tell, you don't keep a list anywhere. (Sorry your DYKs have been difficult, but hopefully they'll get less difficult.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:18, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Uhhuuuu. I don't keep a list, but SOMEBODY does... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sagaciousphil/for_Hafs Hafspajen (talk) 17:21, 17 February 2015 (UTC)

It looked like Phil missed one, which I've now added, making a total of 26. I also added you to the DYK user list. You'll be getting your 25 DYK medal shortly. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 06:23, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, Mandarax, your help and understanding is, as always, much appreciated!

SagaciousPhil - Chat 10:27, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

THANKS! well, that we forgot... but Mandarax knows everything about DYKS. Hafspajen (talk) 15:15, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

Well, Mandarax, created one article tday, in scheer fury. I know Sagaciousphil doesn't do DYKs any more... and it is pretty bad, that to, because we made together a lot of good work. however she si using her qualities nowadays mosty on featured stuff. But tis is a very nice little article - only damn if I dare nominate it alone. Would you co co-nom and check it out tht everything is as it should be+ and stuff? Hafspajen (talk) 10:12, 20 February 2015 (UTC).

Allegory of Fortune. Hafspajen (talk) 16:27, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

You want both La Nymphe surprise and Allegory of Fortune nominated? The problem is that these days I have zero energy, and I'm so fatigued that all I can manage to do here is to make mindless edits. I've got articles I want to write but can't. For example, every year I create an article for an International Women's Day DYK, but it looks like I won't be able to do that this year. Reviewing articles, which I'd have to do if I nominated any, is something else I would not be able to do. Maybe someone reading this will take care of the noms for you. I did notice that La Nymphe mentions Monet three times; should all of those be Manet? MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:10, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

As a part time Buddist - I don't WANT- anything. I came so far, that I don't care for DYK much either. Only if you was in the mood. If not, than not. ^{La Nympe is about a woman, by the way.} Hafspajen (talk) 23:32, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

If nobody's nominated them as the DYK deadline approaches (and I remember), I'll see if I can gather the mental energy to nominate and review. Because they should appear on the Main Page! MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:14, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

No worries, Mandarax. I already wrote about 7 articles that should have been nominated, but I didn't. Hafspajen (talk) 10:42, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

They should all be on DYK. Otherwise, how are you ever going to get to the 50 DYK trophy? Plus, as I mentioned in your 25 award, these articles serve the glorious purpose of elevating the cultural level of the Main Page. I looked into La Nymphe surprise. (BTW, personally, I don't think of Manet as an Impressionist.) I wish my head didn't start to hurt when I concentrate on reading. Or when I encounter problems; for example, I can't check the hooks I was thinking of, because they're cited either to the first ref, which seems to be broken, or others that aren't in English. The obvious solution, of course, is that you should definitely nominate them. I think tomorrow and the next day are the DYK deadlines to nominate the two articles. If they're not already nominated before then I may (or may not) put something up just to satisfy the timeliness requirement. This horrible computer is so slow that it takes litterally forever for me to do anything. Sometimes I'll press a key and come back a half an hour later to see if it's registered. Between my fatigue, my inability to check refs, and the sloooooow computer, it's all super frustrating. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:58, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

No, he is not an Impressionist, but it is the beginnings. And I will be bitten, as usual. Hafspajen (talk) 00:09, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Okay, Template:Did you know nominations/Allegory of Fortune is done. I work best under pressure, and today was the last day for that one. Besides, I've been to the painting's home, the Getty, many times. I made a minor edit to the article to clear something up and to satisfy the DYK requirement for the hook I selected. The other article has a deadline of tomorrow; it's proving more difficult for me, because I can't check any source for the hooks I was thinking of, but I'll try to either find a source I can access for my desired hook, or just choose a different hook. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 22:42, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

AH.. . . Hafspajen (talk) 22:54, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

I'd be pleased to nominate the articles. Just let me know which ones you'd like. 7&6=thirteen (☎) 23:00, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Wow! How kind and generous of you! The one remaining to be nominated, with a deadline quickly approaching, is La Nymphe surprise. If you feel like doing it, that would be wonderful; if not, I'll try to get around to taking care of it before time runs out.

Regarding your nom: as I mentioned above, I've been very fatigued lately, and as a result, I didn't bother checking to see if that second chunk of content removed was copyvio material. Did you look into that, as I sort of suggested? If it was copyvio, then everything's fine. Otherwise, the way you've been expanding it, you may just reach the expansion requirement even counting that text. Of course, it looks like you're going for GA anyways. That always makes for a nice story: going from AfD to GA. Good luck with it in any case. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 23:37, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

I went ahead and created Template:Did you know nominations/La Nymphe surprise. I wouldn't say I'm thrilled with the hook; anybody should feel free to replace it or add ALTs. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 09:05, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

I think that hook looks alright. Hafspajen (talk) 15:10, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, Mandarax. Did you notice I missed the opportunity to edit war over the inclusion of me in the nomination? And ... and ... and ... there aren't even any commas for us to discuss/fight over in the hook? SagaciousPhil - Chat 10:11, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Hehe. Yeah, I failed to include the standard notice that you were not to be disturbed about the nomination, but fortunately that didn't turn out to be an issue. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 10:29, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

come on back...

Hello, Mandarax. You have new messages at Template:Did you know nominations/Morrissey: 25 Live.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Schmidt, ^{Michael Q.} 21:19, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

translation

Dear Mandarax, I recently translated a Dutch article on a painter from the Netherlands into English. The reason for doing so was the increasing international attention and activities of this artist. Wikiklaas revised the article and gave me some suggestions (he wrote the original Dutch version). Drmies also had a look and thought it was about fine; he suggested me to contact you, as you might have some more ideas. Could you have a look at the article in my sandbox, here? Please let me know what you think. Best wishes, Pigmentkleur (talk) 09:45, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

Looks pretty good. I just made some minor tweaks. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 10:00, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. I put it online to the main space now. Pigmentkleur (talk) 21:22, 23 February 2015 (UTC)