User talk:Mcginnly/Archive3 060731-060923

Portal:Architectural Heritage

Do you think there will be enough audience to create a portal to organize cultural heritage topics like architectural conservation and historic preservation with related articles including historic houses, National Register of Historic Places, English Heritage, National trust, Landmark Trust, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, etc., etc.? —dogears (talk) 03:18, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks for the comments about a Heritage Portal, there's plenty of material, but, as you suggest, better time spent on the arch portal. Perhaps historic houses could become another category box. You've already done so much work, but if you want update the portal every third week, that's fine my me. I've been trying to stop shirking on the Amsterdam School article, going through my books to find references. Have you any interest in collaboration about art nouveau architecture, jugendstil, Arts & Crafts, etc, etc? I'd be interested in Caernarvon castle, (having lived near Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvaia and similar Welsh named towns).

The Category:Architectural glossary is full of those related topics that you mention, that can be split off into separate topics. The category was created to figure out what to do with all the stub articles, and to organize an Architectural glossary as a "requested article" from ... somewhere. It seems that the article should be called Glossary of architecture, while running the risk of being renamed to List of architecture terms. There is an article about architectural terms collected from the Encl. Brit., and List of classical architecture terms which seems like a good subtopic, to keep the list from growing to large. Any ideas about a glossary?

I'm in favor of the Peer review proposal as it can begin to generate interest in contributing. The big issue is funneling traffic to that page, and in general to all the diverse subject areas in architecture, and again for the Project and "you can help…". My concern is the amount of information on the Portal and the WikiProject pages.

The top part of an article, displayed "above the fold", without scrolling, is the best real estste on a page. The top of the Portal can be compelling to the intended audience and offer all the links to narrow a general search. The top of the Project Architecture page is a good example, using #links at the top to the subtopics on the page below. With the goal of organizing all the Portal:Architecture topics into an introduction of about 24 lines of text and graphics. I could see merging the introduction from the Portal page to the Architecture page, and moving the Selected Article to the top, followed closely by the Selected Picture, as the photo's are interesting to the audience. I'll do a sample.

The top of the Architecture page is completely static. I've seen some portals eliminate that page and replace it with the portal page. I actually don't think we should do that, but we could update the top of the Architecture page infrequently by the same template inclusion Architecture/intro. Who is going to navigate directly to the "Architecture" page? What are they looking for or want to see? Ideas:

• The page could be a collection of "Main article:" links to arch history articles arranged in (reverse) chronological order.
• Insert all the series infoboxes and include text from the summary pages, as a gateway to these articles.
• Add a navigation box in the right top right corner, sharing space with the introduction, with featured topics (like in Portal/Articles).

The /To do subpage on article talk pages is a good feature. Is there any way to use this idea to shorten the WikiProject Architecture page? Making just a link to a subpage, instead of including it as a template. For example, combining the "Monthly improvement drive" naminations with the associated comments on a separate page, like the format for Selected Artilce Nominations.? P.S. thought you might be interested in Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/Hotlist of Art & Architecture. — 19:14, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Eternal Equinox/Workshop

Thank you for your supportive comments here [1] They are appreciated. That Fred Bauder thinks I can be banned instead of Eternal Equinox has caused me to have a severe sense of humour failure. In retrospect, of course instead of making light of Eternal Equinox, I should have taken her very seriously - which is what she wanted - but frankly she and her edits on our talk pages were (at best) a joke - so one could either laugh or cry, and crying has never been my style. That Fred Bauder thinks Bishonen should be "cautioned" is, in short, disgusting. She seems to spend hours and hours trying to create harmony on the site, and takes her responsibilities as an admin 100 times more seriously then most of the others. I think the Arb-com now needs a huge kick, and to rid itself of insulting and incompetent buffoons. I expect I shall stick around Wikipedia, but at the moment mu entheusiasm for it is at an all time low. Sorry this is a (sort of) spammed message, but when I saw all of your comments for the first time this evening, I felt a quick response was necessary, but that makes it no less sincere. Thanks once again, it's nice to feel supported. Giano | talk 19:42, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Image tagging for Image:Vordemberge No 15.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:Vordemberge No 15.jpg. The image has been identified as not specifying the source and creator of the image, which is required by Wikipedia's policy on images. If you don't indicate the source and creator of the image on the image's description page, it may be deleted some time in the next seven days. If you have uploaded other images, please verify that you have provided source information for them as well.

For more information on using images, see the following pages:

• Wikipedia:Image use policy
• Wikipedia:Image copyright tags

This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. 10:07, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

DYK

On 4 August, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Arch History

Cropplestone, Trewin (1963). World Architecture. Hamlyn [2]. I've hardly written a page without this one, the only thing that worries me is that my copy was about £40 20 odd years ago, which suggests either the copy for sale is very bad, or my copy was a very bad investment - if it is the same it is a huge book about 25cm x 35cm - but it is brilliant, with four or five explained illustrations a page, plus plans and a full detailed text going from ancient Mesopotamian, through Egyptian, to Chinese, Hindu, Russian, Renaissance to the 1960s. You are obviously younger than me! - it was one of the standard text books in my time!!! Giano | talk 19:57, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Re: Good Articles

Good question, and one that I don't have an answer for since I wasn't involved in the redesign discussions. I thought it worked well, and could still work, even with transclusion within the hidden groupings. I haven't heard any clamorings to move back to subpages yet, so I just maintain the one that I work on. Slambo (Speak) 15:35, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Endorsed your comment

FYI, I seconded your comment on Fred Bauder's user page (q.v.) regarding the EE arbitration. Newyorkbrad 18:24, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Fred Dibner in your sugg. articles

I am not an architect, nor involved in the Fred Dibner-type discussion, but respectfully suggest the correct spelling should be Dibnah (that's him off the TV, I think...) And I think there is an article already: Fred Dibnah

Cheers. -- FClef (talk) 00:16, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Sorry

My apologies for not getting back to you sooner. I've had a lot of other stuff on my mind. I took a gander at the job this weekend, but AWB was not able to do exactly what I wanted. Right now, I'm looking to generate the list of pages manually and then go through the job, but it will take a little bit longer than I originally thought...maybe another half week. Sorry... alphaChimp ^laudare 05:06, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

DYK

On 10 August, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Enric Miralles, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Enric Miralles

Hello Mcginnly,

thank you once again for translating several articles I wrote for the German Wikipedia. I would like to make some suggestions, concerning Enric Miralles.

---

I wrote: 1973 bis 1978 arbeitete er im Architekturbüro von Albert Viaplana und Helio Piñón und war dort — unter anderem — am Plaça dels Països Catalans, dem Vorplatz für die Estación Sants beteiligt.

You translated: From 1973 to 1978 he worked in the architect's office of Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón and was there - among other things - to Plaça dels Països Catalans, an involvement with the forecourt for the Estación Sants.

I think: From 1973 to 1978 he worked in the architect's office of Albert Viaplana and Helio Piñón and was there — among other things — involved in the construction (or: building) of the Plaça dels Països Catalans, the forecourt for the Estación Sants.

---

I wrote: … erregten die ungewöhnlichen Bauten auch internationales Aufsehen.

You translated: … unusual buildings excited international attention.

I would: … unusual buildings gained international attention.

---

I wrote: Aus gewonnen Wettbewerben im In- und Ausland resultierten zahlreiche Aufträge, darunter auch in Deutschland.

You translated: As a result, they received numerous commissions from Spain and overseas.

My proposal: With several successful competition-entries they received numerous commissions from Spain and overseas.

This might look a bit narrow-minded. But it wasn't the fame, that led to the commissions, it was the hard business of doing competitions over and over.

---

I wrote: Die Architektursprache von Enric Miralles lässt sich in ihrer Eigenständigkeit schwer in die Strömungen der Gegenwartsarchitektur einordnen.

You translated: The independent architectural language of Enric Miralles can be difficult to classify…

I would: The unique architectural language language of Enric Miralles is difficult to classify…

---

I wrote: Ausgehend vom Städtebau oder der Landschaft strebte er an, ein Gebäude in seiner Gesamtheit,…

You translated: From the starting point of the townscape or landscape he would design a building in its totality,…

My proposal: From the starting point of the townscape or landscape he sought to design a building in its totality,…

---

The names of some of the projects appear different in the literature on Enric (which is mainly English and Spanish) and are my translation of the Spanish/English name to German. I give you some of the names, as they are published in English-written books:

Canopy for the Plaza Mayor —> Plaza Mayor Sunscreens

Regional centre in Hostalets de Balenya —> Hostalets Civic Centre

La Mina regional centre —> La Mina Civic Centre

Sportcentre in Huesca —> Huesca Sports Centre

Centre for rhythymic gymnastics —> Eurythmics Sports centre

Canopy for the Paseo Icario —> Icaria Promenade Roofing

Bridge in Lleida —> Pont Lleida Bridge

Street canopies for the Expo 1992 —> Expo 92 Roofing Project

---

In Addition: I like the idea of putting the collaboration with Benedetta at the beginning, but it gives her much more importance than Carme. When he met Benedetta at Columbia, his architectural language was already at a certain point, mainly developed by Carme and Enric together. So Carme was — in architectural terms — probably more important.

Please see this as a proposal from somebody who isn't a native English speaking person and may not understand every detail of your language. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope you won't mind.

Peter -- 217.233.147.178 16:27, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

From bok269

Sorry for the late reply I have been on vacation and got home two days ago. I'm still unfamiliar with the pier review process, but I will help out as best I can. Bok269 20:38, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

your AStA stub

Hello Mcginnly,

my name is Uwe Rohwedder and I am one of the main authors of the AStA article in German wikipedia. Recently I found your short english translation stub and I think it is not a useful one. First of all I guess that it should be translated not as "studying committee" but as "students' committee" - although I am not the native speaker among us ;-) But in this translation it becomes clear that the "AStA" is simlpy the German form of Students' union! And what do you think about to transfer this stub into a German section within the students' union article?

Regards, Uwe 83.189.65.65 12:34, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks!

Thanks for your support in all of this mess, don't worry about me though I am a survivor, I hope wikipedia is of a similar disposition, but with logic like that running the place one has to wonder. Thanks a lot Giano | talk 20:35, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Dakin Building

I have removed the link in the article you cited, pending finding a definitive reference. i believe the judges in the AIA competition are the source of the link. i shall try to talk to the original architect team or the AIA to find a suitable reference as you requested. Architectsf 19:54, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Unfinished work

I have responded to your comments at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Unfinished work and expanded the article. I would greatly appreciate it if you could review the changes and commment further on the FAC page. violet/riga (t) 20:46, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

It seems that Raul654 decided that the nomination had gotten stale and, after many additions to the article, I have renominated it. Please take a look to see if it meets your approval. Thanks, violet/riga (t) 13:23, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Congratulations

		The Original Barnstar
		Awarded to Mcginnly for his work on getting IG Farben Building featured and his tireless work on Portal:Architecture by  Netsnipe  (Talk)  on 04:15, 22 August 2006 (UTC).

Nice to see in on the main page - congratulations. Giano | talk 06:47, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Congratulations from me too. DVD+ R/W 00:42, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks chaps. --Mcginnly | Natter 08:17, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Aren't you glad I picked this embarrassing little edit out all the way back in July now? But then again, if you hadn't had made that edit I would have never given you that barnstar. I would have never have had this article on my watchlist which had led me to me wonder why it was getting so many vandalism edits all of a sudden until I realised it had been featured! Weird how things work out. Cheers,  Netsnipe  ^(Talk)  20:54, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

1901 Church - Spiral spire, Beslau

What is your source? According to the TU Berlin library Poelzig designed rather traditional spire 1902. Xx236 07:52, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

The link is outdated. Xx236 08:03, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

It's fixed now.--Mcginnly | Natter 14:41, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Gothic survival

There is no specific reason why Gothic survival should refer to Gothic architecture in North America. I created the redirect hoping someone would start the article. -- Petri Krohn 14:59, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

WP:ARCH

Would you like to do the rotation of the Portal this weekend? The extensive work you've done there looks great. —Dogears 01:54, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks, I'll rotate the Portal this Friday before a vacation to "medieval Disneyland" – any photos you need in Venice? Thanks for the compliment (and the interesting term for London). I live in Manhattan, which means I can get busy now with a new, borrowed camera to take photos of new starchitect buildings. Happy to run down any requests here. Cheers. —Dogears 00:40, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I have some requests for pics in Manhattan: LVMH tower, the Austrian Cultural Forum, and the American Folk Art Museum. I think they are all in midtown. Have fun in Venice. DVD+ R/W 00:44, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

• Can do, on return. Grazie —dogears (talk • contribs)

I.G. Farben photos

I have scanned a few old photos from 1952 of the I.G. Farben building and radar installation, but not sure how to submit them to you. I'm very new at using Wikipedia so please let me know how you want me to send them. Bob Franklin

Hi there - That's great. Here's how to do it.

1. First you'll need to create a wikipedia account to be allowed to upload files. At the top right of this screen should be a link to "Sign in/Create account". Click the create account button and then supply the requested information.
2. Once you've got your account set up and you're logged in click on the "upload file" button (You'll find it to the left of the screen, under the "go" and "search" buttons. Click "upload file".
3. Half way down the page is a button marked "browse" click on this and then browse your computer to the location where you have saved your scanned photographs.
4. When you find one, click on it and click the "open" button.
5. The go to the "licensing" pull-down menu and select "you created this yourself and release it into the public domain" (or whichever copyright notice you would like to add).
6. Click the upload file button.

Your image will now be uploaded to wikipedia - make a note of the page names eg 'Image:IG Farben radar.jpg' abd repeat the process for the rest of your pictures.

Kind regards. --Mcginnly | Natter 15:26, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Bottage

It's not done yet actually. I just ran all of the architect articles. alphaChimp ^laudare 11:22, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

All done. alphaChimp ^laudare 22:12, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Fantastic Work, Many thanks. --Mcginnly | Natter 08:02, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Oh damn, I just had a quick look at my watch list, and thought it said "bondage" so quickly came over to see what you were up to, only to find it is in fact "bottage". Quelle disapointment..Oh well back to the humdrum. Giano | talk 12:18, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Town Planning

I've recently been going through post-war reconstruction legislation, and have heavily rewritten the Town and Country Planning Act 1947, which I note you started. Unfortunately, I'm not in any way an expert on the topic - could you take a look at it and put in the appropriate crosslinks? I'm sitting here looking at Unitary Development Plans, Structure Plans and Local Plans, and realising I don't really know what any of them are...

(Congratulations on the IG Farben building article, by the way - it's excellent) Shimgray | talk | 18:03, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Berlin embassy

I'm under no obligation to discuss anything with anybody before editing. You must know that you can't dump untranslated German text into an English article. If I hadn't hadn't removed it someone else would have. Adam 15:40, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure how I could conclude that "of course you know not to leave untranslated German text in an English article" when that is in fact what you did. Anyway, now we can progress. What is the copyright status of the photo of the old Embassy building? Adam 15:50, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

The commons says it's public domain.--Mcginnly | Natter 15:53, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Point Park FAC

Please check out my response at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Point Park Civic Center, and diff that hopefully addresses your objection. Christopher Parham (talk) 17:33, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Did you see....

Did you see this [3] and this, Constructivist architecture? I'm so excited, it happened all in one day. Please help me encourage this user user:Owenhatherley and welcome him into the fold. Regards, DVD+ R/W 03:07, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Also, way to get started on Colin Rowe. DVD+ R/W 03:09, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Well spotted Dave, it's really good - I've left a suitably appreciative comment on his talk page.--Mcginnly | Natter 23:20, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

NO!

I appreciate your concern for my beautiful banner, but do not even think of another revert. I suspect some admins are very keen to ban me and getting quite desperate so beware. Giano | talk 14:42, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

No problem, I'm walking away from this one - I just read bryant doodahs post to the admin noticeboard. It's becoming ridiculous again and I'd rather be writing articles. --Mcginnly | Natter 14:46, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Yep, they have just blocked Ghirlandajo for incivility. God what a day. Giano | talk 15:44, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Islamic architecture

Hi, I have re-constructed the article, expanded and added some pictures, you can read it if you want, and can you remove it fom the WikiProject Architecture as I expanded it so it doesn't needany more things on it. Abdullah Geelah 13:56, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Sure, will do. Regards --Mcginnly | Natter 14:16, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Urbepedia invitation

Hi!

my name is Meutia Chaerani from Singapore. I volunteered helped out in the Urbepedia at Urbepedia. It is a newly set up wiki focusing on Urban issues, and currently needing more contributors. I'd like to invite your participation in the wiki. Also need to brainstorm more on how the Urbepedia can be different yet complementing to information already existing in Wikipedia.

At this stage, i'm thinking that Urbepedia would be more detailed and more technical, and also acts as repository of best urban practices from around the world, as well as repository of contact information of urban experts. Whereas wikipedia is aimed for a broader audience, the article should be easy to grasp to different kind of people, from kids to adults. In that sense, urbepedia is different from wikipedia, but of course, we can link both wikipedia and urbepedia together in the article page.

We hope that you'd be interested to get involved.

Regards, Chaerani 02:51, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

• Urbepedia
• personal website
• You can reach me by skype too, username chaerani

Bürgerhäuser and more?

You've templated yourself with de-2 and still do the translation for something like Schwedische Architektur?...respect. If I can be of any help, ask away... Cheers and happy editing. Lectonar 15:56, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		For all your contributions to architectural topics, both major and minor. DVD+ R/W 18:39, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

translation help

Hello, sorry to have kept you waiting for so long (and I hope it isn't to late now), here are my translations (I think you may need to polish the English a little:Germanized grammar ;-)):

First one: While about 1500 of the now 4000 Swedish churches have been built in the Middle Ages, only a few secular buildings from this time survive, mainly Burgher's houses in Stockholm and Visby, the rest being remains of fortresses and castles.

The problem with that is that there is shoddy German in the de:article; the above should catch the gist af the author quite well.

Second one:This was the time in which the great Wasa castles were erected; these were built at strategic locations to control the country, but also to accomodate the traveling royal court and its retinue.

This one is strange (and I didn't know about it in the first place); it is akin to the itinerant court as it was in the times of Charlemagne, see also: Kaiserpfalz.

Btw, I'm in need of a little help now..I'm quite fond of reading works by an author named Jasper Fforde whois Welsh...how does one pronounce his name? Cheers. Lectonar 15:23, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply (and your answer to my query; should have taken a look at the talk-page: the answer was there) ; glad to be of help, and...anytime again. :))). Btw, I took the liberty of changing your de-2 to de-3. Cheers and happy editing. Lectonar 15:54, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Architecture barnstar

Thank you, I like it :-) DVD+ R/W 01:11, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

RFA question

Hello there! I answered your question on my RFA; I hope they're fit for your standards. —this is messedrocker (talk) 21:50, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Labyrinth or Maze

Which one? DVD+ R/W 04:52, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I thought I posed this as a question to begin with, but neither of you answered. From your reply I want to post Labyrinth, but now that I think about it, it will be Dogears' decision and turn to post, so it will be up to Dogears. I like that you've gotten into RfAs, and inspired by your gumption to ask questions at one, I asked my first. Regards, DVD+ R/W 01:28, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Articles you might like to edit, from SuggestBot

SuggestBot predicts that you will enjoy editing some of these articles. Have fun!

Stubs List of architecture prizes Giuseppe Terragni Team X Thom Mayne Farnsworth House Christian de Portzamparc Salford Quays David Chipperfield Antoine Pevsner Architectural Association of Ireland Worpswede Open architecture Contemporary architecture Arata Isozaki Architecture Without Architects Incan architecture Ecclesiastical architecture Southern California Institute of Architecture Harvard Graduate School of Design

Cleanup Hessia Vers une architecture Alireza Sagharchi Merge Scenography Beer Hall Putsch Neo-gothic architecture Add Sources Postmodern architecture Loggia Computer organization Wikify Office for Metropolitan Architecture Christian architecture City Hall and City Duma Expand Giotto di Bondone Liturgy of Preparation Alexander Thomson

SuggestBot picks articles in a number of ways based on other articles you've edited, including straight text similarity, following wikilinks, and matching your editing patterns against those of other Wikipedians. It tries to recommend only articles that other Wikipedians have marked as needing work. Your contributions make Wikipedia better -- thanks for helping.

If you have feedback on how to make SuggestBot better, please tell me on SuggestBot's talk page. Thanks from ForteTuba, SuggestBot's caretaker.

P.S. You received these suggestions because your name was listed on the SuggestBot request page. If this was in error, sorry about the confusion. -- SuggestBot 02:29, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Me?

Do you really want to mention my name here? Apropos of what? If you think you've seen me sharing the port and cigars on User:R.D.H. (Ghost In The Machine)'s page, or any similar contexts, you must be under some confusion. Bishonen | talk 11:55, 15 September 2006 (UTC).

Barnstar

Many thanks for the barnstar - I'm now displaying it proudly on my userpage! Warofdreams talk 21:04, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Reply on RFA issues

I'm glad you're planning on modifying your line in future, since the "1FA" meme seems to me to be especially counterproductive. OTOH, as you're still apparently opposing the RFA in question on "1FA-lite" grounds, contra to your statement about 'deferring', it's clear we're far from on the same page as far as admin standards are concerned (which of course isn't a problem in and of itself). Do you really feel SE has failed to "demonstrate some kind of commitment at some stage to the business of writing an encyclopaedia"? Is this just another cypher for "no substantial FA/GA writing"? We're clearly not talking about an editor whose only contributions are vandalism reverts and maintenance, to take an extreme example of the sort of 'gnomery you're apparently concerned about. (Vandalism reversion was at least for a while a way to get oneself nominated very early, and attract a lot of like-minded support; lower-key maintenance tasks tend to work the opposite way. Neither's all that informative about the candidate.)

The actual nub of my argument is that it's not a rational basis for selecting admins, as if fails to predict either the benefit of making them an admin, or the risks of making them an admin. The particulars of how bad things might get, how quickly, if we start selecting admins for "qualities" other than how good they'll be as admins is a second-order issue. (A admin shortage is indeed not likely to lead to any short-term "crisis", but just to gradual degradation of both content and metacontent.) I'm a little confused about your comment about WP:WSS/P, not least because that page doesn't require any admin functions whatsoever. Nor is the 'staking of turf' often helpful for anything; people may have habits, but they shouldn't confuse that with "ownership": the very last thing we'd want is someone "staking out their turf" at a FA to which they're significant contributors, by means of rollback, protection and blocking. Most admin functions are indeed janitorial in nature; they're 'benign' to precisely the degree they're not misused, which is why I frame the question as I do. It's pointless giving admin powers to people with no interest in performing any of the 'drudgery'; it's potentially harmful to give them to those liable to use them in content disputes, in line with some metapedian agenda without appropriate consensus, or otherwise rashly. This is for me less a matter of the specifics of someone's participation, as that participation being adequate to give a sense of of someone's basic competence and general temperament, specifically their ability to operate with regard to consensus and collegiality.

The interface between admins (in their capacity as admins), and people writing FA content should be pretty slight, especially as regards to blocking. What moral do you draw with regard to the Carnildo situation(s) that relates to your criteria? That having writen more FAs would have made him less likely to get sanctioned for wheel-warring? That the arbcom or bureaucrats -- or dare I mention, Jimmy Wales -- having done so would make them better able to make decisions that proved less controversial? Wish I could answer your hypothetical question about the user you had in mind, but without knowing who it is you mean... Alai 04:09, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Thanks for your message. You have a point: I went too far in my criticisms of FLW. I think there is an element of truth in them though. Apart from the Guggenheim, the list of really important buildings by him is quite short. The vast majority of his work was one-off houses for private clients, which did have an impact in terms of open-plan living and organic architecture. But generally I think they were too expensive, too one-off and too over-designed to have much impact on the industrial, modernist architecture of the C20. In some ways FLW seems more akin to Ernest Gimson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, with his love of designing every unique detail of a building. But against this is the fact that he designed the first fully air-con office building, which is certainly a paradox. I guess the reason I wrote what I did is a general sense of frustration at people being nominated for core biographies on the basis of their US impact, rather than their global impact. Of course, it is always easier to see bias in others than in ourselves, isn't it? But I stand by my point that to nominate FLW as the most important architect of the C20 is to take a very US-centric viewpoint.--Stonemad GB 20:27, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

See WikiProject Biography/Core Biographies (particularly the talk section). But you're right, it is a pretty meaningless exercise.--Stonemad GB 23:12, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Open House Weekend

Hello McGinnly - coming from the estimable Giano's talk page, just to admire your pic of the staircase in the Queen's House and to say that I was at the Open House weekend in London too (although I emanate from Central London and thus do not have far to go). It was great! I saw Mansion House, Vintner's Hall and the Wren City Churches. (My perspective is less architectural - tho I know that's the point of the whole weekend - and more historical [I like the really old stuff].) Hope you enjoyed your visits. -- FClef (talk) 20:39, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I like the pics, and want to see more of them. I particularly like Image:Idea store 2.jpg, and the one you gave to Giano. Idea store 2 could use an edit to correct the perspective, which is slightly tilted off the horizon and it converges vertically. A perceptible bulging also hints that your camera, or lens, has some Barrel distortion, for which I know a mildly labor intensive way of correcting each photo in Photoshop. I'm not sure if my current freeware photo software can do it, but I don't have that effect with my current camera, so haven't needed to. I'll check though and maybe edit it for you, if you don't mind. DSCN4071, is hypnotic, and introduced me to the Queen's House article, which I like a lot. Much respect from me to Inigo Jones, after seeing that one. Are you going to update the Open House London article? DVD+ R/W 02:56, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

RfA question

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I've answered your RfA question. Thanks, --Mr. Lefty _{Talk to me!} 23:49, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

My RfA

Hey Mcginnly. I wanted to thankyou for participating in my RfA. I was very interested in your views and was reading your posts with great interest. I personally don't agree with 1FA, however, I do agree that admin candidates should contribute significantly to the encyclopedia. I have opposed admin candidates myself because they have not contributed content. I have also advised people on editors review to get involved in writing articles, not just fighting vandalism and WP space participation. I just want you to know that I really respect the way you handled yourself and your strength to stand up for what you believe and to stick by that even when it doesn't seem to be the popular opinion. I consider that a very admirable personal quality.
Thankyou also for changing to neutral and giving me the opportunity to answer your second question. Unfortunately I was offline until after the RfA was closed, so I was not able to respond. However, just so you know, I would be very careful about blocking an established user. Unless it was over something extremely dire, as in an immediate emergency, I would seek other opinions before imposing the block. I would consider blocking an established editor a last resort, following warnings, attempts at discussions etc.
Thanks again, Mcginnly for participating in my RfA and for taking the time to review my contributions as you did. Best wishes, Sarah Ewart (Talk) 09:03, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests_for_adminship/Chacor

I have noted that you accidentally voted twice in this RFA. Would you be so kind as to strike whichever of the two? Thanks! Syrthiss 14:07, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Re:Peer Viewing Deconstructivism

Hi, i'm sorry i never did peer review Deconstructivism, and i'm also sorry it took so long to reply (i've been kind of busy).

WereWolf 01:52, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks

Nice fotos but alas no time to do them justice with a write up, I seem to have become a political animal, I just could not sit back and see all this threatening behaviour wrecking the atmosphere here any longer, so I'm trying to rid the place of some of the nasties. Then I may go back into retirement, or just keep my head down and write, I shall see. Thanks anyway Giano 12:50, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Question on my RfA

I didn't realize you had put it there! I answered the question for ya. :) ~ PHDrillSergeant...§ 16:16, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I elaborated. ~ PHDrillSergeant...§ 01:40, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I fail to understand why you still oppose. Because I like to go over procedure first? Why? What do YOU think I should do? I'm getting the oddest feeling that I just can't win. ~ PHDrillSergeant...§ 14:00, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Well since you press me (I was going to spare your feelings) - Your answer is a little hard to follow - here's the thread.

6 Question from McGinnly: Under what circumstances would you consider blocking an established user?--Mcginnly | Natter 23:21, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Although I would be reluctant, I would still follow proper blocking procedures and the Blocking Policy. As nice as I'd like to be, procedures still come first. ~ PHDrillSergeant...§ 16:14, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

In other words, Although I may have a fondness for, or respect a user a great deal, That respect would not cause me to slack or be lenient, but I would attempt to find out why they have done whatever they have done. Procedure comes first. ~ PHDrillSergeant...§ 01:39, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Firstly, I don't understand what "to slack" is. I assume it's a typo but this is your RfA so this sort of miscommunication is worrying and not copyediting and checking your prose here does demonstrate a certain "slackness" of attitude, particularly when you will be expected to complete Block logs. Secondly, you still haven't actually answered the question, I asked under what Circumstances you would consider blocking an established user. You simply say (worryingly) that even if the user was someone you were fond of you'd follow policy. This tells me nothing about how you interpret that policy and I would have thought if you were fond (or a friend) of that user you should have nothing whatsoever to do with any blocking action. Thirdly, it is my opinion, that a block of an established user is a tool to be used extremely sparingly; an issue upon which we appear to differ, or at least I am not provided with enough information to assess after asking twice. I really don't want to discourage you at all, I'm sure one day you'll make a great administrator, but there are other comments on you're RfA that voice concerns about your inexperience, I think you're attitude to blocking is probably just a sympton of this. I'd suggest you relax and enjoy editing wikipedia for a while, get to know your way around some more, write some articles, have a go at Peer Review or RC patrol and come back armed with a broader experience of the stresees, strains, delights and joys of the project. Then I'll support you. Good luck. --Mcginnly | Natter 18:23, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Okay, now you have finally made your question much less vague. By "slack" I do NOT mean "I would be slacking off"; I don't know how you interpreted it that way. What I mean is that an established user is usually investigated more than, say, an IP vandal. Perhaps the person had his account hacked. What I mean is that I would give a respected or esablished user more of a chance to defend themselves, unlike IP vandals who are normally blocked quickly. Otherwise, I will follow the blocking policy. Besides, there are short blocks (24 hour, 48 hour, 72 hour, 1 month, etc.) before indefinite bans. I hope I have answered your question this time, because I do not believe that you have made it clear enough of what you were asking. ~ PHDrillSergeant...§ 21:13, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Other people seem to be able to manage it:-

":Question from --Mcginnly | Natter 23:08, 18 September 2006 (UTC) : Under what circumstances would you consider blocking an established user?

In general, blocking is very rarely the right thing for an established user. As a prerequisite, I should not be involved in a dispute about content with that user (but I can be in a dispute about policy). Then I should have a clear understanding of the situation – which in contentious cases requires a damn lot of time (I even wonder if blocking in such cases serves any purpose). Then I would – if needed and applicable in the given situation – talk with him or her and ask what's the reason for what he or she did something (trying to look behind the mere technical actions). Then I would firmly ask to stop the disruptive or destructive part of his or her behavior. If I would get stressed by all that, I probably would not be the right person to issue a block anyway and ask another admin (However this exhibits the problem of the "backing up a fellow admin" and "making noise on WP:ANI" – peers from a group tend to back-up their colleages and not to look at the situation in-depth themselves). A very good page about blocking is User:Mindspillage/admin. I will reread that (and the relevant policies) as needed (just as a checklist like a pilot, I think I do have internalised the ideas behind these). The psychological aspects of a block should never be forgotten. For example mechanically throwing a block at a party that is in violation of 3RR in many cases doesn't help anything and just serves to get things further heated. Blocks are damn inflammatory. But sometimes they are needed. But only as a last resort. Also, the collateral damage of a block should always be evaluated. It's like a pill with side effects. There are no effective pills without side effects (besides placebos, which can be very effective ;-). There are also technical side effects (autoblock of the IP-address) that must be carefully evaluated and understood. Blocking is not a silver bullet. And admins can easily shoot in their foot by careless blocking. And last but not least we should always try to look at what a person says, not who they are. --Ligulem 06:40, 19 September 2006 (UTC)"

IG Farben Building

Hi Mcginnly, yesterday someone was trying to remove a couple of passages from this article. It wasn't the obvious cutting out of text that gets a quick rollback and {{test1a}} - {{test4a}} message from me, but they were somewhat strategic and were using edit summaries. The text they were trying to remove seemed pivotal to me, and I tried to get them to discuss it more since it was ref'd, but they didn't. What do you think about this? DVD+ R/W 16:19, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Yup, I thought something like that was going on. DVD+ R/W 17:13, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I can't do a checkuser query, but you should see their page WP:RFCU for reference, as it is where you would want to take these concerns. The request format is simple, you need to make a pretty tight case for them to look into it though. This includes, but is not limited to, naming the suspected accounts, having something stated about why it is necessary to know that they are using multiple accounts, and determining whether what they are doing is worth bothering with, and is blockable or not. With this user it seems to me like they are making a half-hearted attempt at a content dispute, and as such is something fairly easy to dismiss, but if you know of other accounts and this is a recurring problem maybe checkuser is the way to go. DVD+ R/W 18:33, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

RfA Thanks

Thank you very much for participating in my RFA, which closed successfully earlier this week with a result of (50/3/0). If you have any further questions or suggestions, feel free to write me. I hope I will live up to your trust. Michael 19:33, 20 September 2006 (UTC)