User talk:Parrot of Doom/Archives/2011/February

Awesome work on Guy

I'm not normally a barnstar kind-a Guy, but this flaming hot barnstar seemed appropriate for your impressive sustained effort to produce a high quality Featured Topic on the Gunpowder Plot. Nice choice of citation style too :) The Other Guy 23:50, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the compliment, and for the bestest barnstar I've ever seen :) Parrot of Doom 00:18, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

And the silliness just goes on and on and on and ...

WTF is it with the Hanged ... article that has caused all of this wonkery do you think? Take care with it though, as wikipedia is almost completely dysfunctional when it comes to dealing with this kind of thing. You can already see the signs of how this is going to end up, with someone being blocked, perhaps more than one. Malleus Fatuorum 21:38, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Its clearly someone determined at all costs to "win". The fact that he/she is repeatedly lying will, I hope, not go unnoticed. Parrot of Doom 21:44, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

It will go unnoticed, and you'll likely be the one blocked under NPA for calling another editor a liar. You know how it works here. Malleus Fatuorum 22:01, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Meh, let them have their fun, a block doesn't mean much to me. The only thing that grates slightly whenever these things arise is that Nev and Jza once thought I was admin material. In a way I feel I've let them down, although I doubt I was ever cut out to fill the role and I'm glad now I declined the offer. Parrot of Doom 22:03, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Don't let that worry you; Iridescent, now a sitting arbitrator, once even nominated me at RfA. :lol: Blocks mean fuck all in and of themselves of course, but they're often used as an excuse to make you beg to be allowed to come back and continue to contribute your freely given labour. I've been fortunate in that I've never had to request an unblock, as that's just something I would never do. I kind of feel that we're similar in that respect. Malleus Fatuorum 22:09, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I remember suggesting to you at the time that if you were serious about becoming an administrator it would be well to do it sooner rather than later, as the longer you're here the more enemies you gather. It doesn't really matter much what you do, as whatever it is there's always some to take exception to it. Malleus Fatuorum 22:12, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Well I'm off to Spain next week for 2-3 days so I'll have pretty Spanish girls to look at, instead of lines of angry text. Makes a change from the UAE, where all I could look at was a pair of eyes and a bit of nose.

Regarding this dispute, I've always said that I'll happily abide by the wider consensus. Maybe I've just gained my very own stalker, I fully expect him to start attacking Gunpowder Plot and all related articles next, as most of what historians "know" is based on speculation. Parrot of Doom 22:14, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Deletion of personal subpages

As per the instructions at the top of Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion, you do not need to list your personal subpages for deletion discussions. Instead, please use the {{db-userreq}} template to request deletion of subpages you with to remove. The speedy deletion process generally works as fast or faster than a request to MfD and avoids the need to open and close a deletion discussion. --Allen3 ^talk 12:46, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip. Parrot of Doom 13:14, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

GA review

An article that you have been involved in editing, Jean Michel Jarre has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments here . If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status will be removed from the article. Laurent (talk) 15:55, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Why doesn't it work?

Why do you think that the {{imagequote}} template doesn't work?[1] Seems to work fine for me. Malleus Fatuorum 00:03, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

It just creates a big space to the left of my monitor that looks odd, and there's no attribution for the quote or anything. I think the article has too many quotes so I'll work on that. Looking at it reminds me how far I've come (in terms of writing) in the last couple of years. I hope that doesn't make me sound vain.... Parrot of Doom 00:07, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

It does, but you're forgiven. :-) Malleus Fatuorum 00:13, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't agree with the GA reassessment, but for fear of a backlash in the voting at WR (/<joke>) I'll not comment at the review. Instead I'll just try and do what little I can to help you fix it up. Malleus Fatuorum 00:19, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm off to Spain tomorrow so I won't be able to do a lot for the next few days. Depends how much work I have to do, and if the hotel has cheap wifi. Parrot of Doom 00:20, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Spain eh? I'm off to the Southern Cemetery tomorrow for a friend's funeral. Not looking forward to it, but it's gotta be done. Malleus Fatuorum 00:24, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

The thing about funerals is that so often they're about what [you've] lost, and not what the person who has died has lost. I always try to remember that. When I think of my dad, I think of all the things he's no longer able to do. Like drive his car, which I sold a few weeks back. That wasn't really very nice. Parrot of Doom 00:30, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

They are, and they're sometimes quite cringe-making as well. I remember one some years ago; God knows who'd briefed the vicar, but my friend's greatest achievement in life apparently was the fish pond he'd built in his garden. I refused to attend my father's funeral, but that's another and much more complicated story. Malleus Fatuorum 00:46, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I never really got along with my dad but that's another complicated story. Thankfully he'd decided years back that he hated funerals, in fact I don't recall him ever attending one. Or a wedding for that matter. Anyhow, he decided he wanted to be donated to medical science, and my mum agreed, so now (and this will sound bizarre) he's being used as a teaching tool at Manchester University. There was no funeral or any service whatsoever. My mum wants the same thing when she dies. Parrot of Doom 00:48, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

We tried that when my wife's parents died, but the hospital didn't want them, can't remember why. I think one was maybe too old. I got along with my father OK until he buggered off with another woman, whom he subsequently murdered. I sometimes wonder if there's a murder gene. I know this all sounds like a soap opera, but I swear it's true. It was even reported on by the BBC. Malleus Fatuorum 00:56, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

There isn't a family on the planet that doesn't have something to hide, or be ashamed of. When only a toddler my auntie was left for days tied to chair, with nothing to eat. She didn't see her mother for another sixty years or so. Her stepmother (my paternal grandmother) was manic depressive and beat the shit out of my dad when he was a similar age. It affected my dad very badly and was probably one of the reasons he was unable to relate to his own children. The thing is, my auntie (who told me all this, my dad never did) then told me that my paternal great-grandmother was just as cruel, even telling her daughter (who died of cancer) that "you've got cancer, you'll be dead soon!" I'm reminded of David Lynch's Blue Velvet - move past the manicured lawn and into the roots, and you'll see all kinds of nastiness. Parrot of Doom 01:01, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Use of Ricky Fatton Pic on UKTV

Dear Tom, Please can you contact me with regards to use of your Ricky Fatton photo on a programme I am working on for UKTV, my email is lsharp@cplproductions.co.uk Thank you 195.149.6.50 (talk) 16:13, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Done. Parrot of Doom 17:04, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

English Isle

What a call to battle that would be![2] :-( Malleus Fatuorum 02:11, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Edit summaries

Your edit summary was rude. I understand you feel like you have a big stake in the article, and in fact I don't really much care about the actual point of contention, but that is exactly the kind of reaction that drives away thousands of newbies every month needlessly. It would help if you were nicer, even if we disagree. Steven Walling 17:30, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Nothing rude about this. Have you read the article yet? BTW, with 37,500 edits you can hardly consider yourself to be a newbie. Malleus Fatuorum 18:07, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I wasn't talking about me specifically, but the topic of women's history and sexism is getting lots of positive attention from newbies who might be turned off by that sort of communication. Anyway, not trying to get into a big moral debate about it since I'm hardly a sterling example myself. But just sayin'. (And yes, for the record I did read the article.) Steven Walling 18:51, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

It's getting lots of attention, certainly, but very little of it seems to me to be positive. Malleus Fatuorum 19:00, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps Steven Walling might like to consider that anything prefixed "Women's" might also put off some editors, like me.--J3Mrs (talk) 19:08, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm sorry you felt my edit summary was rude but users finding articles such as Wife selling in categories created to deal with sexism will undoubtedly expect an article on a sexist practice, which wife selling most certainly was not. It was a method of ending a marriage, usually by mutual consent. Sex or discrimination had little to do with it. Parrot of Doom 19:26, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh joy! Malleus Fatuorum 21:06, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

<blackadder>Oh God...</blackadder> Parrot of Doom 21:37, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm thinking that a trap's been set. It's surely only a matter of time before someone proposes that wife selling (Chinese custom) is merged with wife selling (English custom), which if it goes ahead will inevitably result in the article we wrote being delisted, as it would then fail the comprehensive criterion. (Barely more than a stub on China, nothing on India ... nightmare.) Malleus Fatuorum 23:46, 21 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm not prepared to let that happen without a fight. Parrot of Doom 17:09, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Dick Turpin

Hi. I don't know what you mean by referring to my "deleting text" in my second to last edit. I did not delete any text as you will see in the diff in question, right here. I believe if you scroll down the whole way you will see that no text was deleted, but one very long paragraph was sectioned into two parts for easier reading. Please examine the diff as you appear to be conflating the last edit with other edits I made previously, which you rv. Yours. Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 01:54, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

I never said you had. What I said in the edit summary was something like "these edits are not improvements, please discuss before you delete". After a series of mostly unhelpful edits, you were just the most recent editor whose contributions I mostly reverted. Parrot of Doom 17:23, 24 February 2011 (UTC)