User talk:AlMac

You can click here to leave me a new message. yeah check ,dkdfkskasd ^^^(Software coding technique plagiarism from EWS23 who plagiarized (spelling?) it from Redwolf24 who plagiarized it from Linuxbeak)^^^

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 * User:AlMac/Wiki rules = How to & policy references
 * User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct
 * User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct


 * newest Wiki articles



Tips to help other newbies
It may be that I have figured out something that other beginners want to learn "how do you do that?" so here is a space for other folks to ask questions, or if you know how, you can add somewhere else in here, like right after some place where I did something & you want to know how to do that.

Tips moving to
 * User:AlMac/Wiki beginners = content to aid beginners, extracted from User:NeoKid experiment
 * User:AlMac/Wiki rules = How to & policy references

Welcome templates for newcomers at
 * Standard user greeting

Tips to help Al
Organization so easier to archive stuff as I get it down pat, keeping here what I not really memorized how to do yet. User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct

Welcome to AlMac
Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you like it here and decide to stay.

Here are some tips to help you get started:


 * Read the tutorial and learn how to edit a page.
 * Experiment in the sandbox.
 * Follow the Simplified Ruleset.
 * Try to edit from a neutral point of view.
 * Use talk pages to communicate with other editors.
 * Be bold in updating pages.
 * Eventually, read the Manual of Style and learn about the Five Pillars of Wikipedia.
 * And most importantly, have fun!

If you need any help, see the help pages and glossary, add a question to the help desk, or ask me on my talk page.

I hope you will enjoy editing and being a Wikipedian. Good luck! — Bcat

Wiki Acronyms
There are acronyms used at Wiki that User:AlMac|(talk) was unfamiliar with before arriving here. As I learn more, I may add them to this reference list, because there is a risk I figure something out, then forget again. User talk:AlMac/Wiki Acronyms

Style tips
Great advice copied from Notes section of Talk:Computer security audit so that links to places for AlMac to study are better grouped together,


 * Also Guide to writing better articles, starting with Lead section, suggested by User:Fenice.


 * Keep up the good work, get rid of all the lists and the article should be all right. I strongly suggest you read Guide to layout and How to edit a page, if you haven't already—they're very insightful, as are the other articles in the style book.
 * Be aware that Wikipedia is not an FAQ. Don't refer to the reader or yourelf directly; sentences like Company-A has personal information on you and me. are considered bad style. The article shouldn't be a how-to: Go to Steve Gibson Research site, scroll down to Shields Up, run tests are improper. A better version would be something like Software to detect vulnerabilities is available from organisations such as Gibson Research Corporation, and arguably anything more detailed in a how-to way might not be proper here on WP. Avoid (though not at all costs) external links inside the main article body, the proper place is in its own section the end of the article. Try to give more than one alternative if there is one.
 * Last but not least, of course the article does not have to be perfect. Others will improve on what you write, especially if you make a decent start. Once you get rid of
 * all
 * the freaking
 * lists
 * I'll try editing it, too. ;) Note that I'm a newbie, too. Cheers. --Moritz 7 July 2005 21:33 (UTC)

Also see advice at Votes for deletion/Computer Security Audits such as me emulating the style of the featured articles and remember that every article in Wikipedia has to be like in an Encyclopaedia. Talk pages may be looser. AlMac 7 July 2005 22:12 (UTC)

Point of View
I recognize that many concepts involve controversy.


 * I am from Scotland ...
 * you want to know something about the Loch Ness Monster?
 * It has been said that when a person travels from Scotland to another nation, that the average intelligence of the people of both nations increases.
 * How is that possible?
 * Joke: Travel broadens the mind.
 * Nowadays, most travel is on the Internet.
 * I do not believe in UFOs
 * However, I participated in game design in which we decided that UFOs would be the vehicles used by people traveling in time, not backwards and forwards in history, but across parallel time dimensions from other realities in our multiverse
 * As fantastic as that Science Fiction concept might seem to some people, I find the notion of UFOs, if they really do exist, as being time traveling vehicles as much more believeable than being space traveler vehicles. That would explain a lot of the mystery of them being able to elude our efforts to make contact with the occupants.

Let's not be too sensitive

 * This is a community project -- we're all allowed to edit at will. Having our edits deleted comes with the territory. If we feel some deletes are inappropriate, then seek consensus on the article talk page.

Learning by Doing
I do not expect to learn 100% of Wiki skills then apply them. I think of this like computer programming. I learn some of what can be done, I do it. I produce useful output based on my partial know how, then as I gain experience, I add to my total sum of know-how.

I read some documentation ... how do you do that ... I get reasonably good at doing some process, then I read some more documentaiton on how to make my input more sophisticated with more features, then with practice get good at that, then read some more on self-improvement, and hopefully what I produce along the way is in fact of value to the community. AlMac 28 June 2005 20:04 (UTC)

Useful Pages
Links to other pages I may need from time to time.
 * Cleanup resources

How Tos
A picture:


 * AlMac Talk to me|My Contributions
 * w:User:AlMac
 * AlMac
 * AlMac

Image vs. Link to Image
Cut & Pasted from Help Desk

If you want to insert the picture, edit the page you want it to appear on and type this:

If you want to insert a link to it, type this: Image:Nightstallion-sig1-white.png

Note the leading colon that stops the image actually showing up. Also note the Image: prefix that is required when linking to all images. Also note you can insert various parameters such as left/right, thumbnail or frame, as well as a caption, when displaying the image. See WP:EIS (Extended image syntax) for help on this. pfctdayelise
 * If by "link to a page" you mean that you want to have a person's browser take them to your user page when they click on the image, that isn't allowed. Something to do with the GFDL license as I recall.  Dismas|(talk)

Help Starting a new page
Help:Starting a new page

How revert
When trying to fix vandalism, and there's been no positive additions since the vandalism.

Cut & pasted this from Clueless Newbies:


 * At the top of the page there is a history button, similar to the edit and talk page button. Click on this to see all past versions of the article. Then click the date and time of the version of the article you want to revert to. You will see the article as it was at that time. Then click the edit button, and save without making any changes. You will get a notice warning you about editing an out of date version. Then you have reverted! Make sure not to revert more than three times in one day. User:Banana04131

How archive
Cut & pasted this from Help Desk:


 * Question: How does one create an archive into which to move old content from a talk page? I can't find anything on the help pages, style guides, etc. Jimp 24Aug05


 * Answer: Here's what I do: add the link into the page FIRST and then Show preview so that you can click on the link. E.g., Talk:Fooarticle/Archive 1. Elf | Talk 14:04, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

Citing
Cut & Pasted from Help Desk:


 * Produces:
 * Produces:

-- from GraemeL

How link to Category
Cut & pasted from Reference Desk:


 * Question: When I put a category name inside of the square brackets, nothing shows up, how can I make a link to that page, short of copying the entire url?


 * Answer: You can link to a category by putting a ":" in front. Eg, Category:Hurricane Katrina gives Category:Hurricane Katrina. --Commander Keane 05:14, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

No Wiki How
"If you use ~ it will automatically sign & date your posts with your account name." How do you "say that" without it signing and dating the name of the person saying that?

Also see Help:Variable. User:AlMac|(talk) 23:56, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Al Education ahead
Stuff that is no longer a problem for User:AlMac|(talk) 15:03, 24 December 2005 (UTC) has beem moved to User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct

Stuff I know I need to learn
 * Default rules
 * e.g. on the Current changes page, I want it to hide minor edits by default
 * there may be other stuff like that which is desirable
 * Very top of page preferences now being explored by me, and need periodic revisiting to gain another level of understanding.
 * Where I have a sub-topic that has exploded in size and my interest, how do I move it to some other page just for that interest area?
 * User talk:AlMac/New Topic
 * How to move it
 * Other reasons to move a page:
 * Original article misspelled or inappropriate upper lower case.
 * Scope of content has evolved.
 * Achieving a level of Neutrality that is acceptable to this community
 * Security breaches may be a particularly challenging topic, but if I can learn good enough Neutrality of Points of View there, I should be able to handle most any topic.

Al, I looked at the information you posted above. You might want to read Page history and Neutral point of view. Bcat (talk | email) 28 June 2005 22:19 (UTC)

And also the NPOV tutorial — Bcat (talk | email) 28 June 2005 22:20 (UTC)

And also How to write a great article. (OK, I'm done now :-)) — Bcat (talk | email) 28 June 2005 22:22 (UTC)

---

Bcat, Thanks again from AlMac who has added more stuff to the stuff to learn, since these tips. AlMac has only studied a fraction of the suggested material so far. AlMac 4 July 2005 18:22 (UTC)

Managing Stubs
The way I operate, I am constantly starting some effort, getting part way done, then becoming somewhat distracted, with many loose ends to pursue. of places I plan to visit over time

As my involvement continues, there is great risk I am not going to remember all the places where I had started something, that perhaps needs continuation.

On normal days, I check my watch list, and pick a few recent areas to work some more on, as time permits. The very top of watch list has way to review the whole list, but sometimes in a Wiki update the whole watch list can be lost, but user contributions still intact.

From time to time as time permits, also check the overall areas I been active in to see what I had intended to work on, but fallen behind in commitments.

Using Images
Study
 * Tutorial
 * How_to_edit_a_page
 * Uploading images
 * Image copyright tags
 * Picture tutorial

Update about AlMac
Thanks Bcat

Over time I intend to add more about myself, but I may find a better place than this to put it, such as AlMac.

Roller Coaster Ride
AlMac professional work load resembles a roller coaster ride.
 * There are days when it seems work work work, I can't get a fraction completed that I need to get done, there aren't enough hours in the day to do my job, and this goes on seemingly for an eternity.
 * There are days where nothing has gone wrong, I am caught up on urgent business, I am doing useful stuff. I love this job.

Thus, AlMac time availability for volunteer projects is also like a roller coaster ride.
 * AlMac will show up and get a lot of useful work done in a very short time.
 * AlMac will appear to disappear & no longer be a participant, or only a very infrequent visitor, for weeks at a time

Hello Wikopedia
I came to Wikopedia for several reasons.
 * 1) I knew about it because there are entries on my parents, math professors, and I had stumbled across it several prior times with various research.
 * 2) Here is the page on my Mother
 * 3) If I do a similar page on myself, I recognize that I should limit it to the stuff that I have done that is truely unique in the world, such as Operation Contact in the Simulation Gaming hobby
 * 4) David Gibbs started a Wiki for AS/400 iSeries interests  and I started posting there what I knew but my interests include a great deal of computer security stuff that does not really apply to the IBM world, and I wanted to share my computer know-how, and while I have tried blogging, I am not really happy with the concept of many people talking, while security issues are not really being solved in the world as rapidly as I would like to see.

There are other topics that interest me, that I also intend to post information about in the future. See what I wrote in the New User Log

Security
I started Security breaches and I have a lot more to add, then there was the link someone added about Neutrality. I had thought that I was being fair, but now see that I need to be more so. So I have my work cut out for me there.

It is my hope that I can share what I have learned from over 40 years in my computer profession, and do so in a manner that meets with the standards of your community.

.

Other Discussion Groups
I feel like I may be butting in some places where I might not be welcome, so let's try some stubs in the other places that point to here. Also much smaller risk here of multiple people editing at same time.

Evolution
See Talk on Creation Science
 * It is commonly stated that species change is long duration, several generations ... will new species survive in competition with others?
 * From our perspective as humans, we witness evolution in our lifetimes because the smaller the creature, the faster the cycle of generations
 * We may have risk of Pandemic because of the speed with which new diseases arrive and evolve
 * Bird Flu and Ebola today are only the latest in a series of variants
 * Larger creaters slower evolution
 * Killer Bees and Mad Cow are both man made problems, both accidentally.

Refugee
I only glanced at this article.
 * Palestine is part of History and Today
 * Tsunami is Today, or very recent
 * UN Humanitarian Aid, and efforts by many governments, in recent years, seem to be focused on trying to help solve whatever problem in some nation is contributing to many people fleeing
 * so that less will flee
 * and earlier departures can go home
 * Haiti as example with USA
 * There is also the Minorities Problem where people, of different enthicity who migrate into some nation for reasons of getting better paying jobs, are considered by the nation to which they arrive, as being temporary workers who become unwelcome when economic conditions deteriorate.

Trade
AlMac stuff, about this topic, has been moved to User talk:AlMac/Trade then moved again to Talk:Trade

Wiki's Dispute Resolution Process
This is something User:AlMac|(talk) been learning something about in recent days. The goal is to develop a high quality free on-line encyclopaedia (supported by donations), and to that end, it is important to maintain a harmonous community of volunteers, but the encyclopaedia is more important than the community. User:AlMac|(talk) 19:08, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) Experienced volunteers, who are seen to have been doing a good overall job with Wiki, can be elevated to an administration sys/op status, which gives them access to capabilities not available to ordinary editor volunteers.
 * 2) WP enjoys several thousand volunteer editors.
 * 3) Many of us are newbies, but also remember that WP has only been around for about 5 years.  Immense value has been generated by people who all started out here as newbies.
 * 4) About 700 of them have been elevated to administrators.
 * 5) These administrators are also human, subject to the same frailties, and difficulty dealing with frustrations as the rest of us.
 * 6) They are able to abuse their privileges to engage in Wheel wars against each other in ways not available to ordinary editor volunteers, such as blocking each other from Wiki access for arious time periods, for perceived abuses.
 * 7) First, editors try to resolve different views on how things should be done, using talk pages of articles, and messages to each other on these talk pages.
 * 8) We have rules to follow, about content, style, WP:NPOV, civility, citing, etc.
 * 9) If we are seen to have done 3 reverts to the same article within 24 hours, for whatever reason, even to combat vandalism, administrators can block us for up to 24 hours.  This is intended to seek peace and quiet, like police break up a brawl to get law & order, calming down the participants, before trying to settle the dispute.
 * 10) If we human beings are unable to resolve differences in a civilized manner, or we think another party to a disagreement is being unreasonable, there can be WP:RfC or WP:RfM, and finally, if all else fails, to the Arbitration Committee.
 * 11) A first step in Requests for arbitration is to verify that earlier dispute resolution process steps have been exhausted.
 * 12) Ultimately there can be an appeal to User:Jimbo Wales, founder and owner of WP.

Standards
Al's thinking here have migrated to WikiProject Usability.

How to write a great article about Security breaches
Well, it's no big deal, but using the singular form of the word is standard when choosing a title and you should start the article with a clear definition of what a security breach is (even though it may be obvious to you). See if the link on how to write great articles helps at all. - Mgm|(talk) June 29, 2005 07:49 (UTC)

AlMac Relevant Background
Before another stab at resolution, or round of efforts, I added an introduction at Talk:Security breaches to my relevant background perspective (real world risk of POV contamination). AlMac 1 July 2005 18:43 (UTC)

The last few days I have added stuff all over the Wiki map, and not yet got in trouble. Hopefully these random experiences will help me be better able to handle my main areas of interest, where I started, but immediately got into trouble.

Trade - table
My thoughts here all moed to Talk:Trade or into its archives.

Military and Books

 * Good Job on the Adds to Military. Got some advice that the lists don't belong in there, but I think that should wait. I'm going to use this page to archieve my talk in a moment, but that comment will be on the new talk if you wait a while. User:Fabartus || Talkto_FrankB 6 July 2005 16:04 (UTC)

Thanks, some of the stuff I added to several articles was because I was looking at that article and thinking some stuff was missing that perhaps belongs in a separate article, but I still feeling damaged by several failed attempts to fix my Security breaches startup, so for the moment I suggesting ideas and making small additions, then letting more experienced Wikipeans either do moves to new articles, or approve my suggestions.

Growing Expertise
I plan to link this concept to some projects and articles I am interested in helping to improve, so first let's move this effort to AlMac/Growing Expertise then do the linkage from there. Done AlMac 6 July 2005 18:22 (UTC)

Last Few Days Jul-5 <- Jun-27
Note above where I talk about roller coaster ride with respect to my time availability.
 * My employer is about to do a relocation.
 * relocation done, but left me with lots of unfinished ROUND TUIT
 * There's always lots of software projects for me.

moved to User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct

Computer security audit
First of all, don't panic. This has happened before, the article is scrutinized and can survive if you follow their suggestions for improvement. I moved it to suit the naming conventions and copyedited the lead section. It is a legitimate topic; the only thing I worry about i that it may be redundant with Auditing information security? The text needs to be in prose, not list form. It should have references, and footnotes, so people know where the information is from. The text should inform people about these audits, not try to convince them that they are necessary.--Fenice 7 July 2005 19:25 (UTC)

Thanks again. I saw the Votes for Deletion as I was getting ready to leave for the office, and I should be on the road right now. I also see that this kind of process takes 5 days, so I figure I have part of the weekend, depending on what happens at my office (see roller coaster ride explained above).

I studied the Auditing information security article before I started Computer Security Audits. My conclusion was that Auditing information security is rather dated. It describes a reality of large comapnies, like those traded on the stock market, that can afford to have a team of humans from some audit firm, perform certain tasks. Most small businesses, which are most enterprises period, cannot afford this, and certainly not home users.

Auditing information security is a valid topic, of great interest to many enterprises, but while the work they do is more intensive than what I am writing about, their market share is microscopic compared to my focus. I think perhaps I should try to explain that, like the Computer security and Computer insecurity articles point at each other.


 * Computer security article focuses on Design for Good Security in the first place, which most computer vendors should do, but far too many do not.
 * Computer insecurity article focuses on victims in the "Oh Hell, what a mess we are in, how do we get out of this?"

Similarly (except I need to clean up the language)


 * Auditing information security article focuses on what the giants of industry do to identify security issues in need of remediation.
 * Computer Security Audits (which may need a slightly different title) article focuses on what the little guy, and small business can do, to identify security issues that are easily repaired.

Now many enterprises do not think they need Security Audits, but one of the outputs of these automated tools is an education that can lead some companies to conclude that they do need professional help, because the remediation effort is more than can be handled by their staff. AlMac 7 July 2005 19:36 (UTC)

The discussion on VfD takes two weeks, not five days. They usually only delete if there is a two third majority for deletion, which I don't think there will be.--Fenice 7 July 2005 19:45 (UTC)

There is a template you can use to avoid the edit-conflict-problem you were talking about earlier: which will show this message:, and you are supposed to take it off again right after the edit.--Fenice 7 July 2005 21:01 (UTC)

some stuff, I not plan to do anything more with, moved to User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct

The scope and use of Wikibooks
Wikibooks is a sister project to Wikipedia. Like all Wikimedia projects, it is distinct in the type of information that it contains. Whereas Wikipedia seeks to compile encyclopedic content, Wikibooks can best be described as compiling didactic content, that is, content that is mean for learning. This has some small overlap with Wikipedia, but also includes "how to's", applied or otherwise esoteric information. For more information about whether Wikibooks is right for your project, try reading these guidelines.

If you're ready to start a new wikibook, check out this page to find out how. -FabioB 8 July 2005 18:38 (UTC)

I may not yet be ready to start a wikibook, but I did noodle around a bit at the site, and plan to do some more. I opened an account and my big mouth there. AlMac 8 July 2005 19:35 (UTC)

Archive Check Point 2005-Summar
I am inserting some stuff in the table of contents to indicate potential cut-off points for future archiving. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:29, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

About Citing
Thanks for noting your concern about citing issues. I would say that there are two reasons for citing.
 * 1) You are directly referencing or quoting some specific work or material. This type of reference/citation is necessary to avoid plagiarism and copyright isues. Since you are writing almost entirely out of your working knowledge of the subject, this should never be an issue for you.
 * 2) Any subject you discuss should be verifiable. That is, people should not just have to go on your word alone, but be able to cross check it with other sources. However, you really should not let this get in the way of your posting that information in the first place. If what you say really is true (a reason why you most try to remain factual and neutral), other Wiki users will also be able to confirm what you've written with external references.

Really, I don't think this is an issue for you. A user with alot of concrete knowledge in an area and no references is better than a user with no knowledge and alot of references. The latter is very common and will come along to help out soon enough. - FabioB 8 July 2005 19:00 (UTC)

Book
Hi, you contacted me when someone suggested to you to publish your work as a book on wikibooks. I did not reply earlier because I was too busy. But it is important that you think about this wikibook-project again. Donating single articles on Wikipedia is one thing. But donating an entire book is a totally different scale of value. I would by all means consider mailing the script to at least twenty publishers before you donate your knowledge to wikibooks. If it gets declined, and lots of books are, you can always donate it. Best wishes, --Fenice 21:37, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

Military
Stuff here moved to User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct although this topic may come up again in the future with other contexts.

American Civil Rights Movement
Please vote for the American Civil Rights Movement in the nominations for the Article Improvement Drive. [Click here and scroll down to (Nominated in August or later: American Civil Rights Movement... to cast your vote]. Thanks! Mamawrites 03:57, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

Modding
This stuff now User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct although any topic can come up again with other contexts.

Archive Check Point 2005-Fall
I am inserting some stuff in the table of contents to indicate potential cut-off points for future archiving. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:31, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Your Signature
Hey, I couldn't help but notice your signature at the Reference Desk. I had the same problem with my user-talk link several weeks ago- apparently it stems from changes they made in the code. If you haven't fixed it already, you can go to How to fix your signature and follow some steps there. Hope that helps! EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 04:33, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

This is a testing
Tests of efforts to fix my signature now User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct

Need more color help?
Sorry, I was slightly confused by your message, so I'm not entirely sure what you need help with. It looks like you got your signature working, so that's good. If you want to change the background color of the "Leave me a message" box, go into the code and find the part that says "background-color: lightblue". You can change "lightblue" to any of the colors on this page. (I think the code numbers are supposed to work as well, but I couldn't get it to work in testing- however, you should be able to just use the words, for example by changing "lightblue" to "Darksalmon") I hope this helps, and let me know if you need anything else. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 12:31, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Thanks from User:Ali K
Hey, thanks for the nice comment on my userpage. Im glad my userboxes are noticed, as you can probably see, i am a bit obsessed with them. I seem to do the same thing as you on wikipedia, searching for questions to answer as well as checking out userpages. Our contributions really do make a difference. And you dont have to give me credit for the userboxes, they're on me! :) --Ali K 09:48, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Userboxes
hi again. Thanks for the barnstar, it is much appreciated. The answers to your 3 questions are as follows:
 * 1) )Yes there is a page that i can link you to Userboxes. This page can be hard to find and remember so i suggest you bookmark it.  You will find many userboxes on this page, as well as a general guide to making your own userboxes.
 * 2) ) I have looked at your userpage and fixed up what i could, hope you dont mind. As for the wikiproject userbox, i am not sure if you made this up yourself?


 * (I copied it from you, not knowing what it was, and I do desire some other choice) User:AlMac|(talk)

If you did you may need to find a new picture because that picture was of the swan bells in perth! The reference desk userbox seems to have worked it was just down the bottomk of the page because you didnt allow an 'enter'. If i can be of anymore help please just give me a yell!--Ali K 10:59, 20 December 2005 (UTC) :) Hi, Here is a list of pictures http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Icons, sorry but it doesn't work when you put it in a link Here is a list of colours List of colors Note* some userboxes have a template, an example is the native english speaking one.
 * 1) } Thanks for the optimism, but no unfortunately i did not create userboxes. (Although i would like to be able to say i did!) :) I picked up my love of userboxes from many people, but to say the least, i would have to say that it was on User:Redvers that i found out about this concept.

I hope this helps, please dont hesitate to contact me. P.S Please, you dont have to reference the userboxes, it is fine as everyone uses them --Ali K 11:15, 20 December 2005 (UTC) hello again, as for the new picture, well i cant find a suitable for the perth wikiproject. On the userbox page they have a basic template of how to create userboxes.--Ali K 11:20, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Maybe you could use this picture for your wikiproject userbox? Image:Fairytale apply.png --Ali K 11:29, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi. To use that image you just have to type it in after the colours, where 'Image:' is. Hope this helps--Ali K 12:04, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

You have to leave #file off the end. Is this what you are looking for?

--Ali K 12:12, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Do you understand how to do it now?--Ali K 12:17, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Ali K is a quick one! I just fixed the userbox on your user page. One problem was that you didn't supply two initial colours, another was there was a newline after the file name but before the |40px bit. (I don't know if this was actually a problem, but it definitely won't be if everything is on the same line.) HTH pfctdayelise 12:20, 20 December 2005 (UTC)


 * OK, I didn't fix it because there was an edit conflict and ze beat beat me. :) pfctdayelise 12:21, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

User boxes with two pictures
The folks over at the Usability Project were not too thrilled with me using the DISABLED icon because that implies the whole purpose of the project is to serve the disabled, when in fact it is to serve everyone. They now have a logo for the project. I wanted to include both icons, so I trying to figure out what I am doing wrong.

We have a template with the Stargate used for our home being Planet Earth.

This works except I can't stand the color combination on the second icon.

I need to see if I can learn from this how to get the same effect with some other user box.

This does not, and I have tweaked it several times as I try to figure out how I might have missed some element of the formatting rules.

I need how to tutorial for
 * Image
 * format for colors
 * placement of | & open close of various kinds of brackets & do they need to be same number open close or are there exceptions
 * link vs. text used
 * example Usability Project
 * placement of | ... where spaces Ok, not allowed

User:AlMac|(talk) 02:27, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Per your query: turns out the following: Happy holidays. ^_^ Cernen 08:11, 25 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the compliment AlMac, i see your question has been answered by another "guru". have fun with the boxes + merry christmas. --Ballchef 12:18, 25 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Hi! I think that the two-sided userbox is a great idea, not to mention that it also looks great. Your userpage has definetly come a long way over the last few days.  The way you have set out your (many!) userboxes is quite original and effective.  Keep up the great work answering questions at the reference desk and helping people such as Jayant.  Have a very merry christmas, or whats left of it and a very happy new year, can't wait to help you at another time, --Ali K 15:41, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Dragon Picture
I am a great fan of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books and would be interested in using a picture of a Dragon, that does not have the copyright restriction of Image:Dragonite.png User:AlMac|(talk) 07:05, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Good luck. From what I understand, her attorneys are vicious dogs that hunt down users of her media and rend them limb from limb (OH NOES!!!!). All of her images, and anything related to her stories, that is used without her explicit permission, will result in flogging with 2x4s of various lengths and woods. I don't know if the WP has a policy regarding use...perhaps you could write her a letter and ask nicely? Cernen 09:07, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I may do just that. I just sent her a communication asking if Dolphins can impress fire lizards, if human council meetings could have a salt water pool so Dragons can carry the Dolphin Harper, Theresa Tillek, to their meetings.  I actually met her at an SF con once, and got to watch a Dragon Hatching. User:AlMac|(talk) 09:16, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Australian Flag
Hi, i thought i had it on the userbox that says i am Australian and so it should link to Australia. What time is it there?

Ohhh.... On my wikipedia it states time in UTC.
 * Other 1/2 of conversation with User:AlMac|(talk) at User talk:Ali K

Aquarius
Hi, me again. I noticed that your userboxes are taking great shape! i also noticed that you had an aquarius userbox. There is already one if you want to use it.--Ali K 09:20, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi.. from Jayant in India
Hey..

I respect you a lot for being so active even at your age. I have seen you at the reference desk too. By the way which language do you use to write your games?? And can you tell me how to make those user boxes?? Thanks a lot..

Jayant, 17 Years,India. 16:32, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

Archive Check Point 2005-Dec-2*
I am inserting some stuff in the table of contents to indicate potential cut-off points for future archiving. This is kind of between some clusters of related sub-topics. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:33, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

RE:ERP
Hi AlMac. I was only really editing that page to clean up some spam, but thanks for your message. I went over and had a look and what you've written looks OK to me, although I don't profess to know too much about ERP systems. I've done some tidying up of the article WRT grammar and wikilinks.. Cheers.. - N (talk) 22:46, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks :) - N (talk) 23:03, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Also, in general, if you edit an article, you don't have to contact every editor before and ask if it is OK. In my case, I just reverted some link spam on ERP. If an article is important to an editor, they have it on their watchlist and will contact you if necessary. Thanks for the expansion of the article, though, and hally editing -- Chris 73 | Talk 00:25, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Conversations
Thats fine, you can copy what ever you like from my talk page, user page or any sub-page of mine. I'm pretty flexible about it. Did you need me to tell (or give) you the code? — M o e   ε  03:55, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Well, I thought it funny. Hope you're able to use the heading. Well, if you need me, you know where I'll be. Cheers! — M o e   ε  04:07, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree, hilarious. Now I need to figure out how you did it. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:11, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
 * If you edit my talk page you will see a thing called

It was a user template I created myself. If you type in User:Moe Epsilon/heading it will pull up the page where I created it and it shows you the code. Same thing with the haha template found at the page User:Moe Epsilon/haha. Hope this is what you are asking. — M o e   ε  04:16, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

I saw that, and the volume of the code was more than I want to keep current, me being so lazy at times. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:23, 24 December 2005 (UTC)


 * If you could give me a new message tomorrow, I can surely help you to the best of my abilities in solving what you want. — M o e   ε  04:33, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for Barnstar to User:Ian13
Thanks, I hope I manage to make the whole userbox system better as a result. And happy holidays! Ian13ID:540053 15:05, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Feel free to move this to your main User:Ian13 page in some appropriate section, as I expect that getting this might remind other fans of your work that you have earned more. User:AlMac|(talk) 15:43, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks, and I already have, slightly modified into my userpage in Awards :) I lieave the origiona there for archive purposes. Ian13ID:540053 15:45, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Archives 2005 June-Oct
See User talk:AlMac/2005 Jun-Oct = some work I did today which reduced size of Talk pages from just over 46 k to 33 k

I tried (unsuccessfully so far) to apply the user sub-pages template discussed at WP help start of Dec 22. Another nice idea that I not going to spend much more time on. User:AlMac|(talk) 15:29, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Breaking up user page
I think I have made significant progress restructuring my user page for readability. The lessons so far are:
 * Let's not have a huge mass of userboxes like a url farm. Cluster them according to general interest areas.
 * With each cluster of icons, have some text, whose vertical volume is such that the user boxes take up less vertical space than the relevant text, so we avoid overlapping with the next body of work.
 * Userboxes in front of associated text can be easier to manage, provided no overlap from prior section.

Interesting Images
Noodling around what images we may use, and pretty soon my Talk page is pushing 50 k again. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:46, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Wikipediholic I am
As of December 25 which may be somewhat distorted because of my non-standard working hours swing shift via telecommuting, so it is normal at say 3 am for me to take a break from work, and while waiting for some program to get done so that I can do my next duty, briefly visit WP. I also won the Master Nerd Prize but not see where the user box is for that. User:AlMac|(talk) 08:52, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Help Desk Values
Quite frequently the give & take on the Help Desks answering some other person's intelligent questions leads me to see some great articles I might not have known about until much later. User:AlMac|(talk) 01:41, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Archive Red on Watchlist
Cut & paste from Help Desk where I asked about this.

I started archiving my talk pages (pushing 50k) and I put "watch this page" on everything I working on, then I noticed my new archives were red link on my Watch list. I clicked on the link. My efforts there all right. Would it be a fair statement that sometimes the WP server tasks get stacked up, so that in time all will be Ok on my new page(s)? User:AlMac|(talk) 11:12, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, there is some caching going on. To force the Wikipedia servers to purge the cache, append "?action=purge" to the end of the URL. enochlau (talk) 11:30, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Hmm, perhaps I am too dense, not placing the action purge on the correct url, or I did not properly name my archives ... I figured me slash anything should work & selected date range of planned population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:AlMac/2005_Jun-Oct

When I go to them from my talk page, they are there. When I do my watch list, and click on complete list, they are red, and when I click on the red, I am taken to a page that does not exist.
 * Further explanation copied.


 * If you archive a talk page to a page named "user talk:AlMac/anything" (which is typical) this page is the talk page for a page named "user:AlMac/anything" which likely does not exist. If you watch such a page the user page (not the talk page) shows on your watchlist, and since only the talk page exists the user page is a red link. -- Rick Block (talk) 21:57, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Aha !

Moe Epsilon
I can create you one of those headings if you want one. NO, there is no way to automatically do it. You have to do it manually if you want it. If you like I can create a blank one for your own personal use but I dont think you want it since you have to do it manually.
 * Ok, I wont create it then, just drop me a line when ever you need something, and Happy Holidays. — M o e   ε  18:56, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Archive Check Point 2005-Dec Xmas
I am inserting some stuff in the table of contents to indicate potential cut-off points for future archiving. This is kind of between some clusters of related sub-topics. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:35, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Jayant412
Hey - I have been noticing how much effort you have put into helping Jayant412 get started in Wikipedia. I think that's great. :) &mdash; flamingspinach | (talk) 07:28, 25 December 2005 (UTC)


 * By the way, you can put anchor references in wikilinks:

User_talk:Jayant412 User_talk:Jayant412
 * &mdash; flamingspinach | (talk) 07:56, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Re:Plagiarism
Cool, no problems... If I may say so, you've got one hectic user page here :) enochlau (talk)

Q+A
Hi, You said you liked some technique on my user page..(Q+A)..I know its dumb but what were you talking about?? Jayant, 17 Years, India (Talk) 07:02, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

hi
just created a new templete on the university of Aberdeen...cant add it to the relevant category ..i.e. wikipedians by alma mater: united Kingdom. Using HTML for the first time in my entire life!...plz help. (Saurabhb 22:21, 29 December 2005 (UTC))

Hi
Yes, I am here again. I am planning to stay away from controversial subjects, and not let my wikistress get to such a high level again. --Fenice 06:43, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

thanx
Thank you for your reply. Managed to sort out my problem(Saurabhb 10:18, 30 December 2005 (UTC))

Happy New Year...
Hey.. Happy new year!!!!!! I could be a little busy and would probably come online less frequently... Anyways....how are you..? Jayant, 17 Years, India (Talk) 11:11, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Admins
You asked for information on what behavior is expected of Administrators. I'd like to suggest The Administrator's Reading List and Administrators for some information. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask me. Best regards, &Euml;vilphoenix Burn! 02:34, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi
Thanks for the message! I actually had looked at the ERP history a little, and kind of figured out some of what was going on with the ERP list - I liked what you did and thought I would "take up the baton" and run with it a little.

I am brand-spanking-new to this, and am unfortunately an addict. My wife is treating this as a sickness and is already quite prejudiced against it. I love Wikipedia! It is so awesome, I can see this naturally organizing all human knowledge in a short period of time. It is fantastic to watch this happening.

Since you've contacted me, and this is the closest thing that I have to a relationship with anyone on this site, can I ask you a few questions?

1) Where can I get template tags? Everyone is using them everywhere, but I can't seem to find a simple reference list of them that I can print out so that I can start using them.

2) How do I raise a flag when someone does something wrong? I've "been bold", and fixed a few things, and am afraid that someone might jump on me.  In case that happens, how to I escalate the item for discussion?  It seems that it might be done through template tags...

Bhludzin 02:25, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd love to claim credit...
...but the person deserving the barnstar is Phil Welch, whose idea and hard work it was. I gave him a barnstar for it last night, but unfortunately he has since been driven off the RfC by a hail of abuse and incivility. :( ➨ ❝ R E  DVERS ❞ 18:55, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Philwelch is great. Do keep sending wikilove his way... +sj + 04:55, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Archive Check Point 2005-Jan-0*
I am inserting some stuff in the table of contents to indicate potential cut-off points for future archiving. This is kind of between some clusters of related sub-topics. User:AlMac|(talk) 04:36, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Cyberlaw & SJ
You can help by leaving specific comments on the talk pages of the users involved, and by helping improve the project page, atm. There will also be a wiki for the class, which you might be interested in; and it will help you become familiar with the readings we are working through. +sj + 04:55, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Direct link to Sj talk on this, since we both have such huge talk pages. User:AlMac|(talk) 05:20, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Nice :) I thought I'd save a comment here yesterday, but perhaps not.  I think it would be a good idea to add a section to the cyberlaw project about "incorporating the learnings from the class into relevant wikipedia articles".  The initial thrust of the project, however, is for them to get involved with editing; and to organize somehow the edits they've made (and the community followup in response).
 * Other things that can be linked from the project page : individual accounts of contributors (a few are listed, but not most).
 * I like the idea of sprucing up the team section with links to talk pages and subpages right from the project page. And thank you for getting in touch with the project teams.  You might ask the wikipedia team-groups directly about questions you have (re: the course, or law in general) -- I'm hoping that each team will come up with a one-liner defining what they stand for / work for, which might help you decide where to direct questions; but until then you can just ask whichever team seems most active...

Back from WikiVacation
Hail and well met yet again. ^_^ Got your e-mail. I wish I could have a response. I've never read any of her works, though I've found them to be quite interesting. Also, I found out that it's AL Mac, not AI (as in Artificial Intelligence). Heh. Aaaanyways, thanks for the message. Sorry I didn't respond; kind of avoided the email over the holidays. Cernen 21:21, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Aw man. Huge controversial debate thing. I missed all that? Wow. Thank you for the update. I'll promptly go remove myself from the charbroiled ashes of the Wikiproject Userboxes. ^_^ Cernen 07:23, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

RE: WikiProjects
Hmm. The problem is that we are not focusing on a single subject, but I like your idea of adding tutorials where they are needed.
 * Link back to User:The Neokid
 * creator of Helping Hand Group

re: Hierarchy comment
Right. Excellent book. Perhaps you should suggest it there, also, and anywhere else important. It's a good idea, oven overlooked, to remind folk that designing management takes thought and skill. People who know how hard it is to design a bridge sometimes think that designing and nurturing an organization is child's play.

My concern is that the very real threat of increased problems, perhaps even a looming Eternal September, stemming from our increased popularity, will be met with knee-jerk reaction, e.g. the situation you mentioned. This seldom works. I'm trying to think of some way to avoid that. Herostratus 10:02, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Marginal Revolution AfD
Hi,

The appropriate place to leave comments about an article deletion is on its AfD page, in this case: Articles for deletion/Marginal Revolution. I nominated it because it doesn't meet the guidelines at WP:WEB. Regards, The Land 13:20, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

HHG: Thank You
Thank you for you suggestions and helpful information relating to the Helping Hand Group. It is much appreciated. The Neokid 13:46, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Hello from a friend
Hi there AlMac! I just wanted to see how you are going and to say that i am glad to see the contributions you have made on Wikipedia, especially the Reference Desk. Yes i must, too, say that your help with Jayant has been amazing!--Ali K 13:26, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Your user page
Hey, I fixed a spelling libertarian, I hope thats ok. Also to clarify:


 * Note that the flag of Britain is a combination of the flags of Scotland and England. I am pretty sure Wales and Northern Ireland omitted.

To clarify, there isn't really a flag of Britain. There is a flag of the United Kingdom, the Union Jack which includes Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. You can find out more on the page for the Union Jack. There is no Welsh influence on the flag as Wales is technically a principality of the Kingdom of England. Or something like that. Hope that clears it up :) - FrancisTyers 00:01, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

(top)
Thanks for this comment. I've been wondering what "(top)" means in a list of contribs. I can see now how that can be helpful. --TantalumT e lluride 03:17, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
 * "So how did you happen to stumble over my post??" --(preceding question posed by AlMac on my talk page)
 * Well, a couple days ago, I followed a link to the Helping Hand Group from Jimbo's talk page, and I posted a comment on the talk page. Tonight (or this morning in UTC), I checked back to see if anyone had responded, and I found your suggestions along with the link to Wikiproject Cyberlaw. From there, I followed link to each group's user and user talk page. And, of course, you had left messages on several (if not all) of them explaining how to use Special:Contributions and what "(top)" means next to an edit. Wow! that was a long story. Anyway, I might be able to help out if you ever decide what the project is about. --TantalumT e lluride 04:05, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I think I'm beginning to understand what's going on with the Cyberlaw project. In order to direct more attention toward the project, you might ask for some input from some lawyer Wikipedians (including BD2412, Tufflaw, and Gator1, all of whom I know are very active contributors). Also, you could ask for help at WikiProject Law, WikiProject International law, the village pump, or maybe even the Signpost if you want to be formal about it. Let me know if I can help. --TantalumT e lluride 07:04, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

WP:3RR
It's no more than 3 reverts within a 24 hour period. So don't stress. :) pfctdayelise 15:24, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Your Old Friend Writes Back
Hi. Yeah, your page looks good with the Wikipedia Signpost. If you are into things like that, it may be of interest for me to say that the picture of the day would look good on your page too. This changes everyday and is eyecatching. It is here. --Ali K 16:19, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

new project invite
AlMac! Listen, I just initiated a project relating to the userbox thing... it's here: WikiProject Fast OrgDev Advisory on Userpages. If you wanted to take a look and even jump in, that'd be outstanding! OK, now I gotta go round up strangers Herostratus 01:57, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

Re: Violating WP:SPAM
# There is a proposal to kill some article or group of articles, and I go to the talk pages of the articles and try to place a NPOV link to inform the people who are active there, about the proposal.

Absolutely not. In fact, that is a GREAT idea and IMO an important step of the process. I often post notes on people's talk pages to tell them a page they worked on is up at AfD, because often they won't be aware (especially if they're new). It is ridiculous to have a debate about a topic and not have it with the people who it will concern.

# I tell a bunch of people about a project that I think might be of interest to them, based on the category they in or the types of articles they have contributed to.

No, that's a great idea. You can also post news about new projects of any kind of WP:VPN. But I would mention how you happened to target them, eg "I see you've edited articles about X, maybe you'll be interested in a new project Y?" Otherwise they might think you're randomly spamming them.

You can also put a discreet link in your signature to draw people to it - quite a few people do that.

# I do some heavy work on some article, then I visit talk pages of past editors to give them a heads up that I have changed what they had worked on.

That would be OK, but not necessary. It's not your responsibility to chase them up, and you don't need their permission. If they're still interested in editing the article, one would presume they would have it on their watchlist. Just make sure you use an informative edit summary like "big overhaul" or "added heaps of new info" or something, so they can see it for themselves if they are interested.

# I write some piece, like in a talk page, then I point other people at that write-up, saying I think they might be interested.

Also fine. It is a much better idea to have a discussion on a topic in one place, rather than 6 separate active discussions.

Listen, don't worry too much about getting the fine detail of every little policy and guideline down pat. As long as you act in good faith you should be fine. You may find that you inadvertently break some guideline. Well, that's fine - that's a good time to learn about it. Hopefully other editors will remember WP:BITE. But burdening yourself with understanding the whole kit & kaboodle before you do anything is not necessary. Remember - Be bold! :) pfctdayelise 01:58, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

My first stub...
Hey, Nice to hear from you again....I have been very busy of late, and i 'll probably be so for some more time... Just today I took some time off and created a stub on one of my favourite bands My Diet Pill.. Can you just check its quality and tell me if i can go ahead and make it an artcle...? And can you try and expand the article too...? And can you also do something about the copyrights of the image..i found it on their homepage... Thanks a lot....

Jayant, 17 Years, India (Talk) 06:35, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

RFC/KM
You commented on Kelly Martin's second RfC. it is up for archival. you may vote at Wikipedia_talk:Requests_for_comment/Kelly_Martin. CastAStone|(talk) 03:59, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Cyberlaw project & Tufflaw
This looks interesting, thanks for the heads up! Tufflaw 02:11, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Helping Hand
Hi. I'm flattered you chose to list my user page as having a noteworthy amount of "helpful links". I'm embarassed, though, at how sloppy my userpage looks. I would like to invite you to edit my userpage and organize the links I have on my userpage anyway you like. I'm sure it would be an improvement. :-) Lawyer2b 05:20, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikiprojects Law
I had already explored Wikiproject Cyberlaw (and toyed with the idea of playfully vandalizing modifying some of the Harvard wiki. I see you already have a user account there...boy, you get around!  :-)  I was not aware of the WikiProject Law. Thanks for the heads up. I will enjoy contributing there. As an aside, International Law does nothing for me. Lawyer2b 20:20, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
 * P.S. - I modified your Civilization (computer game) userbox to hopefully say what you intended. :-)  Lawyer2b 20:21, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

my diet pill...
hi, how are you?? my exams are just round the corner...To be frank.in India i think the education system sucks bad....atleast the timing of the exams is very bad...we have an exam almost every month...so..i am very tight on my schedule....anyways......i just updated the article on My Diet Pill... Can you please check it out and correct any errors that might have crept in...??

thanks a lot...

Jayant, 17 Years, India|(Talk) 08:13, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

ready to roll...
hi... i must agree with your view on exams...but i just feel that we have just too many exams.... anyways.... my exams are gonna finish on tuesday... i 'll have lots of free time to work on wikipedia again....i have a couple of plans for my user page and maybe i'll look for a subject to start an article on....or maybe i'll rewrite a bad article...but i'll definetly do something...

see ya..

Jayant, 17 Years, India|(Talk) 09:46, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Jimbo Wales on Userboxes
Everyone is quoting him ... people on both sides ... I tried to cut & paste what exactly did he say?

I wonder if you might consider simply removing your political/religious/etc. userboxes and asking others to do the same. This seems to me to be the best way to quickly and easily end the userbox wars.

Userboxes of a political or, more broadly, polemical, nature are bad for the project. They are attractive to the wrong kinds of people, and they give visitors the wrong idea of what it means to be a Wikipedian.

I think rather than us having to go through a mass deletion (which is what is likely to happen if the userbox fad doesn't go away), it will be better to simply change the culture, one person at a time. Will you help me?--Jimbo Wales 10:53, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually cut & pasted here by User:AlMac|(talk) 00:14, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

POV on User Pages as opposed to User Boxes
In three years I have found the people who are easiest to work with, and most honest to deal with, are those who are totally open about their viewpoints. It didn't matter whether they were liberal or conservative, Catholic of Jew, pro-life or pro-choice, being open about who they are and their viewpoint enabled a reasoned, intelligent debate to ensue and meant people knew what viewpoints x or y would add into an article. I have found userboxes a godsend in that regard. Rather than having to write a long explanation of who they are, they can communicative their viewpoint quickly and effectively using a userbox. Others can use them to A line has to be drawn but most user boxes IMHO are perfectly valid.

The genie is out of the bottle on userboxes. They cannot now be deleted without provoking a Wikipedia civil war. All we can do is try to ensure extremely offensive users (eg, This user hates queers, This user wants Israel wiped out, This user hates blacks) aren't used. The last thing WP needs is about outbreak of political correctness on WP, whereby users are banned from saying what their political or religious identity is.

Allowing people to state their preferences also would enable WP to disprove claims of bias by showing that it has conservative users and liberal users, pro-israel and pro-palestinian users, pro-life and pro-choice, etc. Imposing censorship would frankly be a disaster that would drive many users away. Already the forced deletion by a cabal of a reference to a pro-life group on users has offended many and driven away some of our best contributors.

People should be entitled as of right under free speech to say who they are and what their views are. Either user pages are deleted altogether or people should be given the right to reveal as much as they wish about their views. Free speech in a free encyclopaedia demands no less. FearÉIREANN \(caint) 20:00, 21 January 2006 (UTC)


 * 'I agree completely.' This is critical.  I think that reasonable expression about oneself on the user pages is a fine thing.  This is a very different matter from the question of userboxes themselves.--Jimbo Wales 23:01, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually cut & pasted here by User:AlMac|(talk) 07:55, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

cyberlaw class ends but Harvard Wiki continues
class is over! End of a very short term. It will be taught again, someday; we have to figure out how to archive the current site content. +sj + 05:29, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for keeping an eye out, and for the update.

more talk on test scripts
Talk:Software_testing

ERP etc.
AlMac, I hope you were not offended by my comments on the WP Computer science talk page. I was not in any way trying to prescribe the scope of "computer science" (which is a pretty vague term anyway), I was just trying to point out that the articles you were proposing to make a "part" of WPCS were unlikely to garner much interest from the current project participants. You are certainly welcome to put the WPCS tags back on those articles, if you feel they should be there. However, I'm doubtful that, even with the tags in place, those articles would actually receive any attention from WPCS participants. Hopefully you will have more luck finding interested parties among the WikiProject Computing crowd. --Allan McInnes (talk) 00:36, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi back
I appreciate your message. I do not know why the boat has sank. I don't really foll ow the news. What surprised me the most about your message was that you are about the age of my grandfather. I cannot believe you know how to use a computer! My dad baught him one it sits there collecting dust. I'm not really into guns guns, but I play a lot of video games and I was not surprised to be classified as a sniper.

Nice talking with you, schyler 00:17, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks!--Daniel O 09:45, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome
Thank you for the welcome. I've been around wikipedia for a while now and have contributed bits and pieces. I saw the new users list only recently though. As for the NPOV bit, I try to keep that as much as possible and try to discuss matters before large edits. However, everyone has their biasses based on what they've been through and what their stands on life are. My introduction was meant to reflect that. :)--Nkv 09:46, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Our new Single.......!!!!!!!!
hi......

i did mention on my user page that i some day wished to be in a band......that dream has become a reality...... me and a couple of friends recorded our first single.... everything in the song is completely original... i played the bass.... i am gonna post the link here... so please try to listen to the song and give us your opinion on it.... it took us 15 straight hours of hard work to put it all together.....and by the way we still dont have a band name.... if you can give us a few suggestions it'd cool...

[]

thanks a lot....... and if you want the lyrics for the song.... just ask me...

See ya.. Jayant, 17 Years, India|(Talk) 17:39, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Spelling
Miscelaneous

Witch versun uf Engliesch ist ta abuv spelin frum?

Unsigned from 67.187.240.72 contribs


 * I could not find your talk page to reply there, but I will do so here.

What is your point in posting this statement that you have no idea how to spell in English? User:AlMac|(talk) 23:25, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
 * "Miscelaneous" is a legitimate word in American Emglish
 * "Witch" means a woman who does magic. I suspect you misspelled "which"
 * "versun" is not a word. I suspect you mean "version"
 * "uf" is not a word. I suspect you mean "of"
 * "Engliesch" is not a correct spelling version I recognize in any version of "English" that I am aware of.
 * "ist" is a word in German that means the same as "is" in English
 * "ta" is a colloqial expression in British English. Example usage "ta ta" meaning "goodbye"
 * "abuv" is a misspelling ... I suspect you mean "above"
 * "spelin" is a mis-spelling of "spelling"
 * "frum" is a mis-spelling of "from"

Hi..
Hi.. long time....haven't heard from you..... just wanted to ask hows everything going?? what are you upto?? you must have been busy... i got some news.... the song that my band recorded has been picking up some positive reviews....i sent the song to the band from france..My Diet Pill... remember them right?? i created the stub on them.....they liked it....some of my friends and a couple of people on wikipedia liked it too....i didnt expect that anyone would actually like the song......we were just surprised by the feedback we got... we are planning to record a few more songs by the end of April....after my exams are finished...... and...... hmmmmm..thats it for now i guess.... give me a reply when you can...

See ya Jayant, 17 Years, India|(Talk) 20:56, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

P.S. by the way we are gonna call our band "Cosa Nostra".... its italian for "our thing" or something like that...the exact meaning is on my talk page...what do you think...???.

Our band name......
Hi...... I dont think anyone would have a problem with our band name" Cosa Nostra"...In our country most of the people dont even have the faintest idea that cosa nostra means the mafia....(and the japanese Yakusha haven't come to our shores yet....).....and if we really become a big success and start touring...(which is really really tough in a country like India)...i dont think anyone would mind us using a italian word as our name...in our country atleast.... and we become world famous or something then we would just explain on the TV that we dont have nay connections with the underworld....ha ha..... anyways... did you listen to the song?? if not, please try to... and sorry about the quality...we only had a single mic and we had to record all the music and the vocals through the same mic.....

Thanks a lot....

Jayant, 17 Years, India|(Talk) 06:17, 22 February 2006 (UTC) P.S. by the way .....i played the bass..;)

Image:WonkaBar1971.jpg
Hello, this image has been deleted due to a lack of licensing information. I notice you had it on your user page in your "This user loves ice cream and chocolate" userbox. I replaced it with a free use image from Wikimedia Commons instead. Regards,  howch e  ng   {chat} 22:37, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Hi...
Hii.....

Nice to hear from you again......!!! I guess you'll be busy for a while again.... :-D..... Anyways...... keep good health...... keep dropping in a line whenever you can.... Cheers.....!!! Jayant, 17 Years, India • contribs 16:58, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Hey...
Hii..

Hey Al...Haven't heard from you in really long time. Hows everything going? Hope you are doing fine. Right now I am in Kuwait on a Vacation of sorts. I also got my first electric guitar. Anyways, drop me a line whenever you can. Take Care. Hope to hear from you soon. See ya! Jayant, 17 Years, India  • contribs 23:44, 4 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your concern about yesterdays Bombings. I never imagined that such a thing will happen on such a large scale. I am still in Kuwait and luckily none of my freinds or relatives in India were affected by them. Thanks a lot for your concern again. Jayant, 17 Years, India  • contribs 09:12, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

About me
Me is sarbeswara sahoo,already acquinted with wikipedia.I am currently working as a researcher at Indian Institute of Dalit Studies,New Delhi.My area of research interest includes new institutional economics,natural resources management,social exclusion and caste based discriminations.I am also a founder member of Kalpataru,a voluntary organisation aimed at the sustainable management of natural resources.Kalpataru is located at R.K.Nagar Block of Angul District,Orissa.My vision is to see the earth as evergreen. sarbeswara sahoo

Its been a while
Hey AlMac! It's been a while, and judging from your edits, you havent been around here for a while. Just thought of you, and decided to pop over and say hi again. From a friendly, but not forgotten friend; --Ali K 12:25, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Jury Duty. hah. Have fun with that, Old Friend. --Ali K 05:55, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Dangerous old women are your type? :P --Ali K 06:57, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikiproject:Terrorism
Greetings,

I was hoping I could get some input from you, about the proposed mergerof WikiProject Terrorism and counter-terrorism with Wikiproject:Terrorism. It seems there's a lot of overlap between the two projects, and if we spent a few days merging the lists of articles, sharing ideas and collaborating on improving the same articles which both projects are focused on improving...we could really make some headway. Whether you're in favour, or against, the idea of a merger - I'd appreciate some feedback regardless. Much thanks. Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 21:38, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Pre-Meiji period: Use of Japanese era name in identifying disastrous events
Would you consider making a contribution to an exchange of views at either of the following:
 * Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Disaster management
 * Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan

As you know, WikiProject Disaster management came up with entirely reasonable guidelines for naming articles about earthquakes, fires, typhoons, etc. However, the < >< < > format leaves no opportunity for conventional nengō which have been used in Japan since the eighth century (701-1945) -- as in "the Great Fire of Meireki" (1657) or for "the Hōei eruption of Mount Fuji" (1707).

In a purely intellectual sense, I do look forward to discovering how this exchange of views will develop; but I also have an ulterior motive. I hope to learn something about how better to argue in favor of a non-standard exception to conventional, consensus-driven, and ordinarily helpful wiki-standards such as this one. In my view, there does need to be some modest variation in the conventional paradigms for historical terms which have evolved in non-Western cultures -- no less in Wikipedia than elsewhere. I'm persuaded that, at least in the context of Japanese history before the reign of Emperor Meiji (1868-1912), some non-standard variations seem essential; but I'm not sure how best to present my reasoning to those who don't already agree with me. I know these first steps are inevitably awkward; but there you have it.

The newly-created 1703 Genroku earthquake article pushed just the right buttons for me. Obviously, these are questions that I'd been pondering for some time; and this became a convenient opportunity to move forward in a process of building a new kind of evolving consensus. --Ooperhoofd (talk) 18:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Historical activities leading from MRP thru ERP Eras
You might want to review my Blog regarding the history eras of building ERP software. Gene Thomas 7/8/8

Gthomas55 (talk) 14:27, 8 July 2008 (UTC)gthomas55@comcast.net

Renaming_of_Category:Politics_about_the_military
Please see: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Military_history.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 16:19, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Insert non-formatted text here Strike-through text

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.250.73.96 (talk) 08:19, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

hey im bored
hi —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rbirdie101 (talk • contribs) 20:46, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia's turning ten! Evansville, unite!
Interested in meeting other Evansville area Wikipedians and celebrating Wikipedia's tenth birthday together on January 15th, 2011?

If so, stop by Evansville and add your name to the page. We'll all need to put our heads together to plan this.

Wondering what stalkerly person would find you? I found your name by performing a User-filtered search for pages that link to Evansville, Jasper, Henderson, and Owensboro.

If you get this message too late, there's no need to respond. Bob the Wikipedian (talk • contribs) 21:28, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

hey hi
hey hi, hows going? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.247.172.49 (talk) 16:59, 20 June 2012 (UTC)

Your introduction
Hello,

Quick question for you - what do you mean by "Traditionally, irrespective of individual communities..."

Thanks Shane — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.46.219.59 (talk) 05:56, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

Just to let you know
You have been mentioned at Missing Wikipedians. XOttawahitech (talk) 16:01, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

he
uimnhu8 hib — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.167.76.168 (talk) 20:54, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Quixotic plea
You are invited to join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:Wikipediholism test. Thanks. —  03:39, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:07, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

nice one

Naeem don

Busoro Jeremie
Busoro Jeremie is a Rwandan who alive kigali city and work at kibungo province was born in Drc RDCongo on 20/07/1993 at Masisi, was studed primary in Drc at primary school kahe at kitchanga, and secondary also he was studed at Kaembe secondary school, was left masisi, in 2011 escaping a war against M23 and starting living in Rwanda kigali, hes statud Eto kibungo accoding to he's father Roger Rugamba who direct him in secondary school, and after stadying in secondary was worked Mutendeli Tss with Computer lab manager, and he left their when he entry univesity at Iprc East in Mechanical enginiering, and he gotted A licence in Automotive technology, and he worked Garden tvet school for demonstrating hes ability. Busoro Jeremie,

About hes carrier: verification. Automotive engineering, along with aerospace engineering and naval architecture, is a branch of vehicle engineering, incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software, and safety engineering as applied to the design, manufacture and operation of motorcycles, automobiles, and trucks and their respective engineering subsystems. It also includes modification of vehicles. Manufacturing domain deals with the creation and assembling the whole parts of automobiles is also included in it. The automotive engineering field is research -intensive and involves direct application of mathematical models and formulas. The study of automotive engineering is to design, develop, fabricate, and test vehicles or vehicle components from the concept stage to