User talk:Alphax/archive04

Leaving

 * Well, that's it. I'm out of here. I'm sick of copyright paranoia. When an image suddenly becomes non-free because there's a trademark on the concept of it, when an image is no longer free because the country it was taken in says that the building is copyrighted, we realise that we have truly lost our freedom.


 * As Mike Godwin said, "I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she's too young to have logged on yet. Here's what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say 'Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?'"


 * I realise that the Wikimedia Foundation has lost it's freedom. Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 15:13, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

I'm really sorry to see you go. I know we'll be worse off for not having your voice here and on the mailing list. Your contributions are valued, at least by me. All the best in the other aspects of your life. Guettarda 15:24, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

you are complitely right. the whole story of copyright is a bit out of control paranoia @#$!!@#$$!@# but i think it is better to stay and hope (and fight) for the best (the point is to free knowledge not say that it is not free) than go away --Lucinos 12:14, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Is it related to the Nuvola icons ? Someone on the french channel briefly reported some problems with the trademarks within the icons. It's sad.. :/ Dake 22:35, 20 September 2005 (UTC)


 * It was. I realise how stupid this is, and that the goal is maximal usage. If I should have left anywhere it was Commons. Well, I'll just delete the images and move on. If we can't use an image because it's trademarked, so be it. If we can't use a photo of a building becuase the architect has copyright, so be it. I just wish copyright laws weren't so damned anal. I've decided to be generous with the copyright to my contributions (I should really add the BSD license as well) and release minor edits to articles to the Public Domain (failing that, I release all rights to those edits), and stick everything else under all present and future CC-BY-SA licenses. I just wish I had more time to work on Wikipedia. Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 07:18, 21 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Are you leaving Alphax? I really hope you don't. Not only do I respect your efforts here, your witticisms on WikiEN-l are always a delight :). All the best, --Cyberjunkie | Talk 08:21, 21 September 2005 (UTC)


 * I can't leave, I'm too addicted! Argh! Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 13:52, 21 September 2005 (UTC)


 * That's good to hear, and I know the feeling. My self-imposed Wikibreaks are never successful.--Cyberjunkie | Talk 15:01, 21 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Too bad. I was about to nominate you to adminship.  Drop me a line when you come back, and I'll happily nominate you.   Ingoolemo   talk 01:57, 30 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Note: I'm back, OK? Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 04:53, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Who's RfA
Thank you for supporting my masters RfA. He appreciates your support and comments and looks forward to better serving Wikipedia the best he can. Of course I will be doing all of the real work. He would have responded to you directly, but he is currently out of town, and wanted to thank you asap. Thanks again. --Who's mop?&iquest;? 20:39, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Yo

 * Moved to User:Alphax/Awards

Now slap it on your user page. Your page as is pretty much sucks ; - ) R  e  dwolf24  (talk) 04:01, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Re: Afd nominations
Hi Alphax. I've just read your post on wikiEN-l that starts off about an Adelaide roundabout and goes on to describe your views on deletion/inclusion/merging. It's by far the best description that I've come across of how I think the whole deletion process should be approached. Would you mind if I saved a copy of it to a user sub-page? --GraemeL (talk) 13:06, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Note to self and others: Available at User:GraemeL/Deletion. Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 05:54, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Anthony Hopkins
Yup, I can prove just about anything, try me.

Anyway - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1566561450/qid=1128239461/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-1474594-6266247?v=glance&s=books

It's a searchable book bio. You can also just search for " "Anthony Hopkins" Yeats " on Google or something. Usually turns up a bunch of results. Vulturell 07:53, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome!
Could you take a look at the page "Jim Duffy (Author)"? I can't see any evidence that this person has written any books. There is a link to a newspaper article that supposedly talks about serialisation of "Jim Duffy's latest book" but that artcle was written by Jim Duffy himself and doesn't mention any book. Is this some sort of fraud? 143.238.245.214 05:57, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Maybe they should have read Jim Duffy (author)... Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 04:53, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Oops
Where did I do that? --Mel Etitis ( Μελ Ετητης ) 11:49, 7 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Quite right &mdash; and thanks for correcting it. It was probably wasted, though, as the account in question seems to have been used for just one hit-and-run bit of vanity editing. --Mel Etitis  ( Μελ Ετητης ) 13:44, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for supporting my RfA!
Dear Alphax: Thank you very much for your support on my RfA. I am most honoured by the trust that has been placed in me by yourself and other members of the Wikipedia community, especially since I did not conform to the standard edit-count criteria usually expected of administrator candidates. I promise to only use my administrative privileges to assist the community in doing good work, and also to be calm, considerate and careful in working to make Wikipedia a better place. I shall see you on IRC, my friend; I look forward to working, and conversing, with you in the future. (TINC!) Best regards, -- NicholasTurnbull | (talk) (e-mail) (cabal) 03:17, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome
Hi, thanks for the welcome message - I've been walking the grounds of the WiKingdom for some time now and 've already gotten acquainted with how things get accomplished around here - but nonetheless thanks for the info. My job is usually tweaking and correcting, small edits and things. See you round :) --Ouro 09:36, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Me quitting Esperanza
Hi. Why does this worry you? I have been inactive in Esperanza ever since I joined, so it doesn't make sense to stay there. Karol 13:50, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
 * You wrote: One of the goals of Esperanza is to make sure people don't burn out... don't burn out! Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 13:55, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't feel burned out. It's just that, Esperanza-wise, I've never started to burn. Thanks for your concern, though. A propos, I really like the idea of Wikipediology. Karol 13:59, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Automatic post signing
Hello, Alphax. I saw this post on Kate's talk page:


 * Remember to always sign all of your posts on talk pages. Typing four tildes after your comment ( &#126;&#126;&#126;&#126; ) will insert a signature showing your username and a date/time stamp, which is very helpful. Can't you code Mediawiki to do this automatically? Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 13:42, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

I thought that you might be interested in MediaZilla (an offshoot of BugZilla), the MediaWiki bugfix website. It's where all software changes to MediaWiki are requested, discussed, and dealt with. That's where you'd go if you want to suggest adding that to the software. It's located here: http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/.

Just as a thought: I would think that that would be a problem, because if the software automatically added your sig, then it would also go onto articles, and if it only worked on talk pages, then you'd sometimes have to add it anyway (such as on RfCs, AfDs, elections, etc.) Anyway, I think it works O.K. as now, but I heartily encourage you to add it to MediaZilla. It never hurts to have more ideas.

Hey, I hope this helps. Take care, --Blackcap | talk 16:06, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

i already sign my posts on talk pages. i suppose i should add a link rather than assuming people know who i am :) is this any better? kate.


 * Reply left on User talk:Kate. Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 23:37, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Son of Jimbo
Haha, I chuckled at that, even though I know it was in a serious tone. There already is a son of Jimbo... Raul654. He is the sole FA director, he controls what's on our main page every day, he's an arbitrator, bureaucrat, admin, and admin on other wikimedia wiki's. There's your real son of Jimbo. R e  dwolf24  (talk&mdash;How's my driving?) 19:30, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Adminship
You have been nominated. Cheers, Ingoolemo   talk 02:37, 17 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Darn! I was going to do this as soon as my Rfa finished! Well, it's a nomination all the same - good choice Ingoolemo. Good luck, Cyberjunkie | Talk 02:43, 17 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Looks like you're not gonna pass, but you still have my support :) R  e  dwolf24  (talk&mdash;How's my driving?) 20:19, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

My RfA
Hi Alphax! Just wanted to thank you for supporting my RfA. I hope I will be able to live up to the confidence placed in me. --Cyberjunkie | Talk 05:05, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Automatic public watchlist adding and removing
I can now automatically add and remove pages from any number of (publically viewable) watchlists. I'd be happy to help you get this set up yourself, if you like. (Thanks very much for the hints about getting your drop-down menus working, they are a very Good Thing). JesseW, the juggling janitor 08:51, 19 October 2005 (UTC)


 * You can't tell it says, C2 aaron? And, the title at the top says, User:C2 aaron. C2 aaron 14:21, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Are you going to reply? Ryland 17:47, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
 * You are the only person who has complained so far. Nobody else seems to have had a problem w/ it. If, I get enough complaints, I'll change it. Ryland 18:03, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

AFD
Hi there! I basically share your sentiment that AFD is a cesspool... I was wondering if you have any suggestions on what could be done to alleviate that? Preferably some change in policy or an alternate process that would reduce bureaucracy, factionalism and strife. Yours, Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 22:42, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
 * That is an interesting analysis, and I certainly agree with most of it. However, I should point out that enforcing a minimum number of votes would make several of the mindsets worse (in particular, the second and third), so I'm not sure that's a good solution. Also, I fully agree that people should give a reason, but that is entirely unenforceable, because you cannot expect that everybody will have something new to bring to the debate. For instance, if you vote 'keep' on Some article and write a paragraph explaining your reasons, then assuming I agree with you I could say 'keep per Alphax', or I could copy/paste a paraphrase of your paragraph. People tend to do the former - the statement 'keep per Alphax' could also be construed as 'keep but I can't bother to explain why', but WP:FAITH asks we shouldn't do that.
 * It is very much a mess, and I believe the best option is not to try to reform AFD from within (because of social inertia) but rather to set up a new system (with the intent of running them side-by-side for awhile, and then ditch the old one because the new one is plainly better). And that's far from trivial - it must not be abusable to delete articles that people personally dislike, and it must still allow for a way to get rid of obvious junk. The best I and some others have come up with so far is Deletion reform/Proposals/Uncontested deletions; I would appreciate your opinion on that.

RFA
With 25 opposed and 21 in support, I would suggest withdrawing and reapplying later. At least that way it will say "withdrawn by candidate" instead of unsuccesful. Happy editing. freestylefrappe 22:57, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

Javascript
Hi there. This user's first edits are to his monobook, which I find highly unusual. Would you mind checking it out at your leisure? --HappyCamper 23:36, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

mjspe1
Thanks for the welcome, but i'm not new, i've been around for a month or two —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mjspe1 (talk • contribs) 00:45, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Reply to comment on Radiant's talk page
I agree with your ideas in theory - voting based on subject areas is bad, and giving reasons is obviously a good thing. However, imposing a minimum number of opinions may force people to be distracted from actually writing an encyclopedia when many of the results are fairly obvious. Furthermore, you don't appear to have given any practical thought to how this would work in practice. If you used these criteria to close AfDs, you would literally be keeping virtually all of the current content, including material such as hoaxes, which no one, including yourself, is likely to want kept. AfD may be may a cesspool, but breaking it in that way would make the entire encyclopedia a cesspool; it would literally shut down our ability to delete anything that was not speediable. Ambi 14:16, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I don't think I said that such things should be kept. Maybe we need to expand the speedy delete criteria (again). I don't really know; AfD as it stands does it's job, but it doesn't do it well. Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 14:42, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

RE: Errors/Preview

 * Did you notice any errors I made? If so, I'd appreciate the heads-up. Thanks. Ryland 18:11, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Re:Deletion of stub redirects
Perhaps you should have spoken up when SFD was first mooted. It was always the intention to use the page for all deletion debates related to stubs: templates, categories, and redirects. The very first day the page went live several stub redirects were nominated for deletion, and that's the way the page has been used ever since. There's no point having standard naming protocols for stub templates if those names don't also apply to redirects, and there's definitely no point in flooding RFD with things which are better handled alongside the templates and categories to which they relate directly on SFD. It's also very important to keep them together because quite often a template due for deletion is temprarily turned into a redirect in order to create a newly namd template. it makes no sense to vote delete on something as a template at SFD, turn it into a redirect until work can be done on it, and then have to vote again on the redirect.

Since everyone has been happy with the way these redirects have been voted on and deleted fror the last four months, why should there suddenly be a problem? If there was a problem, anyone watching our for problem deletions would have noticed redirects being deleted by SFD in the past and complained. No-one did. It may be worth noting, by the way, that SPUI was quite happy to vote on redirects on SFD - it's only when the debate about a particular group of redirects started going against him that he decided to remove all the votes from those redirects from the SFD page. Whether that is a coincidence or not, I don't know, but I suspect not. Grutness...  wha?  05:32, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for your welcome!
Well, I am trying not to be a troll or vandal :) Instead, I'm trying to help improve Wikipedia, I hope my work so far has contributed something. I will also try to correct errors and expand articles in the future. And don't worry, nothing stupid will drive me away for as long as I can fight it :) Long live Wikipedia! --Arny 09:42, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Tab menus
I got it working eventually. It was a chacheing problem. I was testing on my own talk page and for some reason, several of the functions seemed to be cached in variables and forcing a reload of my monobook didn't clear them. As soon as I tested it on a user talk page I hadn't visited before, it worked.

A couple of comments. You need to change vfda in your css to be afda. There is also a problem where the popup will appear in the wrong place if the menu tab is smaller than any of the tabs it contains. I had problems with the AfD tabs, but as soon as I made the tab name longer, everything worked. --GraemeL (talk) 19:11, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

monobook.js
I have got the thing that adds tabs (such as purge) to the top of the page; how easy is it to change what the text in the tabs says? I have done a few experiments but can't see what to do. Fir e  Fo  x  13:30, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

the wub's RfA
Thanks a lot for your support on my RfA, I really appreciate it. the wub  "?!"  13:32, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

I'm really confused
I'm really confused. It doesn't work. Could you do it for me? If yuo copy everything in User:Celestianpower/monobook.js into User:Celestianpower/test.js then add your code (which looks good) in the right place then I would be your bestest best friend. Well perhaps not but I'd be overwhelmingly grateful. :) --Cel e stianpower háblame 13:54, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Ya...
... I try! See when I logged out as an anonymous editor - see MDAC history. - Ta bu shi da yu 00:58, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

Subpage
Oh, thanks, I didn't see that. Link, Hero of Wind  06:22, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

re: need more people....
Hey. ^_^ I don't actually hate people who use templates in their sigs. I used to do it myself, actually, until an admin told me to stop, so now my sig is all big and ungainly.

I don't think what you said was a personal attack, per se, but it also wasn't very nice, mature, or thoughtful. But blanket voting is unproductive. &hearts;&hearts;purpl e  feltangel  &hearts;  &hearts;  19:28, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

Firefox extension
Would you happen to know how to make a firefox extension using Javascript? It would be very simple and used to fight vandalism. The basic idea is to feed RC diff's into firefox, and let it determine which pages contain text (such as an obscenity) listed in a file. For pages that don't contain anything on this list, the tab is closed. The others remain open and ready to be examined. If you can't figure out how to hookup the IRC RC output into firefox, then it could be used with WP:CDVF to open new tabs in firefox to be checked. I found a guide to making extensions, but it says you need to know Javascript. Thanks. &mdash; BRIAN 0918 &bull; 2005-10-30 03:50
 * Copied to WP:US. Great idea! Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 03:54, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

Template talk:User fox
I have responded to you and updated the image description page. Someone messed with the image I was using. Either way neither image should have any kind of copyright issue as far as firefox (copyright holder) is concerned. -- Cool Cat Talk 08:50, 30 October 2005 (UTC)

please delete Category:Korean basketball players
Hi, Alphax. Could you please delete a category I created in error, called Category:Korean basketball players. After I created it, I realized it should be the more specific Category:South Korean basketball players, which I then created. But I can't delete the Korean page. Could you please do that for me?--Mike Selinker 19:25, 30 October 2005 (UTC)
 * And while you're at it, please delete category:Dominican sportspeople. There already was one called Sportspeople of the Dominican Republic, which I should have noticed earlier.

Inuit
I noticed that you changed the link from "Native Americans" to "Native Americans in the United States". I am changing it back. The majority of Inuit in North America live in Canada and their southern neighbours are Canadian Indian not American Indian. The link to the disambiguation page allows for the reader to choose which group they want to read about rather than being sent to the possibly incorrect one. Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 10:28, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
 * That would probably be better than a disambiguation page. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 10:36, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for both the Inuit and the user page. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 10:59, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks from Pamri
Hi, Thanks a lot for your vote and support at my RFA. I am now a wikipedia administrator and I hope, I can keep your trust. Thanks again. -Pamri &bull; Talk &bull; [ Reply] 16:36, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

WP:US
Yes, I cleaned up the WP:US pages, but forgot to join.

What do you mean by how compatible is afd helper with other scripts? Except that at the moment I'm using the poor style of loader function (might be changed by the time you look again), my scripts won't break any others. At the moment the AFD-nomination function is not as good as AutoAFD. But I am creating something more generic to simplify performing many of the functions wanted in scripts, see User:Jnothman/automod.js. -- jnothman talk 00:48, 7 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Sorry about it being broken; my changes were working under Opera, but not Firefox (a matter of variable scope, possibly?). It should be fixed now, although not in the nice way that I wanteed it... With regards to the system being broken, I realise, and Wiki[pedia] rests on many things which are nice ideally, but much more difficult in reality; although the script speeds voting, it allows a user to vote a string of the same vote as much as they could have otherwise and I don't see how it exacerbates this in any way. I could easily write a script that votes Delete per nom. for each open entry on an AFD log, but I haven't. I hope it is a useful tool to you. jnothman talk 14:39, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Thank you!
Thank you so much for voting in my RfA, and especially thank you for supporting me. I really appreciate it, and will wield the mop and bucket the best way I know how.

Your monobook.js and .css skins have become a subject of many of my copyings; I love the ammount of time and energy you put into coding it, and it's working beautifuly. Hopefully with my admin powers, I can more fully use the skin, and find a way to clean it up (my .js file is 220KB).

Anyways, thanks for voting again, and thanks for the skin. -User:Mys e kurity|Mysekurity ]] additions | e-mail]]01:11, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Johann Wolfgang's RfA
Thank you for your support on my RfA. I will use my new abilities with the common interest in mind. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Johann Wolfgang [ T ... C ] 03:18, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

[Helpdesk-l]
I just wanted to say "good job" on all the replies. Guettarda 15:26, 8 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Moved to User:Alphax/Awards. Alphax &tau;&epsilon;&chi; 06:12, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Fir e Fo  x  RFA
 

Thanks for your support on my request for adminship.

The final outcome was (96/2/0), so I am now an administrator. If you ever have any queries about my actions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Again, thanks! Fir e  Fo  x  19:13, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

AfD footer
Hi there! You added a comment to AfD Talk saying that the change I put in back in September was not a good idea, but you didn't mention why. Could you please cite specific problems? In this AfD talk I made a proposal, DESpiegel suggested an alternate, and I implemented his suggestion with Android79's blessing. I'd really like your opinions on this matter, as you obviously have a strong opinion and could contribute to the discussion. Best regards, C HAIRBOY (☎) 23:59, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Philwelch's RfA
Thanks for supporting my successful RfA! — Phil Welch 03:31, 10 November 2005 (UTC)