User talk:Bcollier

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes ( ~ ); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on, or ask your question and then place  before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome! -- Dark Falls  talk 13:09, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
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Re:Email
Try going to WP:AIV for simple vandalism, remembering to give the user some warnings prior. For more difficult requests, go to WP:ANI, and start a discussion there. If you are unsure, give me an email or edit my talk and I'll help. Cheers. -- Dark Falls  talk 13:09, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Peter Costello is new ACOTF
Hi. You voted for Peter Costello to be the Australian collaboration. The article has been selected for the next two weeks, and unprotected. Please help to improve it in any way you can. Thankyou. --Scott Davis Talk 14:27, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Frustration
I'm not one who usually complains, but I really must protest to your disrespectful, hypocritical attack on Aecis in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Susan_Tsvangirai.

Look, I agreed with your side completely - Susan Tsvangirai's article is merited. In fact, I was the one who went through the news articles and wrote the basis for most of what is currently displayed (it has been edited and added to since, of course). However, when Aecis said that countires weren't equal, you just insulted him by implying he was a Xenophobic Communist. There is no justification for those sickening accusations. In no way does that contribute to a "constructive and meaningful discussion, where points of fact are discussed/debated and personal attacks are kept to a minimum;" it is just the opposite.

What really annoyed me is that you attacked him even though Aecis is right on that point - Countries are NOT equal. I live in New Zealand (and I believe your page says you're from Australia): whilst Prime Misiters John Key of New Zealand, Kevin Rudd of Australia, and Presidents Toribiong of Palau, and Barack Obama of the USA are all notable figures, they are not equal. Australia is greater than Palau. The USA is greater than New Zealand. For example, Australia has a bigger economic impact than Palau (affecting places like NZ and Singapore more than Palau does). And USA foreign policy in the Middle East is going to have more impact on what happens in the Region than NZ's policies toward the area. It is simply a fact that countries are not equal. Yet notice that all those people and countries are notable, even if they are not equal. Aecis called it systematic bias. It may not have been the right word, but his point is correct.

Society should be constructive and civil when debating, please follow that good advice, advice which you yourself proposed. "I also hope you reflect upon what you wrote, with a little regret." I agreed (and still do) with you regarding Susan Tsvangirai's page. I did not and do not agree with the tone of your argument. Thank you. - Sb101


 * Thanks Sb101, pity you didn't sign the message correctly. I have posted to, what I think is your User talk page, seeking clarification if that is indeed you.  As to the substance to your argument, that I "insulted" another user on WP - I would ask that you re-read my comments.  I said, quite specifically ...Here I was thinking that as a GLOBAL community project, Wikipedia, was democratic and inclusive. So, from your confirmation, it is Communist and Xenophobic.  It really can only be read that, in my opinion, Aecis has used language that could easily be construed as Wikipedia has a bias or inequity policy, that Ms Tsvangirai, had she done what she did in a Western country, would have been more recognised, therefore, in Aecis' opinion (masquerading it as WP policy), more notable and therefore more deserving of an article.  I ABSOLUTELY stand by my comments, as if we allow that kind of opinion to continue, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If we DO all believe that the USA has an inalienable right to call itself the ONLY superpower in the world, then it is so (which, by the way, allows things like the current financial crisis to happen, as we end up having FAITH that the US market and their financial decisions are above reproach - and as we are now seeing, that thinking has carried all of us to go down the black hole with them!)

But here is the thing Sb101 - and my point (this global view one, not specifically for Susan Tsvangirai's article) - is that in a global project like Wikipedia, everyone's communities stories, make up the fabric of this planet. There shouldn't (and in fact there is a WP policy around this) be a western bias to the information stored and presented on Wikipedia. It is OK for us and Aecis, we come from countries that are typically called 'western'. How nice for us! We all have access to very good internet access, we have democratic countries that allow a sort of freedom of speech and we have education that allows us to know where to access this information and how to update a page on WP. The pervasiveness of all of this, means that we have no collective thought on what it is like to NOT have it. Aecis' argument of the global 'systemic bias' or that all countries not equal, just rings of faulty thought and Susan Tsvangirai's article and Aecis' strong argument against its inclusion, prompted my 'reminder' that not all is Western!

Thanks for your thoghts. I appreciate your candour and hope that we can keep in touch though this medium. Cheers Bcollier (talk) 03:15, 15 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Hey There, not sure if you still use this, but I just realized you left this message on my page way back when. In case you still do, I wanted to reply. I haven't reread the conversation but from your post it sounds like I misread it. I apologize for that. I also wanted to say I agree that there shouldn't be a Western-bias in WP policy (I don't think there is, but efforts like ours ensure it i.e. the equivalence between including Michelle Obama and Susan Tsvangirai). We seem to have had our way, consistent with WP policy, and the article was kept.

I still don't agree that countries are equal (as their size/population/GDP/influence etc. will and do differ). I perhaps didn't make it clear however that I think fairness dictates they are treated by the same rules. By which I mean that, for example, an article on the world economy would require more content about the US than Zimbabwe, say, because of the former's (current) greater contribution and influence; then again, if the situation were to change (the countries positions were reversed), the article's content would have to be changed accordingly to respect that. It seems that amounts to the same approach you used, but I stated it inelegantly.

In any event, I appreciated your civil reply and the exchange got me more familiar with WP. I hope you see this to know I'm grateful for your approach and wish you the best in the future.Sb101 02 April 2013 (UTC)

Notification: changes to "Mark my edits as minor by default" preference
Hello there. This is an automated message to tell you about the gradual phasing out of the preference entitled "Mark all edits minor by default", which you currently have (or very recently had) enabled.

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Thank you for your understanding and happy editing :) Editing on behalf of User:Jarry1250, LivingBot (talk) 22:23, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

New Challenge for Oceania and Australia
Hi, WikiProject Oceania/The 10,000 Challenge and WikiProject Australia/The 5000 Challenge are up and running based on The 10,000 Challenge which has currently produced over 2300 article improvements and creations. The Australia challenge would feed into the wider region one and potentially New Zealand could have a smaller challenge too. The main goal is content improvement, tackling stale old stubs and important content and improving sourcing/making more consistent but new articles are also welcome if sourced. I understand that this is a big goal for regular editors, especially being summertime where you are, but if you'd like to see large scale quality improvements happening for Oceania and Australia like The Africa Destubathon, which has produced over 1700 articles in 5 weeks, sign up on the page. The idea will be an ongoing national editathon/challenge for the region but fuelled by a series of contests to really get articles on every province and subject mass improved. The Africa contest scaled worldwide would naturally provide great benefits to Oceania countries, particularly Australia and attract new editors. I would like some support from existing editors here to get the Challenges off to a start with some articles to make doing a Destubathon worthwhile and potentially bring about hundreds of improvements in a few weeks through a contest! Cheers.♦ --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:12, 24 November 2016 (UTC)