User talk:Flcelloguy/Archive05

Yay! You won!
C~O~N~G~R~A~T~U~L~A~T~I~O~N~S! I'm delighted to see you elected to the Esperanza Advisory Committee! Mamawrit es    & listens 11:09, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

More Ballooooooooons
Fir e  Fo  x  20:47, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Shhh...I stole this one...
Congrats :-)...... I am sure you'll do a great job!!! And, by the looks of things on many User pages, we need all the good spirit and comradery we can get!  Best of luck!!  >:  Roby Wayne  Talk •  Hist  •  E@ 22:12, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations
Hello there Flcelloguy, I congratulate you on winning the vote in the Esperanza election. I'm sure you will do a fantastic job and looking forward to further good work. I wish you all the best... Gryffindor 22:05, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Hey, Cello, congratulations on being a part of Esperanza's Advisory Committee. While I didn't get enough votes to join you there, I know that you'll do a great job, so I'm not worried. And did I say congratulations? :) Tito xd (?!?) 22:37, 14 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Congrats on your promotion from me too. The vote was automatic. Goood luck. Or an   e   (t)  (c)   (@)  23:08, 14 October 2005 (UTC)
 * No, not really...it's just my real name :) Or an   e   (t)  (c)   (@)  00:22, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations Flcelloguy, I have no doubt you will be an admirable member of the advisory committee (forgive poor spelling). All the best!  Ban e  s  03:26, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Heartiest congratulations! JDH Owenstalk 10:08, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

A request
I get the feeling that you play the cello :)

I have a request. For a while now, I've been trying to get a copy of the prelude to Bach's cell suite I. Public domain sheet music can be found here. Can you provide such a recording? &rarr;Raul654 22:27, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Interview
Greetings, and no problem with the rush; contrary to appearances I do get away from Wikipedia occasionally. :-) Mindspillage (spill yours?) 05:52, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

1. Do you plan to run for re-election this year? Why or why not?
 * I'm not sure yet; I'm going to see how the next few weeks go. I wasn't previously planning to run but the experience may change my mind.

2. How do you feel about being appointed to serve on the ArbCom?
 * It's an honor, of course, but one I tried at first to run screaming away from! :-) Nervous, largely; there are a lot of things to get used to and it's a somewhat high-profile position to make newbie mistakes in. And honored that several people have made known they trust me to do it well.

3. Right now, what do you think are the strengths of the ArbCom?
 * Its main strength is that for the most part the arbcom is made up of users who are trusted by the community and who have a thorough knowledge of community policies and practices. The several differing points of view represented on the current committee I think helps to find a more fair solution.

4. Weaknesses?
 * The obvious weakness is that it is a slow process, hindered by the fact that several members have been inactive: though even at its best it will never be fast. It's also a dirty enough and time-consuming enough job than many qualified people burn out or avoid running at all.

5. If you could change anything, what would you change? Why?
 * It's really too soon for me to say. Actually, I think members' advocates doing more constructive work and being more fully integrated with the arbitration process would be helpful; sifting through evidence pages is in some cases pretty torturous and would be improved by having a competent person on each side presenting a case.

6. If you could say one thing to the current ArbCom candidates, what would you say, and why?
 * Please consider whether or not you have the time and the temperament for this, and whether you'll still be up for it after the first few months have passed. ("Are you nuts?" is probably also good but not so helpful. :-))

7. Do you think your job will be easy? Hard? Explain.
 * Hard, mostly. Not only sorting through the evidence presented, by no means easy, but also the knowledge that a bad call has a strong effect on the community, and the knowledge that my decisions here are going to affect my relationships with other users. I've also never been a party to an arbitration case (tried to stay far away from it), so learning the process is the first hurdle.

8. Do you feel that the ArbCom is appreciated by the community? If not, how do you think that could be changed?
 * For the most part, yes, as much as it is complained about; it's a dirty job. The AC exists because the community cannot always come to a consensus itself, and must refer the problem somewhere else.

9. What do you think will be the most frustrating thing about being on the ArbCom? Enjoyable?
 * Also too soon to say. Most frustrating I think will be having to restrict what I say about ongoing cases, having to deal with users who think I've treated them unfairly, and spending time reading evidence instead of writing. Most enjoyable I expect to be having some influence in the way the decisions are made, and helping to see that something I think is an acceptable solution is done.

10. Any other thoughts regarding your appointment?
 * Not that I can think of at the moment!

3RR
I have not broken the 3RR rule as my 1st edit was not a revert notr my last. I have been very careful. Whatever you think of my behaviour 3 reverts does not give you grounds to block me, and especially given your uncalled for attack on me yesterday, SqueakBox 23:26, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

I have never been blocked from editing wikipedia and I want to keep it that way. I tend to agree with you about the rollback and have issues about the whole Rfadmin process being a popularity contest in which some users get mauled so badly they leave the project, SqueakBox 23:44, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

For evidence of some good having come out of my accidental block see Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)#Blocked users not being able to view source text, SqueakBox 00:07, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Esperanza Spam
Hello Esperanzians! A few announcements.

The Advisory Committee election results are in. In tranch A are Acetic Acid and Flcelloguy. In tranch B are Ryan Norton and Bratsche.

My other annoouncement is that our founder, JCarriker, has founded Esperanza's sister project, Wikipediology. I have written two essays here (my name is Matt Binder). My essays are under Teenage Wikipedians and Anon Editors.

On behalf of myself and Jay Carriker and the other wikipediologists, I would appreciate it if you were to join.

Cheers Esperanza! R e  dwolf24  (talk&mdash;How's my driving?) 23:32, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Celestianpower is an admin
Thank you very much for your support - my bid (as you probably know) went swimmingly. I couldn't have asked for a better one. Thank you very much and I just hope I don't mess up! Do you talk on IRC? It'd be nice to see you there! --Cel e stianpower hablamé 12:37, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Process
I will no longer be participating in Cberlet's sentence by sentence attempt to subvert the nature of the Significance of Venona article. I believe there is ample evidence of him abusing the process, demanding from me citations for every sentence (which, in fact, I never even authored), and his totally unsourced sentence by sentence original research. It has been grossly unfair, and fruitless. He has consistently not presented any sourcing for any proposed changes.

I will be glad to continue the mediation process beginning with this text --> Belmont to Boardman. It is drawn entirely from primary source material, so it should not be difficult or controversial to edit. Cberlet's inclusion of secondary material is most welcome there. When it is done, we can rewrite the Introduction. Thank you. nobs 04:30, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for your support on my RfA. I'd love to come back to the Signpost, but the problem is I can't set aside a block of time to write a piece anymore because of real life pressures. It's really just a case of me editing Wikipedia whenever I can find the time, which seems to be quite often but pretty irregular. I may write a couple of one-off pieces in the near future (in fact I have a couple of ideas lined up), but probably won't be able to take on a regular slot. the wub  "?!"  14:36, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost
My pleasure, good article. Jayjg (talk) 22:01, 20 October 2005 (UTC)


 * What he said, and thanks also for the belated birthday greetings. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 04:39, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Dude!
Someone put my article for deletion! I haven't done changes to it yet! Help!

Mike15 13:57, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

my RfA
I also posted this on the RfA:

I said "possible" trolling. In addittion, my edits have increased shortly after I arrived at college. While I was first getting set up there, freshman year,(sept 18), I did not have much edit time. So that explains the temporary edit decrease. They are on the rise again, just get a new chart with Kate's tool or something. Also, I would not accuse him possible trolling if I was confronting him, I was merely discussing that possibility with other people. You should not the distinction. Also, thank you for your respect though, as the other two oppose votes are either unexplained or harsh and exaggerated.

BTW, that "you have new messages" bar got me all exciting, and then...huh?...that thing is evil...evil...:) Voice of  All  @ ''' 02:37, 22 October 2005 (UTC)


 * You are the only person who posted a factual or reasonable oppose vote. I do see what you mean about words that one could easily see as a personal attack. In the future I will avoid such words, even if I am just discussing a possiblity. Thank you for your reasonable criticism, no hard feelings over the vote :). Voice of  All  @ ''' 23:08, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Checkuser
Hi there! On the Q&D Checkuser proposal you refer to a fiasco on the mailing list. Could you please enlighten me what that's about, and/or give me a link? Thanks. Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 11:30, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Wow!
Kate's a him?? Fascinating... The Minister of War 21:04, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

From French Wikipedia
Hello, thank you for your message and for appreciating the photo of my harpsichord. I built it in 2002-2003 from a kit and it was much work and a great pleasure, as it is to play it. Best regards Gérard 13:12, 24 October 2005 (UTC) (the same person as fr:Ratigan)

Safe and sound
I take it from your last edit summary all is well in the string section? Alf melmac 21:29, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost ideas
Wonderful idea. I think we should have e-mail suggestions, and you're right, letters to the editor would be a good idea only if we control what gets published, solely so that it doesn't turn into the village pump.

As far as the ArbCom elections, I say we leave it as is until we get official word that the elections are a moot point, then change as necessary while still keeping the series going. Ral315 (talk) 22:58, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Re: WP:RFPP
Thanks for the revert there. [dishonest personal atatck removed], and I don't know how to get him to become a more courteous editor. I mean, he got in a fight with the probable guitarist of British Sea Power of whether the members of the band of British Sea Power were bird watchers. And the sad thing is, they are to an extent, but he totally blew the entire thing out of proportion, he seems to do that everywhere. Karmafist 02:02, 25 October 2005 (UTC)
 * That "probable guitarist" has now admitted to lying Andy Mabbett 12:20, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

ArbCom series
Please see Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-10-24/ArbCom election. I ran but withdrew... I don't know if this would be notable to update the article. - Ta bu shi da yu 06:58, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Re: NotificationBot
I have been on a slight programming hiatus. Although I love programming, and I love to help the Wikipedia, the unfortunate fact is that I don't live in a Star Trek world meaning that I don't get paid to do the work I do for the Wikipedia. So, please excuse me if I'm not, at the moment, writing code for the Wikipedia when I'm out trying to make a living for myself. As much I like to be locked in a closet and finish my Wikipedia work, I have some real life priorities that need attention at the moment, so please excuse me if my attention and activity level is not at par. And thank you for your award, it's greatly appreciated. --AllyUnion (talk) 10:02, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

P.S. How was the Google translator?
The text produced by the translator can be understood. I will not assert that it is fully correct french language ... and my english is probably not perfect, too ... Best regards Gérard 14:44, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Titoxd's RfA
Thank you for supporting me in my RfA. I never thought I would get so much support! Thanks to your help, my nomination was the 10th most supported RfA in Wikipedia history. Now, please keep an eye out on me while I learn the new tools, ok? Thanks again! Tito xd (?!?) 17:50, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Destinyg
Hello, Flcelloguy. I just put this comment on AfD. Maybe I'm misreading the situation, but I thought User:Destinyg was someone who could use a welcome and being shown some ropes. I didn't want to step in (besides, not very experienced myself), but do you think you or someone else on the welcome committee might step in? (Incidentally, I assume Sandy Berger Biography is actually autobiography, although I could be wrong.) AndyJones 23:38, 25 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I'll vote delete if not userfied, which I think would be better. Can I suggest someone with more wiki-experience than me approaches the author to explain the process? Incidentally, if doing so, note that the author is User:Destinyg not User: Destiny/Destiny as appears above. AndyJones 23:22, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Censored?
Excuse me Flcello, but what are you talking about? I've never censored POTW, and I deleted a comment at Scott Fisher's request which I agreed with since it was about personal info on his kids. Granted, that doesn't make it as confidential as i'd like, but it's something.

Also, are you ok? I've heard Wilma is doing a number on things down there, although I haven't been paying close attention and wondered if Central Florida was being hit at all. Karmafist 23:32, 26 October 2005 (UTC)


 * Ah, that's cool. Has it been reverted back? I tried to help Pigs out, but that whole situation has spiraled out of control. He's been in a few revert wars this week articles other than the one I protected. An Rfar is likely in the next few days, I can't seem to help him and I don't trust uncivil users like him intimidating others. Eh, suppose it's better that I didn't get on the MC,eh?. Getting into the thick of things is more my style. Karmafist 23:41, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

thanks.
AndyJones explaine the userfy question for me as well. but thank you for the help anyway. &mdash; Gaff ταλκ 00:16, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost
I did get the e-mail, yes. For now, we might consider substituting the ArbCom duties article this week, waiting on an announcement from Jimbo. Certainly, voting will be different, even just a bit. So it really might be best to switch to the duties and requirements article. Ral315 (talk) 03:29, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

.gov
No. Some images are sourced from copyrighted sites. If the .gov domains lists out the photographer and agency, then it definately is not a free image. You can also check if the full sized image is hosted on a non .gov site. =Nichalp «Talk»=  05:31, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

RfA
Hi there

Thanks for your kind message; but I don't think anything will stop the utter distress and depression I feel as a result of this badly flawed RfA. In my memory, you might consider pushing for the process to be depersonalised: at the moment, it's way open to abuse by anyone with a grudge; regrettably, on this occasion it has coincided with a stouch between me and the egos behind a substandard FAC that I dared to critique. I've made things worse by defending myself against attacks during the RfA process; I do normally enjoy very cordial and productive relationships with other WPs, and shun conflict, but I will always defend myself when under sustained attack and when I can't readily escape.

While the process is transparent - which is clearly an advantage and makes it low-maintenance for the bureaucrat who signs off at the end - this very attribute is a serious problem where there's potential for personal abuse and group attack. So, it's fine for the FAC process, but IMV a mistake to replicate in the RfA process, when a person rather than text is under scrutiny.

The first thing that needs reform is the culture of changing one's vote during the process: this encourages posturing by individual reviewers and a 'herd mentality', both very much in evidence during my RfA. These are likely to skew the results and reduce the tone of the process. Therefore, I suggest that each vote should be locked in when made, based on each reviewer's research and prior knowledge of the nominee, and not on subsequent hearsay and tittle-tattle, whether put on the table by trouble makers or more innocently in the course of the current all-too-open commentaries.

The second aspect that desperately needs attention is the lack of respect for the privacy of both nominee and reviewers. I find it inexcusable that the process is unmoderated and that there are no guidelines for the participants with respect to tone, content, and evidentiary support. Commentaries and votes should be registered privately and viewed only by the moderator/bureacrat and, at the end of the process, by the nominee; the nominee should not have access to the identity of the reviewers.

These two changes, which imply a slightly larger role for the bureacrat than at present, would go a long way towards making the process:
 * more balanced;
 * less invasive of privacy; and
 * less traumatic for the nominee where things do go wrong (I hear other stories, too).

In my memory, you might consider lobbying for a change to the process. Email me if something happens, and I'll stop bagging Wikipedia on the net (I'm angry ...). You're right, WP can't afford to lose hard-working, devoted contibutors like me (he boasts, but it's true). In under a week, I've turned from this into a bitter enemy of the project.

Sincerely and with great regret, Tony 22:25, 29 October 2005 (UTC) tony1 at iinet dot net dot au

POPBot #2
Fvw, you wrote above that your POPBlocker needs another admin to run/block. I might be interested in doing that, but my level of technical competence is very low. Could you possible give me more details about what the "job" entails &mdash; i.e. is it just mass-blocking a list of IPs, or editting through open proxies? Thanks. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | WS 15:14, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I can help too in some way, doing non-technical grunt work, if this helps in cutting down excessive vandalism. Would I just be running a script, or actually writing one? Cheers, Bratsche talk 18:32, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
 * [from email --fvw] I'm interested in taking it over, if you need someone. How can I help? --Linuxbeak
 * Thanks for your offers, what I can give you is
 * A list of IPs that were open proxies during the last scan
 * Shell scripts that block a list of IPs
 * Shell one-liners to extract a plain list of IP:port's from some of the more popular open proxy lists
 * Scripts to check whether an open proxy can edit wikipedia
 * A script to extract a list of tor proxies that can edit wikipedia from the node directory (this one isn't my work, it's a slight edit of someone else's script)
 * glue scripts
 * What you'd need is
 * An admin account on wikipedia
 * An account on a unix machine with perl, zsh, lynx and all the usual niceties
 * A reasonable familiarity with shell scripting and how open proxies work (perl might be useful too)
 * The ability to write shell oneliners to scrape the list of to-be-tested addresses from online proxy lists (the current ones won't stay active or current forever)
 * The willingness to dig through it all; it works well, but it's just a bunch of clumped together shellscripts. You need to work out what you want to do in what order
 * The time to handle complaints about blocks
 * I've put a tarball of the scripts and data (with the keys and edit tokens changed) at http://www.var.cx/wpproxycheck.tar.gz, I trust you'll be able to arrange things amongst yourselves. --fvw *  00:49, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Notification Bot
Hey, when you start mind benders round 4, can you let me know? thanks! &mdash; Il&gamma;&alpha;&eta;&epsilon;&rho;   (T&alpha;l&kappa;)  03:27, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Never mind, added myself ;) &mdash; Il&gamma;&alpha;&eta;&epsilon;&rho;   (T&alpha;l&kappa;)  03:28, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Signpost article, changes
I see no problem with Duties and Requirements for next week. You could mention that there really isn't a single requirement, possibly touching on how some people wanted it to be admins-only. As far as introducing e-mail and such, I think that can be done in a "From the editor" piece. But I plan to reorganize things (the Newsroom, for one- I want to break things up a bit more) I'd like to do it all together, so I'll make sure it gets done by next issue. Ral315 (talk) 22:52, 2 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I agree completely, but let me split up the newsroom first...it's on my list of things to do. Because as it stands, outside of you, me, Michael and Catherine, not many people know how the Signpost Newsroom is set up.  Ral315 (talk) 23:18, 2 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Another question...to make it easier to send e-mails, should I possibly register User:Wikipedia Signpost and allow people to use the Special:Emailuser link? Ral315 (talk) 23:51, 2 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Funny, though...I was going to leave a note on the page signed from my account, but decided against it. Ral315 (talk) 01:35, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Judi McLeod and Canada Free Press
Thanks for welcoming me! You are so kind.

User:Mindspillage claims on Administrators'_noticeboard/Archive13 that the "Canada Free Press and Judi McLeod have been the target of a smear campaign by an anonymous user who has made other attacks on them in the past (off Wikipedia)."

You said you would keep the articles watchlisted.

I'm concerned that this is a pretext to stop factual information from appearing. I appreciate the situation Wiki is in, but much of what Judi McLeod says needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Judi McLeod has a history of making wild accusations. For that reason I seriously doubt that there has been a "smear campaign" on the internet ... especially since I can't find any trace of it!

I'm telling you this because Judi McLeod and her colleague Rachel Marsden have involved Jimbo in this and are accusing User:HOTR of impropriety. --Cyberboomer 00:17, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

SYS FARC
I've nomintated Sun Yat-sen for featured article removal. Since you originally participated in the nomination discussion, your comments are welcome at Featured article removal candidates/Sun Yat-sen.--Jiang 08:21, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Questions on my RFA
You'll note I responded to your questions on my RFA, yet I still haven't seen you vote one way or the other. Is there something else holding you back from voting? ALKIVAR &trade; 23:54, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Stetson
I'm not going there anymore, but I'm still living near there (until I move at the end of the year). Are you going for a college visit? (The cello studio has been quite good in recent years, though I don't know about this year, and I suspect you'd like both the cello prof and the orchestra director.) A pity you don't have time for a meet, but I might stop by and say hello briefly anyhow... Mindspillage (spill yours?) 22:48, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Mediation
I reponded by email and on my talk page. Also, please check out RedWolf24's page. Voice of  All  T 05:06, 5 November 2005 (UTC)

Arbitration note for Signpost article
In case you're not already aware, it seems Sannse has now resigned from the Arbitration Committee. --Michael Snow 21:13, 5 November 2005 (UTC)


 * From what I know, to the extent that she "announced" it she did so on IRC (or maybe the committee's mailing list, too). I didn't see any of it myself, but it's definitely confirmed, by Mindspillage as well in addition to the edits on Arbitration Committee. --Michael Snow 23:10, 5 November 2005 (UTC)


 * There are no archives, and since I wasn't actually in the channel at the time, there's no way I could have a log either. Since it's a chat forum, I doubt it would have much additional information, other than whatever sannse may have said. For a story, the most straightforward thing might be to simply ask her directly if there's any statement she would like to make about it. --Michael Snow 01:49, 6 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Fleh. We were just talking about how much of a load it is to be a conscientious arbiter... +sj <font color="#ff6996">+  04:10, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

Recentchanges announcements
Hi celloguy, since when is the RC header not a place for announcements? It has been a while since the last one, but I see no discussion of this change, nor do I understand the reason for it... +sj <font color="#ff6996">+ 04:10, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

ArbCom Resignation
Yes, I told the other arbitrators via the arbitration mailing list. On the reason for the contradictory messages: I came back from an extended wikibreak last week, and hoped to get back to arbitration work as soon possible. Unfortunately, it became clear as I tried to catch up that I am just not well enough at the moment to put in the time and commitment that the job needs. I didn't feel it fair to my colleagues on the committee to continue with that being the case. I still fully support the arbitration committee and believe strongly in the job the committee does. In fact, I would very much like to rejoin the committee one day - if the opportunity arises and if my health improves. Sorry for the slow reply, I hope it's in time to be of use to you. sannse (talk) 19:41, 6 November 2005 (UTC)

My RFA
I'm sorry you found reason to object to my adminship, but now that I've been promoted, I'd like to clear the slate. If you have any specific issues/problems with me, please feel free to state them on my talk page so that I can work to prevent them in the future. ALKIVAR &trade; 07:21, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

WP:MIND
It seems that you didn't open round 4, 1 week after the scheduled date. I wonder anything's wrong? <font color=#007dff>De ryc  k C.  09:27, 8 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Weekend? I'm sorry, not quite likely. I have HKOI, the computer programming olympiad of Hong Kong this saturday. Maybe just wait for the NotBot. <font color=#007dff>De ryc  k C.  04:34, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Signpost Newsroom.
Very good question...I'm going to try and come up with an easier way to do it, in wake of a couple stories I've accidentally missed in the past few weeks. What I'm assuming is that they'll be posted, in sub-headings, on the pages in question. Your articles would be on the "Special Series" page, under special sub-headings each week. I'll put it into action in a day or two. Ral315 (talk) 01:30, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

RE: Psy guy's RfA - Follow-up Comment
Dear Flcelloguy, Here is my follow-up to you comment on my RfA. If you have anymore concerns, questions, or comments, please let me know. Thanks for taking and interest. -- Psy guy (talk) 03:23, 9 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I appreciate it that you bothered to look so closely at my contributions. It is truly noble. I do tend to use the 5-tildes to create a heading when I warn users. If have found that most do as a way of categorizing warnings for IPs. In the future I will try to use "Edit the page" rather than the "+" tab. That is why the heading reads as the edit summary. I don't use the talk pages a lot since I discovered IRC. I am frequently in #wikipedia-en-vandalism where I am a Channel Op. I have found it to be much more efficient to jump into a channel and ask a question rather than through a talk page. I decided to use godmode because it was much more efficient. Angela let me in on the secret! Lastly, it never really occurred to me to leave a message on a keep article from AfD. I will do that from now on. I was more concerned about making sure that what I closed was an "unambigious" keep. If you have anymore questions or concerns, do not hesitate to ask. However you decide to vote, I fully respect your decision. Thanks.

Bot request reply
Sorry, no can do, I am cheating at the moment and using a pywikibot and as I don't know python so I am a bit limited to what I can do. I am planning to make a bot in my native tongue of c# at some point in the future, so maybe then I'll be able to help. thanks Martin  11:42, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Mediator Nomination
Apologies for my delay in adding more information about myself and my reasons for wishing to become a Mediator. This has now been sorted out. Thanks for helping me out. Wikiwoohoo 20:47, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Re:Your signature
Ooh, that's a nice feature. Thanks for pointing it out! –ArmadniGeneral (talk • contribs) 23:33, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Nobs' refusal to edit text and mediator's failure to mediate
I think it is obvious that Nobs is incapable or unwilling to actually edit text. We have been at this for weeks, and Nobs has buried this mediation in mountains of material, and yet refuses to edit text. He has announced that he is unwilling to continue this mediation, then returns and inserts more mountains of text that has nothing to do with editing text. At some point this is no longer a mediation, but merely a farce. I really think that the mediator needs to be active in this mediation, or pass it off to someone willing to play a more active role. I really resent the current circumstance, in which I edit text and write compromise text, and Nobs plays us all for suckers.--Cberlet 02:53, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Help with Mediation
If you have any lists of articles that need mediation, can you give them to me if I should ask. I think I can mediate 2 at a time, so I can work with one more article.

And while I still find Improv's vote extremely misleading and unfounded, I have calmed down over it quite a bit. Voice of  All  T 23:17, 10 November 2005 (UTC)


 * BTW, do you have AIM? Voice of  All  T 23:24, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
 * You need AIM, it is a must have...seriously, it is VERY useful. :). Voice of  All  T 23:30, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

RFAr signpost series
For the RFAr series, you may be interested in the Arbitration Committee Elections December 2005/Straw poll. Yours, Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 23:52, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Adding toolbar link
You asked in Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject User scripts, but I didn't know whether you would watch the page. See WikiProject User scripts/Scripts under "Add toolbox link". Can be generalised more. jnothman talk 13:14, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Ahh, it seems you don't quite have the programming experience, but that shouldn't be difficult to catch up. The first important thing to understand is the concept of a function. Somewhat like a function in maths, it takes a number of arguments (which could be numbers, strings, other sorts of objects; a string being a sequence of characters that may form text) and does something with them, possibly returning a calculated result. In this case, a function addlilink is defined which takes a number of arguments and uses them to construct a link in the right place on the page. addToolboxLink then uses this function in turn to create a more specific type of link, one in the toolbox. So with the code (as at WP:US):

function addToolboxLink(url, name, id){ var tb = document.getElementById('p-tb').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; addlilink(tb, url, name, id); }
 * url, name and id are all argument names to the function addToolboxLink, just as when I define a function in maths the string or number or object referred to by their name.
 * Basically, then, what you are wanting to do is execute the function, but instead you have changed the argument name in the function definition. What we need to do is leave the definition of the function alone, and use it from outside. What you mean to do is add the following line somewhere:
 * addToolboxLink("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_mediation", "Mediation", "t-mediate");
 * What this does is calls the function above, assigning to the argument url the string "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_mediation", to name "Mediation", etc., which the function then uses to create the link. [Note the id argument is something that is used in HTML and Javascript to uniquely identify some element on a page, such as a link. It is optional, but also useful when it is there.]
 * The question, then, is where to place this line? The problem is that the script is loaded early in the page, and we can't have the script creating the link before the box exists to put it in! So what we need to do is tell the web browser to run that line after the page is loaded. There are lots of ways to do this, but the way I'll give you now will hopefully be flexible enough for your needs:

function Main { addToolboxLink("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_mediation", "Mediation", "medlink"); } window.onLoad = Main;
 * What this section of code should do is declare yet another function, called Main. What Main does is exactly what we described above. But we ensure that Main is executed after the page with the window.onLoad line.
 * So the next question is how to make the same function for the navigation box? Here it is:

function addNavigationLink(url, name, id){ var tb = document.getElementById('p-navigation').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; addlilink(tb, url, name, id); }
 * You'll notice here that only one word is changed, and that word is actually just the id of the respective box in the Monobook Wikipedia style.
 * Finally you wanted to know how to remove a link. It is much easier to remove an element than add one, because the browser running the script can find it by name, so here is the function:

function removeEl(id) { if (el = document.getElementById(id)) el.parentNode.removeChild(el); }
 * But what you need is the id of the element- what I would do is view the HTML source of a Wikipedia page, and find the link I want to remove. In particular, note its id. It probably starts with t- or n- by convention in the template. For instance, I find out that the "Current events" link id is n-currentevents. Then the appropriate code to remove that link is: removeEl('n-currentevents'); Again I want this to run after the link exists, so all I need to do is stick this line in the Main function I created before and I'm done.
 * I hope that all helps! Good night! jnothman talk 14:49, 12 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Yes, Monobook.js is in Javascript. Most dynamic things online are. What do you mean by it's a pity it's not done in Java? Have you used Java? Java is a different flavour of programming language, and isn't suitable to the sort of things you want to do here, so Javascript here is a good thing. Besides, more people know how to work with Javascript than Java (and more resources are available). jnothman talk 14:57, 12 November 2005 (UTC)


 * If you hadn't put the data in as argument/parameter names I wouldn't have given you such a detailed explanation, so see it positively! Main in Javascipt: Main is something we just invented above. In Javascript, the browser executes every line as it comes across it, but executing a function definition just means storing it in memory. The important part is that one line we execute is window.onLoad = Main; which sets the function we created Main (but it could have been floggeldywoop if we wanted) to handle the event "onLoad", which occurs when the document has finished loading. Therefore, although code could have been executed earlier in the page, we have defined a function to be what runs when the page finishes loading, and so to act a little like Java's public static void Main. jnothman talk 15:04, 12 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Java has been used for applets on web pages. These were used to create any complex interactive tools, but often also just fancy looks for web pages. These roles have been taken over by Javascript (or DHTML) and Macromedia Flash. Java carries with it some big baggage: powerful libraries for technical and full-featured applications. For this reason, Java programs are relatively slow both to build and to load. They also require external Java plugins to be available to the web browser; this also meant that they could not neatly interact with the rest of the page. Hence they have generally been replaced by much lighter and simple but less-full-featured languages/tools (this was also due to IE-other browser compatibility issues). Java applets are still commonly used to build web-based programs that, for instance, illustrate scientific or technical phenomena, though, because (a) code and objects can just be taken from related Java projects (b) the libraries available in Java make it simple to use complex data structures, etc, useful in representing technical concepts.
 * Your Monobook is working fine for me. What you might be forgetting to do is refreshing your browser's cache. The surest way to do this is go to and hit refresh on your browser. jnothman talk 15:18, 12 November 2005 (UTC)


 * PS:  since you are using it elsewhere in your script, it may be safer, rather than using the outdated window.onLoad = Main;, to use:

if ( window.addEventListener ) window.addEventListener( 'load', Main, false ); else if ( window.attachEvent ) window.attachEvent( 'onload', Main );
 * Once again, good night! jnothman talk 15:21, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Moving page Reflex-Vandalism
Thanks for moving the page, it was my intent to have it under my user page, but I must have messed it up putting it under article space. Thanks for moving it and clarifying the situation. --<font color="darkslateblue">Reflex Reaction  ( talk )• 16:42, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Wikiwoohoo's RfA
Thanks for the help regarding the old account. Durin tried to help with that a lot but we could not find out what it was. My name is Grant and I was convinced the user name began with that but when Durin trawled through the list of users and picked out all those beginning with Grant, none rang a bell. It was at that point I gave up, but decided I preferred this account name much more than whatever the old one used to be. As I said in my previous RfA, this name seems a little mysterious but has an over-riding sense of fun, or so I think anyway!;) Wikiwoohoo 22:06, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Link
http://www.download.com/IceChat-IRC-Client/3000-2150_4-10421231.html?tag=lst-0-2

R e  dwolf24  (talk) 01:49, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

Signpost
Please see Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions. Ral315 said you were going to write about this? Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 15:38, 13 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I've responded on the article talk page. Will probably add more when I've gone through wikien-l in full. I have created an appropriate redirect at Voting is evil (and stupid) ;-) - David Gerard 09:53, 14 November 2005 (UTC)


 * One small point. Your article seems to imply that all checkusers must be arbiters. That is not what the policy states; it states that checkusers are appointed by arbiters, but do not necessarily need to be arbiters themselves. Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 13:25, 14 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Ah, that was the agreement with the Board to get some checkuser users active on en: quickly - the policy wasn't firm at the time - David Gerard 16:52, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Signpost story
FYI, I made some non-trivial changes to your checkuser signpost story. &rarr;Raul654 23:28, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Mentoring
Might it not be a good idea to place the 'Ground Rules' as the first section on the mentoring page? It'd make it easier for new users to gain a flavour of the page - Just a suggestion but i don't want to mess things up Pydos 09:37, 15 November 2005 (UTC) Sorry the page, which i stumbled onto, is Mentorship Committee. I didn't realise there was a wikiproject about it. I mean the ground rules on that Pydos 11:26, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes thats for the 'be bold' advice, i just wondered if it was different with wikiorganisations. Pydos 11:40, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

RFM
You've been assigned a case which I wasn't sure if I was gonna accept. Although strangely worded, and a rather trivial dispute, I figure if there's an edit war we should at least try and stop it. The case shouldn't take too long, and I had this in mind because of your Nobs/Cberlet case. Of course you also have the option to reject it or refer it somewhere else in Dispute Resolution. R e  dwolf24  (talk) 02:22, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

Wikipediology
I'd like to ask those fellows who have not indicated whether or not they grant permission for a wikibio on them to please do so soon. I'd also appreciate it everyone could expand or create the wikibios for which permission has been granted. The wikibio project simply won't be useful unless fellows actively participate; so I'd like to issue a challenge that each fellow contribute at least one sentence to two wikibios. I'll be on wikibreak for the next week and when I get back there will be prizes in store for the fellows who have the three highest edit counts on wikibios. Thanks. -JCarriker 22:41, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

Signpost this week...
Hrm. I would write all the candidates and ask for comments; also use their candidate statements. Unless you can think of a better idea, I'd plan on doing candidates this week for now. Of course, anything from Jimbo derails that plan, but let's hope he doesn't ruin us :) Ral315 (talk) 23:54, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks...
...for the welcome back, and for the star! And yes, I'm still living on Long Island; Bay Shore, New York, to be more precise. – ClockworkSoul 02:51, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia meetup:Tampa
I'm writing to let you know that the Tampa meetup has officially been announced -- Meetup/Tampa2 &amp;rarr;Raul654 04:01, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

FYI Re: Berlet & Nobs
Just a note to alert you, and that I posted this request:
 * Nobs, please respect the fact that this mediation is suspended due to the arbitration. Please stop editing this or any of the other pages in this mediation. Please act in accordance with Wikipedia policies and practices.

Sorry to bother you. Thought I should send you an FYI.--Cberlet 16:31, 18 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Given Mr. Berlet's refusal to mitigate dispute resolution, and his documentable rejections of my good faith approaches as "harrassment", etc., could you please relay to his Talk page the question if Requests for mediation/Cberlet and Nobs01/Workshop/Nobs01 is a Mediation page, or do I need to duplicate that page elsewhere in preparation for the ArbCom process? Thank you.  nobs 19:07, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

Wang Center
I'm there all the time: my lab is in the HSC, and I occasionally have lunch in the Wang Center. I think that the construction may be overwith. If so, I'll try to get a pic fairly soon. – ClockworkSoul 00:33, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Nah - of course I don't mind. At the moment I'm working on elucidating the interactions of endothelial cells and platelets in the department of hematology. – ClockworkSoul 02:34, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm on the 16th floor of the academic tower, working in Berhane Ghebrehiwet and Jo Jesty's labs. How about you? – ClockworkSoul 03:17, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Small world indeed! I'm also technically under BME: our grants are all under Danny Bluestein. In what capacity were you there at SB? – ClockworkSoul 23:41, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Arbitration accepted
Requests for arbitration/Nobs01 and others has been accepted. Please place evidence at Requests for arbitration/Nobs01 and others/Evidence. You may make proposals and comment on proposals at Requests for arbitration/Nobs01 and others/Workshop. Fred Bauder 19:51, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Signpost this week
I don't mind if you take a hiatus...with no new news, it's probably not a bad idea. Depending on what happens, we hopefully will have some more news next week. If there's anything else for the update, feel free to write that up, but no worries on that as well. Also, sorry for not responding on IRC; I was at dinner at the time. Ral315 (talk) 01:23, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

WP:MIND
It's been a while... The NotificationBot doesn't seem to not be working, but anyways, how much time do you think it would take to copy/paste the message on all the list's users? Maybe I could do it, if it means we'll finally run round 4. Fetofs 21:52, 21 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Notifications up to User:MyNameIsClare completed. Wikipedia is not incredibly fast, especially at night with firefox! :)

welcome message
What a great idea, adding the welcome message to Horn of Plenty. I hope we get some great editors from this. Joyous | Talk 17:31, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

The 'Bot
''Hello Cryptic, thanks for getting your bot to archive! Two quick questions/comments: first, when it updates the navbox, is it supposed to move the blue links to the left and add red links to uncreated archives, as was done previously before the 'bot started archiving? I really don't mind either way (having all blue links to archives or having both blue and red links to archives), but I thought I'd point this out. Second, just a friendly reminder to update the bot's page to describe the archiving activities. Thanks a lot for your help! Flcelloguy (A note? ) 18:02, 24 November 2005 (UTC)''


 * Yes, the navbox links are intentional; I'd assumed having the redlinks present was an aid to human archivers. (I'd be happy to go to 3 blue and 1 red, or back to 2 and 2, if there are other reasons I'm not aware of.)  I was going to update the user page tonight, when I have enough uninterrupted time in a row to add pseudocode like I have for its afd duties, but I've added a note to it for now. &mdash;Cryptic (talk) 18:14, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

Re: WP:MIND
Thank you; no further messages will be required. &mdash; Knowledge Seeker &#2470; 06:29, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Last call
Would you please make sure that the last call for arbcom candidates goes into the monday edition of the signpost. Raul654 23:14, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Gmail screenshot
Hi! You don't know me. :) The image you uploaded of Gmail's link to the Horn of Plenty article incorrectly used the  template.  That template states that the associated image is a screenshot of Wikipedia.  Since the screenshot is of Gmail, that's clearly wrong.  I changed it to use the  template.  I believe that's much more correct.  (Gmail is basically just another software program, after all.)  I wanted to let you know in case my take on this is wrong.  --DragonHawk 05:25, 27 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Ah, mea culpa. I don't know what I was thinking; I've uploaded other screenshots before. Thanks for pointing it out! Flcelloguy (A note? ) 14:28, 27 November 2005 (UTC)


 * No big deal, just wanted to let you know, since I was changing the "License" section. Cheers! --DragonHawk 17:31, 27 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Hi. I think the appropriate template here is web-screenshot. It does not matter, though, because I have uploaded a cropped, PNG version of the webpage at Image:Gmail Thanksgiving.png. I hope you don't mind, Flcelloguy.—jiy (talk) 05:34, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

Re: RfB
I've responded to your questions on my RfB. Johnleemk | Talk 07:11, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

RFM
Assigned. R e  dwolf24  (talk)  Attention Washingtonians!  00:27, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Administrators' Noticeboard protection
Can I ask why you protected the Administrators' Noticeboard? Thanks. -- SCZenz 01:12, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Nevermind, my question got answered on AN's talkpage. -- SCZenz 01:34, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Mindbenders
When does mindbenders actually start. So far I've seen three different dates, and if the wrong one is on mindbenders would you please change it. Oh and since I leaving you a message I have to plug my classic rock survey, so would you like to participate, and there is more info on my user page. 01:48, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Mediation: List of Jewish jurists
Why has this mediation been abandoned? Please reinstate it. - Poetlister 22:51, 30 November 2005 (UTC)


 * No, he hasn't contacted me. - Poetlister 12:52, 3 December 2005 (UTC)