User talk:Jeff Bedford/Archive 1

Monte Carlo Resort and Casino
Since you seem to have an interest in the article, you may want to look at the GA criteria. Several of the FA and GA successful nominations have happened when one user with a specific interest significantly improves the article. My impression is that as long the the article is well referenced using reliable sources and has a good amount of images it can pass. You seem to be heading in a reasonable direction, so maybe setting this as a goal might be a good idea. Of course you could shoot higher to FA status with GA as a way point. Vegaswikian (talk) 20:45, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the note, Vegaswikian -- setting the goal of bringing the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino article up to GA criteria is how I'd like to proceed. Now that the article is adequately sourced, the next step that stands out to me is to add appropriate images.  The article only has one image as of now, but no fair use rationale was provided.  Given that, I'll be sure to follow WP:IUP when adding a few relevant images in the near future.  Jeff Bedford (talk) 20:33, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

NMS
I've reverted the IP edits as obviously wikipedia is not an RS. There are some minor sourcing and wording problems with the article but nothing major and I'll fix them tomorrow when I have time. Once I (or someone else) have done so, I'll let you know and you can have a look and let me know if there are any further issues. --Cameron Scott (talk) 20:49, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the prompt response, Cameron_Scott. I appreciate your guidance here, and I'll be receptive to your follow-up recommendations regarding those minor source/wording instances.  Best, Jeff Bedford (talk) 21:03, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Domino's Pizza
Jeff, I got a message from you about working on the Domino's Pizza article, but I can't see what you've done with it so far. Are you still interested in collaborating on it? --Barrett UrsaLinguaBWD (talk) 18:49, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

DYK for American Honda Motor Company
The DYK project (nominate) 00:02, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Re: Requested Assistance: Swimming Pool Sanitation image
Jeff: So sorry I didn't get back to you earlier (your message here: User talk:Rkitko. Do you still have concerns about the swimming pool sanitation image? I'm not sure I have much of an opinion. I mean, there's obviouslyWP:NOTCENSORED, but you could be right that it's unnecessary on this article. Is there a suitable replacement of similar quality? The article doesn't have very many images, so I would be sorry to see one go. Cheers, Rkitko (talk) 01:13, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

RAC
Good work. I replied on the talk page. -- Mahanga (Talk) 03:48, 29 October 2010 (UTC)

Proposed Royal Holiday article
Looks OK. I made one small change since the suggested 30em for the references produces columns that are too small. With the ABC News reference there should not be a notability issue. Some links need to be added for the type of ownership, but I'm not sure that the articles exist. Vegaswikian (talk) 19:23, 5 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Also copy-edited article, and added category (when live, it needs to be taken out of the  signs). Only other suggestion is to add either template:infobox hotel or template:infobox company . --Funandtrvl (talk) 19:31, 5 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your input Vegaswikian and Funandtrvl -- much appreciated. I've included an infobox per your suggestion, Funandtrvl. In the near future it should have a logo, but I wasn't able to locate one in the proper format. Moving it to mainspace now (Royal Holiday Club), with the approach thatWP:NOTFINISHED, but that this is a reasonable start. Any ideas for improvement into the future are welcomed. Cheers, Jeff Bedford (talk) 20:17, 5 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the complement on my talk page. You should be aware that I'm generally accused of being not responsive, set in my ways and hard to deal with.  Believe it or not, but I do have other things to keep me busy besides wikipedia.  I do admit that I probably spend too much time here. It would be nice if I could clone myself.  Then I might have time to do all of the things I have to leave undone.Vegaswikian (talk) 22:31, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Not sure if helpme or unblock template is correct here--either way, in need of Admin help
To whom it may concern,

Nanorlb, a good friend of mine (and one of the ones who taught me all about Wikipedia) notified me that he was somehow named in a sock investigation (here), which has placed he and I in a bucket along with another individuals who also happen to work in the same, rather large, organizations office building with a shared net connection (T3 line, I believe). I think a bit of background will help to clarify, though I'll try to be brief.

Nanorlb and I (Jeff Bedford) are WP:COWORKERs, and are good friends in real life, as they say. I'd give him a ring here and there when first learning to ask the formatting questions that all of us have at some point; specifically I remember asking him "when I post on a Discussion (Talk) page, should I say 'Thanks' or 'Best' or 'Cheers' as a signing off note? Do they mind?  Who are 'they'?" We had a good laugh about that one, as he said you're overthinking the minutiae, don't take that one little decision so seriously..any of those salutations are good."

I am not, however, good friends with Nanorlb on Wikipedia (or what you would call meatpuppets). Though he and I do both have an interest in Wikipedia, we have been quite firm about (and we actually had a conversation about this) not becoming involved in editing on the same (or even remotely similar) topics/articles on Wikipedia. He and I made the conscious decision to do so, because of the fact that we happen to have the same employer, and thus, share the same internet connection at least while we're there. So because of this factor, he said, look, let's be sure to be transparent. Which is why on his userpage in 2009, he identified precisely who he is.

I became interested in Wikipedia in August, 2010, which is when Nanorlb first helped me out with the basics. For the reasons above, he recommended that I use my user profile page to be extraordinarily precise and explicit in disclosing who I am, what articles I have made substantive edits to, and the like. Even though WP:COI says that I don’t absolutely have to go to these lengths, I have done so anyways because it is important to me to do the right thing and voluntarily disclose who I am. Please review my contribution history, and I think you'll find two things:

1) My contributions are meaningful, neutral and all around helpful to Wikipedia.  It has never been the case where advancing outside interests is more important to me than advancing the aims of Wikipedia and strictly following Wikipedia's rules and ethos.

2) My interactions with others have been polite, reasonable, and grounded. If you were to inquire with a few of the other Wikipedians whom I've asked for advice/assistance in the past, such asUser:Vegaswikian and User:Rich_Farmbrough, I think they would agree that I have gone about this in a reasonable way, and that I always leave articles in better shape than they were in when I found them.

Which brings me to today. I am surprised, frankly, that I am seen as a sockpuppet of Nanorlb. I have been very forthcoming in who I am, and have even spelled that out on my user page. Based on the fact that several hundred people share the same internet connection in our building, I have also made a good faith effort to pass along the advice I received from Renan, to inform others in my building to:

1)create a username if ever you do edit (e.g. don't edit without registering)

2)only create one account, and one only. (based on the recommendation in WP:SOCK)

3)be straightforward and upfront about who you are

4)use common sense, be collegial in your dealings with other users and make yourself familiar with wikipedia's strict (and importantly so) policies.

I do not have frequent interaction with the MBMadmirer individual; in fact he happens to work in an entirely different division than I do. I am deeply concerned with the behavior exhibited is their interactions with other Wikipiedians (based on looking through their user talk page and article talk pages), and I do not condone those actions at all. Frankly, the fact that I seem to have been bundled with this person in the sock investigation is perplexing to me, since the only thing in common is a network connection. Please examine my behavior and kindly let me know how I can best be of help. I am an honest, involved Wikipedian and believe that I have been carrying myself in the best manner possible. Sincerely, Jeff Bedford (talk) 22:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)|3=Putting this on hold and I'll ping the blocking admin. HJ Mitchell &#124;  Penny for your thoughts?

Update: HelloAnnyong and HJ Mitchell, How can I help you out?

Good afternoon HelloAnnyong and HJ Mitchell,

Just want to note that I am perfectly happy to be patient while you sort these things out, as I know that Wikipedia is just one of the many components in your day to day lives. I checked to see how things were proceeding, and since my request is still on hold I wanted to make a cordial offer: how can I help you?

I have talked with a few folks in our building to see who is on Wikipedia, and to see if other people were aware of this widespread block. I have been able to talk to two other people so far: the woman who goes by User:Crislen here on Wikipedia said that she has only made a handful of edits since I showed her a few pointers on how to do basic Wikitext markup, how to use a Talk page, how to make a sandbox for drafts, and the like several months ago. She was helping to clean up an article about the high school that she attended many years ago, which was filled with fancruft and wording that had been cut-and-pasted from the school's website. She just told me that she had taken a picture of the school and was excited about adding it to the Wikipedia article, which is currently lacking one. She said that she is only about halfway through the improvements that she intended to make, as she went at it one section at a time.

Anyways, the good thing to come out of this is that three of us had lunch together yesterday, and it is pretty neat to be able to get together with people who really want to talk about Wikipedia. So together, myself (Jeff Bedford), (Nanorlb) and (Crislen) came up with a few ideas on how to hopefully help you all figure out this widespread block:

1) The building here is divided into a bunch of separate office suites and floors, but there is a building-wide email distribution list. Generally it is used for things like "Missing hat and gloves found on floor 9." I haven't been able to reach everyone on that list of so-called sockpuppets of Nanorlb at Category:Wikipedia_sockpuppets_of_Nanorlb in person, so with a mass e-mail to this distribution list I may be able to better reach all of those involved and could ask anyone who responds to e-mail one or both of you who are helping to sort this out.

2) I can ask the building IT services if they can help provide information to you. They are very nice whenever I call them, so I'm sure they would welcome any way to help you. Not sure if this would be useful for you, but hey, I thought why not offer what I can just in case?

3) I can ask others to participate in a group phone call with you (with skype perhaps?) so that you can meet the real, honest people impacted by this block. As I mentioned I've only been in touch with Nanorlb and Crislen, but I think it would be possible to convene any other Wikipedia users in our building for a friendly conversation. Surely this would be unconventional, but again I just want to open up all the options that you might find helpful.

TL;DR: Any way that I can help out? Thank you very much for the time that you have put into this, Jeff Bedford (talk) 20:40, 9 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Crikey. That's a bit long. Please give me 5 mins or so, to read it, and decide if I can help or not. If I can't, I'll just put the request thingy back. Thanks,  Chzz  ► 22:35, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

...

...still doing...  Chzz  ► 22:54, 9 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Many thanks, Chzz. I felt this more recent information might be of help to HelloAnnyong and/or HJ Mitchell, but as I am restricted to my user Talk page at the moment I was not sure of how to get in touch with one of them. WP:NORUSH, and thank you for being so willing to read through my details above. Regards, Jeff Bedford (talk) 23:01, 9 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I've stated this several times, but I'll post it here: this case is on hold pending a response from the checkusers list. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 23:06, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * HelloAnnyong, ありがとう (thanks),
 * Jeff Bedford, please be patient for a little while longer; Wikipedia is "staffed" by volunteers. But I'm pretty sure you will get more feedback within hours, rather than days (I've poked a few people, to try and sort this out). Meanwhile, tea is good. Thanks again for your understanding,  Chzz  ► 23:17, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I raise my cup of tea to both of you for responding, with warm regards. Jeff Bedford (talk) 23:36, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Unblocked

Hi Jeff. Think we've figured it out. I'm unblocking you, Crislen and Nanorlb. While you're on the same IP as MBMadmirer, I do think you're separate people, and your contributions have all been very positive. If I were you I'd scrupulously avoid editing anything related to your company or anything referred to in the sockpuppet investigation Sockpuppet investigations/MBMadmirer/Archive. Other than that, enjoy editing.--Elen of the Roads (talk) 21:06, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Many thanks for dealing w/ this, Elen of the Roads.


 * Jeff Bedford, thanks for your patience. I have (with this edit) 'collapsed' all the above stuff; I hope that is OK. If not, you can 'undo'.


 * I really do appreciate your exemplary conduct in this matter. Best,  Chzz  ► 21:38, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks Elen and Chzz, as well as any others who put their time into this--it is much appreciated and warmly received. If I might politely ask, it looks that there are two leftover categories attached to my user talk page--is that something that one of you would be able to resolve? Thanks again, and best regards, Jeff Bedford (talk) 22:50, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Done:


 * The first was because someone wrote this; ...so-called sockpuppets of Nanorlb at in person... - and, if you with to link a category like that, you have to put a colon before it, to avoid it putting the page into the cat. E.g. Category:Sausages, appears as: Category:Sausages.


 * The second was because you'd used and it'd been changed to an  - I cancelled that one out by putting  ('template linked, with parameters') in front, ie  - which cancels the template out, leaving a link to it.


 * None of which is important; I just don't like making changes without explaining :-)


 * Best,  Chzz  ► 12:52, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Re: Pouring you a cup of Gatorade?
— SMcCandlish  Talk⇒ ʕ(Õلō)ˀ Contribs. 01:18, 18 February 2011 (UTC)