User talk:Mrminator

Astoria, Queens article
I see on the talk page you mentioned you're from Astoria. Are you, or do you know someone who could be interested in helping expand this article? I don't know how familiar you are with Wikipedia, but as you can see from my recent edits, what was previously posted wasn't terribly encyclopedic. Mostly point-of-view style about how great the neighborhood is. I know there's a ton more stuff to talk about, and I'm planning on contributing piecemeal when I can. I figure the more who get involved, the better the article will be. Alcarillo 18:12, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Greetings. Is this how I respond to this message? Mrminator 19:21, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Yep. Or on my Talk page, which I see you've already done. I have this page tagged to "watch" so I know when you (or anyone, really) edits the page. And everytime that happens, you should get a msg saying something to the effect of "You have new messages". Since I initiated here, it's probably best to keep the converstation on your talk page. Hope that makes sense... Alcarillo 20:05, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Forgot to mention that one can use the "watch" function on ANY page, which is good for keeping an eye out for articles or other content that sometimes is a magnet for edit wars, vandalism, etc. For example, since I did some radical edits to the Astoria article, it's been on my watchlist. Making those changes may tick off whomever posted it in the first place and I may find myself in an edit war with this person. You'll be amazed how some people can get here. I used to be overly protective of my edits at first until I decided to let the system do it's thing. Eventually the bad content will be edited out. Alcarillo 20:10, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

I do live in Astoria, but I'm not sure that I'd qualify as a good writer for this piece. I don't know a whole lot about the area's history as I've only lived here for about 6 years. I think most of the people who edit this page are people who have lived in Astoria for many years and aren't too happy about the "changes" in the neighborhood over the years. It's a bit of a political mess that I try to stay out of mostly. Are you from Astoria? Mrminator 22:25, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
 * All it needs is a little more attention so we don't end up with an article like before. (And yes, being from Astoria am well aware of the, um, opinions of more long-time neighbors.) I don't know much about the history, nor do I spend enough time exploring the neighborhood, but those of us who do live there will have a better idea of specific nuggets of information to include. For instance, more cultural stuff. So, if you know of something intrinsic to Astoria, like a particular festival or park or something, think about posting it here -- even if it's just a sentence or two. Or if you know of others who may want to, they can come to the article and add whatever. They don't even need to register, although it's a good idea. Alcarillo 22:43, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

This could be a great community project I think. So far the listing has been ruled by an elite few. I am partly responsible for managing the www.astorians.com board and I know that there may be members on that board that would like to help out. Feel free to suggest it on the board and see if anyone replies. Also, just be aware that as soon as some of the regulars see that you've edited the content they may get upset about it. The listing I think looks a lot better after you've made some changes, BUT there are some strong opinions in this neighborhood and some might not like your changes. Glad you have the courage to take it on, I don't have the strength for an edit war :) Mrminator 23:18, 3 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not too worried about it because there are ways of preventing an edit war. It looks as if most of the content was provided by anonymous users. Should it be necessary, a edit restriction can be placed that prevents anon or new users from editing. This article is an example of that: National Security Council.


 * BTW, I noticed that you got sucked into an editing brou-ha over the description for the external link to the astorians.com board. You know you can rever edits to the previous version. Alcarillo 04:55, 4 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah, the guy that runs astoria dot org is responsible. One of the users on the astorians.com board made a comment that his portal looked "shady", especially when you do a whois and look up his email, it's connected to various insurance and search-engine-spam sites, half the links don't even work. Anyway, this poster on the board just said it looked shady and this guy went crazy. Took my site down for nearly a week after demanding that I delete that thread and I declined. So then he started trying to delete the listing off wikipedia, and at one point claimed the would permanently ban the site from wikipedia. I'm figuring out some of the more advanced features like reverting, etc. And it's easy to see that he obviously can't just ban the site on a whim like that. Mrminator 13:17, 4 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I saw that on the article's talk page you mentioned a whois search of that other site. I looked it up, too and saw that the domain for one of the admin contacts was in Las Vegas or something. Certainly not "official", which is why I made edits accordingly. There are also strict rules about using articles for commerical purposes. Reverting should be used judiciously because there's a 3-revert rule in effect which lets a user make on 3 reverts in a single 24-hour period. Should you find yourself in an edit war, it's easier just to look up the previous version and manually restore those edits. Alcarillo 13:48, 4 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Do you want to see if we can get some astorians to help edit the astoria page by posting something on astorians.com? If you don't want to do it I can ask if there are people who may be interested. Mrminator 15:41, 5 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I thought about this and maybe you could privately ask a few whom you feel would make worthwhile contributions. Posting in a public environment may make the artcle a magnet for those who would have little to add beyond their own narrow agendas. I'm thinking lurkers on the board or otehrs. Alcarillo 00:32, 6 November 2006 (UTC)