User talk:Niteowlneils/Archive5

[20050101-20050331]

who are you to decide who is known or not?
if you were living in quebec you would certenely know cobaye molotov, but since you dont even taketime to inform yourself other than by google, it is evident why you miss the whole point, there is a real world outside the internet and the wiki's [unsigned from User:67.68.229.20 Jan 11, 2005].

Thank you
I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me to discover. You've used an article that I created (and User:Vaoverland helped with information on the equipment's use in passenger service) as an example of good Wikipedia style in Annotated article. I didn't see it until I was checking the "What links here" link on the Flatcar stub that I just added today. Maybe now I should consider putting it up as a Featured Article candidate? B-) slambo 21:10, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Another Thank you
I am flattered you saw our work as an example. I left a reply at User talk:Slambo. Mark in Richmond. 21:46, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Amused of North London
Hi. Just taking a moment away from the non-WP work I'm doing at the moment to refresh my watchlist and I see that a selection of my recently-created pages have been edited. Then realise that they were done by one person and by you, so recognise that I should say hello! (and thanks for spotting a number of typos I'd left around). --Vamp:Willow 23:26, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Re:Curious Chinese customs
No, I didn't notice it. Thanks for bringing this up.

I googled this text and discovered it to be "From the 'Canton Register,' the first English Newspaper published in China" dated 1828. The information seems outdated, Anglo-centric, bordering on racist, and probably unreliable. "great imperial ceremony of knocking the forehead on the ground thrice three times..." "...pray for felicity towards some domestic idol"

Some of it's factual (i dont know to what extent), I think it's too old and biased to be of any use. I would support deletion. --Jiang 01:41, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Hello Muddah from a puppy
Neils, thanks for the update to my new article Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh. I didn't realize that the topic was THAT fresh, but apparently it is. Cool. Now I'm sure it was ok to give the song its own topic separate from Allan Sherman.

I notice you're involved in deletion wars and stub expansions -- more power to you! (I don't think I'd get into that, I'd rather show off my writing. But I'm grateful for those who do.)

Regards, Steverapaport 02:29, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Punctuation
Thanks for copyediting many of the articles I wrote on West Africa. Please note, however, that there is no need to change list punctation to US-style (A, B, and C) as British-style (A, B and C) is equally acceptable on Wikipedia. Warofdreams 10:56, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * You may be interested in the article on the Oxford comma. It is a bit of a generalisation to claim it is British v U.S. English, but it is common in the U.S. and often considered correct, while it is rare in British English and often considered incorrect.  It looks very odd to my eyes, unless it is needed to clarify the meaning of the sentence or to indicate that the last item in the list is of a different nature to the others.  I hadn't realised that the Manual of Style suggested its use, but I'd suggest that - at the very least - there is no need to change it in articles written in British English.  Warofdreams 10:32, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

couch
Thank you. I feel like a dolt; I hadn't even realized I'd failed to capitalize Darius Couch's name. Thehappysmith 20:10, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Wrong title & redirect & delete?
Re: Verandah Porsche v. Verandah Porche

OK, so I click on a link with a with a mispelling, and create a new page, then spot the mispelling and move the page. What was wrong with moving the page to one with the proper spelling, then flagging the page with the mispelling for quick delte, if I first changed all the linked pages to the new page with the proper spelling? Just asking. I don't understand why you deleted the quick delete flag if I had fixed all the underly9ng page links? Now its a redirect for a wrong spelling. ??? --Cberlet 03:08, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the very clear explanation you sent me. :-) --Cberlet 04:48, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Confusion over Agnes Dunbar
I'm a bit puzzled by why you added a redirect to the page on "Agnes Dunbar 4th Countess of Moray" (note no comma) to the version with the comma, since the former version has no links to it and was marked for speedy deletion. -PatGallacher 00:45, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Bandit cleanup follow-up
Great idea regarding those redirects, especially in light of the fact that the Bandit is now making positive contributions! I might do a few myself, time allowing since I'm liable for the creation of most of them in the first place. Do you have any specific redirects on your plate that you were were planning on fixing?

Geography stubs
Hi - good to see so many new articles originating here! Just a note that you seem to be putting or  on a lot of them, when there is a better category - , which is for places, buildings (and school districts!) in the US. Grutness|hello? 06:02, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * The same is true with places in the UK (like Christ Church Meadow, Oxford), which should get . Please?  Grutness|hello? [[Image:Grutness.jpg|25px|]] 00:13, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

San Jose, California
Great job. I would still like to get that City Council box out of there, especially since all of the links are red. I wonder if we could create a separate stub page and put the box in there? RickK 20:45, Jan 20, 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd like to see it go, too, but there's no way I could support the article for FA with that red-link box in it. RickK 21:07, Jan 20, 2005 (UTC)

How about San Jose, California city government? Or City government of San Jose, California? RickK 21:24, Jan 20, 2005 (UTC)

Works for me. RickK 21:56, Jan 20, 2005 (UTC)


 * OK, I voted. Happy now? ;-)  BTW, last week I was up in the Adobe towers and took a lovely late-afternoon shot of downtown san jose with the convention center, tech museum, theater, fairmont, all overlooked by Mt Hamilton with a dusting of snow--at least I hope it's lovely but it's still on an incomplete roll of film in my camera. I'll try to find an excuse to finish out the roll ASAP so maybe we can get that shot into the article, too. Elf | Talk 05:37, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

United States move
When you voted to support, you may not have realized that it is also being proposed to move United States (disambiguation) &rarr; United States. That is, the page United States would become a disambiguation page.

Can you please clarify at Requested_moves whether you are voting in favor of only one or both of the proposals? -- Curps 23:40, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

More Bandit follow-up
I gotta tell ya, I couldn't be more pleased to see this person finally come around. Real, constructive and useful edits...who'd a-thunk it? I only wish s/he would either establish an account or contact us as an anon. In any event, I think the matter is finally closed, thank heavens. See you 'round the Wiki! - Lucky 6.9 01:56, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Table of contents
Hi, I just saw your changes to in-yer-face theatre. I'm wondering why it is preferable to have the table of contents  after  the main body of the article. If, for some inexplicable reason, what you did is in accordance with Wikipedia policy, then I'd prefer having no table of contents at all. All the best,  14:26, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)


 * You say that "the manual of style indicates there should be an intro before the first header." As you may realize, and as I've already pointed out above, the "intro" in this case is no intro but the main body of the article, the definition. What follows is only a quotation and a list of names.


 * I'm not going to follow pointless rules. But, rather than being banned for insubordination, I'll suppress the TOC. :)  16:10, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)


 * Well, just for once I've decided on the easy way out and removed the table of contents. I can see the idea behind the rule you are referring to, for example in longer biographies, where the first header would be something like "Childhood and adolescence" and you would get a brief summary of the person's life before that, by way of introduction.


 * I'm one of those people who question rules when they don't like them, and next time I'll start a discussion on the manual of style talk page.  16:21, Jan 26, 2005 (UTC)

Geo-stubs again
(replying to your post on User talk:Grutness): Hi Neil, Fair enough. There has been a lot of proliferation in the geo-stubs area - which is why there's been a move to "granularity" there. It's only on geo-stubs. Almost all of them are in the form "Country-geo-stub", so memorising them shouldn't take huge amounts of time, really (a full list is at the top of Category: Geography stubs). As far as I know Canada is the only country with a separate bio-stub. The granularity has a good reason - up until a month ago the Geo-stubs category has over four thousand stubs in it - it was a mind-boggling task to try to find stubs if you were looking for one particular country. Now, thankfully, it's down to about 1200 (once it's below 1000, I'll stop making new subcategories... it should take about four more). It is good that you and others are putting geo-stub messages on, and they are definitely better than no stub at all - I think what's going to need to happen is for me (or someone) to go through all of Category: Geography stubs once every couple of weeks to sort out which of the new ones need to go elsewhere. Grutness|hello? 05:39, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * PS: I think the one for radio and TV is Template:Station-stub. Grutness|hello? [[Image:Grutness.jpg|25px|]]

So you can teach an old dog new tricks ;) Good to hear you've started using the regional geo-stubs! Keep up the good work! Grutness|hello?  06:23, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Dawson's Creek, Again
Salve, Niteowlneils! Saw your revisions to the DC article. The lead was one objection when I put it up for FAC. I really didn't know what more to say then, so I didn't touch it. Yours is a good summation of my rather long article. I do thank you for putting pictures up. That's not something I know how to do--or am able to, using the public library's computers to work. I a long time ago put this on requested pictures but nobody responded. And thank you for fixing my spellings. I see mistakes perfectly well on paper--they leap out at me--but I just can't see them on screen. Ave! PedanticallySpeaking 16:07, Jan 31, 2005 (UTC)


 * Salve, Nitowlneils! I don't quite understand the objection to red-links some have raised. So there's no article.  All that could be contributed on many people would be a stub and even people that ought to have more (e.g. Joshua Jackson) are inadequate.  I created stubs for most of the supporting cast and a couple behind the scenes people (e.g. Joanna Kerns).  I did turn the list of guest stars into prose but there's not much that could be done for lists of writers and directors.  As for articles on the characters, the reason I even put them in as links was when I got to the article there was a longf rather rambling article on Joey Potter, since cut down, and so put links to it and others.  I'm about to go now and I'll look at your comments more another time.  Ave!  PedanticallySpeaking 19:27, Jan 31, 2005 (UTC)

Virginian Railway
You said to remind you in a month or two about possibily putting this article up as a fac, What do you think? Other possibilities are Auto Train (Amtrak) and the related autorack article, and William Mahone. BTW, I see Dawson's Creek is coming along! Vaoverland 13:03, Feb 1, 2005 (UTC)

Dawson's Creek
I believe some of the filming was done here in Richmond, Virginia at the University of Richmond I recognize the campus in some scenes. According to the U-R news here, the most recent campus shoot was an episode of Dawson's Creek in 1999. Vaoverland 13:29, Feb 1, 2005 (UTC)

removing spaces in headings
Is there any special reason you're removing spaces in headings (like "== See also ==" to "==See also==") and in lists ("* item" to "*item"). Many editors, like myself, find the wiki-code much more readable when the spaces are there. Certainly both are acceptable and equally render the article the same, so why go through and remove them? -- Netoholic @ 20:18, 2005 Feb 4 (UTC)

VfD
Hi Niteowlneils,

You're welcome. I think a lot of people forget that this is a volunteer gig, and anyone with 15,000 edits is probably here because they want to make Wikipedia a better place. "Assume good faith" is actually a pretty good primary rule for Wikibehavior, imho. By the way, you have one great collection of resources and links on your user page. Best wishes, Antandrus 01:36, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Virginian Railway
It feels like we set a new record for timing on a failed nomination. In and out in a week flat! Anyway, I'll take the suggestions to heart. On review, I have to agree that content-wise, the article is too much about building the railroad, rather than a more balanced overview of the whole life-cycle. I fear that shortcoming is classic for some of my work, i.e. getting too focused on details and losing the bigger picture. I have a lot more content available to balance it out, once the building story has been condensed or perhaps spun off into a separate article. I went to Library of Virginia today, and am onto some more information for a number of articles I have been working on so some new factual sources is good. A goldmine of information in a huge new building. Staff was very helpful, and we found a bug in their computer program which is why I could not get to some of the stuff on-line! I hope the rejection is not Raul being unhappy with me in some way. I have been working hard to add good content. I have also have had good interaction with several other editors recently, and we've been adding good quality content to articles in my areas of interest. With my health and other family problems at home, I get my feelings hurt (too) easily. Anyway, thanks for the nomination, and let me know if I can help on any of your projects, etc,. Yours in Richmond, Mark Vaoverland 00:14, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. I think I can do better with the Virginian Railway article with proper attention. I have been watching Dawson's Creek re-runs on TBS mornings, but don't feel I have the depth to write well about it. We lost cable connection for a couple of days due to an ice storm, which is why I was missing in action first of the month.

William Mahone
I wanted to mention a couple of things about William Mahone. 1. I would love to learn more about Otelia B. Mahone, his wife. The State Library may be a resource. 2. I did not list the slave ownership under Trivia (or at all). Some other contributor did that. I was unaware of that aspect of his life, (if it is even correct, which it might be.) I will verify it while doing other research, but I am far too sensitive to race relations here to call slavery "trivia", even if it was part of a way of life which is (and has been) "Gone With the Wind." His father died in early 1855, and was a man of substance, so he may have inherited slaves. His mother lived about 7-10 more years, and died before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.

Knowing what I do of Little Billy, there is little doubt in my mind that his arranging the funding for the teacher's college (which became Virginia State University) and Central State Hospital (for black mentally-ill people) was mostly if not entirely political, and only incidentally philanthropic. I have tried to be gracious in crediting that to him, largely following the lead of The N&W: A History author E.F. Pat Striplin. We are editors, right? FYI, the reality is that Mahone's political power was dependent upon newly-enfranchised black voters, and the state's interest in the A.M, & O was sold for 10% of face value in 1881. Mahone and his associates had every intention of buying it back, (it had been under his control until financial panic of 1873). He needed the state's equity share as cheap as possible to pull off the deal to refinance the rest of the debt. Striplin stays silent on that part, but obviously promising that the proceeds from selling the state's share would go for the school and hospital was the means to that. What messed up his plan was another bidder was willing to pay even more than he had put together and he was unprepared at the auction for the surprise higher bidder. (Why?: The higher bidders were primarily interested in going after coal, which is where the potential big bucks were, and owned a lot of land in that area. Mahone was more focused on the general shipping interests of many types while running a railroad). So, that is why I am a weak in praising or presenting strongly his contribution to creating VSU. He is not an icon there. In contrast, William Jackson Palmer kicked in a lot of money to what is now Hampton University for no "apparent" personal gain. He is highly regarded there, although never a Virginia resident, and in fact, he moved west. Oh well, enough rambling. I found out this a.m. that WP has Cyrus McCormick (inventor of the reaper and founder of International Harvester Corp.) born in the place. I'll work on that. Thanks for staying in touch. Vaoverland 04:21, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

UPDATE: I spent the afternoon as the Library of Virginia. Bonsai!! I was able to read over some rare docs that cannot be checked out, and I have 8 books including Blake's Mahone etc. for 28 days. About half are about Virginia localities I have been writing articles about. I will gone up on Mahone before trying to make more changes in that article and several related ones to get a better feel for the facts. Blake is cited as the source for many other places where information is found. So far, quick scanning does not reveal anything more about his mysterious middle initial (or lack thereof). As this has only come from one source, I will remove that one piece of unverified information from the article and the one on his wife ASAP. I should have verified more throughly before using it. We can always add it back if it turns out to be factual. If he did have the middle initial, he definitely didn't use it much, and apparently, neither did his opponents.

I also got access to some handwritten notes in manuscripts collection on William N. Page from a 1890 interview done by someone researching the Page family, which was one of the FFV's (founding families of Virginia). Nothing major, except some additional information about education and verification of the fact I unearthed earlier that most of the early iron and coal companies he worked for (1873-1889) were owned by British interests associated with Dr. David T. Ansted. No wonder he built his home in Ansted, West Virginia. The overseas money funding business enterprises was not unusual in Virginia after the Civil War. British and Scottish investors bankrolled Mahone's railroad expansion after the War also.

Well, off to the books! Vaoverland 05:48, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

Intro pages
Thanks for adding more links. I was trying to advertise as widely as possible. I'm not personally advocating any changes, but since others have tried to make them, I think a consensus is needed one way or the other. The worst method would be to make the changes haphazardly. Isomorphic 17:59, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Guide entry
''Obvious pranks or "tests" (content is just "blah" or "so and so (or such and such) rocks!") on new pages (click on the page history link if you're unsure), should be flagged by adding to the article, so it can be speedily deleted by an admin/sysop. There are some other reasons an article may qualify as a candidate for speedy deletion.''
 * I would like it if the use of or  is encouraged in newbies. It is easier for an admin, at least for me, if people state their reasons obviously. Mgm|(talk) 10:54, Feb 14, 2005 (UTC)

FOAF
I think the computer program FOAF should be separated out, into "Friend of a Friend {computer program}" or something like that, to differntiate it from the saying, which would have an italicized note at the top saying For the social-networking programl see .... The current combination is very awkward. What do you think? - DavidWBrooks 15:28, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

NYC subway stations
Why did you change all these disambigs? It is useful to have a category of all of these, and it helps me make sure I make them all. I guess I won't be making any more of these, just the normal disambiguated articles. --SPUI (talk) 21:44, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and please tell me how 23th Steet (New York Subway) is not a speedy. --SPUI (talk) 21:46, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

By the way, thanks for fixing the redirects (not sarcasm). --SPUI (talk) 22:01, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thank you!
Just a quick "thank you" for voting me for admin. Now all I've got to do is find out how to use these worrying new powers... Grutness|hello? 06:03, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)

User Friendly
Thanks for your formatting changes on User Friendly. Having reviewed your changes, I agree that they improve the layout.

The only explicitly copyright material are the images, which are authorised provided that the copyright information is attached. The article does not commit any GFDL violations, as images are not covered by it, except where the author of the picture decides to do so.

I look forward to speaking to you again.

Epideme 22:25, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

It appears I owe you some thanks for greg as well. Epideme 22:43, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Re: Bay Area Rapid Transit FAC
For infrastrucure, I was thinking primarily of some of the track sections that are elevated. The last time I was in the area (jeez, nearly 18 years ago now!), I remember seeing elevated sections around Berkeley. However, infrastructure to me also refers to repair and maintenance facilities, but these are much harder to gain access to for photography. slambo 11:55, Feb 20, 2005 (UTC)

WP:CP
No reported copyvios for TWO WEEKS?!? wtf?
 * The page got doubled. I'm going to try to fix it. --rbrwr&plusmn; 22:14, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * ...and a little over 24 hours later, I'm done. --rbrwr&plusmn; 23:18, 22 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Did You Know?
I have one that might be good for Did You Know? It is School bus yellow. I couldn't find how these are nominated, etc. Can you advise, or suggest it if you feel it is appropriate? I don't feel strongly about it, and don't want to spend much time pursuing this, but it might be an eye-catcher for younger readers and teachers. I have started watching DC reruns on TBS mornings. Getting hooked on Joey and Pacey and even Grams!!  23:40, Feb 25, 2005 (UTC)

Once again, you deliver on a request promptly and put that extra unrequested effort into it. In that spirit, I went back and put in some more facts about the manufacturers who participated in the National Standards Conference and added three more links. I also have been working to add to SLAMBO's Pioneer Zephyr article. I know he was a little discouraged by WP:FA failure of our collaborations on autorack and Auto Train. Have you considered whether your annotated autorack article might be a good one for FA? Raul (and other FAC reviewers) might embrace the concept of getting how to write/edit WP article right of there in front of everyone. Its a relatrively inetesting subject with your red additions that make it not too hard to read and follow. I'd being willing to nominate (and would like to) if you concur. Ogf course, after defending bad changes in the Battle of Hampton Roads during 24 hours it was on the main page, I can see why you might not want the annotated version subject to such intense publicity and editing. Whew!

One I have been working on (largely because of my own interest) which you might enjoy is Lost Counties, Cities and Towns of Virginia. I have some comment on teh talk page which you also might find interesting. You mentioned new employment, I hope that is going well. I went down to the new Library of Virginia and got some some rare docs on William Mahone and also found information and checked out several obscure books and state docs with info on some of Virginia's "lost" cities in Hampton Roads. Thanks again. Vaoverland 10:21, Feb 26, 2005 (UTC)

Vaoverland update
Greetings and Happy Sunday. 3 brief things. 1. Pioneer Zephyr is now a FAC. I have contributed, but article was created by and most work done by User:SLAMBO. Could you give it a look and any appropriate help and support? 2. When you go to my talk page, you will see the box thingy that automatically puts new messages at the bottom with their own section headers. I adapted mine from another user's talk page because it seemed such a good way to get the new talk messages where you want them. In turn, I also made one for one other user. Would you like one? 3. I have been nominated for admin. status. I understand the additional powers/responsibility that level involves, but I am a little confused as the routine duties, even after reading the pages recommended. Can you shed any light? Is it a matter of responding to complaints, looking for problems, are what? Thanks. Mark. Vaoverland 21:18, Feb 27, 2005 (UTC)

Vaoverland reply
Thanks for the admin insight. I feel better about it. Let me know on the other items when you have time. The box thingy really helps me with maintain my talk page. Now if I can figure out how to archive.... Mark Vaoverland 23:07, Feb 27, 2005 (UTC)

School bus yellow
I don't usually see lower half of the main page, so after your heads-up, the School bus yellow and Pioneer Zephyr articles in DYK were a treat! Vaoverland 00:25, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

On the CL&N
Salve, Niteowlneils! Thanks so very much for the offer. I searched some on the external links I had and then Google the line but didn't come up with a map. There's a very good map, a reproduction of the Pennsy's own survey maps, in the book I refer to in the article. You ought to be able to inter-library the book. (I have a full cite and the ISBN on it.) Alternatively, you could do a very simple map based on the co-ordinates of the towns it ran through. Most have co-ordinate data from the Census Bureau in their underlying articles. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Ave! PedanticallySpeaking 15:53, Mar 1, 2005 (UTC)

Template:Infobox City
Since San Jose, CA is on my watchlist I saw it for the first time when you added it there. There are a couple things I think are improvements, such as the DST UTC offset, and it probably be good to have one template for all cities in the world, but I really don't like losing the non-metric area units. According to English language, 70% of English speakers are in the US, where metric values are fairly unknown, so I would think the English version of Wikipedia (at least, probably ideally they all would) should also have the non-metric values. I don't think I know enuf about Templates, Infoboxes, and Wiki syntax to do it myself, so I hope you will consider adding it while the template's still only on a few cities. Thanks. (I kinda miss the water area percentage, too, but that's more of a convenience/preferences issue than an understandability problem). Niteowlneils 04:37, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the feedback. I've added back some non-metric values to the page. The template leaves a good bit of flexibility for these sorts of things, but I welcome any more feedback you might have. -- Netoholic @ 04:50, 2005 Mar 2 (UTC)
 * Cool, thanks. I guess I didn't think about it long enuf to figure out it would be possible to add miles even tho' only km are in the template. Looking at it more carefully, I see that your expansion of the 'subdivision' cell to include going out to the country level, which I wanted to mention I thot was a good improvement over the original Johannesburg box, also didn't require a template change. Niteowlneils 14:14, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Pioneer Zephyr is featured article
Thanks for your help in getting this one up to snuff and through. This is really an accomplishment of User:slambo,and is well-deserved as he has written a lot of good railroad stuff, a lot of it detailed content that isn't  spectacular (IE how much can one write about A boxcar, etc. Of course, the nuts and bolts articles (like much of his work) are important to Wikipedia as a reference tool, even though they don't always warrant images, or even a lot of text. BTW, my favorite recent small article is shunpiking. If you get a chance, congrats to slambo from you would be meaningful to him, I believe. Thanks again. Mark Vaoverland 18:19, Mar 2, 2005 (UTC)
 * Meaningful, indeed! Thank you.  I plan to keep building up articles to submit for featured status (and I've got another in the queue now, Franklin B. Gowen; and as soon as I add more business and financial details to Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, there'll be another working its way through).  I guess the Pioneer Zephyr's track speed record rubbed off on the article creation speed.  It makes me wonder about other Wikipedia records...   B-)  slambo 14:04, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)

I Thank You, My Mother Thanks You, and Julia Thanks You
Salve, Niteowlneils! Thanks for adding the photo to the Julia Stiles article. I'm very grateful. PedanticallySpeaking 17:55, Mar 5, 2005 (UTC)

Victorian Bushrangers
why don't you just move over the history and create a history section in the bushrangers page. Xtra 01:28, 6 Mar 2005 (UTC)

User:Vaoverland - administrator
Thank you for supporting my appointment as an administrator. I appreciate the pat on the back this represents. It felt nice to read the comments during the voting. Please let me know if you see something I should be doing as admin, as I intend to be fairly passive unless it is clear I should do otherwise. Thanks. Mark in Richmond. Vaoverland 20:06, Mar 6, 2005 (UTC)

Category links in your userpage
Dear fellow wikipedian, in browsing the categories "Basque", "Philosopher" and "Logician" I noticed that these categories linked to your personal user-page. This is obviously not a Wikipedia standard, so I removed the category links from its source, however much it is not a common liberty to edit your fellow wikipedian's user-page. Porcher 05:17, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the comprehension! Porcher 06:13, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

DYK candidate Carl G. Fisher
Hi. I wrote a new article on Carl G. Fisher (no relation to me). I think this one fits the criteria for DYK better than most, and I wrote a potential blurb for DYK on the talk page. (Talk:Carl G. Fisher). I was surprised WP didn't already have this man. A guy with a disability who overcame it too!

My problem is: User:Brian0918 has been my only contact for such things, and seems to be taking a break. I didn't want to miss the 72 hour new article criteria for DYK. Any suggestions? Your usual fine assistance would be most appreciated. (In other words HELP!)  Thanks in advance. Mark in Richmond. Vaoverland 19:17, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)

Seattle FAC
I think it would be reasonable to contact anyone who was at the meetups, and there is a pretty good listing on the meetup pages. -- Jmabel | Talk 19:46, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)

Carl G. Fisher
That is all good. I wasn't thinking from the competitive angle so much as just that it is an interesting story. I am enjoying the rollback button as an admin. It is like doing prices at Wal-Mart! Seriously, I have used it only for clear-cut vandalism, but I was already doing some of that with my watched articles, and it sure makes it easier. Thanks. Off to the massive new Library of Virginia tomorrow. I've had these books a month already! Vaoverland 00:32, Mar 10, 2005 (UTC)

Ron Santo
This discusses Ron Santo's diabetes, but not whether he was the first, which is what I always heard. He always had a lot of fans in his hometown of Seattle. Frankly, I've never heard of of another type I diabetes player, but there probably have been a couple since then. I believe his legs have been amputated at this time.--Silverback 17:49, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Award


 Just let me add my thanks as well for all your work to try and deal with everyone's concerns. I may have made the nomination, but it's entirely due to your effort that the nomination got pushed through. --Michael Snow 18:57, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Compression bug
Hello, Neil. You can replace the page contents with (pending pages should be blanked). That will move the article to Category:Pending deletions and out of Category:Candidates for speedy deletion. According to Administrators'_noticeboard, the page should also be protected -- something I don't always remember to do. SWAdair | Talk 07:07, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Carl G. Fisher is on DYK and has FAC potential
The article on Carl G. Fisher made it to DYK. I have added an image from LOC and sources. I would like to self-nominate it for FAC, but cannot figure out how to follow the new rules. There are only a few candidates right now, and if you will place it, I will comment (without voting of course) and follow through with it through the FAC process. I believe that this one is very worthy. BTW, how is Dawson's Creek coming along? Yours in Richmond, Mark. Vaoverland 13:45, Mar 11, 2005 (UTC)

Julia Stiles dates
You must not have noticed the talk page discussion of date wikilinking above in the talk page. Excessive wikilinking on wikipedia is a form of vandalism, date wikilinks are just one aspect of this. Wikilinking June 5 inside a biographical article's reference section can not possibly help someone find out more information about the subject of that biography, can it? Perhaps the article should be rewritten to not include so many dates? Why redundantly wikilink the same year over and over again inside an article (there are no formatting issues as far as years go is there?). Please tell me where I should go to propose a change of wikipedia policy on this issue. I believe excessive wikilinking also slows wikipedia down (more work to generate a page to see if wiki link exists or not [it all ads up]). zen master   T  22:55, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)
 * Is it really wikipedia policy that *ALL* dates and numbers *MUST* be wikilinked? I admit I overreacted a bit though I used the term vandalism primarily because the editor's check in comment did not make sense logically which is always a red flag in my opinion, and because excessive wikilinking can be considered a form of vandalism.  In the check in comments the editor claimed that the date wikilinks in this case are somehow helpful for finding out additional information about the references, I can't see how this is any way true and this editor has not responded to my request on the talk page for him to justify that statement.  I think it is impossible a random date wikilink inside a biographicaly article's references section to say June 5 can in anyway be beneficial.  To be clear, I am not proposing the removal of all date wikilinks, a celebrity's birthday and other things directly relevant to an article should always be wikilinked.  It comes down to how relevant, how the article ends up looking, and how likely a user will want to click on something for more information.  zen master    T  23:30, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Cupertino---I goofed
Hi Niteowlneils:

I goofed. You're right. It's the other way around. I got mixed up as to which school district Montclaire Elementary School was a part of. Feel free to modify the page.

--Coolcaesar 20:24, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Sikh Gurdwara
Would you obect to moving Sikh Gurdwara to Sikh Gurdwara - San Jose and then redirecting it to Gurdwara? There are many gurdwaras, all of them Sikh, and also several named Sikh Gurdwara. With a redirect to Gurdwara, anyone should be able to find the right one should an article exist. I would do it myself, but as the page already exists, it may require an administrator. There's no particular hurry as there doesn't seem to be many people working on the topic. Let me know if you want me to attempt it. Thanks. DialUp 20:59, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Seattle
Congrats on Seattle, Washington. Vaoverland 00:07, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)

Beat on the Brat (with a baseball bat)
Thanks for the cleaning of Oroonoko. All the things you caught (except for "eye witness," grumble grumble) were my fault entirely, and I appreciate having them fixed repaired. Oh, and the title of this message section is apropos of nothing. I just felt like quoting The Ramones and felt that it's done too rarely. Geogre 04:32, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Strike the Pose
Salve, Niteowl! Again, thank you for your help with the Julia Stiles article, which is now my second featured article. Since you are more adept than I at adding photographs, I wonder if you might be able to help with my Curtis Sittenfeld article. I wonder if you could add the cover of the book, which is on the main page of her home page here, and her photo from her biography here. Both cases would be fair use as we would be promoting her and her book. The portait is one for publicity and was featured in the New York Times Book Review when they reviewed it so it'd be like actors' head shots. Let me know. Ave atque vale! PedanticallySpeaking 18:02, Mar 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Niteowl! I'm very grateful for your work.  PedanticallySpeaking 17:31, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC)

Vaoverland update
It was good to hear from you. I noticed your absence. As I'm sure you are following, I've been busy nursing Carl G. Fisher through the FAC process. It has suffered more from lack of votes than objections, and I had to stir up a couple of other users to take a look at it, but it has gotten a lot better through the ordeal. Thanks for your recent tweaking, also. It is the oldest one on the FAC list. Unlike William N. Page, this one might be of broad enough interest to be a main page article one day.

It sounds as if you and I are alike inasmuch as I have to work on multiple things to avoid getting bogged down.

I hope to go to the Virginian Railway Coalfield Seminar April 8-10. I am helping one of the authors of VGN-related books with the content of his presentation. He will speak about William Nelson Page and other topics. I am flattered to also be considered an author by these folks and hope to learn some new things to bring back to the WP articles. Here is the link if you need a little diversion from WP. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts/

Yours in Richmond, Mark. Vaoverland 02:13, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you
For reverting the vandalism to my page, I believe user:Gioueeoi is gonna be trouble, I just reverted some vandalism of his from the anarcho-syndicalism article. Somehow I have an odd feeling they're a sockpuppet account, and I'm being targeted to a certain extent, cause they used one of my edit summaries for their vandalism to that page.--Che y Marijuana 22:12, Mar 25, 2005 (UTC)

Julia Hits the Big Time
Salve, Niteowlneils! Good news. The Julia Stiles article is to be featured on the main page tomorrow. See Today%27s_featured_article/March_27%2C_2005. Ave! PedanticallySpeaking 20:42, Mar 26, 2005 (UTC)

FAC Time Again?
Salve, Niteowl! After your revisions to Dawson's Creek and the creation of articles on many of the people associated therewith, actions which addressed issues raised in its previous featured article candidacy, I wonder if you think it's ready to submit once again to FAC? Ave! PedanticallySpeaking 16:34, Mar 30, 2005 (UTC)

Apollo 8
It was easy to support this one. I looked hard for something to suggest, but it really seems to have all the components. I wondered about the NASA double exposure photograph. Vaoverland 01:35, Mar 31, 2005 (UTC)