User talk:NoSeptember/archives/late 2007

Admin statistics
Hi! Someone mentioned to me that you keep a bunch of statistics on admins, so I wanted to point you to a sort of 'admin activity' thing I recently set up. It's at User:ST47/Stats and it has numbers of actions for each admin and crat, updated semi-weekly. (I'd add it to your subpage, but your format scares me) --ST47 Talk&middot;Desk 17:12, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that is some good info, I added the page to the admin project.  NoSeptember  23:40, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

Opting out
Hello. A small amount of us admins have been opting out from varying WP namespace statistical lists. Specifically, I have removed myself from WP:LA and WP:WBE. Would you be willing to accept requests to opt out of your statistical and analytical reports? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - &lt;*&gt; 07:35, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * In some cases I can be okay with that, but there are limits. It can be a struggle to find out information that is years old (some background). So, I would say having a good reason to opt out is important. My stuff is about admins, and no one is forced to become an admin - it is a public role, and if someone has not left the project and remains an admin, that is the hardest case to justify. Some limited hiding may work (using the code to hide it but keep it on page may be ok, or updating the information in full and then removing it but leaving an edit summary so it can be found easily enough). Overuse of such opt outs will create a serious degradation of the usefulness of some pages. I have used a phony name before here and some other things. The bottom line is that the information has to be findable, even if one were to completely forget about someone or some events (which I am sure to do as the years pass). A complete white wash of information would not be okay with me. I am happy to discuss options though. Cheers,  NoSeptember  15:32, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Hello, thanks for your reply. I was never thinking a complete deletion of my information, simply because far too much work has gone into your project.  I was thinking just along the lines of, as you noted above, using the  around my name, only on your version of WP:LA.  The other historical information I have no real issue with.  Would this be acceptable? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - &lt;*&gt; 14:44, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No problem. I didn't think we were far apart on this, since I saw your comment at MfD. But what works for a few opt outers will be a mess if dozens want to do it, so the less said about it the fewer who will independently decide they want this. NoSeptember  16:49, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I've gone ahead and hidden my name. If at any point you feel that its causing difficulties with too many folks "opting out," such as it is, or any other problems caused by the hiding, then I fully accept whatever judgment you make in putting me back in.  Thanks.  --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - &lt;*&gt; 12:39, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

User:NoSeptember/Desysop
Wow! That's cool that you have a subpage that gives important information on administrator related events.--U.S.A.U.S.A.U.S.A. 01:15, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks. And know that I encourage everyone to edit that page and any other pages in the NoSeptember Admin Project. Cheers,  NoSeptember  01:42, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

I am Back
Just thought you would want to know. xerocs 01:09, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Re: election bots
I don't know if you still run any bots, but last year you ran some very nice updates of ArbCom and Stewards elections. Is there any possibility of doing that this year? Cheers, NoSeptember  21:29, 15 November 2007 (UTC)


 * They will run as they did last year – Gurch 21:29, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

User:NoSeptember/admin username changes
As this page is protected, I cannot update it. However, there was a recent admin name change: 00:31, November 20, 2007 Secretlondon (Talk | contribs) renamed User:Golden Wattle to User:Matilda ‎ (16,330 edits. Reason: WP:USURP) I thought I'd let you know, since it's your (very useful) project, you could add it. How accurate is the other section on that page, the one about non-admins with >2,500 edits? I (talk) 07:34, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Like many of the pages in the project, it may not be totally up to date, that depends on when someone gets around to doing it. I haven't been able to update many things in the past 6 months :(. One of these days, when I get some time, I will update a lot of pages. NoSeptember  14:54, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, okay. Another one happened

21:29, November 26, 2007 Deskana (Talk | contribs) renamed User:Awyong Jeffrey Mordecai Salleh to User:Pegasus ‎ (16,498 edits. Reason: WP:USURP) So I'll just leave them here in case an administrator who has a few moments feels like updating the page. I (talk) 23:22, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I expect a lot have been missed since August, at some point I'll have to scrape through the log to catch them all. Cheers, NoSeptember  23:39, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

An Admin's philosophy
I thought you might want to share my Admin philosophy thoughts: Briefly, as an administrator, I have been pro-Wikipedia and believe that I have interacted with other uses in ways that should be good for Wikipedia, including sensitive and nurturing interaction with newbies and luring in IP contributors to register. Here are my three basics.

1. My own role, setting an example: I prefer working on content over politics and especially WP conflicts. I think I need to set an example, continuing the quality and volume of my work, including stepping in on specific projects and articles and making sure we have quality, verifiability, and timely results.

2. Mediation and Assistance: I try to be very evenhanded in assisting other and mediating disputes. I strive for moderate and reasonable actions, and I will mediate conflicts and respond to communications with a willingness to say "I am sorry" and/or "You were right" as well as gently try to make any points or criticisms (hopefully constructive) necessary.

3. Mentoring: I brought over to Wikipedia an exceptionally bright high school student I met three years ago in a school bus group. Although, like most of the people in my Yahoo Groups, we have never met in person, over the past couple of years I have helped mentor him with Wikipedia as well as being an older "cyber-friend" with who I have common interests and complimentary skills. He stimulates me intellectually as we help each other. I helped him informally with decisions about his choice of good schools, as with his academics and scholarships, he had the choice of several very good ones. This year he is a freshman at the University of Virginia, and is doing very well. His parents and friends including those with Wikipedia have much to be proud of. He and I both continue to contribute to Wikipedia virtually every day or night, despite his increased school load. He has also posted to mentor new users.

Thanks. Mark in Historic Triangle of Virginia (talk) 19:00, 29 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I have added this to User:NoSeptember/admin policy, which I encourage anyone who wants to add their policy/philosophy to do so. Cheers, NoSeptember  00:02, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Please stop posting hidden messages in comments. It's just childish. – Gurch 15:37, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I have to admit I prefer the method I use at User:NoSeptember/wikibreak to plain old hidden messages, but both have legitimate purposes at the appropriate time, such as the one yesterday. Cheers, NoSeptember  15:44, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
 * What "legitimate purpose" did it serve that simply leaving the message normally would not? – Gurch 19:05, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
 * You had a picture on you talk page and were routinely removing messages left there. I guessed that maybe you wanted to maintain the visual integrity/consistency of the page and so left a message that did not upset that visual integrity/consistency. Obviously I can't read your mind about your real intentions on the page, but I think it was a reasonable guess, and is still no big deal. Cheers, NoSeptember  20:07, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
 * People are allowed to have pictures on their talk pages. You have three. As for routinely removing messages, it's called archiving – Gurch 13:21, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I didn't think my comment came off as "anti-picture" on talk pages, to the contrary. As for archiving, I see you archive some stuff, not others, but always seem to keep a clean page with just the one picture, so I went with that. Of course, feel free to archive my comment(s) or not as you like. This conversation seems somewhat surreal to me, which I enjoy, I'm looking forward to more. Cheers, NoSeptember  14:56, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Odd, I thought I archived everything. Even personal attacks – Gurch 15:32, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I saw your last edit summary on your talk page. Handling a page in any way other than the most common way is bound to confuse some of us. Now you know why my User:NoSeptember/wikibreak has so many instructions - to help people to do it right :). NoSeptember  15:42, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Vand by an admin?
Re your edit that did nothing but add a forged system msg to one of yr subpages: On seeing your talk page, i now can't imagine that your intent was vandalistic, tho it seemed obviously so when I got done trying to figure out what i was doing wrong, and undid the edit. One possibility that now occurs to me is that you regarded it a harmless experiment, since why would anyone go looking at your user subpages. Well, bcz you also lk'd that one to Adlai E. Stevenson, which was a highly error-productive title for Adlai E. Stevenson I, and having renamed it, i'm left with the job of finding out which lks to Adlai E. Stevenson mean Adlai E. Stevenson I and which Adlai E. Stevenson II, oh, and which one has to just be left rdr'd to Adlai Stevenson (disambiguation). There were something like 140 of them when i started, so i trust you'll understand my being a bit testy. But thanks for your quite apparent enthusiasm for adminning. --Jerzy•t 04:35, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, that edit is well over two years old (and per your heading, I note I wasn't even an admin at the time ;-). You've been here a long time and know how things evolve. Back in 2005 no one was all that concerned about this particular system message spoofing. In fact I remember that dozens of users and many admins stuck it on their talk or user pages as a joke. I never did this because I never thought it was all that funny. The reason I must have stuck it on one of the most obscure subpages I have is because, not being an expert in code and stuff, I sometimes copied bits of interesting code so I wouldn't lose track of that bit. If I remember right it was only earlier this year that we had that big discussion about system message spoofing and put an end to it. How things change, what is a widely used joke in 2005 is serious vandalism now.  I also remember when user boxes (another thing I don't use) were mostly used to let people know of your language proficiencies. Who would have guessed there'd be a war over them in late 2005. Thanks for removing it from my subpage, I had long since forgotten it and would have removed it if I knew it was there. And thanks for the trip down memory lane :-). Cheers,  NoSeptember  23:51, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I guess i'm glad not to have known about the user-box war; looks like i'd have been on the losing side, which makes it much nicer to have been a non-combatant. [wink] As to the "spoofing", feel like i'd seen it done once before, and i'm not sure why i don't remember complaining. Something to do with age; either i've forgotten or i'm ascending to a new level of curmudgeonhood. --Jerzy•t 01:55, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah, so you missed the spoofing debate which got quite silly at times. Btw, I like the ToC spoofing you have on your talk page, maybe I should copy that bit for future reference ;-). NoSeptember  09:35, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
 * As for Stevenson, lets hope no one objects to your choice to make it a redirect to a disambiguation page, instead of being the location of the article for the most well known person of that name. I'd hate to see all that effort wasted. NoSeptember  23:51, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
 * The distinction between AS and AES as the article name seems to me a minor issue, and i was focused on harm reduction: both names are much more common for AES II than any of the others, and the crucial thing is to stop the proliferation of articles where AES II is represented by a lk to AES I. Second, i wanted to respect that fact that (by reason of, at worst, laziness) a great many editors are used to counting on AES as the proper name for AES I, and it would be terrible to now have a spate of lks to AES I by editors who haven't noticed the change: IMO, the title Adlai E. Stevenson is pretty much ruined for some indeterminate time, bcz for respective good reasons, some editors will blindly use it for AES I and others for AES II; IMO it has to be a Dab (or Rdr to one, as now) for a significant time. Having "AES" lks go to a Dab is too bad, but better than any practical alternative.
 * But your comment draws my attention to the hope of "heading off" what you anticipate, to the extent of having an argument like the above appropriately placed. What do you think of the idea of you and i seeing whether we can proceed at least a little twd our own teeny consensus about this short-to-medium-term need, and (perhaps immediately) moving this discussion to, i guess, talk:Adlai Stevenson (disambiguation), with a lk to it at talk:Adlai E. Stevenson? --Jerzy•t 01:55, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Feel free to copy this discussion there if you like. Maybe just leaving a note there that there were reasons for locating the articles as done and requesting anyone who has other ideas to contact you would be enough. As long as people can easily find the articles, and they can, I personally don't care that much about what title they reside at. NoSeptember  09:35, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Repeal 16-17 → SMP0328
Done but I don't have time to evaluate the unblock request - it seems the block was for more than just the username. I leave the unblocking to you or another administrator. WjBscribe 06:25, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you. NoSeptember  06:33, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Admin number?
To you know of any any to easily determine which admin a user is out of the total number (e.g. Sean Whitton is 1,000 out of )? John Reaves 08:32, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
 * You can figure it out. I have been taking snapshots of the current admin number for about 18 months at User:NoSeptember/admincount and have worked it back further using the logs. From a data point you just have to adjust for activity on the two logs (enwiki and meta). Due to occasional desysoppings, sometimes for every 20 steps forward, there is one step back, so two users could have the same number. I previously calculated mine to be 795. Your number is 1143. Thanks for asking, user #589,268. ;-) NoSeptember  08:42, 31 December 2007 (UTC)