User talk:Robin Patterson/archive2004

[This is most of the material from 2004.]

re: VfD
Apology for the bars and lack of asterisks in my VfD Zeal defence. Thank you for the polite response and action. (The formatting DID look a bit out of line!) robinp 00:54, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)


 * No problem! ;-) Davodd 05:11, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)

New Zealand places
Hi, I've created a WikiProject for New Zealand Places.

Cheers.

Ben Arnold 04:23, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Maori
Hi Robin,

Perhaps your appeal for help on the Maori Wikipedia's Macron boilerplate might be better off in the Village Pump or the Reference Desk as I don't know how to add content outside the text box. (If you haven't put it there already of course...). Lisiate 21:21, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * Sorted soon after, thanks - Robin

NZ/Philippine LGUs
I've seen your WikiProject New Zealand Places and it seems that the local government "units" aren't as strictly defined as in the Philippines'. On the other hand, New Zealand says that NZ does have defined local territorial units. I suggest that you guys decide how to represent the "series" of articles. The questions that remain unanswered in my WikiProject is basically what to name the articles. Sorry if I wasn't of much help. --seav 21:37, Apr 21, 2004 (UTC)

Fiji Coups of 1987
Hi Robin, Thank you for signing my talk page. It's good to hear from you. Yes, I agree, that's a sorry-looking stub at the moment. I didn't create the stub, only the empty link - but with the intention of writing a full-length article. Like you, I could write quite a lot about them from memory, but I have a perfectionist streak in me that tends to hold back until I've done the necessary research. I'm currently reading a book about the coups, and will be writing an article accordingly in the next few days/weeks. As you can see, I've been doing quite a bit of writing about Fiji; I have literally dozens of articles planned. I'm also writing a commentary on the Constitution of Fiji, and am currently bogged down in Chapter 7 - which I've been promising (on the Talk:Constitution of Fiji page for about two months now. It won't be long in coming now - but as I said, that perfectionist streak in me tends to wait until I have (a) the words in my mind about what to write, and (b) the mood to write. I think I need to loosen up a bit:-)

Anyway, stay tuned, and I'll write that article on the 1987 coups. Now that you've reminded me, I'll move it to the top of my priority list, so you'll see it sooner rather than later:-) David Cannon 11:21, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Maori User Pages
Hello again! Thank you SO much for creating a user page for me on the Maori Wikipedia. No, I had not noticed it until you drew my attention to it. Sometimes I overlook details-:) I hope to make a contribution to the Maori Wikipedia when my knowledge of the language has improved sufficiently.  (I began learning it a number of years back but it's been in, ah, suspended animation, if you could call it that, for quite a while. I fully intend to get back to it when I am able, however). Anyway, it was so good of you to think of me in that way! David Cannon 12:25, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hi Robin! Thanks for the welcome to the Maori 'pedia, I'm glad to see it's getting some substantial traffic. Unfortunately I don't know the language at all; what happened is that we have an obsessive problem user who has a hobby of making accounts on all the Wikipedias using my handle, so Tim Starling set me up an account on all of them automatically. I can put a message to that effect on my user page if you think it would be helpful. - Hephaestos|&#167; 23:10, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I have made a trivial user page for myself at maori (mi:User:Maximus Rex), linking to my english user page. I am glad to see that there is activity there. Since I don't know maori, I am unlikely to do any substantial editing there. I wish you luck, and if you have any general wikipedia questions, don't hesitate to ask on my talk page. Maximus Rex 23:25, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Counties in New Zealand
In your recent edit to County, you wrote the summary "New Zealand - plenty more detail if anyone wants it!" Yes of course! Wikipedians are a knowledge-hungry bunch. Now, if you got a ton more, you should start move most of what you've got about NZ counties from County to something like New Zealander county and leave a paragraph of summary in County. If we cram to much stuff on all 80 countries' counties in County, it'd be too full. Go ahead! --Menchi 04:19, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)

List of sitcom writers
That kind of project makes my eyes glaze over ;o) I have a reference work here with such a list - a full list of such writers (not just sitcom, all comedy) - and the idea of prodding that into an edit box hardly speaks of fun.

So, my method will probably be to try and do ONE person justice every day, or every few days: a nice bio, making sure he/she gets a mention elsewhere when appropriate, that sort of thing.

At the moment I am still in the inital stages of Wikiholism, dreams, hearing words underlined, staying on the computer for over 12 hours a day... I am rather hoping this phase will pass and I'll sit down with a more productive, focused attitude. --bodnotbod 20:54, May 5, 2004 (UTC)

belated reply
Sorry about the delay, I only just saw your comments, April 15th re neutral POV on Maori issues. I don't expect to be contributing to the Maori Wikipedia, there is a huge gap between speaking the language (badly) and writing it. Chers ping 07:46, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

and I second that
Tena koe Robin, sorry for not replying to your message of May 11 on my talk page. I've been timing out over the past few days, trying to decide whether to quit wiki for good. Re Maori wiki, I feel the same as Ping, that there is a big diff between speaking te reo badly, and writing it.
 * Ouch, sorry for not signing that message Robin. Moriori 23:50, May 14, 2004 (UTC)

Exam candidate
Hey Robin, thanks for leaving me a note on my talk page. How did you find me? I only joined the Wikipedia a month ago or so, and haven't made a whole lot of edits. I'm supposed to be doing a US History paper now, so I'd better finish it. Homework is a bit harder when you start typing internal links into it... &mdash; Braaropolis | Talk 00:45, 17 May 2004 (UTC)

NZ local govt
Nice work on the local government section of the NZ page. :) Ben Arnold 08:25, 17 May 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for the welcome, appreciated :-) Camipco 22:37, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

Thank you so much for your sympathy. I've been browbeaten ever since I came on this site, and I greatly appreciate your kindness and your suggestions. For the moment, however, I have more serious concerns than getting credit for past articles. Moriori has crossed a legal line, and I am also dealing with another equally bullying webmaster, so right now I'm busy fighting on two fronts. You can send me your suggestions and they would be greatly appreciated, but do not be offended if I don't use your information for some time to come. Thanks again. User: Felix F. Bruyns (added, 3 Jun 2004; moved next day to bottom of page for chronological clarity)

Hi Robin, thank you so much for letting me know how to get my previous anonymous edits attributed to my username. I had been scouring the help desk but had not located that piece of information yet. So, now I have been able to put in that request, thanks to you. I guarantee you I will duly pore over your Polynesian-related contributions as soon as I get a chance. Right now, I'm into tweaking the Caucasian and Alarodian languages... Pasquale 21:15, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Hi Robin,

Thanks for your welcome. No wonder Wikipedia receives the Best Community awards that is has. I feel glad to be a part of it.

Regards, FNN

Thanks For your welcome message!!! From User:Squash

Thanks for the welcome message. Yeah, that's a good point about the cricket grounds. I'll look for any existing ones at different names and set up redirects if I find any. --dmmaus 01:35, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Strange Interwiki Link and more about Maori
Kia Ora, Robin! You're right, that link redirects. I decided that it would be best to keep all my "talk" together in one place, because I'm not omnipresent. I got the idea from User:Fuzzheado, who had a redirect link from his Meta page and explained to me how it worked when I asked. I have quite a lot of Wikipedia accounts (no, I don't speak all those languages, but can passively understand many of them (sorta!) in their written form, or with the aid of an electronic translator.

I have a number of Maori Books and am hoping to improve my knowledge of te reo to the point where I'll be able to contribute to the Maori Wikipedia.

By the way, it's great to hear from you again. David Cannon 22:26, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hello Robin. I was just having a look at the article, Maori in response to your recent edit and noticed again the paragraph on Maori and Lego/Denmark. I am not familiar with the incident, never heard of it until I read it here. But I wondered if it had been serious enough to include in this article? Or is there possible another, more "central" example of this issue? Cheers ping 08:03, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Kia ora Robin, I have been off-line for a couple of weeks and only just picked up your message; too late for Maori Language Week. However I will give the matter some thought although as I said before, my ability to write Maori is very rudimentary. I can speak it, sort of, not much more than formulaic phrases, but that's about it really. Ka ki te ano, ping 08:34, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Prohibited from Maori Wikipedia
You're really not helping, you know. I now have an overwhelming urge to learn enough Maori to contribute. Wikiholism is a terrible thing. --   ALargeElk | Talk 08:45, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
I thought I'd finally get around to thanking you for the greeting that you left when I first arrived! Having a good time so far, but there are a few things that are annoying. I may be passing through Wellington in Sept/Oct, so you may well get a beer out of me. Cheers, Noisy 22:59, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Could you be more specific?
I took a look at your message, and then at all the changes I've made (which are precious few so far), and I don't see anything that I've done so far that would qualify. All spelling changes have been minor, for example throught->throughout and humanities->humanity's (refering to the possessive, which was clear from the context already in place). So, could you be more specific?

Thanks,

Emeraldimp 03:11, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)


 * Better? :-P Thanks, though.  Just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something! Emeraldimp 03:39, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for the welcome, Robin. And your enhancements to the Waitakere page - good work. Cheers - Ian Ford 01:38, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Adminship
Kia Ora, Robin! I have nominated you for adminship. To accept or (preferably not) decline the nomination, please click on the link. I think you're ideal for the position. David Cannon 01:58, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Green Username
You're very welcome, Mr. Patterson! Here are the tags for green text. Copy this:

Good luck! -- Merovingian ✍  Talk  16:13, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

Admins
Hi Robin! I would like to support you for adminship, but before I do, I wanted to ask about someone else who also is or was a sysop on the Maori Wikipedia. What's the situation with Perl over there these days? I would be interested in any comments you have about that situation. --Michael Snow 16:24, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the link, from the contributions it looks like Perl's activity over there has stopped. --Michael Snow 20:45, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Bruce Beetham Search
Kia Ora, Robin! I'm a little surprised that my reference to a yet-to-be-written article scored so high in your search. Hopefully the article itself, when written, will be as successful. I, too, was a very strong supporter of Bruce Beetham when he was in politics; I don't think the establishment was fair to him. My article will be as flattering as our NPOV policy will allow. David Cannon 23:07, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Sysop
Congratulations! Consensus has been reached on RfA, you are now an administrator. You should read the relevant policies and other pages linked to from the administrators' reading list before carrying out tasks like deletion, protection, banning users, and editing protected pages such as the Main Page. Most of what you do is easily reversible by other sysops, apart from page history merges and image deletion, so please be especially careful with those. You might find the new administrators' how-to guide helpful. Cheers! -- Cecropia | Talk 03:52, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)


 * Yeah, congratulations Robin! &mdash;Stormie 04:42, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC)
 * Congratulations! Noisy 10:14, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Woops, two have already beaten me to it! Anyway, congratulations, Robin!  I knew you'd make it!  BTW, I'm sorry I made the mistake the other day of writing on your user page instead of here.  I must have been half asleep-)  Once again, I'm so glad you've been appointed - you'll make a great sysop. David Cannon 10:44, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Somes Island
Hello, Zocky. I deliberately created a Somes Island page to cover the island that had no other name for about 120 years. You turned it into a redirect. Is it WP policy to name areas only by their most recent names? If it is, please direct me to a discussion of it. Then on that principle maybe you can push for the deletion of the "British Empire" page, for example. (You cut out the sentence about Somes Island that covered many decades of history that would have been quite significant in many people's lives.) Robin Patterson 11:41, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * It's not about policy, it's about duplication. The two articles were almost the same and one linked to the other, making it look like unintentional duplication. Sorry for cutting out the sentence, that wasn't intentional. No offence intended whatsoever.
 * Is there a lot of history about the island connected to its old name? If so, you could write an article about it at Somes Island and write about the island itself and its present state at Matiu/Somes Island. Until there's enough different text on both to have meaningful separate articles, it's probably best if both the island and its history are described at Matiu/Somes Island. Alternatively, you could write such stubs that would make the scope of both articles clear. Zocky 12:06, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Robin's reply at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Zocky#Somes_Island

Opinion on Timeline of New Zealand history ?
Robin, can you have a look at Timeline of New Zealand history when you get a chance? I think I've started this the wrong way. See the Talk page for how I think I should fix. Long term I'd like something like what Canada has. SimonLyall 09:21, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

2004 muck up
Hi there; thanks for the head's up. I think I've fixed it; all the anon editor did was add an entry of "October 23 - 2004 World Series starts." under predicted events. He then made a second edit very shortly thereafter which duplicated everything. Whether this was intentional or not I can't determine, but there is a known bug which causes this to happen out of the blue. Hope this helps. Cheers, -- Hadal 18:48, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Thank you for responding
Thank you for responding to my appeal on the Fundamental category. What if we transfer the thread of conversation to Category talk:Fundamental. I will alert the folks on the Main Page that we will pick up the conversation there. Ancheta Wis 01:42, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Your note on my talk page (cje)
Thanks for your note; Yes it is THE Open University - that is, if you mean the Open University based in Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom. However, I don't understand your comment on my deleting headings. I don't remember doing that - or perhaps I should say, I don't remember meaning to do that? Maybe I deleted something in error. Could you clarify?
 * --Cje 17:44, 11 Sep 2004 (UTC) --- (Robin has since answered on Chris's talk page) And Chris said "Got it! Thanks" --Cje 08:04, 12 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Cheers
Thanks very much for the note. I appreciated the user page contribution, by the way. :)

I'm trying to work out what my earliest edits where - I thought they were something Australian. . . I'll do a bit of a trawl. I'll see what I can add as re Brisbane - I'll be making a concerted effort to improve wikipedia coverage at some stage in the indefinite future, and i'll see if i can dig up more material then.

Anyway, hope to see you round the place! Lacrimosus 12:08, 13 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for the welcoming note you left on my talk page. It's good to be a part of the global Wikipedia community. - Walkiped 16:09, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

World Citizens
Hi Robin. Great to have you added to the world citizens page. Feel free to edit it if you think things need to be changed at all. Yeah, I think now with two people at least, people could start trickling in. Best wishes to you, Brett. [[User:Brettz9|Brettz9 (talk)]] 16:31, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome
No worries - for quite a while I was too scared to do anything, but since I registered I've become another Wikiholic - I'm trying to get some support from the HeavenGames community to expand that article and write sections for more of the games. - Alphax 04:18, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)

Mystery user on mi:
It's Node-ue. You might find this email interesting. Angela. 16:01, Oct 2, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for your comment on my Maori seats edit. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Maori grammar is almost non-existent - I can translate individual words, and steal phrases (see my mi: user page), but I need a lot more study before I can actually make articles. I intend to change that as quickly as possible, though - I'm trying to learn Maori properly, and composing basic Wikipedia articles seems to be a good way to do it. -- Vardion 11:44, 8 Oct 2004 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the expression of confidence. I'll see what I can do with regards the Maori Wikipedia - my contributions will probably be somewhat erratic, but I'll see if I can find things to do that don't exceed by grammatical ability. Perhaps a map of New Zealand with Maori placenames would be a place to start. I'll find something, though. -- Vardion 10:42, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks for your comments. I'm afraid I may give up. I'm tired of talking to brick walls and dealing with bastards who just keep inserting POV stuff and winding back any changes that they don't like, without even attempting to discuss anything. I'm on the verge of leaving. Shorne 03:57, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Thanks (third time in a row)
Thanks for fixing the Alpha Centauri link in my games-watchlist! I'd be curious how you found my sort-of-watchlist in the first place? --Conti|&#9993;


 * Same idea, thanks for the kind words. ;) Krupo 03:49, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC)

Niuean language
Hi Robin, thanks for your comment. I've replied on my Talk page. -- pne 04:58, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the greets
Hi, thanks for the greetings! I'm sure we'll run into each another by and by, as there's a lot of NZ and the rest of the world still to cover. Ziggurat 09:37, Nov 6, 2004 (UTC)

Wikifriends
Hi Robin. I was just wondering why you added yourself to my friends list. Have we spoken or worked on the same pages and I wasn't paying attention? If not, how did you come across my user page? Nicholas 19:54, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Stub Contest
Hi Robin - go for it with Tapanui if you like... and have a look at the difference I've made to the Coromandel Peninsula page! Grutness 11:20, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Nauruan Wikipedia/Wiktionary
Hi Robin, was it you who edited many of the nauruan articles and posted the warning about the incorrectness of the nauruan words there? Or is it now just a translation in Maori language...??? -- CdaMVvWgS 21:35, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Kia Or, Robin! Great to hear from you again. I'm so pleased to know that somebody - you - is doing his bit to ensure that the Pacific wikipedias get built! Every little bit helps. That reminds me that at some point I'll have to decide to get a little less busy on EN so that I can help out on the Maori one from time to time. I'll get around to it someday ... Have a great day:-) David Cannon 20:39, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Verifiability
Can you provide anything to support this claim? I'm not disbelieving you, I'm sure it's been used for a long time, but it would be great to find some evidence of it, in print or some sort of other record. &mdash; David Remahl 21:29, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

ROT13 before ROT13
Hi! Thanks for chipping in on ROT13 pre-Usenet. I don't suppose you know of a source we could use, the whole Verifiability think and all that? (I've put a note also at: Talk:ROT13) &mdash; Matt 21:38, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Arbitration Committee Election Get Out the Vote Effort
Hi Robin,

You helped me out with some tips about table editing before. Also, you asked me about joining a list of world citizens (I'm still thinking about that one.)

The list of world citizens is just the kind of thing that shows the diversity of opinions here on Wikipedia.

Its important that this diverse range of viewpoints be represented in the makeup of the Arbitration Committee, and I think the best way to make that happen is to help to increase voter turnout.

One of the technical people on this site, who goes by the name Danny, helped me to make a very convenient tag that makes it super easy to place this "get out the vote" banner on your user page:

If you support helping to increase voter turnout, please consider adding this tag to your user page, as a great many pages link to your user page.

Thanks in advance if you choose to help out. If there are any issues which prevent you from doing so, please let me know - I would be happy to make a custom version of this tag just for your page if that's what it takes for you to proudly display it.

If you choose to display this banner, please put the tag as near to the top as your aesthetic sense will permit. :)

Regards,

--DV 17:35, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

New feature to control campaign messages
Hi Robin,

Thank you for your earlier decision to support the "get out the vote" banner. It's been a resounding success, with users adding links to it at an astounding rate!

I'm writing to you now about a longer term issue that will affect not only the December Arbitration Committee Election, but all future elections on Wikipedia.

It seems that some folks are truly put upon when it comes to campaign messages, even to the point of not wanting other users to receive such messages.

I'm really not sure what to make of Administrators who are running for election, but don't want individual contributors to receive campaign related messages on their user talk pages - even if those users have explicitly requested to receive such messages.

I understand the desire not to politicize elections. But aren't voters wise enough to make their own decision to choose to receive such messages and make up their own minds?

I also respect privacy, and if users indicate they do not want campaign messages, there should be harsh sanctions for campaigners who ignore those wishes.

Please check out the proposal at Software and features, and vote to approve a new feature that allows users to control whether or not they receive campaign messages.

I'm hopeful that if users are allowed to explicitly declare their willingness to receive such messages, that others will not feel quite so offended.

If you'll support this effort, I think it will go a long ways towards increasing voter turnout in future elections.

Thanks in advance if you choose to help out.

Cheers,

--DV 12:04, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

P.S.: I've been impressed by the ability of the contributors on Wikipedia to find creative solutions to difficult issues, so if you have additional, creative ideas of your own, I would like to hear from you.

Article Licensing
Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 2000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:
 * Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
 * Multi-Licensing Guide
 * Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the " " template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:


 * Option 1
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR
 * Option 2
 * I agree to multi-license all my contributions to any U.S. state, county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace " " with "  ". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Thanks
Thanks with your proofreading when the Civil Union stuff went down. It was a bit of a marathon effort for me. I wanted to get it all submitted and to get down to the party to hobnob with the rich and famous, so it helped to know someone else had looked over it. :) Ben Arnold 00:19, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Plimmerton suburb table
Thanks with the improvements to the suburb infotable at Plimmerton. I must admit I was flying totally blind when I made the table - I'd never done one before and was adapting what I'd seen on another table (Mountains, I think). Looks much easier to work out what goes where with the one you put in. So... where can I find "standard WP table syntax"? 13:32, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)