User talk:Scimitar/Archive001

Archive 1, from my first day on Wikipedia until 22 June, 2005.

John Manley
Hi! I saw your introduction in Talk:John Manley (politician). Welcome on board to Wikipedia! Your contribution to the Manley article was great, and please do add more as your continue your research. If you're interested in contributing further to articles on Canadian government, go to Canadian government stubs or Canada-related stubs and look at some of the articles that have been designated for improvement. If you need any help or information, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment on my talk page. -Joshuapaquin 21:44, May 9, 2005 (UTC)
 * Holy smokes, that's quite the overhaul indeed. A great improvement! -Joshuapaquin 00:44, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

Port Arthur Massacre
Err.... What part of Port Arthur massacre theories isn't either patent nonsense or else already covered more competently in the main article? Tannin 22:42, 24 May 2005 (UTC)


 * No worries. Actually, I did consider nominating it for bad jokes and other deleted nonsense: there are some absolute howlers in there. Best Tannin 23:03, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Critical Information on Jehovah's Witnesses
Hi Scimitar!

Have a look at this diff. It appears that this anon (based in London) was trying to continue the debate after it had closed. I have a hunch this may be the same person as User:Eyesopen who made that vicious rant on the Vfd debate.

I want to mention this anon who may also be Eyesopen:
 * User:84.66.75.246 based in Milton Keynes recreated the article in question for a fourth time, it is now deleted.

Now I am not intending to file an RfC against User:Eyesopen just yet. I have posted a reply to his rant on his talkpage and hope that this will end matters. In general I think people are too hasty in filing RfCs against others, and I don't want to be one of those who act prematurely. However, take a look at Talk:Jehovah's Witnesses. It seems to me that Eyesopen has been in more quarrels, and been engaging in more personal attacks than most users.

I won't be logging in tomorrow, but I'll be back on Monday.

Thanks for your time, Sjakkalle 09:36, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

P.S. I have started evidence collection at User:Sjakkalle/Eyesopen.

Uwe Kils
hallo Scimitar - I wanted the crippeled version erased, which made no sence - we would like to have it as a referencepoint for teacher for the Wikiversity. I added a link to information on the page - keep up with your fine work Uwe Kils 20:38, May 28, 2005 (UTC)


 * thank you very much - good luck to you Uwe Kils 14:53, May 31, 2005 (UTC)

Star Wars Wiki
I have noticed your contributions to Star Wars articles, and I thought you might be interested in the Star Wars Wiki project. We could use new Star Wars contribs like yourself helping the cause. Take a look, and I hope to see you there. Cheers! --SparqMan 21:02, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

RfA on Argyrosargyrou
I've started a Requests for arbitration on User:Argyrosargyrou. Please take a look and add any evidence you feel is relevant to Requests for arbitration/Argyrosargyrou/Evidence. -- ChrisO 22:21, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

My RFA: Thanks
Thank you for your support on my RFA. Now that I have been promoted, I promise to be as hardworking and fair with the admin tools as I have been with the other areas here on Wikipedia. See you around and happy editing. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 00:37, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

My RFA
Thanks for your vote of confidence on my recent successful RFA, it was much appreciated. I will work to demonstrate that your trust was well-placed. Fawcett5 19:27, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Brock
Yep, that change addresses my concern. It really is a very fine article. Brock was a childhood hero of mine. When asked to propose a person after whom the school would have named a house had he been an old boy, I named him as my candidate. --Theo (Talk) 23:31, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC) Good change &hellip; it makes a great article better. --Theo (Talk) 18:05, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your support
Thank you for voting on my RFA. Have some pie! I was pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of supporters (including several people that usually disagree with my opinion). I shall do my best with the proverbial mop. Yours, Radiant_ &gt;|&lt; 07:58, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

Speedy keep
On VfD, the presumption is always toward keeping an article. If no one votes, for example, the article is kept. Indeed, it takes something like a super majority for anything to be deleted. Therefore, if there is an improper listing, there is no "speedy keep." Either say nothing or repeat that the listing is non-procedural. The reason that I would care enough to say anything is that we've had an enormous amount of ill-will at VfD in the last months. The school morass has been the focal point of a lot of it, but the differences of opinion about the future of Wikipedia are the real cause. The point is that some folks have started calling names. I don't like that in any case, but some folks (and Kappa has been one of them) have gone far out of their way to criticize the VfD nominators. It's as if the nominator is assumed automatically to be the sworn enemy of whatever the topic of the article is. Whether the intent is to intimidate people into never making a VfD nomination (and therefore is to declare war on the deletion process itself) or not, that's the effect, and it accelerates the name calling and bad feelings. I worry when I see anyone even giving the appearance of finger wagging at the nominators. Let people make bogus nominations, I say: they'll only be meaningful if people don't read the articles or reason clearly, and I don't think that that happens. If people read the articles and reason properly, then the nominator can learn to distinguish proper and improper deletion policy violations by having folks politely explain. This is particularly true of first time VfD nominators. We need alert and concerned editors, and I will sometimes put on the heavy boots if I think that folks are trying to scare or intimidate other voters. I took the "speedy keep" to be not just "please remove the VfD nomination for now" but a rubbing of the nominator's nose in his or her mistake. Geogre 19:30, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Contributions relating to the Rwandan genocide
Hi Scimitar,

You are making some great contributions on persons involved in the Rwandan genocide! These are obviously at the "outer edge" of Wikipedia articles, but some of them are accessible only by following a chain of articles, or by going through your user page (which I did). If you could add links to your new bio articles in the core genocide pages, it would help readers find them. Thanks again for your great work! Cheers,  BanyanTree 16:41, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the tip. I'll keep it in mind for the future, and I'll get around to doing it with the already created ones, unless someone beats me to it. I'm actually wondering if there is a List of people involved in the Rwandan Genocide article anywhere, because there probably should be if there isn't. Oh, on a personal note, I'm doing articles of this nature because I read Dallaire's book Shake Hands with the Devil, and it's pretty much impossible to view the world in the same way after reading it. --Scimitar 16:45, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * I had a similar reaction after reading We wish to inform you.... If it looks like there is a significant number of people, creating Category:People involved in the Rwandan genocide may be worthwhile.  If there are only a few, then Category:Rwandan Genocide is probably sufficient. Admittedly, a list with red-links may encourage others to create bio-stubs...  If you do so, please add it to Template:Rwandan Genocide.  Cheers,   BanyanTree 17:36, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

krill
hallo Scimitar! can you please take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates#Antarctic_krill maybe help with some editing / formatting / vote - best greetings Uwe Kils 20:31, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)


 * thank you, Jonathan, for the edit, maybe you can help some more with the English (I am from Germany and know my English is rotten) - keep up with the fine work Uwe Kils 21:07, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)

user page...
1Mbit VPN almost directly into HEANet backbone - I can usually revert pretty quick :) --Kiand 21:44, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Argyrosargyrou
Since I've had some dealings with him, I would prefer if you took it to WP:ANI or WP:AN3. Although no matter what you say, Everyking will object to any actions. RickK 22:21, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)

It's not vandalism per se. I seem recall that there's some kind of arbitration case open on this guy though. Oh yes, look here. Add evidence if you want. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 22:41, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, yes, I was only really conscious of his actions on Cyprus dispute. He does seem to have been engaging in vandalism also. Keep reporting on WP:ANI and he will be blocked again if necessary. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 22:51, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thank you very much for caring about Argyrosargyrou to leave me a message. Let me just say the following very briefly. I do not support Argyrosargyrou methods and tactics. I promise to contact him and see how it goes. My hopes are not very high though. Having said that .... I have been following mainly issues related to Cyprus and Greece. It seems to me that Argyrosargyrou has presented events and data in a provocative and irritating way. His arguments though are based on events and facts largely acknowledged by international bodies. It also seems to me that a group of people (mainly of pro-Turkish origins) have been bothered by his writings. This same group is painstakingly driving the VfD and RfA procedures for every article he writes and his banning from Wikipedia. I believe WP does not benefit from such actions since valid articles dealing with Cyprus like Cyprus dispute and Greek history like Hellenic genocide are either deleted, blocked or made useless. --Ank99 07:23, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Votes for deletion/No_Answers in Genesis
On notability, this site has been cited by BBC News, assorted academics, the Geological Society of America and by a conference supported by the National Science Foundation, the University of California Museum of Paleontology, and the Geological Society of America. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 23:29, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Orme G. Stuart
Might "Nacouver" be a typo for Vancouver? Can you fix if so? Gdr 23:36, 2005 Jun 14 (UTC)

Island Fox
Hi, you left a comment on the Island Fox FAC request, could you take another look at the article, its of featured quailty now. Thanks. --nixie 23:38, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

thank you everybody
I would like to express my thanks to everybody helping in the nomination of Antarctic krill. I think 3 1/2 supports and a long long discussion are an unexpected and great outcome for a critter so remote and unknown - you should see how little and poor Antarctic krill is represented in Encarta and Britannica - this is the best reviewed and resourced general article of krill we know of - it is impossible to fullfill all wishes at the same time - this is what we did with our all product peer review stamp to qualify this stage of the article for academic exercises, especially for our dreams of a Virtual university within Wikiversity - good luck to you all Uwe Kils 21:48, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)

Royal Navy ships
It's nice to see someone writing articles on ships of the Royal Navy. Just in case you haven't read it, let me point you at Naming conventions (ships), which sets out the (rather elaborate) conventions we use here. There's more advice at WikiProject Ships and discussion on the talk page.

If you're interested in writing disambiguation articles like HMS Adventure, I recommend getting hold of a copy of J. J. Colledge, Ships of the Royal Navy, Greenhill Books, 1987. (My edit was based on material from that book.) Gdr 09:50, 2005 Jun 15 (UTC)

Cyprus
Hi Scimitar!

yep, argyro's become active again - and blocked for it... All he is trying to do (doesnt take me very long to figure out, simply by the sheer amount of editing) is to copy-paste his old version (which nobody except him and maybe Ank99 approves of) and trying to extend it. All this despite efforts from virtually all other users to not allow his version (which obviously is heavily biased), and despite a RfAr already active against him... maybe he likes adding evidence? *puzzled*

btw, if you make your top-level headings like == instead of ===, you will get a nice index on the top of the page :) - Snchduer 23:30, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Cyprus reply
Scimitar: Thank you for your comments: in you, at least, I think I recognise someone who knows what words like "objective" and "respect" and "other peoples' opinions" mean. I am sorry to have caused so much hassle (I see Kiand objects to me *not* vilifying him in person -- which seems very Troll-war-ish -- "You have attacked me by name :: that proves you have no courtesy and I am entitled to flame you"). [Argyro] may be a ... difficult person ... but he clearly holds firm views. I'm sorry, for you and for him, that he has chosen to vandalise your user page. Interestingly I note that he does *that* rather than vandalising content-pages, which argues to me that he is *willing* for the other POV to be heard, just so long as his is. I am 'fascinated'' by the certainty by which Kiand picks out sock-puppets. I am in the UK, and a Dr.Who fan, and I had neither noticed that his alleged sock-puppets were using Who-ish handles, nor am I surprised -- given that, unless you have a long-standing handle, you're likely to pick something with contemporary relevance, and Dr.Who is available in Cyprus and most of Europe. Sooner or later, I think I may have to risk being totally banned, nd take this issue up a level, to some kind of Admin-level complaint. I agree with you that "we" (wikipaedians) ought not to give in to pressure. What worries me is that some users seem to think that when they lean on people, it's not pressure, just because they say they're doing it for our own good. Inshal. "And the stars turned in their courses" --Simon Cursitor 18:09, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Scimitar: you will be interested to note that all commentary on the VfD vote, together with the announcement that, by banning him, Argyro has now been deprived of all opportunity to answer his critics, has been removed to the Talk page, without a single mention of this on the main VfD page.  I shall not inflict upon you my conclusions, but they are, I am afraid, adverse to several people.  --Simon Cursitor 11:22, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Theo RFA
Hi Jonathan: For weeks now I have been meaning to start a post here with "You baboon!" but it seems grossly out of place now that you have said such nice things on my RFA. Than you for your support and I am sorry that your courteous goodwill prevents me from enabling you to achieve a dream. --Theo (Talk) 14:18, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In the Court of the Jedi Ron
Well, I tried to rewrite as well, to make it clear that he's mainly a game actor these days (or, as you say, a body in games but not the voice). I was left, though, thinking that he's really quite minor an actor. He may break through, but he hasn't yet. Geogre 16:40, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Jason Court
Thanks for the rewrite. Good job! VFD is changed to keep. Sasquatch&#08242;&#08596;Talk&#08596;Contributions 22:34, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind words
Hi Scimitar, thanks for the kind words about my edits to the articles you've started. I confess I went and checked out you contribution history after you signed up for the Canadian Biography Initiative. What I found was a most impressive series of contributions unusual for an editor with a sub 1000 edit count. In anycase, check out your user page for an acknowledgement of that accomplishment... Cheers, Fawcett5 17:28, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Helvarg FAC
Dear Baboon, I see that I omitted to thank you for your support of the David Helvarg FAC. Twas remiss of me because I appreciate your opinion.&mdash;Theo (Talk) 11:09, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Category: Good Job!
Congratulations on your good work with Isaac Brock. The speed with which you turned that blurb into a featured article is impressive and inspiring. I hope you tackle more subjects over there in my neighborhood. Peace! --Kevin Myers 12:55, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)

My RFA: Thanks!
Hi Scimitar! Thanks for supporting my adminship, and thanks especially for your kind words! Sjakkalle (Check!)  13:11, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Antarctic krill
thank you for the promotion of our most beloved mystic critter - did you see the photo of the day? - or krill eye - it would be great if you could also give some help with our next project eel reproduction - keep up with the fine work, best regards Uwe Kils 20:04, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)
 * not on the biology, but on the language Uwe Kils [[Image:heringmini.jpg]] 20:09, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)

response from London
Uwe wants to share this with you (from his talk page):

Hello Kils
Just would like to state that i have very much enjoyed being involved in a project of this nature. To see the speed of co-operation between various people was (Uwe, Lupo and Salleman and all others) fantastic. It was a complete buzz to go off researching about a scientific subject and coming to some understanding and appreciation of a creature that i would have no knowledge or interest in otherwise. I would like to say that it takes a damn good teacher to get others interested in what they teach and i for one, if only in a rudimentary and general way have found the subject of Krill and sorrounding issues of ecology and environment fascinating. I think that says a lot about your willingness to let others participate in something which you obviously have great knowledge in and could easily have been a lot less humble with. At some point i will put up some informtion on my home page so at least people know a little more about me. Am going to try to extend the article on Ice-algae so any info you may have would be good. I hope the article on Antartic Krill gets featured as i think it is now very good.

Wikiversity sounds like a good idea but will need more time to go through the proposal (not too sure what help i could be).

Once again thanks Uwe! Yakuzai 22:50, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

that feels good

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Antarctic_krill

did you see who gave the picture of the day? take care Uwe Kils 23:58, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)