User talk:Smithers/Arc2

RfA Question
Hi, I was thinking of retrying for RfA. Hypothetically, would you support or oppose me? This way I can know what to work on in case I actually do decide to go for it again. If you could reply at User:Ctjf83/RfA, which also has a link to my first failed RfA. Thanks, C T J F 8 3 chat 20:00, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Can you answer these two questions:
 * 1. What administrative work do you intend to take part in? (note that this question also appears on a real RfA.)
 * A. I intend to help with the CSD and AfD backlogs. I have recently started closing keep AfDs and have been tagging a lot of CSDs while patroling new pages. I also intend to help with the backlog that builds up at WP:3RR as it has taken some of my reports several and up to 12 hours to be looked at.
 * and 2. Do you think this is canvassing? Why or why not?
 * A. No, If I knew for sure you would support me and I was for sure going to run for RfA, then it would be canvassing. I looked through the current RfAs and see that you comment a lot so I asked you and User:7 (who I'm sure you're aware comments a lot) on your thoughts on if I'm ready yet or not. If several frequent commenters on RfAs oppose me, I see no reason to run and vice versa.
 *   smithers  - talk   22:02, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for taking time. C T J F 8 3 chat 22:09, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ I think you have good experience in CSD and AFD. However, User:7 has more edits then mine tenfold, and he has the brains. I would certainly go off of him. I have trusted him ever since I first came here. Good luck nonetheless, and if you have the guts, go for it.   smithers  - talk   22:34, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your thoughts! I'll see what other users think before I decide. Thanks for your time. <font face="Kristen ITC"><font color="#ff0000">C <font color="#ff6600">T <font color="#ffff00">J <font color="#009900">F <font color="#0000ff">8 <font color="#6600cc">3 chat 22:37, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't. Just go for it. People will jump to the conclusion of canvassing. I know people there at RfA. <font face="Batik Regular">  smithers  - talk   22:39, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe a few more weeks of CSD and AFD, I don't meet your <S>3 4 month requirement. <font face="Kristen ITC"><font color="#ff0000">C <font color="#ff6600">T <font color="#ffff00">J <font color="#009900">F <font color="#0000ff">8 <font color="#6600cc">3 chat 22:44, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Replying here to keep the conversation all in one place. First, as Smithers mentioned above, I too was somewhat concerned with a canvassing issue here, but I see that you have only asked two people so I think that this is okay. I am, however, a bit surprised that you asked two editors who did not !vote in your original RFA. Aside from us, it would probably also be appropriate for you to ask Cirt and/or your original admin coach. To put the cart before the horse, I would conclude by saying that I am probably neutral leaning support at this point (after looking at your logs for 30 min or so), and I'll explain why below.

Let me start by saying that in general my RFA philosophy is that adminship is no big deal, and that assuming people have a clue and understand policy and can remain clear of drama there is no reason that they should not get the bit. If I see those qualities I will almost always support. If I see significant problems that concern me I might be willing to oppose. I will (almost?) never leave a neutral comment as I really feel it is not helpful to the community to make it known that I cannot make up my mind on a certain candidate.

For you specifically:
 * Clue You certainly have a clue. No reason to go further there.
 * Policies From what I can see your policy knowledge is probably fine, and I don't see the same AFD concerns that were mentioned in your first RFA. Your involvement in WP:NACD (to use your new shortcut) is strong as you have been closing a lot of AFDs, but I had trouble finding the last AFDs that really commented on.  Even though this sounds contradictory, I think it is important for non-admins to participate on the comments of AFD more than focusing on helping out with closures (even though that's what they'll have to do as admins) because it is more relevant for people to judge you and your neutrality and your understanding of policy based on what you feel should happen to an article rather than whether or not you can measure the consensus after the discussion.  So, as Smithers mentioned, more experience with CSD and AFD and Prod are always a good thing to help people understand how you operate - but I'd probably be fine with you in this capacity already.  Glad your userboxes are cleaner than last time.
 * Drama - this is the only part that gives me pause at this point. By "staying clear of drama" I am not encouraging anyone to run away from problems, as that doesn't solve anything.  But there is a fine line between helping clear up the drama and getting dragged down into it.  Granted, I have not dug too deep into the situations, but the recent (today?) 3RR discussions (which may as you mentioned be retaliatory against you) and the SPI that followed concerns me that you might be getting dragged down a bit.  What has helped me is to express my opinion once (either through article edits or through talk/discussion) and to express it again a second time if it doesn't seem like people are getting the point, but after that I normally take a step back and let others either agree or disagree or take over the fight.  No one person can fix everything here, so formal processes like RFC or discussions on talk pages or in wikiprojects should happen long before anyone ever gets to 3RR, or better still informal processes like walking away or taking a break from an article or topic should give others time to stumble upon the situation and either take up your side of the argument, or present their opinion in a different way which makes you reconsider your side.  So, for your recent edits, the drama point is the only one that would leave me on the fence.

I'll stop now and give the servers a chance to process my ridiculously long message, but I'm watching here so feel free to reply if you have any questions. Regards. 7 23:24, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Excuse my apparent lack of knowledge, 7, but can you reword the point you made about drama for me? Thanks. <font face="Mistral"> Smithers' Sock Puppet  00:06, 8 February 2010 (UTC)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sock7 (talk • contribs)
 * ^^sinebot fail... <font face="Mistral"> Smithers' Sock Puppet  00:09, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Happy to clarify anything if you tell me what part you felt was unclear. My point is that I see him in a 3RR back-and-forth which lead to an SPI that he filed against the 3RR reporter.  May be totally valid and may be a sock, but to me this seems like a bit of drama.   7  01:10, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * . I see now. <font face="Mistral"> Smithers' Sock Puppet  01:52, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you both for your thoughts. I hope this wouldn't turn out to a canvas, as I have never had any dealings with either of you and just picked 2 random names that commented a lot on the current RfAs. I did ask User:Cirt and User:MBisanz to comment, but I will call it off as to not seem canvassing, thanks again. <font face="Kristen ITC"><font color="#ff0000">C <font color="#ff6600">T <font color="#ffff00">J <font color="#009900">F <font color="#0000ff">8 <font color="#6600cc">3 chat 04:28, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ Well good luck nonetheless. <font face="Batik Regular">  smithers  - talk   04:36, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't think there is any problem with asking both Cirt and MBisanz for their opinions as well, as technically this is not canvassing - you aren't trying to get people to change their mind or vote on something that is currently under discussion. However I would be careful about adding too more people's opinions beyond that.  Hope you can get your current 3RR drama block cleared up quickly.   7  06:43, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * So how would that drama affect an RfA? <font face="Kristen ITC"><font color="#ff0000">C <font color="#ff6600">T <font color="#ffff00">J <font color="#009900">F <font color="#0000ff">8 <font color="#6600cc">3 chat 18:41, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

I can't predict the overall results, I can only reiterate what I said above - some people may be distracted by the existence of any drama. 7 23:00, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, all I can do is try and explain some reasoning and see what happens. <font face="Kristen ITC"><font color="#ff0000">C <font color="#ff6600">T <font color="#ffff00">J <font color="#009900">F <font color="#0000ff">8 <font color="#6600cc">3 chat 23:02, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay CT, I think this conversation has run its course. 7 would remain a neutral, and I am currently undecided. Me and 7 are not psychics; we can't predict how an RfA is going to run (that would be nice however). If you want to become an admin, and want to run for RfA, go for it. <font face="Batik Regular">  smithers  - talk   01:18, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Autoreviewer Rights
Hi, just wanted to let you know that I have granted autoreviewer rights on your account, as you have created numerous valid articles. This will have little or no effect on your editing, and is intended mainly to reduce the workload on new page patrollers. For more information see Autoreviewer, and feel free to ask if you have any questions.  F ASTILY  (T ALK ) 03:43, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much Fastiliy <font face="Batik Regular">  smithers  - talk   04:36, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Kingpin13's RfA
Hi! I left you a comment at Kingpin13's RfA. Regards, Jafeluv (talk) 08:32, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your RfA Participation
User: - Thanks for your participation in my recent successful RfA. Although you did not express confidence or trust in me, the community did and as you are an equal part of that community, deFacto your confidence and trust in me is much appreciated. As a new admin I will try hard to keep from wading in too deep over the tops of my waders, nor shall I let the Buffalo intimidate me.--Mike Cline (talk) 10:00, 12 February 2010 (UTC)

DYK nomination of Mosby Creek Bridge
Hello Smithers, I have reviewed your recent submission at DYK; however, the hook is not yet cited. Besides that, looks good to go. Thanks in advance. Kindly Calmer   Waters  00:54, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

Suite Vollard article
Dear Smithers7,

I am Gregory Zechmann, head of Economic Analysis for Spin Buildings.

I have noticed that you have made quite a few mistakes upon making changes to the article on Suite Vollard. I would like you to know that we are the detainers of the worldwide patent for the spinning technology of any structure with more than two stories tall. Our official website is at http://www.spinbuildings.com, and NOT at Emporis or Skyscraper City.

I apologize for modifying some data on the wiki, but this is all very new to me. Please, rather then using other secondary unoficial sites for reference, utilize our official source. David Fischer is a direct competitor to our technology, and would bee more then glad to see his name linked to the only actual existing spinning building in the world.

You may contact me at gregory@spinbuildings.com

Best Regards —Preceding unsigned comment added by Suitevollard (talk • contribs) 18:20, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thank you for bringing this up. However, although I created the article, it is not mine. If you want to change something, go right ahead; there shouldn't be nothing against you. Be bold! <font face="Batik Regular">  smithers  - talk   01:52, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Oregon COTW and randomness
Greetings fellow WikiProject Oregon member, it is once again time for the Collaboration of the Week (yes, I know they are not actually every week anymore). Thank you to those who helped out the last few weeks improving Terrell Brandon, Just Out, 75th Oregon Legislative Assembly, and all the unreferenced BLPs. This week we have by request Oregon Coast Aquarium and Arvydas Sabonis (maybe the Blazers can sign him as I think he's healthy). Both need more sourcing. As always, click here to opt out of these messages, or click here to make a suggestion for a future COTW. And remember folks, the only thing we have to fear is death and taxes, unless of course the dingo ate your baby, at which point you may feel the need, the for speed to get away from said dingos, which in turn can lead to a failure to communicate due to the dynamics of sound waves, though at some point hopefully we can all just get along. Aboutmovies (talk) 09:20, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Talkback
 Nerdy Science Dude :)  (✉ click to talk • my edits • sign) 15:41, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

Visual edition of the Oregon COTW featuring the Glass Palace
Hello WikiProject Oregon member, time for a new edition of the Collaboration of the Week. Thank you to those who helped out the last few weeks improving Oregon Coast Aquarium and Arvydas Sabonis. Also thank you to those few of you helped with the attempt to celebrate Women's History Month with Barbara Roberts and Ursula K. Le Guin.

This week we have by request the Memorial Coliseum that has been in the news a lot lately, and then one of the more important political figures in our state's history, Douglas McKay. The MC needs some ref work and EL work, and McKay really needs a lot more sourcing. As always, click here to opt out of these messages, or click here to make a suggestion for a future COTW. Aboutmovies (talk) 20:13, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

It Takes a Rim Village - Oregon COTW
Greetings WikiProject Oregon member, time for the next edition of the Collaboration of the Week. Thanks to those who assisted in improving a few articles over the last month. For May Day edition of the COTW (in Wikipedia time its May already), we have by request Rim Village Historic District and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (AKA OMSI). Rim Village just needs some refinement to get to GA, while OMSI needs a lot of work in general. As always, click here to opt out of these messages, or click here to make a suggestion for a future COTW. Adios (on May 5th that is). Aboutmovies (talk) 04:52, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

WPORE COTW 2.0 - the picture edition
Greetings one and all. For some of you, this will be your first time receiving one of these messages, as it has been a year since the WikiProject Oregon Collaboration of the Week (COTW) was a regular thing. My hope is it gets back to being a regular thing.

Usually I would go over the past COTW, but we are basically starting out anew. So, without further adieu, this edition is our semi-annual picture drive. We usually try to do it when there is decent weather in the state, and today seems to fit the bill. Now although you are encouraged to go out and take pictures, you can also just search the internet for images that have the proper licensing and upload those. Flickr is one site that has a fair amount of content with the proper licensing (most images on Flickr are not compatible). See WP:COPYRIGHT in general. For some “free” sources, check out the our dormant subproject that has some links to sources.

Lastly, if you need to know what images we need, here are the requests. Please remove the request from the talk page if you add an image.

Finally (this is not image related), as the years have passed, we have lost many good editors, and others, like myself, are no longer in school or are working full-time or both, and thus are less active in the project. The project lives on, but it has created a bit of a power vacuum without a de facto cabal still around all the time. With that in mind, I encourage newer project members to step-up and fill some leadership type roles. Granted, we have no formal ruling junta or anything and no real defined roles, but there are many maintenance type tasks that some of us just took on to keep the project going. For instance, I ran the COTW, was pretty much the only one doing assessments, updating the portal, and even handing out the awards. I am sure others in the project can name what things they have done. The point being, that while I enjoyed those and still do some of those, I simply no longer have the free time to do all of it at a level that the project deserves. That said, I hope to start a discussion at WT:ORE where we can see if some newer editors would like to step-up and take on some of these tasks, which will hopefully make for a more inclusive project, and maybe get us back to the heyday of say 2008 when things were really rocking for WikiProject Oregon.

As always, please click here to opt out of these messages, or click here to make a suggestion for a future COTW. Aboutmovies (talk) 22:23, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

DYK for Davis Lake
The DYK project (nominate) 16:02, 15 August 2011 (UTC)

NRHP discussion
Hi, I noticed that you are active in the NRHP WikiProject, and I was hoping that you would like to make a comment on a discussion going on there. You don't have to, but it would be greatly appreciated. The discussion is at WT:NRHP. Thank you.  Theking 17825  16:03, 31 August 2011 (UTC)
 * ✅ This isn't an area I'm normally in, but I did throw in my two cents. <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <font color="#004000">smithers  - <font color="#004000">talk  17:48, 31 August 2011 (UTC)

helpme
Recently, I've become semi-active again, and I can't help but get annoyed at the text on my userpage that has been pretty much turned invisible. Before I left, it all looked the same, but the text on the userboxes was against a semi-transparent background, not no background. I'd like to get it fixed, told how it can be fixed, or directed to a group or person who knows the language well. Thanks. <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <font color="#004000">smithers  - <font color="#004000">talk  01:57, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I've made a change; feel free to revert, of course. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:06, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * You've got half of it right. You got the opacity problem figured out, but that frame didn't used to be there :P The semi-transparent stuff used to be in every individual box, not that entire thing... suggestions? Thanks for the help by the way, I appreciate it. <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <font color="#004000">smithers  - <font color="#004000">talk  19:17, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * How about my latest effort? (splendid talkback template, btw) -- John of Reading (talk) 19:31, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Nailed it, Thanks so much! <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <font color="#004000">smithers  - <font color="#004000">talk  20:58, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Napolitania Question
Hello! I'm wondering why you removed the hangon tag from this article?? User:Napule (talk:Napule) 2011-09-13 17:54
 * The hangon template is only used during a speedy deletion nomination. Napolitania is in a deletion discussion, so the hangon template won't do anything. In a deletion discussion, the article will only be deleted if the community comes to a consensus. It shouldn't be quickly deleted by an administrator like a speedy tag, so if you want the article to remain up, you could politely discuss your reasoning at Articles for deletion/Napolitania. A hangon tag won't do anything Face-smile.svg <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <font color="#004000">smithers  - <font color="#004000">talk  22:07, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

Award

 * You didn't have to! <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <font color="#004000">smithers  - <font color="#004000">talk  18:03, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

NRHP Photo Contest
Just a reminder that the WP:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Fall 2011 Photo Contest

will start on Friday, October 21.

Smallbones (talk) 01:36, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia edit-thon: Saturday, February 9, 2013
Hope to see you there! -- Another Believer ( Talk ) 16:47, 16 January 2013 (UTC)

Portland "Wiknic" 2013!
Hope you are able to attend! -- Another Believer ( Talk ) 22:50, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Wiki Takes PDX 2013!
-- Another Believer ( Talk ) 22:08, 1 September 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia Edit-athon!
Hope to see you there! -- Another Believer ( Talk ) 15:55, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

"Wiki Loves Libraries" edit-athon in Vancouver, WA
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Get your cameras ready! Christmas in Oregon and PDX Pods
This month, WikiProject Oregon features two photo campaigns:
 * PDX Pods
 * Christmas in Oregon

The concept is simple: upload photos of these two topics and share your work! Whether you upload one or one hundred, these images will help capture the culture of our state and illustrate Wikimedia projects. Have fun, and happy holiday season! ''You are receiving this because you are listed as an active member of WikiProject Oregon or WikiProject Washington. This message was delivered on behalf of Meetup/Portland by EdwardsBot (talk) 19:44, 6 December 2013 (UTC)