User talk:Tomsmith0002

Your recent edits
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December 2009
Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, your addition of one or more external links to the page NORAD Tracks Santa has been reverted. Your edit here was reverted by an automated bot that attempts to remove links which are discouraged per our external links guideline from Wikipedia. The external link you added or changed is on my list of links to remove and probably shouldn't be included in Wikipedia. I removed the following link(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNDLsg2YxA4, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCaqGE4C2U4, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv7Ut5CWITg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs2Wq7nD3kc, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVxyTX19alA, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVxyTX19alA, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mjF3_oz9Dg, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN71Dv7iD_M, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW6XE0oloMA, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYmmdB7Jg4Q (matching the regex rule \byoutube\.com). If the external link you inserted or changed was to a media file (e.g. a sound or video file) on an external server, then note that linking to such files may be subject to Wikipedia's copyright policy and therefore probably should not be linked to. Please consider using our upload facility to upload a suitable media file. Video links are also strongly deprecated by our guidelines for external links, partly because they're useless to people with slow internet connections. If you were trying to insert an external link that does comply with our policies and guidelines, then please accept my creator's apologies and feel free to undo the bot's revert. However, if the link does not comply with our policies and guidelines, but your edit included other, constructive, changes to the article, feel free to make those changes again without re-adding the link. Please read Wikipedia's external links guideline for more information, and consult my list of frequently-reverted sites. For more information about me, see my FAQ page. Thanks! --XLinkBot (talk) 02:00, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Template:Infobox NTS Service Program
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If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding  to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Lastly, please note that if the page does get deleted, you can contact one of these admins to request that they userfy the page or have a copy emailed to you. DES (talk) 16:30, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

WikiProject Google
-- iBen (talk) 21:33, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Interested - and joined - BillJohnson0003 and myself have added WikiProject Google to "NORAD Tracks Santa" Discussion Page.

Who decides on each article importance ?? Tomsmith0002 (talk) 01:34, 22 February 2010 (UTC)
 * See here.--mono (talk) 22:57, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

-- iBen (talk) 23:42, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

NORAD Tracks Santa
I have tagged NORAD Tracks Santa for multiple article issues. Since you are one of the main contributors to that article, I would be glad if you could take a leading role in getting the article in line with our standards. See Talk:NORAD Tracks Santa for further details. Hans Adler 09:18, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I will talk with BillJohnson0003 on this. With our scehdules this will probably take a number of weeks to do since we have other lives. So do not expect this to be a quick edit. Tomsmith0002 (talk) 15:57, 8 March 2010 (UTC)


 * That's OK, I can understand that and you are under no obligation to help anyway. What is actually most important is that those who do have the time can clean up the article without encountering unnecessary obstacles.
 * As you are probably aware, earlier versions are always accessible in the page history and can be copied elsewhere under a free licence, in case that's of any use for you. Hans Adler 17:55, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I asked BillJohnson0003 to split up the article into several parts. Hope the split up worked out well. With the split up and the other editing I would think that some the comments of notability (we have had four-star genrals and three-star generals from NORAD on TV speak about NORAD Tracks Santa) and article length and too many examples can go away since the main article is quite small and the detail is elsewhere for the true NORAD Tracks Santa devotees. Try not to ask BillJohnson0003 directly. His answer approach may be different Tomsmith0002 (talk) 04:30, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

NORAD Tracks Santa
I have tagged NORAD Tracks Santa for multiple article issues. Since you are one of the main contributors to that article, I would be glad if you could take a leading role in getting the article in line with our standards. See Talk:NORAD Tracks Santa for further details. Hans Adler 09:18, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I will talk with BillJohnson0003 on this. With our scehdules this will probably take a number of weeks to do since we have other lives. So do not expect this to be a quick edit. Tomsmith0002 (talk) 15:57, 8 March 2010 (UTC)


 * That's OK, I can understand that and you are under no obligation to help anyway. What is actually most important is that those who do have the time can clean up the article without encountering unnecessary obstacles.
 * As you are probably aware, earlier versions are always accessible in the page history and can be copied elsewhere under a free licence, in case that's of any use for you. Hans Adler 17:55, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

I asked BillJohnson0003 to split up the article into several parts. Hope the split up worked out well. With the split up and the other editing I would think that some the comments of notability (we have had four-star genrals and three-star generals from NORAD on TV speak about NORAD Tracks Santa) and article length and too many examples can go away since the main article is quite small and the detail elsewhere for the NORAD Tracks Santa devotees. Try not to aski BillJohnson0003 directly. His answer approach may be different Tomsmith0002 (talk) 04:30, 10 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I wish you had asked someone before trying this approach. The problem with the article was that its content was not in line with our standards. By splitting the article you have swept the problem under the carpet, but that's never going to work. If these articles are nominated for deletion (and they will be, sooner or later), the verdict will be either "delete" or "merge into NORAD Tracks Santa", and in the process you will acquire a few "fans" who will call you and BillJohnson0003 spammers and generally assume the worst about you.
 * As to notability, please have a look at our notability guideline, WP:Notability. You will notice that it doesn't say anything about generals and stars. People speaking about the programme on TV could help if you can prove that it happened and was non-trivial. (I don't doubt what you are saying, but that's what we generally require.) But I am not sure that is going to address the problem with most of the existing references: So long as we only have tongue-in-cheek Christmas programmes / Christmas "news pieces", they are all dangerously close to being ignored for notability purposes per WP:SENSATION.
 * But perhaps the kind of reference that I am looking for is already in this huge article and I just don't see it. Or perhaps you know an example of the kind of thing that we need but aren't aware of its importance. E.g. if a newspaper reported in a serious voice about Christmas activities of companies and government institutions and wrote a few paragraphs about NORAD Tracks Santa, that would solve the problem as far as I am concerned. Or if NORAD Tracks Santa at any time had its own television programme, then it's likely that it was reviewed in some TV magazine and we could get away with assuming that.
 * But I guess it's best not to worry too much about notability (after all, when I listed the issues I said explicitly: "Perhaps the least critical of the issues.") and instead focus on making this a good encyclopedia article. Think of it this way: Suppose NORAD Tracks Santa had an article in Encyclopedia Britannica. How long would it be, and what would it say? Now imagine for some weird reason Encyclopedia Britannica allows NORAD Tracks Santa as much space as Sesame Street has on Wikipedia (but obviously without the subarticles). That's the article we are looking for, always keeping in mind that Wikipedia has a "No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus" (more precisely: "Santa Claus is a legendary figure who, in many Western cultures, brings gifts to the homes of the good children [...]" ) policy. (I assume that the same is true for Britannica, but I haven't checked it.) Hans Adler 06:13, 10 March 2010 (UTC)

As BillJohnson0003 told me, his goal was to take a small article identified by the Christmas Task Force (they were the ones who identified the topic of "NORAD Tracks Santa" and not TomSmith0002 and Not BillJohnsn0003) and make it a comprehensive and in-depth article on the subject, if it got too big then spilt up, to have an overview with now sperate detailed information for the true fans of NORAD Tracks Santa. I see good comprehansive articles, with detailed information in seprate articles on Iron Chef that is "persecuted" and articles on The Big O and Fullmetal Alchemist (and they both have subarticles !!!!) that would NEVER EVER appear in the Encyclopædia Britannica, so why are The Big O and Fullmetal Alchemist the best articles in Wikipedia while NORAD Tracks Santa that has the marketing weight of Google, the US and Canadian governments of NORAD, and in past years AOL behind it as part of our North American "secularized" celebration of Christmas being picked on, particlaurly by those outside of North America as BillJohnson0003 tells me. Sesame Street has subarticles and what makes them so deserving ???!!! Who is the self-righteous Wiki God that decides that Sesame Street is deserving of subarticles and NORAD Tracks Santa is NOT ???? Tomsmith0002 (talk) 06:36, 10 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Somehow I missed your response here, so this is also a response to your message on my talk page. Sesame Street, for example, is a lot more notable than NORAD Tracks Santa. It runs all year round in many countries, typically with special local versions. When the Middle East version came out with Israelis and Palestinians living together in Sesame Street, this got huge coverage all over the world, for example.
 * If you look around in Wikipedia for our coverage of other topics you are likely to find some articles that are in the same stage that NORAD Tracks Santa was in until recently: Nobody has done anything about it yet. So you can't rely on this. See WP:OTHERSTUFF.
 * If you are just looking for a wiki where you can take the old, huge version of your page and continue to expand it, then I have three ideas for you:
 * You could simply take it to Wikinfo. It's very much like Wikipedia, but with very relaxed policies and a much lower Google rank. I can't promise that you can link from the Wikipedia article to the Wikinfo article (to make use of Wikipedia's Google rank), but personally I wouldn't mind.
 * You can apply for your own free, dedicated NORAD Tracks Santa wiki from Wikia. It takes a while to get accepted, and the wiki will have advertising. They may also decide that there isn't enough potential, so it may be best to look for an existing wikia where you are welcome.
 * E.g. you might want to try the Christmas Specials wikia. There should be no big problem linking to that from here (I hope! no guarantee!), and it is probably a small, friendly community of people concentrating on Christmas entertainment. It's a small wiki and there is nothing like NORAD Tracks Santa there right now, but I would be a bit surprised if you wouldn't be welcome there. If I were you I would try this first. Hans Adler 23:27, 14 March 2010 (UTC)

File copyright problem with File:Citadel_Mall_-_Santa_Tracking_Station_Opening_-_17_Nov_2005_-_112105_hi.jpg
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Speedy deletion nomination of File:Kids Coundown Village W.jpg
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If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding  to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag - if no such tag exists then the page is no longer a speedy delete candidate and adding a hangon tag is unnecessary), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. Tim 1357  talk  22:46, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Possibly unfree File:Why NORAD Tracks Santa.jpg
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Sockpuppet investigation
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File:NORAD Tracks Santa - Homepage - Pre-Xmas - 2009 V2.jpg listed for discussion
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