User talk:Winterelf

Welcome! Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. The following links will help you begin editing on Wikipedia:
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Editing tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

Please bear these points in mind while editing Wikipedia:
 * Please respect others' copyrights; do not copy and paste the contents from webpages directly.
 * Please use a neutral point of view when editing articles; this is possibly the most important Wikipedia policy.
 * If you are testing, please use the Sandbox to do so.
 * Do not add unreasonable contents into any articles, such as: copyrighted text, advertisement messages, and text that is not related to an article's subject. Adding such unreasonable information or otherwise editing articles maliciously is considered vandalism, and will result in your account being blocked.

The Wikipedia Tutorial is a good place to start learning about Wikipedia. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: &#126;&#126;&#126;. Four tildes (&#126;&#126;&#126;&#126;) produces your name and the current date. Again, welcome!

--WillMak050389 05:31, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Mediation Cabal request regarding STHS
Yes, I know, you're probably sick of hearing about this, by now. But. I'm here to let you know that someone has requested that the Mediation Cabal attempt to calm down the situation. If you're not interested, feel free to disregard this message. If you are interested, I'll ask that you try to put any harsh feelings behind you, and remember that you and all of the editors around you are all trying to build the best Wikipedia possible; disagreements in how to do so shouldn't get in the way of our good faith towards each other. We do encourage new users to be bold when editing pages, and I firmly adhere to that philosophy. Wikipedia is, unfortunately, not particularly accessible to newcomers, and as beneficial new users are arguably our greatest resource, we would all do well to remember that they can have thin skins. Likewise, I've known firsthand how tiresome it can get, reverting vandal after vandal -- over time, each little case seems to take on this sense of urgency, and you just get really tired of having what always seems to be the same discussion, over and over -- I also see that this article in particular has a bit of a history, in that regard.

Now, the link in question does have some issues, for and against it; I find things to sympathize with and things to fault in all parties, here. For the time being, my interest is in calming things down. I would appreciate it if you (along with any other involved editors) would agree to set aside hard feelings in the pursuit of a better Wikipedia -- our reputation on an encyclopedia depends heavily on interactions between editors. All that much better if we can all agree to work side-by-side, and do so in a public, transparent forum for all to see. Let's try to make this a positive experience for everyone.

I have nothing but respect for your intelligence, your experience, and your contributions to Wikipedia. Thank you for the time you've taken to read my message, and any subsequent time you might put into this case.

The particular case page can be found here. As you're probably aware, the cabal has no official authority, but in this case that may work to everyone's advantage. Luna Santin 17:11, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Nah, don't be sorry. By the looks of things you've already decided to take this as a chance to learn, and I think that's the right spin on things. I really do feel like I can sympathize with pretty much everybody involved, the main problems seemed to come up when people went into the discussion with negative expectations, which led them to close up and attack, instead of seeking a resolution to make everybody happy. No idea who's to blame, there, I just like to figure it's everyone's responsibility to make bad situations better, when they can. On the bright side, it seems like just about everybody has been able to set aside their differences, which honestly does impress me -- in a lot of places, that'd never happen, and it makes me proud to be a part of Wikipedia. Unfortunately, not quite everybody has stayed as levelheaded as you have, but I'm hoping we can fix that. Feel free to contribute to the mediation page, if you like -- the suggestion to use the site as a reference, instead of as an external link, seems to have a lot of momentum right now, but not quite every question is settled just yet. And, of course, if you have any questions, my talk page is always open. Luna Santin 08:32, 19 June 2006 (UTC)