User talk:Ral315/Archive 5

edit History Archives: Dec. 04 to Feb. 06 Mar. 06 to Feb. 07 Feb. 07 to May. 08 Jun. 08 to Present 2004-2005: 01 · 02 · 03 · 04 · 05 · 06 · 07 · 08 2006: 09 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 2007: 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 2008: 29 · 30 · 31 · 32

Hello

As someone who went to college 2 years young (and quite a while ago), I've long had an interest in early college entrance. I'm curious where you are going, and what your experience has been, if you don't mind sharing. Wikipedia seems to be a haven for the young and intellectual given that people can't easily judge on the basis of age or real life experience. Dragons flight 15:48, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm happy to talk about it. I go to Aquinas College (Michigan). When I was about 2 1/2, I still didn't know how to talk, so I started going to speech therapy. When I finally was able to talk, I was able to read almost immediately- people I've talked to theorize that my brain was taking in so much information at such a young age, that it wasn't able to keep up with everything, and that's why it took so long for me to talk.

I started kindergarten a year early, already able to read. By third grade, I was taking pre-algebra, as well as some sixth grade classes, which was a little weird; I was 7 at the time, in a class of 13-year-olds :) In fifth grade, I took Algebra II at Grand Rapids Catholic Central High School, and a year later, I was taking all my classes there (at the age of 10). I graduated along with everyone else at the age of 14, and entered college.

Overall, it's really been a great experience. I've had a few people who picked on me, but more often, it's been people impressed with me, and have been overwhelmingly nice to me. It's to the point now where it's not that big a deal, because I'm old enough that I fit in pretty well with other college students, and I don't look so young anymore- the difference between a 15-year-old and an 19-year-old is a lot different than the difference between a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old. In fact, in my freshman year of college, my Spanish teacher didn't realize how young I was until the school newspaper ran an article on me about a month into the school year.

My parents have been really supportive, and have made sure not to push me too much. They've said (not really sure if this is true) that I could have attended college much earlier, but they wanted to make sure I developed socially as well as intellectually.

The weirdest part has to be the media attention, though. I have a good relationship with one of the local news anchors through a benefit event I attend every year, that funds the school where I attended speech therapy. She did a story on me when I was six, and another story last year when I graduated. I also got a front-page article in the local newspaper (I still can't figure out how that story beat out all the other news that day to make it to the front page, but my newspaper can be a bit weird).

I feel as if I've been talking for way too long...let me know if you have any more questions. I'd also be interested in hearing the circumstances under which you entered school early. Ral315 16:17, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Now it is my turn to ramble.  :-) I knew I would be at it for a while so I put off doing it immediately.

It seems that my experience was almost the reverse of yours. I didn't accelerate at all until high school and then I more-or-less skipped the 11th and 12th grade years to go to this program. It one of 15 or so early college entrance programs around the country that recruit students into leaving high school early in order to start college. So, while I was living at the University of North Texas and fully engaged in college coursework at 16, I was also doing it with 400 other students (2-year program, 200 a year) who had similarly advanced at least two years in their education. For me, living and taking many of the same classes with this pool of super-talented young students was one of the most enjoyable parts of my education.

For a little background, I don't know if I was in anyway unusual with respect to talking, but I do know that I started reading late. And apparently there was even talk about putting me in a remedial reading program when I was very young. I have no idea why I put off learning to read (couldn't be bothered, I guess), but once I finally got around to it, I was an avid reader through much of my childhood. (After all, how hard is it to read 100 books a year, really?)

I have some old tests showing that at the end of 1st grade, I was already testing in most subjects at a level comparable to having finished at least 3rd grade (though I didn't pay attention to these results at the time). Frankly, I think it would have been better for me to do more what you did, i.e. accelerate early on, but somehow in my ignorance I never even knew such things were possible until I heard about programs that allowed one to leave high school early for college.

Through the middle of fourth grade, I was going to what was in many ways a fairly poor, large urban school district which didn't devote many resources to educating or identifying talent. In the middle of my fourth grade year my family moved to the suburbs, primarily with the goal of getting into better schools. I remember having to fight to be admitted to the suburban school's gifted and talented program simply because I hadn't been there at the age that they normally do testing and apparently they were reluctant to believe that smart kids can come from urban school districts. Just plain dumb. Frankly, the surburban schools were far less accepting and flexible across the board I think. The students in particular were very clique-ish and being the children of aspiring yuppies were often very interested in material wealth and having the right fad of the week, which was not something I was used to. At the administrative level, even though they did have a serious program of gifted and talented education, they were not very flexible about it. They seemed to believe that since they had devoted all these resources to gifted and talented education, clearly the program they had created should be enough to satisfy anyone's needs and they shouldn't need to make any exceptions, or consider something as "socially damaging" as grade acceleration.

So despite having taught myself programming skills and algebra starting around 5th grade there really was no way to take advantage of that and take those actual courses any earlier than the average gifted and talented student. (If I sound a little bitter, I am). At the end of junior high, I ended up taking keyboarding and study hall and still having little to do and yet there was never any suggestion that it might even be possible to go take classes at the high school. Way too much age-regimented thinking going on.

I think the final insult was when as a 10th grader I went to visit the college program I would eventually enter and my high school refused to give me an excused absence for that day, as "only seniors are excused to visit colleges". Not that anyone cared that I was planning to go to college.

I shouldn't make it sound like my education was all bad, I did have some good experience along the way, mostly associated with teachers that were willing to be flexible. For example, in algebra II, the teacher quickly realized how bored I was because I knew everything already, so she handed me some more advanced math books and told me that she didn't care what I did with the hour of her class as long as I passed the tests when they came around. Similarly, I learned to program back in 5th grade because a teacher basically told me that I could go entertain myself on the class' computer whenever I finished early. (I think she had in mind computer games, but that was dumb.)

Anyway, when I finally did realize that there was a way to get out of the morass that was my existence in public schools, I jumped at it. Being a 16-year-old in college was no sweat (and something I certainly could have done even earlier given the opportunity). Doing it with 200 other 14, 15, 16-year-olds only served to make it a lot of fun. I had never been with so large a group of intellectual peers before. One of the side effects of doing it with a large group (and only at 16) is that I never got news coverage the way you apparently did, though one of my good friends who entered the same program at 13 did get a few good interviews out of it (though I think she actually disliked all the fuss).

People sometimes wonder if I missed out on anything from skipping the last two years of high school, and I would say there was certainly nothing I would trade for all virtues of going to college. The Academy program I was in did however go to the trouble of providing us with a prom (one of the advantages of having 400 students). After all, everyone knows that having a prom is the defining moment of the American high school experience... blah blah blah.

By design, the Academy program is intended to last two years (replacing the last two years of high school), after which most students transfer to other colleges around the country to complete their studies. Which is of course what I did with the 76 credits I had acquired in those two years ;-). Transferring for me was fairly easy. The Academy actually awards a "high school" diploma remarkably certified by the state of Texas at the end of those two years, which has little basis in reality since no one in the program is taking high school courses or bothering with exit level tests, and the program itself isn't bound to even fulfill the state's education requirements. The main advantage of having that "diploma" is that one can then legitimately apply for preferential admissions and scholarships as if one is a graduating high school senior. It can make for some very weird looking "freshman" applications however. Some students coming out of the program do still encounter problems in transferring, but programs like this have become numerous enough and have been around long enough, that most admissions offices aren't totally shocked to see the very strange looking applications. I do remember though an entertaining discussion about whether to initially classify me as a freshman (because of the diploma), a junior (third year in college) or a senior (by credits), which was largely a exercise in bureaucratic minutae, and somehow arrived at the notion of freshman. (Which in some ways was the wrong choice, because living in a dorm with the more traditional kind of freshmen was not a great fit.)

Anyway, I did that for a few years at my chosen school and graduated summa cum laude with a double degree. Aside from a few awkward moments when visiting prospective grad schools and not being old enough to go drinking with the other grad students, the age thing was never really a concern for me after leaving the Academy. Of course, it has now been so many years that I am at the point of actually caring about reunions, so I am also well past the point were a two year head start is perceptible.

You mentioned parents, so I might do so as well. My own parents are not intellectuals. They famously told me, at all of 11 or 12, that I was smarter and more knowledgable than they were. I don't blame them for how things turned out, but I do think things could have been improved if they had had a better perspective and understanding of things earlier on in my education.

One of the end results of all this is that I care about the educational opportunities offered to talented young students and want to see them succeed. Probably in no small measure because I was so disillusioned by the early part of my own education. Okay, now I've gone on for far longer than you did, so this is more than enough. Dragons flight 13:19, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

You know, since you've released your page into the public domain & invited others to edit it, it is entirely reasonable that someone might edit it subject to the GFDL and claim the authorship for their own (at least to the degree that is possible). Wouldn't even need to acknowledge you, and might as well remove that little PD template as well, since you technically gave up your legal rights to force them to keep it. Dragons flight 04:12, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

PS. Back a while ago I talked to you about early entrance. I am wondering if you might have missed my response, since I took nearly a week to make it and your talk page had moved on to other things by then. No reply is actually necessary, but since I did take the time to clutter up your page, I wouldn't want to think that you avoided reading it.

First of all, yes, that was stupid of me. I made that PD notice a while back, not thinking about the fact that all the templates on my page were GFDL anyway :)

I did actually read your response...just never got a chance to respond (I believe I had to go to class at the time), and then completely forgot to respond...my fault, I apologize. Your story was very interesting. I'm disappointed that your early years went so badly. I was very lucky that I found the school I ended up attending grade school at (a private Catholic school). Not a single public school would even consider bumping me up any grades until I was in 4th grade (by this time, I was taking Geometry) But it does trouble me a lot, because I wonder how many minds are wasted like this...how many gifted and talented students squander their intellect because they're not being stimulated enough. I have no doubt that for every person like me who was lucky enough to make it as far as I did in so little time, there are two or three like you who are not given that opportunity until later in life (for some, not at all).

As far as things I missed in my experience...I agree with you that it wasn't that big a deal. I didn't go to prom or anything. But frankly, I don't care about things like that. I'm sure I missed out on a lot of things along the way. And I wouldn't trade my life for all those things. Ral315 04:28, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Help - a Day in the Life

Is there any chance that we could now agree that this is the correct title? The article has been moved a number of times in quick succession,and could do with a rest. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 13:55, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

The capitalization mistake is my fault. I just was carrying out a request on WP:RM, and figured that no matter what, it should be moved out of the Help namespace, where it was. I don't plan to move it again. Ral315 14:48, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

And it's being in the Help namespace was my fault (at least by omission, not moving it); I hadn't even noticed until you mentioned it... I hope that it's stable now (but there are one or two editors who are determined to capitalise every word in pop-music titles). Sorry to bother you. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 15:09, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Signpost.

Just wanted to say Hi again...I haven't talked to you directly in a while, so I thought I'd do so now.

You've noticed I had brought up a redesign of the Signpost main page. I wanted to make 100% sure that you liked the change before I did anything with it. You created the original page, so I don't want to replace it with something you feel is in any way inferior. Also, I want to let you know again that whenever you decide to return as editor, the job is yours. I'd hate to keep you out of the job because you don't want to "take it away" from me. I greatly enjoy the job, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm only keeping the seat warm until you wish to come back. Ral315 04:39, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

First of all, yes I do like the redesign overall. The focus of my original design was setting a clean, firm layout to discourage the disorganized clutter that often results when lots of people add ideas without a clear structure. I think the redesign still holds to that spirit, but finds a way to incorporate several good ideas I've been interested in adopting, but hadn't found a really good way to do so under the existing layout (specifically, brief story blurbs and the calendar).

I think we could still use a little time to work out exactly how we want to do the redesign, practice the execution, and get more feedback. To that end, I'd suggest that for the upcoming issue, we create it in both layouts and mention it in an editor's note as a "preview" of our new design, then probably convert fully the following week. That will advertise it a little more widely than the newsroom and hopefully generate a little excitement.

Regarding my own role, I hope to start having more time to meaningfully contribute again. I may not be able to reach my previous heights of pumping out 5-6 articles every weekend, so it will be nice to have people like you doing the same work. Overall, I've been impressed at how you've carried on in the same spirit in which I started; I think we both understand that between ourselves, who has the title of "editor" is not so important because there's more than enough potential work. The continued production has been a pleasant surprise, since to be honest, when you initially offered to take over I had never even heard of you (and normally I consider myself well-informed on most of our really active contributors). I'm very happy to see how you and others have helped to fill the space I left behind. --Michael Snow 16:38, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I hadn't thought of offering a "preview" - that's a good idea. I'll make sure and do that. One other thing...was there anything else that really would be a good idea to add to the main stories? Because I don't want to mess with the layout of the stories that much, but if there's something that would be nice to add, I could incorporate that when we redesign. Ral315 16:57, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

I can't think of any improvements other than the issues I've already mentioned in the discussion, but one of the reasons to do a preview is to see if anyone else has ideas. --Michael Snow 17:14, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

My RFA

I want to thank you very much for your vote on my RFA. Greatly apperciated, I owe you one!

Journalist ^C./ ^{Holla @ me!}

Re: User:Who RFA vote

I never voted in his election. --Boothy443 | comhrá 23:01, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Signpost

Sure, go ahead and add sections. I would do it, but I don't really know where to place them. ;-) Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 23:07, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Renaming

Ral, Wikipedia:Changing username has been disabled for sometime. Could you inform all. Thanks! (PS Thanks for voting for me twice in my RFB. ;) ) =Nichalp «Talk»= 13:04, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

My signpost edit

Thanks Ral for your kind words. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 03:55, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Waltzing Matilda

thanks! that was my first article. you made it better. props. j.

Sorry!

Ral, I'm sorry I missed the In The News bit this week -- my father-in-law was in the hospital this weekend with a mystery ailment, and Wikipedia has been the last thing on my mind. I will be able to pick it up again next week; as with the applications thing, I'll also write up anything else I find out there that seems worth writing about.

Again, my apologies for not letting you know that I couldn't do it this week, and thanks for picking up the slack. — Catherine\^talk 00:25, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

Massive cock

yo i answered yor quest, but u jus n delete mi wrk, wot iz yor prob m8? wot i ad decribed der woz a cultural penoninon n u dnt av da decentci 2 change it but go n delete it wot a nob. i av tried not 2 b rude n eld bk from swearin cuz dat aint wot ya wnt but u iz nt mkin it easi.

Signpost

I added a little thing about Treanna. Hope it does it. Best notafish }<';> 07:24, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

picture of boy eating cotton candy

Just to let you know that as this is fair use, you may only use it on articles, not talk pages! I've removed it. Thank you. --Celestianpower ^hablamé 18:55, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

Copperchair

First, a thank you for giving him a Wikibreak to think about it.

As you can see from the history on his Talk page, I'm not the only person who's reminded him that he refuses to abide by consensus. For our troubles, we've gotten absolutely nothing useful from him, just the thankless task of reverting the page(s) at least once a day to remove his disruption to prove a point. (The point? Who knows. Probably that he doesn't agree with the consensus reached on Talk.)

Do you have any suggestions for dealing with such an editor? I'm not really losing patience, but it's getting pretty tiresome, and I know I'm not the only one who's frustrated.--chris.lawson 23:41, 29 September 2005 (UTC)

RfC filed here. It's getting worse, though.

User talk pages -- who "owns" them?

In doing what I would describe as a moderate level of RC patrol, I see a lot of user Talk pages, and I see a lot of anonymous users blanking their own Talk pages to remove warnings. There is ample administrator precedent for reverting this blanking immediately, with the reasoning being primarily that administrators want to see evidence that the user was warned before possibly instituting some sort of block. Blanking the Talk page obviously removes these warnings.

I'm well aware that a page's edit history is available, and that a responsible admin will check the history for such activity as blanking to give the appearance of a clean slate.

Am I correct in understanding this would also apply to registered users? It seems dubious at best for a user to blank his/her Talk page in order to remove comments with which he/she does not agree, with the exception of comments blatantly in violation of policy. I do not believe I have made any such comments, and I am genuinely interested in engaging Copperchair in discussion about his behaviour. I also believe he is acting contrary to tacit policy in blanking his Talk page.

I would be willing to accept mediation, but quite frankly, don't see what I've done wrong here. If you can enlighten me, please do so. :) --chris.lawson 04:18, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Right, I get the idea of mediation. I'm just not sure what purpose it would serve as far as I'm concerned. If I'm acting contrary to policy, someone can tell me, and I'll just stop doing it. I'm reasonable that way. :) --chris.lawson 04:36, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Mediation in Signpost

I don't particularly like the situation, but you might want to make a mention of my unavailability in the Mediation Committee due to real life issues. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:04, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks!

Hi, thanks for the compliments! I have a bit of spare time now and decided I wanted to do something fun and useful with it, so I started on Wikipedia. And since it has turned out to be fun, I'm glad my actions are seen as useful too ;-) --JoanneB 17:10, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

==Who's RfA== Thank you for supporting my masters RfA. He appreciates your support and comments and looks forward to better serving Wikipedia the best he can. Of course I will be doing all of the real work. He would have responded to you directly, but he is currently out of town, and wanted to thank you asap. Thanks again. --Who's mop?¿? 20:34, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

Ideas for signpost

I've just dropped off a few ideas at the signpost suggestions link: Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/Newsroom/Suggestions#Contest_announced_and_main_page_redesign_suggest. - Mgm|^(talk) 15:31, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Jaxl's RfA

Hi, thanks for supporting me on my RfA! Robert 15:47, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost perhaps?

I'm not sure whether it's useful, but I've recently started a game of mafia (game) with Wikipedia as a theme. Could be mentioned in the "Who cites Wikipedia this week?"-section. I would love to run the next (more thematic) game (aptly named Wikipedia Mafia II) with a few real life Wikipedians joining as players. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:03, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for RfA

Wanted to thank you for the nomination and support. I hope I can implement my good judgement and new privileges soon. - RoyBoy ⁸⁰⁰ 22:14, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Editing/West Virginia

Thanks, I work on changing things and forget to add the reason for edit info. I think about it after I hit save.

I do have a question you maybe able to help with. I need to know how to create a stub.

Template:UK-hist-stub Template:US-hist-stub

I want to make a stub to combine those two. Something like UK-colonial-hist-stub or UK-America-hist-stub. I have 4 stubs in Fort Ohio all of which are relavent. A British Colonial American Stub of somekind would combine two of them. I can't figure out how to get to a stub to look at one under edit. Maybe US-UK-colonial-stub. I could see a need for a US-FR-colonial-stub for the Louisana Purchase area.

Thanks in advance --71Demon 01:16, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Stubs

I don't like the idea of multiple stubs either, however. In the Fort Ohio case. British Regulars were there (known from other info I haven't added) making it relavent to UK history. It is of course relavent to US and WV history. It is a military manned fort, so it has relavence to that was well. It is kind of a catch 22. Maybe sub-stub classes should exist, in Mineral County, West Virginia I have it broken down into 4 distinct eras that are logical IMHO. I will check out the link you suggested. --71Demon 01:28, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

OwenX's RfA

Look I understand that he's gotten those edits in the past 90 days. But if he's going to be an admin he should be editing for more than just 3 months. Three months I think is just too quick, he should have been editing a lot for the entire time he's had an account. But he didn't and he's only edited lots for a short time period. Anyone could get a lot of edits in a short time period. That doesn't mean they should an admin. Private Butcher 02:20, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism Clearup - Note of Thanks

Thanks for clearing up the senseless vandalism on my user page. Your help is very much appreciated. Andrew 23:22, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Reply

Ral, I've changed a few things on the mediation section of news and notes- I hope you don't mind. I added that Redwolf24 and myself became mediators, and removed the blurb about TINMC- that doesn't seem appropriate for this section, perhaps another article another day? Anyways, the mediation committee has never been inactive; it was just that a backlog had clogged up WP:RfC. Speaking of mediation, I've initiated some discussion on the mediation mailing list, so I might wait until I get replies before I respond to any new nominations. Don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll make a fine mediator. Thanks! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 17:58, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

P.S. Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, I had a concert, followed by a gig last night, so I wasn't home all day.

Skyring

Okay, thanks, glad you spotted that! Well, that one should be blocked anyway since it would be a sockpuppet :). Slac speak up! 20:37, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

user:Irishpunktom

I noticed that you blocked user:Irishpunktom for 3rr violation. I reviewed the articles that he has been blocked from recently for 3rr violations and it seems as if user:Zeno of Elea and user: Karl Meier have been teaming up on him and reverting just as he is. They are able to distribute the reverts amongst them while he is alone. Is there a possible way to fix this because the block seems unfair particularly as Irishpunktom has a different POV from them and there it not always possible to create discussion between the two sides. Please see Rules of war in Islam for a similar revert problem. Thanks, a.n.o.n.y.m ^t 20:41, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, Ral. --a.n.o.n.y.m ^t 20:52, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

I think it's pretty unfair to say that I in any way should be "gaming the system", by reporting 3rr violations. At the Rules of war in Islam article that a.n.o.n.y.m mentioned editors is being dragged through sockpuppet/open proxy hell, and at the template where you banned irishpunktom for 3rr, it is him that is refusing to respond to our messages on talk. I only use one account and no open proxies, so who is actually gaming the system? -- Karl Meier 22:37, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

MedCom work

Even if you don't use my quote at User:Ral315/Signpost verbatim, there's some parts from that you should incorperate. Including every active mediator working on a case, 5 people are up for medcom, etc. My quote seems a bit too egocentric, but you can still get some valuable information from it :) Redwolf24 (talk) 22:12, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

Wikiversity vote

You might want to read rule #2 of the Wikiversity voting rules. - As it is your vote does not count. --Krischik ^T 07:10, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Article rescue contest

Maybe, I missed something. But did you forget to mention the contest in the latest signpost? So far we've only had entries by one person, and we prefer a lot more of them and the signpost is read by loads of people. Could you please include it in next week's issue? - Mgm|^(talk) 20:36, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

• RE: Thanks! - Mgm|^(talk) 07:34, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

"Gaming the system"

Hi. I noticed your comment to Karl Meier about posting to WP:AN/3RR and am curious; under what circumstances do you feel that a user who is aware of another user violating WP:3RR should not report it? Users who violate the rule should be reported and should be warned and/or blocked per policy so that they learn to not violate the rule. — Davenbelle 04:22, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

My belief is that Karl Meier is baiting users into violating the 3RR. While it's certainly the fault of the users who violate 3RR, Karl uses his 3 reverts a day more than any user I've ever seen, carefully making sure to stay within his 3 revert limit. Perhaps "gaming the system" was not the correct phrasing. But he's pushing the limits of civility, certainly. Ral315 W_S 04:31, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

I have seen what you are referring to (and have been there myself) and feel that what has been happening is due to the other party attempting to insist on an edit. If one party reverts 4 times and someone else 3 times, it's pretty obvious that the malactor started it. Of course, fewer reverts are best, but some will play no other way. — Davenbelle 04:41, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

Re: Signpost article on Esperanza

OK, that's fine with me. I apologize for this; I overlooked the fact that I was running in the Esperanza election. Ever since I started writing for the Signpost, and especially since I started doing the ArbCom series, I've tried to remain as neutral as possible. This was my mistake; combined with the fact that I intended not to focus on the election or the candidates, but instead on the reforms, I made this gaffe. My humblest apologies. On a separate note, I notice you've announced your candidacy for the ArbCom. Could I suggest/recommend to you that you withdraw your mediatorship application until after the elections, since you could be elected to the ArbCom? By no means feel pressured to do so; I'm just bringing up a suggestion, since if you're elected, you would be duty-bound to serve for the ArbCom, instead of being a mediator. Again, that's just my suggestion - please don't be pressured by this; that's just my humble opinion. Thanks for your understanding! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 23:21, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

I don't mind either way; it's just that it does put you in an awkward situation if you are elected to the ArbCom. However, if elected, I would suggest that you take a break from the MedCom — the potential for conflict of interest/ huge amounts of work is great. Don't overwork yourself, and keep on editing for the Sign! Thanks. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 00:15, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Úbeda

Please see the discussion I've been having with Philip Baird Shearer at User talk:Curps#Ubeda -- Curps 16:04, 6 October 2005 (UTC)

Arbitration subpage

Hi. Each of the current candidates in the Arbitration Committee election now has a subpage for people to ask questions and have a discussion with the candidate. It's linked to below your statement on the candidate statements page. Hopefully, this format will be more productive and less disruptive than the "endorsements/disendorsements" approach that caused so many problems last year.

I took the liberty of copying your candidate statement unaltered to your subpage. Feel free to elaborate on it at whatever length you wish, without the concern of space restrictions as on the main candidate page. I encourage you to put your subpage on your watchlist and discuss arbitration issues with the community as part of your campaign. --Michael Snow 03:59, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Unblocking Mel Etitis

I've been watching this situation closely for a week now and I strongly disagree with your block. Mel has been simply trying to tidy and conform articles to WP:MOS. For this he has been badgered and suffered many, many personal attacks from Anittas and Winnermario for over a week now. They've resisted him at every turn. He's rightly brought this to our attention at WP:AN/I#User:Winnermario and WP:AN/I#User:Anittas:_personal_attacks_.26_stalking, and others have intervened on his behalf to no avail. The two who oppose him are by any meaningful definition bullies and vandals. Mel should not be punished for resisting their abuse in good faith. I'm unblocking him as I feel this block did not take into account the intentional abuse and goading that he's faced, and so is unjustified. FeloniousMonk 16:03, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks to FM for unblocking me — I find the block more than a little odd in the first place. I haven't touched the article in question for two days. What exactly was the block supposed to achieve? My understanding was that blocks for 3RR violations were intended to give a cooling-off period in revert wars. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 16:24, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

I hadn't noticed that it was two days old. Yes, Mel's right - the 3RR is not intended to punish, but to control unacceptable behaviour. Given Mel's solid record and contributions, a 2-day-old offense does not merit a block. Guettarda 17:57, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

OwenX's RfA

Thank you for your support on my RfA. Your trust in me is well appreciated. Owen× ☎ 22:10, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

RfC

I'm intrigued by your endorsement of an RfC in which the "Evidence of trying and failing to resolve the dispute" consists of just two messages about reverting (after which I stopped). As an admin, shouldn't you be more careful about these things? I aways try to be. I'm also interested as to where your obvious antagonism springs from; I don't recall encountering you aside from a polite reminder concerning Welcome messages (which I think you ignored). Do you have another account? --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 22:17, 7 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply and for the clarification. I should say that I edit across a wide range of types of article, and like you I rarely have to multiply-revert; in this case, however, I faced a small group of editors who acted extremely badly, showed (and openly stated) their disdain for Wikipedia policies, guidelines, and customs, and who reverted what would in other contexts have been perfectly normal edits which no-one would have thought of reverting. I stopped reverting three days ago (before the RfC), as part of the attempt to find consensus; these editors' response has been gleefully to revert everything that I (and other editors) have done, and to ignore all attempts to discuss the issues. Unfortunately they think of this as a war, in which there are winners and losers; because I've stopped reverting them, they see me as having been defeated (they're all young and rather immature, I'm afraid). If you can think of any other course of action, I'd be grateful. I've asked at W:AN and W:AN/I a number of times, but (apart from being advised to block them, which I felt was inadvisable) gained no new ideas. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:20, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for supporting my RfA!

Dear Ral315: EXTREME LESBIAN PENGUIN WEDDING AT THE CENTRAL PARK ZOO THANKS FOR SUPPORTING MY RFA! (I must confess I pinched that one off the RfA talk page!) Throughout my time on Wikipedia, I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of help, support and appreciation I have experienced from other editors, and this RfA is certainly no exception. I really appreciate you voting for me, and promise to use the trust that has been placed in me only for good, and never for evil. I'll see you around here on the Wiki, and on IRC; I look forward to working with you, both here and on our new project. Best regards, --NicholasTurnbull | (talk) (e-mail) (cabal) 00:55, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Re:Images

Thanks for the notice, Ral. However, I'm going to go ahead and leave both up on my user page, pending further discussion of this on WP:AN, where someone's already raised the issue. The cello image should be deleted soon :-(, and once it is, I guess I'll be forced to replace it. However, for the Orlando Magic logo, I beleive that it is allowed, as the Terms of Policy under NBA.com explicitly provides that logos can be used in non-commercial sites for non-commercial purposes (at least I think that's what it says, I'm not too experienced at reading legal-ese...) Thanks for the heads up, though! Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 15:21, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

The Water is Wide

I know that it's a minor thing, but as the link already says "novel", it's surely better not to repeat it in the description (I couldn't see any way of avoiding the repetition in the other link). --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 11:27, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

But it says "The Water is Wide (novel) (1972) by Pat Conroy" — that's pretty clear, surely? I removed extraneous Wikilinking because that's what Wikipedia:Disambiguation advises. Of course, it should be "The Water Is Wide"; I'd better see to that now. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 19:19, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

I haven't seen JFK, bit there are hundreds, probably thousands, of disambiguation pages that are out of keeping with the Manual of Style — not only in this, but in many respects. Indeed, there are thousands of articles in the same state (no summaries, or summaries that are nothing but gushing hero-worship or heartfelt condemnation, poorly formatted headings, no Wikilinks, too many Wikilinks, no categories, incorrect categories, etc.). I've found that not doing anything about them because there are others that make the same mistakes doesn't really help, so I correct them when I find them. As I did here. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 08:33, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost reminder

I don't want to sound like a nagging child, but here's a friendly reminder not to forget coverage about the article rescue contest. It's easy to have it slip your mind with all the stuff you're currently busy with. It's important lots of people join in with the contest, and I think with an article the signpost can make that happen. Happy editing! - Mgm|^(talk) 11:48, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your vote on my RfA

Thanks For The Support!

I'll be sure to use more edit summaries, i've been almost 100% during the past few weeks. Karmafist 16:14, 9 October 2005 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Blockiptext

I agree with your edit, except that it doesn't really matter whether you include "User:" or not; the block works anyway. I tested on myself a moment ago (see [1]) and found myself thoroughly blocked. — Dan | Talk 05:13, 11 October 2005 (UTC)