Welcome edit

Welcome!

Hello, Daly, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Unfortunately, your edit to an article does not conform to Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View policy (NPOV). Wikipedia articles should refer only to facts and interpretations that have been stated in print or on reputable websites or other forms of media.

There's a page about the NPOV policy that has tips on how to effectively write about disparate points of view without compromising the NPOV status of the article as a whole. If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the New contributors' help page, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Here are a few other good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you have any questions, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome!  Tiptoety talk 23:30, 2 December 2008 (UTC)Reply

December 2008 edit

  You currently appear to be engaged in an edit war according to the reverts you have made on Axiom (computer algebra system). Note that the three-revert rule prohibits making more than three reversions on a single page within a 24 hour period. Additionally, users who perform a large number of reversions in content disputes may be blocked for edit warring, even if they do not technically violate the three-revert rule. If you continue, you may be blocked from editing. Please do not repeatedly revert edits, but use the talk page to work towards wording and content that gains a consensus among editors. If necessary, pursue dispute resolution. Tiptoety talk 23:30, 2 December 2008 (UTC)Reply

Axiom (computer algebra system) edit

Hi. Re the conflict there, some advice. Firstly be aware of WP:3RR. Second... don't care too much, if I can put it like that. What you're arguing over isn't too important - or at least, it doesn't look so important to an outsider. You say the para is merely "redundant". If thats so, then there is no great harm letting it stand for a month or two. Third, be aware of our rules about conflict-of-interest: WP:COI I think. Wiki welcomes experts in particular areas to contribute, but if youre arguing about something you have a direct commercial interest in, you'll be obliged to back off William M. Connolley (talk) 08:35, 3 December 2008 (UTC)Reply

As a disinterested bystander, I'm inclined to second this (though obviously it's annoying to have an anonymous user do repeated reverts). Perhaps more importantly, the link you are inserting appears to be dead anyway. Mkcmkc (talk) 01:52, 4 December 2008 (UTC)Reply


I'm the lead developer on Axiom, a free and open source computer algebra project. I was one of the original developers at IBM Research in the 80s and 90s. Axiom went commercial with NAG and then was withdrawn from the market and given to me under the modified BSD license. Axiom is not a commercial product. In fact, I lose thousands of dollars a year keeping it alive and free.

I have spent the last 7 years restoring, rebuilding, and leading this project. I have over 100 people subscribed to the mailing list and a personal contact mailing list of several hundred. I keep in close contact with many users, some on list, some off list.

Axiom forked nearly 18 months ago and those projects (Fricas and OpenAxiom) have gone their separate ways. This information is listed in two places on the page, one at the top and one at the bottom. While interesting historically, the forks have had almost no impact on the Axiom project and are no longer discussed on the mailing list or in private emails, indicating that it is no longer of general interest to the Axiom community.

I updated the page with current information (the video is the latest major event) and removed the redundant information about the forks (notice that I did NOT remove the information from the bottom of the page).

This anonymous user seems to have made it his mission in life to perserve this "non-event" at the top of the page. Given that there is only a small amount of information that can be displayed on the first page of a browser this is vital real estate for major project events.

I have no idea who this "Axiom user" might be. His IP address resolves to Florida but no mailing list entry I have resolves to the same address so I have no idea who this person might be. Clearly he does not contribute to the project in any way. He has NOT been contributing to maintaining the pages. For instance, the change on the comparison page that I made included updating the latest release date of the project (from Jan 2008 to Nov 2008). If he HAD been maintaining the pages he would have updated that information (in March, May, July, or Sept releases).

Further, this anonymous user refuses to identify himself and refuses to contact me offline (see the Axiom discussion page).

In the interest of peaceful negotiations I have left the line in for now. However, without further cooperation from this anonymous user I feel that he should be blocked from making changes until he attempts to cooperate.

Thank you for your time.

Daly, I think your actions are reasonable. Unfortunately this seems to be the price of having an open resource. My advice: Relax. If Axiom is good, people will see it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mkcmkc (talkcontribs) 19:14, 4 December 2008 (UTC)Reply