Toby Smithe

A welcome from Sputnik

Hi, Toby Smithe, Welcome to Wikipedia!

Hello, bonjour, salut, privyet, konichiwa, shalom, hola, salve, sala'am, bonjourno, and hi! I'm Sputnik. I noticed that you were new and/or have yet to receive any messages so I just thought I'd pop in to say "hello". We're glad to have you in our community! I hope you like this place — I sure do — and want to stay. Wikipedia can be a little intimidating at first, since it's so big but we won't bite so Be Bold and get what you know down in microchips! If you do make a mistake, that's fine, we'll assume good faith and just correct you: it'll take a few seconds maximum! I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Though we all make goofy mistakes, here is what Wikipedia is not. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to see the help pages or add a question to the village pump. The Community Portal can also be very useful. If you want to play around with your new Wiki skills the Sandbox is for you. Here are a few links to get you started:

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• P.S. I'm happy to help new users. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you need help with anything or simply wish to say hello. :)

Happy Wiki-ing!

- СПУТНИК^{CCC P} 17:43, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Answer

Glad you enjoyed my welcome. As for the CCCP, well, i'm not actually communist. Nor am i Russian. It's a long story, so sit down. It all started on a dark night, 4 years ago... When i was a young lad i went off to a summer camp in the Ontario countryside. Come the first evening, and the cabin is getting to know each other. We decide to give each other nicknames. The consensus was that i looked like a Russian scientist, so after voting between Boris and Sputnik, Sputnik won. A couple of months later, i sign up for an email address and the fist name that pops into my head is of course my camp nickname; Sputnik. Unfortunately, it was already taken. So, i go for sputnikussr. Also taken. I knew from somwhere that USSR in Russian is CCCP, so my email became sputnik_cccp. Then, much later on, one year ago in fact, when i decide to get an account on the wikipedia, i turn to my email address. And voilà! My account was born, and of course, i might as well change my signature to reflect the Russianness of my name, but it is not a reflection of my political beliefs or my European heritage, simply the way events turned out. Well, i hope you enjoyed reading my little story as much as i enjoyed typing it. Hope this cleared that up... any other personal questions? Happy Wiki-ing... СПУТНИК^{CCC P} 19:18, 9 June 2006 (UTC)