User talk:Wittylama/Archive 1

COTW Project

You voted for Humanities, this week's Collaboration of the week. Please come and help it become a featured-standard article. -- King of Hearts | (talk) 00:30, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

...undone

I've added the following to the ...undone talk page. You added the tag indicating that this album, and presumably the band The Lucy Show, does not meet the wikipedia criteria for importance. Please read and let me know what you think. Thanks.

The Lucy Show meets the wikipedia criteria for importance, as noted:

"A musician or ensemble (note that this includes a band, singer, rapper, orchestra, hip hop crew, dj etc) is notable if it meets any one of the following criteria:

"Has had a charted hit on any national music chart, in at least one large or medium-sized country."

...undone reached the #1 spot on the CMJ album chart.

"Has gone on an international concert tour, or a national concert tour in at least one large or medium-sized country[1], reported in notable and verifiable sources."

The Lucy Show toured in the UK and US from 1984 - 1986; in 1984, they toured in the UK as the chosen support for R.E.M.

"Has released two or more albums on a major label or one of the more important indie labels (i.e. an independent label with a history of more than a few years and a roster of performers, many of which are notable)."

The band released two albums, one on A&M Records, and one on Big Time Records, an idependent record company that also released titles by bands such as Love & Rockets, The Dream Syndicate, Redd Kross, Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, Dumptruck, and Hoodoo Gurus.

"Has been prominently featured in any major music media."

The band's music video for "A Million Things" received airplay on MTV in 1985 and had its albums reviewed in NME and Q Magazine

Hal Raglan 04:43, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

re:66.137.180.68

The only way you can check there contributions history day to day is by typing User:66.137.180.68 into the search bar on the left and that will take you directly to a list of their contributions. I have no way to check it otherwise, but there may be another that I not familiar with.--MONGO 08:49, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Okay, in that circumstance you still need to type User: before their name in the search box, and then click on user contributions. Or, just keep this link....User:Crazy-eyztheonly1 which you click on and then once their userpage comes up, click on user contributions on the left. I only saw one edit they made and that was the vandalism to your userpage. In all liklihood, they will not use that account again, but will sign up with a new account, or just log in anonymously. Their IP is blocked at this time, so they'll be logging back in maybe tomorrow or perhaps never...there is a strong chance that this person may never vandalize your page again...just so you know, my page has had about 25 vandalisms to it in a year! It's just part of the system. Let me know if there is anything else you need.--MONGO 01:51, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, when a page is deleted, the history of that page disappears...I can find the history, but I need the exact titles of the pages you put speedy tags on to find them...I think...I'm not sure why the edits you made don't show up still except that they must be deleted along with the page....your contributions shows 13 deleted edits. [1]--MONGO 05:54, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Source (UNSW)

Hey Liam, I moved the UNSW Union page to Source (UNSW) and fixed the redirects. We can start adding more info now. As far as O-Week goes, it's best to expand Frosh week to a more global perspective. Even create different section to how they are named and done in different countries. čĥàñľōŕď 22:55, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Chuck Norris vandal

I already blocked him about five minutes ago, and so did another administrator. If he comes back under another IP, let me know on my talk page. Academic Challenger 09:48, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

useful editing links

Well, you're quite right that I nicked them off somebody, but whether it was you or not, I really cannot remember. If it was, then thanks. I'm not into Surf Lifesaving, being a pom and getting my Bronze Medallion and Bronze Cross 25 years ago, the last time I was examined, for much less dangerous waters than Bondi. I hope it gets up anyway. BTW, I'm not an Admin. I have only been around for a few months. --Bduke 05:41, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup-Sandry

Okay, I'm new and I'm not sure if I'm doing this right. Back in February you put a cleanup tag on Sandry and I just changed it to a stub tag. Currently I'm working on Daja and as soon as I finish that I'm going to be adding more to Sandry to have about the same amount of information. Anyway the cleanup page said that it would be nice to inform the person who tagged it, so that's what I've done. Hope you don't mind Kes22 04:37, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you!

Dear Witty lama:

You have the honor of being the 10th person to respond to my survey!

Thank you for your participation. Your responses to the survey are much appreciated!

The final essay should be posted on my user page no later than March 27. Stay tuned!!!

Shuo Xiang 01:49, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

You must be joking

I'm going to quote Hbackman here: "Talk pages are a little different than user pages, because they're meant to be a way for members of the community to communicate with a user." So obviously it doesn't qualify as vandalism if it's just "following protocol". Please get your facts straight and stop discriminating against anonymous IPs. Thanks. 68.188.139.55

I'm actually a little confused as to why you issued that warning to this user as well (and as to why my name got brought into it...). S/he hasn't been vandalizing my talk page or user page, and the most recent edit to Andrew c's talk page didn't seem to be vandalism to me either. Hbackman 07:09, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

A remarkably polite troll, though... hey, I have to amuse myself somehow, right? ;)

You probably have a point. But I do like to try to see if I can talk some people around.

Hbackman 07:15, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

See how s\he's being a revisionist now? Trying to make his unjustified warning look proper by changing the context on my talk page? Of course, he's doing it there because he knows I can't respond to these unfair charges. This kind of behavior doesn't fit very well in the Wikipedia community. Please reform your ways and restore dignity to wikipedia, Witty Lama. Thanks. 68.188.139.55

An unintentional mistake on my warning is not unjustified. I changed the warning to refer to the actual page I originally intended when i noticed. This does not change my origninal warning's point - you have a series of bad faith edits and charge other people with revisionism. Witty lama 07:23, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Not unjustified, but was it done in bad faith? I posit that it was. You intentionally libeled me simply because of your deeply held hatred for anonymous IPs. Frankly, I'm disappointed in your behavior. Please bring your work up to wikipedia standards. Thanks again. 68.188.139.55

All I can say is, look at your user contribution history, my history and user:Hbackman's history and see who is doing the vandalism. It's not me, it's not HBackman, it's you. It doesn't matter whether you are an IP or Jimbo I would warn you with a template just the same. Witty lama 07:35, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Don't feed the trolls, remember? ;) The anon is showing his/her true colors now. The comments are pretty obviously ridiculous. I've given my final response to him/her and am not going to pay any more attention, except to revert vandalism from that IP. Hbackman 07:33, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

re: 205.188.116.7

Hey, I recently reverted a blanking of the talk page for IP 205.188.116.7 since it should have had an infobox stating it's a shared proxy for AOL users, plus the past warning messages for vandalism that were left on the talk page. Just thought you should know. :) --Noelle De Guzman (talk) 12:58, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Williams RFC

Given the length of your endorsement statement you may want to break it off and make it an outside view. In any event, it needs slightly better formating. JoshuaZ 02:36, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Done. Witty lama

I slightly reformatted your section for clarity. JoshuaZ 03:31, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Witty lama

It's here!!!

Dear Witty lama:

And it's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Announcing my CS 492 term-end paper: On Wikipedia — the Technology, the People, the Unfinished Work. File:Wikipedia.pdf

Thank you for all the kind help you have lent me during the paper-writing process!!!

Long live Wikipedia!!!

Shuo Xiang 22:15, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Cartoon physics

No problem. I liked your description better than the one that was there before, so I removed the old one. Graham talk 08:19, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Beach flags

Thanks for fixing the link to the correct flags article! Andjam 04:24, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Here's the whole article

The wiki principle

Are many minds better than a few?

WHEN people express scepticism about participatory media, they usually have people like Brian Chase in mind. Mr Chase is a 38-year-old from Nashville, Tennessee, who until recently worked in the middle-management layers of a courier firm called Rush Delivery and seemed destined to remain entirely unremarkable. For reasons known only to himself, however, Mr Chase last May decided to play a joke, “a joke that went horribly, horribly wrong”, as he would later tell his local newspaper, the Tennessean.

His joke consisted of a hoax entry on Wikipedia.org, a free online encyclopedia that anybody—anybody at all—can edit, simply by clicking on a button that says “edit this page”. Mr Chase posted a biographical article on John Seigenthaler, a distinguished journalist (and former editor of the Tennessean) who in 1961 did a stint as assistant to Robert Kennedy, America's attorney-general at the time. Mr Chase, however, fabricated an entirely different life for Mr Seigenthaler, one that had him living in the Soviet Union, founding a public-relations firm and, most perniciously, suggested that he was implicated in the assassinations of both John and Robert Kennedy.

Normally, such vandalism is corrected within minutes on Wikipedia because other people see it, remove it and improve the entry with their own genuine insight—that, in a nutshell, is the philosophy and power of collaborative intelligence. This particular item, however, fell through the cracks. For 132 days, the libellous lies went unnoticed and remained on the site. Eventually, some volunteer sleuths traced the vandalism to Mr Chase, who finally came clean last December and apologised profusely to an impressively gracious Mr Seigenthaler. With that, the episode became a scholarly footnote in media history.

A telling one, however. Reflecting on the incident in USA Today, Mr Seigenthaler succinctly summarised the promise and peril of the latest media revolution: “And so we live in a universe of new media with phenomenal opportunities for worldwide communications and research—but populated by volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects.”

For the most part, it is much more worthwhile to dwell on the phenomenal opportunities than on the poison pens. Wikipedia's promise is nothing less than the liberation of human knowledge—both by incorporating all of it through the collaborative process, and by freely sharing it with everybody who has access to the internet. This is a radically popular idea. Wikipedia's English-language version doubled in size last year and now has over 1m articles. By this measure, it is almost 12 times larger than the print version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Taking in the other 200-odd languages in which it is published, Wikipedia has more than 3m articles. Over 100,000 people all over the world have contributed, with a total of almost 4m “edits” between them. Wikipedia already has more “visitors” than the online New York Times, CNN and other mainstream sites. It has become a vital research tool for huge numbers of people. And Wikipedia is only five years old.

This success has made Wikipedia the most famous example of a wider wiki phenomenon. Wikis are web pages that allow anybody who is allowed to log into them to change them. In Wikipedia's case, that happens to be anybody at all. The word “wiki” comes from the Hawaiian word for “quick”, but also stands for “what I know is...”. Wikis are thus the purest form of participatory creativity and intellectual sharing, and represent “a socialisation of expertise”, as David Weinberger, who is currently writing a book on collaborative intelligence, puts it.

Among the new media, wikis are the perfect complement to blogs. Whereas blogs contain the unedited, opinionated voice of one person, wikis explicitly and literally allow groups of people to get on the proverbial “same page”. This is the main reason for the failure of a Los Angeles Times experiment with wikitorials, described in the previous article. Wikis are good at summarising debates, but they are ill-suited for biased opinion.

Wikipedia's numbers actually make it an anomaly among wikis. Joe Kraus, the co-founder of JotSpot, a provider of wiki software, reckons that most of the millions of wikis already in existence are designed for small, well-defined groups of people. Team members in a company, for instance, might use wikis to collaborate on presentations or project calendars. Wikis are communities, and “communities require trust,” says Mr Kraus. Trust comes most easily when the people involved know one another or are accountable for their contributions. Given that the optimal group size for humans may be less than 150 members (see the article on blogging earlier in this survey), most wikis might be expected to be small.

Darwin or intelligent design?

At first sight, Wikipedia seems too large for its contributors to be able to trust each other easily. How, then, does it work? A common assumption, expressed most cuttingly by Robert McHenry, a former editor-in-chief of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is that Wikipedians trust in “some unspecified quasi-Darwinian” process, whereby accuracy “evolves” as more and more “eyeballs” examine an item. “Does someone actually believe this?”, wonders Mr McHenry. He obviously does not. To him, Wikipedia is a “faith-based encyclopedia”, based on “the moist and modish notion of community and some vague notions about information wanting to be free”.

In fact, it turns out that such quasi-Darwinian logic is “not the way we talk about ourselves within the community”, says Jimmy Wales, who started the (not-for-profit) Wikimedia Foundation that operates Wikipedia, as well as lesser-known sites such as Wiktionary, Wikinews and Wikibooks. Instead, says Mr Wales, the process “is much more traditional than people realise”. Fewer than 1% of all users do half the total edits. They add up to a few hundred committed volunteers like himself, says Mr Wales—“a real community of people who know each other” and value their reputations. Besides “democracy” on the site, he says, there is occasional “aristocracy” (when editors with superior reputations get more say than others) and even occasional “monarchy” (“that's my role”) in cases such as the Seigenthaler biography, when quick intervention is needed.

To put this process to the test, the journal Nature recently commissioned a study to compare the accuracy of a sample of articles drawn from Wikipedia and the Encyclopaedia Britannica respectively. Nature's experts found 162 errors in Wikipedia's articles and 123 errors in Britannica's. Jorge Cauz, Britannica's president, immediately claimed victory because Wikipedia had “a third more errors”.

We are all fallible

Privately, however, Britannica's editors were shocked to have to concede that their creation contained any errors at all. Total accuracy, after all, is the main selling point for the old media. So Dale Hoiberg, Britannica's current editor-in-chief, commissioned his own review of the study and found that “Nature did everything wrong that they could possibly have done wrong.” Last month Nature issued a rebuttal. But if it did get it wrong, it is not clear why it would have erred more for Britannica than for Wikipedia. Mr Hoiberg puts a brave face on it, claiming that “our model, although not perfect, is the best.”

For a lot of new-media watchers, the most interesting thing about the episode was something entirely different: that Britannica, somewhat representative of old media in general, instinctively regards Wikipedia as a threat, whereas Wikipedians are not the least bit tempted to reciprocate. “I'm a big fan of Britannica's work,” says Mr Wales, adding that he is not motivated by “disrupting” anybody, and is glad that Brockhaus, the biggest encyclopedia in Germany (where Wikipedia is very popular), appears to be doing better than ever. But why not have a free alternative as well? And why not test the limits of what social collaboration can do? Mr Wales is the first to admit that “there are some inherent limitations,” and says they are busy trying to discover what they are.

Contrast that with the joyful reaction of Wikipedia's detractors to Brian Chase, the dodgy biographer (whose article was literally one in a million). Somebody who reads Wikipedia is “rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom,” says Mr McHenry, Britannica's former editor. “It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him.” One wonders whether people like Mr McHenry would prefer there to be no public lavatories at all.

lots of issues | leave me a message 22:50, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Re: Baboon vandal

Sure, I've watchlisted both user pages and I'll keep an eye on the IP's contributions. --PS2pcGAMER (talk) 12:08, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

You were right on the money. Take a look at the damage at User talk:Abobon (and the links on that page). However, I only blocked the IP for 24 hours. The user appears to be on his/her second IP now, so I don't think indef blocking would do much good, plus blocking an IP indefinitely is usually a very bad idea. I'll keep an eye out for if/when s/he returns and be sure to let me know if you see anything also. Happy editing! --PS2pcGAMER (talk) 12:10, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

I suppose a subcategory of some sort could be made. I didn't really bother with it because I was too lazy to figure out where it would go. However, I am really hoping the situation has been resolved. Someone claiming to be the vandal's father left a message apologizing for his son's actions and he also said that he had talked to his child about it. I guess we'll find out in the next few hours if he has returned or not. If he does, let me know or post a message on WP:AIV. --PS2pcGAMER (talk) 12:20, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Here. --PS2pcGAMER (talk) 13:10, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

ACOTF

Hi. You voted for Surf lifesaving as Australian collaboration of the fortnight. It has now been selected, so please help to improve it in any way you can. Thanks. Scott Davis ^Talk 13:14, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Reminders

When using template tags on talk pages, don't forget to substitute with text by adding subst: to the template tag. For example, use {{subst:test}} instead of {{test}}. This reduces server load and prevents accidental blanking of the template.

As a courtesy for other editors on Wikipedia, please sign your talk page and user talk page posts. By adding four tildes (~) at the end of your comments, your user name or IP address and the date will be automatically added. — Ian Manka Talk to me‼ 03:32, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Re: Rv on Sydney

Hi Witty lama. According to Help:Reverting: "To revert is to undo all changes made after a certain time in the past." "rv" does not only refer to reversion of vandalism, as seen by the fact that many people write "rvv" for "revert vandalism". Your edit was clearly not vandalism, and I did not intend to imply that it was. Your picture is definitely a better picture than the CBD one, however I feel that it is not better in that position in an article which already has many pictures of the CBD. The North Sydney picture is appropriate for a se ction that mentions the many newer commercial areas outside the CBD, although a better quality image of North Sydney, or another non-CBD area would defintiely be an improvement. If you disagree strongly, the talk page would be a good place to discuss it, so we can get some other opinions. JPD (talk) 09:39, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey there

I'm not too sure how to message someone on wikipedia, so I did this in response to your message.

I love the Micigan state article, it's outstanding. I doubt that we'd be able to get something quite as good as that together, but it's a great template.

Name: Jim Age: 18 Degree: B.Sc B.Ed Suburb: Camden Articles I've edited: A few wrestling articles here and there, and a couple of things about Sydney.

I'm not too involved with the source, or anything of that nature as I haven't had the time to really get in and participate, so I doubt I'll be much help there. What I would like to do is go into detail about the history of the uni, the location & the architecture and layout of UNSW. Perhaps once the exams are over I can get on top of this a little more :P

Welcome to Esperanza!

Welcome, Witty lama, to Esperanza, the Wikipedia member association! As you might know, all the Esperanzians share one important goal: the success of this encyclopedia. Within that, we then attempt to strengthen the community bonds, and be the "approachable" side of the project. All of our ideals are held in the Charter, the governing document of the association.

Now that you are a member, you might be interested in some of our programs. A quite important program is the StressUnit, which seeks to support editors who have encountered any stress from their Wikipedia events, and are seeking to leave the project. So far, Esperanza can be credited with the support and retention of several users. We have a calendar of special events, member birthdays, and other holidays that you can add to and follow.

In addition to these projects, several more missions of Esperanza are in development, and are currently being created at Esperanza/Possibles.

I encourage you to take an active voice in the running of Esperanza. We have a small government system, headed by our Administrator general, Celestianpower, and guided by the Advisory Committee, Titoxd, JoanneB, and Freakofnurture.

If you have any other questions, concerns, comments, or general ideas, Esperanzian or otherwise, know that you can always contact me by my talk page, Celestianpower by email or talk page, or the Esperanza talk page. Alternatively, you could communicate with fellow users on our IRC channel, #wikipedia-esperanza (which is also good for a fun chat or two :). If you're new to IRC, please see the IRC Tutorial, which was written by one of our members. I thank you for joining Esperanza, and look forward to working with you in making Wikipedia a better place to be!

Thanks! G.He 16:31, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

License tagging for Image:St Mary's Cathedral Spires.jpg

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For more information on using images, see the following pages:

• Wikipedia:Image use policy
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This is an automated notice by OrphanBot. If you need help on selecting a tag to use, or in adding the tag to the image description, feel free to post a message at Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. 02:07, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Email

Hi again, I borrowed a nice book today from the library (although I couldn't find the UNSW: A portrait book) and have scanned in a few pages so I don't have to return the book after session finishes (or however it works), hence I'll be able to simply work off the information I've scanned. Anyway, point being that I've got some information for the part of this rewrite I'm looking to do (architecture, layout, some history, landscape, faculties) and should get more information as I go through the UNSW books in the library. As I said, if interested, the Good Universities Guide has a nice summary of a lot of points about the university. As I'm eager to hear exactly what you want to do outside of wikipedia, my email address is...

JimNebuchanezzar@gmail.com

I may drop into the contact office tommorow, but it's unlikely seeing as I've got to get a bit of work done and the like (although if I do I'll be the red haired guy with a black trenchcoat). Hence, email is probably the best option at this time, in regards to discussing what we shall do with this article.

Lastly, I understand there's a good photo in the university archives of UNSW (post Scientia) from the air. Are normal students allowed to take a look at these photos, or more specifically photocopy them?

I look foward to hearing from you about exactly where we can go from here with this project, Jim.

Featured picture promotion

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, Image:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Dante And Virgil In Hell (1850).jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates.

Ravedave 03:14, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

A short Esperanzial update

As you may have gathered, discussions have been raging for about a week on the Esperanza talk page as to the future direction of Esperanza. Some of these are still ongoing and warrant more input (such as the idea to scrap the members list altogether). However, some decisions have been made and the charter has hence been amended. See what happened. Basically, the whole leadership has had a reshuffle, so please review the new, improved charter.

As a result, we are electing 4 people this month. They will replace JoanneB and Pschemp and form a new tranche A, serving until December. Elections will begin on 2006-07-02 and last until 2006-07-09. If you wish to run for a Council position, add your name to the list before 2006-07-02. For more details, see Wikipedia:Esperanza/June 2006 elections.

Thanks and kind, Esperanzial regards, —Celestianpower ^háblame 16:00, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

August Esperanza Newsletter

Program Feature: To-Do List The Esperanza To-Do List is a place where you may list any request, big or small, for assistance. If you need help with archiving your usertalk, for example, all you need to do is list it here and somebody will help you out. Likewise, if you need help with some area of editing on Wikipedia, list it here! Again, any matter, trivial or not, can be placed on this page. However, all matters listed on this page must not be of an argumentative nature. You do not need to be a member of Esperanza (or this program) to place or fulfill requests on this page. If you don't have any requests, consider coming by and fulfilling a few! This program has not been very active, but has lots of potential! What's New? In order to help proposed programs become specific enough to make into full-fledged programs, the In development section of the proposals page has been created. Proposals that are promising, but need to be organized in more detail are listed here. Please take a look at what is there, and help the proposals turn into programs. To improve both the layout and text of the front page, in an attempt to clarify the image of Esperanza, the front page is going to have some redesigning take place. Please take your creative minds to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Front page redesign to brainstorm good ideas. Many thanks to MiszaBot, courtesy of Misza13, for delivering the newsletter.

The last AC meeting (full log) In order to make sure all users who join Esperanza are welcomed, a list of volunteers who are willing to welcome new Esperanzians is at Wikipedia:Esperanza/Members#Esperanza_welcomers. Please add yourself if you are interested; we want to make sure all new Esperanza members are welcomed! The In development section of the proposals page has been created. Proposals page: Some proposals have been moved to the aforementioned "In development" section, some have been left as a proposal, and others have been archived. For those proposals that were a good idea but didn't necessarily constitute a program, General Esperanzial Actions has been created. Two small pieces of charter reform will be decided on in a straw poll at Wikipedia talk:Esperanza/Governance. One involves filling the position of any councillors who may leave, the other involves reforming the charter. Until cooperation with the Kindness Campaign is better defined, it remains as a proposed program. There is a page for discussing the front page redesign. Signed... Natalya, Banes, Celestianpower, EWS23, FireFox, Freakofnurture, and Titoxd 05:03, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Although having the newsletter appear on everyone's userpage is desired, this may not be ideal for everyone. If, in the future, you wish to receive a link to the newsletter, rather than the newsletter itself, you may add yourself to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Newsletter/Opt Out List.

September Esperanza Newsletter

Program Feature: Barnstar Brigade Here in Wikipedia there are hundreds of wikipedians whose work and efforts go unappreciated. One occasionally comes across editors who have thousands of good edits, but because they may not get around as much as others, their contributions and hard work often go unnoticed. As Esperanzians we can help to make people feel appreciated, be it by some kind words or the awarding of a Barnstar. This is where the Barnstar Brigade comes in. The object of this program is to seek out the people which deserve a Barnstar, and help them feel appreciated. With your help, we can recognize more dedicated editors! What's New? September elections are upon us! Anyone wishing to be a part of the Advisory Council may list themselves as a candidate from 18 September until 24 September, with the voting taking place from 25 September to 30 September. Those who wish to help with the election staff should also list themselves! Appreciation Week, a program currently in development, now has its own subpage! Share your good ideas on how to make it awesome there! The Esperanza front page has been redesigned! Many thanks to all who worked hard on it. Many thanks to MiszaBot, courtesy of Misza13, for delivering the newsletter.

The last AC meeting (full log) The proposals page has been updated, with some proposals being archived. Since the program in development Appretiaion week is getting lots of good ideas, it now has its own subpage. The September 2006 Council elections will open for nominations on 18 September 2006. The voting will run from 25 September 2006 until 30 September 2006. If you wish to be a candidate or a member of the elections staff, please list yourself! The new Esperanza front page design has but put up - many thanks to all who worked on it! TangoTango has written a script for a bot that will list new members of Esperanza, which will help those who welcome new Esperanzains greatly! Signed... Natalya, Banes, Celestianpower, EWS23, FireFox, Freakofnurture, and Titoxd 04:04, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Although having the newsletter appear on everyone's userpage is desired, this may not be ideal for everyone. If, in the future, you wish to receive a link to the newsletter, rather than the newsletter itself, you may add yourself to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Newsletter/Opt Out List.

Inspektor

To avoid people slapping speedy tags on your articles, you should use a personal sandbox. Eg. inspektor should only be posted to the (Main) namespace once you have translated it into English. -- RHaworth 17:53, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

November Esperanza Newsletter

Program Feature: Admin Coaching (needs coaches!) Admin Coaching needs coaches!!! If you are an administrator, or even a generally experienced user, do consider signing up to be a coach. Admin Coaching, now being coordinated by HighwayCello, is a program for people who want help learning some of the more subtle aspects of Wikipedia policy and culture. People are matched with experienced users who are willing to offer coaching. The program is designed for people who have figured out the basics of editing articles; they're not newcomers any more, but they might want some help in learning new roles. In this way, Esperanza would help keep hope alive for Wikipedia because we would always be grooming the next generation of admins. What's New? The Tutorial Drive is a new Esperanza program! In an effort to make complicated processes on Wikipedia easier for everyone, Esperanza working to create and compile a list of tutorials about processes here on Wikipedia. Consider writing one! A discussion on how Esperanza relates to the encyclopedia has been started; please add your thoughts. Many thanks to MiszaBot, courtesy of Misza13, for delivering the newsletter.

The last AC meeting (full log) The list of proposed programs has been updated, with some proposals being archived. There is now a new program: the Tutorial Drive! Consider writing a tutorial on something you are good at doing on Wikipedia. The suggestion of adding a cohesive look to all the Esperanza pages is being considered; join the discussion if you are interested! In order to make a useful interlanguage welcome template, those involved in translation projects will be asked what English Wikipedia policies are most important and confusing to editors coming from other language Wikipedias. A discussion of Esperanza's role in Wikipedia is being held, with all thoughts of all Esperanzians wanted! Shreshth91 informed everyone that he will be leaving the Esperanza council as life is rather busy; his spot will be filled by the runner up from the last election, HighwayCello. Signed... Natalya, Banes, Celestianpower, EWS23, FireFox, The Halo, Shreshth91 and HighwayCello 20:33, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Although having the newsletter appear on everyone's userpage is desired, this may not be ideal for everyone. If, in the future, you wish to receive a link to the newsletter, rather than the newsletter itself, you may add yourself to Wikipedia:Esperanza/Newsletter/Opt Out List.

Canadian Heraldic Authority Review

Canadian Heraldic Authority has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. --Eva ^bd 21:42, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Re: Weekly Podcast Interview

Hi Witty!
First off I'm very flatter for the invitation, but as mentioned on my userpage I'm pretty busy with school these days. Don't get me wrong I'm keen on doing one, but I'll have to see when a time is convenient. When did you have in mind to have it done by? --Fir0002 21:19, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi - yup, I'm in. Lemme know the details. Cheers, Rama's arrow 21:33, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion - as you are interested in interviewing people working in specific areas/projects, I strongly suggest you approach user:Ragib, who is like the top guy on the Bengali language Wikipedia and the leading Bangladeshi editor here. Ragib has already done a lot of stuff to promote the Bengali Wikipedia worldwide, so I'm sure he'll be a great fella to interview. Also, I'd just like to clarify that I wasn't involved in the Chennai meetup - user:Bhadani would be a good person to approach about that. Rama's arrow 21:39, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi Lama - I've emailed Ragib. If he agrees to do the interview together, it'll be cool. Can you e-mail me the details to set this up properly on Skype? Rama's arrow 15:53, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Ragib has confirmed by e-mail - I believe 3 pm EST Saturday will be convenient to both of us (it will be 2 pm CST for him :) Btw, how do we set this up properly on Skype? Rama's arrow 01:35, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

What time is it right now in Sweden? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Rama's Arrow (talk • contribs) 01:49, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

Ok, apparently it is 2:55 am Friday in Sweden - which means that Saturday 3 pm (EST) will be 9 pm on Friday for you. Is that convenient? Rama's arrow 01:57, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, Saturday 11 am EST will Saturday evening 5 pm your time - will that be better? Rama's arrow 02:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

That's cool with with me (Saturday 10 am EST - Saturday 4pm your time). I'll ask Ragib to confirm. I'll send you my account name tomorrow, when I create it :) Rama's arrow 02:48, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi - Ragib has asked that the meeting be pushed up by one hour; Saturday 11 am EST - Saturday 4pm your time. Will that be convenient? Rama's arrow 21:08, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Mine is "ArrowOfRama" and Ragib's is "ragibhasan." Rama's arrow 22:31, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Liam, I'd like to thank you for the great discussion we had during the Wikipedia Weekly interview. I appreciate your enthusiasm and the great way you conducted the interview. I wish you all the best. --Ragib 02:46, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

The same from me - thanks for this opportunity! Rama's arrow 14:22, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Podcast

Hi Witty,
Tried to connect with you today at 10pm my time but you weren't on. I'll have another shot at 10 tomorrow night OK? cya --Fir0002 11:15, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Sorry missed your message - is this week still OK? --Fir0002 09:03, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

My talk page

On my talk page, I decide when to remove things. Thank you. If these podcasters jumped to conclusions, it ain't my fault. Poor journalism. Lupo 12:59, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

This is a big misunderstanding, i'm sorry about that. Please see the comment I left at your talk-page regarding the matter. I did not intentionally remove content from your talk-page. In fact, I was trying to write an expanded clarification on the matter and somehow managed to delete the whole discussion through user-error. Witty lama 14:18, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

No harm done. I am quite put off by Zero1328's accusation that I didn't check, and so my post here came out too harsh. I'm sorry about that. But I thought (and still do think so) that Vuguru is not an encyclopedia article. Recentism in its worst form, free advertisement for Eisner's venture, and not really noteable (despite the Google hits). Just another unremarkable video production company that hasn't even released their first product (and thus the article borders on "crystallballism"). But whatever. Depending on what your "experiment" was meant to show, you might maybe want to consider redoing it with some other article (and start off with a bit more than just a below-par sub-stub). Legatus legionis might be a candidate where I certainly won't interfere :-), unless you post complete nonsense :-)).

About mentioning me in your podcast... as long as my actions are not mis-characterized, and as long as it's not derogatory, I don't care. I don't have any real "privacy concerns" over my actions here on the Wiki—it's open to see for all. Lupo 15:00, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

"HUGE jump in page views"

Witty lama, how did you determine that there has been a "HUGE jump in page views to articles related to the Battle of Thermopylae as a result of the release of the film 300."? In general, how do you view the number of page views to an article at WP?-BillDeanCarter 01:39, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks.-BillDeanCarter 05:14, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Re:Podcast

Croikey! I was bettin' on at least 500,000! The 1-billion people advantage never comes when one needs it.... Btw, I appreciate that you edited out my rant against B'desh and Australian cricket teams. I'll find a better way to humiliate myself on the internet next time... :) I'm rooting for the Kiwis, just to piss u Kangaroos off...

Btw, a minor correction - Ragib is in midwest US and I'm in northeast or mid-Atlantic US. Rama's arrow 14:55, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Next Podcast topic

Hi Lama - I see u guys are considering the RfA process discussion for a podcast. I hope its not too late, but I'd really like to hear a discussion of the RfB process - after the Essjay controversy, 3 RfBs were opened and all three failed over the "need for more" issue, which was also hotly debated on WT:RFA. Rama's arrow (just a sexy boy) 03:18, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

nicley restored

Id just like to congratulate you on your prompt restoration of the main page. i hate all these vandalising pillocks Tad102 23:45, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Mystery blanking

Witty Lama, Tad102 blanked a vandalised version of Wikipedia and followed it up by writing an angry message to the vandal here, so I'm sure the blanking was done in good faith. But as for the contribs mystery, I don't understand it either. Bishonen | talk 00:19, 7 April 2007 (UTC).

No, I just have Wikipedia on my watchlist, that's all. When your "rvv blanking" showed up on it, I clicked on the History, to see if it needed reverting further back, and saw the vandalism followed by the blanking. So I went to the vandal's page, to check if he needed blocking, and there was Tad102's angry message. Simple, so far. But there is something odd going on beyond that, obviously. Look at Ned Scott's edit, after yours—he doesn't understand it either. As for telling him about policies and stuff...sorry, but I blanch at the idea of trying to explain something I can't understand myself to a confused n00b,lol. And it's late in this timezone, as you know. I wouldn't reproach him for blanking instead of reverting, in any case. When people aren't used to reverts, I think the process can seem intimidating enough, and blanking might have been the emergency measure that he felt he could manage. Anyway... yeah, Stockholm. Bishonen | talk 01:01, 7 April 2007 (UTC).

I blanked the page for as i logged onto wiki and found it vandalised. I dont have a copy of the original mainpage saved to my comp so thought it best to just blank it until someone such as wittylama could properly restore it. Sorry i didnt mean to go against protocol i was just trying to help! Tad102 04:05, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

I know, and I appreciate your help, thank you! (But see Wikipedia:Revert in case you'd like to practice reverting, it's not that hard and you don't need a copy of the original page.) Sorry to jump in, Witty lama, but I think I understand the contribs FUBAR now, I've been seeing it all over the place. It's a database issue, nothing to do with this editor. See this ANI thread. The ANI comments are a little misleading, though, as the users posting only talk about delays, whereas the blips that I see are pretty random, chronologically. Bishonen | talk 11:58, 7 April 2007 (UTC).

Animated Gun Turret

I notice that you voted against the promotion of the Animated Gun Turret on the Featured Picture Candidates pages; however, User:Emscopes, the creator of the image, has retooled it to reflect the suggestions of those who voted oppose. I was wondering if you would take another look at the photo and see if the new version warrented a change in your vote. Thank You TomStar81 (Talk) 21:38, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Jimbo is coming to Sydney

Sorry to spam you if you aren't interested. See Wikipedia:Meetup/Sydney#April 25th for more info if you are interested. - Ta bu shi da yu 08:54, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Re:

Sure, I'd love to write about the Bangla Wikipedia project. We are arranging a Wikicamp next week, and a country-wide CD campaign. I'm coordinating it remotely from USA. Thanks for letting me know of the page. --Ragib 18:06, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

re:globemaster, mantis, podcast

Hi Witty,
Sorry for not being online, forgot about it a bit! I'll try be online during the coming week - promise! As for the praying mantis I think I'll try for both, I mainly uploaded the extreme close-up because it was so much more unusual than all the other praying mantis photos. The globemaster is more of a problem, not much can be done to regain sharpness. I've done an edit but it's be no means brilliant: Image:C17virginia edit.jpg --Fir0002 00:06, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Bushranger is now ACOTF

Hi. You voted for Bushranger, which has been selected as the new ACOTF. Please help to improve it if you can. Thanks. --Scott Davis ^Talk 14:56, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Weekly

I was able to listen to episode 17 on thwe blog, but the iTunes RSS feed wasn't updated. If it was then it didn't work for me. The Placebo Effect 02:17, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, we know.... We're working on fixing that. But the guy who has the special mojo for doing it is a bit busy.... we'll do it as soon as possible. Witty lama 08:42, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Image:Apollo 11 bootprint.jpg

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, Image:Apollo 11 bootprint.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for nominating it! KFP (talk | contribs) 15:56, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

...

... has also been featured. MER-C 03:14, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

One small step FSC

Whenever someone supports something without a further comment, it's often taken as granted he agrees with the nomination, other supporters, or simply the criteria. It should also be pointed that featured content candidacy results are decided by opposing arguments, rather than sole !votes. Thanks. Michaelas¹⁰ 10:57, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

responded at User_talk:Michaelas10#One_small_step_FSC

UNSW

Hi Witty Lama. I noticed that you've contributed to the UNSW page. Someone's raised the issue of rankings, and whether they should be included in the page. It's not my particular area of expertise; I was wondering whether you could give it a look over? Recurring dreams 13:47, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Image:NormandySupply edit.jpg

Your Featured picture candidate has been promoted Your nomination for featured picture status, Image:NormandySupply edit.jpg, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate another image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for nominating it! KFP (talk | contribs) 10:24, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Climate of Australia is the new ACOTF

Climate of Australia is the new Australian collaboration. Please help to improve it in any way you can. --Scott Davis ^Talk 10:59, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Re: Wikipedia Weekly Podcast - interview?

I am very interested! Sadly, school is extremely busy, and my Spring Break starts next Friday (during which I will be away from the internet for about 9 days), but after that I should be free to set up an interview. I must admit, I am very excited and flattered, and I would love to do it. Hmm, one problem is that I don't have a microphone, though I should be able to find one. I'll keep in touch with you about the subject. Hurricanehink (talk) 19:32, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm still very interested, but real life in general just got much, much busier. Maybe in a few weeks. Thanks for keeping me in mind. Hurricanehink (talk) 03:18, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Coop board

I just saw your post in GR-TR board. Sure it would be nice, let's see what the others will make of it. But was your post to someone in particular or just anyone? Cheers! Baristarim 00:45, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Sure, no problems. I know Yannismarou and we have worked before many times, and I think that we know the editing history of Turkish and Greek related articles. In fact, aside from disputes centered on two-three topics, the working relation has been much more on the better side. Obviously there have been some heated debates, but they have generally concerned, literally, two or three topics who have not been resolved even in real life. :) And we also have a cooperation board here in Wikipedia, which at least had the effect of letting people know that there does exist a spirit of cooperation, even though individual users are generally busy in other projects and don't hang around the board that often. Anyways, just let me know how you would like to proceed. Cheers! Baristarim 01:12, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I got Skype and broadband, so that wouldn't be a problem. I will contact Yannis and get back to you as soon as possible. Baristarim 01:25, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Greco-Turkish Wikipedia Weekly Podcast Interview

Copy of the message I posted to Baris' userpage:

"I got Skype. I have a broadband connection already! The only think I now need is a microphone to check if everything works fine with Skype!! Because I may have the program now, but I cannot record or test the sound quality!

Anyway, I think I can buy a microphone within the Weekend or even earlier, and fix these technicalities. And If I don't manage to fix them (although I don't think so), I do have friends with both Skype and a microphone! As you can see, I think the idea is fine. And we could go forward with it. But I would prefer this prodcasting to take place next week - the soonest in the beginning of the next week. I don't know If I will be ready earlier, and my program is a bit of a mess this week."

A few more words: I do think that Baris is the ideal Turkish Wikipedian for such a discussion as he is the person who brough Turkey to FA status (and made me jealous for not having similarly committed myself to the upgrading of the Greece article), and revived the WP:TURKEY. As far as a user from FYROM you talked about, I don't think that I can give you a satisfactory answer, because, recently at least, I haven't seen any Wikipedian from this country being significantly active (I may be wrong, but this is at least my personal impression); at least not at a level similar to Baris'. So, for the time being a Greco-Turkish discussion looks to me as the most feasible one.

Now, some questions: which dates are the candidates one for this discussion? And, most importantly, what do you want to learn from us? What are you most interested in: our personal quarrels with Baris?! The way the two national projects work, and, maybe, emulate each other? The launching of the the Greco-Turkish Cooperation Board by Baris, and how it now works? The confidence crises between users of the two sides that often arise? The most "heated" articles? How I and Argos' Dad gave birth to the WP:History of Greece later merged with WP:GREECE? What have we achieved there, and how it now works?

These are just some things. I hope that until Friday I'll be ready to contact you with Skype (and a microphone!). Cheers!--Yannismarou 18:32, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

I will contact you! As soon as I have a microphone! I heard some of episode 13, and I'll also have a look tomorrow at 15.--Yannismarou 18:53, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I will contact you as well, most probably later today. Cheers! Baristarim 05:01, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

I just inform you that in terms of equipment I am ready earlier than I thought! So, we can arrange a reord time any time available.--Yannismarou 20:58, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

Tsar Bomba

I don't see what is unclear in the statement that Tsar Bomba is not called simply "Tsar". "Tsar Bomba" is its full unique name. We don't put New York into New or York (disambiguation). We don't put Mission College into Mission or College. We do put Mercury Records into Mercury (disambiguation), because in the context of music industry it is known simply as "mercury". On the there hand, tsar bomba, tsar bell, etc. are NEVER called simply "tsar". `'mikka 21:21, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Delisting nominations

Hey, Witty lama. Don't take this the wrong way, as I'm aware your delisting noms have been made in good faith and for what it's worth, I agree with most of them, but - please make sure you notify the original uploader of the image (and the nominator too, preferably) when making the nomination. It is simple courtesy to at least give them the opportunity to respond to any specific criticisms, even if there's not really a snowball's chance of the image being kept as an FP. We risk alienating valuable contributors if we 'sneakily' delist their pictures - even though the FP tag isn't a 'prize', it can still feel like a slap in the face having it withdrawn, especially if it's not done in as gentle, open and democratic a fashion as possible. Like I said, this is intended as a polite reminder rather than a dig - thanks for being among the few people at FPC actually applying the current FP criteria during delistings! --YFB ¿ 16:35, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Wow, thank you for the barnstar! Your gracious response is very much appreciated. Happy editing, --YFB ¿ 01:08, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

I've left a colossal reply on my talk page! --YFB ¿ 02:31, 28 April 2007 (UTC)