User talk:Zscout370/Archive 1

Dean 08 link on U.S. presidential election, 2008

Hi! You entered it as [http://deanforamerica2008.us/|Unoffical Website]. External links don't use the | character like a normal "piped" Wikilink you'd enter between double brackets. Rather, at the end of the external link, you leave a ''space'', then the text you want to show with it. (If you don't leave any text, it will give it a number like a footnote, the first occurance of such a link on a page being [1], etc.) Anyway, this system reads [http://deanforamerica2008.us/|Unoffical Website] as the url "http://deanforamerica2008.us/|Unoffical", and the title "Website". So I just fixed this, and called it "site" because Web is implied. Only now do I notice the typo in Unofficial - just fixed that too. By the way, to sign your user name and the date and time to a comment, use four tildes: <nowiki>~~~~. And to enter Wiki syntax like I've been doing here, without having it execute that function, just put it between <nowiki></nowiki> tags.

Thanks for adding the link. Cheers! Samaritan 21:49, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

• No problem Samaritan, I will be adding more shortly. Zscout370 23:24, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Barnstar banner & RAK Barnstar

For going the extra mile without being asked, I, Redux, hereby award you The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar. Congratulations! Redux 02:53, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for leaving me a message and for your offer in my talk page, as well as for all your assistance in the Barnstar project. Indeed I often want to illustrate articles, but there's usually the "copyright hitch", as I call it. The best way around it is to create the images ourselves (when possible), but I've not quite mastered the techniques. I can merge images, but that's about it. And since we're involved in the creation of awards, you've been quite thoughtfull with me, so this one sounds more than appropriate. Thanks for all your help. Regards, Redux 02:53, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

• Thanks Redux, I am honored (blushes and smiles). Zscout370 03:01, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

It was my pleasure. You earned it! Redux 05:54, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Template:FOTW and Template:FOTWpic

Hi Zscout, I see you changed the Template:FOTW template I created to easily link to FOTW pages to a template serving a quite different purpose, explaining image use issues with FOTW. I've moved your image template to Template:FOTWpic while my link template is back at Template:FOTW.--Pharos 05:59, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. The FOTWpic template will appear more often in the next few days, but I am going to look through the pages and see if the flags come from FOTW or the CIA. But I should have seen if there was a FOTW template, and sorry for changing it. Zscout370 13:41, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Minnie

What's wrong with Minnie? :) Thanks. func(talk) 00:17, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

You asked for names that have double meanings. Minnie doesn't, unless it sounds like mini or something else. If so, I will put it back up. Zscout370 02:25, 23 Feb 2005 (UTC)

New award

I just wanted to thank you again for all the work in the National Merit award, as well as for reloading the image and adding it to the template board. I hope we'll get the opportunity to work together again (maybe even now, in the sportive award?). Now, let us celebrate the "birth" of Wikipedia's newest award! Your friend, Redux 03:21, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

No problem Redux. Sure, we can work together on the other awards. Also, how do you choose to celebrate the creation of this award? Zscout370 12:10, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thank you so much for the Barnstar! I'm honored! :)
And about the new award, the best thing we can do now is actually award it to someone. I've been looking into some articles, trying to find a user that has been contributing in such a fashion as to merit the award. As I see it, the best celebration of the work we've done would be to have other members of the community take an interest in what we have created. Regards, Redux 15:28, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Looks like 172 was a very good choice. I hope we can honor such great people more often. Zscout370 02:37, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Sportive award

Hi. First, sorry for creating so many new subcategories in your talk page, but I do in hopes to keep different topics separated, and thus make it easier to consult. This time, I'm writing about the sportive award that we were designing. Another user has proposed an image that is quite interesting (and free of copyright issues, apparently). So I was thinking we could choose between it and your design of the barnstar with the checkered flag motif. But since you last said that you were still working on it and would upload it later, I was in doubt as to whether you might have discarded the image (maybe it didn't turn out as you thought it would). But if you still have it, I was wondering if you could upload it and post it in the project talk page, so we could take a look at it. Thanks in advance. Regards, Redux 03:48, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Go ahead and choose the one that is already up there. I had the image, but I think I will let others draw barnstars;. Plus, I do not mind if you create many headings in my talk pages. I like things simple :). Zscout370 14:29, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Eagle Scout

You are right that compared with the population of the US, or indeed the world, the number of Eagle Scouts is fairly small. And I'm sure it's a matter of some pride to most Eagle scouts and their families and friends. But at a rate of 300 per day (about 10,000 per year, not 100,000) it's not really a rare occurrence. Even among Scouts, 1 in 25 acheive it, which is hardly rare. Rgds, Rich Farmbrough 00:51, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Rich, your right, my math is wrong. However, in some troops or even in some areas, Eagle Scouts are rare. Yet, in some troops, they produce Eagle Scouts left and right. I was in Troop 82 in MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, and from my time there, I saw about 7 or 8 Scouts, including myself, obtaining this rank. Two other Eagle Scouts graduated with me from high school 2004, and once we got the award, we were well known. I credit a lot of people, yet, I still think the number of Eagle Scouts are low in the country overall today. Also, I think the number of scouts have lowered in the past few years, so the ratio is smaller now than in the past. Zscout370 04:09, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Template:PD-user

Hi, Zach. Why did you change Template:PD-user? I'm sorry; I don't always understand how templates and namespaces work. But it looks like the images that were using it now all say "This image has been (or is hereby) released into the public domain by its creator, Image. This applies worldwide." (emphasis mine), instead of the user name like it was before. I don't want to change it back myself in case there's something else going on here that I don't understand. — Knowledge Seeker দ (talk) 07:52, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The template had {{{1}}}:{{{1}}}, which was an incorrect template. It was supposedly to stick the username's name in there. If you want to change the template, fine with me, yet, I am going to try and find a way to stick our Username in there. I think the only option is for each user who makes images for Wikipedia create their own tags/templates. Zscout370 13:21, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I've reverted your change. Correct usage is {{PD-user|Zscout370}}. Lupo 16:40, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Lupo. Zscout370 19:41, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC)

In recognition...

In recognition of your persistent dedication to the community on Wikipedia_talk:Barnstars_on_Wikipedia, I hereby award you with the The Barnstar of Diligence – ClockworkSoul 20:59, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC) (KC)

In recognition of your persistent dedication to the community on Wikipedia_talk:Barnstars_on_Wikipedia, I hereby award you with the The Barnstar of Diligence – ClockworkSoul 20:59, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thank you! Zscout370 21:06, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

And thanks for the thanks! – ClockworkSoul 21:52, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thank You

Hi Zach. Thank you so very much for the BoNM award! :) I'm honored! And I must say it was a thrill to get that particular award, being that I was involved in its creation. I'll be displaying it in my user page, along with the Barnstar you gave me. Thanks a lot! Your friend, Redux 01:05, 1 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Experts (from 172's talk)

(William M. Connolley 16:41, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)) I would be happy if wiki encouraged experts, and I do indeed decry the "disencouragement". I've experienced it myself. But what I was trying to point out was 172's hypocrisy: he wants to be taken for an expert, but won't accept the same elsewhere. I've read, with interest, Larry Sangers stuff on this; and the responses to it. I can see the difficulties. But 172 needs to be consistent.

If that is the case, then how can someone be "declared" as an "expert" on a given topic? That could be endless talk all by itself. Zscout370 16:53, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

(William M. Connolley 18:00, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)) I felt we were trespassing on 172's talk page with tis so I've moved to here. First let me clarify some stuff: I'm an expert on climate modelling, though I don't use that much, theres just a link to my work page from my user page. And I get a lot of grief from skeptics on the climate related pages. But the structure of wiki means I cannot use my credentials. Now my particular problem with 172 is that he *is* leaning on people saying I-am-an-expert, defer to me - yet he was acting totally against that on the global warming page.

Now onto your question: I guess the problem of verification is one (but probably not the main) reason why there is no "expert" system. Its not insoluble though: identities can be verified with no great trouble. You can verify mine, if you want to. The main "problem" is that there is no agreement that we want to use experts in this way (rather than just relying on the quality of their edits to shine through). Indeed, from the various discussions I've seen, there is a majority to the no-priv-to-experts view. There may well be good reasons for wiki to do this - at the moment, I am agnostic. But certainly, a large number of experts will be put off editing wiki when their edits can be reverted by the ignorant and/or malicious (no I'm not thinking of anyone in particular here).

I do not mind if you moved the talk at all. Thanks for the head's up. Your right, we could use our expertiese on certain are. My subject areas are flags, and other than that, I just draw images for this site. Maybe we can discuss with the other Wikipedians about why we think this way, yet, there are some souls that we cannot move to our side. FYI, I am also agnostic. Zscout370 18:24, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I think the central idea is that everything should be documented sufficiently that an interested reader can come along and understand why a thing is a certain way, or else the description is insufficient. This would be the ideal end result of a system without verified experts, since the only input of expertise comes in the form of documentation and acceptable explanation of the reasons for a thing, rather than from the authority of the editors. — Cortonin | Talk 23:55, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, as long as we are not arrogant with it and as long this knowledge is used to benefit everyone who contributes and anyone who visits Wikipedia, I am happy to share it to world. Zscout370 00:43, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

(William M. Connolley 14:05, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)) As usual I disagree with Cortonin. Not that everything should be documented - thats fine - but that this amounts to the solution to the problems. It isn't. Just look at greenhouse effect (check hist and talk) :-(

Flag of Russia

I noticed that you uploaded a version of the flag of Russia where the proportions are 5 to 3. But aren't the correct proportions 3 to 2 instead? That's what I see in several sources like [1] and [2] and [3] and several other places. Aris Katsaris 14:13, Mar 14, 2005 (UTC)

• Thanks Aris. I will redraw the image as soon as I can, not only fixing the proportions, but also to have a slight outline to it, so the white can be easily seen. Zscout370 17:31, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Flag of the Soviet Union

Question, do you think there should be better images for the Soviet flag page? I personally think the hammer and sickles are too small for the flag.

Yes, the images could have been larger, but unfortunately one of them is originally small, and scaling up, e.g., to 300px makes hammmer/sickle ugly.

I also think we could stick the RSFSR and the 14 SSR flags on one page.

But they already are, aren't they? At Flags of the Soviet Republics there are all 15 of them. Or did you mean to add the USSR flag there? 01:57, 16 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I modified an image of one of the SSR flags so I could make the USSR flag. The flag size is 300x600 pixels. I could modify the Soviet Republic flag page so I can add some tables, make it more presentable. While I am at it, do you think the image of the Russian Federation flag ok? Zscout370 02:19, 16 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Flag of the Netherlands

I reverted your edit to the Dutch flag (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Netherlands_flag_large.png).

Please! Be careful when editing something sensitive such as a national flag!

The Dutch flag is not just "Red, White and Blue", it is "Vermillion red, White and Cobalt blue". The colours I have specified on the image page (and which were used by the person uploading a slightly larger image) are the official colours. The official government document states:

   De kleur rood moet zijn helder vermiljoen met de trichromatische coördinaten X=17,2; Y=9,0 en Z=2,6.
   De kleur blauw moet zijn kobaltblauw met de trichromatische coördinaten X=7,8; Y=6,8 en Z=26,7.

If I made a mistake in calculating the RGB Hex colour values, then an edit would be in order. Otherwise, these are the colours that should be used for the flag of the Netherlands.

(you probably meant no disrespect, but unless you are very positive about your changes, national emblems are best left to those that can read the corresponding national directives regarding the appereance of these.)

Out of curiousity; why did you replace the previous version? JeroenHoek 13:59, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I have been going around and trying to fit images into the 300 pixel height range. I also changed the colors to that listed on the World Flag Database. If you feel that these colors are correct, then I will certainly use them, but will you give me to change the image size, if needed? The height will be 300 pixels, yet, I do not know if the ratio is 2:3 or 3:5. If it is 2:3, then it will be 300x450 pixels. If it is 3:5, then it is 300x500 pixels. There is no mistake about your measurements of the RGB hex values. I am not offended at all, and I do not mean to disrespect you or the Dutch people. I had people ask me before about flag changes before, mainly that of Russia. Thanks for pointing it out. To let you know too, I actually have a Dutch flag that was made there, and I can check the ratio of the flag to make the new image, if needed. Zscout370 14:48, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The correct ratio is 2:3. Why would you want to change all flags to a 300px hoist? If 300px is preferred policy then feel free to use this image, (made by myself, Public Domain etc.): ([4])

Of course SVG would be even better, but until Wikipedia is ready for that.. :)

The World Flag Database (The FOTW site right?) seems to have a lot of extensive data, but for a lot of flags the colours seem randomly picked.. Most countries have their national flag's colours documented, but for most of the time this will be in the country's native language. JeroenHoek 15:38, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The reason I am changing the images so they are 300 pixels high because if that is the stanard size Wikipedia wants the images to be in, then that is what I will draw. The World Flag Database is separate from the Flags of the World website, yet, most of the information is shared. The FOTW website has a problem with colours, since we have little information about official colors. I can upload the image you mentioned, yet, I will still credit you for making the image. If there is anything else you want me to do, just ask. Zscout370 16:03, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I've uploaded the 300px version. Thank you for your understanding. :) JeroenHoek 23:47, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• My pleasure. I am glad we could work this out and I am willing to work with you again on anything you need. Zscout370 01:19, 18 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Flag of Western Sahara

===>Issue: I've mentioned this at Gallery of national flags' Talk page, but I figured I would post it here, too. Where did you get your information about the Western Saharan flag flying differently than other national flags? I've seen several pictures of this flag, and I've never noticed it flying backwards - it's possible the inverse design is different (the crescent and triangle facing the opposite way) on the inverse, of course... Justin (koavf) 16:57, Mar 17, 2005 (UTC)

Kovaf, I do not believe that I even reported information about the facing of the flag. The main issues that I was trying to dicuss at the talk page was to change the galley to include only national flags and a few other exceptions (Holy See, Taiwan). I am also trying to redraw several flags and seeing what else I could do flag wise for yall. Zscout370 17:27, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• Note: Issue has been solved, due to a mistake in crediting. See the talk page of the Gallery of national flags. Zscout370 19:39, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

300 pixel hoist

Hi, as far as I can figure out, the long ago decision to use a 300 pixel hoist was from when before MediaWiki knew how to resize images (correct me if this is wrong). Therefore, there is no reason now not to use high resolution images, if possible, and specify size in the imgage tag on pages which need specific sizes. Unless this is wrong, and there is an ongoing policy to use 300 pixels, please don't replace the US flag picture. There are some 29-30 of them, anyway, (see Flag of the United States#Historical star patterns), and changing them all to 300 pixels high would be 1. a terribly tragic loss of several high resolution images, and 2. a lot of work.

My personal opinion is that all the flags should be of some reasonably standard large size (maybe 1000 pixels high? or 800, as this one is?) Especially for complicated flags with animals, etc (like Mexico for example), a larger size would be nice. --jacobolus (t) 05:40, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• Ok, I will not mess with it. If you feel like it should stay the way it is for the US flag, that is fine. However, with the recent problems with Wikipedia and some image files, I think the entire community needs to figure out of this standard should still exist or not. Zscout370 15:20, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

A possible project

Hi Zachary - I've found a stub article that you'd probably have a good chance of enlarging: Flag Day! :) Grutness|^hello? 09:28, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• James, take a peek and see what you think. I know it is far from complete, at least the definitions and explainations are done. Zscout370 14:42, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Looks quite a bit better. Can you think of any other countries that have specific flag days? I couldn't, but there probably are some. Grutness|^hello? 00:04, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• Edward Mooney has a website called Flag Days, and we could have a link to there from Wikipedia. The list we have is fine right now, then, we can get rid of this stub. Zscout370 02:00, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Small World, Isn't It?

I read that you're from Havelock. I've been down there while visiting my mom who lives in New Bern. The coolest thing down there is seeing the Harrier in front of Cherry Point MCAS. -- Riffsyphon1024 17:14, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC)

• Yes, it surely is. I actually live on Cherry Point, and I see the "Airplane on the Stick" everyday from the Havelock Craven Community College campus. Zscout370 18:34, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

VfD

VfD voting is supposed to last for 5 days from the date the article is listed. RickK 20:00, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC)

• Ok, thanks. I take it now that particular vote is closed now? Zscout370 20:03, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)
  • It should be. It should just be up to an admin to close it and determine the results. RickK 23:10, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC)
    • For that particular page, I think it is close on being gone, but I just hope it will not become an edit war. Zscout370 00:52, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Wikithanks

Please, do not use my wikithanks images as a barnstar. It was specifically done NOT to be used as such, but only to be a little thing to stick on user talk page. I am greatly opposed to the barnstar system, and I feel great pain to see my picture transformed to precisely become what I wanted to oppose.

There are many barnstar pictures, please use them and do not use my little wikithanks to do this. Please.

Anthere

• I thank you for your concern, however, I wish to point out that the WikiThanks is in a section of "Other Awards." Wikipedia:Barnstars_on_Wikipedia#Other_awards There are some who keep them on the talk pages, some who put it on their front page. I have not put thw WikiThanks on my front page since I did not get one, however, I gave people a WikiThanks before. My suggestion is to talk about this on the BarnStar award page's talk section and we can see what we can do there. Zscout370 14:16, 25 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Re: Thanks

No problem; happy to help. I blocked him for 24 hours, so hopefully he will lose interest. — Knowledge Seeker দ 20:05, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

• Thanks. I noticed he did this to other pages, and this image was used before for the vandalism. Zscout370 20:10, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

User:JesusHadBetterBeInYourHeart

Ok, you decided to take the bold step to vandalize my pages. I wish to warn you, and the others who are watching, to do not pull this stuff on me again. Just like with this user, I will make sure you will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Thank you. Zscout370 01:44, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Table flag

Hi Zachary - yeah, sorry about that :) The story so far: I went in to get a table flag last week, but they were out of stock (there was some form of hold-up in supplies over Easter). I've ordered one; hopefully new supplies should be in any day. Grutness|^hello?

• Thanks! Zscout370 01:42, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

How to be an image sleuth

It's easy! You just say you are one, and you are. ;) Seriously, we can use the help, so just jump right in. – Quadell ^{(talk) (sleuth)} 03:02, Apr 3, 2005 (UTC)

• Alrighty, I will try to add myself to the list first thing tomorrow (my time). After that, I will try to set up my signature just like yours. Zscout370 03:07, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for the your kind words

Hi Zach. Thank you so very much for your thoughtfulness. I deeply appreciate your words. You see, you are indeed a worthy recipient of the RAoK Barnstar. Your friend, Redux 05:35, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Redux, the loss of the Holy Father has hit me hard, though my allegience is towards no church. He was a great statesman, a great man, a great teacher. I hope the new Pope will carry on his legacy. Zscout370 05:37, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Signature

Hi Zach - the signature? I uploaded an image and put it into my signature (you can change the way your signature appears in the preferences menu. One caveat - not everyone appreciates people using images in their sigs, and it is generally not recommended. The only reason I do so is that I use the Uffington horse as a signature when I'm writing and (particularly) to sign paintings, and it felt wrong not to do so here, too. A compromise which quite a few people use is to add one of the unicode non-alphanumeric characters to their signature. Grutness|^hello? 00:40, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Well, since you said the image is a bad idea, maybe I just want it to be like Zscout370|Comments?, like what you have. Zscout370 00:54, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Uppercase extensions

The major problem I have with them is that a lowercase extension is pretty much expected, so I'm probably going to type the name with the lowercase extension and then wonder why it doesn't work. It's not really that big of a deal - don't bother changing ones you've already uploaded. --SPUI (talk) 19:08, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• If there is no problem, I can go ahead and re-upload everything. I will talk to an admin and see if there is no problem. Zscout370 19:11, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • If you're going to re-upload images anyway, you might as well put the free ones at the Commons. That way all the Wikimedia projects can use them, not just the English Wikipedia. dbenbenn | talk 14:02, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
    • Not a bad idea, I will try to do some this week. Zscout370 14:44, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Russian medals

Hi Zscout. I objected to your nominations of Image:Herosu.jpg and Image:Heroru.jpg at WP:IFD. Why would you prefer a diagram like Image:Heroru.gif to an actual photograph of the medal? dbenbenn | talk 14:02, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• The reason I wished for the photos to be replaced by the gif files is that the gif files take up less room than the jpg files, and as I mentioned in the IFD, the jpg's could be a copyvio. Though I cited sources (or easily can), the source might not want their picture to be taken. With the gif images, the copyright holder already agreed to the gif images be used. I also mentioned that I have seen a few medals be drawn for Wikipedia, instead of having the actual medal on display, and the example I used was the French Croix de Guerre. I thank you for your concern though Dbenbeen, but in just my opinion, I think the gif images will be better in the long run. Zscout370 14:08, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Okay. Copyvio is a perfectly good reason to delete the images. (Taking less room isn't, since there's no shortage of disk space.) For future images you nominate, just explain all the reasons there are for deleting. We even have a special abbreviation, CV, for copyvios. dbenbenn | talk 15:38, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. Zscout370 16:27, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks kindly

I appreciate being appreciated, Zscout. Thanks for the barnstar. I look forward to collaborating on political science/flag stuff in the future. Justin (koavf) 01:07, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)

• Your quite welcome. I know there is a lot of work that needs to be done with the flag pages. Mainly what I have been doing is switching the gallery and list links for the flag images from here to the Wikipedia Commons. If you wish to help in that area, then please go right ahead. Zscout370 01:18, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ribbon Pictures

Good sir! I hate to bring up this unpleasant animal since your pics on the military awards page are looking really good and you've put in a lot of time. But- in all your images tags you state that you created the images and are releasing them into Public Domain. In fact, you are simply recreating images which have already been created since US ribbons, and what they look like, is domain of the U.S. federal government. I would recommend changing the tag to say "PD-USGov". I think there is even one for military awards. I say this since we both know you are not claiming you invented the Bronze Star ribbon, for instance. Other people might not see this and I have seen a few comments about it here and there (about the image tags, that is). Hope that all made sense. Thanks for all the pics. They are great. -Husnock 05:18, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• No problem. I am just stating that I just drew the images using my own hands, so that is why I used the PD self tags. I can easily change the tags, since it only affects a few ribbons. Plus, this is not an unpleasant message at all, image copyright issues is the main sticking point of images on Wikipedia and thanks for point this out. It makes complete sense, and your welcome on the pics. Zscout370 12:07, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hero of socialist labour

I like the image actually, though I think the lines on the ribbon could use a little blurring or something, as they're the only part that really looks like a computer drawing. Did you make it?-- Revolutionary Left | Che y Marijuana 21:19, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

• No, I did not make the image. A person in Poland granted me permission to upload the file onto Wikipedia. He also drew the medal for the Hero of the Soviet Union. Zscout370 21:21, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks...

...for the thumbs up on the Mediation Committee page. By the way, what did you think of my new user page layout? – ClockworkSoul 22:18, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Your welcome friend. I was looking at your user page layout and I liked it. I tried to match another user's page to look somewhat like yours. Zscout370 22:22, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Chill

I dont know what your problem is, but its very rude to declare or attemt to declare a suggestion people are working on "as a bad joke", it ment to be something like barn stars, it's been worked on, you are welcome to contribute. Oh and, chill it ment to be fun. --Cool Cat ^{My Talk} 04:01, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• If people think this could be a joke/prank is fine, but I am just objecting to see this page wind up on the BJAODN. That's all. Zscout370 14:16, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

RCOTW

there is Wikipedia:Russian wikipedians' notice board, which is pretty much inactive as well. Mikkalai 23:49, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

OK. I see, you already know this place. Mikkalai 23:52, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It is ok, and I went to you since your pretty much one of the top people dealing with Russian pages. That was why I went to you on the Order of Victory page. Zscout370 23:54, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I see myself somewhere in the middle :-). There is "Pending tasks for Wikipedia:Russian wikipedians' notice board" thing. You may suggest to augment it. Mikkalai 20:06, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I certainly will, once I get finished with the debate on the Marshal of the Soviet Union template. Zscout370 20:11, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

User:68.253.199.13

Were the same people. Youve been punkd. (Note: Comment by 68.253.199.13)

Template

Hi Zach - the template looks OK to me - the other option would be to do one of those "preceded by/followed by" type boxes. It's not a subject I know much about - would someone looking up one of these people be likely to want to look up one of the others as well? If so, then I'd say go for it. You could always check with the russian noticeboard, see what they think there. And don't worry too much about going through a tfd process - that's part of Wikipedia - you make something, someone comes along and improves on it or doesn't like it - consensus politics :)

As to the flag, I mailed it out today, so it should be there by next Monday (or the weekend if you're lucky!). And yes, I already have two archived pages - it is looking like time for a third... James. Grutness|^hello? 14:21, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

About the subject, there is already a list of who got the rank, then the next person after that. But unlike a position (like the Presidency), this is an official rank, and there could be more than one person holding it at a time. This template is not complete, since I only wanted to include the people who have articles in Wikipedia. The entire list (which a good number of them is in red links) is on the main page. Zscout370 14:30, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

As long as that won't make the template too huge... Grutness|^hello? 02:21, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I am going to try to shrink the text size, since the template is done (information wise). Zscout370 03:12, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Sandbox Help

Hi Zach - you wrote: There has been users just dump over 140k of stuff into the Sandbox. I am thinking just one person is doing it, yet he takes on many personas (perhaps sock puppets). Can you watch the Sandbox and see what is going on please?

I'll have a go... but to be honest this is an area of Wikipedia I know very little about. I might put a general note out to one or two of the more experienced admins who know more, see if they know what's up. Grutness|^hello? 02:21, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch James, I just want the text box to be clean of just junk and text/code dumps. Zscout370 02:54, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I've added a note on the Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard - hopefully a more experienced administrator will be able to sort this out quickly! Grutness|^hello? 02:16, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks again James. I am tired of cleaning that box. Who know what, just give me the Atlas Award and then I will just quit cleaning that box, unless you want me to continue. Zscout370 02:20, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ranking

You are taking some people too seriously. Instead of aruing with them on why this is a good project, I personaly recomend making suggestions on how to improve it and make it less abusable. There are people who wants to "delete" an unfinished product primarily because of their dealings with me, I think they hate me which is unfortunate. You are welcome to stick around, dont let them chace you. :) --Cool Cat ^{My Talk} 09:11, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I already let some netural admins know about people like Davenbelle, since I believe he is trying to make a mockery of your project. It feels like he is against everything that you say or do. A user by the name of Chirs P (I think) is also mocking the project by equating power with the size of a man's penis. Until the project is close, I will just keep tabs on the VfD (which is invalid, btw). Other than that, I will just stay out, since I need to lower the Wikistress. Thanks for sending me a message, though. Zscout370 10:58, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Spam"

• It's not spam.
• Even if it was the s/box is the place for it.
• Reply here.

--212.100.250.219 17:13, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• • The group is not a spam themselves, but garnering for votes using the Sandbox or trying to recruit members using the Sandbox is not permitted. Zscout370 18:01, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hero of labor

How can a Soviet medal be copyrighted? But if it is, sure, no problem. My User page is protected, can you edit it? If not, just put in on my Talk page, and I'll move it over. RickK 22:58, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

• The medal itself is not a copyvio, but since it is coming from a private collection, and I am noticing a problem with photos, I want to take zero chances. I will put it on your talk page, and you can do the rest. Thank you for your cooperation. Zscout370 23:05, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Vladimir Putin

This "nationality=not=american" is kind of unfinished template development. "nationality=russian" didn't work.

As for judo & stuff, don't ask me. If it is well-documented, why not.Mikkalai 00:25, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I wanted to be sure, since I know President Putin (to my people) is known as the former KGB spy who became president. As for the judo, it amazes me :). Zscout370 00:34, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Camp Hero, Camp Hero talk & my talk page

Hey - The posting in the Camp Hero talk page was in reference to a post in my talk page from an appearently angry Outlanderssc. Could you just quickly look over the situation and tell me if I was out of line at all? Thanks! Nrbelex ^(talk) 02:42, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I will check tomorrow and I will see what I can do. I also wish to ask you, since you are a fellow Image Sleuth, this one question: How am I doing on there? Zscout370 02:44, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oh the irony - we got an edit conflict as I edited to thank you for all your help in it - haha Nrbelex ^(talk) 02:46, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oops. Sorry. Zscout370 02:49, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Haha - no problem... Well, thanks for all your work in Image Sleuthing! :D Nrbelex ^(talk) 02:53, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You might like this

Take a look at my entry on Wikipedia:Template standardisation, and let me know what you think. :) – ClockworkSoul 02:52, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• It is very good my friend, I like it a lot. Zscout370 02:56, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Order of the Red Banner

Exchange with NrBelex

I completely agree that the Order of the Red Banner page needs to be revised, even rewritten. You have my support if you need someone to back you on adding the tag or editing it. Nrbelex ^(talk) 03:31, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Well, the user Adam Carr blanked out the notice on the page. Also, is this the same person who you have issues with on various photos on the Sleuth pages? Zscout370 12:06, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Yea - same user - Adam Carr and... yup, we get about 1/2 our untagged pictures from him... Nrbelex ^(talk) 17:48, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
    • I noticed that photos he uploads onto here is always named ac.whatever it is.jpg, so I guess that makes things easier to find. Zscout370 17:58, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Exchange with Adam Carr

If you think this article needs improvment, then improve it yourself, don't litter it with impertinent notices. Adam 11:26, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Adam, I know that you want this page to not have this notice, but I still think the article needs a cleanup, albiet a major one. Even if the tag is removed, it has been listed at a page that list articles that needed to be cleaned up. Trust me, the article will get fixed and the tag will be gone, but I just cannot clean this one alone. Zscout370 12:02, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fine, so go back to the article's Talk page, set out what you think is wrong with the article, and ask that someone knowledgeable about the subject come along and fix it. Do not just visit articles and leave notes saying "clean up this article!" as though you were the Inspector of Dirty Articles. This is incredibly offensive to people who actually write articles, albeit imperfect ones. Adam 12:47, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I placed a notice on the talk page, which gave a link to the cleanup section of Wikipedia. I put down my reasons there. I am finding people who wish to clean up this page, and I will soon list it at the Russian Wikipedia page. My main intent is just for that article to be fixed, and the only page I put this tag on was this very page. I do not go around Wikipedia and tag things left and right. I have made various other edits to Russian medal pages, and even creating a template for the Marshal of the Soviet Union. Zscout370 17:51, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • I too left a note on Adam's talk page. I too believe that articles requiring edits... should be edited. Nrbelex ^(talk) 17:59, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
    • Thanks! Zscout370 18:04, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

4.33.127.134

That user seems to have vacated after his last warning. If he returns in a vandalous mood, I'll be glad to block him. Joyous 10:45, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

Image of the Hero of Socialist Labor Medal

Thanks, I've replaced the image on my User page. I still don't understand how the other one can be a copyvio, though. RickK 18:12, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

• Well, I know it is hard to understand. The medal itself can be drawn, photographed, etc. without any problems from the USSR since it no longer exists. Also, Orders, Medals and Decorations (OMD) cannot be (c) either. However, private photos of the collections can be copyrighted. If you wish, I can track down the photo (uploaded by me) and see what the rules are. If you wish to switch back, thats fine. However, thanks again for working this out with me. Zscout370 18:18, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hammer and sickle

While I like the new image, and I believe it should be used in a few places on wikipedia, I think that for the template the older version actually looks better :P It's just cleaner and more symmetrical. And thanks, I like what you did for my pages, is there anyway to fix the white space behind the anarchism and communism templates though?-- Revolutionary Left | Che y Marijuana 19:51, Apr 14, 2005 (UTC)

• I am not sure about the fixing of the templates, though I hope you understand on why I took the templates off of your User page. I replaced it with just the template image and the "this is part of the X series." As for the image on the template, I believe that if it was kept on here and used just for the template, I predict that it will wind up on a Image For Deletion (IfD) and replaced by the image I just uploaded. I will fix the image tag once I get home from work. If you wish to talk about anything else, or give me stuff to do, that is fine with me. Zscout370 19:58, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Vandal

Thanks for dealing with the Calles loco vandal. Thank you again. - Ken Bogan 22:37, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Your welcome. If anything else happens, just let me know and I will send him again to the Vandalism Page. Zscout370 17:43, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re: Template:Deletebecauseoncommons

Yeah, finding an adminstrator you know is probably the best bet, but there should be a standard procedure that anyone can use. Actually it won't be a problem for me now that I'm an administrator, but the need is still there, I feel. I couldn't change the links because I uploaded the pictures to Commons with the same name. If I could have changed the links then I wouldn't care what tags the old pictures had, since the only people seeing them would be the ones examining them for deletion. But if you upload them with the same name, then they won't show through from Commons until the local copies are deleted, and all that time the article readers will see the tags if they click on the image. — Knowledge Seeker দ 01:39, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• What I try to do is name them differently, so I can tell the difference. If that is not the case, I will ask the folks at the Commons to make a name change, and have the old name at the Commons deleted. Once that happens, I just replace the links here. Zscout370 01:42, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Hmmm...so I should come up with a different name just because for a week or so they will overlap in names? Not only is this incovenient, having to rename the file on my hard drive, but also, what if you actually liked the name you originally uploaded under? To tell the truth, I probably wouldn't bother trying to move my images to Commons if the procedure were so elaborate. Especially since it doesn't help en at all, and actually hurts it, in my opinion: either by (temporarily) having confusing tags on the description or (permanently) by having to switch to an inferior filename. — Knowledge Seeker দ 01:56, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
    • And I agree with the point that not many people know what the Commons are, and until something like what happened a few months ago (which caused Wikipedia to crash for days) happens again, I think not many folks will be getting the message. Zscout370 02:00, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
      • What happened a few months ago? — Knowledge Seeker দ 02:34, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
        • Wikipedia servers crashed, which prevented new articles for a few days, and also prevented getting access to Wikipedia for a day or two. Zscout370 02:36, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Formby

Sorry, I think I might have been a bit short with you on Talk:Order of Lenin. GMOT! Matthew Platts 16:34, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Hey, no need to apologize man. The issue has been resolved, Formby has been added back to the list, and the article is just perfect! However, just one question, what is GMOT? Zscout370 16:42, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ruensign.png

I've replaced the enormous version of the Russian Navy ensign that you uploaded to the Wikipedia with the previous version. For the moment it is not appropriate to use the large version you made. The reason for that is because it breaks the ship tables which use it. The ensigns and jacks in those tables are meant to be small. If you want to go around all the tables and alter them so that they have an image size built into the markup please be my guest, but until and unless you do so please do not re-upload that large version of the ensign. David Newton 22:46, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Dear David, I noticed that after I uploaded the image. I do understand what you were trying to do. I think there might be another way I can use my image on here, but I need to find out how. I hope yall were not upset by the image. Zscout370 22:50, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It is not a case of being upset about it. It is simply a case that the majority of the uses of the Russian Navy ensign are in the Wikiproject:Ships standard table and thus need the ensign to be small. As I said, if you want to go round to all the copies of that table and change the markup of the image link there to display a small copy of the Russian ensign then please be my guest. All you need to do is to insert a parameter into the image markup specifying a size of a certain number of pixels for the image and the Wikipedia software will take care of the rest. The exact number of pixels necessary depends on the size ratio of the Russian Navy ensign image. For Royal Navy and similar ensigns a value of 45px produces the correct vertical size. David Newton 14:07, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The Atlas Award - just for you

Here is the Atlas Award, Zscout. You have done such a great job of cleaning, patrolling, and removing offensive content from the sandbox day in and day out -- all the time. Here is my offer which I shall humbly present to you. Thanks.

-- Stevey7788 03:54, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Thanks a lot Steve! Zscout370 10:11, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I'm sorry

hi everyone, i just want to tell you that i am sorry for everything i did. I am not here to vandalize, but to apologize and to say a few things also. i am sorry for everything i did. Rickk, booth443, i apologize for vandalizing articles, being impolite at talk pages, and for getting a little too mad at you, ken. calles loco, sla boy, and tj raza are all my accounts. I am very sorry for the vandalism. please accept my apologies.

but what i am upset about is that all of you admins dont even care about the presence of dangerous sex offenders on wikipedia. the victims get banned, but a convicted feloner gets treated nicely and doesnt even recieve a warning?

i know ken. he knows me. one night, he broke in and attacked my girl friend scared her and just beat her up bad. he mercilessly and savagely humiliated an innocent life. he didnt just do that for no reason, it had something to do with a complicated matter that i dont want to mention.

but anyways, shouldn't feloners like this receive a warning? shouldnt potential stalkers and criminals be notified or banned on wikipedia? why dont you even care? im not trolling this time, I'm serious. please deal with ken - he is not just a harmless contributer. a ferocious and savage rapist wont just be ignored on wikipedia. please at lest do something!

Amigo de compton 21:32, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Look, I have no idea on why you would post here, though I think it is that I reported you a few times to the vandalism page. Second, I am not even an admin, I am just your average Joe using this service like many others, so I just edit and stare. I have no power. But what you are trying to do is defame a man and charging us with issues that we have no control over. I have no clue on who is a sex abuse victim here, or even a stinking pedophile is. Even so, I do not think we can ban them for that purpose anyways. That is why websites like Perverted Justice are in legal limbo. And personally, I do not care what yall's private life is. Whatever Ken does in his town (which I am sure he does not do the things your describing), ti is his business. The only thing that I probably notice is what he does on here, which I rarely do.

So whoever you are, QUIT. You will not win, you will not get much support, and even if you tell me everything underneath the sun, I will just toss that into the garbage. Zscout370 02:23, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

User:Islamist and Palestine

===>Thanks I'm familiar with his edits - I think I've reverted a few. Even though he is clearly biased, and brings that point-of-view to neutral articles, I still think that having him explain his position on the Talk page is appropriate. This way, he could eiter present a cogent argument to gain consensus, or admit that he's being political and intrusive. Thanks again for the heads-up, though. Justin (koavf) 02:44, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

• Your welcome. I do not think he will be able to explain himself, since he has been blocked before, and I seriously think he will be blocked again. If I was told correctly, we can revert those. Zscout370 03:12, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re:Chinese Taipei NOC Flag

I still prefer the flag image because the topic is on flags and it is less clear when we need people to infer from the logo on what the flag really looks like. It's a step less for readers...so yes, convert to png if you can.

I saw on your userpage that you made Eagle on February 19, 2004 - that's when I got my Eagle! --Jiang 03:35, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Wow! It took a while to get my Eagle Scout, but I am glad I got it done. As for the flag: I know there is two other special flags that deal with sporting. There is a baseball flag that is used (I need to check sources on that one) and a flag that is used in FIFA tournaments. I am just thinking that if we include one, we include the others, but as a lesser mention (or in a sub heading all together). I can also talk with user Kbinsky, since me and him talk on MSN a few times a week, trade flags back and forth, and Kbinsky also lives in Taiwan. I will make the flag into a png file and reword the sporting flag paragraph a bit. Zscout370 14:21, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You can choose

I ask for collaboration from enlightened editors. You can be one of them. If you choose to contribute to the prevailing biased POV on Wikipedia that is Islamophobic and anti-Arab, then that is your choice. Don't expect me to condone it. --Islamist 03:28, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Whatever it is you want me to do, I will not take part in it. I will still be on the flag pages that you are watching, but I will talk with the group and get an idea on what we can do. However, Wikipedia is not anti-Arab what so ever, and I will not let the flag pages become a pawn in your game/war. Zscout370 03:30, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

RfC

Based on the number of personal attacks and the number of people attacked, I think you should go ahead. Jayjg ^(talk) 13:10, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Here it is Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Islamist. Zscout370 14:02, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• • Thanks for letting me know. I've added my name and comments. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 14:24, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

SoCal get-together

• Hey, that's great! I've talked to Jimbo via the site but never in person. Count me in and help me spread the word. My sister lives in Encinitas so we're talking double fun for me! - Lucky 6.9 01:39, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Specifically, I will be on Camp Pendleton, but I will be out and about since I hate being stuck in a hotel room. If there is a MeetUp page for Wikipedia that I can visit, can you let me know of it please? Thanks. Zscout370 01:41, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Hello Zscout. I also live in the San Diego area and would love to be involved. I have not yet had the pleasure to meet or speak with Jimbo. I could probably even host something at my place depending on how many people would be interested. I live very near the Town and Country convention center - which is where Jimbo will be attending OOPSLA [5] If the group gets too big I might be able to find a facility. Johntex 21:55, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• And that is the reason why I ask for this meetup, since Jimbo will be attending the conference you cited. Maybe after Jimbo is done there, we could meet with him and see what happens after that. To also let you know, I created a subpage that deals with this exact subject. I will start adding details once I get a few more folks involved. Zscout370 22:14, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Sandbox troll

This is one of the weirdest guys I have ever seen. He has some sockpuppets on Wikipedia:

• Wikipedia Is My Best Friend (talk · contribs)
• Im Not Jimbo Whales, Okay!? (talk · contribs)
• McDonaldsIsHiring-ApplyToday! (talk · contribs)
• Colostomy Bag Aficianado (talk · contribs)
• Scott Loves Tracy (talk · contribs)

See the Sandbox history for more details

Typical features of this troll include:

• Strange edit summaries that are quite long
• Edits nothing but the sandbox
• User name is strange and often very long
• Likes to change accounts
• Does not have a user page, thus his name is "red"
• KEEPS REVERTING OTHER PEOPLE'S EDITS

I don't know who this guy is, but he is getting very annoying.

-- Stevey7788 04:00, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I am not admin, but I am also tired of this guy. What you can do is go to an admin, make your case, and I will support you. Plus, your right, I think DrZoidberg is using many of these puppets. Zscout370 12:41, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Pope Benedict

Hi,

The Hungarian article is here: [6] though it's not complete yet. I'm still trying to find images for it because I don't know whether we can use "fair use" pics. Thanks for motivating me to write the article, we're still a small wiki and always short on articles about recent news. :) Alensha 18:53, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Your quite welcome. My suggestion is to take a picture that is already used on Wikipedia, save a copy if it, and upload it to the Magyar Wikipedia. Plus, since yall are a small Wikipedia, tell me what kind of images you need and I will see what I can do. I draw mainly flag and pictures of military ribbons, but I can find pictures for nearly many things. Zscout370 18:59, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi there, I deleted the note you left in article namespace at Pope_Benedict_XVI/Archive1; talk namespace is more appropriate for this. Besides, please avoid hurrying stuff archive pages. The place of death still appears in the infobox BTW. -- User:Docu

Well, I know there will be some more issues that will come up, but I notice that since the page is getting too long, along with people duplicating the damn thing, at least I have somewhere old and perhaps redundant text be placed. Plus, I know the issue has been resolved, but keep on getting reverted by vandals and other people. Zscout370 21:16, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Well, my prediction: it will be a long long talk page .. BTW page duplication is often a software problem. -- User:Docu

It has been archived twice, and I do think the page duplication has calmed down a bit tonight. I also hope it does stay that way for a long time. Zscout370 01:11, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

My View on the Pope

Hi Zach. Thanks for your interest! I am happy with the news from Rome, of course. As I see it, the election of Cardinal Ratzinger was almost unavoidable (and this shows when you consider how quickly the consensus around his name formed). He had been the right arm of Pope John Paul II for almost 25 years (in addition to a personal friendship of almost 40 years) and, as it is well-known now, shared all of the late pope's views in terms of doctrine and discipline in the Church. This strong consensus is easily explained by the fact that 113 of the 115 electors in the Conclave had been appointed to the job by John Paul II. This is something very rare, since papacies usually don't last as long as John Paul II's did, which allows for a more heterogenic conclave. Since that was not the case this time around, a surprise-Pope was nearly impossible. In fact, I had actually used the exposure that Ratzinger got as the leading figure in both John Paul II's funerals and the conclave to get used to him, since I was 98% sure that he would be the next Pope.
Many have said they fear that the Church will "go back in time" under Benedict XVI, but that's, I believe, an inaccurate prediction. By electing Ratzinger, the Cardinals made it clear that they wish everything to stay exactly as it was under John Paul II, and that's what it is likely to happen. In retrospect, sure I might have thought of some other names that might have agreed more with the expectations of the world (and mine), such as Cardinal Martini, Cardinal Hummes or, and this is a predilection of mine, since this Cardinal was never even a candidate, Cardinal McCarrick. But the current pope is not a bad choice, Ratzinger is extremely cultured, intelligent and, although not as charismatic as John Paul II, he seems like a very accessible person. I'm confident that he will live up to the expectations and deliver a [likely] short but firm leadership of the Universal Church. In the Catholic faith, we believe that the Cardinals were inspired by the Holy Spirit to choose the Pope. That is why as far as the Catholic world is concerned, the question of whether Ratzinger was the right choice is not really valid, although the media continues to speculate on this point. But that will soon pass, as the world grows accostumed to Benedict XVI. I, for one, am eager to see how he will conduct affairs in this first few weeks, as well as where his papacy will go in terms of centralization, one of the most touchy issues faced by the Church these days. Your friend, Redux 23:40, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• A few of my friends who are Catholics wanted a pope to be from either Latin America or Africa, since your right, a major of Catholics are from those areas. However, I wish to point out that for the next few days, there will be a debate on here about his activities as a youth during World War II. I hope this talk ends soon and we can see what kind of pope Benedict XVI will be. Zscout370 01:13, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • It will be tough to buy anything about the Pope having been pro-Nazi in any way. First, when Hitler first took power, Ratzinger was only 6 years old. He was automatically enrolled in the "Hitlerist Youth", as was every German child back then, but he never participated in any of the activities, and as soon as he was old enough to do something about it, he and his brother (Georg Ratzinger) asked to be removed from that association. Later, towards the end of the war, the Pope, then about 17, was drafted to serve the army in a war effort factory. He went, but later defected and spent the rest of the war in a Allies P.W. camp, so he wouldn't be arrested and executed by the Nazis for treason. This history sort of reminds how Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) went to work in a quarry, pretending to colaborate with the German occupation in order to avoid deportation to a labor camp and to be able to continue studying theology. But because Wojtyla was not German, he was never drafted against his will to serve the army. Some people just have to get over this every-German-is-pro-Nazi-until-proven-otherwise thing. To question the Pope's integrity based on the fact that he's German is, in my opinion, rather unreasonable. Redux 03:56, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Talk:Pope Benedict XVI

Hi, Zscout: I've just archived the talk page again for the second time today. It's filling up very quickly, and either you or I can keep an eye on it, since it seems we're sort of moderating the discussion. Hopefully the edits/vandalism on the article will slow down a bit after people get used to him being the pope. Thanks, Bratsche^{talk random} 03:46, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)

• Your welcome. I agree that the page is filling up quickly, so that was why I tried to sort the topics out (eg by putting vandalism in one section). The talk duplication (I hope) has stopped because that is a pain to revert and clean up. But I am glad you and KTC are helping me on this. Zscout370 10:58, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you, for your work on the article and for the bestowing of the janitorial medal. Bratsche^{talk random} 20:24, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)

NC flag

Hi Zach - no hurry with the flag. I've got a space between those of Jordan and Hawaii ready for it :) James

Thank you!

Thanks for your kind words on the Pope Benedict situation. I promised I would not get involved with that article but got sucked in with the huge vandalism that was going on. The edit war was caused by one person acting like a child and they should have just calmed down and used the talk page (which is what we did after that person logged off). Anyway, things are now hapenning at the article on the Pope's Dad Joseph Ratzinger Senior with an anon user stating its not worthy as a Wiki article and should be deleted. If you ahve time, go over to the page's VFD page and lend your support. Its great to have friends in this place! -Husnock 21:15, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Do not worry Husnock, I voted to say keep for the article. I know there is a giant edit war on now, but I just hope it stops as time passes. Zscout370 23:12, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

RfC Help

Heya, Zscout. I'm sorry for the delay: I've been away for a few days. Did you figure everything out okay? If you still need a hand, drop me a line, and I'll do whatever I can for you. – ClockworkSoul 20:01, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• It is alright man, I got everything figured out. I just followed the directions, but I wanted to be sure if it was a legit RfC, not a "useless" one that I might have seen on occasion. Zscout370 20:04, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re: Spell Check

I proposed the idea for spell check not just for myself but for anybody editing a page. I dont think that anybody making a small edit would care to first check his edits in MS word. Thus I thought than,an online spell checker would be a better option. I even raised the issue at Village pump (proposals) but there are not many takers for the idea due to the technical complexity involved. anyways thanx for your suggestion.Gaurav1146 20:13, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I agree that it will cause software problems, but I still think the option that I gave will be the best course we all can take. Zscout370 20:27, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re Jeb page

Zscout370, I wrote about this matter on my Talk Page, and will wait for the admin to read JEZ's changes and make a decision whether or not they can restore the text. I still think what Jez did fits in exactly with wiki's definition of "sneaky vandalism" though the nuance of the changes may be something you can only appreciate when you are a bit older than 18, as mature and as smart as you certainly seem to be. [I thought Jez also deleted the admin's message to me, but it is still there. So, I am deleting my message to you here.] Thanks anyway. SummerFR 22:20, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I am not an admin, so if something serious is done, then I will have to suggest to head elsewhere. As for Jez, well, you can try to restore the text, but I will not be surprised if other people (other than Jez) removes it. I would suggest to stick everything that you want to add on the talk page and see what happens from there. Zscout370 00:22, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Zscout, here's an update for you, as this is the message I wrote tonight on the discussion page for the article:

From SummerFR: THANK YOU ADMIN MATANI2005 for restoring JEB article Matani2005, it seems to me that in your edit on the article, you restored the text that had been deleted and changed by JEZ. Thank you. I appreciate your help, as the edits JEZ made did not aid any reader in any way.

• • Well, if an admin saw that the changes by Jez were not needed, then they were not needed. I still think what Jez did is not vandalism, so just a small chat with Jez on his page will be good enough. If he keeps on doing this, then you could list him at either W:VIP or place this template on his talk page: {{test}}. Zscout370 03:08, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Zscout -- PS While I appreciate your suggestion to "pre-write" on a discussion page, we are not in pre-K here, and I am not writing solely for Jez or anyone else; rather, I am writing for any reader. So, if any reader out there has something to contribute to the article, that of course is fine; but if someone like JEz thinks they can come along with a political beef and vandalize the article, maybe they should think again. This was an important win here for everyone, because I am truly providing factual information about someone whom most people know little about. And, I would be happy to read factual information about someone else whom I may know little about, written by someone else who is as knowledgable as I am about the subject I am writing about.

But I would not ever seek to vandalize, even in a sneaky way, like Jez did on the JEB article.

I would discuss changes first, if I was the one seeking a change. But, JEZ was not open to discussion. Maybe he needs your suggestion here, in light of his past conduct, as in the future, he needs to slow down and specify his alleged gripes to people in the midst of working on an entry, like I am right now.

I am very glad wikipedia recognies that a writer's meaning can be changed through minor edits. It is a nuanced change, but it can be a real change nevertheless.

However, again, thanks for your help and concern. I do appreciate the time you took to write here. If you want to char again, feel free to write to me on my talk page, so I can know you left me a message! SummerFR 03:14, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

---

• I just now saw your newest message above, as I was about to leave. Here is the thing you forgot: another admin had ALREADY read the article BEFORE Jez came along, and left a nice comment. And, I am guessing Jez knew that, and that's the reason he was NOT open to disclosing his changes beforehand. So, you see, not one, but two admins, knew that nothing was wrong with the article. It is Jez who had a problem, and the problem is defined in wiki lingo as "sneaky vandalism." Not "vandalism." There's a difference.

If Jez ever comes back and again pretends to "edit recent text" allegedly "to correct typos," I will report him.

I will leave it as a warning this time. But, I am very grateful to that Admin for restoring the text. That's what I wanted done.

SummerFR 03:21, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I do what I can to help you and many other Wikipedians out. I do apologize for taking a "Pre-K" stance to it, but then, that is probably what JEZ wanted me to say and do, since his vandalism is "sneaky." I do agree that Jeb Bush is a man few know about, except for his bouts in the Terri Schaivo case and when his brother comes to town. But your quite welcome and I have no problems if you have issues with this (or anything else for matter) and want them to discuss them with me. I wish I could do more, but I am glad your situation was resolved. As for reporting him, if he was warned once already and still did it anyways, you can report him now, and he will have many eyes watching his edits. And if more becomes vandalism, I think he will be blocked for a day or two. Zscout370 03:22, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Zscout, thanks for your nice reply here. And, no need to apologize about anything. I will keep your offer to help in mind, and again, feel free to stop by and say hello on my Talk Page or to add your suggestions to the discussion page of the article. Jeb Bush is quite an interesting person, in my opinion. I don't agree with everything he has ever done as a politician, but I do think he works very hard and cares about all people. Thanks again for your kind comments. SummerFR

Flags

Thanks for your comments on the flags. Actually, I've taken the flags off the Sodipodi website collection (they are PD) and converted them from SVG to PNG. As much as I have used the CIA World Factbook over the years, the flags in their collection have colors that are a bit too dark. I've found the Sodipodi collection corrects some of these colors. Yesterday, I uploaded the flag of Palau, with the correct colors. However, I'm doubtful about the position of the yellow disk, compared to the World Flag Database and FOTW. Could you take a look? The orginal SVG source is here. Thanks, - Hoshie/Crat 01:30, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• What you can do is make the height of the flag a little bit larger, and move the yellow disk closer to the hoist side of the flag (to the left). Other than that, it should be fine. You can use the flag of Bangladesh as an example of what it should look like. Zscout370 01:35, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Pope Benedict XVI

There is an exemption for vanderlism (I think I manged to 4 reverts to GWB in under an hour while on RC patrol once). Considering how high profile that article is right now I think it is best that it is reverted as fast as posibleGeni 03:36, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• My apologize for that one. I know that page gets vandalized a lot, but I just do not want any of us who revert the vandalism to get blocked for it. I will see if I can get a few for folks to watch the page for us. Zscout370 13:23, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you

Thanks for the tip on the RfC. Jayjg ^(talk) 23:29, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Your quite welcome. Also, please do not take my comment about LevelCheck being a sockpuppet too seriously, unless something is found tying the two. But I thought that since both him and Islamist have a huge pro-Arab pov and LevelCheck did support Islamist in the RfC against him. It was just something that just popped in my mind, thats all. Zscout370 23:31, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Did you see what LevelCheck did to the RfC Page? [7] First xe endorses it [8], then does a few more strange edits. In trying to fix these edits, SlimVirgin accidently erased your signature the first time. Ugh. Anyway, have a good weekend. Zzyzx11 | Talk 00:45, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • It is alright, I went in and put my vote back in. I hope everything is fixed on that page. But then, you have more ammo against this user in the RfC. Zscout370 00:51, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

PNG Problems

I'm hoping that you're still up, as I need some help with this PNG that is blank when I upload it. I was editing the two reversion barnstars for a possible combo of the two and the damn PNG shows nothing on Wikipedia. Is there something I have to change when saving it? -- Riffsyphon1024 04:02, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)

• I have no idea, since I usually just draw it in bitmaps, save them, then convert them into pngs. Zscout370 11:33, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Image:Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar.png / background colour

Thanks for the effort; however Image:Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar.png is meant to have a transparent background, and this is the case with the version prior to your upload. If you are using Internet Explorer as your web browser, please be aware that IE is incapable of displaying transparent PNGs properly and this may be causing the grey background colour you're reporting. Thanks! -- Grunt 🇪🇺 18:02, 2005 Apr 23 (UTC)

• Yeah, that is my problem, I cannot display transparent stuff, since I am using IE right now. But thanks for telling me that. Zscout370 18:35, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re: "Wikipedia is vandalism" reincarnations are blockable on sight.

If this is about the "Wikipedia is Communism" vandal, then should we list him at "Long Term Alets" at Vandalism in Progress page? Zscout370 00:28, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yes, good idea. Do you want to do that? If not just say so and I'll do it myself. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 10:52, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You can go ahead and do it Tony, but thank you for the offer. Zscout370 15:04, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

PfD

You have been listed at People For Deletion. If you wish to comment against it, please go to the entry page. Thank you. User:abcdef 19:32, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Flags of the countries that lost people in iraq, at you homepage

E-Mail is wrong, so I will just say this here. I checked you webpage, and looked at the list of countries that have lost lives in Iraq, and Finland was not on the list. Here is a list of some of the civilians killed, incase you have not heard of it: http://icasualties.org/oif/Civ.aspx (comment made by User:Lapinmies.)

• I will add the flag now, and fix the email. Sorry about that. Zscout370 00:18, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re: My PfD

Oh, yes. I know: that's why I advocated moving you to BJAODN. :P – ClockworkSoul 15:10, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Yay! Zscout370 15:33, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Template standardisation

If you get a sec, drop by there and vote? I have a horse that I think has a chance, and I would like your opinion. – ClockworkSoul 15:14, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I voted for yours, since they look good and fit well with Wikipedia. Zscout370 15:37, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • Thanks! I hope I win, because I put so much effort into those templates, and many of the others simply copied mine to some degree. – ClockworkSoul 19:51, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fonzie Fan

Yeah, I have the Sandbox on my watch list, and was amused by that guy's edits. I just think people take the sandbox too seriously sometimes - it's not the only place to test stuff. --SPUI (talk) 02:07, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I agree, I do take this a bit too seriously. I started to watch it, since I had a few people talk to me about it and ask me to watch it. I mainly watch it so that it does not become tooo big (100k) or people use the box for slander. I usually enforce the Sandbox when the Sandbot is not around. Plus, will you give me a head start before capping me with a glock? Zscout370 02:21, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Archiving Reply

So, I think that makes sense, but if I archive each section according to topic, then the list of topics is going to be really long. How about just the important subjects (currently the abuse section). That way, the hot topics can be listed for future reference, but will still be in the main archives as well. Tell me what you think! Cheers, Bratsche^{talk random} 02:43, Apr 26, 2005 (UTC)

• The sections I was thinking of is Vandalism, the Style of His Holiness, Abuse and Nazi. That should be it. Zscout370 10:55, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Euro Signs

No problem, however please make it public domain rather than GPL GDL. 159753 18:28, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Got it. Zscout370 (talk) 18:31, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Alt+128. I should explain why I reverted one item of your otherwise excellent edit. I removed "Users can type in the symbol by holding the Alt key, then press the period key the numbers 0,1,2 and 8.". The reason is that this has been discussed ad nauseam on the discussion page and the consensus is that it doesn't belong in the main article. If anyone feels like doing an article on Keyboarding the euro, it might go in there with a long explanation why it is Win9X specific. --Red King 21:53, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• It is ok. I tried it on XP and it worked, but hey, if you do not want it there, then that is fine. Thanks for letting me know. Zscout370 (talk) 21:58, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia is Communism Vandal

File:Wic vandal.png

Hey Clockwork, I was wondering if I could create a template for this specific vandal, with their own specific picture. Thoughts about Brezhnev made me draw one. It can be seen at the right. Zscout370 01:26, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I think that you should implement it immediately. I like the image, too. It's very... interesting. – ClockworkSoul 19:49, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • I will do a png compression, create a new template for this vandal and I will use this image. I know this vandal uses many names, but with the template, it will be easier. Plus, it was somewhat of a challenge to draw the Hero of the Soviet Union medals. Zscout370 (talk) 19:52, 26 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Benedict XVI

Thanks PioM

• Your quite welcome. Zscout370 (talk) 00:33, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, I have made new account but I see I did it long time ago too (so I have account PioM and Piom now), I know how to sing :) with tilda mark (bat I hate to log in more than ones so I do not use my account on EN (so I have forgotten that I have it :) )), I can do even more magic using Wiki engine :) -PioM

• • Ok, I will try to edit your talk page, so I can move everything from the IP address to your page. I also need to remove your redirect links, since they do not work here. Sorry. Zscout370 (talk) 02:45, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

OK, as you wish -PioM

Finished. If there is anything else that you need, just let me know. Zscout370 (talk) 02:51, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

No, thanks. PioM

• What should be silver? pack, outline of pack, or St. Andrew cross on pack? What colours should be use for other elements of bear's pack? Give answer at my talk site-PioM _talk

Your new sig...

...works fine! :) Grutness|^hello? 00:43, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• yay! Zscout370 (talk) 00:49, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Beware the Impostor...

"Wikipedia is Communism" Guy has created the account User:ZScout370. Just thought you might like to know... android↔talk 01:39, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

• Thank you my friend, I owe you one. Zscout370 (talk) 01:39, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You're welcome - I assume it must be User:JoeM again, but perhaps it's just a copycat...who knows. Adam Bishop 05:17, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I have no way of knowing who is doing this, but I am thinking the admins are getting a grip of what this vandal can do. Zscout370 (talk) 11:00, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Chinese flag

Hi Zscout370, sorry if you've answered this before, but what's the difference between the old and new Chinese flags? I noticed that the new flag has smaller stars... is there any particular reason for this? Thanks. -- ran (talk) 17:59, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC)

• No need to apologize, I was never asked this before. The first difference is that the shades are different, and of course, the stars might be a bit smaller. However, the reason why I switched the image is that the original flag was named China flag large.png. At Wikipedia, there is a convention that was made up that said that we should call "China" the PRC and "Taiwan" ROC. The was a call on the China image to rename the image, so I did that. Zscout370 (talk) 18:05, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

BoNM

Hi Zach. Actually, I don't have a well-developed m.o. for awarding the BoNM. I could say that I'm always on the lookout for contributors focused on American countries, but it's not like I spend lots of time searching the website for them.
In this recent case, for instance, I sort of stumbled upon this guy: I was checking out our article on Japan. After reading some of it, I decided to check the article's history (I usually do that) and there I noticed that this person had contributed to the article quite often. Being that his screen name is "Japanese", I thought he might be a candidate for the BoNM, so I checked his user contributions list (changed to the 500 edits display mode and flipped through 3 or 4 pages). I saw that he had contributed to a number of articles about Japan — and I accessed a few of them, to be sure that it wasn't some sort of "direct vandalism", although that would be unlikely — and awarded him the Barnstar.
Sometimes I do go out looking for potential candidates, but for some reason, when I do that I seldom find someone worthy of the award. So I've come to let fate do part of the searching, but when I do find someone, I put in some work to make sure that the individual has indeed earned the award. But I don't focus on any country exclusively, or even especially (you'll notice that I've awarded the BoNM for work in articles pertaining to Brazil, New Zealand and, just now, Japan. That is, three countries in three different continents).
If you do want to find someone in connection to Russia, you could do something like this: go to a "typically Russian" article; check the page's history; find someone that has contributed numerous times to that article; check that person's list of contributions. You just might find someone with a history of contributions to Russia-related articles. I don't believe that the person has to have an awesome number of contributions, but rather just a "habbit" of contributing to articles related to any country (for instance: the person might have edited a large number of related articles – say 20, or 30 – but only edited each article a few times).
Btw, you probably noticed that I added to the BoNM's home page a section listing the countries for work on which people have been recognized. I thought it'd be interesting to have that information displayed there, one more incentive for people to award the BoNM, you know. Would you agree? Also, the award appears to be a success so far: in just over two months, it's been awarded 11 times, far more than any award created recently (thus excluding the more "traditional" barnstars). Kudos to us! Regards, Redux 19:58, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oops, forgot to comment: if you've found an image of a black ribbon that looks better than the one I've uploaded, feel free to replace it. The present image is only being used in the specific article and on my talk page anyways. Let me know what you decide, so I can correct the links on my talk page, if that's the case. Regards, Redux 20:02, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It is ok my friend, I just wanted you to know before I start doing anything. I did award a BoNM to a Russian who is the main editor of Russian pages. The user name: Mikkalai. He was the man who also created the 500,000th article on English Wikipedia. Zscout370 (talk) 20:08, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Indeed a worthy recipient of the BoNM. Good find! One detail that has nothing to do with the award or the recipient though: I noticed that in the country section of the award's home page, you entered the country as Russian Federation. I was wondering if you'd mind if we changed it to "Russia" at a later time (no need to do it now). Two reasons: one, I entered all the other countries using the short version of their names. In the future, as the award gets more popular (hopefully), there might be issues with names of countries (such as: Ireland x Republic of Ireland). The second reason (which also explains why list the short version of the names) is one of a practical aspect (I think): as the list of countries with one recipient of the award grows, it would save some space — and thus help keep the list as short as possible — to use the short versions. But if you'd prefer having it say "Russian Federation", or if it'd be inaccurate to name it just "Russia", it's fine too. Thoughts? Redux 20:55, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

If you wish to change it, that is fine with me. When I type about Russia, I always use the full name out of habbit. Zscout370 (talk) 21:19, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hey Zach. Did Mikkalai decline the Barnstar?? That's a first. I mean, everybody feels sorta unworthy of a Barnstar (any barnstar) when they first get it, but nobody declines it. He said he "didn't do the work", did you understand what he meant by it? Maybe there's more than one person using that account. I wonder if we should remove his name from the roll of recipients — and indeed even the image of the award from his talk page (if it is the case). You think we should put this up for discussion in our Barsnstars forum? It would indeed be a new front: how to proceed when the recipient declines the award. Also, although I don't see that we can or should do anything about it, he appears to have awarded himself a real life medal in lieu of the BoNM (well, at least in the Wikipedia realm), which is something we discourage (awarding real life medals). I'm still floored by this, I mean, why didn't the guy just put up a Barnstar-free sign in his talk page? It would have saved him and us some time... Redux 23:53, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oh, I also found Mikkalai's attitude sort of rude: someone takes the time to acknowledge your work and you say "thanks, but no thanks"? He turned the Kindness Campaign upside down with this. Redux 23:58, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yes. He chose to accept a Hero of the Soviet Union instead. I decided not to fight with him, so I let him accept the HSU. I think he did not intend to do work on Russian topics, he wanted to work on Math and Science subjects. But he still made many good efforts on Russian topics in my mind. I will leave it up to the board to decide on what should happen.I will give him that to put on his page, but I will just talk to him and see what is going on. However, I do not know why he chose to accept the HSU instead of the BoNM. Plus, he gave a spill about awards from groups, like the Kosomol, and if you think he was rude, that is your call. I am finished with that user, since I wanted to work with him on Russian topics, but seems to rebuff me every time. I could find someone who worked on Russian topics to give this award to, but whatever I do, I will not award it to myself (unless you think my work on Russian articles deserves the BoNM). I will not let this award go to waste at all. Zscout370 (talk) 00:07, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

(R) First things first: the new image of the black ribbon looks fine. It does look sharper than the one I had uploaded. Thanks for fixing the links in my talk page too, it looks good.

About Mikkalai and the BoNM, I did think that he was rude, but you're right, this is not worth wasting much time over. Come to think of it, it looks more like he's a bit clueless when it comes to Wiki awards. It could well be that he thought it senseless to accept an imaginary award, so he decided to bestow upon himself a real life award (though it's still imaginary, since he didn't actually get the award... but who knows what goes on in his mind?). But as you said, there's no point in someone awarding himself barnstars (or any other award), since it would take away all the meaning of it. Besides, it may be that if we let this simmer for a while, he might come around to liking the idea (I remember when I first saw a barnstar, and found out what it was for — back when I was a newbie — I thought it to be a little weird myself; now I'm an enthusiast of the principle).

For your extensive work in articles pertaining to Russia, I, Redux, hereby award you The Barnstar of National Merit. Congratulations! Redux 04:36, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

And since the window was open, I looked at your history of contributions to Russia-related articles (not to mention your open disposition to contribute in that front), and this award is indeed deserved. Congrats! Your friend, Redux 04:36, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hey, Zscout, I thought I'd weigh in on this discussion here, too. I hope you don't mind. I think Mikkalai's refusal has more to do with his opinion that he doesn't deserve the barnstar. I don't think he literally "awarded" himself with the gold star, rather, he just said "I think I deserve an obsolete medal instead". Of course, I know little about the original contributions and barnstar conversations, but I thought I'd give you my two copper coins. :-) --Deathphoenix 05:12, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Redux: You are quite welcome about the ribbon. I did use the background colors on Wikipedia so they can blend into your user page. As for the BoNM: Yay! Thank you! As for Mikkalai, if he wants to award himself the HSU, then I will let him do it, smile and go away. I do not fuss with people who award themselves the Hero of Socialist Labor either, though (based on previous experiences) I hate it when people award themselves the Purple Heart.

Death: Sure, you can jump in at anytime. As I mentioned to Redux, Mikkalai started a rant about awards, and about Russian topics. As I mentioned earlier, he wanted to do topics on Math and Sciences, not about the Russian Federation. However, he still did the topics on Russia. To be honest, other than Mikkalai and myself, I do not know who even wants to do/works on Russian topics. Or, maybe, the Russian topics are always different from the ones that I cover. Now, I will use those copper coins and buy a well-deserved Pepsi with them.

I both thank you for your comments, kindness and friendship. I hope we can work on topics together in the future. Zscout370 (talk) 11:04, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

hahaha... I often enjoy a good Pepsi as well. That's okay, we'll just all soldier on. Best wishes, Deathphoenix 19:28, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

IFD

Question, how do you find most of the images that you placed on IFD? Zscout370 (talk) 19:42, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• shrugs* Just looking through page histories, user contribs, that sort of thing - SoM 23:14, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. I found a page that is called Special:Unusedimages that list images that are not in use. I am not sure how that works, but I think those who clear images should look at this. Zscout370 (talk) 02:07, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikimedal

Umm, so you want to see yellow, eh? Here you go:

Personally, I like the first, more 3-D'ish medal. The idea of a medal is a good one. But, I also think that we need to avoid a huge amount of awards that no one is awarded. For an example, look at the Surreal Barnstar: only two people have recieved it, and one of them was done in jest. Do we need more barnstars? How about just the topical barnstars, which seem more useful? Just a thought.

Oh, and sorry about the overzealous archiving on Talk: Pope Benedict XVI. I guess I went a little archive crazy there. I'll try to condense some of the archives tomorrow, since it's pretty late now. Good night. Bratsche^{talk random} 04:19, Apr 28, 2005 (UTC)

• It is ok about the archives; I know I asked you earlier, and even awarded you, for the archivies. I still thank you for working with me on that. If you want the medal to be 3-D is, make and and show it off to our members. Once we are done with a few VoD situations, we can have one of those for the Wikimedia. Also, I am just trying to clear off Barnstar topics off our plate, so we can focus on other topics. Plus, we do have a campaign called the Kindness Campaign (there is a link on my main page.) We are trying to promote passing out of the awards, and we try to pass out awards ourself. Zscout370 (talk) 10:55, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

WP:IS

Thanks for finding source images on the net. Any possibility you can put URLs linking to web pages of the sites on which you're finding the images ... easier for others to double check than backtracking from a gif to the parent html file. best wishes --Tagishsimon (talk)

Sure, I can do that. Also, it is my pleasure to help yall in the Image Sluething. I spend a lot of time on Google, so why not put it into a very good use. Zscout370 (talk) 18:12, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You have been nominated by the party to be put up for deletion.--Jianq 00:33, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Jianq is presumably the same guy who was impersonating you the other day - now he is impersonating User:Jiang. He's been blocked, again. Adam Bishop 00:35, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Adam. BTW, I put myself on the People for Deletion. I meant it as a joke, but I would love to see what people write on it, still. Well, as for the imposter, damn, I could not tell the difference to be honest with ya. Zscout370 (talk) 00:38, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for notifying me--Jiang 01:15, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I thank Adam for pointing this out to me. Zscout370 (talk) 01:34, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hammer and sickle

Agreed. A vote makes sense I suppose. I still think for templates, stylized images look better, which is why I support the hammer and sickle as it is right now. For anything else (I think there's a hammer and sickle article), the image you produced makes more sense. Anyways, peace :)-- Revolutionary Left | Che y Marijuana 23:33, Apr 29, 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and I never reverted it myself, I simply improved on it once someone did revert it :P I have respect for the work you did, so I avoided reverting.-- Revolutionary Left | Che y Marijuana 23:34, Apr 29, 2005 (UTC)

I will pass on the vote, I am fine with this image. Though I personally think the image should be moved from Hammer sickle clean to Hammer sickle. I see your point, so I will just move on. Is there anything else I can do for you or any pages dealing with Communism that I could edit? Zscout370 (talk) 23:37, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Sockpuppet template

Go ahead. Ot sounds like a rtaher prudent idea. --Neutrality^talk 03:25, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

• Thanks. The template is located at Template:Wikipedia_is_Communism. Zscout370 (talk) 03:52, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

Re: Image:BSA-logo.jpg

If I may ask, why did you even replace it? It's the same logo, only smaller. --Kitch 19:28, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

True, and plus the new image is in the PNG format. From what I was told before, still graphic images should be in PNG format, animated images in the GIF format and photographs in JPEG format. Zscout370 (talk) 19:30, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

Image:Yushchenko OurUkraine.jpg

Thanks for your message on my talk page. I'm sure this is an official portrait and I think the best would be consider its use on Wikipedia as "fair use". I think the uploader could agree to that also. Perhaps it would be the best if a third party added the appropriate "fair use" tag on the image description since my edits are reverted. If everybody was happy with that, the issue could be removed from WP:CP. Thuresson 23:25, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

Your quite welcome. I placed the Fairuse tag on the image, and I hope that will be alright for you. If so, then I am glad we got this image off of your list. Plus, I need to work with you and several others to start getting flag images ready to move from this Wiki into the Commons. Zscout370 (talk) 23:34, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

You mean replacing local image files of flags with the flags on WikiCommons? Me and two others did that on se: wikipedia which was very time consuming (I did South America and Africa) but worth it since a) the flags on Commons are larger and b) correct colors, the local US flag used to be red, white and violet. Thuresson 00:43, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Yeah. However, I notice many of the flag images placed on Wikipedia and the WikiCommons are incorrect in some manners. I hope replacing flag images are easy. Plus, do we really need the flag images with a 300 pixel height? I had some people tell me that is not really needed now, due to the expanded server sizes. I think we need to have a little get together to find out what should be done. Plus, I am willing to help you with the image moving. I am currently doing that now with Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.png. Zscout370 (talk) 00:53, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

We used almost exclusively the flags uploaded by Marc Mongenet. He has uploaded flags from every country in the world, they have a clear license and source and all of them are called Image:Country flag 300.png. About the size; usually only thumbnails of flags are used but sometimes flags have small details where a large file is helpful, e.g. the AK-47 in the flag of Mozambique. It is also my understanding that sometimes it is not clear exactly which flag proportions are correct or the exact shade of the colours. Thuresson 01:21, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

It's good that the issue with the image got resolved. Thanks for "arbitration". Sashazlv 01:23, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Thuresson: Ok, if that is the case, then I will try to modify the flags that Marc has uploaded to make sure ratios are right, colors are right. I have "worked" with Marc before on the Commons. I have some flag images that I uploaded here, so I will just transfer them over using Wikimedia Commonplace. Zscout370 (talk) 01:26, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Sashazlv: You are quite welcome. If you need help with other images, or anything else really, just let me know and I will see what I can do. Zscout370 (talk) 01:26, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

BoNM 2

Hey Zach. I noticed you reuploaded the image of the BoNM. You said you "fixed the image with transparency". It could be my untrained eye (or bad memory), but I swear I can't tell any difference. Is there something significant that I should have noticed? Redux 21:48, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

I downloaded the GIMP program, which allows for image editing. I was told that on browsers like Internet Explorer, transparent PNG files are not possible. On browsers like FireFox, it is possible. I am just doing many transparencies as I can, plus it is a good thing too that people cannot really tell the difference. Zscout370 (talk) 21:51, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Lulu

I've left a report on the styles vote page for now. I'm going to bed (am in work in 7 hours!!!). So I'll let someone else have the pleasure of doing an RfC on him tonight. But if someone doesn't I might do it tomorrow. FearÉIREANN 00:54, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Since you have more issues with Lulu, and I mainly more of a witness, you can do the RfC whenever you want. I am not sure where we can announce the RfC, except on the user pages of the folks that edit with us on Benedict XVI and the styles page. Zscout370 (talk) 01:01, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Drawings

Hi Zach - you wrote I went to your website, you did some pretty good drawings. I was wondering how much do they usually go for. There was one that caught me and my mothers eye, it was Nude Study II (Jessica). It was odd, since my cousin is also named Jessia. My mom smirked and said that she did know you :) Also, I will try to mail your items this week...

No hurry - you have got my address, haven't you? As to the drawings, sadly Nude Study II's been sold, but I do have a very similar one based on the same set of drawings (Jessica, BTW, is local actress Jessica Sutherland, who was a model for the local art society's life drawing classes). As to how much they sell for, mounted they go for about $70-80NZ (that's around $50-57US). Unmounted they sell for about $60NZ (a little over $40US). If you're thinking of getting one, it would be much easier and cheaper to send it to the US unmounted and get it mounted there. Grutness|^hello? 02:50, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, I do have your address. I do not know if I want to buy artwork now, but I do love what you make. But I wish you could do flag drawings (your choice of nations). I will easily pay for one in the future. Zscout370 (talk) 03:04, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

This might interest you

I've nominated Papal Tiara as a featured article. I'd be interested in your opinion, especially that Lulu of Lala Land seems to think you are part of some big Catholic conspiracy on wikipedia. lol FearÉIREANN 18:52, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

If that is the case, well, I am not part of any type of conspiracy. I, just like Lulu, follow no religion (but now, I am trying to become a Catholic). However, unlike Lulu, I do not mind calling the Pope the Holy Father and other respectable names. I am not offended if someone talks about their faith, or shows expressions of it. Though I think Lulu is trying to stick to his guns, I will stick to mine. I guess with the way I help revert the article when the style is removed, my choice of voting on the style page, he decided I am a Catholic POV pusher. I was considered to be a Zoinist POV pusher, since I reverted very Arab POV in pages dealing with flags.

As for this page, I love it. I will vote in its support for the FA status, and I am glad the Vatican flag image I made being used nicey on this page. Zscout370 (talk) 20:17, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

User:Spastika

Thanks for the heads-up. Jayjg ^(talk) 20:59, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. I hope this is not a sockpuppet of Islamofacist, but I hope this ends soon. Zscout370 (talk) 21:16, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Problem

It certainly does walk the tightrope: it's somewhat offensive, and leaves a threat-like aftertaste. At this time, however, I'm hesitant without more reason than a single post. – ClockworkSoul 23:26, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

• He and Tagteam sure act like socks, though. – ClockworkSoul 23:27, 4 May 2005 (UTC)
  • I guess that they are, since they mainly have been targeting the same pages: List of national flags and Gallery of national flags by adding the Palestine flag to them. There is no consensus about the flags addition to both pages. Both users seem to back up one another, while accusing myself and a few others of gang POV pushing (probably they think I have a pro-Zionist POV, just like some people think I have a pro-Catholic/Vatican/Papist POV). I just mainly want this to be brought to your attention and I hope something can be done out of this. Zscout370 (talk) 23:31, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Re:Personal Attack

thanks for notifying me. This comes from a group of sockpuppets that go around mass reverting articles related to Taiwan... I saw that accusation when the user first posted it, but the idea was so ridiculous that I didn't know what to make out of it. I will file a RfC of this group of users comes back and starts mass reverting again. --Jiang 08:08, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

This is almost as bad as the possible group of users/sockpuppets who continue to the put the Palestine flag and make other pro-Arab pov edits. Man, I just wish it all stopped. Zscout370 (talk) 13:38, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations

You are number 8 on the new "Movers and Shakers" list of users with the largest jumps in main space edit rank. You've been very busy, I can see! – ClockworkSoul 19:09, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Wow. Is this something I can place on my User page, or will this information change? Zscout370 (talk) 19:14, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

New template

I created a new template I think you might be interested in: {{impostor}}. – ClockworkSoul 21:40, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

• Sweet. I love it, let's use it. Zscout370 (talk) 21:42, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
  • I've already used it twice. You know, I actually enjoy a good game of vandal whack-a-mole. – ClockworkSoul 21:43, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
    • It is almost like I was dealing with the Wikipedia is Communism vandal. Now, me and a few others whack the mole before the mole comes out of his hole. What we did is registered the vandal names, so the vandal is not in control of them, but we are. I am not sure if that is legal to do, but I believe it can be done. If so, I will register a few more names. Zscout370 (talk) 21:46, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
    • Its perfectly legal so long as you don't use them. I myself created some isonames (to coin a new word) of Jimbo Wales. – ClockworkSoul 21:48, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
      • You really think you are? :p SiIversmith 21:48, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
        • Note: the above comment was made by an imposter of Silversmith.
• Like what I did with it? Very pretty now. – ClockworkSoul 21:57, 6 May 2005 (UTC)
  • Yup, and it makes it easier to hide the ID of the person who put the template on the user page. Plus, I went ahead and created a few accounts under my control, but will never be used. Two imposters of me were blocked already, since both of them were Wikipedia is Communism vandals. Zscout370 (talk) 21:59, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Happy joy joy

File:Peaceful-Dove-223.jpg

Y'know, I was lookin for one of those drawings of doves one often sees... finding something with clear copyright is damn difficult. Certainly not a casual whim. Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters 01:30, 2005 May 7 (UTC)

It is alright, I like the peace offering. Zscout370 (talk) 01:38, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

In a respectful way, I wonder if I cannot convince you to reevaluate your opinion on the style usage vote. You seem genuinely committed to NPOV, and none of us here wish to deny that styles are used, simply to move the usage from Wikipedia endorsement to factual reporting. I believe that if a few more editors would shift votes to alternatives 3 or 4, we could decide this matter as a genuine consensus rather than having only a narrow majority (yeah, it might take a followup yes/no vote or something; but it would still look better). Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters 06:32, 2005 May 7 (UTC)

Choice three is in the lead right now, and what I will do is if the vote is put up again, I can possibly switch the vote. I really hope that each page gets to decide, because there are people who use styles that are recognized by the world and there are some people who were styled only by a certain group of people. Zscout370 (talk) 10:50, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

I'm hoping we might get some guidance from the Wikimedia Foundation on what is an acceptable NPOV solution if the outcome of the survey is too divided to form a consensus. Whig 08:21, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for answering quickly it would be great if you could upload the images to commons, thanks :)--Fito 01:50, May 7, 2005 (UTC)

I am doing that as I speak. Also, the images can be modified to fit the templates that Wikipedia En Espanol uses. Zscout370 (talk) 01:55, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

About your star pictures

Hi, I'm an active user on the Spanish Wikipedia wondering if the star images (Image:Cscr-candidate.png, Image:Cscr-featured.png, and such) are free for use on the other Wikipedias. We're currently organizing our feautured articles and having templates similar to the ones on this wiki would be great. You can answer me either here or here.--Fito 01:46, May 7, 2005 (UTC)

Fito, they can be used on other Wikipedias. Clockwork, I can upload this image to the Wikimedia Commons for you. Zscout370 (talk) 01:48, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Fito: absolutely, you can take all of them you like. The original, unmodified versions are Image:Featured article star.png, Image:Featured article candidate .png, Image:Star piece.png, and Image:Former featured article candidate.png, if you want them. Zscout, if you wanted to upload them, that would be great. – ClockworkSoul 01:55, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Clockwork, the files have been uploaded to the Commons under the same LGPL license. I also think the original, unmodified, stars can also be uploaded. If we can create standard templates in all Wiki's, that will also be a good idea. Zscout370 (talk) 01:59, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks alot. I'm going to propose the template standarisation over there too.--Fito 02:07, May 7, 2005 (UTC)

I am sure you can probably present the templates that we use here, and if that works, I hope the other Wiki's follow suit. Plus, Fito, if you need anything from here and use it on Spanish Wikipedia, just let me, Clockwork or others know. Zscout370 (talk) 02:09, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

I would be very honored if you did decide to use the recently created templated standardization scheme. As Zscout370 said, if there anything we can do to help, please do not hesitate to ask. – ClockworkSoul 02:18, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

K, thank you guys.--Fito 02:25, May 7, 2005 (UTC)

PCP

Hey, thanks for the re-writing of some text in the pagr of the Portuguese Communist Party, what do you mean with writing the page in a different way? Perhaps giving more relevance to present issues? Is that it? (Note: This was posted by User:Afonso Silva)

Well, I will look at how political party articles have been done on here, and I will show you on what I wish for the PCP article to look like. Zscout370 (talk) 10:51, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

User impersonaters

Really, someone's been impersonating me? Amusing... Since when did I become so popular? : ) But seriously now, is this sporadic? Or part of a large scheme? How many users has this (or these) vandal(s) been impersonating? Drop me a note at my talk page. Regards - JMBell° 23:11, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

The nerve.... Is there no way to permanently block him or at least prevent these provocative attacks? 84.154.51.36 14:13, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

My apologies - apparently, my browser didn't log me in. JMBell° 14:18, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

If this person who is doing this has a service like AOL or a proxy server, it will be hard to block. However, what I have done is registered many variations of my name, so they will not be hijacked by vandals. Also, just vigiliance will also help this problem. Zscout370 (talk) 14:22, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

I really hope so. But it would be hard to register all the variations of all the usernames in Wikipedia, wouldn't it? And waste precious time... But he should get tired sooner or later (I hope). Good luck! JMBell° 21:07, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

It was not really that hard: two got blocked already since it was another vandal, and I took two this past week. So, pretty much, it will be hard to do and make it not obvious. With many names that have ells and eyes, it will be a problem (like yours). Zscout370 (talk) 22:11, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

Indeed. I just unearthed another impostor under the name of JMBeII. Requesting immediate block. JMBell° 17:31, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

List him as an imposter, ask an admin to block him. I have no powers to do anything against the clone. Zscout370 (talk) 17:42, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

I already did. Funny, I thought I you were an administrator. Or are you? JMBell° 15:32, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Nope, I am not an admin. I only been really working on the Wiki for a few months now. I sometimes help enforce rules, but I am not an admin. Sorry. Once I become admin, I will let you know. Zscout370 (talk) 16:05, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Islamofascism

There is no such thing as "Islamofascism". It's a slur thrown at Muslims, used because "fascist" is a catchall bad-guy word. There's no connection at all between "Islamist terrorism" and "fascists" of any kind whatsoever. I'd like you to source a connection if you disagree. Unless you do, I think it's fair to say that it's just our opinion that the two are in any way connected and that's not good enough for Wikipedia. Grace Note 08:56, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, Islamofacsism is defined as "The term "Islamofascism" is a controversial political epithet. Those who use the term argue that it refers only to certain sects of Islam that are alleged to have fascist or totalitarian tendencies. Its critics argue that it is merely used to smear Islam with the negative connotations of the term fascist." My guess is that by some Islamic groups that are pulling off the terrorist activities (Hamas, Islamic Jihad), they are avdancing this idea that Islamic ideas will be spread across the nation, even by force. I do agree the word is made up and that it is a slur. But all I did that one day was to revert an edit by a vandal, but I can see how sensistive this word is. If if you have no problems, I will try to talk with others to include a link to this article at the bottom of the Islamist Terrorism page. Thanks for your response. Zscout370 (talk) 12:38, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

Kiwidraw.jpg

Hi Zach... you wrote:To let you know, I am (painstakingly) trying to draw the Kiwidraw image into a png file. Zscout370 (talk) 03:35, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

Painstaking? But it only took a few key-clicks... have a look at [[Image:kiwidraw.png]] Grutness|^hello? 04:59, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

Re:Image:Chinese_Taipei_Sports_Disabled.JPG

I deleted my inferior version of the image so no need for ifd--Jiang 00:13, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. The symbol of the IPC changed, so that was why I redrew the image. Zscout370 (talk) 00:15, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

New Zealand National Front

Thanks for your help with the NZNF article. Regarding the disputed photo, it is a strong example of the old saying that "a picture is worth a thousand words". Yes, user:Molloy (who usually signs his talk page entries though he rarely signs in anymore) is the same as the NZNF webmaster. I believe that there have been other attempts to suppress this photo, and I've even seen someone, perhaps Molloy, claim that Chapman (the NZNF leader who is kneeling holding the banner) was unaware that the people behind him were saluting. Right.... Cheers, -Willmcw 22:19, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

Well, mainly I wanted to present photos showing the NZNF doing activities, but clear of copyright issues. If those "people" were doing Nazi-salutes or not, that is not my main concern. I just want copyright issues to be cleared. I am part of the Image Sleuth Team, which our job is to find copyrights of images and find Fairuse/PD images for Wikipedia. I am glad to help, and it just makes me laugh about Malloy and others. Zscout370 (talk) 22:29, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

Do you have an opinion on the fair use/fair dealing status of the banner image? -Willmcw 22:44, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

I seen it on forums, but probably uploaded by either Malloy or other NZNF members. I can be claimed as a promo video, but it feels like the NZNF does not want this image to be used. I do not know the clear copyright of any photo used on that site now, but I will do a Google search now. Zscout370 (talk) 22:48, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. -Willmcw 23:13, May 10, 2005 (UTC)

I could not find anything, but I think just the images I showed you will be fine. I also put some on SlimVirgin's talk page, which you can take a peek at. Enjoy. Zscout370 (talk) 23:17, 10 May 2005 (UTC)

The Fight Dem Back blog seems to have a large collection of photos, but the copyright information is not carefully recorded. I'm not quite sure if you were expressing an opinion on fair use of the banner image. Cheers, -Willmcw 00:58, May 11, 2005 (UTC)

I will support the fair use of the image. If the NZNF people give us a hard time, I will find more stuff, or we can place a call out to Kiwi-Wikipedians to take photos of this group. Zscout370 (talk) 01:09, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

If you look through his history there are plenty of attacks; I don't take it particularly seriously, as I don't expect better from him anyway. Jayjg ^(talk) 14:38, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, at least we have more evidence against this user if a RfC happens (which I predict one will happen, but I will not start it). Zscout370 (talk) 15:59, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Hmmmmmmm... - Molloy

FAC Support

Come and show your support at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Ranks and Insignia of Starfleet. Thanks! -Husnock 07:19, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments on this. Can I talk you into an approve vote? Your one concern, about the photos, is valid unfortuntatly the photos are really that best that anyone can hope for as they are screenshots. The "really good photos" out on the interent are copyright by Paramount and people using them typically rip them off websites without permission. I was careful not to do that and verified that all pictures on the page were fairuse. So, if that was your only concern, maybe I can get you to change from comment to approve. Thank you in any event! -Husnock 14:42, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I can change the vote. All the concerns I had were addressed, so there is nothing else I object to. Zscout370 (talk) 14:46, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

Re:Thanks

Hi Zach. You are welcome. I truly believe it is true. I just apply my common sense. I Believe also the person who commented that is a nice one. He wasn't meaning it but the atmosphere was so tense, I believe. I hope we can deal with that article quickly as it seems now that the arguments are getting nonsense from the part of the so-called new user. Cheers and respect! Svest 19:49, May 11, 2005 (UTC) ^{Wiki me up&#153;} P.S. The ™ is just a joke ;)

Polish Barnstar of National Merit

		The Polish Barnstar of National Merit, 1st Class
		{{{1}}}
		this WikiAward was given to {{subst:PAGENAME}} by ~~~ on ~~~~~

• This was placed by User:Halibutt. I do not know if this was awarded to me or just showing me what he wanted to do. Halibutt, can you explain this a bit more for me? Thanks. Zscout370 (talk) 03:47, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

I simply wanted to let you know that I created more of these. Sorry, no award this time :) Halibutt 04:17, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

It is alright, I mainly work on Russian articles anyways. As I said, I have ribbon bars for the Wikithanks, if you want them. I will upload them tonight, if you prefer. Zscout370 (talk) 04:18, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, I think I will find some way to use the ribbons (hope they're yellow :) ). I think I prefer the flower for the simple thanks on the talk page, but a ribbon would be nice to show on people's user pages. BTW, have you seen my ribbon gallery? It was a sleepless night... Halibutt 05:12, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

Yes, they are yellow, but the other colors are supposed to show the inside parts of the flower. Right now, I am trying to draw all American ribbons (see Awards_and_decorations_of_the_United_States_military). But hey, if you need anything else, just let me know. Zscout370 (talk) 13:43, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

for the  :) Halibutt 03:36, May 13, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch. If you get other Wikipedia awards, just let me know and I can draw ribbons for them. Of course, if others want ribbons, send them my way or let them take yours. My ribbon images are GDFL and can be used on all Wiki projects. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:47, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Re: disputes

Hi, Zach. I haven't gotten too involved with this stuff so far (thankfully, I've managed to stay out of trouble). But I can tell you that a Request for Arbitration is the last step, so other steps should be tried first. Wikipedia:Dispute resolution discusses the options. If there are just two users in the dispute, then perhaps mediation would be a good start, although I think mediation hasn't been running too smoothly recently. But they can certainly give it a try. If that doesn't work, an RfC may be the way to go. You know, though, now that you mention it, I am not entirely certain how it would work. The RfC's I've participated in have all had a subject who was pretty clearly engaging in bad behavior. Sorry—I think you're going to ask someone else for more advice! — Knowledge Seeker দ 04:03, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Cadet insig.

I am saving bandwith by unisng few small images that are used repetively. It uses less wiki hd space, less wiki bw, less user bw this way. --Cool Cat ^{My Talk} 21:31, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, I am not quite sure if that is the case, but I respecr your opinion. I will ask you to leave the images that I have done so far, as like a test. If the people on the FAC agree with what I am doing, then I wish to ask for cooperation. If the people on the FAC side with you, you can revert anything that I have done and place many of the images that I placed on here on IFD. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:35, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

New BoNM

Hey Zach. Well, the new design does look good. But technically, the star at the tip of the ribbon is not a barnstar, which seems to complicate our calling it the "Barnstar of National Merit". In our new awards forum, we do tend to only call a "barnstar" the awards that feature an actual barnstar. What do you think?

That was why I included the hole in the center, thus making it look like a Barnstar, but stylized.

In a related topic, the newest recipient of the award seems to have gotten carried away and created (and added to the page) a Polish variant of the award. That is the exact opposite of everything that was discussed during the creation of the BoNM. I figure that person did not read the History of the BoNM that I added to the page. I was about to delete that entry and write him a note on his talk page, but I thought that maybe we should coordinate this, since more than one voice is always more convincing. I was thinking we should let him know that if he wants to design a Polish award to give out to his compatriots, or whoever he thinks deserves to get it, he can, but that will not be a wiki award, and thus cannot be featured in an wiki award page (especially if it appears to be a wiki award, or, given the appearance he gave to it, some sort of "sub-wiki" award :P). What about it? Regards, Redux 21:50, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

I did not create the Polish BoNM, but I did add the section of the National Variants. The reason why is this: to not fight with people. Based on the experiences of the last time I awarded this award, I decided to just let people do what they wish. If he wants to award it, thats fine, but if you want the main image page to not have this picture on there, that is fine with me. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:53, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

I do agree that sometimes the path of less resistence is the best way to go. Some things are just not worth the trouble that one may have to endure in order to get things done ideally. In this case, however, I believe that we should maintain the standard. When I proposed the first draft for the scope of what would become the BoNM, I had thought of a Brazil-centric award. This was immediately shot down by the people who were involved with discussing new awards. So we came up with a neutral award, that could apply to any country. If we start having those national variants listed in the award's page, we'll be essentially back to square one, with who-knows-how-many national awards, which just might end up replacing the BoNM in practice (picture it, every time someone wants to award someone else for work in the benefit of a country, they will want to use the country-specific award, and if it doesn't exist already, a new award will be created). I mean, we started that long discussion on category-specific awards and adopted those guidelines in order to prevent the proliferation of bad ideas and excentric awards that were being created unilaterally by people (remember the Prankstar and the "Hollywood Walk of Fame" award?). In light of all that, I really think that national variants for the BoNM are a very bad idea. Redux 03:49, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

I know how you feel about it Redux, but I have little control of what other people do. I remember when someone awarded themselves a Hero of the Soviet Union inplace of the BoNM, I was stunned, but gave up. With this user, it was suggested to him by the person who gave it to him to draw it with the white and red ribbon, which envokes the flag of Poland. Even if I did not do what I did, the same things would have happened. I know this is something you will object too, but I think it is out of my hands. I will make sure national variations will not be listed on the main page, though I will allow it to be used at the Polish Wikipedian's Notice Board, if one such group exists. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:55, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

I agree with you. Some things are just out of our control. Your proposal seems more than satisfactory: as I had said, we don't need to delete the Polish award altogether, but we can't have it listed as a wiki award, or in the page of a wiki award/barnstar, to avoid giving the idea that it is or may be one such award. Redux 04:37, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Starfleet

Hiya, cheers for message, my concern was based on viewing the page in a small browser window at work, anyway I've uploaded the problem (ie. the images should be single rather than several), here [9] hope it's not me being pedantic! Thx --PopUpPirate 23:36, May 12, 2005 (UTC)

I know what you mean and I want to fix it, though the person who originally uploaded the images does not think it is a problem. I do not know if the server speed will make a huge difference, but I will see what kind of magic I can pull off. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:50, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Wikicities?

Hi there! On VfD talk you mentioned something about schools in wikicities? Could you please elaborate, as it may be the solution to the long-standing shouting matches. Radiant_* 15:43, May 13, 2005 (UTC)

Well, many people put schools on here to show the schools exist, contact information. Wikicities is a good solution, since we can list school information for parents. We can list all schools, contact information, and perhaps two or three lines of basic information. Or, if there is a huge call of major information, I will support the creation of a new Wikimedia project: WikiSchools. We can list information about contacting them, test scores, notable opinions, and many other things. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:49, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

An example: Image I create a Wikicties Project for my town, Havelock, North Carolina. We can have a sub heading of schools inside the town: no matter what grades they teach or public/private status. There are four K-5 schools, two middle schools, one private school, one high school and one college. Though, whole articles about the schools might not work, until WikiShools is created. I do not even know how an entire WikiMedia Project is created, but I will see what I can do to make WikiSchools happen. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:53, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Another thought, just create a section on Wikicties called http://schools.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page, and that will solve our problems. Where should I pitch my idea to? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:03, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Crap, that won't work. I need to think this over Radiant, since this is harder than I thought it could be. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:05, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

fair use?

Mr. Z, please to give humble supplicant benefit of advice. I've posted the question here and there on wikipedia policy talk pages where it seemed appropriate, but never gotten a reply. How far does fair use of images, say magazine covers and album covers, for instance, go? I understand the rationale that Time magazine can't very well complain about a picture of their cover illustrating an article on Time Magazine, or of a picture of their cover with Ann Coulter on it illustrating an article on Ann Coulter, but it seems to me a bit shaky to do something like clip out the image of the shoe and use it to illustrate 'manolo blahnik' or whatever kind of shoe it is. Although there are many places I'd like to. (not with ann coulter, that's just an example). ??? Thanks. Gzuckier 18:27, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Magazine covers and cd covers are considered fair use, since they are used on various news reports to show the latest issue or CD. As long as we try to make the covers a size where it cannot be used for pirating, we credit where the image came from, we can claim fair use. As for the shoe, you can try to go to a shoe store and ask if you can take a photo of it. Also, if anyone owns that shoe, ask them to take a picture of it. Once we get those photos, we can tag them as GDFL or PD. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:43, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, but it's more like I would like to illustrate a lot more articles, and I see these magazine covers that have whatever it is I could use a picture of as a minor detail of the illustration; so that posting the entire cover to illustrate it would be silly ("Time magazine cover showing nose (on face of Ann Coulter)") but somehow, just cutting out the part I want seems like pushing the envelope of fair use a bit. Just wondering if there were any decided policies. Crop the picture but put a credit to the original? A link to the original? ?? Thanks again

Gzuckier 18:52, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. Your idea is fine enough, it should work. Credit the original, give copyright of the original if possible. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:55, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks again. Watch for the servers to fill up now. Gzuckier 19:06, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Please, do not take my thoughts as policy. If policy contradicts me, just let me know. Plus, even if I do not say anything, many images will be uploaded on here and be declared fair use. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 19:09, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the info

Thanks for the heads up - That anon made a mess of the VfD page. He splattered his repeated comments everywhere, even above the nominator! I sorted them out. He also tried to create the same article again under a different name (lower case). Another admin deleted it. - Tεxτurε 23:21, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Your quite welcome. He has listed you, I and a few others who are trying to keep the page from vandalism got put on the WP:VIP page. Do not worry, I have posted comments that clears everyone of blame. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:24, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Howdy. I noticed the, er, heated discussion at WP:VIP whilst adding some other actual vandals to the page, and came across your dispute with User:Hamidifar. I left a lengthy note on his talk page; tried to straighten things out a bit. Just so you know. android↔talk 00:20, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. I know he is new to Wikipedia, but I guess he was miffed at how we enforce the rules here. I just hope I was being clear enough on the "vandalism" charges and also was not doing anything illegal myself. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:22, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Plus, I will fight tooth and nail to clear my name on listing of the VIP page. I know I made the reporting of real vandals hard, and I do apologize for that. But I will not allow people to try to circumvent our rules and try to exploit technology to get around the rules. If I allowed this to happen, I will see much other problems taking place. Man, I need a few cold ones after this fight. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:33, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

I don't think you need to worry about clearing your name. Claiming VfD as vandalism is a pretty common newbie mistake (although all the fuss about this one article is pretty extraordinary), and all the shouting and conspiracy theories will just get ignored. android↔talk 00:35, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

All I get in return is personal attacks. Man, I wish it would end. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:40, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

I give up after this last round, if it doesn't get through to him. It's too bad User:roozbeh isn't involved; he speaks the guy's language (literally). I think limited English ability is a serious factor here. android↔talk 00:44, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

Probably is. Roozbeh was listed as a vandal by the same user, so I think he will become involved very soon. Plus, I think that with Roozbeh letting people know how he feels and telling Annons that their vote will not matter, and also translating some of the Persian text, caused him to be listed. I will use Roozbeh if things get bad enough, but I think many people are seeing what is going on. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:49, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

(Too many indents.) I already left a note on roozbeh's talk page. Hopefully he can help, but he appears to have left the building for now... android↔talk 00:53, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

It is ok about the indents. I will see what this user has posted, though, I personally think I will see if a sockpuppet check can be done, since I see the same two or three users posting the same thing, troll around the same pages, and just making my life a Wiki-hell. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:57, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Have you checked out the discussion and vote at Wikipedia talk:Don't disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point? - Tεxτurε 01:09, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

I have, and I voted to make it official policy. Also, I hope you liked the Barnstar I gave ya. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:11, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Looks like he's stopped for now. (Incidentally, I will also be voting for the WP:POINT policy.) android↔talk 02:39, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

Well, mostly, he has been posting at VIP, and also listing people who keep on reverting his edits. I would still pay attention, since he wants to edit scientific articles, and he pointed out another scientific article that is having a NPOV dispute. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:47, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

He's back, but Rhobite did us a favor and protected the page with the VfD notice left on it. android↔talk 02:52, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

Then I think the article is safe for a while. I still think the battleground will swtich to the VFD page. I posted a comment about a Google search in Persian that I found 299 hits, but I did not go into detail about the hits. I did not look into detail since I do not speak (or even read Persian). I am hoping that Roozbeh gets involved and look at the Google Persian link I provided. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:22, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Hopefully, Roozbeh's reasoning will be listened to. If only Hamidifar had taken his case to the VfD in the first place, we wouldn't have had this shitstorm. android↔talk 03:32, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

He did state his case on why the article should stay, but the sockpuppetry actions is pretty much what caused the shit to hit the fan. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:40, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

The anon IP that vandalized the VfD page in the first place just signed a "goodbye" post on WP:VIP as Hamidifar. "State his case," indeed. android↔talk 03:42, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

As much I want to tell this user to "Bring It," it looks like things will be a damper for a while. As with me from "Satanic USA" and he is from Iran, I suspect that I will not only be defending my own personal character, my friends (yes, your one of them Android), I have to defend this encyclopedia and I will now have to defend my country. Man, I wish User:SPUI can come here and cap me with a GLOCK. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:46, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

I wouldn't be surprised to find that our friend is actually pro-American; he is, after all, an academic. That doesn't mean he's not a belligerent troll, though. I'll be damned if he can get away with calling me a kid! :-)

I am still a kid (I am nearly 19). Well, with the stuff that happened, I can find it really easy that he can switch sides, because he see "kids" who want to "destroy Wikipedia" by doing the things he said we were doing. If he gets other places involved, a Pandora's Box will open. I know if that happens, people will blame him. But I know there will be some people blaming me and others. I do not want to be the person that caused the Wiki to die or turning it into a vandal war. If this person can be able to work around Wikipedia policy like that and caused that much uproar with just one small little article, imaging what can happen with larger articles. Shit, shit, shit, I wish it all ends, I wish it all away, but I know it won't. I have been accused of being a Catholic and Israeli POV pusher, but this is getting too stressful, but I know that I need to keep going. Man, I need help, serious help. Please, someone, can they calm me down? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:00, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

It's okay, calm down.

Look, a doggie! With a stick, even!

android↔talk 04:07, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

Giggle, giggle, giggle. Nice photo. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:10, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

See? Now you've forgotten all about it. It'll all blow over, and if it doesn't and we get an army of rampaging-yet-confused Iranian physicists up in here, it will be dealt with by the admins, with a little help from the little guys. Sometimes, I wish I had superpowers, but then I'd spend all of my time here... android↔talk 04:17, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

This is probably a good reason why I will reject any request for me being admin. Though, to let you know, other articles created by these group of users have been listed at WP:CP. IASBS was a complete copy and paste from a website (listed at the IASBS article). Another article associated with the VFD article, The_Physical_Society_of_Iran is also a copyvio. I just think they wanted to do good, but just not understand the policy. With that misunderstanding, and also the translation/language issues, that is probably why we are in this situation we are in now. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:24, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

That, plus the paranoid delusions, conspiracy theories, and elitism... the road to Wiki-Hell is paved with good intentions. I'm out for the night... have a good one. android↔talk 04:32, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

One thing I just realized, the doggie photo (strangely) reminds me of a skit by comic Jeff Dunham. He has a jalepino on a stick, calling it Jose. And he just went on and on about everything being "on a stick." I can try to find a photo of it soon. Plus, I am glad things are a bit calm now. Page protection is added, all annon votes accounted for, VIP page settled. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:02, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

See [10]. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:15, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Re: Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress

Looks like I missed alot. My opinion appears to be moot at this point: the accusor's complains don't hold up very well to scrutiny, so he's falling back on conspiracy claims. As long as you've done nothing wrong (and it doesn't look like you have) then you have nothing to worry about. All articles and all edits eventually stand on their own merits. – ClockworkSoul 03:27, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Also, one quick question. I awarded someone the Defender of the Wiki for trying to sort this mess out. Is that appropriate? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:39, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Me again. Unrelated to previous. I apologize for whatever role I played, however inadvertently, in setting this thing off. Gzuckier 04:51, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

I do not think you played much a role. He listed everyone who voted to delete the article as a vandal, so I figured some got defensive, trying to rebutt everything. It should be ok now, he should be claming down, and if not, I will see what else I can do. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:53, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Barnstars are nice because they're not strictly defined: they're pretty much a nice way to show appreciation. I would say that it was appropriate, yes. – ClockworkSoul 06:01, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Re: FAC

Hey, I was wondering what should I do on this. I am trying to get an article to become Featured, called Hero_of_Belarus. The Hero of Belarus is a title that is awarded by the Republic of Belarus to those who perform great deeds in the name of the State. It is the Belarussian version of the Hero of the Soviet Union. After I am done with the article, I want to invite people to come in, comment on it, and then put it up on WP:FAC. I was wondering if you can help. Regards, Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:02, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

• How exciting! Most important is to be sure that the article adheres to featured article criteria (which it seems to at a quick glance, though it may be a little short). If you're unsure of how well it will be received, you may want to post it onto Wikipedia:Peer review; this process can be very helpful. If you're more confident, then do what I did with chemical warfare and just go ahead and post it to Wikipedia:Featured article candidates; that process can be grueling, though, so be prepared for alot of "constructive criticism". Good luck! – ClockworkSoul 06:06, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

• • It is at Peer Review now, and I will make some more changes to the article. I just got tired from looking at Babelfish and Belarussian/Russian (thats why I have ru-1 on my WikiBabel). I need to add a few more text, probably one more picture, and make sure translations are correct. I know the sourcing needs to be in a different format, which I will do soon. Plus, I do not know if my "Lead Paragraph" is good enough. Also, it should be NPOV, since it is about a medal, not about Belarussian Politics. Thanks for the quick peek and please tell me what I am short on. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 14:38, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Barnstars

You seemed to have issued a number of Barnstars, so maybe you can answer me this: I want to award Bishonen a Barnstar for his article on European toilet paper holders, but I'm not sure if he qualifies because it is apart of his user page. The article was featured (for a very short period of time) on the main page this past April 1st, and really is of feature quality. Anyway, does he qualify for a Barnstar? *Kat* 05:41, May 14, 2005 (UTC)

• Though I am not Clockwork, Bishonen can qualify for a Barnstar. If he worked very hard to get the article created, and also got it on the front page for a short time, a normal Barnstar will do. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:59, 15 May 2005 (UTC)
• Sorry for the delay in my response. Zscout370 is absolutely right. Barnstars are not a strict or formal thing, they can be given out whenever you see something that deserves recognition. I remember that article: it was our April Fool's article this year. I recommend the Oddball Barnstar, but it's totally up to you. :) – ClockworkSoul 06:12, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Zscout and Clockworksoul! And I agree with Clockworksoul, the Oddball Barnstar is in order here.*Kat* 07:24, May 15, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you very much, *Kat*. ETPH lives in my userspace, but it has a number of faithful and "dedicated, not to say demented" (as User:Filiocht has put it) contributors, so I've inserted the, uh ... how shall I put this ... very lovely star on the ETPH talk page. If time should ever hang heavy on your hands, please come and contribute to the article! I'm a she, btw. --Bishonen | talk 22:29, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Hmmm... I wonder how I ended up here? Maybe the Oddball barnstar works some kind of magic, it wouldn't surprise me. I'll just have another go at placing this on *Kat*'s page.--Bishonen | talk 22:34, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

OK, now it's already here... I'm frightened.--Bishonen | talk 22:41, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

I think a template was added to my page by accident by ClockworkSoul. It looks it has been removed. But, well, I will see if odd things are happening, I can talk to Clockwork. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:02, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Not by accident: the template page allows us to maintain one conversation on multiple pages. The only drawback is that you don't get the cool organge bar. – ClockworkSoul 03:30, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

I like it, but do you realize that all this is showing up on my talkpage too? Not that I mind, but some people might. *Kat* 20:51, May 16, 2005 (UTC)

Oh, I see how this works (sort of). Where did you get this template? *Kat* 20:53, May 16, 2005 (UTC)

It's easy to make one: I just made a page in my user directory (User talk:ClockworkSoul/20050515-01), and just dropped the page name onto the talk pag ein template-curlies: {{User talk:ClockworkSoul/20050515-01}}. – ClockworkSoul 20:53, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Nehru

Though your request was directed at someone else, I posted lots of evidence as requested by you on the discussion page of Jawaharlal Nehru. I can't believe that sources such as PBS, Forbes, Parliament of India, indian mainstream media, Encyclopedia Brittanica and university professors etc are trashed by those who want to propagate fantasies about Nehru. This is amazing! Why don't you take a look at the evidence. Shouldn't the other side provide evidence too? The evidence I have provided is for truisms. I will be laughed out if I attempt to do that in India. It is like proving that China is Communist or Cuba is ruled by Fidel Castro with a bunch of Americans refusing to believe it and asking for evidence! (Comment by 67.121.92.254).

• Personally, I do not know much about Nehru and about the subject at hand. Though, from what I am reading, you are suggesting that Nehru had some ideas that were linked to either Stalinism or Communism. Plus, I am not even watching that page anymore, since I was dragged into a few more edit wars. I will come back to that page and see what new happened. I do not know if I can help, but I will see what I can do. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:34, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

The sad truth is that we were forced to stand in long lines in order to buy food from government controlled ration shops, share the food we bought with people with more kids because their "quota" of food wasn't sufficient to feed more kids, attend schools without teachers or furniture, suffer at every stage and accept it as "karma." We were also fed propaganda about how Soviet Union was the world's first exploitation free society. After 1991, we tasted the fruit of some degree of free-market, and it is really rubbing insult into our injuries when people make the Orwellian claims of Nehru not being a Stalinist.

Since you seem to be someone who wants to go through evidence, all I ask is that you look at the evidence I posted. It is from mainstream sources. I'll also post some relevant stuff from Encyclopedia Brittanica as soon as get time to type it in. Thanks for your time.

One more thing, how did you manage to get the encyclopedia brittanica article on Nehru. All of the ones that I can find I have to pay for, and I am not going to pay for that. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:32, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

It is from the print edition. That is why I have to type it out. I will make sure I won't post the entire stuff and violate copyrights. I believe that the problem we are facing is that people confuse political system with the economic system. In terms of economy, India was a "planned economy" with a central planning commission (it still is). However, people seem to confuse India's parliamentry system which is a political system and I believe that is the reason for the resistance to the idea that India had a Stalinist economy. Check out http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/india.htm too because it is from an academic source. Usually, we don't find academic sourcesfor public access as they require login. This is something a professor has put out on his website.

Ok. Another problem that we might run into is that Wikipedia does not like to allow original research by ourselves. Usually, this means that we cannot use papers we write as fact. However, we can put sources that we used in the article to make things balanced. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, some of the results that deal with Nehru and Stalin come from web blogs or web journals. I usually do not trust blogs to be informative, since they usually have one POV (their own). Right now, I am trying to update the article Hero of Belarus, but I can do some more research this week. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 19:35, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

The info I gave is not from blogs. It is from mainstream media and Indian government. The PBS thing is from a HUGE transcript of a program called 'Commanding Heights' which was a fascinating program about Hayek vs Marx/Keynes. Check out the transcript and you will see the huge focus that India got. Why do you think that is so? The excerpt I posted had a quote by India's current Finance Minister Chidamabaram. He himself is in Nehru's party and is an admirer of Nehru.

To claim that my version is research is unfair. I only state what is common knowledge. It is astonishing that there is even a discussion on this issue. Congress Party proudly claims that it is for socialism and has tied up with the Communists to form a government. Every election, we hear about the wonders of socialism and how the evil imperialists will take us over using their multinational corporation.

Honestly, even asking me for evidence is unfair because a statement of fact is now reduced to a discussion. This is only on Wikipedia.

Look for evidence for the other side and you will see that there is none!!!

Here are the excerpts from Britannica -

From the sub section titled "political apprenticeship" under Jawaharlal Nehru

Though vaguely inclined toward Socialism, Nehru's radicalism had set in no definite mold. The watershed in his political and economic thinking was his tour of Europe and the Soviet Union during 1926–27. Nehru's real interest in Marxism and his Socialist pattern of thought stem from that tour, even though it did not appreciably increase his knowledge of Communist theory and practice. His subsequent sojourns in prison enabled him to study Marxism in more depth. Interested in its ideas, but repelled by some of its methods, he could never bring himself to accept Karl Marx's writings as revealed scripture. Yet from then on, the yardstick of his economic thinking remained Marxist, adjusted, where necessary, to Indian conditions.

From the section The Nehru era, 1947–64 (sub section Economic planning and development)

As a Fabian Socialist, Nehru had great faith in economic planning and personally chaired his government's Planning Commission. India's first five-year plan was launched in 1951,...

From the section on PV Narasimha Rao

After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in May 1991, the Congress (I) Party chose Rao as its leader, and he became India's ninth prime minister after the general elections in June. Rao almost immediately began efforts to restructure India's economy by converting the inefficient quasi-socialist structure left by Jawaharlal Nehru and the Gandhis into a free-market system. His program involved cutting government regulations and red tape, abandoning subsidies and fixed prices, and privatizing state-run industries. These efforts to liberalize the economy spurred industrial growth and foreign investment,...

ViP

Thanks for the heads-up. I saw the listing but didn't think it merited a response on my part: so far I have not yet been accused of being in the cabal, but being called a vandal will have to do. :-) If anyone actually thinks the complaint needs to be answered by all accused I'll go stick my two cents in. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 21:15, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

I am trying to defend myself (which I am winning), but if you want to discuss your role, that is fine. I already have a short piece about the closure of the VFD page and of the article. Heck, even the people that were trying to do what the user wanted were still called vandals by him, so something is seriously wrong here. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:18, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Hero of Belarus peer review

Hi Zach - I really don't know enough about the subject to have any idea about whether it's good (although it does look good, and I will have a look from the point of view of editing, grammar and the like). But - I do know a Polish Wikipedian who deals with a lot of Belarus articles - and I see from his talk page that you know him too. Contact User:Halibutt and ask whether he can have a look at it - I'm sure he'd be keen to help! Grutness...wha? 06:08, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

• I've gone through the article and dome some grammar/spelling-correction work (I've kept the American spelling, but changed excelence to excellence and medalion to medallion, since I think they are the standard spellings in the US as well as here!). It looks good, although some of the translations look a little Babel-fishy. It would be good if you could get the foollowing extra information: 1) biographical details of the recipients; 2) details of the design of the reverse; 3) anything about whether the "V" design has relevance. Other than that, though, I'd give it the thumbs up! (PS - I've said the same thing on the Peer review page) Grutness...wha? 07:05, 16 May 2005 (UTC)
  • Thanks a bunch for looking at it. To address the concerns:
    • 1. I am trying to find that now, but it is a bit hard. I can barely find information on three, only found photos for two. Plus, I might have missed a few heroes.
      2. there is nothing on the reverse. The laws would have stated if anything is on the reverse.
      3. I mentioned that it has no revelence.
  • I will talk to User:Halibutt, and I am also mainly worried about the translations. But I hope this makes through the FAC and I hope does not get deleted for "medalcruft." :) Zscout370 (Sound Off) 13:55, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Did you know?

Score! Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:17, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

Vandal voters

Hi Zscout, thanks for the note. Yeah, that was definitely a frivolous "vandalism" posting. Hope you weren't too frazzled there. --Deathphoenix 21:11, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, I just posted a few things in my defense and others, pretty much blowing his claim out of the water and into a billion pieces. Right now, I am working on a FAC I created, Hero of Belarus. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 22:30, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Belatedly, thanks, Zscout. I blocked him for 24 hours at 15:36 UTC, and he generated an autoblock by attempting to edit from the same IP at 22:34 (if I've understood the whole autoblock thing, my adminship isn't dry behind the ears). I've got a feeling we may see some fireworks as soon as he's unblocked.--Bishonen | talk 23:12, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. Well, this user was causing fireworks once his article was placed on VFD. Other articles related to this were marked are copyvio's, so I do understand on why he is bitter. But, he just does not have the right to take it out on us. He also threatened to bring other people in and try to defame us in the academic world. Typical me, I would like to be done with it, but it looks like I will be stuck in this mess for a while. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:20, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

Threats are all too common in this place. --Deathphoenix 02:56, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Ranks and insignia of Starfleet

My primary concern is the speed the page loads without sarrificing material/quality. I have satisfied the concerns of people in remote page by setting a width, my earlier with was too small. this one looks approporate. Unifiying images is a very bad idea because we can deal with entier tng era and later with 7 images (aside from enlisted) otherwise youd need about 5 for admirals 7 officer, 5 warrant officer, god knows how many conjecture ranks adding up to 17+conj images. Thats alot. This page will load on a 256k link fast. --Cool Cat ^{My Talk} 00:18, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, my main goal is to make the article FA. Two people have already have problems with your method of placing images, and the templates will be restructed again. The entire pages need overhaul. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:19, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

I am not saying we should ignore peoples comments, I am suggesting we should fix them by using minimum resources. --Cool Cat ^{My Talk} 00:21, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

But the thing is that the main problem they have is with your picture placement. The Wikiservers are fine no matter what we pick. We can move whoever's images that will be used to the Wikimedia Commons. But the way you have them, it causes the templates to mess up on them. They mess up by having the images stacked on-top of each other. Some ranks are fine, but there are some ranks, like Fleet Admiral, always getting messed up since the pip is very long. Please, listen to me and please listen to Husnock. We want to do everything to make the article Featured, and it will take a lot of work. But please, listen to what I am saying. Your drawings are good, no question about that. But just the way you have them placed and the way you use them is killing the article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:28, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Hero of Belarus FAC

Lead is too short - it should tell all important info. See Wikipedia:Lead section. Isn't there any ciritism of the award, at least a mention that it is an award of a totalitarian regime and such? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 17:06, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

There has been no criticism of the award, to my knowledge and based on Google searches. Though I do agree that is has been awarded and started by Lukashenko, Belarus had to start some type of honors system. Though, I personally think the honors system was based on Soviet times. I just did not want to bring politics into the page, since there is a debate on wether or not the current Belarus flag is legit. Plus, I do not know what else I can mention about the award in the lead section, other than stating that only two heroes are alive today. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:18, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Perverted Justice

Hi Zachary, I just had an edit conflict with you at PeeJ though I'd placed the inuse tag on the page. Could you check for the tag in future, as I'm planning to do some heavy editing of that page? Many thanks, SlimVirgin ^(talk) 20:18, May 18, 2005 (UTC)

Certainly. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:22, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Keep an Eye Out

Our friend CC (you know who I mean) has apparently taken an interest in the Starfleet ranks and insignia article. I'm losing a bit of patience as he is making radical edits, changing picture sizes and tables and adding material that has absoluetly nothing to do with the article. Hes done this before and it can become a really big pain, especially when he re-reverts things and adds back in the same old material. Anyway, thanks for all your help and lets keep an eye on him. I dont want to act like I own the article, but when people starting adding wierd stuff that warrants instant reversion especially since we're fighting for FAC and he knows it. Lets just "keep an eye out" :-)

Yeah, I have all of the tables that I fixed on a watchlist. But I just think with the note he left on your talk page, maybe he is done with what he is doing or just wants to see what we want to do. But I still hope the FAC goes well. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:52, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

He's actually getting pretty nasty now and is starting to make changes to the articles on several Star Trek characters. I'm not going to get involoved with that one. The person in question has a very low understanding of what Original Research is. You cant just make stuff up and put it on Wikipedia becuase you think it looks cool. Hmmm. I leave that to the Admins. I'm going to go have a sandwitch. -Husnock 00:02, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

That will be fine. I was having a pizza while people were trying to find NPOV ways to talk about the article Perverted-Justice.com. Though, did you see my comment about my FAC at the Starfleet one? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:06, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I "sounded off" over at your FAC candidate. BTW, take a look at this one. I have never seen such a collection of Original Research. Especially with the dates. That guy just wont give up. -Husnock 01:30, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I cannot agree with you more on that one. I got my Talk page message link from the various military films and drills I see on TV or at MCAS Cherry Point. I know my dad used that line many times at Parris Island and a few other places. Also, thanks for the response at the FAC page. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:34, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism by 68.70.147.251

Oh, thanks Zach for rev that vandalism on my talk page. I had reported him and hope someone would deal with him as he created several articles (all Winka and Co). Here are his contribs [11].

By the way, nice new look you got for your user page and this one ;) Svest 00:08, May 19, 2005 (UTC) ^{Wiki me up&#153;}

Your welcome. I reported him again, so something should happen. Thanks about my user pages too. I try to fix them up every so often. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:11, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Hey Zscout370

If you really want to look at some interesting global insignia, you can look at a website at:http://www.uniforminsignia.net/.

I don't know if you already know about this site are not, because I didn't read all your user page. :) LOL

Dbraceyrules 02:13, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I am personally not familiar with it. But thanks for the heads up. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:15, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

You welcome, I wish they'd let Wikipedia post some of those images. I think their copyrighted, but since you like flags, I just guessed military insignia would be of interest. Take care

Dbraceyrules 02:17, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I do have a small collection of military patches from Canada and Uzbekistan. I have been drawing some insignia that is used by Starfleet, and I have been writing/contributing to articles that deal with medals, like Hero of Belarus, Hero of the Russian Federation, Order of Victory, Medal of Honor. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:20, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I can try drawing some of the ranks. Might not be as clear and conscise at what these people have, but I will see what I can do. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:28, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

That's good...but thats alot of work...I would help but I have no idea how to draw flags and post them on Wikipedia. Plus my internet will be cut off soon...sorryDbraceyrules 19:49, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Do not feel bad at all, I can teach you how. Or, I can enlist several friends of mine to draw for Wikipedia. Myself and a few others draw for the Flags of the World website, and we can draw the flags. Mostly, we needed national and sub-national flags. Also, I will lose my net in a few weeks, so join the club. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 19:55, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

We're Done

Ive done all I can do over at Ranks and insignia of Starfleet. I hope the admins of this site give it to us. It would be a great achievement. Thanks for all your help. -Husnock 04:44, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Your quite welcome. I still need to fix up more images, but I hope that went ahead and earned us one or two support votes. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:52, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Flag

Hi Zach - I have a small North Carolina flag sitting on the desk in front of me as I type. Many thanks! Another one for the collection... :) Grutness...wha? 05:20, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

I am glad you like the flag. Your quite welcome. Jen Martins also got his package, but I think Bruce Berry still needs to get in touch with me. Both are also from FOTW. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:54, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

List of assassinations, massacres, and terrorist incidents

Rickyrab has just created List of assassinations, massacres, and terrorist incidents which repeats existing articles. - Tεxτurε 14:29, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Irs gone now, from the time I replied. Must have been speedied for being a POV fork. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:55, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Moving images to commons

Please use the {{NowCommons|Image:newname.ext}} tag when moving images to commons. Thue | talk 15:19, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Got it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:56, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

FAC translations

Hi Zach - A lot of it is taking out redundant "the"s which aren't used in English in the same way. Here is how I would reword the translations, although I have no Belarussian and haven't seen the original wording, so my interpretation of the exct meaning may be a little off.

• Creation:"System of the State Awards of the Republic of Belarus."

  System of State Awards for the Republic of Belarus. is perhaps better English.

• Criteria:Title "Hero of Belarus" is the highest degree of difference in the Republic of Belarus and is awarded for exceptional service to the state and the society, connected with the exploit, perfected into the name of freedom, independence and prosperities of the Republic of Belarus.

  Better than it was, but the "the exploit, perfected into" still jars. Personally, I'd reword it to ...for exceptional service to state and society, in connection with actions which epitomise the freedom, independence, and prosperity of the Republic of Belarus.

• Recommendation:The petition process can also be started on the initiative of the Council of Ministers, the Chambers of the National Meeting, the President's administrations, ministries and other republic organs (bodies) of state administration, leading organs of public unions and organs of local control and self-guidance.

  shouldn't that read "Chambers of the National Assembly"? And isn't there a better translation for "organs of local control and self-guidance."? Local councils, perhaps?

• Karvat: "For courage and heroism, appeared with the performance of military duty, to award Lieutenant Colonel Karvat, Vladimir Nikolayevich to the title "Hero of Belarus" .

  I'd translate that as ...heroism while in the performance of military dury, we award...Nikolayevich the title of "Hero of Belarus".

• Dubko: "for the valiant service to the state and the society."

  for valiant service to state and society.

• Karchmit and Kremko:"for the selfless work and the valiant merits in the development of agricultural production."

  for selfless work and valiant efforts in... for both men.

• Mariyev: "for the selfless work and the exceptional merits in the development of domestic automobile construction."

  for selfless work and exceptional efforts in the...

As I said, these are tidying up the English grammar, and I hope that the original meanings aren't changed by these suggestions! Hope this helps, Grutness...wha? 01:23, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

I will make the changes once my lovely girlfriend gets offline. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:27, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Nehru, again

ZScout, I can't believe that the admins have locked up the page on Nehru with the fantasies of those who deny that the indian economy was controlled. Why don't you look at the sources I gave you? When the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the points I make, and when every source on earth except Wikipedia states what I state, why is the burden of proof on me? I've provided proof, but why is it that people are allowed to abuse their power and make Orwellian claims about India?

I check the VFD on Nehruism and Stalinism, I am seeing what others have been trying to point out. As for the locking, I thinking that the admins are getting tired of an edit war, so they blocked it. I know this article is at RfC, but it feels like few are coming on. As for the sources, I will try to look at them again. But, I am no expert on Nehru, no expert on Stalin, no expert on India. Plus, I would check the Indian Wikipedia out. If they have something on Nehruism-Stalinism, then something must be up. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:45, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

The page on Nehruvian-Stalinism was deleted. It is missing the woods for a tree to discuss the phrase and not the contents of the article. If your quibble is with the phrase and you are honest, the substitute term is Stalinism. What is your argument in favor of deleting the entire section that talks about the economy of India in factually correct terms? You disagree with the title, so you delete the entire section? Every point in the content was sourced and proper evidence was given. The admins weren't just tired of the edit war, they showed their prejudice by reverting it to a version that is full of factually incorrect statements and not sourced. No evidence has been forthcoming for that version. Do you know why? There is none.

If the entire debate is about the economy itself, then I think it is best suited for the main India article, not Nehru. Plus, from some of the other sources that I checked, other things are continuing to cause India to have economy problems. Plus, I do not know if debates in the India National Congress is considered hard-proof. I will have to check up on that. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 14:13, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

There was alerady a section on Economy under Nehru. Why blame the side that set things right and provided evidence from various sources?

Nehru issues

• I thank you for your message as regards the article Jawaharlal Nehru and related issues. I would always love to render any assistance to a fellow wikepedian like you.
• I stopped watching the pages as the exchange of comments were becoming a little hot, and it was adversely affecting my work on other beautiful “wiki projects” - recently, I did a lot of edits for last week's COTW Culture of Ancient Rome. Currently, I am working on Armenians in India. I have several other works, in different stages, like the Ancient Indian science and technology, Culture of Africa, Cuisine of Africa and many others. *Naturally, I was not inclined to get involved into a relatively rather futile exercise in which some people with extreme POV were involved.
• I do not challenge anyone's right to do anonymous edits as some anonymous editors in respect of Nehru matters are doing. Any person who does not want to damage wikepedia by dishing out “spurious information” should have at least a fixed ID so that his/her entire bouquets of work are open to assessment and scrutiny by the larger community of wikepedians.
• Then, any particular issue will have a different significance and matter can be sorted out, based on facts. But, if the person camouflages himself/herself in anonymity, the position becomes perhaps difficult.
• Now, as regards Nehru being a socialist is not being disputed. India is having a planned economy is not news. The point is also not a comparison between economic systems of India and the former USSR under Stalin.
• Point of contention is as regards the use of the term Nehruvian-Stalinism.
  • If this term had so many adherents, what was the requirement to recruit bogus voters for VfD process of this article?
  • If the term is so familiar and acceptable why the editor did edit Nehru page earlier, but put the deleted article verbatim, in a “clandestine” style in the article Jawaharlal Nehru. **And, last but not the least, this is an issue which cannot be settled by writing, and deleting few words on wikepedia. Wikepedia and blogs being open is subject to misuse.
  • The interested persons should get his article published in reputed online Indian Journals and Newspapers, or in the print media of acceptable level, and quote the source in wikepedia. **Conclusions based on truncated texts and supplemented by conclusions based on them and to give these conclusions a fancy name like Nehruvian-Stalinism is, in my opinion, a self-befooling process. But, India and several countries are democratic countries, wikepedia is not an experiment in democracy, it is an encyclopedia.
  • Does Encyclopedia Britannica uses the exact term “Nehruvian-Stalinism”? Ok dear, bye and have a nice time.

Ok, have a nice time and as and when you or any other fellow wikepedian would call me, I shall come and do whatever I am able to do. Byeee.--220.226.11.67 17:42, 20 May 2005 (UTC)Actually my response when not logged on, now signed.--Bhadani 17:49, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

One more thing, about "missing the woods for a tree" - when there is nothing in the name then the gentlemen floating POVs why did not agree when I had stated weeks back that the correct term should be "Nehruvian Socialism" - which is acceptable a widely accetable term. I know there is nothing in a name, as the old proverb goes - but can applying that yardstick, London be called Newyork and the Delhi Metro Rail can be called Moscow Metro Rail. ok, perhaps enough for today.--Bhadani 18:01, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the response and I will take a closer look at everything. I think if the annons have been helping to contribute for a while, they should try to get a user name since that is very easy to pull off. I also do not blame you for leaving the debate, since all I see is nothing but personal attacks by the annons. Pretty much what you told me settles the debate and I will see if I can get the annons to see things our way. Most of the sources that I see that is used by the annons are debates, and I do not know if those are generally used for sourcing at all. We might not consider them hard facts, but just opinions on issues. In the Forbes article, just because your a qusi-Marxist does not mean you are a Stalinist. Plus, Nehru has been gone for a while, and I do not think his legacy has much impact on his people. There is nothing wrong praising Stalin too, though I noticed that Nehru does not call Stalin Premier or the head of the Soviet State; Nehru calls him Marshal Stalin. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:03, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Bhadani, if as you admit, the dispute is not the contents, but the title, why do you keep deleting the contents and posting propaganda? You should just change the title. Call it by whatever name you want, but you CANNOT dispute the fact that Nehru was inspired by Stalin and Soviet Union and Indians suffered for this, that the Second Planning Commission was given directions to model India on the "socialistic pattern of society" and the state controlled most of the industries and ended up manufacturing condoms and stitching pants and selling soap while preventing free enterprise except for a handful of cronies who were given licenses. Okay, you want to dispute the term Nehruvian-Stalinism? How about "license-raj"? Search for this term and you will find THOUSANDS of hits. It is mainstream too. Finally, don't bring in the issue of VfD for that page. You had your way. It is past. I responded to a call for help and got into this discussion. The person who responded asked for help because of the way you are behaving - posting propaganda and factually incorrect statements on Wikipedia. The fact is India was Stalinist on the economic side. A PLANNED ECONOMY is not "some state control" as ZScout and Firebug claim. It is almost total control. You weren't around in the 50s, 60s and 70s I presume. And you were probably too young to remember the 80s.

I was born in 1986. However, all nations have some control over their economy, its nothing new. Though Nehru was inspired by Stalin, but you have to factor that India had few resources, so many people and that India participated in a few wars with Portugal (Gol Islands), China and Pakistan. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:49, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

I did look up the term, http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=license-raj&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&b=81, but many of the links are from blogs, Wikipedia mirrors. Plus, every country has a license, mainly to collect taxes on them. We have licenses if you want to get in certain businesses, so that is not new or exclusive to Stalinism. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:55, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

This means you didn't look up the term. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&tab=wn&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=licence-raj&filter=0 shows a few hits that are current in news.google.com. Come on, admit it, you are trying to take sides and you don't care about facts.

If I did not care about facts, I would not have been taking part in this debate at all. At least you got my attention. But with that link, out of 10 articles, there are only 3 articles. The same one appears 8 times. That has to tell you something. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:07, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Talking of "few resources" as an excuse shows a lack of understanding of economics. Wealth is the CREATION OF HUMANS and Nehru prevented it. If you were harassed by police for buying sugar in the "black market" (i.e. from shops) because you were desperate that you might not have sugar when guests arrived, if you were one of those who felt embarassed that you had to go to someone else's house half a mile away to ask that you make a phone call, if you had a brother of sister who died in a Nehruvian hospital and your mother starved so that she could feed the kids, you would know what Nehruvian system was about. Why are you being so sadistic denying the facts? It was not "some state control" but absolute control over the economy except a few cronies were given licenses. RESOURCES BECAME SCANT because of restraints. That is the difference between free market and socialism. One imposes restraints on human beings and keeps them in misery while the other gives them freedom. You seem to think that people are rich because money grows on trees. Even if we accept this premise for the sake of argument, what makes you think that only bureaucrats who impose the Soviet model can solve the problem?

Here are a few on the variant spelling "license raj". http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&tab=wn&ie=ISO-8859-1&filter=0&q=license-raj&btnG=Search+News

This gives you 5 DIFFERENT articles, ALL from the mainstream media. 5 is a huge number for it being current. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&tab=wn&ie=ISO-8859-1&filter=0&q=permit-raj&btnG=Search+News gives you 9 for "permit raj" of which only one (City Journal) is not a huge publication. Don't even try denying this term. You have no idea what you are talking about by denying the existence of the license raj.

A few blogs? The first result page shows Indian Express, Rediff, Economic Times, Hindu and Telegraph, all of them part of the mainstream media. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=licence-raj&btnG=Search

The blogs were found in the Yahoo Search I did. You might start to see my stance on blogs being used as news sources. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:31, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

More stuff from TIME. This one is by Shashi Tharoor, an admirer of Nehru who wrote his biography. He is also the Under Secretary General of the United Nations. Even he couldn't avoid this part - http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501031208-552153,00.html - But, as Tharoor points out, even during Nehru's own lifetime, his halo began to fade. His concentration on industrialization, rather than reforming the primitive agricultural sector, led to food shortages by the late 1950s. The state-controlled economy bred corruption and stagnation. ... A good part of Nehru's India, Tharoor notes, is gone already. Socialism is being slowly dismantled. The result has been a rapid acceleration in growth and prosperity—ammunition for those who would like to dismiss Nehru's legacy altogether. Don't tell me that TIME is another blog and not mainstream! What about BBC? Is it another blog too? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_economy/322479.stm - Since the early 1990s India has been liberalising its former state-controlled economy and is now seen as a potentially lucrative emerging market. This list of sources you dismiss as blogs is growing! Hindu, Indian Express, TIME, BBC, PBS, Forbes, Frontline, Encyclopedia Britannica... (interestingly, they cover the whole political spectrum ranging from the far left to the far right).

Time and the BBC are not blogs. I watch the BBC on occasion from my home, those guys are pretty good. Though the economy, as you stated, is socialistic. That does not mean Stalinist. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:59, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

India was not socialist as understood in the western world. In the West, socialist means that the state subsidizes healthcare and education and at best, public transport. In a Stalinist regime, private enterprise is banned, the "commanding heights" of the economy are controlled by the state, and the state gives licenses to augment some sectors (read that as gives licenses to cronies). The Planning Commission was set up to control the economy and the state owned most of the industries and private enterprise was banned. Five year plans and planning commissions are ideas of Stalin (strictly speaking, they came from Lenin, but it was Stalin who implemented them). Nehru was inspired by Stalin and much of the economic hardship we went through can be attributed to the Soviet system imposed on Indians. In terms of economy, Stalin was no different from Nehru. They differed only in the political arena, but we are not talking about that. This is about economics.

If that is the case, then why is there stuff being added about Nehru taking over the Prime Minsitership. I am just getting lost by this issue, so I will bring in people who have expertese on India, but those who are not part of this debate. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:59, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

License Permit Raj

Yes, my dear young friend Zscout, and all other wiki friends, including my dear Anonymous Sir (surely and certainly I am not from the Alcoholics Anonymous), I would love to continue writing on these matters, but would not, and confine to very few points:

• Lifting words out of context and imputing meaning with falsification of factual information:"Bhadani, if as you admit, the dispute is not the contents, but the title, why do you keep deleting the contents and posting propaganda?"
• Yes, the term, "License Permit Raj" has been in circulation for last several years to describe the economic practices which were current in India during several decades until 1991, the year from which India commenced a process of reforms in its economic ideology and practices.
• I referred to earlier VfD page as that was relevant, in the context of the discussion.
• No one, including me should dispute the negative affects of "License Permit Raj", on India's economy. In my opinion, a good article can be developed on this topic, provided people do not dish out POVs but present the facts as facts. Someday, I will try to explain for the "uninitiated" the term “License Permit Raj”, its connotations and ramifications, and its negative impacts on India’s economy, which even resulted into coining of another term “The Hindu Rate of Growth”, not as a derogatory term for Hindus like me, but a term to indicate the low economic growth of Hindustan, that is, India.
• Somebody has written that I was changing the texts - I never do things surreptitiously, in life as well as on wikipedia, and at least I have not changed texts as I cannot afford to do so as my ID is an open book and my edits are open to assessment and scrutiny of the larger wiki community. No one should disagree that taking an ID on wikipedia is so complicated that one should invent 1001 reasons for not using a fixed ID. In my most humble opinion, and without casting any personal aspersions, a true and honest user of wikipedia, a User with integrity and firm conviction should get one wiki ID, and be a part of the dynamic wiki community: Anonymous edits are no doubt welcome, but such edits and comments without any identification marks create a lot of problems for genuine users and connecting and tracing the source of the comments.
• This is my last response to any anonymous user on this topic. I do appreciate his / her assessment of certain facts, and I like several others also agree to some of his / her assertions (excluding extreme POVs). Yet, this will be my last response, as I do not want to waste resources of the community of wikipedians, when the anonymous user does not even care to create an ID for the benefit of the wiki community and for facilitating his / her edits and contributions to wikipedia in their entirety. Having said all these, without intending to hurt anyone, I will surely write about the "License Permit Raj" – after sometime.
• Again, reverting to economic policies of Nehru – I would invite kind attention of all interested persons to the article Dirigisme and would ask a simple quesation: Charles de Gaulle practiced Dirigisme, something which India too did under Nehru, and still does - to a large or small extent, depending on how you view it and with which period and country you choose to compare it with. Now my question is – as Charles de Gaulle practiced “state intervention in economy” and to some extent “planned economy”, therefore, wikipedia should have an article named “de Gaulien Stalinism”. And, for that matter, before Madam Thatcher, a British model of state intervention in economy is also available, and enterprising editors may write an article entitled “British Stalinism”. Am I right? I do believe this shall never be acceptable.
• I would again re-iterate, wikipedia is not a political journal, a university classroom, or a forum to float ideas and a medium to propogate POVs, it is an encyclopaedia, it is open for editing with a purpose – to emerge as a depository of “sum total of human nowledge”, pure and unchallengeable. A series of comments and discussions on certain points prima facie reveal that the facts are suspect and not fit for an encyclopaedic treatment.
• Happy week end to my dear Zscout, and all others who may stumble upon these words of mine. I donot claim to be the God, I am a human being, and I may be wrong. But analysing the Nehru’s economic policies and their affects and implications should be an integrated exercise – this one sided analysis and story-telling reminds me of a story of “seven blind men and the elephant”
  • (http://www.perigee-art.com/poetry_docs/24.php)
  • (http://www.scn.org/cmp/modules/tm-stor.htm)
• Thanks.--Bhadani 15:42, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

• • Wow. I probably just got what the entire debate is about in this one statement. Though I agree that Nehru used a socialistic method to run his economy, just like many nations did in the past and even today. However, just because it is not like ours does not mean it is Stalinist. In the USA, you had to get something like a Permit Raj in order to work in a certain profession. There is nothing wrong, in my view, with a state issuing certificates, because I feel a lot better if a doctor I am seeing has a license from the State. Thanks again Bhadani, I owe you one. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:56, 21 May 2005 (UTC)
    • You are most welcome. Have a nice time. I will surely expalin "Licence Permit Raj" - to begin with "Raj" is a Hindi word, and when the period of India's history under the rule of Great Britain is also called British Raj- however, the British Raj had nothing to do with "Licence Permit Raj." I will explain "Licence Permit Raj" some other day. byee now.--Bhadani 16:26, 21 May 2005 (UTC)
    • Hi, I am giving a link, and you may just read it - I donot have any comments to make, you may draw your own conclusions and understand the position. Of course, there may be thousand of other links about Nehru, with varying accounts of his times and his actions, after all he was an international figure. The link is (http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/jun/10inter2.htm). And, one more thing, any debate about Nehru shall always remain inconclusive, and would continue for decades, after decades. Byeee--Bhadani 04:24, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
      • I will look at this link a bit more, but from a breif look, it seems that Nehru had his good things, Nehru had his bad things. However, there was one comment at the Nehru page to make the article more encyclopedic than poetic. Also, I wish to ask if your part of the Indian Wikiportal? If so, I just wanted tips on how to make my Wikiportal (Russia Wikiportal) work. Thanks again. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:30, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
      • Zscout, thank you for ‘Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar.png). “Did I go the extra mile to be nice?” I am sure I was simply doing my duty to a fellow wikipedian, and others have also done same to me. I would always like to render whatever I can do to anyone. Thanks again. Yes, I am related to the Indian Wikiportal, and let me think few tips for Russia Wikiportal. Ok. Actually, I am hardly 60 days old wikipedian, I will ask seek assistance from experienced ones and share the same with you/request them to suggest on your page. ok. --Bhadani 13:43, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
        • • The reask why I gave you the RAOK Barnstar is that you went above and did everything in your power to make sure that I knew what was going on, and you took the time to explain everything. You gave me a better lesson on India than any others have done. I thank you for it, so that is why thr RAOK Barnstar is on your talk page. I am also hardly a sixty day old Wikipedian myself, but it feels like we both have done so much in such a little amount of time.

Zscout370 (Sound Off) 14:19, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

• • • • • • • You kids simply cannot believe what you have not seen and keep insisting that Encyclopedia Britannica, PBS, CNN, TIME etc are all in one massive conspiracy to defame you!. Nehru was no de Gaulle. This statement shows your ignorance. de Gaulle did not BAN private enterprise. Nehru did that, except for a few licensed industries and sure enough, his friends got the licences. You're not just ignorant, but adamant and insist on displaying your ignorance. You aren't just ignorant and indoctrinated, you add insult to injury by claiming that Nehru wasn't Stalinist. All along, we were made to feel guilty because we bought cooking fuel out of desperation from shopkeepers who would sell us more than the quota allotted to us. Private enterprise was completely banned and many of my relatives and friends ended up on streets because of such policies. I bet your daddy was probably one of the few beneficiaries of the Stalinist system. You also seem to be utterly clueless about the origin of the term "license raj" and its other variants. ZScout - the contents of which link do you find it hard to grasp? Why do you keep insisting that Nehru was not Stalinist and India's economy was "socilaist" in the European sense rather than one in which PRIVATE ENTERPRISE WAS BANNED? Banning private enterprise and central planning is what makes it stalinist. Do you even understand what planned economy means? Check the Wikipedia entry on it. Why do you think there is a separate entry for it? Is that another massive conspiracy by BBC, Parliament of India, Gandhi, Bush, Clinton and everybody else?
              • As of now, I am done messing/toying around with the Nehru article. I have seen what people have provided, the page has been locked, and the main concern raised at the Nehru article is to make the entry more encyclopedia than a poem. Plus, the Stalinism thing is pretty much a lost idea. So if you still think your theory is right, get this stuff published not in a blog but a respectable journal. Try to be reasonable with dealing with others, since pretty much many of the messages I have seen are personal attacks. My patience has been worn out. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:53, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Bhadani wrote: No one, including me should dispute the negative affects of "License Permit Raj", on India's economy. In my opinion, a good article can be developed on this topic, provided people do not dish out POVs but present the facts as facts. Someday, I will try to explain for the "uninitiated" the term “License Permit Raj”, its connotations and ramifications, and its negative impacts on India’s economy, which even resulted into coining of another term “The Hindu Rate of Growth”, not as a derogatory term for Hindus like me, but a term to indicate the low economic growth of Hindustan, that is, India.--- Oh please. You learnt about the existence of the term from me and now you want to pretend that you are an expert! Great googling skills do not an economist make. You sound like a well meaning college kid who is in awe of your political idol. Your claim that all those who present links from BBC, TIME, Parliament of India, Harvard University, PBS, Frontline, etc are presenting POVs is idiotic to say the least. Finally, your claim about the insulting term shows your lack of understanding of Economics. You just admitted that according to you, any economy that is in a predominantly Hindu population will have sluggish growth. This means that you do not even know about the license-raj and you are ignorant about the growth of India in the past 6 years and India is still a predominantly Hindu population. Don't you see your own contradiction? How would you? Your theory that economy of India was slow due to religious practises would be laughed out of any academic setting. Of course, the only insult for people like you is when Whites are insulted. After all, people like you tell us that India is lucky to have a White woman as our leader and we owe it to her for not being a bar dancer in Italy. You've already contributed to stupidity by claiming that Forbes, CNN, Guardian, Times of India, Hindu, Communist Party of India, India's present Finance Minister Chidambaram (who was quoted in that PBS link) are all wrong and pushing their agenda.

Hi again

You missed re-wording the section on Karvat :) Hey, I've been looking around to see who would make good administrators in the last couple of days, and I'm pretty sure you would - have you ever considered running for admin? I'd be very willing to nominate you! Grutness...wha? 07:58, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

I'll pass on the adminship right now. I got the move to worry about, and my access to the net will be pretty much shot for a few months. Thanks for the kind words and I will fix up the spot that I missed. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 14:09, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, if you ever change your mind, let me know - you'd be a good admin (I might ask again in a few months). Good luck with the move! Grutness...wha? 00:26, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Sure, go ahead and ask again in a few months. Thanks for even thinking about it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:33, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

I also added those pages to my watch list, so your covered.

And you wonder why I thought you were admin material? :)

...does WikiPortals work better than WikiProjects? I created one for Russia, and I hope it works well.

To be honest, I've no idea. I've only just got involved in a Wikiportal for the first time. It seems like a good idea, but I suspect it takes more upkeep than a WikiProject. Grutness...wha? 03:40, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

I created the Russian Portal since the WikiProject on Russia was pretty much dead. I will see if this works. If it does, I will try to create one on Belarus. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:46, 21 May 2005 (UTC) For some reason, I will not be surprised if people think I am a expert on Belarus or part of the Belarussian Cabal :).

Thanks

I really want to say thanks for your efforts in fixing Russia-related pages. And for such an exceptional speed in fixing Russia portal %)Gnomz007 05:27, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Your quite welcome Comrade. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 05:28, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Zscout370 ribbar.png

FYI: You forgot to put an image tag on Image:Zscout370 ribbar.png... Zzyzx11 (Talk) 06:25, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

• Which reminds me, did you hear about the new policy made by Jimbo? He declared that all images which are for non-commercial only use and by permission only are to be deleted. [12] Thus, some image tags have been modified to inform users about this new policy. I am not sure if Image:Zscout370 ribbar.png will be affected if you maintain your copyright permissions. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 06:32, 21 May 2005 (UTC)
  • The copyright is here "This is my ribbon bar for the Wiki awards that I received. Though this is my own creation, I do not want this to be released to other websites, people, etc. It is just for my own personal use on my User page. If other Wikipedians want ribbon bars of their own, they can talk to me. Thank you." I think images for use on user pages, created by the user itself. Should be fine. But, I will tag it GDFL, like my other ribbons, which people can use. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:32, 21 May 2005 (UTC)

Barnstar (from my user page)

For lots of hard work you put into WP, especially into Russia related articles, particularly for the Russia Wikiportal. -Irpen 04:15, May 22, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:07, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Belarusian flag

Thanks for the info. As to the image itself - I had a discussion about the black frame with Urhixidur some time ago, you can check it here. The outcome was that the framed version is needed, especially in the infoboxes. White flag on white background does not look too good simply... Halibutt 19:27, May 22, 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. I have put a 1x1 pixel border on the flag that I uploaded, it is a light grey color border. I know the borders are a issue, and with flags like Japan, we need something that works. I just wanted to let you know that I uploaded that version, being used on the Wikipedia pages, has been placed at the Commons, and I will try to find out what others have done with flags like Japan, South Korea. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 19:43, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

KaintheScion Rfc

re: page protection, any page can be protected by an administrator (of which I am not one), and requests can be made at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection (WP:RFPP). However, I don't feel that it would be apropriate to protect an RfC page. See also Wikipedia:Protection policy. Thryduulf 14:56, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, I think the main point of contention is that the user/vandal/sock is removing a state made by that person again David "the lying sack of ..." Mainly, he said that statement since David has figured out that ElKabong and KaintheScion were determined to be sockpuppets (evidence is at WP:AN/I, check the archives.). I reverted him once this morning, so I only have two more chances to do it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:03, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes, that's definitely ElKabong's IP address range, Zach. SlimVirgin ^(talk) 17:26, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

Score! Once again, I find proof of something. Now, if Firebug does create that Arbcom, you think it can be used there, or pretty much the RfC on KaintheScion will be enough? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:30, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

PeeJ

Looking a lot better. If I may, could I make a few suggestions? The first would be to convert those external links to Template:Note and Template:Ref, and secondly I would suggest moving some of the content (like quotes from specific people) from the lead section and further summarise. Those are only style issues, the content looks pretty good! - Ta bu shi da yu 04:44, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Credit goes to other folks, I mainly contributed the screen shot and just watching the page over to keep it NPOV. I just mentioned at the PeeJ page that we can try those reference/notes template out, since I have seen them done at the Pope Benedict XVI article. However, I do not know what the others think. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:46, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Cold War

Thanks, though I'm not really back. I'm just stopping by to fix a very important article.

Regarding the objections... First, the paragraph beginning with the following is unsalvageable: "It should be noted that some historians place the beginning of the Cold War as far back as 1937, when Joseph Stalin attempted to gain control of Spain..." Who are "some historians?" I've taught surveys of Cold War historiography for years, and I am not aware of a major Cold War historian who sketches such a periodization.

• Your right about that one. Stalin did not want to control Spain, he might have just supported the Spanish Communists that were fighting in the civil war, which was later won by Franco.

The rest of that paragraph is fine, but redundant since the periodization has already been established in the intro. Second, the section on historiography needed to be cleaned up (removing stuff that does not have anything to do with the historiography). The section went off topic discussing public opinion in Eastern Europe on the Communist regimes (unsourced), arguing that this refutes the dominant post-revisionist synthesis in Cold War historical writing. Not only does this seem to be based on a confusion of what the section is about (academic research), it seems to be nothing more than someone's personal essay riddled with unsubstantiated claims and personal opinions stated as fact. Third, the section on the "propaganda battle" was hopeless. The comments embedded in the text before my edits are correct. Please refer to them. Fourth, a section entitled "Why neither country fired" is an obvious candidate for removal just by virtue of the title. An encyclopedia cannot deal with events that did not happen. The topic might make for an interesting essay, but such a section has no business in an encyclopedia. Finally, the section entitled "The sixteen known nuclear crises of the Cold War" is an equally obvious candidate for immediate removal. The list is apparently generated by a relatively little-know advocacy group (Veterans Against Nuclear Arms), not any established scholarship whatsoever.

• I see what are you trying to say. Wikipedia is indeed not a soapbox and also does not allow for original research.

I understand why you find the removal of so much content at once surprising. But it all had to be removed. Apparently there has been very lapse quality control on that article for quite some time, which had to be corrected sooner or later.

Best regards,

172 13:37, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

• I read both versions of the article: the version you had and the version I had. I easily saw the difference of what was going on and I think your version is the better one by far. Thank you for discussing this with me. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 13:47, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
  • You're welcome. In the future please keep a close eye on that article. That article's a frequent dumping ground for a lot of dubious content (probably because it gets so many hits online), and the page history changes so fast that hardly anyone seems to notice. 172 14:09, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
    • I certainly will. I have seen people vandalize the page to write objectionable words about Stalin, and since it is a popular topic, there will certainly be many reverts. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 14:11, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Belarus Olympic articles

Based on your user page, you seem to me you are the Olympics guy on here. Well, I was wondering if you were looking for pages like Belarus_at_the_Olympics to be made. I am creating more Belarusian Olympic articles, so just let me know what you think. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:57, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

There were a lot more people working on the Olympics articles in August and September... a lot of them seem to have disappeared. The Belarus page looks excellent. I would love to have a page like that for every NOC. Please do contribute whatever you can. Thanks! -- Jonel 14:58, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Well, I will see what I can do. But right now, I will try to get the Belarus related articles in order, and then, see what happens. But thanks for your kind message. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:01, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Court_of_Honor_(Scouting)

Hi ZScout - I think you mixed up Court_of_Honor_(Scouting) with Board_of_Review_(Scouting). Please look at the edits I made and see if you disagree. Thanks! Johntex 22:04, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

No disagrement at all. Thanks. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 22:32, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

At it Again

I restored your Star Trek rank pics. You know who is at it again. -Husnock 00:54, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks a bunch. If CC is worried about server problems, I will kill every one of his points. If he is worried about server space and speed, I can send everything to the Wikimedia Commons, this having no space on here. I also figured if CoolCat payed attention to the missing pictures problem a few weeks ago, his method will produce disaster. I will almost be done with everything, so I hope we do earn one or two keep votes in the future. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:57, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism

Hey, thanks for keeping my user page clean, Zach. SlimVirgin ^(talk) 02:38, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:40, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Nehru

ZScout, are you pretending again that India does not have a planned economy and that only blogs claim it has a planned economy? So according to you, BBC, PBS, CNN, TIME, United Nations, Parliament of India's website, Harvard University, San Jose State University, Paul Johnson, Forbes Magazine, Frontline, Hindu, Times of India, Indian Express, New York Times, etc. are all blogs? You seem to be a conspiracy theorist who claims that the mainstream media is in one massive conspiracy.

Look, if you forgot to see it, I am done with the Nehru article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 14:48, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

You have no business abusing your power and claiming you are done with it after locking it in favor of your lackeys. Open it and make it consistent with other sources. Wikipedia should not become a place for you to push your agenda and tweak facts.

E. Urner Goodman

I noticed that we did not have an article on E. Urner Goodman, so I created one. It is missing key facts such as the date of his birth, and the date/place of his doctorate. I didn't find these in a Google search. I may have to order that biography... I welcome your input and I look forward to the improvements my Wikipedian brothers will make over time. Johntex 16:10, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Ok, I will take a look. One thing I could suggest is have a picture of the award or the sqaure knot (like at the Eagle Scout article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:16, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Happy Birthday

Hi, 29th May is your birthday, correct? I wish you very happy birthday.

Have a nice time at ppDurham[[. And, though you are done with Nehru, I have placed some comments there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Jawaharlal_Nehru), in case you find time, you may view them. --Bhadani 18:42, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the good wishes. I mainly stopped looking at the Nehru article is that you and the other people inject me with good knowledge, while I have an annon still telling me about sources, I am part of a conspiracy, and also laden with personal attacks. Even when I said I was done with the article, I still got messages from the annon. Pretty much, the same reasons why you left the Nehru article is the same reasons I am leaving. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:00, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Wishing you, in advance, a Happy welcome back from Durham. The "fellow" is becoming increasing hostile in the use of his language on Nehru talk page - really sad. You may have heard of Joseph Goebbels of Nazi Germany who believed that by repeatedly telling lies, lies can be made to sound like truth. Sometimes, under such verbal assault, one has to react to keep the torch of truth burning. So, I am forced to react and waste my time and resources of wikipedia.--Bhadani 21:09, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Vandalism

Thanks for telling me! Somebody else already removed it, though. - Mustafaa 22:59, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. I noticed that too, but I will keep my eyes peeled. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:01, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Around the Horn

No, in fact, I'm afraid I've never watched it, and I don't know anything about it. Why do you ask? — Dan | Talk 23:14, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

The host, Tony Realli, always uses the phrase "Begone" whenever he kicks someone off the show or or wants someone to go away. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:16, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

Law and Order

There is a way to upload the sound to Wikipedia. That will take a few minutes, though, as I need to convert the file from MP3 to OGG. Mo0[talk] 02:38, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

I can do it too, but I just do not know which version you want to use. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:45, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Soviet Stub

...thanks for telling the Project people....

Just thought it would be most useful there. Are there any other projects that might be able to use it (A Ukrainian one, or a Belarus one, perhaps? Or just a 20th century history one?) If so, it might be worth telling them, too. Grutness...wha?

We should notify all related WikiPortal projects. I am taking care of the Belarusian one soon. But now, I am almost on a Wikibreak. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:22, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Unfortunately, there is no dedicated Ukrainian-wide project yet. At least it is unlikely to exist without my knowing about it. Unfortunately, there are not as many editors actively working for Ukrainian topics as there are for the Russian ones. In the recent couple of months, the two most active were probably Mzajac and myself. The closest thing we have is Wikipedia:WikiProject Ukrainian subdivisions. Posting at its talk page and cross-posting to, say, talk:Ukrainian language may get issue some attention. I was considering copying the Russia Wikiportal to make Ukrainian Wikiportal with using exact same templates. Maybe Michael or myself or someone else will get to this one of these days. Irpen 04:54, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

If you wish to use the style of the Russian portal to create the Ukrainian one, have at it. I did nearly the same thing with the Belarusian portal, except for one or two templates. I mainly created the Russian portal to see if more people saw that, and since it can be used by both readers and editors, it is a better shot, since I see very few respond to the Project. I, personally think, the portals will make the projects obsolete. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 12:58, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

One thing we almost share

Happy birthday for Sunday! (Mine's on Monday :) You're in good company, though! Grutness...wha? 05:07, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, and I had two states joined the USA on my birthday too: Wisconsin and Rhode Island. Thanks for the good wishes. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 12:24, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

False Accusations

I see that you have been trolling around making accusations that I am a sockpuppet of ElKabong.

If this is how you treat people, then it is a small wonder you have managed to goad ElKabong into these sorts of attacks. Enviroknot

Here is why: the very first edit that you make comes into a defense for the User:ElKabong on an idea that he supported on the article Dhimmi. Is there nothing wrong with that, no, though some could find it odd. What stuck me at odds is that you came in on your third edit, you come into defense about the sockpuppetry. Plus, ElKabong has been hostile before, but the sockpuppetry did not start until recently. If you are not this user, then I wish for you to go to a page called Request for Comment and find it on the user KaintheScion. You will see the sockpuppetry debate and the evidence that we have used to say that ElKabong is doing the sockpuppetry. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 12:30, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Uruguayan Flag

Hello! Nice work on the Uruguayan flag. It looks way better now! I can see we share common interests. Not only flags, but also russian history (I did some work at Katyusha (song) and the Soviet Anthem). --Pinnecco 14:23, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

I did some work at the Soviet Anthem page. I talked about finding new recordings, since a friend of mine runs the website Hymn.ru. I am also listed there as a major contributor. I also thank you for signing the entry here. I hope we can do great things to make the Wiki great. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 14:25, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

RFAr against User:KaintheScion and associated socks

Since KaintheScion has not changed his abusive behavior and has created another sockpuppet (User:Enviroknot), I have now requested arbitration against him. Firebug 16:49, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

I left my statement at the RFAr page, and I have to agree with you, Enviroknot is a sock. His third edit was to inject himself into defending El on a talk page, causing many red flags. I will be glad once this gets sorted out. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:00, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Objection

I object to your deletion of the Tanuki drawing Image:Drunktanuki2-2.gif. See my comment in Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion#May 21 Kowloonese 19:16, May 26, 2005 (UTC)

I did not vote on the delete or keep at all. I mainly just said I will remove the image from the article, then notified the user. The user had said nothing to me. However, I do see Nixie's reason why to delete the image. A drawing of a drunk tanuki, in her opinion, really does not add much flavor to the article. If we find a picture of the tanuki statues/shrines, good luck charms, we can use those to symbolize how the tanuki means to the Japanese culture. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 19:24, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

My impersonator

Hi Zscout. I didn't notice your comment yesterday, it got clobbered by the next editor. Thanks for pointing that out; you were right, he was impersonating (or rather, mocking) me. He has been blocked. Jayjg ^(talk) 20:21, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:22, 26 May 2005 (UTC)

Jiang vandal

Oh, don't worry about that. I blocked indef about 5 seconds after Georgia Guy told me. I'm in the zone :) CryptoDerk 00:02, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

Good. :) Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:06, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

To Arms

Good sir, the battle begins again. I posted Starfleet ranks and insignia as a Featured Article Candidate. We drew fire almost immedieatly and I will make some pretty sweeping changes in an attempt to push this through. I declare war, however, on those who call the article names and simply object because they don't like Star Trek. To arms! -Husnock 16:53, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

I recall you said you would be away for awhile. Well, you missed quite a battle. A rather upstart person began a campaign to declare the FAC nomination void as the article was "unencyclopedic" and "barely academic". Three people came back and challenged these statements which led to further aspirations from the individual. Where this vehement hatred of the rank article comes from, I have no idea. Anyway, your support would still be very welcome. I also started to poll to move that person's entire antic writings over to the discussion page, as they dont have much to do with supporting or opposing the article, just why the person doesnt like it. -Husnock 00:21, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

I placed my support for this article, though I still need to fix up the officer's template with images. I would move the rantings of the people, since mainly we do not want the FAC page to flood with just rants. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:11, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Please add your vote on the FAC page to move the "Critical Comment" section to the discussion page of the article. Such banter clutters the nomination page and was simply the person in question voicing unpleasant and unrelated views. Thanks for your support of the article, as well. -Husnock 05:05, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Done (I think). Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:24, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Hello again. Well, once again we have a "camp" of people who have nothing less than conspired to oppose the article. I was very disappointed that this guy effectively went around and invited people to "comment" on the article, knowing full well they would oppose it. he now says to get rid the tables and break up the article into several smaller smaller articles. I think that this will probably not become an FA now, as these people seem to have a rabid hatred for it, coming up with anything possible to stop it. This other guy should be blocked from Wikipedia for calling an article nasty names. Nothing more than personal attacks. I'll see what I can do...our forces are now in retreat -Husnock 20:11, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

I still think it will become FA because if mainly the objections people are giving are not being constructive, then their objections could be tossed out. Plus, I know the admins will see through the smoke and make a good decision on the article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 22:26, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Barnstar of National Merit suggestion

Your comment in the edit summary of Image:Barnstar of National Merit.png: Added one more. Also, Death has suggested a good idea too. When you award someone this, not only list their name, but list the country, too.

hahaha... thanks, Zscout. I actually meant to put a little note in the talk page with this suggestion, but I forgot to do so. No harm done, since it was pretty obvious from what I did. ;-) --Deathphoenix 18:11, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

It is alright. I went ahead and fixed everything so it matches what you did. Do not worry about it that much. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:04, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Another portal

Hi, could you please look at the message I left recently at User_talk:Mzajac#Ukrainian_portal_for_WP. Have a great holiday weekend! Irpen 20:50, May 27, 2005 (UTC)

I like it. Good job on it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:07, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Hahaha.. I just noticed

We have the same birthday! CryptoDerk 06:45, May 28, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:04, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Style Vote on Benedict page and Archive

Dear Zscout, since you started the "alternative" style vote on the Benedict page, that runs out today... May I ask you, after the vote is closed and you have summarized the results properly, to archive the preceding talk (and other questions that are settled), since the talk page is already exceedingly big at 85 kilobytes. I didn't want to spoil the vote, hence the question. Thanks Str1977 15:37, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, no problem. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:39, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have expressed my question more clearly. But now I did the archive (Archive # 9)myself (until now without the vote). Thanks anyway. Str1977 16:11, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

BTW: What does "Sound off" mean? Str1977 16:25, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Sound off is a military term. When a drill instructor tells his Marines to "sound off," they responding to his commands by shouting. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:31, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Russian Portal

Hi there, Zscout370! I noticed that you are trying to revive the Russian COTW board and I really appreciate your effort. This whole Russian Portal thing is a good idea, but we have to make it viable. I've been trying to keep it alive before, but somehow people just lost interest for some reason, even though I managed to "recruit" a lot of contributors. Do you have any ideas on how to keep it going? And why are you interested in Russia in the first place? Just asking out of curiosity. Talk to you later. KNewman 20:33, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

From what I was told, the way portals work is that we put a notice on the main Russia article (which I have done so). Then, we and the other users/readers can look at it and start making contributions. It should work better than a Project, since many people who want to start on Russian articles have a way to do it. But your welcome on the kind message. To answer your other question, I started to study Russia in Grade 6 and it has continued ever since. I mainly study Russian symbols and also politics of Russia and the former USSR. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:39, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

User page protection

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be ok to do that - you seem to be a bit of a vandal-magnet! Grutness...wha? 01:19, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, so if you can, please lock it now, umless I need to go through proper channels. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:24, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Done. Grutness...wha? 01:42, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Sweet. Thanks. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:44, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Arbitration Committee case opening

Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/KaintheScion et al. has been accepted and is now open. Please bring evidence to Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/KaintheScion et al./Evidence. Thank you. -- sannse (talk) 18:44, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:58, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

BoNM again

Hey Zach. I just saw what you were talking about. This seems to revolve around Slav countries, and Halibutt just may be the main factor causing this. For now, I feel that we should remove yet again the "national variants" section, but this time add some sort of header to the page (similar to a disambiguation header, maybe), or maybe just add a paragraph to the award description section of the page, letting people know that there will be no "national variations" of the wiki award. We need to be succint in the image page, longer explanations can be given in the talk page. What I understand is that we cannot roll over with this. This issue was specifically addressed in the early stages of the creation of the BoNM. If we let this stuff go, not only it may yet get out of control, with countless national variants, but also we'd be testifying that our Barnstar creation forum is a big waste of time, if overenthusiatic users can to overrule our (rather long sometimes) discussions over there. We should try to include the point: if anyone wants to create "national variants" of the BoNM, they can, but this will not be a wiki award, and in such condition, it will not be listed in a wiki award page. It would be whoever-created-it-and-his-clique private thing. I'll see if I can come up with this explanation. Drop by and tell me what you think about it. Still, we'll need to monitor the page and see what happens. Your friend, Redux 22:30, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

I also dropped a note at Czalex's page, who was offered to take the Belarusian variant. I know that you feel upset at this situation, but I just think it is out of my control. I will be gone for a while, and I know things will go to hell in a handbasket. I was out for just a few days and so much happened, I had to spend about an hour to catch up. Well, remove the section, I will ask Halibutt to userfy the BoNM variants and I will see what else happens. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 22:40, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

I have already removed the "national variants" section and added a paragraph addressing the issue, as well as an explanation in the talk page. Of course, I realize that most users will not be aware that a discussion took place before the creation of the award, and that a consensus was reached that especifically rejected the prospect of country-centric awards as wiki awards. Ideally, this will be solved with those latest entries, but we can never be entirely sure. This entire issue seems to have been created because of only one user's overenthusiasm (and nationalistic drive...). But as I said, we cannot have something like this nullify was has been agreed upon in the Barnstars forum, or else we're wasting our time over there.
The positive side to all of this is seeing that the BoNM has become quite popular. I can't help but feel a certain pride about it, especially when you see that most new awards end up forgotten by the community.
I take the opportunity to wish you good luck moving. I hope you get back soon too, since, as you said, some stuff just go to hell in a split second when we take our eyes off it for some time. But that's to be expected in Wikipedia. I've been following the statistics, and it seems like we get about 200 new registered users every 24 hours or so. Can you imagine that? 200 new editors poking around every day, and who-knows-how-many anons also editing at will. I just feel that very little in the project is under any kind of control in this context, and it gets more and more chaotic by the day. Well, the best we can do is hold on to our hats and make the best of it — and in some cases, such as this one, we just have to keep our cool and try to keep things on track, as much as possible. Good luck moving, again. Your friend, Redux 23:04, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

I am glad that I had a hand in creating the BoNM and I am glad it took off very greatly. Thanks for the kind words, and I am sure that if we talk to Hallibutt, we should be fine. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:09, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Let us hope Halibutt does agree with our point. I've had experiences both ways. Btw, I liked Death's idea to add the name of the country for which the user is being recognized in the list of Recipients. It goes a long way to help visualize the distribution of the award per country. Redux 23:17, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

So that was why I went ahead and added the countries of each person awarded. But I am still glad the award is very popular, and I also agree with you, the Barnstar creation page is pretty much done, since I think everyone has moved on from that page onto other stuff. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:19, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, about the Barnstars forum, I'd really like to rekindle that. I feel that the reason why people lost faith (which you're right, has happened) is because the multiple discussions became too much for us to handle. Discussions were (and are, in a way) dragging on forever, nothing got done, and people are just too busy to keep at it for too long without seing results. I'll see if I can do something about it. Redux 23:44, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

I want to vote on some proposials before talking about new ones. Plus, I think we are good with the many awards we got. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:52, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Your reverts on Cold War

The image of the Berlin War should go along with an image representing the Cold War in Asia. As it is the article is very Western-centric. Also, I don't understand your reversions to my edits in the intro and "characteristics" section, which make more sections more informative. NEW WORLD ORDER 15:57, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Your same edits had been reverted before by another user. One, we do not know who coined the term.

I changed the word "coined" to populairzed. Bernard Baruch was definitely the one who popularized it. NEW WORLD ORDER 16:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Two, it wasn't just the USSR and the USA.

I'll change my version accordingly. NEW WORLD ORDER 16:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Three, the My Lai picture is more suited at the Vietnam War page, since that details an event in the Vietnam War. I believe it should be placed there instead of the Cold War page.

By the same logic, why not move the Berlin Wall image to the page on the Berlin Wall? If a picture is going to represent the Cold War in Europe, another should represent the Cold War in the Third World. We should keep both or remove both. NEW WORLD ORDER 16:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The version you have talked about mainly the US CIA interventions inside several nations, without any mention of the the KGB at all.

Ah, that's because there were no KGB-led military coups. There were the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, but that's it, and they're mentioned. Further, that sentence is hardly a comprehensive list of Cold War conflicts, just a few examples. And there's no reason to throw out the few extra examples that I added. NEW WORLD ORDER 16:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

That is what me and the other person has, is that because your version is not NPOV.

My version is NPOV to the extent the history itself was NPOV. NEW WORLD ORDER 16:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

That was why we had the paragraph with "much of it was conducted by or against surrogates and through spies and traitors who were working undercover," since it covers both the KGB and the CIA and other unknown groups. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:04, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I removed that sentence because, by that point in the article, that fact had already been established. NEW WORLD ORDER 16:28, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The other photo that was added is OK, but I will not be surprised if others came around and edited some of the text. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:34, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, I hope

A Barnstar is a good thing I hope. I am working on the Untagged Images project and many untagged images are orphans so I say "get 'em outta here."

Yes, it is a good thing. I hope that if I do chose to become an admin, I can give the admins a help out at the deletion of the various images. With the new image policy, they must have a lot of work to do now. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:21, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

IFD Help - I don't get it

If these are known orphans, why can't they be deleted in one swoop? If not, what can I do with this list to help with IFD? Thanks -- Nv8200p 20:44, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Just list those on IFD (at your own pace) and we can start clearing off that list. I will try myself and see how that works. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:47, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Papal tiara

I know. I'm really chuffed. I know I'm biased but I think it is a really good article. Writing it really got me thinking about the whole area of state ritual and ceremonial. I have spent the last week working on linked articles on crowns, and am also researching a piece about Vatican ritual. I could never have imagined that when I came on to Wikipedia I would end up writing about crowns!!! (Or even more astonishingly, that I would end up as with a few nights ago writing a major article on Irish 1960s and 1970s soap opera The Riordans!) I was planning when I came to wikipedia first to focus on 19th century British and Irish history. Oh the wonders of the wiki!!! :-)

I mainly came to the Wiki to work on flag related articles, and also created an article on my college. Well, I pretty much cordinate the pages on Belarus (hence the Belarusian cabal quote on my user page). I also been drawing military ribbons, got pulled into edit wars and pretty much sold my soul to here (unless my girlfriend wants the other half of it). :) Zscout370 (Sound Off) 15:19, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

BSA Opinions

Good sir, your opinions would be most welcome on my comments recently posted to Order of the Arrow (popularity contest issue) and Boy Scouts of America (bullying of younger scouts in the 80s). Indeed, you remind me quite well of the more mature scouts I knew. A shame there were some that were not so immature. P.S.- Can I become a Wikifriend? I would be honored. -Husnock 00:53, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Sure. My user page is locked now, but I am building a list at User:Zscout370/Misc. Yes, I agree, the OA elections have become a popularity contest. I have been selected twice, but elected not to go. In 2004, when I was up for OA election, I said to my scout master to not put me on the ballot. Plus, nearly every scout who is able to go for it is elected, so being in the OA is almost something that you expect to see after a while. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:57, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

tfd

User:SimonP is up to his old tricks over templates and categories. He has now proposed deleting Template:Crowns on the template for deletion page.[13] Going by his past antics on Category:Westminster System[14] and Template:Commonwealth Realms [15] he's trying to delete a template that pulls all the articles on the topic together, then he'll start subcategorising all the articles and we'll end up with a complicated, user-unfriendly mess of a category. Your opinions and observations would be welcome. FearÉIREANN^(talk) 21:15, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I just need to look at a few things before I comment on it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:23, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Call to Action

Whereas, much good discussion and work has previously occured on the Barnstar and award proposal page,

Whereas, the level of discussion and progress on the abovementioned page has dropped to a record level of none; no constructive commments have been made on existing awards since May 17, 2005,

Whereas, many "Vote or Die!" have been left open, namely two, as a result of this lack of discussion,

Whereas, nine proposals lie untouched by Wikipedian hands,

Whereas, you have previously commented and helped on the abovementioned page,

Therefore, I, who have absolutely no command in ordering this whatsoever, instruct you, Zscout370/Archive 1, to return to the barnstar commitment and further the creation of Wikipedian awards; vote liberally and spread your constructive comments.

(Signed) Cmd. Bratsche^{talk 5 pillars} of the Barnstarium Army, 03:08, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC)

I will see what I can do. I will try to instruct people to not suggest new awards until we get the ones we have now cleared out of the way. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 16:16, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Template:ISO

You expressed interest in an ISO flag template: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Flag_Template#ISO_template (SEWilco 06:23, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC))

swastika

Hi, could you explain why you changed the Nazi swastika on the Swastika page? The new asymmetrical one seems on the face of it less appealing and less accurate than the earlier symmetrical image. Paul B 18:29, 9 June 2005 (UTC)

I was replacing that image with one which is located on the Wikipedia Commons. Once I did that, it made the previous image an orphan, which I later placed on WP:IFD. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:56, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Complaint

I'm really dissatified to your interrupting deletion without previous notification, not to mention the "vandalism" you've made in the template. That's really offensive. No official rules are stated that animated gifs cannot be implemented in templates. Now I'm going to revert the template, and please make a sensible justification next time, thinking twice, before your action. -- Jerry Crimson Mann 21:22, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

One: as for the notification, see User_talk:Mcy_jerry#Image:Hkicon.gif.

Two: The image I am using is currently being used on all Wikimedia projects, including ours.

Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:29, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Well, that means it's not a matter of animation, but unification, right? -- Jerry Crimson Mann 21:43, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yes. Of course, if you want to use the animated image on your user page, thats fine. But until I find out what is going on with animated images used for templates, I will not edit the template. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:45, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Do you mean that animated templates are not a problem? -- Jerry Crimson Mann 21:54, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I don't understand the relevance of the animation aspect of the image to the template. Surely Hong Kong's flag isn't inherently animated in that way. Aside from that, I find the animation distracting and annoying. I could deal with it if there were some purpose to the animation, but is there? I certainly have never see anything like it in any other template, though I doubt it ever needed to be formally discouraged for it to be uncommon. What was wrong with the version that just had the actual flag? HorsePunchKid→龜 22:19, 2005 Jun 9 (UTC)

You may say that, HPK. But my point is the whole thinis is just like a conspiracy. He deleted it, he made it orphaned, he dumped it into the deletion page....just a through-train and no more!

Of course flags won't brandish that way; that's an icon, mind you. I wonder what can distract you if you're really paying a degree of attention to the article you're reading. A stub, in this case, can make itself even more eye-catching to show it itself is in fact a puny malnourished handicapped pitiful stub, asking for further constructive postive healthy improvement in the wikipedia community. --Jerry Crimson Mann 22:28, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Drop the conspiracy theory: I regularlly place images on IFD, especially now. As for the eyecatchingness of it, I am not going to debate it. We have a few days for the image to be debated about and see what happens. Plus, that is the way I deal with images: if it is orphaned, it goes on IFD. If I find a better version, I replace the old image and then place it on IFD. More later, I need a break now. As for you, HPK, if you wish to revert to a previous version, fine by me. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:22, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It's like a conspiracy, but I don't mean it's exactly one dirty plot. I'm not very happy with your speediness...just too fast and unreachable. So you must be very confident with every deletion of yours, otherwise time must be needed for relentless argument and consensus. Extremely heart-broken now...needa rest, having no mood to speak daggers in the debate. I won't care about the fate of the pic, I hope. - Jerry Crimson Mann 23:43, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Help with Image:moon.gif

Hello, I am trying to restore the ifd tag to this image, however, I have reverted it twice and will not have an opportunity to restore it again until at least Sunday. Could you please help? Thank you. You 01:09, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)

I will see what I can do, but I will be on the road this weekend. Though, I do think that we should remove this image from all pages so once (if) it is deleted, then the pages will not be messed up. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:56, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hong Kong-stub

I had to revert it quite some way back. Every time I tried to open up the template or any article containing the template, my browser crashed. it was only when reading Mcy jerry's usertalk page that I found out it was because of an animation. There are good reasons why very few of them are used on Wikipedia! Grutness...wha? 08:24, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Well, if you wish to read my commnets above about the same image, which I placed on WP:IFD after I removed it from the template. Once I did so, it became an orphan. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:57, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

48 star flag

You could follow the _flag_large.png pattern in most flags. (SEWilco 04:02, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC))

• us_1912_flag_large.png
• us_48_stars_flag_large_.png
• us_48_states_flag_large.png

• • Most flag files are named Flag of Country X. I think I will rename the image Flag of the United States (1912). Zscout370 (Sound Off) 22:34, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• • • Articles about flags are "Flag of …". Flag files end with "_flag_large.png". Compare a search for Images from "Flag of" to "What links here" Template:PD-flag. (SEWilco 00:48, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC))
      • I am changing that. I have placed several flags on IFD and new flag images are being drawn by me and others. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:05, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
        • Why not upload new images to the same names, to replace existing images? Existing links would still work, so it would seem to save a lot of effort. You're also inviting confusion by using such similar names, despite being in different namespaces. (SEWilco 03:59, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC))
          • Most flag images, as you said, are Country X flag large. We do not have small and medium size images of the flag, so I just see there is no use to have the file name as Country X flag lagre. Yes, it is a lot of hard work, but I usually let folks know that the image has been renamed and been relocated. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:00, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)
            • Template_country_flag_alias_* has been populated, using images in United Nations member states. The "shortname" array is now being populated, so most countries will be ready for use within a day. (SEWilco 00:49, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC))

Medal of Honor

Yes, the lead is adequate now. Tnx. Article can reapply for FA at any time, but if you want to have it removed, you have to visit Wikipedia:Featured_article_removal_candidates first. I don't think it is bad enough to warrant removal, but then I know little about the issue except what is in the article itself. One more technical note - external links should be removed from main body, preferably moved to notes/references and linked with Wikipedia:Footnotes. Btw, you may want to take a look at Wikipedia:Peer review/Virtuti Militari/archive1 - it's an article quite similar to MoH. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 10:34, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. I will try and do that. I created Hero of Belarus, another medal article that has been promoted to FA status. I know there are things I took from the MoH article and used for the HoB article, but I can look at the Virtuti Miliaria article and see what yall have there. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:02, 12 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Fonzie Fan

Sandbox again - and this time Fonzie Fan (talk · contribs) is not just a harmless guy playing in the sand. Check out his sockpuppet accounts, all of which have disgusting offensive names:

• Coprophagiac (talk · contribs)
• TheSatanicChorusOfChicago (talk · contribs)
• TheSatanicBrotherhoodOfPhoenix (talk · contribs)
• SatansBestFriend(666, baby!) (talk · contribs)
• ChristiansForTheAnti-Christ (talk · contribs)
• GayLesbian&TransgenderSatanists (talk · contribs)

The edit summaries are crazy and he keeps placing in nonsense. Although you're not an admin, I need your opinion on wp:lvip (long-term alerts), section "Sandbox semi-troll." Fonzie Fan is not what he used to be. — Stevey7788 (talk) 23:35, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I quit watching the Sandbox, but you can go ahead and report the socks to the WP:AN/I. You can also comment about the offensive username too. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:38, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Order of Canada

I have also been trying to find the history of the Order. What I have found so far is that John Matheson designed the medal and was involved in creating the Order. Take a look at this CBC link (it has a segment about him). Let me know if you need any help for this article. I am a big fan of the Order of Canada and I have been working to add articels for all of the Companions. --YUL89YYZ 15:51, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)

And Matheson was the same person who had a hand in creating the Canadian flag? If so, wow. Well, I have been making and working on medal articles. I have been trying to make a few become Featured Articles and that is my main goal. We should have a section on the creation and the first appointments. We should mention Matheson, and a bunch of other things. We could also trim down the list of the various people who received which order, put them on a whole new article or list. Thanks a bunch for working with me on this article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 18:34, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Another Answer

You asked: "How does the BoW work?". Detailed information on how BoW works can be found here . Read our rules, and in case you want an account in our bank feel free to ask it in our talk page. Bank of Wikipedia 06:00, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I will think about it. Thanks for setting it up. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 13:54, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Portal question

Hi Zach. Looks like RU-portal is active. I am very glad to notice that. I need your help. Recently several Wikipedians got together to make a Ukraine Wikiportal. We didn't move it yet to its final destination at Wikipedia:Wikiportal/Ukraine. As of now it sits in my userspace at User:Irpen/uawp. There is one remaining problem: the "edit" buttons at templates' right-hand upper corner don't appear in some browsers, particularly in "classical skin" settings. They are seen in Opera, harldy seen in Netscape and not seen at all at MSIE. I would appreciate if you have time to look at it. Thanks! -Irpen 04:54, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

Change the link color and that is it. I can see it and I am using IE, but barely. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 13:46, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Try "classic skin" in your WP settings. Then you would barely some in the left columns but nothing at all in the right-hand columns. -Irpen

Hmm.. I will try that later, but that is probably why the Wiki is using this skin instead of any others. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 19:08, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, but some people use "classic", so we need to fix this. Of course feel free to fix it yourself, if you have time. I am rather ignorant when it comes to page design. Cheers, -Irpen 19:12, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

I could try, but I am stuck fixing Order of Canada right now. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:58, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Image:Hkicon.gif

If the image is still orphaned, then may I ask why was the image kept. The orphan issue was why I listed the image on IFD in the first place. Also, I hope the creator of the image still does not think I am running a conspiracy here. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:02, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Well, there were a few objections to deleting. Since images can't be undeleted, the instructions in the second paragraph at WP:IFD are very conservative.

User:Mcy jerry's contribution to that discussion was pretty hilarious! By the way, I really appreciate the work you've been doing tidying up images. Thanks! dbenbenn | talk 06:26, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. I know there was one other objection to the deletion, so I tried to satisfy his comment by positing the link about animated images in stub templates. There, it was a consensus it was a bad idea. IMHO, I would not mind seeing the stub icons being tossed from here. Makes my job easier. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 13:45, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Do you think it will be ok to place the image at IFD again, since it has not been used since it has been removed from the templates? Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:09, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yep. dbenbenn | talk 03:40, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I placed it there now, and a notice on the uploader's talk page. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:44, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Unprotect

Done. Any more thoughts about me nominating you for admin yet? :) Grutness...wha? 19:33, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Still don't want it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 20:53, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Barnstar and award proposal page

Hey, Zscout. Substituting lengthy discussions with templates on the WP:BAP page was very clever, but I'm not sure what happened to some image galleries. For the Bot Barnstar, this text

<gallery>
Image:Barnstarbot.png|1. Dot Matrix Barnstar (Bastique)
Image:BotBarnstar.png|2. Circuit Board Barnstar (Zscout370)
Image:BotBarnstar2.png|3. Circuit Board Barnstar 2 (Zscout370)
Image:BotBarnstar3.png|4. Circuit Board Barnstar, 3-D w/out background (Sango123)
Image:BotBarnstar4.png|5. BSD Daemon barnstar (Sango123)
Image:BarnstarBotState.png|6. Barnstar Bot State (SEWilco)
Image:BarnstarBotState2.png|7. Barnstar Bot State2 (SEWilco)
Image:Barnstar daemon1.png|8. BSD Daemon barnstar with shoes (AllyUnion)
Image:Barnstar daemon2.png|9. BSD Daemon barnstar without shoes (AllyUnion)
Image:Tux Barnstar.png|10. Tux barnstar (AllyUnion)
</gallery>

became "NaodW29-gallery5e6f8b922a9f664000000001".

The Wikimedal of Contribution/Featured Article Barnstar and Spoken Barnstar image galleries have become "NaodW29-gallery18966b1a3adb24850000000" and "NaodW29-gallery5e6f8b922a9f664000000002", respectively.

However, The Resilient Barnstar image gallery is unaffected (because the gallery isn't at the beginning of the discussion?). Maybe it's just me, or maybe Barney-star has come for revenge, but could you take a look to see if anything's wrong?

Thanks, Sango123 19:13, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)

I seen that problem before, but I am not sure how to fix it. I will see what I can do. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:12, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It worked fine when I checked it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 21:13, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yep, everything works perfectly now. Sango123 23:16, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)

I am glad it does. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:46, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

User:Cantors Oops

Well, thank you very much for fixing my stupid oversight of not adding my sig to a comment all about sigs! And, also thank you for being so considerate as to go back and make it seem otherwise. I'll be watching you. ;-) hydnjo talk 01:37, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. I watch that one VFD, since I was involved in one similar VFD. I am tempted to ask and see if their pages can be "shot on sight," but I do not know if it can be done. Also, it seems like a coordinated effort, and this is starting to get tiring. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 01:43, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It clearly is a coordinated effort. After seeing a few of these in my short time here, it would seem that the best strategy is to answer with cordial responses. They become confused by all of the civility that we provide. And, there's more of us than them! And, since they do not have the commitment to this project that we do, they seem to fade away into their other lives after a while. Patience wins. ;-) hydnjo talk 02:01, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I bluntly told the Annons they are wasting our time with the mess. I think everyone else is tired of this stuff. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:03, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Let them develop callus' on their fingertips. Don't take it personally. Check in once a day or so to make a statement about their latest rant. If you try to keep up with a coordinated effort well then your fingertips will also become sore. Depend on the community to smush this kind of behavior. You don't have to do it by yourself. There are lots of remedies. Patience wins. ;-) hydnjo talk 02:16, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I think many people are reverting their efforts, but I hope it does end soon. I suggest people should list pages that are affected by this group effort. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:21, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Re:Admin questions

Hi Zach - okay, I can understand that. I think you would make a good admin, even if only for the reason that you'd have access to tools which would help the work you already do, but your reasons are understandable, so I won't push it. Grutness...wha? 06:33, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I have no idea if it is even possible to get just the tools and try not to get involved in every dispute that happens on here. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:30, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Mind Benders

Hello! I've noticed your interest in creating logos, barnstars, or your past artistic ability! Thus, I just wanted to let you know that the pre-round, an artistic competition, is now open at Wikipedia:Mind Benders (Shortcut: WP:MIND)! The competition is open to everyone and is seeking a logo/trophy, similar to Barnstars, to be placed on every winner's page. We urge you to help us out and submit an entry! Afterwards, the normal rounds, each consisting of ten or more fun, logical, brain-stimulating questions will open. Why don't you give it a try when it opens! Look forward to seeing your contribution. Thanks, Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk 21:53, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I got some ideas in mind, but I am house hunting tomorrow. I am finally in California, plus, my family wants to use this one and only laptop we have. My idea so far: it is golden, with the brain on top, the middle section is a W and a base on the bottom. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 23:27, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Order of Canada

Just wondering, if your an American, why are you so interested in the Order of Canada ? (You are doing a great job with it BTW)

Been interested in Canadian topics. Plus, I have been working on other medal related articles. Plus, I got a Canadian girlfriend (she lives in Brantford, Ont.).

BTW : John Mathison chaired the committee for the creation of the Canadian Flag. He did not design it

Ok.

Also: The Order of Canada site used to have an FAQ section with questions like "Can muliple people get the Order for the same Deed" and the answer way "Yes. This year several Members of the Rock group RUSH recived the Order." However, this apears to no longer be active :( Dowew 02:32, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I made the changes. We should put a note on the article about it, unless it has been done already. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 03:26, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Canadian Articles

If you are interested in Canadian articles you might want to like at this page Wikipedia:Canadian wikipedians' notice board/CCOTW Dowew 05:12, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I am watching it know. I know there is a Wikipedia from Brantford, Ont. that me and my girlfriend know, so I have been trying to find him on here and help me not only work on the Order of Canada article, but get some tips on how I can make my gf's heart melt. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 05:15, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Flag editing

For editing flag template information, I suggest adding to each flag description page {{countryedit|CountryName|ISOabbrev|IOCabbrev}}. This creates a table with edit links for the various info. Example for USA:

Name: "USA" ISO: "USA" IOC: "USA"

Item	Usage	Content	Edit	Description
Flag		{{country_flag_alias_USA}}	Edit	Image of flag
Article	{{country_alias_USA}}	{{country_alias_USA}}	Edit	Article name
Label	{{country_label_alias_USA}}	{{country_label_alias_USA}}	Edit	Short label (ie, ISO abbrev.)
Common name	{{country_shortname_alias_USA}}	{{country_shortname_alias_USA}}	Edit	Common short name
ISO country code usage
Code:Country		{{country_ISO_code_alias_USA}}	Edit	ISO country code for USA
Code:ISO		{{country_ISO_code_alias_USA}}	Edit	ISO country code for USA
Flag	{{country_flag_ISO_alias_USA}}	{{country_flag_ISO_alias_USA}}	Edit	Flag image for {{ISO|flag|ISOabbrev}}
Article	{{country_ISO_alias_USA}}	{{country_ISO_alias_USA}}	Edit	Article name for {{ISO|flag|ISOabbrev}}
Olympic Games usage
Flag	{{country_flag_IOC_alias_USA}}	{{country_flag_IOC_alias_USA}}	Edit	IOC flag image
Article	United States	{{country_IOC_alias_USA}}	Edit	Article name for IOC use

(SEWilco 16:57, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC))

Perfect, thanks. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:14, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Most of the flag/country info is ready. I'm filling in the holes, particularly of the non-UN countries. Recent test is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Flag Template/Testall. Avoid updating it, particularly while SEWilcoBot is running. (SEWilco 04:02, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC))

I know there is many bots running related to flag images, and I ran into many before. I will stay away, until it is clear. Plus, I mainly just want to upload flag images. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 04:08, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Canadian Victoria Cross

I really dont see that much can be done with that article since it has never been awarded. I added a picture of it from a Canadian Postage stamp a while ago on the Victoria Cross page and perhaps that can be added to spruce it up a bit...but with this never being awarded...what's the point ? ( well, mabye to have a page ready for it is award :)-like that is ever gonna happen Dowew 01:11, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

At least we beat everyone to it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:36, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Consider it as part of being "encyclopedic". (SEWilco 04:06, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC))

I am glad I wrote the article. At least the Google searches will start coming here if someone gets the Canadian VC. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:25, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Barnstarmy.jpg

Thanks for the image deletion notice and your vote against it. May Barney-star live on! Sango123 16:46, Jun 24, 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 17:27, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Can you help?

Hey Zach. I know this isn't your particular interest, but I was wondering if you'd mind lending me a hand with this project I'm thinking about: I'm looking to create a wikiportal for Brazil. I have ideas for the contents, but the problem is I'm all thumbs when it comes to the graphic designing that would be required. Just today it took me an eternity to "upgrade" my user page, and I was only able to do it because I copied the code from other pages I found throughout Wikipedia. I thought of asking for your help because I saw the neat work you did in the Belarus portal. I've actually even created a place holder for the portal(here). Naturally, I'm aware that you may be swamped with other projects (including your "off-wiki" life), so whenever you have some time, maybe we could work on this? Hopefully it shouldn't take us too long. What say you? Redux 21:37, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I created a few Wikiportals myself, so I can always lend you a hand. Of course, I have many things that I need to take care of, including trying to find a house and college. But I can take a look at the portal and see what I can do. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 22:30, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Check the Wikiportal now. I started it, seeing if you like the colour scheme. Also, thanks for honouring me on your user page. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 02:32, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

A good start. Thanks! The color scheme looks great. I'll take a crack at it (later today, or maybe tomorrow). Once I've gotten some stuff in, I could maybe ask you to take a look at the code? It could be a little work, since the stuff I'm gonna be able to come buy will likely suck. On another note, it was my pleasure, I do think you're one of the top notch Wikipedians. In fact, thank you too for mentioning me on your user page! Redux 05:00, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hey Zach! I just added all the content to the Brazil portal. I used the Australia portal as a paradigm. I used its code and tried to adapt to the Brazil portal color scheme. I messed up though. The colors are completely crazy, especially the background and subheaders. Can you take a look, maybe salvage it? Thanks. Redux 23:17, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I can't believe it, I gave it a try and managed to fix it! Check it out. It seems to match the first box you created... Redux 23:27, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Pefect. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 00:30, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Featured article

Hi Zach. Thanks for your message. I'd have answered sooner, but in the time it took me read your message and start my answer, the database got blocked. Btw, what do think of the new resources?

I'm aware of the requirements for an article to be featured. The page, however, says that a featured article should, not has too. That seems to indicate that, in some cases (very particular ones, I would suppose), not every item on the list has to be met. Since featuring an article is a matter of consensus, however, it will come down to how important any given requirement is to the majority of the people that usually vote on the candidates. I don't usually participate in such votes, so I'm not really sure of how important this particular item would be. It's very important, of course, but is it absolutely essential in the view of the community? That's what I meant with that question. Come to think of it, I guess I was a little vague in my post concerning that. My bad, one of the worst things one can do when participating in those kinds of discussions is making it look like one doesn't really know where one's getting into. Maybe I should clarify it there? We could also drop it altogether and try and find another article on Brazil to get featured (I don’t really care if this article gets featured, I’m in it for the sake of the portal), but it won't get any easier; there are too few people with a high level of commitment working on articles about Brazil. In the end, it would take some good will to look the other way in some technical flaw of any given article in order to get it featured. Maybe there’s even precedents to this (technical problems being overlooked to feature an article). Your friend, Redux 28 June 2005 04:10 (UTC)

Nah, do not drop this. Let's keep the article on Peer review and we can see what happens. As for other articles to put on WP:FAC, I can see what I can do. My recent article, Order of Canada was deemed short, but it still made it into Featured status. Who knows, we can create a new article alltogether. Thanks for working with me on this and I hope the peer review goes well. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 28 June 2005 17:55 (UTC)

Thank you for your support Zach. And also, thanks for joining the "maintenance crew" of the portal. It's always nice to have someone as committed as you in the ranks. If the "sources hurdle" turns out to be unsurmountable in the Empire of Brazil article, we might have to drop it though, since I believe it would be difficult to find corroborative sources for at least some of the stuff 172 put in there (unless he answers my post in his talk page, but that's a long shot). In that case, the opportunity to start a new article may be at hand, since I'm about to start an article on Prince Luis of Brazil. It's going to be a biographic article on the present legitimist pretender to the Brazilian throne. I don't know if biographies make up ideal candidates for Featured Article, but it's a perspective... Finally, congrats on getting Order of Canada featured! Redux 28 June 2005 20:17 (UTC)

Thanks, and your welcome. Of course, bios can be placed on FAC. Anything that can be created and kept on Wikipedia, it can become a featured article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 29 June 2005 01:09 (UTC)

Re:Tax Template

Hi Zach - that's fine. Glad it's useful for something! I wouldn't be surprised if it turned up on tfd at some point, though... Grutness...wha? 28 June 2005 23:57 (UTC)

I mainly did it to fit the Wikipedia Babel template. As for the TFD, unless people have really have issues with it, I think it will be largely ignored. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 29 June 2005 01:07 (UTC)

LA-area Wiki meetup

You expressed an interest in a San Diego Wiki meetup. Although it's not in San Diego, there is an LA-area meetup being planned for Monday, July 25, 2005. For further details, see User:Eric Shalov/Wikimeetup. If you know of any other San Diego-area Wikipedians, could you also help spread the word? BlankVerse ∅ 29 June 2005 10:44 (UTC)

I will see what I can do. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 29 June 2005 18:42 (UTC)

Angel

Thanks for the names, Zscout370. Wow...I can't believe I was missing an obvious one like "Angel". :) func(talk) 30 June 2005 00:07 (UTC)

I know they sound like stripper names, but I am jogging through my memory bank. Plus, if locations count, I wish to add Chelsea (the name of my gf and a town in the UK) to the list. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 30 June 2005 00:09 (UTC)

Though I think Diamond could also be added to the list. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 30 June 2005 00:11 (UTC)

These are all good. :) The issue of location is an interesting one. For all I know, Chelsea might have been named after a woman in the first place. ;-) func(talk) 30 June 2005 19:40 (UTC)

Well, I added a few and looks like others are too. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 30 June 2005 19:52 (UTC)

Old SA flag

I was wondering whether you still had the source of Image:South Africa flag 1927.png — I'm assuming you have it in a vector format since you state you redrew it? I'm trying to consolidate all the various existing SA flags on Wikipedia, and yours look the best. dewet|™ 30 June 2005 07:11 (UTC)

Aren't the flags already "consolidated" in Flag of South Africa? (SEWilco 30 June 2005 13:41 (UTC))

I was meaning more of a "standardisation" of sorts across all the SA flags already on WP. There are dupes of some of them, through which I'm working. dewet|™ 30 June 2005 13:44 (UTC)

I will upload the file to the Wikimedia Commons so all can use it, and yes, I drew it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 30 June 2005 18:06 (UTC)

But as for Image:Southafricanflag.gif, I am about to place it on placed it on WP:IFD. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 30 June 2005 18:14 (UTC)

PKWN

Tnx! If you had time, could you perhaps take a look at Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/History_of_Poland_(1945-1989) and voice your opinion? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 30 June 2005 08:53 (UTC)

I placed my support and I am also fixing the article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 30 June 2005 18:34 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Starfleet ranks and insignia

The article has been improved drasticaly, I think this is a good enough reason to reopen the FA status of this article. To be fair I am notifying all parties involved with the article on old candidacy. If I forgot one of you, its not intentional. Thats all for now --Cool Cat ^{My Talk} 1 July 2005 00:15 (UTC)

I voiced my support for it. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 1 July 2005 00:23 (UTC)

Portals layout goes crazy!?

Hi Zach? I just visited the Brazilian portal and was surprised to see that the images were all superposed over the text. The code had not been touched. I then visited the Belarus portal and found that the same thing had happened there. I'm thinking this may be yet another bug in the Wiki 1.5. How is it looking in your browser? Any idea why this might have happened and how to fix it? Redux 1 July 2005 04:34 (UTC)

It is probably Wiki 1.5. I had many things screw up, like images not even showing up. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 1 July 2005 04:39 (UTC)

I wonder if this is related: 02:50 MediaWiki:Monobook.css (diff; hist) . . Lowellian (Talk) (removing line that causes problems with header lines and infoboxes in IE; see talk) (SEWilco 1 July 2005 18:32 (UTC))

It is. Someone made a change to monobook.css that caused the problem, so I removed the relevant line to fix it. —Lowellian (talk) July 1, 2005 22:14 (UTC)

Thanks. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 1 July 2005 23:37 (UTC)

Virtuti Militari

See talk of that page for all my comments and requests. References, mainly. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 1 July 2005 07:14 (UTC)

I am trying to find references, but my Polish skills are not really that great. I also think all grades of the award should be displayed. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 1 July 2005 19:08 (UTC)

Well, I couldn't find much myself, Polish, English or otherwise :( --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 4 July 2005 11:32 (UTC)

Bot

Make sure you read WP:BOTS and announce your bot there and in the Talk page. I thought I'd better reply here because Watchlist is broken but incoming message reporting is working. (SEWilco 1 July 2005 18:30 (UTC))

Ok. I also need to draft a plan to see what exactly the bot will do, unless I can mention I am doing the same work as an inactive bot, RCBot. Then, I just need to build it. I also am having major problems with my watchlist, not sure what is going on. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 1 July 2005 18:34 (UTC)

Wikipedia:MediaWiki_1.5_bugs#Watchlist_problems (SEWilco 2 July 2005 04:16 (UTC))

Looks like it is fixed. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 2 July 2005 04:19 (UTC)

Arbitration committee decision

The arbitration committee has reached a final decision in Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/KaintheScion et al. →Raul654 July 2, 2005 02:29 (UTC)

Thanks Raul. I am glad this nightmare is over. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 2 July 2005 02:39 (UTC)

Response to deleting Sybian images

I am not impressed with Wiki so far. The link http://www.answers.com/topic/sybian uses the image I uploaded (after having to fight tooth and nial to get it posted). There are other images out there that have urls in them that Wiki users continue to overlook. I appreciate you explaining your position on why the image should remain, but as mentioned before, I prefer to withdraw any contribution to wikipedia that I made and simply leave. Perhaps I will return when enough changes are made, but I don't see them at this time. --Buttysquirrel 2 July 2005 23:10 (UTC)

Well, what kind of changes fo you wish to see? As for the other images with the web address in them, I will address them soon enough. I am not an admin at all, but I do a lot of posting at Images for deletion. I have seen many images taken from websites like Corbis, and that is causing a problem. As for you leaving, it will be hard to see you go, since you did good work on the Sybian article, and when I get my stuff back, I am willing to work with you on that article. Just let me know what you think. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 2 July 2005 23:14 (UTC)

Man, fast response I must say. Actually, I will hold off the deletion request for now. I did notice that an image for Sylvia Saint (with a url written on it) that I complained about months ago has been changed. There's hope for Wikipedia after all. I will add a link to a Sybian review article that I wrote to the Sybian article, and I'll see what kind of response I get. That will determine if I've had enough. Your voice of moderation is much needed on this site, and I agree that commercial interests should have minimal influence on this site. However, it's not right if I do much of the work to the benefit of other commercial interests. I'm not saying anything new, but hopefully others will understand what you and I a trying to say. Hit me up if you need help with any sex toy article ;)

What I can suggest doing is if you do not wish to have the photos of the various Sybian devices, place a request for anyone who has a Sybian to take pictures of it. That will remove the photos you took, replacing them with photos anyone will distribute for free. I can also see if other Wikipedia websites (different languages) might have pictures of Sybians we can use. Or, if I can hop onto Google, see what we can find there. As for the article itself, I have some ideas, but I need to see what is there and what we could add :) Zscout370 (Sound Off) 2 July 2005 23:42 (UTC)

I think the pictures off the sybian.com site could be used without objection. Despite what we say about commecial interests etc, Sybian.com is more than happy that the Sybian article even exists. --Buttysquirrel 2 July 2005 23:52 (UTC)

Agreed. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 2 July 2005 23:53 (UTC)

I placed a link on the Sybian article which is gives more detail about the machine. Let me know what you think it's chances of survival on wikipedia are.--Buttysquirrel 3 July 2005 01:18 (UTC)

It will survive, trust me. I seen videos of girls and famous porn stars riding Sybians, so we can mention which stars were filmed riding them. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 3 July 2005 05:12 (UTC)

We can list some of the instructions, pros and cons, warnings, other devices like the Sybian, etc. We can do a lot to this article. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 3 July 2005 05:18 (UTC)

I went ahead and retracted the request to have the images removed. I may even upload more if continued interest is displayed. I must say, the Sybian article left much to be desired prior to my image inclusion and your revamp of the article contents. Way to go! (Comment by Buttysquirrel)

I am glad you liked what I have done so far. I will do great things to the article, but trying to find sources a bit hard. Though, I mainly want to expand on a few more sections, added a few more photos. If you want to make some and put them on here, fine by me. Also, I sent you an email. Zscout370 (Sound Off) 5 July 2005 01:09 (UTC)