User talk:Ral315/Archive 1

edit

History Archives:

Dec. 04 to Feb. 06

Mar. 06 to Feb. 07

Feb. 07 to May. 08

Jun. 08 to Present

2004-2005:

01 · 02 · 03 · 04 · 05 · 06 · 07 · 08

2006:

09 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18

2007:

19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28

2008:

29 · 30 · 31 · 32

Welcome

Welcome to Wikipedia. Sorry I couldn't expand the Aquinas College Grand Rapids article a little more ;) Euphoria 04:39, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Jeopardy U-Toc

Hey -- That might be the best way to put it (released on the 28th, confirmed on the 29th). I also have rmfromfla's list of 5-timers and tournament champs -- which is likely a more accurate list than what is currently on the page, as a lot of those people who have won more than $50,000 only won 2 or 3 games to do that. --OntarioQuizzer 14:12, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I put tonight's results onto the UToC page. Let me know what you think about linking to the Archive - I think it can definitely make the page an excellent source of information about the Tournament. --OntarioQuizzer 01:33, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I should be able to do Thursdays and Fridays for the U-ToC. If not, hey, it's Wikipedia -- anybody should be able to, right! --OntarioQuizzer 03:30, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC) PS: I nominated the Pat Healy substub for deletion. Even if I put in everything I knew about him (and I know a lot), it still wouldn't go much above stub status -- and that precludes the limited notablility that he has. Only hardcore Jeopardy! geeks even remember him.

Thanks. I couldn't believe the article when I saw a blue wikilink to it -- I mean, the UToC page had more information than the article did! --OntarioQuizzer 03:43, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for reverting those edits by User:68.188.96.16 -- I've also nominated him in the Clueless Newbies section -- just so others can maybe steer him in the right direction. --OntarioQuizzer 20:28, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Crossing Jordan

I liked your changes to Crossing Jordan. I added a few internal links and corrected one occupation (Nigel), correctly I hope. I know of at least two other departed member of the ensemble cast, a black woman who was Macey' boss (killed off) and an earlier detective before Woody. Cannot recall more details. We'll need to keep an eye on this article, (and the show). <gr> Vaoverland 02:48, Jan 25, 2005 (UTC)

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

This is User:Roadrunner3000, I expanded the Law & Order: SVU thread you should see what it looks like, and hopefully you'll like it. Also I eliminated the "stub" template.

RoadRunner3000

paniq on VfD

There is an interesting discussion over on VfD for the bio-article for German demoscene musician and artist paniq. I was hoping you could enter a comment or vote after reading through and reviewing the article. -R

Wikiportal

Nice portal! I took the liberty of adding some links and removing the UK Wikipedias link. It looks like you copied code from the UK Poral. Please use the template as advised in Wikipedia:Wikiportal#Wikiportals under construction if you create any more. It's much easier. Mgm|^(talk) 11:41, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

You may want to make the introduction a little less long, so more of the initial page is visible. :) Mgm|^(talk) 12:05, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

I wouldn't mind looking at the Politics Portal if I have the time. I'm glad you asked. Just make sure you finish the "Things you can do (edit)" section in Mathematics before you move on, so you don't leave an unfinished portal :) . Mgm|^(talk) 12:08, Feb 10, 2005 (UTC)

COTW

Er - what were you trying to do to Template:CurrentCOTW? I have reverted - this is a banner for people interested in WP:COTW. You will need to create a new MathsCOTW template (for example, type "Template:MathsCOTW" in the search box and edit the redlink, or use this one Template:MathsCOTW). I have also moved Mathematics Collaboration of the Week to Wikipedia:Mathematics Collaboration of the Week - this should be in the Wikipedia namespace, not the article namespace. HTH!-- ALoan (Talk) 16:30, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

No problem - I see Template:MathCOTW is up and running - your British collaborators may want a redirect from Template:MathsCOTW, as above :)

There is no UKCOTW - UKCOTW is at WP:UKCOTW (which is a shortcut for Wikipedia:UK Wikipedians' notice board/UKCOTW, in the Wikipedia namespace).

Hmm - perhaps I should have moved it to Wikipedia:Mathematics collaboration of the week (small "c" and "w") - oh well, never mind. Good luck, and happy editing. -- ALoan (Talk) 16:57, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Project welcome, and nice portal

Hi, just thought I'd drop you a note to say welcome to the Cryptography WikiProject, and that the Maths Wikiportal looks quite funky — good work! — Matt Crypto 19:31, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Hi! Your joining of the WikiProject in Cryptography was noted in this months project digest: Wikipedia:WikiProject Cryptography/February 2005. — Matt Crypto 13:25, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Wikiportal

Stop spamming us please. Go to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics if you've got something to say. Oleg Alexandrov 04:14, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads-up you put on my talk page, I found it useful, and no more spamlike than many other things people have put on my talk page in good faith. I'm a bit dumbstruck by the above comment in fact. Maybe we should suggest he put some sort of warning on his user talk page, but unfortunately my experience has been that some Wikipedians not only ignore these but are quite unapologetic about it (see also the context of those discussions).

On the other hand, in my years of editing I've sent out several messages similar to yours to me, going to the trouble to personally identify those I thought would be interested, and I've only ever had thanks for them. Maybe I've been lucky, but I'd prefer to think you've just been unlucky. Food for thought certainly. Andrewa 12:52, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I wish Oleg had chosen to speak for himself, rather than for "us". I did not find your message objectionable, and I was glad you sent it.

Thanks for your invitation. I don't think I am really cut out for collaborations-of-the-week, because the time and opportunity I have for editing is irregular. Also, strange as it may sound, I don't like collaborating with people. But I do think your project is a good idea and i wish you the best of luck with it. -- Dominus 15:07, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, guys. I knew in some cases it could border on spam, but I figured most of you would find it helpful, as you're fairly active in the math field. ral315 15:43, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

It doesn't border on spam, it IS spam... which is particularly irritating to me seeing as how I have a notice posted RIGHT AT THE TOP of my talk page which says DO NOT SPAM MY TALK PAGE. Add that on the top of the fact that I don't find your message remotely relevant (I really don't think I've been active on math pages any more than peripherally) and I can certainly understand Oleg's position. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 18:36, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

Again, I didn't find it spam-like. If you did, I apologize. ral315 18:48, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

It's borderline IMO, assuming that these messages were sent to people individually and personally identified as likely to be interested. Merely cross posting is not ipso facto spam. But their content was identical, and their timestamps suggest automation, which is a questionable practice in its own right, see Wikipedia:bot.

So far as being peripherally involved in math pages goes, IMO those are the very people who were likely to be interested in the portal but not to notice an anouncement on the Wikiproject talk page (as was I, despite being listed as a project participant).

IMO the principle that has been violated here is assume good faith. The essence of spam is that the spammer doesn't care how many messages are sent to people who don't want them just so long as a few do get through. Quite clearly this was not the intention here. That's what makes this cross-posting IMO rather than spam.

I'd suggest you try to make your warning notice a bit more explicit as to what you consider spam, in order to avoid receiving any more well-intentioned messages that are offensive to you. An expanded text such as DO NOT SPAM MY TALK PAGE. Any message posted anywhere else in English Wikipedia should not be cross posted here might be appropriate, but you must write it yourself. I don't for example know whether you read the Meta regularly enough to include that too, but on the other hand you can't possibly watch all the talk pages, so anywhere else in English Wikipedia is probably too broad. In fact my guess is that you'll find it very difficult to write too, and if so you might then ask how you expect others to guess what you consider spam.

But if my guess is wrong here and you find a more helpful message easy to write, then I hope to see it added to your talk page. You now have ample evidence that some of us don't find the existing notice as clear as you intend. Andrewa 21:10, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

So, the person who started all this is back.

What do you mean? Unless you are trying to bait me, I see no sense at all in that comment.

Dear Andrewa, you have a very good point on many counts. I honestly admit that, in spite of the fact that some of your comments at my address were not very flattering.

Again, I have to ask what you mean. I'm sorry you find them unflattering, but I'm a loss as to what comments these were.

You make one mistake though. You assume that the Wikipedia users can be split into two categories. Normal people like you, who are always open minded and welcome to suggestions, and on the other side strange people like me and Dante Alighieri who hate to hear from others, and whose biggest trouble is how to write a repulsive enough message to avoid others from posting on our page. I think this is a wrong attitude.

I agree this is a deplorable attitude. But again, I'm at a loss to see why you think it's mine.

Ral315 did two big mistakes. First, s/he made an entirely new math project without bothering consulting the existing project. That is not the right way of doing things, unless you want a fork, or have a big enough ego.

Second, Ral315 gathered all the user names he could find of people who at some point or another contributed to a math article, and went "advertising" his/her new baby.

The right thing to do would have been going to Wikiproject Mathematics, say that you have a nice idea, look for other ideas, suggestions, cooperations, so that everybody is involved in creating the project, and not only in contributing to it later.

So, while Ral315's ideas were noble, and my comments were surely rude (I explained myself to him/her actually yesterday, on my talk page, before all you jumped in),

Yes, here.

the approach Ral315 was not the best, it is still open question if the "direct mailing" will work.

I think we have all learned things. I hope so. Whether mistakes are big doesn't concern me, mistakes are mistakes.

And please do not use your lack of attention to the Wikiproject Mathematics page as a justification for somebody else indiscriminately posting to people's pages. Oleg Alexandrov 23:33, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I gave myself as an example of one who had appreciated the post to my user page, and explained this in terms of my lack of attention to the Wikiproject Mathematics page as you put it, yes. I still think it is a valid point. Do you disagree?

Maybe it was borderline; I apologize to all who were offended by this. In regards to previous posts, no, it was not a bot. I did it all manually, by opening multiple tabs in Mozilla Firefox. This is why the timestamps are similar- I submitted multiple pages a few seconds apart. And about the message being the same- I'm a college student, and while I would have loved to personalize each one, I just didn't have the time. Perhaps I should have set aside the time to at least insert the recipient's name, but I didn't even think of that.

As far as creating a new Math project, I did this not out of my own foolish dreams of a great math project, or my ego, but because I found the Wikiportal project the other day. It really is a noble project, to try and link information about different subjects through one single portal (rather than having to search through multiple pages as is the case now). I took the Mathematics project simply because someone had previously suggested a WikiPortal about Math, and I figured I'd take a challenge. To be honest with you, I didn't even know about the Mathematics Wikiprojects prior to making the portal (not an excuse, just a simple statement). The demand was there for a Math Wikiportal, and if I didn't write it, someone undoubtedly would have.

My problem, then, was cross-posting it to people's user pages. I apologize for this, if it offended you. The only reason I did so is because of the way I have my watchlist set up. Many days, there are NUMEROUS pages on my watchlist, and so I have to routinely remove some that I really would like to watch, but if I left them, I wouldn't be able to weed through all the other edits. I did not consider the message spam; if you did, I again apologize.

Despite the problems that a few of you have with me, I do encourage you to participate in the project. Not because I want to make myself look good, or because I wanted to fork the current Wikiproject. I want Wikipedia to succeed and be more user-friendly, as much as every single one of you do. That's why I made the Wikiportal; that's why I cross-posted the message to your user pages, that's why I seem so fervent about getting this to succeed. Because I want Wikipedia to succeed. I apologize if I stepped on anyone's toes in the process.

Regards, ral315 00:05, Feb 12, 2005 (UTC)

Well, I certainly have no problems with you, and I'm sorry to be cluttering your talk page replying to problems others have with me, but I really didn't think some of the above was terribly fair or reasonable. Glad to hear it wasn't a bot.

We do have problems from time to time with people thinking they own pieces of Wikipedia, and being upset at others wanting to do things differently. Perhaps this is the real agenda here. You're being very fair and reasonable IMO, so hang in there, and welcome! Andrewa 03:34, 12 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Mathematics Wikiportal

Thanks for creating this and for pointing this out to me. I've been pretty busy, lately, but I'll try to contribute what I can. This seems like a COTW project that I could really get involved in. --L33tminion | (talk) 15:36, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

Problem with your million pool guess

Your guess on Wikipedia:Million pool of March 15, 2006, is in conflict with an earlier guess by iMeowbot. Please change it or convince iMeowbot to change his. -- Cyrius|✎ 00:43, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Advice on some articles I stumbled upon

Hey, I found articles on Brian Weikle and Tom Walsh. Definitely notable in the Jeopardy pantheon, but notable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia? I'm thinking of nominating for VfD just to see what the community thinks - but I'm personally neutral on both articles. What do you think? --OntarioQuizzer 00:23, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Heads up: "If the page you are nominating already exists, please add {{MathCOTW}} to the top of its talk page." Dysprosia 04:59, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

New Mathematics Project Participants List

Hi Ra315

In case you didn't follow the discussion on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics here: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mathematics#Reformat of Participants list, I'm writing to you to let you know that I've converted the "WikiProject Mathematics Participants List" into a table. It is now alphabetical, includes links to the participant's talk page and contribution list, and has a field for "Areas of Interest". Since your name is on the list, I thought you might want to check and/or update your entry.

Regards, Paul August ☎ 17:01, Mar 22, 2005 (UTC)

P.S. Nice work the Mathematics Wikiportal.