User talk:Robin Patterson

mi:User talk:Robin Patterson
User_talk:Robin_Patterson/archive2004 (archived most of the 2004 material in June 2005)

Hi there. Welcome to Wikipedia! Drop us a note at Wikipedia:New user log to introduce yourself.

Thanks for helping add us to zeal.com. If you're looking for articles to feature, I recommend looking at Wikipedia:Featured articles, where we post our best work to be recognized by everyone. Hopefully you'll do some editing while you're here, too. I suggest looking at Politics of New Zealand, for example. You might find the links below useful:

If you need editing help, visit Wikipedia:How does one edit a page. For format questions, visit our manual of style

When you're bored, you can read our policies. If you made any edits before you got an account, you might be interested in assigning those to your username.

If you have any other questions about the project then check out Wikipedia:Help or add a question to the Village pump. You can also drop me a question on my talk page.

Happy editing, Isomorphic 19:34, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Zeal.com

This is in regards to the entry for Zeal. Go to Wikipedia:Votes for deletion and scroll down to yesterday's date. The entry is located there and you can vote on it and state your case. Darkcore 20:49, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Newbie RFP confuses and apologises

Ummm, I don't understand the message you left on my talk page. I think it's possible your are confusing me with someone else. Your message was the first time I had ever heard of this Zeal site. Dori | Talk 21:47, Feb 23, 2004 (UTC)

(I apologised for the confusion.) :robinp 05:23, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

What is a stub?

Hi. In general, I think we consider stubs to be anything at about a paragraph or less (depending on format and such.) However, in regards to the zeal article, the issue is not that it's too short. The issue is whether zeal.com is notable enough to warrant its own encyclopedia entry. Isomorphic 01:30, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Robin's response

Thanks for those two guidelines, Isomorphic. I'll keep an eye on the VfD entries. If you're interested, as your first message hinted, you can have a look at the press release about the "250,000 high quality, non-commercial listings" volunteers had contributed by 11 months ago:

http://www.zeal.com/about/press_room/press_releases/mar_18_03.jhtml

We "zealots" have contributed thousands more since; I've contributed over 2,000 profiles in my active 19 months, and some volunteers have written over 20,000:

http://www.zeal.com/zealist/members_most_contributions.jhtml

robinp 05:23, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

see User_talk:Robin_Patterson/archive2004 for the remainder of the 2004 material

Equinox and Images

I thought using March equinox removed the ambiguity and meant that noone would get confused.

RE: When I get some time and a faster internet connection in about a month's time I'll look at adding some of the English pics to the Commons for use in the Maori wikipedia. At the moment I'm using dailup and it just makes doing large amounts of uploads and downloads excuruciating slow. Evil Monkey → Talk 00:22, Jan 10, 2005 (UTC)

Visting Otago

Hi Robin

Thanks for the kind note.Yes - I know I must sound like a visitor but not sure when being a visitor stops. I have family living west of Vauxhall including a grand-son so my time gets divided between UK and NZ. So expect to see more Otago additions in future !

Velela 12:24, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Greetings from across the Pacific!

Thanks for the note on my talk page. Turns out I have a brother-in-law who is from the Wellington area. Small world, eh? "North to Alaska" is one of my favorite songs, also--used to hear it every evening on the radio as an intro to some news program or other. Alaska has changed quite a bit since then. With regard to Ester, I figured that I might as well write about something I know about, so I did. Seems like an awful lot of verbage for such a tiny town, but hey, this is an encyclopedia, not limited by the size of the book it's in, so I suppose the entries don't have to be short, just well organized. Deirdre 17:22, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Saw your comment

Hi, thanks for the comment on my talk page (only just received it, as I am a semi-regular Wikipedia user). Mostly all I do on Wikipedia is translate articles from German to English for translation practice. I haven't done that many so far but I'm hoping to get more finished and online. Anyway, thanks again. Geoffrey Miller

Um...

Don't know if it's "good form" to campaign for votes, but I'm standing for admin and I'd greatly appreciate your vote :) Grutness|^hello? 05:59, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

44-0-1! many thanks for the vote! Now to work out how these new admin powers work... Grutness|^hello?

06:21, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the message on my user page

Thanks for copying my comment on your talk page on to my user page. I've always meant to put something about who I am! Just got a 1GB memory card for my Palm so most of my Wikipedia reading will be there from now on. Thanks, Geoffrey Miller

Thanks for the kind words on my user page!

I had no idea it was going to be this involved of a process. I suppose I can cope without having my dozen or so anonymous edits. ;) Why are they so pokey about it, though? Do you have any idea?

Thanks a bunch, though, for taking the time! BenSamples 05:28, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

A quick hello

Hi Robin: A quick hello. I noticed the Māori Wikipedia and am impressed. I have been taking Te Reo with Te Wānanga O Aotearoa for a year and just now entering Year 2. My Reo isn't great but it's coming along. Writing in Te Reo is very time-consuming, and time is very short, but I may try to incorporate some of my homeplay (Wānanga-speak for homework) with a contribution at some point. It's difficult because much of what I write is only barely understandable at this point. Is it OK to use the Māori Wikipedia as a language-practice tool? Mona-Lynn 22:08, 5 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Hiya! Thanks for the nice message! You haven't noticed me because I only contribute occasionally, and only here and there on NZ articles. Latin music is my big thing. Wikipedia is a relaxation tool for me but I severely limit my time on it. Oftentimes I just copyedit a paragraph here or there on the collaboration of the week when I can't sleep, or do some stuff with ethnomusicology-related articles, which is what I study. I may post a couple things on the Māori Wikipedia here and there. My lessons restart this week. I'm still very basic but it will start accelerating again. Unfortunately I've had to switch from the Wānanga because their lessons are on the wrong night. I'll be with AUT. Dang! I really wanted to support the Wānanga. Thanks for the welcome and see you around Wikipedia! Mona-Lynn 10:24, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Flags of the world

Hi Robin - yes, that's me. I've been involved in the FotW website or quite a number of years now. Flags of the World is a huge site (though not as big as Wikipedia) - over 30,000 flag images, I think - and it's mirrored at quite a number of locations, which seems to make things easier for both the page editors and the servers. I know of at least one other FOTW regular who's a Wikipedian (User:Zscout370, who contributes to a lot of flag articles).

You're right about the capital D of Delta Crucis, of course, and I remember the Evening Star - must be about 25 years since it closed now! Grutness|^hello? 07:28, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I've created a stub for Evening Star (newspaper). Please correct or expand as necessary.-gadfium 09:12, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

German article on Tongariro National Park

Hi Robin, I've extended the de:Tongariro-Nationalpark-article a little bit following the be bold-principle. Can you (as the only fluent German speaking New Zealander in the Wikipedia-community I know) have a quick look on it at any time? I'm especially unsure about the territorial authorities. Cheers, --Alexander Sommer 16:31, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Maori wiki

Hi Robin - I can't promise I'll do much work on mi.wikipedia - my knowledge of Te Reo is very, very limited - so much so that I spent a bit of time trying to work out why you were talking about a penguin until I realised what "hoiho Uwhingitana" was :) As for the energetic start, much of that flurry of edits was trying to figure out how to edit the macrons correctly! Grutness|^hello? 01:09, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Dn suburbs

Hi Robin. You wrote: Tomahawk, Kew (you shouldn't have missed that one - you pass it often enough), Corstorphine, Concord, Bradford, Brockville, Kaikorai, Balmacewen, Wakari, Glenleith... Did you mention Macandrew Bay, Broad Bay, Portobello...?

Yes, there were quite a few more I could have mentioned (and yes, I drove past the foot of Kew less than an hour ago!). There's also Calton Hill, Ocean View, Tahuna, Tainui... Mac Bay and Broad Bay are in there, but Portobello already has a separate article. It should be linked in like the Green Island one, probably - I'll do that now. The same should happen if Sawyers Bay gets its own article, probably. And you're right, Dalmore is further away from me, but my sister-in-law lives there, so I should have added it in! :) Grutness|^hello? 05:15, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Good man. I wonder if I should dredge up Bayfield (most of which WAS dredged up, actually, over several decades), Musselburgh, St Clair Park, Burnside, Halfway Bush, Dunottar, City Rise, Forbury, and Hillside among the inner lot and Highcliff[e], Otakou, ... actually, we have the overlap with Dunedin#List_of_Dunedin_suburbs that possibly needs a bit more tweaking. Some of the above may be on one or both already, I haven't checked them all today. Some need disambiguation if they are going to get separate articles. Robin Patterson 06:44, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Macrons

Grutness, referring to the penultimate heading above - I wonder how you have been accessing macrons on the "mi". A couple that you did looked like what one gets with some fancy fonts - the macron was out to the right (on my screen anyway).

In theory you can click in (or copy and paste from) the first bunch of java characters below the edit box (where I moved them from their "standard" position, which is away down in the pecking order). Some pages, as you may have noticed, have my alternative hidden line within the actual edit box - very useful for editing near the top or bottom of the page. Either way, the edit box may get code rather than a proper-looking macron, but that's easier to check than a rectangle!

If creating new locality articles, please

make all possible use of my "User:Robin Patterson/MaoriModelPlacesPages" ("en" subpage - apology if I've already mentioned that), and
don't bother to use macrons for the page name initially because we can improve usability and searchability by having the initial article without macrons in its name then create a redirect the easiest way by moving it.

Don't rush into "mi"; the recent changes is looking nicely mixed with our Scandinavian and Taiwanese and Spanish friends busy.

Robin Patterson 06:44, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Alan Duff

Hi, you added a greeting to my talk page about a year ago. I noticed you are from New Zealand and I thought I would bring this entry - which I added recently - to your attention. I was surprised there was no entry already, but I have a feeling it could be improved quite a bit. If you can take a look that would be great! TIA. --Mista-X 03:15, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

==the mi:kakahi fella and NZ timeline==

Had a chat to user 164.78.252.56, and he promises not to to it again.

The 2004 in New Zealand page is great. I wonder if there is a way that it can be instantly generated using a year catagory somehow?

I have been thinking that the issue is not specifically the timeline. It is more of a question on how far a click should travel, and indeed in which direction. eg the near 2004 in New Zealand target is 99% clearly a better target then the 2004 target for most NZ pages.

Is User_talk:Dramatic the best place to continue this conversation? I suggest we continue at a water pump somewhere, or in a section of: Talk:Timeline_of_New_Zealand_history?

NevilleDNZ 14:53, 6 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Duplication

The bulk of your page was duplicated, as of 10:26 on March 7, 2005. I've taken the liberty of chopping the first half out, but feel free to slap my wrist if I've been presumptious. Noisy | Talk 17:24, May 6, 2005 (UTC)

Kia ora

Sorry I don't know much TRM other than really basic stuff but I really want to learn, mi Wikipedia is going to rock - I'll ask all my whanau and mates to contribute (maybe my cuzz will translate his Ram Muay article hehehe) :D

RE: Thanks for all the New Zealand geography additions

Thank you very much for noticing. I wondered if anybody saw those. But, when I went to those pages, New Zealand cities, there was either a map of the entire district, or none at all. There would be a discription of where the city/town was, but that doesn't do someone like me, from "up-over", and other places much good. I would have to open another browser window, find a map, and then I would know. Guess I am more of a visual person. So, I decieded someone else might be like me, and to make it easier, I thought I would add maps pointing to the city's/town's. Well, then I went to Hastings, and there was paltry anything, and it was poorly written, with errors. So, of course the Wiki in me had to write a new history, do some research, and the hunt goes on. "Building a better WikiPedia, one edit at a time". I hope people like them. WikiDon

Stubs

Don't worry, it's quite a commom mistake. Sorry if I sounded a bit too business-like, it's just that I was cleaning up a couple dozen pages last night. :) I just don't get what you meant by How does this page get away with having one? Cheers. --Sn0wflake 19:10, 24 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, I see what you mean. Actually, it's just the templates which are being linked, not the categories themselves. Thus, the page doesn't get listed on Category:Stub (which we have been trying to clear for quite a while over at WP:WSS). Cheers. --Sn0wflake 20:12, 24 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Green colour

I've given a rough idea on the colour I want the babel green to be switched to. I have no problems if it is lightened or darkened. Its in the babel talk. Regards, =Nichalp (Talk)= 13:57, Jun 3, 2005 (UTC)

Roman Empire map

Sorry, but I really have no idea if it was copyrighed. I had dragged that image from the Roman Empire article, but I don't know if it has been removed since. I guess it would be okay to use. Dbraceyrules 19:03, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It is amazing how many languages you speak. Dbraceyrules 19:04, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thank you, but it shouldn't be amazing. A thousand years of British ancestry. Latin and French at Otago Boys' High School then added German (not very successfully, though eventually passed Stage 3) at University of Otago. And it's easy to learn a bit of mi:te reo maori in New Zealand. I have dabbled in 15 other languages, a couple of which see me helping with their Wikipedias occasionally. Robin Patterson 02:41, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, but I guess you're a "polyglot," personally I only speak Spanish (but I don't write it perfectly all the time, although I speak it fluently), and I am learning Portuguese, which shouldn't be too hard compared to Spanish. I can read, write and understand it, but pronunciation is a bit harder than Spanish. Other than that, I just speak my favorite: good old English. lol. Take care, - 209.165.13.135 22:44, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Māori

I've rename the article Maori Wars to New Zealand land wars and set about fixing the double redirects. However, there's one I can't get to: Māori Wars. I also note that articles linking to Māori don't get there; Wikipedia is failing to parse past the M. I think the macron over the a used to be a valid character in article titles. As someone who seems to have used it extensively in the past, do you know what's happened and how we can fix it?-gadfium 09:17, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks!

Hi Robin!

Yes, I know about the Portuguese Wikipedia... but I believe joining the English one will improve my English. Anyway, I joined the Portuguese and the French ones, too!

-D

Thanks,

--Milena 17:40, Jun 17, 2005 (UTC)

My Grievances Against Moriori: The Whole Story

--User Talk: Felix Frederick Bruyns I have decided that I must tell the entire story about what Moriori has done to me. It is rather long and I apologize for that, but it cannot be helped. The problems began in mid-2004, slightly over a year ago. I was 19 years old, very ignorant about the technical aspects of Internet use and I knew nothing about Wikipedia policy. I stumbled across your free encyclopedia, however, and I decided that, having done intensive research on Negro League baseball, I would write a few articles in Wikipedia. I saw that registration was optional, and so I did not see any reason to bother with it. I was, I believe, assigned a number with colons in it. I wrote several articles on Negro Leaguers (which, in essentials, remain on Wikipedia today) and I did not take credit for them even though I didn't know of the Wikipedia policy against taking such credit, since I thought that they should be fully public domain and that the work was its own reward. My mother, however, said that my articles were of high quality and that I should in some way take credit for them. Not knowing of the policy against this, I simply typed "Author: Felix F. Bruyns" at the bottom of each article. That was when some confusion began. Some people believed that I was not "Felix F. Bruyns" and that I might have stolen the articles from someone by that name. Then my father suggested that I register under my own name (which is Felix F. Bruyns) to clarify the matter. I did so, but it was at about this time that the situation became ugly. I looked up some entertainers, among them Kylie Minogue, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Drew Barrymore and Cary Grant. I knew nothing about the "point of view" policy at the time, but in retrospect they contained a libertarian and pro-pornography point of view. I am more conservative now than I was then, but even then I was shocked by the disrespectful and unprofessional nature of some of the articles. So, having the understanding that anyone was allowed to edit anyone else's work, I removed a few sentences from these articles and changed a few others. That was when the wrath of every anti-censorship Wikipedian seemed to descend on me. I was accused of "vandalism", called a "troll", told by Raul654 that he "political correctness is something I despise" (obvious POV motivation) and it was also Raul654 who accused me of "PC (political correctness) pushing". But another of my attackers stood out even more. Both Moriori and Raul654 called me a "troll" and Raul654 claimed that my articles on the Negro Leaguers were "far from original", but as bad as all of this was Moriori went a step further. He accused me of "copyvio" and demanded that I remove all of my articles from the site. This could have been an honest mistake because of the "Author: Felix F. Bruyns" confusion, but I came across one item that proved that Moriori was premeditated in his falsehoods. He specifically claimed that I had copied my article on Turkey Stearnes from the African American Registry. This was so far from the truth that it had to be a deliberate lie. The African American Registry's "born on this day" article on Turkey Stearnes doesn't even closely resemble mine, and the site was not even one of my sources of research on Stearnes. The timing of these accusations definitely suggests that Moriori's motives were political, but, of course, I cannot prove his motives. I presume that Moriori was fully familiar with the "keep your cool" policy, since he seemed far more experienced in Wikipedia than I was, but I was not. He and I exchanged a series of angry user talks. To be honest, we BOTH lost our tempers. He called me a "troll", accused me of vandalism, "copyvio" and demanded that I remove all of my articles from Wikipedia. In turn, irate over the obvious slander, I called him "a plague spot on Wikipedia" and demanded that he remove all of his articles from the site. I also made justified legal threats against him, unaware of the "no legal threats" Wikipedia policy. Although two or three users showed some sympathy for me, many more accused me of vandalism or otherwise sided with Moriori. I was so upset that I visited the New Zealand police website, but unfortunately, unlike some national police sites, they had no non-emergency e-mail. The last straw was when someone hijacked both my "Felix F. Bruyns" user page and a message board, claiming to be me and typing things like "You may think of me as a vandal, but I like to think of myself more as a dictator" and other such arrogant nonsense that I had nothing to do with whatsoever. I had no idea of how to deal with this sort of treatment, so I finally decided to leave the site in utter humiliation. A few months later I suffered a series of moderate illnesses (tonsilitis, facial swelling of unknown cause, etc...) and I was not on the Internet again until a couple of months ago. One of the first things that I did was to check if the slanderous references to me were still on the web, which they were. I decided that I would resume some editing and I re-registered with Wikipedia. Of course, since over a year had passed, I had long forgotten my old password so I registered under my full name "Felix Frederick Bruyns" with a new password. I looked up the article on Kylie Minogue, but at some point I became emotionally repulsed by its content (which had actually gotten worse) and that, combined with my old anger over the slanderous references to me in the archives (which I didn't know how to edit at that time), led me to write two imprudently angry (but neither illegal nor profane) messages, both of which were mostly the result of my ignorance about the archives and so forth. In these messages I castigated Wikipedia as a whole, and for this I apologize. It was wrong of me to overgeneralize based on a few articles or the abuse of a few users. If I have offended any of the administrators or other senior users of Wikipedia I am sincerely sorry. At the same time I think that you can understand, given my ignorance of nearly all Wikipedia policy and the treatment that I had received, why I felt very angry. I moderated my tone as I learned more about Wikipedia, but in some of my general complaints and requests I mentioned Moriori and what he had done to me in 2004. Well, he responded by lying about me (he claimed that I had accused him of spreading a virus, which is not true). He has twice quoted me out of context in our renewed online struggle, and of course we have exchanged insults. Finally, a message that I left on this very noticeboard was deleted, and I have every reason to believe that Moriori deleted it. To be fair, when I wrote the message I had forgotten something that I said in 2004, and so I accused him of misquoting me rather than quoting me out of context. I will copy this message, however, so that I can replace it if he deletes it. I am now "keeping my cool". I am not demanding anything from administrators or more experienced Wikipedians. I am making a humble request-in fact-I am pleading that someone will understand my side of the story and the wrongs that Moriori has committed against me. No matter what Moriori tells you or anyone else, every word of this post is the truth, so help me God. Will someone please help me? Thank you very much.

Two Possible Sources of Confusion

--User Talk: Felix Frederick Bruyns I am sorry if I confused you. The fact is that you may not remember me. I am the same "Felix F. Bruyns" who was slandered and bullied off Wikipedia in 2004. I remember that you were one of the few people to show any sympathy towards me, and that's why I sent this message to you. Another thing that might confuse you is the fact that I copied that long complaint against Moriori from the administrative noticeboard, since it was so long and since it was late at night where I live when I wrote it. Therefore, one of the sentences is relevant only to that board, and I am sorry if that caused you any confusion. Also, are you an expert on law, or if you are not, do you know anyone on Wikipedia who is? Thank you very much.

Thank You

I understand that you and Moriori are both in New Zealand. For the record, I have nothing against New Zealand. On the contrary, I thank you for your concern and if you are on good terms with Moriori then all the better. The fact is, the situation between him and me has gotten pretty ugly. For my part, I am a self-confessed hothead. He is either a slanderer or extremely paranoid. I'll try to assume good faith and say that his gross misstatements about me were unintentional or only unconsciously dishonest. So as not to claim to be any better than I am, I'll readily admit that I tend to take revenge too often and that in response to his misstatements I have insulted him rather badly (though I don't use bad language, for the record). He has thrown his share of insults my way as well, and it is now useless for me to try communicate with him since he has quote "cleansed" his user talk of my messages. I think that the real source of our quarrel was over politics, since he incorrectly accused me of copyright violation shortly after a major "censorship" controversy, but the politics have been rather lost in a very personal struggle. If you communicate with him he will quote me (not necessarily in the perfect context) as saying some rather inflammatory things about Wikipedia in general, but most of my more extreme statements were made out of ignorance and I have since apologized for them. To the credit of Raul654, another user with whom I quarreled in 2004, he has remained silent through the 2005 chapter of this war. But Moriori seems to have a deep hatred for me that I don't understand, but maybe-just maybe-he is telling the truth and doesn't understand my hostility towards him. My overall opinion of Wikipedia has improved in 2005, and I actually wrote three short articles today at a site I once swore I'd never return to. But something has to be done. Moriori wants "official" action taken about my 2004 legal threats (which I made before I knew the "no legal threats" policy), and I for one would like a sincere explanation of just why he insisted that I had violated copyrights, especially on the "Turkey Stearnes" article, which he claimed I stole from the African American Registry. That's where I have the most trouble assuming good faith. Visit the African American Registry and look up Turkey Stearnes, then look up Stearnes on Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article is mine with only minor edits by other users. You will see that there isn't even a strong resemblance between the two, and as I have said many times, the AAR wasn't even one of my research source on Stearnes. I don't know whether Moriori really believed that I stole my article from the AAR, but I wish that he would give me an explanation instead of spreading the word about what a nutcase I supposedly am. He also accused me of vandalism, presumably because he disagreed with some of my edits on political grounds. I have never committed vandalism against any website and never would. He called me a "troll", which I believe means an Internet vandal. I find his behavior to be puzzling and very irritating. He doesn't seem to feel such enmity towards anyone else, so again, I can only conclude that his original motives must have had to do with politics, which isn't a valid reason for lying (if he deliberately lied). Sorry for the length of this message and thanks again for your understanding. Felix Frederick Bruyns 02:50, 5 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]