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My RfA

Hi Cyde. Just a quick note to thank you for voting on my RfA, which recently passed 62/13/6. I want to let you know that I will do my best to address all concerns that were raised during the RfA. I will also do my very best live up to this new responsibility and to serve the community, but please let me know if I make any mistakes or if you have any feedback at all on my actions. Finally, if there is anything that I can assist you with - please don't hesitate to ask. Cheers TigerShark 04:11, 4 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oral Sex

I think it might be time to close this mediation case...... KimvdLinde 21:10, 4 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done, there wasn't much to do though. The main person on the other side was recently banned indefinitely by the community. --Cyde Weys 21:19, 4 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I missed the latter, but I am not surprised.... KimvdLinde 21:21, 4 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was actually the one who blocked him for one month and then recommended an increase to indefinite, which was then carried out, so maybe I wasn't the best impartial mediator in this instance :-D Cyde Weys 21:29, 4 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hamas

Hi Cyde, thanks for your note about the new refs style, which I've just started using, so I'm still feeling my way. I only converted the refs in the intro, by the way, so the {{note label|CFR|16|a}} edits aren't mine. Thanks for the link to your refs converter. Cheers, SlimVirgin ^(talk) 01:35, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nice-looking talk page. SlimVirgin ^(talk) 01:35, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Footnotes and references WikiProject

I'm seriously thinking about starting a Wikipedia:WikiProject Footnotes or something along those lines. When it comes to footnotes and references the articles on Wikipedia are an absolute mess and need serious cleaning up. It doesn't help that the old {{ref}} and {{note}} system was hard to use and very prone to falling out of date with further edits, to the point that there are isolated refs or notes that don't match anything or the numbers have gotten out of order. The Cite.php is much better and to that means I have created the Ref converter, which works to convert properly formatted old-style refs and notes to the new Cite.php. Of course, a lot of the old-style refs and notes were done incorrectly, and so lots of human hands are needed. The ultimate goal would be to zero out the What links here list of {{note}}, {{ref}}, {{an}}, {{anb}}, {{ref label}}, and {{note label}}, as well as eliminating inline external links. Obviously that's a hard goal to achieve, so we would probably be better suited to go for education efforts, i.e., educate users on how to properly use <ref> and <references /> so that, over time, new references and footnotes are added correctly and ones in the old style are gradually converted. Who's with me? --Cyde Weys 01:40, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Intriguing idea. Of course, I just really need another project to help me with all the things to do on my personal lists. At the very least, I guess, I could go back and redo the refs on the articles I've made substantive contributions to. I'll keep an eye on this. -- Donald Albury^(Talk) 02:14, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. As I said, there is going to be a big focus on education efforts, because the number of articles on Wikipedia with old and improperly formatted references is huge. I've already started looking at edit histories on these kinds of pages, identified the editors using the old style, and left them a polite note on their talk page. If we have a nice WikiProject page we can link to that lays out all of the proper stuff to do when making references it will be very helpful. --Cyde Weys 02:21, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have echoed this to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fact and Reference Check, let's see what kind of a response we get from them. --Cyde Weys 02:22, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK. Against my better judgment I may let myself get sucked into this. -- Donald Albury^(Talk) 02:28, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the first thing I'm going to do is create a page that list proper ways to cite various sources (e.g. {{citenews}}) and describes the proper way to use Cite.php. Of course, there will be examples! --Cyde Weys 02:33, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

see also User:Cantara/Bibliography ... that user may be interested in combining forces with you. I just told you just about all I know about it. Hope it helps! ++Lar: t/c 03:46, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Here are some useful links to start fixing references:

--Cyde Weys 04:09, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You'll definitely have to count me in. I wish I'd found your ref converter before now, because I could've used it when I converted several pages by hand :-) Also, I noticed (a bug?) that when you ran it through Katie Holmes, it did something weird with the formatting, and it ended up <ref>. Start of reference</ref>. Not sure whether that was actually a problem with the original formatting or not, but I've gone through and tweaked it all out--hopefully. :D Jud e (talk,contribs,email) 08:36, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I noticed the out-of-place periods in Katie Holmes too ... there wasn't much I could do about it though, those were present in the original ref/notes for whatever reason. Ref converter just converts properly formatted refs ... if it tried to handle every little weird thing that people do it would be a monumental undertaking. --Cyde Weys 16:53, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I love your converter! thanks much! KillerChihuahua^?!? 09:31, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Protect a page

Hey, Cyde. Almost the entire article at World War II was deleted and replaced with nonsense by an IP vandal. Could you get that to the attention of administrators? This request was added by Brendenhull 01:43, 5 April 2006 (UTC).[reply]

For future reference you can just take care of that kind of thing yourself. Just revert the vandalism. And if it's a persistent problem, report it at WP:AIV. Thanks. --Cyde Weys 01:50, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ref converter

Cyde, I've tried your Ref converter on Body mass index and it worked amazingly well (I was amazed anyway!). Some (but not all) double quotes " and other stuff was indeed munged until I used Notepad exactly as you had said. Merely copying and pasting into Notepad wasn't sufficient: I had to save your text file and open it into Notepad before copying and pasting into "edit". But someone is bound to know the solution to this: shame that someone isn't me. Many thanks. Thincat 10:49, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, the browser tries to be too smart and tries to interpret some of the foreign characters to your local character set. Meanwhile, Notepad is just dumb enough that it leaves everything exactly the way it is, and thus works. I really do wish I could figure out a way to get copy-and-paste straight from the browser working, rather than having to download and open a text file. Ref converter is open source, so if anyone wants to take a stab, get in contact. I can set you up with a CVS account. --Cyde Weys 16:56, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Use Textpad or EmEditor, never use Notepad, its a piece of... its not the best text editing solution. One puppy's opinion. KillerChihuahua^?!? 17:03, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I tried using Notepad2 and it was actually being too smart and it messed up the foreign language characters. What's needed in this situation is absolutely the dumbest rock on a log text editor you can find, because all you're doing is downloading a text file, opening it, and copying the contents into Wikipedia, and during that conversion, you don't want a single byte changed. Notepad doesn't change a single byte; others do. --Cyde Weys 17:10, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lothal

Thank you for the wikiflower. It's nice to be appreciated. I have also put an {{editprotected}} on Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 6, 2006, and was wondering if you would take care of that for me. — MSchmahl … 21:22, 5 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

User:Mike Garcia

Mike Garcia (talk · contribs) has been changing "is" to "are" and "was" to "were" on articles again. He has said that he would go into an edit war with me if he has to and said, "Feel happy that there is nothing you can do to stop me from that [1]. I have been unable to resolve this issue with him. What can I do to stop this kind of behavior from him? I am thinking of doing an RfC but read that it requires 2 active editors to file one. Any comments and suggestions? Thanks! —RJN 04:54, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ugh, not this again. I've dealt with it and posted to WP:ANI. Going to bed now. --Cyde Weys 05:03, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It is irresponsible to block another user in order to gain an advantage in a content dispute. Could you please unblock Mike? Thanks. Rhobite 14:42, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a content dispute, it's a formatting dispute. And he's causing disruption to many articles. General consensus on these US/British issues (i.e. color/colour) is to just leave them alone, and do not go out searching for things to convert to "your way". --Cyde Weys 16:02, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't believe this is a US/British issue. In many cases, such as The Beatles and The White Stripes, it is correct to use the plural in both forms of the language. Rhobite 19:14, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In American English the preferred form is to use the singular verb when referring to collective nouns. I suppose the other way is acceptable in colloquial usage, but ask an English professor ... they'll tell you what's "correct". Apparently it's different in British English. --Cyde Weys 20:00, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's fine, but plural band names are not collective nouns. Ask the New York Times, they agree with me on The White Stripes and The Supremes. If the Times writes in "colloquial" English, as you say, then so should we. Rhobite 20:37, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Although the question largely turns on whether one writes/speaks in British or American English (notwithstanding that some of us hail from America but side with the Brits on collective noun questions), upon which recognition we are perhaps best served to use whatever verb form would be consistent with the general language on the page (inasmuch as there is surely no pattern one can observe with respect to which articles, having been contributed to primarily by British English speakers, employ British spellings and grammar and which don't), consistent with, inter al., the Jguk arbitration case (although I'm not altogether in accord with the suggestion that one should, for instance, change BE spellings to AE where the subject of an article is American; the justification seems insignificant), concerns over intent sometimes militate that one usage be chosen over another. As our article collective noun well illustrates, even in BE one sometimes uses the singular where the intent is to refer with specificity to the group qua group (cf., group qua individuals). In the VF article, I believe the plural should be employed, given that the history reveals that the "are" formulation was used for much of the life of the article. Whether one, as Mike, should so concern himself with returning the article to the plural locution (and with changing other articles in order that they should be consistent with BE) is a different question, and one that may properly be addressed at RfC if the user about whom RJN writes is wholly recalcitrant and otherwise incivil. Joe 20:53, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My RfC

Hi Cyde. I wonder if you would mind if I moved the RfC on me from your userspace into mine? It just seems, well, more appropriate. Cheers, Sam Korn ^(smoddy) 16:48, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah that sounds fine. Please leave the redirects in my userspace intact though. Thanks. --Cyde Weys 16:51, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers. Sam Korn ^(smoddy) 17:52, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See what you miss?

I only just noted your April 1 vandalism of my userpage - made me chuckle, that did :-) Just zis Guy you know? 17:51, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

April Fool's: The Gift That Keeps On Giving. --Cyde Weys 19:59, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Vandal/troll is back

The troll 67.160.36.12 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · filter log · WHOIS · RDNS · RBLs · http · block user · block log) I mentioned earlier who had photoshopped pictures over that AfD is back, it is currently putting non-sensical warning messages on my talk page, I took one off and it put on another. Among other fun things, it seemed to think my last name was "Zimmerman" or tried to guess that was what it was. In any event, a word/and or a long a block might be in order (and could you rv my user page since technically I shouldn't be removing warnings from my user page). Thanks. JoshuaZ 20:27, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is probably the same troll that made the Joshuaz (note uncapped z) user name. JoshuaZ 20:33, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind, Gator and Teadrinker handled it, apparently our little friend tried to report me for vandalism and that caught their attention. JoshuaZ 20:38, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dealt with. Ugh, what an annoying troll. --Cyde Weys 20:39, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

67.160.36.12

I think a month long block is too long in this case, perhaps 48 hours? (Of course I am just a newbie admin, so point it out to me if I am obviously wrong)

Prodego ^talk 20:41, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Look at his contribs and his overall disruptiveness. He hasn't done anything good in the past dozens of edits and he sure as hell has done a lot of bad. Him posting to WP:AIV shows that he's familiar with Wikipedia and was trying to game the system. In other words, he knows what he was doing was bad, and one month is not too long of a block for this kind of trolling, harrassing, and unproductive nonsense. --Cyde Weys 20:42, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but I always try to assume good faith, (i.e. I never user the blatant vandal template), I definitely don't think a block longer then a week is necessary here, especially since this is an IP. If (s)he continues after a 48 hour block then I would support a month block, but not as a first block. Prodego ^talk 20:47, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Look at all of the warnings on this guy's page though. He got off very easy earlier without a block at all. And if you still really think the block duration needs to be decreased, post something to WP:ANI. Let me remind you that WP:AGF is an initial assumption ... it is not a suicide pact. You don't keep assuming good faith while they're shooting at you. --Cyde Weys 20:49, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually I do ;-), see the vandal who attacked my userpage. However I leave this up to you, I won't contest it or anything, just giving my opinion. Happy editing. Prodego ^talk 20:51, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My sincere apologies to Prodego and Cyde for having inadvertently removed Prodego's last message here while adding my comment. Joe 21:18, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sherbert test page merge proposal

I've been editing the Sherbert Test page that you created (you and I are the only one's who've worked on it). Frankly, I think a lot of the page is redundant with the Free Exercise Clause page. I was going to propose a merger, but if it's fine by you, I'll just go ahead and merge Sherbert into FEC. --Kchase02 23:28, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Just make sure you add a new section to that page explicitly named "The Sherbert Test" or something and then have the redirect from Sherbert Test point to that section. --Cyde Weys 23:37, 6 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"ZOMG the signals are coming thru yer TINFOIL HELMET, better get an UPGRADE"??

in the future, when leveling a block on a sharedip, could you try to give a more useful blocking description, I mean, I don't know what the hell to make of this, is it on an ip, or a username? I can't even tell--64.12.116.9 00:00, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The user's contribs speak for themselves. And my block summary was entirely relevant to his username. --Cyde Weys 00:06, 7 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]