User talk:Raul654

For your tireless work in making Wikipedia better, for keeping Template:Feature up-to-date, for doing the grunt work of cleaning up Wikipedia:Featured article candidates, for mediating in disputes, for adding lots of really nice pictures, and for still finding the time to work on articles! In a few months you've already become a highly valued member of the community. Stay with us and don't burn out, please. --Eloquence Apr 10, 2004

Red links at Wikipedia:Sound/list

I note that there are red links for the Air Force band items uploaded by your bot.

Bot problems? Copyright problems? Attitude problems over at the commons? I thought I'd at least bring it to your attention and offer to help.

I believe that it is a matter of time before there is a policy collision between En: and Commons. If nothing else, there are few commons sysops who are also active on En:. As a result, prompt response vandalism of images that are prominent on En: may become a problem. The Uninvited Co., Inc. 06:08, 24 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Long story short -- the airforce claims they are all public domain, although some of them may not be. I uploaded them en-masse using Raulbot (I admit I should have been more suspicious about some, but I took their copyright page at face value). Brion deleted them en masse. So there are a lot of red links, with quite a few (roughly half, I'd guess) non-existant files linked to from articles.

At some point, I'd like to try it again more conservatively. There are some file there which are quite obviously public domain (like Holst's the plants) but it's a case of once-bitten twice-shy. →Raul654 04:34, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Today's featured article

I left a note requesting Marshall, Texas be featured on the main page August 3, but have not recieved a reply. I need to know if it will be featured then, so I'll have time to clean up or create related articles. Please respond. Thanks. -JCarriker 06:40, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and scheduled all the featured article through that date. Yes, Marshall Texas will be on the main page on August 3. →Raul654 17:22, July 24, 2005 (UTC)

Raul, Raul, Raul....

I admire your patience in dealing with the ongoing "sneakiness" at AIDS.... but.... "AIDS is the result of infection with Human immunodeficiency virus is correct, and 'AIDS is the result of an infection of Human immunodeficiency virus' isn't. People are infected with a virus, or by a virus, but not of a virus. The second phrase implies that the virus is itself infected (and viruses sometimes are, by phages), and that's wrong for HIV. - Nunh-huh 05:28, 25 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I suppose you are correct that my construction is ambigious, but the original one sounded awkward. Is there a third option here? →Raul654 05:32, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

I'm sure there are lots of alternatives. "AIDS is caused by infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus". "AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus". "AIDS is a disease caused by infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus". I'm not sure what you're finding lacking in "AIDS is the result of infection with Human immunodeficiency virus." It seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable sentence, gramatically. Changing "cause" to "results from" was most likely one of the "sneaky" changes, though. "Cause" ought to be in the topic sentence! (e.g.

AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a disease caused by the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV infection weakens the immune system, resulting in unusual infections and some rare cancers. Although treatments exist, there is no known cure for AIDS.

Probably not worth worrying too much about until the interference with the article dies down, I just wanted to say that "of" really isn't idiomatic. - Nunh-huh 05:43, 25 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Iran-Contra Affair

i appreciate your recent edits to this article. J. Parker Stone 21:32, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you :) →Raul654 21:36, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

Video icon

(Regarding Template:Film-stub and Template:Multi-video start and template:video)

I like the old icon better. This one is bumpy on the edges and the old one wasn't. -- BRIAN0918 21:36, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The problem with the old one was that it was terribly ambigious. It was "sort of" a video cassette, but you wouldn't know that unless you thought about it for a while. The new one, while not as pretty and certainly not perfect, does the job better. →Raul654 21:38, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

On the other hand, I'm totally open to someone coming along with a better icon. There are tons that would suffice - a picture of a TV, for example. →Raul654 23:28, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

You might consider a public domain icon, such as one of these. -- BRIAN0918 23:29, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

How's this? Old:

New:

—Josh Lee 19:17, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

They look fine to me. →Raul654 19:24, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Committed. —Josh Lee 22:46, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

You forgot Template:Video (I got it) →Raul654 22:48, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

"Job order"

I'm thinking about duplicating on the English Wikipedia a project from the German version, described here. Any objections? Also, any objections to users providing links on their user pages or on related article talk pages for such things as paypal donations, similar to "homework help" forums where answer-providers have links stating "if I have helped you, would you please consider saying thanks in the form of a paypal donation", only in this case, "if you feel my contributions have been useful, would you consider..." or on (for example) a featured article's talk page, "if you feel this article has been informative, would you consider..." (of course, inquiring minds would want to check the edit history to see if the user has contributed anything). This sounds like a good idea and it looks to be growing on the German site. It's sure to increase popularity and incentive for producing more and better content. -- BRIAN0918 21:36, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I know the practice has been highly controversial on the German Wikipedia. I can see the benefits it offers, but I can also see several potential problems.

I suspect it would stimulate incentive to produce more content on specific (bountied) subjects. Better content? Maybe, maybe not. I know that often times, requested articles are written more-or-less straight from a google search. So the quality of the requested-and-newly-created articles (depth, breadth, accuracy, and context) isn't very good. Often times, the requested item is so obscure that the requestor knows just as much (if not more) than the person fulfilling the request. Offering bouties may just encourage this less-than-stellar practice.

With respect to "better articles", I was referring to people who offer a bounty for "the next featured article related to _____" (based on examples on the German page).

I'm also afraid that it's going to alter our biases to something unpredictable. What do I mean by that? Well, Wikipedia has an fairly well-documented geek and western systemic bias. I think we've all noticed and accepted this, and have adopted practices (both formally and informally) to counter this. Offering bounties opens us up to all other kinds of biases.

I see it as a way to counteract our current biases by offering incentive for people to research things with which they aren't familiar, such as.... all of Africa... -- BRIAN0918 22:09, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

On a less tangible note, offering bounties runs counter to the wikipedia altruistic spirit on which wikipedia thrives. Many people find the practice inherently distasteful. In the long run, it also opens the door to corporate sponsorship of writers here. (Wikipedia is not a soapbox, or a PR platform)

So basically, I would suggest that you wait it out, and see how it shapes up on the German Wikipedia. If it works well, we'll import the practice. If not, we can avoid a maelstrom. →Raul654 21:58, July 26, 2005 (UTC)

On the German Wikipedia, the Wikipedia Community is directly involved with all of it. I'm working on getting a better German translation of the page, but the current machine translation seems to suggest that the Community can decide through consensus objections if a specific offer should be altered or removed. I think a version can be adapted to the English Wikipedia with the obligatory "checks and balances" which will prevent it from ever getting near your "in the long run" concerns. In any case, the content is always licensed under a free license; I consider it an interesting change to offer incentive to contribute to free media. Also in any case, the community can always change guidelines for the project. -- BRIAN0918 22:09, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

What about the other suggestion: users on their own pages or on article talk pages sticking a message with a link to paypal? I'd like to test it out to see what kind of response there would be :) BRIAN0918 22:14, 26 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Oh lord. No, no, no! this kind of comment (basically pan-handling on the talk page) is not acceptable. It's one thing to offer a bounty if someone will write what you want; it's *very* different to use the talk pages to ask for it. The former is a controversial practice; the latter us utterly unacceptable. →Raul654 00:32, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Why is it unacceptable, though? (in other words, give me some arguments that I can attack :) ) -- BRIAN0918 00:34, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Uh, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a beggar's forum. →Raul654 00:36, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Alright, how about this for the project: we start out with the same setup, except that the only forms of reimbursement have no monetary value, so these could include requesting a featured article on topic X in exchange for a featured article on topic Y (this form of payment is popular on the German project), if not featured then of a quality that is examined after-the-fact by the requestor/community, or requesting a translation of article X from/to language A in exchange for a translation of article Y from/to language B (also popular on the German project), or giving various Wikithanks/Barnstars for the work. In the meantime, we can discuss the expansion to monetary trades on the talk page. -- BRIAN0918 03:50, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

What you are describing is basically Wikipedia:WikiMoney accounts (and I had to search for several minutes to find it because it's very, very old) →Raul654 03:54, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

That was WikiMoney, this initial version would be WikiBarter. Consider it a "new beginning / revival", and if/when it eventually extends to monetary incentives, then see it take off. If you can give specific situations where you can see this (monetary incentive) being bad/abused, please do, it'll help in policy-shaping. If you can suggest some checks/balances, also please do. -- BRIAN0918 04:02, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Quite frankly, it sounds like what you are describing could be best implimented using a closed-form of wiki-money, where the central supply of "currency" is controlled by a third party - e.g, you cannot arbitrarily give yourself 100-million wiki-whatevers. Instead, someone (let's call him the banker) doles out the currency in some way and executes transactions when requested. →Raul654 04:06, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

I think this would work better as a barter system, eliminating the middle man. (a barter system in the sense that you do one service in exchange for another, but don't pass their request onto another person in exchange for another service). -- BRIAN0918 04:11, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

True, but as our barter article so clearly puts it - The disadvantage of using bilateral barter in the past was that it depended on the mutual coincidence of wants. Before any transaction could be undertaken, the needs of one person must mirror the needs of another person. That is, if you have a surplus of goats and need more wheat, you must find someone who has a surplus of wheat and needs more goats. To overcome this mutual coincidence problem, intermediaries developed that would store, trade, and warehouse commodities. In short, if you don't find someone who is capable of doing exactly what you want and whose needs you are capable of meeting, then the system fails, whereas the problem would be half as complex with wikimoney. →Raul654 04:16, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Commons:Administrators RFA

Hi Raul654,

Can you take a look at Commons:Commons:Administrators. The voting there appears to be almost inactive, and given that the window for nominations is 7 days, it could probably benefit from a little more attention. -- Solipsist 06:30, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I supported you, but beyond that, there's not a whole lot I can do -- I'm not a bureacrat on Commons. Villy (from the french wikipedia) is, and he's apparently inactive. His user page says to ask Andre Engels →Raul654 06:34, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Sorry to walk into the middle of your conversation, but I've been blathering about the admin situation on commons for some time now to anyone who will listen. There is a potential vandalism problem brewing:

There are few admins on commons, around 100 as I recall.
Perhaps half of these are familiar names from en:.
Commons does not grant adminship merely because someone is an admin on en: and is active on commons. One must meet certain standards of activity in commons-specific areas.
It is a goal for images from commons to be used in en:, and ultimately this will end up happening with featured articles, the front page, and various other vandal magnets.
The usual means of dealing with vandalism to prominent articles, such as page protection, rollbacks, and blocks, are unavailable for commons images to the vast majority of en: admins.

The Uninvited Co., Inc. 14:20, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hrmmmm..... →Raul654 17:49, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Mark - looks like the ball is rolling now. My guess is that Commons hasn't quite got the critical mass for a spontaneous response. Unfortunately Villy appears to be away at the moment, otherwise I would have dropped him a note too - in fact Villy nominated my first FeaturedPicture on Commons shortly after the project was set up. Andre Engels appears to be handling the bureaucrat chores in the meantime. -- Solipsist 19:17, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Uninvited - I think I see what you mean. Its probably more of an issue on the smaller language wikis. It might be a good idea to check that at least one admin from each of the mediawiki projects is also be an admin on Commons. -- Solipsist 19:17, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Help

Hello Raul654 please help me in wikipedia. i am not new to wikipedia but need help in editing that article.--IDude 101 14:34, 27 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Erm, you're going to have to be specific. What article are you having problems on? What is your problem? →Raul654 17:51, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

Daily-article-l

Hi Raul. User:Frazzydee phoned me a little while ago to say that his router is broken and that he'll be on vacation until August 1, so he needs someone to send out the daily article until that date. Could you possibly run it? Today's article is pending, as his router broke before he could send it out today. Thanks, Yelyos 01:48, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Solved

In order to save everyone time and so that AI can focus on the real world, AI has proposed a solution in Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/AI#Remedies :D --AI 01:57, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Plautus returns

Hi, Raul654! I'm so glad go be back! I'm so glad to see you're still here! I hope we can have a lot of fun helping each other out, buddy! Plautus satire 03:41, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Raul654, I have not even been back 1 day and already you're threatening me on my talk page! I am in schock! I thought you were better than that! Shame on you, Raul654, I wish you hadn't threatened me on my talk page on my first day back! Plautus satire 03:52, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Think of it not as a threat, but as an opportunity. I am giving you the opportunity not to demonstrate again why you were banned for a year, by giving you plenty of notice that we've gotten much better at removing people who make such edits. →Raul654 04:02, July 28, 2005 (UTC)

Stop threatening me, Raul654, why are you so mean to me! I've had about enough threats from you, I'm asking you one last time to stop threatening me! If you have a problem with my editions then let's collaborate, buddy, that's the way to do things, don't you know that!? Work together, pal, I just want to be friendly! Plautus satire 04:15, 28 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]