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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by David-w-oaks (talk | contribs) at 22:06, 22 February 2012 (→Chance to chat a bit about 'how to edit' correctly?: new section). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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Take a Number

1. South Wasco County High School, per User talk:Tedder#South Wasco County High School Valfontis (talk) 22:48, 23 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

2. Talk:Caulk boots Valfontis (talk) 13:55, 20 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

3. Hermiston, Oregon Valfontis (talk) 15:27, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

4. Hope Abbey Valfontis (talk) 15:27, 11 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

5+ Roy, USCGC Fir (WLM-212), Laurelhurst. Valfontis (talk) 18:27, 5 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

6. Edgar M. Lazarus--add Teague info

Aladdin Theater

Hello Valfontis. Just notifying you that Aladdin Theater (Portland, Oregon) has been created in case you are interested. Leitmotiv (talk) 04:08, 2 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Albany parks and rec

I have been looking over the Albany Parks & Recreation page to see what I can do to improve it and I noticed you had talked about it last year sometime. I have made a comment on the talk page I would like you to look over if you have the time. (also if you ever feel up to giving me some advice on the Albany page that would be good to as I know there are things there that need improvement but I need some advice as to what to do there too.MathewDill (talk) 18:17, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 23 January 2012

The Signpost: 30 January 2012

John Cornet

I was attempting to find references for Cornet (other than Amazon) and couldn't find anything about where he works (other then the sentence in the Amazon page about the book mentioning he teaches high school in southern Oregon and that he is an adjunct professor at SOU). I personally know him because he is one of my teachers, but those kind of references wouldn't work. What do I do? -Dpm12 (7:58 AM PST)

Well first of all, you need to recognize that you have a strong conflict of interest regarding this article. I did a bunch of searches and could find very little on Mr. Cornet, except many places that are selling his self-published book, and a couple mentions in the Mail Tribune. I suspect the reason you can't find any references to him is because he is not notable by Wikipedia standards. If he merited an article in the encyclopedia, there would be some significant coverage of him in the press or books. My advice is that if you respect Mr. Cornet, you would ask for the article to be deleted (it's no fun to be the subject of a discussion that concludes you are not notable). If he does something in the future that merits his inclusion in an encyclopedia, the article can always be recreated. Valfontis (talk) 17:19, 1 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ESD

Context

I saw you moved the old page under the provision that Educational Service District is not a proper noun, as well. However, you are incorrect. Throughout both WA and OR government documents, the phrase "Educational Service District" is capitalized, and of course the abbreviation is capitalized as well. I will cite this WA OSPI webpage1 as an example; there are 1000s of other examples online. The name "Educational Service District" is also always capitalized by the local entity, too. It is a proper noun. If I do not hear from you within a week I will revert your edits. • Freechildtalk 07:32, 2 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Good morning. I hope you are having a good day. Clearly I am exceptionally wrong in this case. I just wasn't thinking. I hope you will accept my apologies. I have already reverted the page. Cheers. Valfontis (talk) 13:08, 2 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, thank you. My apologies for being abrupt- in six years of Wikipediaing I have never experienced another editor being so courteous. Thanks again. • Freechildtalk 14:41, 2 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oregon Star Party

Hey. I've been working on the Oregon Star Party wiki page for some time now. The main problem I have is quoting citations. Most of what can be explained, is from personal observations in attending OSP for many years. Also, the info that i can track down, always leads back to other personal opinions. I've tried to 'word out' the OSP page in a neutral tone as much as possible. Even their own website doesn't even talk much about the "real life" of OSP, so being able to create citations, can be a difficult task.

I did have citations that led back to part of their website, but they have been removed. I can put them back up of necessary, but in fact, most of the info on the OSP wiki page can be found on there main site with just a simple citation?

None the less, I'm still devoted in doing what I can for the OSP page, and Wikipedia!

If you want, just throw some helpful info my way!

Thanks! Sir Oaf (talk) 23:12, 4 February 2012 (UTC)Sir Oaf[reply]

Hawthorne Books

Dear Valfontis,

I am an intern at [Hawthorne Books] and am trying to simply add more detailed facts about the press but it appears someone of something is changing my edits to the page. I would very much not like to get into an 'editing war'. Is there anything I should be doing differently. I don't believe anything I have written is bias in anyway. Thank you and I'll look forward to your response.

Best, Gingercraft Gingercraft (talk) 19:33, 6 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Ginger, thank you for stopping editing and joining the discussion. If you haven't already, please read the information I posted on your page about conflict of interest--the text of which can be found here. You may also want to read our business FAQ. Unfortunately, I see a lot of interns such as yourself get in trouble with the Wikipedia community for doing what they were asked to do by their employer. But Wikipedia is not here to provide advertising space for your organization. Also, Hawthorne books does not "own" the page.
Especially problematic is the huge list of urls that was added to the article. This kind of thing is what we consider spam. If people are curious about the company, a single url will suffice. All the other content in the article should discuss any authors who may already have Wikipedia articles, or who may notable enough to have them. This is what I attempted to do with this edit.
BTW, the "someone or something" that is changing the edits would have been me. You can see the page history here (there is a tab at the top of the page that says "view history"). There you will find a list of all the edits made to the article, as well as edit summaries explaining those edits.
Please read the material you will find by clicking the blue links on your talk page and in this post. Then, going forward, the best way to accomplish your goals and those of Wikipedia would be to post suggested edits on the article's talk page where other editors can weigh in. I hope this explains. Valfontis (talk) 20:17, 6 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hawthorne Books

Dear Valfontis,

I am trying today to cite my references with some of the facts stated about Hawthorne Books. I've read much of the Wiki citing sources page so I hope I'm doing the right thing. As for listing the books Hawthorne has previously published, can I list those without it being spam? I was looking at other press pages that have their entire back lists including links to their wiki pages. Thank you for your help and I sincerely hope I'm on the right path now to becoming a better Wiki contributor.

Best, Ginger Gingercraft (talk) 20:58, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have time to reply right now, except to ask you to please read about "other stuff" to get some idea why it doesn't matter that other publisher's articles have links to their entire back catalogs. Those other articles will need to be cleaned up but it doesn't mean that in the meantime the Hawthorne Books article can contain an entire {{linkfarm}}. Thanks. Valfontis (talk) 21:11, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry I didn't reply sooner, but there are lots of places that you could have requested more help , like the article's talk page as I suggested. I think you're just not getting how the collaborative process works around here. If you get unblocked, I'd suggest you post all of your edit suggestions on the article's talk page, and not edit the article yourself. If you don't understand what any of this means, please ask. Valfontis (talk) 20:09, 22 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 06 February 2012

Pacific Northwest

Context

What is your problem? Canadian's all hate the US they put us down call us fat, and stupid, yet apparently they are Pacific Northwest? No one from Seattle goes up to Vancouver unless they're getting on a cruise to Alaska, what are you going to do to fix the bias in the article which lists Vancouver British Columbia, in Canada first on an article which should rightfully be a US article because the Pacific Northwest of Canada is the Yukon. 99.99.50.100 (talk) 19:24, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You are being a troll. Please keep your comments civil. (Hint: referring to Canadians as "naggy" and calling them "girlfriend", isn't very civil, and isn't going to get your comments taken seriously.) If you have something constructive to add to the discussion about the Pacific Northwest article please do so. Otherwise, article talk pages are not forums. Also, I'm not a "bro". Valfontis (talk) 19:33, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I apologize for being un-civil, and for calling you bro. It seems to me that the reason for including Canada in the Pacific Northwest is because some Canadian's whined that they were "me-too" part of the Pac NW, I just don't get it, why is a US term Pacific Northwest, also including Canadians, I get they want to be part of the US, but they certainly don't show it in daily life with their anti-Americanism and their frequent America bashing politician's, artist's, and journalist's. 99.99.50.100 (talk) 19:40, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You are making some very interesting assumptions and quite a few gross generalizations. Actually as far as I can tell from the discussion, most Canadians do not want B.C. to be included in the PNW designation. I'll have to ask my friend who gave up his Canadian citizenship to become a U.S. citizen about this. I've never heard him bash anything but like all Canadians, he is very polite. BTW, I'm American and I bash U.S. politicians all the time. Yes, I'm using a bit of sarcasm here. Now please read the talk page archives and continue your comments on the article's talk page. Valfontis (talk) 19:56, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(talk page stalker) IP, thanks for stating your point of view so clearly. Note there are citations from verifiable sources that explain why Vancouver is included in the "Pacific Northwest". In addition to approaching the issue from a neutral point of view, you might want to work on your grammar a bit- it's "politicians", not "politician's". tedder (talk) 21:25, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To not clutter up her page, I answered on the article's talk page. 99.99.50.100 (talk) 02:32, 9 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sybil Plumlee

Well, I think I have done what I can with online sources. I might be able to do more digging at the library or other official records. In the meantime, do you think the article is GAN-worthy, or is notability itself still in question? --Another Believer (Talk) 00:36, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, spaced this out. I'll look at it tonight after I take care of some domestic matters (like the fact that it's raining inside my house). Valfontis (talk) 23:30, 10 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
This is beautifully written and you made great use of the available sources and have clearly done your due diligence on the research. Still, I don't think she's notable. The three main points of notability--that she was "one of the first" female officers, longevity, and as an author (of a self-published genealogical book)--taken together still don't add up to notability, in my opinion. It appears she's just a long-lived person who happened to do some interesting things, much like any 100-year-old would have over the course of a lifetime. I don't see any evidence she made any particular impact on the PPB and being "one of the first" doesn't make her appointment groundbreaking, as far as I can tell. Perhaps an article or section in the PPB on the Women's Protective Division would be a better place to put the Plumee info. I wonder if there is a way to add some of the info to Portland vice scandal or create an article on (discrimination against) the LGBT community in Portland in general, to go with Hands Across Hawthorne, etc. Or at LGBT rights in Oregon. I find her participation in the "lesbian sting" (unfortunately common at the time) far more interesting than any of the other details of her life. Of course you should get a third opinion. I would recuse myself from this article, but if I didn't know you and respect your work, if this went to AfD I'd likely say "seems like a really interesting lady, but fails WP:GNG". Valfontis (talk) 05:13, 11 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your feedback. The DYK hook reviews did not seem to have any problems with the article. I will try to see if I can find any additional sources, perhaps re: her experiences w/ PPB. --Another Believer (Talk) 20:55, 15 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Port of Morrow

nice article. my impression was that infobox was summary of info in the body of the article as well. but i leave that to you. Slowking4⇔ †@1₭ 03:32, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for Your Response

Context

This is in response to your message to me about Edward Dickinson Baker.

It's nice to know someone is paying attention. I plan to make more changes to that article, which was helpful to me when I started research about Baker for a lecture I will give in April. Doing the additional research took me to information from other sources that I thought would improve what Wikipedia has about Baker.Tbowers1942 (talk) 14:49, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, the message was just a welcome message because I saw you were a new editor, not specifically about Edward Dickinson Baker, but yes, I noticed you editing the article because it is on WikiProject Oregon's watchlist. Cheers, Valfontis (talk) 15:13, 13 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oregon timber communities

I would like to get in touch with you about a project I am pursuing. I am a history professor specializing in the built environment and forest history. I am researching towns formed and owned by timber companies in western Oregon. My purpose is to reveal what can be learned about the companies' and residents' attitudes towards one another, social institutions, and the environment by investigating the way the communities were planned, built, and maintained. Finn of Offbeat Oregon (a fun podcast) brought your work to my attention. If you are interested in helping me in my endeavors please email me at [e-mail redacted].

Thank you, David Benac 174.69.113.226 (talk) 19:59, 14 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 13 February 2012

Untitled

Hello Valfontis. Your caption that the DeFazio bridge is a bike bridge does not match the plaque that simply calls it the DeFazio Bridge. File:AltonBakerPond.JPG

It has been difficult to label the bridge correctly. Calling it a "bike bridge" has caused many to question why we spent so much on a bridge just for bikes. It is also a pedestrian bridge.

You can email me if you have any questions. jimwilcox (the special place sign) comcast(the dot thing)net 199.79.32.21 (talk) 01:01, 17 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a bit confused. To me it's a bike bridge (I bike) but you are correct that it is also a pedestrian bridge. Who are these "many" who are referencing my slightly inaccurate caption and really crappy image to determine the truth about the bridge? And who is "we"? Do you represent ODOT, or the City of Eugene, or ??? Anyway, I can go ahead and fix the caption, but anyone is free to do so themselves. I hope that takes care of the problem. Valfontis (talk) 01:37, 17 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]
OK, I fixed the caption of the image itself, and the caption in the Alton Baker Park article. There are several more references to its status as a bicycle bridge. Feel free to fix these yourself--see {{sofixit}} for more information. Valfontis (talk) 01:47, 17 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oregon Lottery copy update

Hi Valfontis, I'm new to this process so please give me guidance. I was trying to update the Oregon Lottery Wiki page, with some new information. It was removed. Please help. Thank you for your assistance and what you do for Wikipedia. Rock and Roll!

P.S. this is what I was trying to post: [copypaste redacted]

April282008 (talk) 00:22, 18 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, you need to quickly read up on page histories and edit summaries. If you look at the Oregon Lottery page history, which is reached by clicking the "View history" tab at the top of the page, you will see my edit summary, where I removed the information you pasted because it was copied from the Oregon Lottery's website. I may be wrong, but the copying and pasting leads me to believe you work for the Oregon Lottery. (Oh, and please don't paste lots of text onto people's talk pages, as you did here--it messes up the formatting and I can see what you wanted to do with the page diff). Please also read the information I've posted on your talk page. There may be a way to add the info you want to the page, but do these things first. Valfontis (talk) 00:33, 18 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. When you recently edited Diocese of Cascadia, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Cascadia (check to confirm | fix with Dab solver). Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 20:21, 18 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Stupid bot, I did that on purpose. Valfontis (talk) 20:22, 18 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The Signpost: 20 February 2012

Chance to chat a bit about 'how to edit' correctly?

Thanks much for your input and feedback about my editing correction of the item about me, David Oaks. Wow, that's great that we've met at Oregon Country Fair, I love that event. I'm glad that my citation that I added was 'perfectly' done. Would you possibly have a chance to exchange some messages about how to do this right? I'd like to get it right within letter and spirit of Wikipedia, but I'm so incredibly busy. I know I could figure it out, but if you did happen to have a moment to chat that would help. You can email me at oaks@mindfreedom.org. If not, if you're too busy, or this isn't appropriate, etc. no worries, no problems, I'll learn eventually! Best, David

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