User talk:Amire80/Archive 2008 - February

About vandalism warnings and other edits

Amir, I sent a vandalism warning to the following users:

• User talk:216.165.18.7
• User talk:Mb21

(from the time and pattern of vandalism they seem like the same person). Is that OK what I did? User User:216.165.18.7 made two vandalist edits and user:Mb21 three. So, I thought approapriate to send a level 2 and 3 respectively. The articles vandalised were:

• Sloth (by both users)
• Astor Place (Manhattan)
• Rosati-Kain High School
• St. Mary's High School (St. Louis, Missouri)

(I reverted them all)

Another question: if you have the time, could you quickly look at my recent edits in Roughness and tell me if you have any comments. Particularly:

• I made six different small edits instead of one big one, since they were related to different parts of the article. Moreover, I am found of one edit per section or kind of edition than one big one for the whole article, since, let us say I make a mistake in one component of my edition, other editor can just undo the appropriate bit and not the whole of it. Is that OK?
• I labelled 5 of those 6 edits as minor. The one being major was the one where I added a {{Sectstub}} template (so that people who watch the article and wave minor edits see it and maybe write some more content). OK or should I have done it differently?

Thanks again for your knowledge- and time-generosity. :o) Nahraana (talk) 14:02, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Your warnings to the vandal were OK. Well spotted!

Your edits to the roughness article are good, too. They appear very professional. I have only one comment - i wouldn't mark them as minor. Deleting a whole sentence is not minor, even if that sentence was completely wrong. Changing a section heading isn't minor either. There is no clear consensus on what exactly is a minor edit, but i rarely mark as minor anything except spelling corrections.

Making a lot of little edits to an article instead of one big edit is OK. Some people save frequently instead of using the "preview" button, which is not so good, but you don't do that, so you're fine. If you make many edits to an article, consider using these templates: {{in-use}} and {{underconstruction}}. Put the appropriate template at the top of the article or the section you're working, so people will know you're working on it - this will prevent edit conflicts. (Not to be confused with edit wars :). --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 14:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks again! Now tell me: how do I stop myself from spending hours browsing Wikipedia?! :o))

Federico Grigio, alias Nahraana (talk) 23:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid i can't help you with this. You're trapped. There's no escape.

At least we're doing something good for the world here :) --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 07:29, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Licenses

Hi, Amire, I'd like to know which licenses can I put on sample pictures that came with the file "My Pictures", file where you can save all your images. I think they are cool and I'd like to upload them, but I do now know the author. It only shows the date the photos were taken. --Nadir D Steinmetz 19:58, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Do you refer to images that came with Windows XP or Vista? If you do, then you cannot put them on Wikipedia. They are copyrighted by Microsoft.

If you refer to something else, please explain. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 21:51, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Windows Vista. Why cant I put them? Cant I ask permission? --Nadir D Steinmetz 22:08, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

These images are the property of Microsoft. Microsoft are very restrictive when it comes to copyrights on software and images. I wouldn't even bother to try and get permission from them.

Wikipedia, on the contrary, is Free, which is the opposite of restrictive.

The best thing you can do about images is to get a camera, get out of your house, shoot some photos and upload them to Wikipedia! Brazil is a beautiful place, and your original photos will be strongly appreciated. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 22:20, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Brazil is beautiful indeed, but Sao Paulo is worse than Tel-Aviv :-).--Nadir D Steinmetz 22:33, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

How about traveling around São Paulo state, taking pictures of the different towns and adding them to articles in Category:Cities in São Paulo, so no town will be left without an image? --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 07:33, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

I need to go to school. Maybe in the holidays. But thanks for you advices. --Nadir D Steinmetz 11:28, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Siddhesh

hi....am siddhesh..from India...

I wud like to take a more active interest in WikiPedia....i wud like to know How i can become a admin like u or at least a mod....

regards siddhesh —Preceding unsigned comment added by V.siddhesh (talk • contribs) 09:43, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

There's no such thing as "mod" on Wikipedia.

To become and admin, you need to become experienced in editing articles, and having discussions on talk pages, deletion discussions, etc.

You can edit anything without being an admin. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 09:53, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

By editing articles do u mean to say that we can edit any article which we deem to be unfit..or else add any stuff to that article which we feel is right?

anyways..Could u kindly adopt me..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.35.84 (talk) 11:00, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

also...How do i know That a Page has been vandalized? is there any special page in wiki which lists pages to which any recent changes have been made? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.35.84 (talk) 11:06, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Consider yourself adopted! Feel free to ask me for any help!

In Wikipedia you can edit any page in which you see mistakes, missing information, bad spelling, or whatever you deem to be unfit. That's the whole idea of Wiki!

There is a special page where you can see recent changes: It's simply called "Recent changes" and there's a link to it on the left side, under the "Wikipedia" logo. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 11:33, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism again

See User talk:208.157.10.7 and their contributions.

The user is a persistent vandal who seems likely to vandalize again. Moreover, I noticed they also make dangerous vandalism (of the type that may pass unnoticed), such as in The Dark Knight (film). When I encounter such a case, should I request a block at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents?

I think you are right about your comment, there is no escape. :o)

Federico Grigio, alias Nahraana (talk) 00:35, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

That is an anonymous user identified by an IP address. We cannot know whether it's actually the same person or different people that connect through the same ISP. Often it is a school or a college.

We only block anonymous users if they made a significant number of vandalizing edits; "significant number" may mean different things in different circumstances, but it usually means more than one act of vandalism during a day.

However, it was good that you warned him.

I am an administrator, but i am not online 24 hours a day (no-one is :). If you want to get administrators' attention to a dangerous vandal after he already received a severe warning, you should use the page Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism (shortcut: WP:AIV). Be sure to read the rules on that page and note that it is updated very frequently. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 08:12, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks again for your comment Amir. This makes the counter-vandalism picture more clear (I sumed it up for me in my guidelines). I feel your adoptive advice has really helped me develop as editor. This weekend if I make some content-related edits I will ask you once more to comment on it and from then on focus my questions on the wiki code and, possibly, other issues that may come up.

By the way, a question not related to Wikipedia: my username Nahraana comes from re-arranging the syllables of a Hebrew word (but I don't speak a word of Hebrew). Does "Nahraana" as it is mean anything at all? (I hadn't thought of this before, but I hope it doesn't mean any dirty word).

Federico Grigio, alias Nahraana (talk) 09:51, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Nahraana doesn't have any real meaning.

The root n.h.r. has two main meanings in Hebrew: "river" (e.g., in the word נהר nahar - river) and "bright, clear" (e.g. in the word נהיר nahir). If i remember my Arabic lessons correctly, "nahaar" means "day" in Arabic.

What Hebrew word do you refer to? Ra'anana maybe? It means "fresh" (feminine), and it is also the name of one of the many suburbs of Tel Aviv - Ra'anana. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 11:13, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I was referring to Ra'anana (in the Argentinian website where I found it it was as Raananah). I am glad that "Nahraana" doesn't mean anything bad in Hebrew. I like the word because it has only "a" vowels and, in some cultures, this is supposed to bring luck.

If you have time, could you give me some criticism regarding style on the article Built up edge I created today? I inserted one reference per paragraph (even though it is the same two pages of the same book) because I feel Wikipedia is best written in such modular approach: other editors will add content later and I see it is important that is clear where each reference belongs to.

I think that's my last edit-related question, so that I can focus next on other topics. (I am not exactly sure how long I am being adopted or if I am asking too many questions - you just say when to stop).

Thanks for the "bonus" language help. ;o) Federico Grigio, alias Nahraana (talk) 22:26, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi Amir, I edited some more since my last comment and created another article (Product design specification) and I think I feel confident to jump off the adoptive nest and go on alone. :o) (I might come back to ask you something, if I have a question that I cannot answer only by browsing the Wikipedia guidelines). Your adopting me really helped me improve my edits and put me on track. Thanks and see you again! Shalom, Federico Grigio, alias Nahraana (talk) 09:52, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi,

Sorry for not replying for a long time - been very busy. I'll take a look at your contributions later today. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 14:45, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment on categories! (I replied in my talk page) Federico Grigio, alias Nahraana (talk) 10:35, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Reply from Siddhesh

hi...i have written u a reply in my talk page..pls see it.. V.siddhesh (talk) 07:17, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Shin Beth Ayin III just learnt I hope signing!

Hello Amir, thank you for answering my request for adoptee support. I have found at least the sandbox and have discover one or two of the little icons purpose, but really there is just so many icons and abreviations it is a map on its own, I would like to ask you how can I go about creating short articles at least on respective African Kingdoms and regions that will qualified for publication, most of our kingdoms internal information was never formally publicated, and what has been independently publicated MOST are not endorse by the kingdoms what can I do? Shin Beth Ayin III (talk) 03:15, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Your signature is OK.

You can write for Wikipedia any article that can cite external sources. If the information that you wrote is not based on any other information that was already published elsewhere, then Wikipedia cannot be the first place where you publish it.

I don't understand what do you mean by "endorsed by the Kingdoms". An article about the history of a kingdom doesn't have to be endorsed by that kingdom. If it was written by a respectable historian and published in a trustworthy place, then you can cite it. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 09:23, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject

Hi Amir! I would like to create a WikiProject. How do I do that? --Nadir D Steinmetz 15:39, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't have much experince with that. Perhaps you can find an answer here: Wikipedia:WikiProject.

What kind of a project do you want to create? --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 15:43, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Something like Brazilian Carnival. --Nadir D Steinmetz 20:02, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

OK.

Consider asking at Wikipedia:WikiProject Brazil or Wikipedia:WikiProject Dance whether people would be interested in joining such a project. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 06:37, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

User:Sockpuppet de Cplot

This guy is definetley a sockpuppet. How do i tag him and have him blocked? Shapiros10 (talk) 20:58, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your vigilance :)

He has a silly name and a silly user page, but he hasn't made any damage. I'll keep an eye on him. If he vandalizes any pages, and i'm not around, then warn him. If he keeps vandalizing after the warning, report it to WP:AIV.

But go figure, maybe he's not a vandal at all. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 21:27, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

No, but take a look at his userpages! It all but confesses he's a sockpuppet! And sockpupptes are illegal on WP (correct me if I'm wrong)! Shapiros10 (talk) 12:31, 11 February 2008 (UTC) His userpage was blanked by somebody for trolling, but I unearthed some research about the real Cplot: he is banned, and could be operating ban-evading sockpuppets. QUickly block SdC! Shapiros10 (talk) 12:33, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, i see now that he's an old troll. Well spotted! He was already blocked.

Sockpuppetry is not illegal by itself. Abusing sockpuppets to vandalize or promote a point of view is illegal. See WP:SOCK. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 14:44, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

But wouldn't it be illegal to use a sockpuppet to evade a ban? Mr. Cplot is stupider than we thought...or delusional...Shapiros10 (talk) 21:25, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

Using a sockpuppet to evade a ban is forbidden, of course. I just didn't know that that's what he does. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 15:00, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, it's kind of obvious! Cplot is a banned user, and this user is "Sockpuppet de Cplot". Banned user+sockpuppet with his name on it...Shapiros10 (talk) 13:26, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, it's obvious now, but i wasn't familiar with Cplot beforehand. I don't know every banned user, there are thousands of them ... --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 08:56, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

Is SdC blocked yet? Shapiros10 (talk) 16:23, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

He was blocked long ago. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 07:48, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank Adonai! I can sleep well tonight! Shapiros10 (talk) 13:30, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

User:SuperROFLMASTER

I welcomed this guy to Wikipedia, and he takes my userpage, with "this userpage is full of nothing but lies". WTF? Shapiros10 (talk) 21:48, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't see a big problem with that. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 15:03, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Adoptee

Hi Amir, I'm new here and on the List of Adoptees, I saw that you are taking one and I was wondering if you want to be my Adoptee?--Yenaldooshi (talk) 15:00, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi,

I understand that you want me to adopt you. It makes me an adopter, and it makes you an adoptee :)

I shall gladly adopt you. Feel free to ask me any questions, any time!

I saw that you have already made several edits. They are OK - you quickly learned how to use talk pages and page histories and how to correct vandalism. You are welcome to edit more articles, but be sure to read the articles which are linked from the welcome message that i put on your talk page.

Have fun! --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 15:21, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello, oh yeah, I got mixed up with the Adopter and the Adoptee. What are user boxes?--Yenaldooshi (talk) 15:22, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

"Userboxes" are small boxes that you can put on your user page and that say something about you - what languages do you speak, where do you live, what things interest you etc.

For example, the box on your user page that says "This user seeks adoption etc." is a kind of a userbox. You can now replace it with {{adoptee|Amire80}}, because you aren't seeking adoption anymore.

A tip: don't too much userboxes on your user page :) (use your good taste to decide how much is enough).

Read here for a full explanation about userboxes: Wikipedia:Userboxes. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 15:29, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks!--Yenaldooshi (talk) 15:42, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

If someone vandalizes a page 3 times or more, what would happen to them?--Yenaldooshi (talk) 15:56, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

The user who fixes the vandalism should warn the vandal using one of the warning on this page: WP:WARN.

If the user keeps vandalizing after the warning, then he should be reported to administrators' notice board: Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism. One of the administrators will check the case and block the account if it is necessary.

Note that there's a difference between pure vandalism (Wikipedia:Vandalism) and revert wars (or edit wars - Wikipedia:Edit war). Vandalism is when an editor inserts information which is definitely false, rude or nonsense. And edit war happens when editors have different opinions about something, and their edits are not complete nonsense. However, if someone persistently engages in revert wars, then it's almost the same as vandalism. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 18:23, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

What's a "sockpuppet"? I've seen some things about sockpuppets, but I don't know what Wikipedia means by "sockpuppet".--Yenaldooshi (talk) 22:29, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

A sockpuppet is an account of a user that already has another account. It is not completely forbidden to open several accounts, but it is wrong to use a sockpuppet to evade a block or to promote a point of view by making it appear as if several people support it. For full information read Wikipedia:Sock puppetry. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 06:42, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you very much! :)--Yenaldooshi (talk) 22:52, 15 February 2008 (UTC) Is it possible for some one, for example: a normal Wikipedia user becomes an Admin or something?--Yenaldooshi (talk) 22:13, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Of course it is possible - i became an admin :)

To become an admin a user needs to prove that he is trustworthy, that he understands the policies of Wikipedia, and that he has considerable experience writing articles, warning vandals, spotting pages that should be deleted, participating in deletion discussions, etc. There are no strict rules about it, but in practice at least a few months on the site and a few hundreds of edits to articles are required.

For more information see WP:RFA. -Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 22:31, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Cool :) and thanks, also, does an adoptee gratuate or do thy just stay an adoptee and they are able to adopt someone else after, right???--Yenaldooshi (talk) 22:51, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Notice that putting a : in the beginning of a line indents your text, so your smiley didn't come out correctly.

You can graduate whenever you feel ready and you are welcome to remain in touch with me any time. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 22:53, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Let me try. Cool! Thanks for the information I'd just like to know about that. :) Would you consider this as vandalism? I am not sure and I just need someones opinion so I can warn the person. Here's the vadalism page: http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Phineas_and_Ferb&diff=194510807&oldid=194499847 --♥ Yenaldooshi ♥ Benwolf ♥ (talk) 23:03, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Both versions that appear in this diff have text that shouldn't be in the article, but on the talk page, and this should always be fixed. It's not necessarily bad vandalism, though: Sometimes new users don't know how to use a talk page and write their comments in the article itself. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 23:06, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

I've checked the contributions of that user and he's been warned a ton of times about vandalism, should I talk to him about using the Sandbox? See, the person removed running gags in that show.--♥ Yenaldooshi ♥ Benwolf ♥ (talk) 23:15, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Getting started

I just need to get up and going quickly writing an entry about the Santa Fe International Folk Art Festival. But I keep reading entry after entry and am getting confused about how I just get started. Can you direct me to the few key things that I should read so that I may make an entry about this festival? Thank you. Folkartmarket (talk) 17:10, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Mm40

Hi. I'm new here and would like to learn, uh, stuff about wikipedia. You can reply here or preferably on my talk page. Thanks. --Mm40 (talk) 00:07, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Reply at your talk page. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 06:42, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Oficially Finishing SdC

How can I add a blkc template for his userpage? I can find the talk page ones, but not the userpage ones. Shapiros10 (talk) 13:33, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Didn't you find anything at Wikipedia:Sock_puppetry#Tagging?

You don't really need to bother to tag his page. See Wikipedia:Deny recognition. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 13:47, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Deleting

How do you delete a page? Check Dylan Millar. Shapiros10 (talk) 21:45, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, that page was beyond any doubt a candidate for speedy deletion, and it is already deleted. For more information about speedy deletion see Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion.

I saw that you blanked the page. This is not exactly the right way to deal with such cases. The right way in this case was to mark it as {{db-nonsense}}. For other speedy deletion candidates the template may be different.

The list of Criteria for speedy deletion is long and bureaucratic. Many Wikipedians know it by heart, although i check it every time i deal with such situations.

Remember, however, that speedy deletion is reserved only to the most blatant nonsense. For other cases there are these procedures:

• Wikipedia:Proposed deletion (PROD) - this is for cases when you think that there is a very low chance that anyone will object to deletion, but the article is not nonsense enough for speedy deletion. One objection is enough to stop this process. If this happens and you still think that the page should be deleted, use the AFD.
• Wikipedia:Articles for deletion (AFD) - this is for cases where people may object to deletion and discussion is needed. This was once called a "vote", but now it is not a vote, but a discussion, in which the people must explain their opinion and back it by policies. For a sample of AFD that i handled, see User:Amire80/Deletion. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 05:04, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Flag of Slovio

Yes, I created the flag of Slovio myself. It is the only version of it.

Then it goes bye-bye. Yiu cannot use an image of your own creation for this purpose. - Arcayne (^{cast a spell}) 19:01, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Slovio deletion

The article was not recreated. It was entirely written from sratch. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ekstazo (talk • contribs) 15:51, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Adopt

Can you be my Adopter? --123Pie (talk) 14:30, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Gladly.

Feel free to ask me for any help. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 16:19, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Pleas!

Pleas adopt me. I have nice user who welcomed me to the WikiPedia, but he is no able to adopt. Help and adopt me! PA3296 (talk) 13:51, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Gladly.

Feel free to ask me anything. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 15:54, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, very much. I having a series of questions to show you.

1. What is sockpuppet? Is another account to contribute because your other one is full?
2. How do you make userbox? I want to make some.
3. Is there something where you can welcome other user, like the very nice wikipedian shapiros10.

again, muchas gracias, hombre! PA3296 (talk) 17:26, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

1. There's no such as "account that becomes full". There is no limit on how much you can contribute with an account. A sockpuppet is when you create one or more accounts for yourself in addition to the account under which you already familiar. This is not totally forbidden, but not recommended either. It is forbidden to use it maliciously, for example to make your opinion appear to be shared by other users, while it is actually yourself. For more information see WP:SOCK.
2. About userboxes see Wikipedia:Userboxes. I am not a big expert is creating them, but you can trying asking me, if you have any problems.
3. About welcome see Template:Welcome/doc. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 17:33, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Gracias, but is there test for joining the welcome template? Do you have to make certain edits? I think I am not having enough edits. ♥Shapiros10WuzHere♥ 22:19, 22 February 2008 (UTC) Thanx for being part of a Shapiros10 study in how welcoming wikipedia is to new users. Please delete this nonexistant user's user and talk pages. ♥Shapiros10WuzHere♥ 22:34, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

I had a hunch that it's a test :) I hope i didn't fail Wikipedia.

Have fun with anything at Category:Sockpuppet templates, such as {{Doppelganger}}. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 22:58, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Kidding me? U passed with flying colors! PS I'm now graduated, and am responding to adoption requests. ♥Shapiros10WuzHere♥ 01:09, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Put this userbox on your userpage...

S10This user is a member of Shapiros10's Fab Group

♥LilWikiMaster♥20:57, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

:)

Thanks for the compliment, but i avoid such things because of WP:NOT#MYSPACE. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 21:22, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Current events

Hi, Amir! Can current even articles become featured articles? --Nadir D Steinmetz 17:41, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Theoretically, yes.

Anything that can pass Wikipedia:Featured article review can become a featured article.

The problem with current events is that information about them makes the article unstable. But if you reference an article well, it might get a shot at being Featured, or at least Good. --Amir E. Aharoni (talk) 19:28, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

--Nadir  D Steinmetz 21:06, 24 February 2008 (UTC) .תודה רבה

Adoption

I guess that i need some one to show me the ropes, at least for now, i am starting up a wikiproject, and it would be good to all of the support i can get, got to the project page if you want to learn more, i think you can learn a lot about a person from their actions. [1]

if you could reply to me on my talk page, that would be great. --Tom.mevlie (talk) 22:54, 29 February 2008 (UTC)