April 2005

Your boilerplates

Just wanted to check... would you mind if I take your greeting boilerplate, change it slightly, and add it to my user-page for convenient copy-pastes to newcomer userpages? Solver 15:49, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I don't mind a bit. All of my contributions here are in the public domain, if possible, or at least GFDL. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 19:39, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Spelling

Just a minor note. Meter is the American spelling for metre. Since there was no obvious connection to Britain, there was no need to change it. I appreciate the other fix, though :) Mgm|^(talk) 08:53, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

When then article itself is at metre, why in the world would you feel the need to change the spelling in the first place? BLANKFAZE | (что??) 13:39, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Vote on Image:Autofellatio 2.jpg

As you may or may not be aware, Image:Autofellatio 2.jpg is up for deletion. I'm never one to electioneer, and I deplore the necessity of contacting you, but Achilles has contacted all the "delete" voters from the previous autofellatio image debate; and since that has already been done, I didn't think fairness would be served if the "keep" voters were not also contacted. I have attempted to contact only those people who have not voted in the current debate, but the information was hard to sift through by hand and I may have made a mistake. If I have, I apologize. Cheers to you! Demi ^T/_C 19:20, 2005 Apr 7 (UTC)

Just curious

Just curious—what does the "что??" in your signature mean? — Knowledge Seeker দ 05:07, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It means "What??" in Russian. :-) BLANKFAZE | (что??) 15:40, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Netoholic block

You blocked Netholic for his edits on Wikipedia:How to make complex illustrations using FreeHand and Photoshop (he does not believe those edits were a revert, but everyone, myself included, does). He and I had a long discussion via IRC tonight. I'm going to discuss the matter with the arbcom, but please don't reblock him for that revert. As a condition for me unblocking him, he has promised me that if he won't do anything that could be construed as a revert. →Raul654 09:48, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)

Alright. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 15:39, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

PD images on the commons

hi - i noticed that you uploaded some images as PD to the commons. Please note that the copyright expires only 70 Years after the death of the author (this is true in most contries, and is the standard on the commons). Cummings' work will be in the public domain in 2031, as he died in 1961. So the images are not PD and will have to be deleted. The same is true for images by Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud (died 1951) and Frank Hurley (died 1962). Sorry about that. But maybe there are laws that place those images in the public domain anyway? If so, please state it clearly on the image description page.

Please be more carefull with determining the copyright status of other prople's work. thanks! -- G. Gearloose (?!) (aka Duesentrieb) 17:04, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Responded to at [1]. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 17:31, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and something else: please place images you upload to the commons in categories and/or gallery pages, so they can be found and used by others. Thanks for contributing! -- G. Gearloose (?!) 17:17, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I did, I did! See commons:E. E. Cummings! BLANKFAZE | (что??) 17:31, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I just saw your message - well, i'm not sure about US laws; epecially I don't know this: if images created before 1932 are PD in the US - does this apply to images taken elsewhere? Does it apply to images taken by non-US citizens? Is the image PD wordwide, or just in the US? So many questions... maybe there should be a clear policy about this. The only clear policy I konw of atm is that images become PD 70 years after the death of the author. Copyright law is a bitch, especially for international projects :( -- G. Gearloose (?!) 17:23, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Yeah :-) - Apparently works "created and first published before 1 January 1923" are public domain in the United States but not necessarily elsewhere. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 17:31, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Reply re. bureaucratship

We have never communicated directly but I am familiar with your work. I read a lot more than I write and I follow wiki-goings-on somewhat closely. I have elucidated my reasons for opposition on your nomination page. Taco Deposit | Talk-o to Taco 02:52, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

Well, thanks for your elaboration, though I'm afraid you're unfortunately mistaken about most of your comments. I don't take Wikipedia seriously enough to be as malicious as you make me out to be :-)... BLANKFAZE | (что??) 03:28, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Signpost

For now, would you like to write an article for this week about Uncle G, since it looks like he'll get adminship without having a user page? That's definitely a story (ScudLee is the last serious nominee I can remember with a red link). I'm still trying to think about what would work best for you to follow and write about while I'm gone. --Michael Snow 07:03, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Lagavulin

Thank you, I'm trying my best. I think Wikipedia and the ideas behind it are very good. But I am very concerned about the negative tone of the article. It reads like it was written by Enemies of Bush. One experienced user warned me that trying to improve the article and remove its partisanship was impossible and I suspect he might be right.

My concern is compounded if it is frequently visited. I think the article needs a senior and unbiased editor to read and redraft it. Its tone is very negative, compared with the otherwise inferior Encarta and Britannica articles. I believe the Wikipedia one should be much better and I wish the tag to stay until it has improved. Maybe it should be "protected" to prevent Republican and Democrat partisans from changing it to suit their agenda. Lagavulin 00:57, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

He was right in one sense: significant edits, especially concerning POV, are impossible without significant discussion beforehand on the talk page. It's one of the most-watched, most-visited articles, and as such, everyone has opinions on it. So in regard to that article, maybe you should discuss your problems on the talk page first. Just an idea. But the tag is just unacceptable. The majority of the article is okay and it's been in a stable version for a while. Putting that tag on it will just trigger another series of edit wars over it. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 01:00, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Oh please...

i don't vandalize articles ... i do useful edits

i was introducing a friend to the wiki, he said vandalism must be a problem, i picked the highest profile article to show him how quick it would be reversed...

yes, i know, thou shalt not put wikipedia to the test 68.39.226.175 01:13, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ah. Well, if that is the case, my bad. I hope your friend is impressed ;-) BLANKFAZE | (что??) 01:14, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- haha thanks, he was

Help!

My userpage---which is mostly a rip off of yours, with some minor additons and subtractions---isn't turning out the way I had hoped. The left bar looks great. The main content part is all smushed up against the left though, and try as I might, I can't fix it. I need one of those guys from the Matrix who is so conversant in code that he can instantly "see" things just by reading it, but since I don't know anybody like that, I'm bothering you. So if you get really bored, take a peek and offer any suggestions you may have on my user page. Please, please, please! --69.245.192.52 21:43, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

That was me. What am I doing wrong? Please help! --Jpbrenna 18:19, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I've gone through the code and tried to fix some things. If you want changes made and don't feel comfortable making them yourself, you can always ask me. The CSS for my user page is kind-of complex, and taking out one little piece will make it all fall apart, which is what happened with you. You accidentally deleted a few important lines ;-) BLANKFAZE | (что??) 22:13, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you so much! --Jpbrenna 04:13, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Croke Park

Your removal of the Croke Park story is wrong. It is not a sports story, it is a news story that has featured in all the main news bulletins as a news item throughout Ireland and Britain, and has just featured on a bulletin in Canada. (I understand ABC in the US may feature it, and it has been reported on Australian radio.) As an example of its news categorisation, among those who commented on it are the Irish prime minister, deputy prime minister, leader of the opposition and the President of Ireland. This is not simply a sports story but a news story in the same way as the Hillsborough disaster, a major scandal engulfing the the Olympic Games, etc. Such items are featured on the In The News section.

I presume your removal was based on misunderstanding the importance of the story and misunderstanding its categorisation. It is a major news story of interest to the 150 million people of Irish descent worldwide. Americans, who may not yet know of the decision, will as in the past when the item was discussed, be furious. As usual, Irish-American will show itself chronically out of touch with Irish public opinion. I don't care two figs for sport, but this is a news item (which in my capacity as a political commentator I have been covering all day for broadcasters). As a result, I am reinstating the item. FearÉIREANN 22:58, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Did you read my edit summary? My removal had nothing to do with it being sports-related. I removed it because it was not listed on Current events. All items on In the news are to be listed first on Current events. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 23:00, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Crossed wires, obviously. I'd put it on that page but kept getting error messages. Usually when that happens I find it has been changed anyway. This time it obviously didn't keep the change. I've put it on again. FearÉIREANN 23:21, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

BTW the reason why you reverted for some reason didn't show up on the system so I did not know why you did it. It is only showing up now (but then my nick which should be two colour showed up on the last msg I left for someone as one colour. I had to re-enter it 3 times for it to show up right. I guess wikipedia is being its occasionally technically troublesome self! lol FearÉIREANN 03:19, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you

Thanks for your support on my RfA, for the compliments (for the record, I don't object :-)), and for your good humor at Gmaxwell's silliness: I shall attempt to put the shiny new buttons to good use. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 20:21, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia Signpost

Thanks for offering to replace me during my absence. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask. I'll inform you before I leave. Mgm|^(talk) 18:52, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)

Mmhm. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 19:02, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Recentchanges thing

Wherefore didst thee presume to pass judgement upon my creation without due consideration, on basis of mere aethetics alone? :P -SV|t|add 23:40, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hah. Good English. I dunno, I just like the old way better. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 23:51, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fair enough. I will henceforth consider you the 'steward of gooder tastes' and consult with you on all suchlike matters of matterness in a consistently pretemporal fashion. SV|t|add 14:12, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

What does ye thinketh of this? Template:RAScroller (Template:Scroller) -S

In the news

Hi. Don't forget when changing the image on the In The News section of on the Main Page to change the alt text too! In this case people got a nice image of a plane with a popup tooltip saying "Flag of Togo". :) - Mark 00:41, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Ooooooops!! BLANKFAZE | (что??) 00:43, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Signpost article

Hi! Tomorrow (saturday) we celebrate the queen's jubilee here in the Netherlands and I might be unavailable for most of the day (it depends on the weather). Do you have time to make a start with an article on new featured content and admins at User:MacGyverMagic/In Progress/featured17? It'd be a nice chance to practice for the take over in my absence in two weeks. Mgm|^(talk) 20:41, Apr 29, 2005 (UTC)

I can probably do that. I'm not entirely sure on my plans for tomorrow, but I think I should be able to get it done. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 22:10, 29 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Thanks to you both :) I'll look at anything you have tonight. +sj + 16:14, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Image:CommonsLogowotext

The WikiCommons logo is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation and is not GFDL. An identical image already exists, commons:Image:Commons without text.png. Thuresson 10:43, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The image isn't identical, but might serve my purposes. But alright. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 17:01, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Persian Tag Help

You shouldn't have been so helpful before, because now I'm back!

I'm trying to edit the Persian Babel templates to have 11 pt fontsize for the Persian characters, while having only 8 pt for the English translation. They should be separated by a horizontal line separating the upper and lower halves of the left side. The reason for putting Persian in a larger font size is that it improves legibility; this isn't necessary for English and only serves to make the tag too large. (I don't want it to go over 238px, because then it won't match the other Babel tags on Wikipedia). Despite my best efforts, I just can't get it right. I've tried all the table tags, td'ing and tr'ing it to death, but in previews, it always comes out in some horrible Frankenstein configuration.

Maybe you can give me a few pointers? --Jpbrenna 20:10, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

PS, also, feel free to bitch-slap me to help me overcome my severe Wikiaddiction and focus on studying for my finals.

No problem. Just wrap the English text in a <span> tag with a style attribute specifying a font-size of 8pt, i.e. <span style="font-size: 8pt;">. I've done so at the template you mentioned. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 20:17, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

thanks

hey, thanks! nice to be appreciated. sometimes you wonder if anybody else ever looks at some stuff... the pics are great, you or i will have to do some linking. Gzuckier 21:21, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)