User talk:DavidCary

 == test - this is only a test ==

Please ignore this test for John about email. TedErnst | talk 01:20, 14 May 2006 (EDT)

sysop?

Any reason for you not to be a sysop? I'd be happy to make you one. TedErnst | talk 18:19, 18 September 2006 (EDT)

Well, if you overlook the long periods where neglect wikiindex, punctuated by brief periods where I obsessively make mis-guided edits ... and my questionable code of ethics ... Sure, why not? :-) --DavidCary 21:52, 22 September 2006 (EDT)

Yea!!! Another misguided sysop! welcome :-) MarkDilley

Indeed, welcome! TedErnst | talk 10:56, 24 September 2006 (EDT)

Thank you. Ooh, what's this shiny new "Block user" button I see now when I look at User_talk:DavidCary ? I wonder what happens when I push it ... Doh! --DavidCary 23:05, 24 September 2006 (EDT)

request

Could you delete my userpage, User:Canderous and the page Canderous? Thanks Canderous 05:16, 15 August 2007 (EDT)

Too late -- I see that someone else has already done this for you. --DavidCary 23:13, 16 August 2007 (EDT)

etwas Deutsch zur Abwechslung

Hallo David, sag mal, was ist deine Zeitzone? --Wolf | talk 16:53, 11 October 2007 (EDT)

Mein Zeitzone ist UTC - 5 ("Tulsa time"). Warum? --DavidCary 17:06, 11 October 2007 (EDT)

weil ich dabei bin, die Benutzer nach Zeitzone zu ordnen, damit sie leichter verstehen, warum jemand anders gerade nicht aktiv ist oder nicht auf eine Mitteilung achtet. Deine ist also z.B. um 7 Stunden gegen meine versetzt. Deshalb muss ich jetzt auch Schluss machen. Beste Grüße! --Wolf | talk 17:22, 11 October 2007 (EDT)

adding new wikis plan - and idea for collaboration

Hi David, seeing Peu's frustrated message (cuz I was going to add a bunch to the page :-) - I thought, maybe I could do something about my guilt and organize a time (an hour) to work with you and whoever else wants to put a dent into Wikis to Add. You up for a hour together on the wiki, maybe on skype or irc too? Peu or anyone else, interested? Best, MarkDilley

Sounds like a great idea. I am under the impression that I can just take a few wiki off that list and create new pages for them, without any collaboration needed. Is there something specific we need to coordinate? --DavidCary 00:18, 15 February 2008 (EST)

I'm still interested in the project, I'll do my best transforming entries into article stubs. Unfortunately my time is currently very limited, nonetheless please keep me up-to-date. --Wolf | talk 07:14, 15 February 2008 (EST)

David, you have the technical part right! :-) - I am interested in a social part, like a mini barn raising on these, say we choose a few hours to work together, or a day, and count how many we have been able to add? Trying to get up my energy for tackling the problem. Wolf Peuker suggests that we not add more to this list and I have dozens more in my bookmark folder to add... Just and idea to create something. Best, MarkDilley

Excellent.

Certainly I agree with Peu that it is better to have a full page on each wiki, rather than a one-liner in the Wikis to Add. And if we could motivate people to do that, then that would be the best all around.

On the other hand, I suspect that if we discourage people from adding to "Wikis to Add", then those people will keep that information to themselves. In something called a "bookmark folder". Just a hunch I have. Then when I search WikiIndex for a wiki on some topic, I won't find anything at all :-(.

When searching for some topic, I'd rather at least find a one-line mention of that topic in the "Wikis to Add" page, then I can be happy that I've found other wiki-positive people who share my interest in that topic :-). It's certainly much less work for me to take a link off the "Wikis to Add" page and create a page for it, than to hack into Mark Dilley's bookmark folder to find it and *then* create a page for it :-).

I'm no expert, but perhaps there is a better way to motivate and encourage ourselves and other people to:

• take one wiki at a time off the list on that page, and create a page for it.

What exactly is stopping people from doing that now?

< brainstorming >

• Perhaps few people know about that page? -> perhaps we could mention it more prominently ... somewhere ... (It's already mentioned on the Community Portal).
• Perhaps people are scared to edit a page once it gets above a certain size? -> somehow chop it up into smaller, less-overwhelming pieces ...
• Perhaps people don't know the right process for taking a wiki off that list and making a fresh page for it? -> somehow write better, friendlier, easier to understand instructions?
• Perhaps people do know the right process, but it seems like a lot of work? Or it requires several steps including X and Y, and some people don't feel comfortable doing X, while others don't feel comfortable doing Y? -> somehow Break it up into smaller steps, encourage people -- especially newbies -- to find some task they feel comfortable doing, make a little forward progress at a time, and make it easy for others to pick up where the last person left off.
• Perhaps the process of creating a really good page about a wiki requires both X, Y, and Z, but lots of pages are stalled out waiting for Y? -> perhaps, somehow encourage more people to do more Y work. Make it easy for obsessive-compulsives to plow through a whole lot of repetitive Y work for many different wiki. Give people little pictures of barnstars or chocolate-chip cookies when they achieve significant amounts of Y work. Make it a game.
• Some other reason? ...
• ...? -> Or is there something better we could do?

< /brainstorming >

OK, that's enough of me rambling on *about* the problem, rather than actually *doing* something productive. --DavidCary 17:41, 25 February 2008 (EST)

politics.ie wiki

Since you contributed to Politics.ie article, wanted you to know of a question at Talk:Politics.ie Wiki. --EarthFurst 17:44, 23 April 2008 (EDT)

Wikitubia

Could you help with the infobox on the Wikitubia article? --Yowling wolfie 13:43, 2 August 2008 (EDT)

Sssssss... Get out of bed! {scares Dave out of bed} --Snuffleupagus 12:38, 5 August 2008 (EDT)

Fixed now, forgot to close. --Yowling wolfie 12:31, 31 August 2008 (EDT)

measuring wiki size

Hi, I have a quick question. When measuring a wiki's size, do we go by total pages? (I.e. all the talk pages included) or just articles?

Thanks. - Jacjohncoles^{Talk|Contribs} 19:44, 12 September 2008 (EDT)

Does the discussion at Talk:WikiProject:By Size answer your question?

For wiki that use the Mediawiki software, I think we are currently only including articles, not including talk pages or redirects or user pages.

--DavidCary 15:18, 17 September 2008 (EDT)

I'm Snuffleupagus! [makes furnace noises through snuffle] f-f-f-f-f-f [in a normal voice] Get out of bed! [pokes Dave with snuffle, Dave jumps out of bed] --Snuffleupagus 12:09, 4 November 2008 (EST)

Request for neutral admin

Hello, I have already asked User:Comets to help with this issue, but he has not responded. Perhaps you can help.

We need the assistance of a neutral admin to help decide the direction of Conservapedia, RationalWiki, and The Conservapedia RationalWiki war. As it stands, all three articles are being edited almost exclusively by editors of RationalWiki, a site started to criticize Conservapedia. As such, all three articles are just an extended criticism of Conservapedia. As I am associated with Conservapedia (but not exactly a huge fan), I would ask that you look over the articles and decide what, if any, criticism is acceptable according to the standards of this website.

Thanks, JazzMan 17:11, 21 November 2008 (EST)

I've left a few comments on the Wikiindex talk pages corresponding to the above wiki, and also at Category talk:Active administrators of this wiki#Conservapedia, RationalWiki etc.

Is the current compromise acceptable to everyone? If so, then it's time to take down the "Edit Warring" box from these WikiIndex articles. --DavidCary 11:47, 24 November 2008 (EST)

Thanks for your help. I think (fingers crossed) that the edit-warring should be done now. JazzMan 14:46, 24 November 2008 (EST)

Thanks to the fabulous MarvelZuvembie

it is Category:GreatFeature - Best, MarkDilley

PATRICIA MARTELLOTTI

She has not made one useful edit, her first userpage had a link to her website while later edits just say how good she thinks she is. I don't think she's interested in helping us, she just uses us to advertise herself. There's User:Patricia Martellotti with a link to her website and User:PATRICIA MARTELLOTTI who wrote loads of stuff about her qualifications.

I think I may have made a mistake and thought she edited the Welcome page telling people about herself. I've looked at recent changes again and I think I mixed her edits up with someone else as in fact someone else edited the Welcome Template responsibly just before she edited, sorry. Let's leave her unblocked and see what she does. Proxima Centauri 15:26, 8 June 2009 (EDT)

You deal with User:PATRICIA MARTELLOTTI if anything needs to be done, she's back today. Proxima Centauri 16:54, 9 June 2009 (EDT)

User:PATRICIA MARTELLOTTI is writing more and more about herself but hasn't made a useful contribution. I see now she did edit the welcome template with one of her accounts so I think a block was fair. She hasn't repeated it but since I know now that she did spam the welcome template I've put warnings onto the talk pages of both her accounts so any administrator who deals with her can see she's been warned. Proxima Centauri 07:30, 16 June 2009 (EDT)

User:PATRICIA MARTELLOTTI now claims that she's new to this site and doesn't understand how to use it. I don't know if she's telling the truth and really mistook us for a social networking site or if she's playing sophisticated games and pretending she's been hurt. User:Elassint put a message up with large letters saying, "Please note that we are an index of wiki, wiki people and wiki ideas, contributions outside of that scope may be treated as test edits and be removed." and she can't have edited any page without the chance to see that message. Well sometimes people do overlook the obvious. I've apologized and explained what we're for. Proxima Centauri 04:18, 17 June 2009 (EDT)

She's sent me an email asking for all traces of her to disappear. I think that can be done. — User:Sean Fennel@ 01:01, 21 June 2009 (EDT)

What went wrong here, and is there anything I can do differently next time, so we have a better chance of things going right next time?

I find the WikiIndex and other wiki a useful resource, and they are growing and getting better all the time.

Alas, spammers are ruining it for everyone.

Proxima is valiantly fighting the spammers, which I appreciate.

What I'm seeing diverges so strongly from the above description that it makes me think I'm missing half the story.

As far as I can tell by looking at the "User contributions" pages, this person has never made an active link, which is consistent with the "new to this site and doesn't understand how to use it.", and inconsistent with "Spamming links to external sites".

As far as I can tell, she has posted only one URL one time (but without the WikiSyntax to make it active), and that one URL was on her user page (which has already been deleted, so normal users can't see that URL) -- far fewer than a typical spammer, and even fewer than the number of URLs at User:Proxima Centauri, fewer than the number of URLs that Proxima Centauri posted to her user page [1].

As far as I can tell, her later edits seem to be listing verifiable information about where she has worked to her user page, which seems similar to the way the User:Proxima Centauri page lists some of the other wiki he has worked on. I fail to see any claims that she was "good" at any of them, or any information about what she "thinks".

As far as I can tell, this person has made only a couple of edits before 8 June 2009, and none of her edits include any WikiSyntax formatting. This is consistent with the "new to this site and doesn't understand how to use it.".

Sean, I've put the Template:Tl template on her user pages, and in a week or so I'll delete them.

That gives other people time to check out what actually happened before the evidence is lost.

I wish that when someone asked "Please help", there is something more productive and friendly that we could do -- other than delete all evidence that person was ever here (MeatBall: RightToVanish).

And in this particular case, I worry that a few minor mistakes by WikiIndex regulars will lead to a news reporter getting an incorrect understanding of wiki.

Sean, could you email this person and recommend trying some other, friendlier wiki -- perhaps some dedicated to topics she is interested in or dedicated to the city she lives in, wherever that might be? Perhaps we have a chance to prevent a news reporter from tarring all wiki with the same brush. --DavidCary 05:39, 21 June 2009 (EDT)

What I gathered from a very brief email correspondence is that she googled herself, her page here came up pretty high, and she realized the newbie-ness of it has the potential for some embarrassment. Being a public figure I suppose you can't ever be too careful about what you have out there. — User:Sean Fennel@ 02:24, 23 June 2009 (EDT)

Just found this. Looks like this isn't the first time this has happened. — User:Sean Fennel@ 02:29, 23 June 2009 (EDT)

Thanks for digging that up. I had the feeling that she was playing some game, eg when I tried to apologise she just got more upset. She vandalized Wikipedia as well and is permanently blocked there for troublemaking. Proxima Centauri 05:16, 23 June 2009 (EDT)

I've recreated her userpage because I'm fed up of the way she got me into trouble and if Sean Fennel hadn’t tracked her down to Wikipedia she’d have got away with some of it. I feel she’s intelligent and deceitful and we should warn people about her. If other administrator disagree with me for recreating her page please delete it again. Proxima Centauri 04:41, 27 June 2009 (EDT)

What I'm seeing diverges so strongly from the above description that it makes me think I'm missing half the story. "she’d have got away with some of it" ? "deceitful" ? "troublemaking" ? "she got me into trouble" ?

Could you link to a diff supporting any of these accusations?

What I see is that over a year ago, she (1) blanked the WikiIndex Welcome page and a few pages at Wikipedia. Later she (2) put some information about herself, including a single URL to her non-wiki website (but without the WikiSyntax to make it active) on her "User" page. Then (3) she sent Sean Fennel an email asking for all traces of her at WikiIndex to disappear.

May I ask which of these 3 things was something "deceitful" that we don't want her to "get away with"? Or is there something else I'm missing? The (1) was wrong, but a common newbie mistake and arguably not "deceitful" -- and there's no chance that she would have gotten away with in 2009 since it was reverted soon after it happened in 2008 -- and apparently she's learned from that, since she hasn't done that in over a year. I fail to see how (2) or (3) even merit a block, much less a permanent page criticizing her without balance. --DavidCary 03:21, 14 July 2009 (EDT)

This user has caused problems on Wikipedia where her user page was blanked for spamming and her talk page was also deleted. She vandalized Wikipedia and is permanently blocked there. When she was here she played the same games and pretended she was naive though she knew what had happened at Wikipedia. She says the accusations are false though anyone who folows the links can see that they are true. I call that deceit and it's a bit unrealistic as anyone can follow the links and find out the truth. I overlooked that the edit to the Welcome template was last year sorry, still I feel she was oversensitive when I warmed her. She seems interested in self promotion and complaining and uninterested in editing constructively. Proxima Centauri 13:00, 14 July 2009 (EDT)

I agree it doesn't merit a page of permanent criticism and have deleted criticism after a week or so. Is there any I overlooked?

Block

I blocked an unregistered user because the user made unpleasant or harrassing comments about someone else in the deleted article, Dave muistaine. I don't know if it was friendly teasing or a serious attempt to blacken someone's reputation but I feel the rule should be that when aparently inocent third parties are involved the accused should not get the benifit of any doubt. In any case this wiki isn't here for schoolkids or childish adults to call others names. It seems this is Dave Mustaine, I don't like his music but I'm not sure we should let people insult him here. Proxima Centauri 13:43, 24 June 2009 (EDT)

Yes, this looks like a childish grade-school insult. I agree that such things should be immediately deleted, and the person who said it banned for a short time. But I have hopes that such children will soon learn that such things are unacceptable, and learn to be productive -- and so I don't want to ban them forever. On the other hand, spammers who flood a page with dozens of off-topic links -- I am tempted to ban them forever. However, I don't want to unnecessarily block innocent users who use dynamic IP addresses that were once used by a spammer. I would appreciate your thoughts on which actions should trigger a ban, and for how long, at WikiIndex:Blocking Policy. --DavidCary 20:07, 7 July 2009 (EDT)

Huw Powell

User:Huw Powell is stirring things up and harming this wiki, if I weren't personally involved I would warn him or block him, I suspect Peu will come back sooner if Powell stays away. Proxima Centauri 13:47, 2 July 2009 (EDT)

You are stirring up trouble and harming this wiki. And now that one administrator has already declined to join you in your personal vendetta, you're running away for help from other administrator. Maybe you should listen to Peu?

I'm clearing out the junk form my mailbox and when I've finished I'll send you an email, sorry it took so long. Proxima Centauri 14:43, 5 July 2009 (EDT)