User talk:Gadfium/Archive 4

Re: Eden Park pic

Fine, delete it, if the rules have been broken. I personally don't see that there's a problem, but I guess rules are rules. I just don't get the whole licensing thing....FPV F6 TYPHOON 06:03, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Re: Mapping sites for NZ

I restored a restored a couple of links for mapping sites earlier today (our site vianet.travel and zoomin's) after being removed by someone adding multimap. In turn all the mapping links have been removed. Three mapping site is excessive I agree and I guess it is fair to remove them all. We are a NZ mapping company and we specialise in tourism maps providing information on NZ locations, schools, parks and other points of interest on the maps. Zoomin is another NZ company who provide street mapping for NZ. I suggest it is appropriate for both links to be restored, or perhaps the creation of a new "Maps" section to the NZ page? Vaughan.rowsell 09:41, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you post to Talk:New Zealand explaining why some map sites are more useful than others (and explaining your own connection to vianet). I don't know how many different map sites covering New Zealand there are, but at least these three plus Google maps.

I'm not quite sure what advantage there is for an encyclopedia to link to map sites anyway. We should have a decent map as part of the article of course (and our present one is not nearly sufficiently detailed for my liking), I would expect people who use Wikipedia to also use Google to find zoomable maps if that is what they're after. On the other hand, I do see that encarta includes an interface to mappoint.-gadfium 20:12, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Re: Are you okay?

I notice that you haven't edited since accepting your RfA, and it's unusual for you to go this long without an edit. If you're just busy in real life, or your computer crashed, please let us know so we don't worry about you.-gadfium 22:26, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the concern. I did not realise that my activity on Wikipedia was followed closely! I was out of town for a while after submitting my RfA and have been doing a little bit of work on another project. I am not ready for Category:Deceased Wikipedians!! Alan Liefting 10:22, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Proposed Georgia Move

As a past participant in the discussion on how to handle the Georgia pages, I thought you might be interested to know that there's a new attempt to reach consensus on the matter being addressed at Talk:Georgia (country)#Requested_Move_-_July_2006. Please come by and share your thoughts to help form a consensus. --Vengeful Cynic 03:54, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Deletion review for Template:Good article

hi, i hope you can take part in the deletion review debate for the above metadata template that puts a star on the article's mainpage (you voted in the original deletion debate). the vote is here Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2006 July 8 (scroll down for Template:Good Article section). thanks. Zzzzz 00:40, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

East Timor is not part of Oceania

East Timor is not part of Oceania. That is why I pasted it to an Asia article. East Timorese themselves feel very insulted if one referres to their country as a "South Pacific" country or as a part of Oceania. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.255.230.227 (talk • contribs)

Please discuss this at Talk:Oceania. Please provide a cite that "East Timorese ... feel insulted if one refers to their country as ... part of Oceania." It certainly isn't part of the South Pacific, but no one argues that it is.

Don't just remove material from articles without explanation. When you initially removed the material, I thought you had done so because it was out of date. East Timor is certainly part of Oceania in a zoogeographical sense - see Wallace Line. Politically, it has had more involvement with Australia and New Zealand than most countries in its area, relative to its size and population. Portal:Oceania covers it; as far as I'm aware no other portal does so.-gadfium 20:00, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

East Timor is part of Asia, Southeast Asia more specifically, PERIOD! Even though it shares the same fauna and flora with Oceania is absolutly of no signifcance. They are both part of Asia and universally accepted so.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.255.230.227 (talk • contribs)

Please provide citations as requested above. Also, remember to sign your posts on talk pages, and there's no need to bold everything.-gadfium 20:18, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

New Zealand Categories

Hi, do you know of any way that we can list all the sub cats under Category:New Zealand in a hierarchical format. This is for two reasons. 1) I suspect some category placement could be improved. 2) I don't know them that well and it would be nice to print off a list and put things into their correct sub category, rather than in Category:New Zealand people for example, some times they can be hard to guess -- New Zealand artists, or Artists in New Zealand?. Onco_p53 22:20, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

The category tree tool does what you want. The place to look for tools like this is at Wikipedia:tools.-gadfium 23:48, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Désiré van Monckhoven

Good idea; I stubbed out Désiré van Monckhoven per your suggestion. Dicklyon 05:43, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Re: Gidday

Thank you. I hope you've been doing well. I missed you (and everyone else here). It is good to be back. I made one edit to one article and soon another followed, then another. Before I knew it I had decided it didn't matter how busy RL was; I was going to make time for Wikipedia. You're right about removing the inactive notice. I've been thinking about that, myself, but putting it off because of the time tradeoff. I would prefer a more aesthetically pleasing page than what I had before. Putting one together means taking time away from reverting vandalism. You're right, though. It's time. I guess I'll just shamelessly steal ideas from some of the user pages I've seen lately. SWAdair 03:05, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Hawaiian language on Portal:Oceania

Thanks for figuring out what I was trying to do with the article. I was in a hurry and wasn't very clear. I hope the article is OK. · rodii · 20:17, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

NZ Sign Language

You just beat me to the revert, but it was certainly more humourous than average...--Limegreen 23:47, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

True.-gadfium 23:48, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Cinema of Unease

• It certainly is relevant to the page, put it in the history section. It is a doco by Sam Neill covering a period where many New Zealand films were dark themed or edgy hence 'unease'. Films such as sleeping dogs, an angel at my table, and the one where the farmer boy has lambs blood spit on him when his old man cuts its throat (cant remember the name but its freaky weird New Zealand Cinema). --Say Var Ree 01:59, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

November 12, and "Emergence Day"

How does a Video game not count? Halo and Halo 2 are both cited on their respective dates of release, and I have never seen a rule saying "no video games" 8/3/06 - Magus05

Since this is a matter which potentially affects more than just the November 12 page, I've raised it at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(policy)#Video_game_launches. Please contribute there.-gadfium 00:20, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

Scott Sather

Thanks for the small update to the Scott Sather page. It really helps cause I think this individual needed to have more information and a better looking design to the page. Just doing the quote thing helped out a lot. Thanks again. DJREJECTED 11:43, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Oh Yeah haha

I do the "research" you write the paper baby! I'm learning a lot, check out my new user page and thank you xoxo.Courtney Akins 17:46, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your help on my questions. Do you think I'm hot?Courtney Akins 02:46, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Since you're in Florida, and it's summer there, then you are most certainly hot unless you have your air conditioning on full-bore.-gadfium 02:52, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Well I do :). But I also have a pic on my user page baby.Courtney Akins 02:56, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

My sideways comment was intended as a subtle hint that your question is not appropriate as this is not a social networking site.-gadfium 05:46, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Hey

Re this edit. unfortunately, they are called the black cocks. However, I recommend you DO NOT try to google that. I think they may have scrapped the name though [1]. --Midnighttonight Remind me to do my uni work rather than procrastinate on the internet 08:13, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Very cautious googling seemed to indicate that they considered that name but either didn't adopt it or abandoned it. I would want to see a link to a website clearly stating that is their current name, dated in 2006, before I would allow this reference. Essentially, it comes down to whether the New Zealand national badminton team are a bunch of trolls or not!-gadfium 08:19, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Foreign relations of New Zealand

Foreign relations of New Zealand is simply awful. There is little actual content - it's primarily a list of organizations NZ belongs to - and the content that was there, other than what I added yesterday, appears to be entirely uncited, POV OR. I'm thinking of deleting 75% of the article and trying to rebuild it from near scratch. Respectfully, Republitarian 13:30, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I started a page on New Zealander-Israeli relations. I am more than happy to downsize the section on Nz-Israel relations at Foreign relations of New Zealand, but I see no point in creating a timeline of NZ foreign relations page. There is no content for this, at least as far as I can see, on the foreign relations page. Respectfully, Republitarian 17:43, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

RfA Not Listed

GIen's RfA isn't listed yet. Wait a couple of minutes =). alphaChimp ^laudare 05:50, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

It'll appear on WP:RFA. Then, feel free to vote. Regards, alphaChimp ^laudare 05:52, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I saw him accept it, and jumped in. You're right, I should have waited until it was on the RfA page.-gadfium 05:53, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I actually reverted it back. Although the dividing line is there, I doubt anyone cares in the grand scheme of things. Regards, alphaChimp ^laudare 20:14, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Cheers

Thanks for the category you added to Takuu. Lonely island feels included. Kahuroa 11:30, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Taito Phillip Field

Hi. You moved Taito Phillip Field to Phillip Field. I think that's a wrong move. Pls see Talk:Phillip_Field. cheers Nurg 13:12, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Foreign relations of New Zealand

Thanks for trimming Foreign relations of New Zealand. I had forgotten about doing that. Respectfully, Republitarian 13:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Jerkcity

I saw your block of Jerkcity; I think you have a leetle typo there -- he's blocked for gross civility right now. Didn't want to edit it for you; thought you'd like to know. Thanks. Mike Christie (talk) 19:59, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Better that the typo was on the talk page and not in the reason for the block!-gadfium 20:05, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

User:Buttwhore

Would you please block this user: offensive usernames, posting attack article ... thanks very much User:Pedant 23:30, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

With regards to your comments on Portal:Singapore

Thank You for your advise. I would like to further enquire whether typing in {{FULLPAGENAME}} is another method of doing this. With regards to Portal:Bangladesh, I did it by doing this method as they were no ed options in the particular edit page. --Siva1979^{Talk to me} 17:14, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm not an expert. I think FULLPAGENAME is the method used in the recommended templates for setting up a portal, so it seems like a good idea.-gadfium 19:25, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

GIen's RfA: Thank you!

Gadfium for your Support! I I feel truly humbled & honored by your support in my RfA, which closed at 90 / 5 / 0. Thank you! If you need me for anything, just say the word. For now however, just like Mr Potter here: My mop & I shall thwart all evil :) IThank you once again my friend. GIen

PS: YES YOU'RE RIGHT HARRY POTTER USES A BROOM! (BUT GOOD MOPS ARE HARD TO FIND!!)

PS - thought it perfect that a fellow Kiwi was first off the mark too - nothing new there!!! :) Thanks mate - GIen 05:07, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Notes/References

Hi I have a question, You know that footnote you just added to the Zaoui page:

• ^ "Submission to the Prime Minister... in light of "Summary of Allegations and Reasoning" provided by the Director of Security on 27 January 2004" (PDF). 16 February 2004. Retrieved 2006-08-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Is there a tool for making them that I don't know about, or do you do them by hand? Armon 00:59, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

There are numerous footnote/reference systems in use on Wikipedia. This is because the preferred style has changed over the years, and because both the MediaWiki syntax and templates have become more powerful over the years. I just follow the one in use on the page I'm editing, which in the case of the Zaoui article is the one explained at Wikipedia:Footnote3. Unfortunately, this is an older style and does need to be entered fully manually (although there are numerous add-on tools to WikiMedia, listed in WP:TOOLS, and one may have automated this process). For new pages which don't already have a footnote system, I use WP:FOOT, and it may be worth converting the Zaoui page to use that.-gadfium 01:26, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

About the help desk

Hi - Just an FYI, I've taken to letting folks at the help desk (and the various related pages) know how to do <whatever> rather than doing it for them even when it's trivial, on the theory that it's better to teach them how to fish than give them a fish. I know you spend a fair amount of time at these pages (as do I). It might be good for us (and the other regular responders) to adopt a common "response style". At one point, a while ago (I forget exactly where), I suggested we create a "how to respond" for these sorts of pages (use real English rather than wikilanguage, etc.). As I recollect, noone responded. Thoughts on this? -- Rick Block (talk) 04:30, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Fair point, I'll try to adhere to it in future. A non-binding/suggested code of conduct for Ref Desk staff is a good idea; if you write something I'll support it.-gadfium 05:04, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

I found what I wrote up a while ago - it's at Wikipedia talk:Village pump (miscellaneous). While looking for this, I also noticed Wikipedia:Help desk/How to answer, which is linked from WP:HD. I'm not a big fan of userboxes (and, looking at your user page it would appear you're not either), but perhaps one way to draw attention to a help desk code of conduct would be to link to it from a userbox for help desk responders, likely some variant of template:User helper. -- Rick Block (talk) 16:28, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

NZCOTF

Could you please do the update tonight?; thanks Brian | (Talk) 04:55, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Will do!-gadfium 05:01, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

WP:RfA/Consumed Crustacean

Thanks for the supporting vote. The whole ordeal finished with success, thankfully. :) -- Consumed Crustacean | Talk | 04:12, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Clearing autoblocks

Hi, I unblocked Courtney, apparently unsuccessfully and i see that you responded to her saying you cleared autoblocks. Can you give me a pointer as to where I should be reading how to do that? I'd rather have gotten it right on the first try... but thanks for taking care of it for me. You can answer here, I watch. ++Lar: t/c 11:48, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm no expert on the subject, and Courtney hasn't made an edit since, so I can't guarantee that I got it right, but at Special:Ipblocklist there's a link at the top of the page saying "See this tool for help in clearing autoblocks". For some reason, putting in "Courtney Atkins" as the blockee didn't work for me., so I put in "El C" as the blocker, and "last week" for the time span, and it showed me the original block, crossed out because it was lifted, and two autoblocks. Clicking on the autoblock id allows them to be cleared. If you look now, you'll see the autoblocks also crossed out, because I cleared them.-gadfium 19:34, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

I see now there's no "t" in her surname, so that's why putting in the blockee didn't work for me.-gadfium 19:38, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

What is the deal with how you guys are treating Publicgirluk? you know i was almost blocked permanently for as much as offering the same thing. Courtney Akins 02:02, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

I haven't had any connection with Publicgirluk. My connection with you started at the Reference desk, and I'm not involved in the pages she edits.-gadfium 02:21, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Courtney has only narrowly escaped an indef block for trolling and is very much on probation at the moment, although at this rate not for long. I suggest you delete the comment from your user page. Tyrenius 02:59, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

(Just spotted I think you're familiar with it already. Tyrenius 04:43, 30 August 2006 (UTC))

What are you talking abuot why are you all ganging up on me?Courtney Akins 03:05, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

See ganging up here.[2] Tyrenius 04:45, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Lord Cooke of Thorndon

Thanks for the fixup on my edits - what I meant to say was that the sentence was POV, but brain wasn't working sufficiently to either fix it properly or explain what I thought about it. There's heaps of really good material that could be added to the article - might this be a good WP:NZCOTF? --Tirana 21:47, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

You could certainly nominate it. I looked for some information on him this morning, particularly on the role he played in cancelling the 1985 All Black tour of South Africa, and critical comments he made about the Business Roundtable, and couldn't find much, so I suggest you include some sources with the nomination.-gadfium 21:52, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Ashburton

I live in Ashburton, and the sale of Designline is on the front page of the local paper (Ashburton Guardian). Unfortunately, the article isn't on the Guardian website, nor does the article name who the buyers are, other than "US Interests".-User:AH Dean

Sorry about that!

Photo competition -if we have it

Hi, if we're going to have that photo competition you suggested on WP:NZCOTF, I'd like to "enter" a photo I took that I've put on the Tino rangatiratanga page. Armon 00:01, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

You should suggest a loosening of the rules then, as my original suggestion was that only photos uploaded during the COTF period are eligible.-gadfium 00:10, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Stink. I don't want to do that, too self-serving. Armon 00:23, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Urethral Sounding

Thank you very much for your answer to my question. The links were extremly helpful and included all the information I could hope to find. I remains to be seen if I am willing to give sounding a try. 66.82.9.54 18:16, 6 September 2006 (UTC)Hornytoad62

Hi, Gads!

Man, is it ever great to hear from you! I'm truly touched and overwhelmed by the welcome-home. I told at least one other user that I was afraid I was going to be tarred and feathered when I signed back on. I am SO glad those were unfounded fears. Ah, vandal-slaying...been too long.  :) - Lucky 6.9 01:18, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• I like it. Very clean and fair way of doing things. There are a helluva lot of new templates, rules, regulations and such and I don't want to do the wrong thing right out of the chute. It was fun for the time being to stretch my atrophied admin muscles! I still plan on doing more editing and less new pages patrolling. I'll concentrate on the obvious speedies for now when the mood strikes. There are also a few subjects I'd like to add - been real busy doing that at other GNU doc wikis - and a few older articles I'd like to clean up. I really want to pick up where I left off at the Disneyland Railroad article. Very close to featured status and I want to make that feature number seven real soon. Can I count on you to hold my hand for the time being? - Lucky 6.9 05:16, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Any help I can provide you, just ask!-gadfium 05:24, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Keith Locke PoV edit war

Hi, User:Armon and I are decending into a bit of an edit war over Keith Locke and I was hoping you could come and offer a neutral perspective and help us come to consensus. Or any other scrupulously neutral editors intested in NZ politics you know. cheers Drstuey 08:53, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Apologies

Sorry for my lack of input on the mediation -I've been sick. I'll get back to it ASAP. Armon 09:14, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

What tha....?

Hey I just went to add User:Cyde/Ref converter to User:Armon/Quick Reference Tags and it says it's a blocked user account -huh? Looks like a bot did it. Is it something I should worry about? Armon 02:33, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I think your putting vandal tags on that page may be confusing the bot. I suggest you drop a note on User talk:Cyde about it.-gadfium 02:40, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Armon 04:03, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Brash

While at the moment trivial, I was talking to one of my political science lecturers who deems this the beginning of the end for Brash. So maybe it isn't relevant/encyclopaedic now, but it may be soon. I also think having your own caucus raise it up is pretty significant. I will get around to the 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy soon.

Keep a close watch on the Don Brash article, and also Peter Davis (New Zealand), I have heard numerous rumours about things coming out about them (Don Brash is having obvious problems with his wife. Peter Davis is being investigated by Ian Wishart). --Midnighttonight Procrastinating on uni work... 02:37, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

See Talk:Don Brash. I think that someones marriage is actually quite an important part of his life (but not very important politically). It deserves a mention. Problem is that the current 2006 and beyond section is about politics. Well, if this published things not currently published in the public arena, some MPs would have quite interesting entries. Lets just leave it at that. Tell me to get back to work! 04:18, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, of course his marriage is an important part of his life, but we don't need to cover all the ups and downs of it. Would we add to the Helen Clark article: On February 32, 2007, Peter Davis had to sleep on the couch because he failed to take out the trash?-gadfium 04:51, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, fair call. I'm generally inclined to keep personal lives of politicians out of here unless things are particularly important, and this probably falls outside that at the moment. And thanks for the encouragement (I finshed something important today, so I'm on a break for a few hours... (and I changed the wording on my userpage to something less aggressive and probably more truthfull) Tell me to get back to work! 05:17, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

New templates

Thanks Gad. I thought of that...too late.  :) Anyway, nice to hear from you - Lucky 6.9 14:17, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for watching my back.

Ah, the pleasures of reverting kiddie-wiki. BTW, I dig the new signature. Thinking of trying one myself. Best, Lucky 6.9 06:37, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Sorry

Didn't mean to vandilze! Sorry.

Hey Tiger

Dear Ash-vegas, I am not too sure what you expect of me. You like the look of the pages I have put together? You seem good at working the net and this wikipedia thing - if a certain level of permission stamp needs to be put on these images I am guessing you know what it is and where to find it. Impress me some more! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kiwi Digger (talk • contribs)

It looks like those images came from commercial websites, and I'm afraid that just taking someone else's photos and saying that they are licenced under the GFDL isn't legally acceptable. If the people who took the photos have agreed that they will licence them under those terms, or you are the original photographer and those websites are using the image with your permission, then you need to tell us that and someone who is more aware of this aspect of copyright law will step you through the procedure of making it formal. If you do nothing, the images will be deleted to protect the rights of the original copyright holders. Under the law, we can do no less.-gadfium 19:28, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Te Arawa Treaty settlement

Hey, fast spotting on the settlement announced this weekend - I had a feeling the reporters mangled the figures ("reported to be worth..."[3]) so I had a look at the official story [4] and it paints a slightly different picture. No doubt things will clear up when they update the quarterly report. --Tirana 22:15, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

It's not..?

The article was an original essay and how-to. If I was wrong in deleting it, by all means feel free to restore it. - Lucky 6.9 02:11, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

RfA thanks

Thank you for participating in my RfA, which passed with a tally of 66/11/5. I learned quite a bit during the process, and I expect to be learning a lot more in the days ahead. I will be taking things slowly (and doing a lot of re-reading), but I hope you will let me know if there is anything I can do to improve in my new capacity. I will be taking your advice and doing the best I can do avoid burnout. Thanks again. -- Merope Talk 13:45, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Auckland attractions and landmarks

Gadfium, I have to say that I dislike the removal of said section. I am sorely tempted to revert your edits, but I don't impute any bad faith obviously, and I don't want to start any edit wars either. So can you first state why you ditched that whole section - and why you did not discuss it with others on the discussion page first?

Correction, I see you put it on the talk page. But at the same time that you did it, apparently.

Seeing that the section was quite well written (much more than a list) I find that many a tourist - or simply someone not of Auckland - could have made good use out of it being all gathered together. MadMaxDog 04:46, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

I've restored the list pending discussion. However, I feel such a section is more appropriate to a travel site than to an encyclopedia.-gadfium 05:24, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Not fully disagreeing. But I see Wikipedia as eventually being as useful as a good travel site would too! MadMaxDog 05:57, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Palau's Capital Change

Got your message on my Talk page regarding Palau's capital change. The flag over the capital building in Koror was lowered on 1 October to coincide with their Independence Day. But they did not authorize the move-in to the Melekeok facilities until 7 October, which coincided with a full moon. Not sure why that was important, but that's what the various news articles say, including this news blurb from Palau's VP: [5]. Here is the text:

President’s Cabinet Travels to Melekeok

September 22, 2006

President Remengesau conducted his cabinet meeting last Tuesday in his new office in the new Capitol building. According to Presidential Chief of Staff Billy Kuartei, the entire cabinet traveled to Melekeok to see their new offices. Kuartei said that all the furniture is in place in each office, and after the October 1st celebrations, employees can start moving their things in. The official move-in date is October 7 (full moon), and work will begin on Monday, October 9. Kuartei added that all is set for the October 1st celebrations, which will include a 45-member Harley Davidson Club bike ride from Koror to the new Capitol.

Hope that helps! --Mike Beidler 05:27, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Strait of Magellan

Could you explain the reason for put POV in the edit summary field? Jespinos 16:34, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

The edit was made by someone who was removing Argentina or Peru from a number of articles, obviously with the intention of promoting Chile. See [6]-gadfium 18:22, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree with most of your reversions. I disagree with your opinion on Porvenir, you have to determine the relative importance of the towns. Puerto Williams do not form part of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, this is the true motive for the reversion. On another point, I suppose there are no sovereignty doubts over the Strait of Magellan. Jespinos 23:03, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

If you wish to restore selected edits, go ahead. You are most likely in a better position than I am to determine what is correct.-gadfium 23:14, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

Move request

Hi Gadfium, I wonder whether you could Move Metanephrops challengeri to "New Zealand lobster". I can't. Thanks GrahamBould 18:49, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

It was moved to the scientific name because there is more than one common name for it. According to Wikipedia:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#Article_titles_and_common_names, common names should be used when they are reasonably unique, but I'm not sure that this applies in this case. I suggest you propose the name change on the talk page, and then post a brief message at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life to bring attention to your proposal.-gadfium 18:56, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice, but I won't pursue this. Cheers GrahamBould 13:44, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Reply?

Thanks for that, I will read those pages. No I'm not Antonia Prebble. But if I am doing something wrong at the moment, can you please tell me so I can get it right. Antonia1234 01:00, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Bulk change

Gadfium, are you able to do a bulk change to a Category name on article pages (there are between 40 & 50 pages)? Is it worth it for this number, as I could do them manually? GrahamBould 13:47, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Usually that sort of thing is handled by a bot. See WP:CFR.-gadfium 18:22, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Have added the Category name change to the WP:CFR. Wonder how long it takes. GrahamBould 14:35, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

My page

It appears you have removed completely my page on Maori child killings, saying "rm redlink, not a particularly likely topic for an article." I disagree, considering there are articles on child murders, and New Zealand crime. This is a more specific summation of a subset of those killings.

I would like to know where the page has gone ?

I object to your actions.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Emordnilap (talk • contribs)

I didn't delete your page. I removed a link to it after it was deleted. I note that three editors who viewed your page thought it was a bad idea for an encyclopedia article, and on viewing it now, I agree. One of those editors said "Lousy name for an encyclopedia entry. Destroy this craptacular page.", the second suggested deletion as "Incitement to racial hatred", and the third deleted it as "No context". The article was emotive - not a good thing for an encyclopedia article. It almost immediately veered off topic onto crime committed by Maori, and it was confused about whether it was a biography of the victims or a list of them. I cannot see there will ever be a place for such articles on Wikipedia.-gadfium 17:58, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Maori Queen Link

I have once again added in the Remembering Link to this memorial because it is totally relevant and certainly not 'mere promotion.' The online memorial established here is true testimony to the regard her people and the wider community held this person in and is the ONLY NZ national record of its kind. It contains personal comments of a significant number of people and has historical value. I consider it far more relevant than any general news item about the event which also serves to 'promote' the publication concerned. This memorial was established free of charge and developed with a conisderable abmout of volunteer effort - unlike any general 'news' item which has been placed in a paid publication. Could you please reinspect this link as the servers were down for an extended period yesterday for upgrading. --Remembering 10:17, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I've looked at your site, and it is clearly a commercial one. You charge people a fee to put up a memorial page for their loved ones. I wish you every success, but Wikipedia is not an appropriate place to publicise it.-gadfium 17:49, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Once again I must take issue with the removal of the external link to remembering.co.nz on the Dame Te Ata memorial. The fact is that Television New Zealand, the New Zealand Herald Radio New Zealand, stuff etc are all commercial organisations. Do these groups pay you to keep their links on the page? I can only assume this because two of them no longer work and another two are no longer live - that's out of 12 links. Television New Zealand also has a very limited number of personal tributes on its page just as Remembering does. Would a link to Remembering be better placed in the References section. Just how do you define a commercial site? This is not a mere attempt to score publicity! We have no need for that. Remembering receives scores (sometimes hundreds) of visitors on a daily basis. Many edcuational organisations use us regularly and this is a PERMANENT memorial quite unilike the commercial news links which Wikipedia is littered with and which don't last. I respectfully request that this request be reconsidered and a link at least be added to the References section.--Remembering 20:07, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

The New Zealand Herald etc are not placing links themselves. Other editors place links to their websites because the information they contain is useful and in many cases act as references. You are placing links to your own website, and this is directly against Wikipedia guidelines in Wikipedia:External_links#Links_normally_to_be_avoided. You may have noticed that I am not the only editor to have removed your links.-gadfium 20:29, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I think this is a poor answer and one based more on prejudice than any worthwhile consideration or discussion of whether the link is really relevant. Surely a link that clicks through to a story that is no longer present is totally irrelevant but you have continued to publicise the media organisations concerned! I am a newbie here but I am staggered to learn that I am unable to place a link to add to the resources on an item purely because I am one of the site's co-owners. Irrelevant links would surely be removed anyway. Are you therefore saying only major media are allowed into your Oceania section? When I look at our counters I see we have been given less than three minutes of consideration and none of you have even bothered to view this memorial's Legacy page which contains the official press releases of 21 major organisations. We are a journal of record and we formally archive relevant electronic material for future reference. I find it staggering that the NZ Herald considers us a relevant link, Christchurch Libray, Councils and Govt departments also link us were appropriate but Wikipedia won't. --Remembering 21:34, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Could you look at Sacred Heart College, Auckland

I have no knowledge about Sacred Heart College, Auckland but some of the recent edits appear to be pretty serious, by an IP that by looking at other changes appears to be a vandal. Some of his edits may not be noticed unless someone with some background on the subject takes a look... like you =P Good luck! --Skywolf 21:43, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

The IP is quite likely used by a number of people, so it isn't safe to assume that because some edits are vandalism others must be too. Their edits to the school article boil down to adding a probably fake house name, which I removed, removing an existing house name, which someone else put back, and adding house colours, which I have no idea of the accuracy of but the anon who restored the deleted house didn't change. They also changed the role from 1300+ to 1000+, which may or may not be accurate but is not major vandalism. The change in principal name was made by the later anon who looks to have made reliable edits.

Earlier vandalism to the SHC article by this IP was juvenile grafiti probably not from the same person.-gadfium 22:24, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't have any particular knowledge of this school - I live in the same city, but attended secondary school a very long time ago in a different city. I watch changes to all school articles in New Zealand at least once a day, as they are very prone to vandalism.-gadfium 22:22, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Commercialism or Prejudice?

The Wikipedia article on Arthur Lydiard contains a link to NZEdge.com this is unquestionably a commercial site with its own shopping cart. Why then should a link to the Maori Queen be rejected on the basis that it is a commercial site or do the white fellas just get special treatment in Wikipedia?

I fail to see how removing spam links can be construed as racism.-gadfium 04:21, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

This is the first request we have ever made for a link to Remembering. If you examine our site carefully you will understand why we never need to use outside links to bring visitors to this site. It is our policy to establish certain memorials free of charge. Dame Te Ata's memorial was one of these but I'm sure it's still spam in your book anyway. Herbert Spencer once wrote something that defines your dismissal of Dame Te Ata's memorial. He called it "contempt prior to investigation." --Remembering 09:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

There have now been at least five Wikipedia editors who have reviewed your requests to add your links, and all have agreed that it isn't a good idea. At this point, you should accept the consensus.-gadfium 18:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Meeting Request

Hi Gadfium. I posted a similar request on Dame Te Ata's dicussion list earlier but I guess you must have missed it. I realise we are banging our heads against eachother over the Maori Queen link. Can we seek a meeting with you at Auckland University. Myself and a deputation of others would be happy to meet with you in person because we feel there are deeper issues at stake here and we would like to clear them up. Would you like to meet with us?--Remembering 02:47, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't see how that would help Wikipedia. Please read the instructions at the top of this page before posting here again.-gadfium 03:55, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

"Trolling" by User:Mostlyharmless

If you're going to clean up my "uncivil" remarks. I would point you here for the latest example of his personal attacks in a further attempt to get others to support his "cause". Despite being warned, he is continuing in this behaviour and if that's not the definition of "trolling", then it's wiki-stalking. I request that you do something about it. Armon 08:24, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

How you can interpret that a phrase like "User:Armon with little regard for the facts" and his accusations that I'm harming articles somehow isn't a personal attack given his "fuck Armon, fuck all truth hating bastards!" tantrum, is utterly beyond me. Your reticence to actually do anything about him and the implication that my "Still trolling, huh" comment is somehow equivalent to his harassment is frankly, insulting. Armon 10:52, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Georgina Beyer

The user has changed the wording again from your original compromise, which I was happy with. I have many reservations about this user... they claim to have worked with Beyer in the past, and so forth, which is creating their bias. I'm fairly new to wikipedia - what is done in situations such as this? 130.195.86.37 02:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with the current version of the explanation about the maiden speech. The purpose of this sentence is to explain the joke for non-New Zealanders who might not otherwise understand it. There is no advantage to offending anyone in the process. I'm not sure that I understand the subtleties of the difference between my version and the current one, but I can't see that it's important. It might be important on the New Zealand English page, but not on Georgina Beyer.

I think Kiwimw is a valuable contributor to Wikipedia. I think you are too. I suggest you drop this and move on to other articles. There's no shortage of things to do around here.-gadfium 03:02, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia meetings?

Hello Gadfium! Some time ago, I found a page (or maybe a section of a user-page, not sure anymore) about a meeting of Wikipedians in Auckland that had happened sometime recently (well, within 1-2 years ;-). Can't find it anymore. So are there any future meetings currently planned? Cheers MadMaxDog 00:18, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

The page is at Wikipedia:Meetup/Auckland, and it happened on June 25 this year, just before you started editing Wikipedia. I don't know of any plans for another one, but there's nothing to stop you proposing another one. I suggest you give a suggested place and a time/date a few weeks away and use the NZ notice board to get initial consensus that that's suitable. Then you'll need to drop a message about it on the talk pages of currently active Auckland Wikipedians. You should talk to User:Brian New Zealand too, as the last meetup was his idea (although he couldn't attend in the end).-gadfium 00:57, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Meetup#Procedure.-gadfium 01:00, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Audio visual material

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia#Audio_Visual_links I just wanted to ask about the rm of this material. If people are interested around the world this is the only way they are going to get the content. Please explain why you rm again.RoddyYoung 10:18, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

I've replied at Talk:Treaty_of_Waitangi#Treaty_of_Waitangi_Audio_Visual_1.2C2.2C3.2C4.2C5.2C6.2C7_of_7.-gadfium 18:19, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Exams

Good luck for your exams! I hope they go well. Ziggurat 19:52, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. The first one (genetics) did. I'm not too worried about the next one (biochemistry). The last one is going to be a nightmare (physical and material chemistry). I'm fine with the quantum chemistry and other parts of the paper, but I just don't seem to be able to understand electrochemistry.-gadfium 20:10, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

NZ Army & wikipedia

Hi Gadfium, I got this message on my talkpage this morning

“ Hi There, I am the NZ Army Internet Web Manager and came across the NZ Army on Wikipedia today. I am curious (as I don't know much about Wikipedia yet) as to where all the content comes from? I see some pages are linked to the NZ Army Website which is cool but am wondering where the rest comes from? I would be grateful if you could let me know or email me at army ArmyWebmaster@nzdf.mil.nz ”

how should this be answered? Should an e-mail be sent explaining about wikipedia? Brian | (Talk) 23:01, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, if you don't mind using your own email address to do so. Pointing to Wikipedia and Wikipedia:FAQ would be a good start.

Unfortunately the New Zealand Army is entirely unreferenced, but you could include a link to the history page to point out that many people have edited the article. Make it very clear that you don't own the article, but offer to fix any inaccuracies in it that they point out to you. That's probably better than suggesting at this early point that they correct the article themselves.

If you strike up a longer correspondence, then ask if they can supply photos under a creative commons licence. You probably know better than I do what photos would be useful, but a picture of the current uniform (and maybe some historical ones) would be good, also perhaps a photo of whoever is in overall command of the Army (I couldn't see a name in the article).-gadfium 23:41, 31 October 2006 (UTC)

Cat change lost?

Hi Gadfium, About 22 October I submitted a Category renaming request using the correct method - "Category:Freshwater fish of New Zealand" → "Category:Endemic freshwater fish of New Zealand". The comments were building up but now the entry has disappeared - I wonder whether you can point me to its location. Thanks. GrahamBould 14:53, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

It's at Wikipedia:Categories_for_deletion/Log/2006_October_27#Category:Freshwater_fish_of_New_Zealand. The main Wikipedia:Categories for discussion page only transcludes one week's worth of daily pages. This has dropped to the next section, Pending completions. That section has it's own working page at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working, and I don't see your categegoy there anywhere. You might like to ask someone involved with that page - look through the history of it and pick one of the regularly occuring names. It may be that someone has misunderstood that the consensus, which is to keep the category but move the articles to a subcategory, requires a bot to do the move.-gadfium 18:05, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Akanemoto

No problem, thanks for letting me know. I wasn't sure myself. Proto::type 08:19, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Bias shown by Gadfium in the AUT page

Because you are a University of Auckland student you are more likely to be bias in your comments/postings on the AUT page. This has been reflected several times where you have stated unsupported claims and reasons for AUT's establishment as a university. You have no evidence whatsoever to support your statements. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sinista (talk • contribs)

Actually, I'm an ex-AUT student too. In the case you seem to be objecting to, where you have tried to change my comment on the talk page, I'm defending AUT.-gadfium 01:20, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

Well whats with the "Auckland Technical Institute" comment?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Sinista (talk • contribs)

Please sign your name on talk pages. The comment flows from the sentence before it. Why do you find it offensive?-gadfium 04:45, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't find it offensive at all. All I am questioning is the neutrality of your comments on the AUT page. Once people like you start posting bias comments it impacts on Wikipedias credibility as a source of information. And Im a Massey Uni student by the way. (Sinista 04:56, 5 November 2006 (UTC))

Oceania

Please consider my last statement.Gelpiac 15:14, 5 November 2006 (UTC) Would you check the discussion page please? Gelpiac 16:23, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Why remove my link?

@ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness any particular reason? Do you even click on the link? Or do you believe the link below it (yours?) is some how better? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.217.220.42 (talk • contribs)

I removed your link, and have done so again, because Wikipedia is not a web directory. I have now gone through that article and removed several other photo and travel sites. I have no conflict of interest here; I am trying to improve Wikipedia. You clearly do have a conflict of interest, as you are linking to your own site.-gadfium 17:46, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

No I have no conflict of interest otherwise I would have deleted all links but mine, hopefully one day you and others like you will get the difference between blanket statements like "Inappropriate links include (but are not limited to) links to personal web sites, links to web sites with which you are affiliated, and links that exist to attract visitors to a web site or promote a product." and what is useful to the end user, which is what Wikipedia is all about. Hei konā rā Tutae Upoko.

RfA thanks

Thank you for participating in my RfA discussion! I appreciate you contributing your voice to the debate and its outcome. I hope how I wield the mop makes you proud. Thanks!

— Saxifrage

Mare

Hey mate, I was the original guy posting about mayor vs. mare. I see that someone else has wound up with the same IP as I had, and is causing trouble. I have recovered the password to my old account, and I will use that for editing in the future. I just wanted to let you know that you are absolutely in the right with your edits to the article. PS: My account is called Cicadaboy. 130.195.86.36 21:08, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

"Lazy" reverts

If you have a specific problem with another editor's copyedit, please do not just revert (as you did at New Zealand). Fix the actual mistake, or discuss the problem with the editor in question. Meanwhile, "lazy" reverts can considered a simple slap in the face and can bring about needless heated disputes. Regards, Saravask 21:28, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I've tried changing your edit to something which doesn't confuse the Realm, the country and the Polynesian triangle. What I've ended up with is something worse than the original. Your first edit made it look like the Realm was the country, and the Triangle is the isolated area (it is isolated, but the article is talking about NZ). Your second edit mixed the distinct ideas of New Zealand, with its Maori name, and the Realm. Again, you mix up the isolation of NZ with that of the Polynesian triangle. Perhaps if you explain what it is about the original which needs copyediting, we could fix it.-gadfium 21:48, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

The Ross Dependency is not a state in free association with New Zealand. It's a territorial claim by New Zealand. Tokelau is not self-governing - your edit removed this distinction.-gadfium 23:36, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

.. Which helps make a point: the lead exhibits sloppy organization and syntax, leading readers (like me) to confusion. For example, take the phrase "the Cook Islands and Niue, which are self-governing, but in free association;". In free association with what? Each other (including the items subsequently listed)? With the realm? With New Zealand itself (which, per your clarification, is apparently a separate concept from the realm)? There are other examples, but there is a more general point: the lead is currently an informal hodgepodge of random factoids, not unlike a list of trivia. There is no thematic cohesion, no flow between facts, no higher organization, etc. Please compare your lead with that of Australia or Kerala. Saravask 00:04, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Cats and Dogs Portals

Hi, Gadfium. If you can offer some tips on the respective portal talk pages about how to improve Cats and Dogs up to "featured" quality, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Rfrisbie^talk 18:07, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

User:Mattressman123

You blocked this user as a blantant vandal. However, they have created a chain of accounts (see [7], [8], [9]). They have also vandalized under the Bradleybittinger and MrsEdwards account. I warned them on that before I noticed the block on Mattressman123. If they continue vandalizing under any one account, should we block all of them? -- JLaTondre 00:22, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Do what you like; I'm on my way to an exam and don't have time to think about this.-gadfium 00:24, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

No problem. Good luck. -- JLaTondre 00:28, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar!

		The RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar
		I hereby award you the RickK Anti-Vandalism Barnstar for your dedication and persistence to fighting vandals on Wikipedia. Thanks for helping Wikipedia stay strong. Nishkid64 19:35, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Added references to George Laking

Think that probably cleans it up, but accidentally deleted your request for references. Apologies for that, but think it's sorted now.

Are you perhaps confusing me with User:Chapium, who asked for references on the George Laking article, or have I made a request that I just don't remember?-gadfium 05:37, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Konstable

Hello,

An Arbitration case in which you commented has been opened: Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Konstable. Please add any evidence you may wish the arbitrators to consider to the evidence sub-page, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Konstable/Evidence. You may also contribute to the case on the workshop sub-page, Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Konstable/Workshop.

On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, --Srikeit ^{(Talk | Email)} 05:51, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Thank you

Thank you for your introduction. I am doing my best to add information in areas I have been or am currently an can get information about. Thanks for the links!

And here

Thanks for your note to me. I have unblocked him. Actually, I was ready to fight the good fight, but considering what has happened to the standards here I'm thinking it might be more rewarding to get on with the projects my wife has had lined up for me for ages. Were you aware that if you are not a member of a Wiki-project that you can't edit within that Wiki-project? Moriori 08:49, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

I haven't been involved in the paranormal area of Wikipedia at all, so I have no idea of the culture of that project. It looks like adding the article to the project page was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and the idea that you can't make constructive edits within a project without being a member of that project seems bizarre. However, I suspect this is little to do with that principle or the article you were trying to add, and much to do with the past history between you and InShanee. Deciphering that is more work than I care to take on.-gadfium 18:09, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

re: Co-ordinates

• Your comment: These templates fail to display properly in other skins
• The solution: Back in April, William Allen Simpson posted fixes for various skins.

I will check to see what I need todo to update the skins. My apologies for the inconvenience.

Cheers NevilleDNZ 10:39, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

• Update & assistance needed

Cheers NevilleDNZ 09:47, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Fiji tensions

Hi there! I have been planning to start an article on the current tensions - and have gathered a huge number of news reports to peruse. Lack of time has slowed me, but I should have something written up in the next few days. Feel free to get involved yourself, too:-) David Cannon 09:07, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Apology

Re: this. Please accept my apology for being uncivil to you. I should remember that your ability to maintain the assumption of good faith (even if I disagree) is admirable and that I've been the beneficiary as well. << armon >> 13:31, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Help

Wasn't sure who to ask regarding this issue but I noticed you removed a warning from my talk page which was given to me by User:EZisthebest so I thought I'll ask you. He just gave me another warning on my talk page. I have never vandalized Wikipedia, in fact, I'm a member of the Counter-Vandalism Unit and many of my edits are reverting vandalism. I think this user is trying to defame me because I reverted some of their edits. What should I do? Is there something like an "abuse of warnings" approach? This user is clearly abusing the system.--James Bond 02:04, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the message from your talk page, and given the user a block and a warning.-gadfium 04:22, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Thank you!--James Bond 20:10, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

A block for clearing two warnings? I think NOT!

My removal of two warnings, you say, was reason for my block? I laugh; those were there only because I simply edited the articles of those two people, and they refused to believe that anyone else (since they made the article) could make it better. Perhaps, you should block them, for "spuriously warning" me.EZisthebest 04:56, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I blocked you for the repeated copyvio and for putting spurious warnings on another user's talk page. I also noted that you had received previous warnings for your behaviour, although you had removed them from your talk page. I suggest you not laugh at warnings, but instead improve your conduct.-gadfium 05:12, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

The TRUTH is that you have been blatantly ignoring the facts

placed before you. First, I was unjustly "warned" by James Bond for writing a sentence in his article, which HE PERSONALLY did not approve of, but made perfect sense. Secondly, I did not commit any copyright violations in my Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts article, as I have EXPLICIT PERMISSION to use the passage I used. Then you say I spuriously warned James Bond? I did not; he deleted MY writing for NO reason at all, so I warned him. If you define my warning as spurious, then HE "spuriously" warned me too. By the way, where does it say you cannot blank your talk page? EZisthebest 00:23, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts: COPYVIO? I laugh at such an unwarranted accusation!

I was given explicit authorization to use the passage. The website that your friend Bond talked about actually plagarized it from the official site; which I have permission from. Next time get your facts straight before accusing the innocent. Thanks. EZisthebest 05:07, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid the onus is on you to prove that you have permission. We are only protecting the rights of the copyright holder.-gadfium 05:12, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean EZ, but the only warning I have ever given you (more of a good faith general note) was in regard to an edit you made on October 23, 2006 to the XXX: State of the Union article which I removed because It was unsourced. I then reverted your blanking of your own talk page because you removed warnings and comments of other users. I am not aware of any "Copyright violation" warnings coming from me.--James Bond 10:20, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Image:BillEnglish.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:BillEnglish.jpg. I notice the 'image' page specifies that the image is being used under fair use, but its use in Wikipedia articles fails our first fair use criterion in that it illustrates a subject for which a freely licensed image could reasonably be found or created that provides substantially the same information. If you believe this image is not replaceable, please:

1. Go to the image description page and edit it to add {{Replaceable fair use disputed}}, without deleting the original Replaceable fair use template.
2. On the image discussion page, write the reason why this image is not replaceable at all.

Alternatively, you can also choose to replace the fair use image by finding a freely licensed image of its subject, requesting that the copyright holder release this (or a similar) image under a free license, or by taking a picture of it yourself.

If you have uploaded other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified how these images fully satisfy our fair use criteria. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on this link. Note that any fair use images which are replaceable by free-licensed alternatives will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. Oden 11:39, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Current National Party caucus rankings

Hi, GF. As you may have noted, I've altered details of not only Katherine Rich's cacus ranking, but also those of Don Brash, Bill English, Simon Power, Gerry Brownlee, Richard Worth and Judith Collins to reflect their current placements. It's shopkeeping. If we retained the prior list rankings, then we would confuse any offshore New Zealanders or others interested in current political developments in New Zealand. It's comparable to the US midterm election modifications that needed to be made to several Republican losing candidates due to the Democrat swing there early last month.

FYI, the current rankings are available through Scoop's current Politics menu.

User:Calibanu 13.39, December 4, 2006

I am sure that what my edition is not spamming at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a chemistry major student, I am confident that the page link I added is good for chemistry students, especially for basic chemisty learner. I have no economic interest with the website owner.Please don't reedit my edition again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Chemistrypal (talk • contribs) 13:29, 3 December 2006 (UTC).

Re: Freda du Faur

When I discovered that pioneering female mountaineer Freda du Faur didn't have an entry of her own, I set out to rectify that oversight, resulting in the piece entitled Freda da Faur. Unfortunately, the original Mount Cook entry misspelt her name (which I rectified), but I've found myself unable to tweak the initial entry. Help!

User: Calibanu 12.44, 05 December, 2006

I don't see why you couldn't have used "Move this page"; only very new users are prevented from using it. Anyway, I've moved it to Freda du Faur. There are still several misspellings of it at Aoraki/Mount Cook, and the new article is sometimes capitalising the "du" when I suspect it should not. I'll leave those for you to clean up, if you don't mind.-gadfium 00:00, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Locke redirect

Hi, Gadfium. Can you have a look here. What's the deal with surnames when one person is much more notable than others? <<-armon->> 07:03, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for that -and yes, that's what I meant by "getting an admin". <<-armon->> 21:11, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

2005 New Zealand election funding controversy

As this could be interpreted as a campaign to "colour" the article, which seems to have occurred looking at at this, what do you think about semi-protecting the page? <<-armon->> 01:27, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

We only semi-protect if a range of anon editors are vandalising a page. In this case, anons or signed-in editors are welcome to add information from Hager's book, so long as it is credited and referenced, and doesn't include copyright violations. You make a good point that Hager's book is less reliable than the Auditor-General's report, but the anon also makes a good point (in the article) that the AG's scope of enquiry was limited.

I think you would be better seeking a compromise position than reverting the anon's edits outright. For example, in my last edit to the article, I put in a {{fact}} tag, and the anon then quoted the relevant pages of Hager's book. You have reverted to a point where the fact tag is there again. At the very least, you should leave the reference, unless you have checked out the book and found those pages are not relevant to the assertions made.-gadfium 02:12, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

So I took your advice, but now I'm wondering if "National foot soldiers are deleting what is now in the public record, for their own deceitful propaganda purposes." includes you  ;) <<-armon->> 01:16, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Just to clarify; do you think I might be a National foot soldier, or do you think I'm the anon editing the article? I'm not either.

No no no -sorry. I was referring to the absurdity of the accusation made by the anon. It apparently referred to you and me as a Nat "foot-soldiers" (which I assure you I am not, either). <<-armon->>

We should be insulted. At the very least, we should be officers.-gadfium 03:49, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

What I deleted was a paragraph about National's billboard campaigns, which I believe to be irrelevant to the article. How they funded those billboards is reasonable to discuss, but any discussion of the content of them belongs in the election article, not the funding controversy article.

Fair enough. Made sense to me. <<-armon->>

I see you've used stuff.co.nz urls as references. If you can use nzherald.co.nz articles instead, they'll last longer. Stuff articles get taken down after a few months, but Herald articles stay on the web forever (so far). Just don't use the internal Herald search engine, because articles with "nzherald.co.nz/search" in the url become non-free after about a week. Use google to search the herald site with "site:nzherald.co.nz". Radio New Zealand items time-out within a year too.-gadfium 01:58, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Good tip -I'll fix them when I get a chance. <<-armon->> 03:33, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

This cite doesn't seem to appear anywhere else. Do you think that's a problem? <<-armon->> 00:02, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

That particular quote doesn't appear in the Herald. A google search for '"very, very prominent friends" "Helen Clark"' gives me the same quote in the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC in Australia. I don't know what their retention times for news stories are, but I just tried an abc.com.au link from April last year and it still worked. You can find old links by looking through April 2005 in Australia and New Zealand and similar pages (changed to the format May 2006 in Oceania this year). -gadfium 00:26, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

BTW: here's a heads up <<-armon->> 11:42, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Gabites Porter Consultants & Traffic Design Group

Hello Gadfium. Some admin (I'll try to refrain from name-calling, but it is hard) called 'Danny' deleted the two above stubs, which are both NZ traffic planning consultancies (yep, my industry). He gave 'linkless' as the reason for the first one, and called the second article 'non-notable spam'. Note that while I do not know all that much about the first, the second has existed for 30 years, has millions of turnover per annum, 85 employes, and major built projects based on their designs all over NZ. Why would that be 'non-notable spam'.

Of course, thanks to the delete (which he did not even announce!), I cannot show you the articles themselves, nor (except under threat if another instant delete) recreate them. I already placed comments and requests for undeletion on 'Danny's talk page (again, just barely staying polite - but staying so, I guess). Do you have any idea how to approach this? MadMaxDog 06:58, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

What really gets me about this the the absolute no warning given. Had both of them on my watchlist and was intending to eventually work more on them...

Danny is not just an admin. He works for the Wikimedia Foundation, and is responsible for WP:OFFICE. Under the auspices of the latter, Danny (usually using the account User:Dannyisme) will delete articles as a result of complaints received. Normally such an action is noted as being a WP:OFFICE action. Any admin who undoes such an action is immediately desysopped. This has been known to happen when Danny uses his normal account and fails to note that it is an OFFICE action. As a result, I am not willing to undelete the articles without Danny's explicit consent. If you want the text of the articles, I can email them to you (you'll have to enable an email address for Wikipedia first).

If there was anything in the articles which might have caused a complaint to be made to the Wikimedia Foundation, then I don't believe there is anything you can do. The legal safety of Wikipedia overrides all other considerations. However, I saw nothing which is likely to cause such a complaint in the articles.

I can give you some advice. For Gabites Porter Consultants, it was a single sentence stub, which failed to assert notability. See WP:CORP for guidelines on company notability. There are a great number of companies which have articles on Wikipedia which are never likely to meet WP:CORP standards, but Gabites Porter falls below the average of these. I don't think you have a case here. For Traffic Design Group, because the article was much more substantial, and because it is the largest company in its field in the country, you have some sort of case. The appropriate action is to list it at Deletion Review.

An alternative solution would be to create an article on Traffic and transport consultancies in New Zealand with at least a paragraph on each of the major firms, and then create a redirect from each firm name. Create the initial article in one edit, so it is not simply a recreation of the deleted articles. I have no idea whether this strategy would be ultimately successful, but it should at least be debated at WP:AFD rather than being speedy deleted.-gadfium 08:10, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

So what is the chip on his (Danny's) shoulder? Why is he still being rude about it, dropping me a pithy line about Wikipedia not being a directory of companies etc and asking me to please give him notice of any other companies he can delete - when I offered to, once having the articles undeleted, to provide additional info establishing notability? MadMaxDog 05:06, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

He's probably fed up with people complaining about his deleting of non-notable articles! I take a more generous interpretation of notability of companies than many others do. However, this discussion has in part prompted me to nominate for deletion an article on a minor software product that I have been defending up until now. See my recent contributions if you're curious.-gadfium 05:10, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

BTW: What about things like Council reports establishing the participation of companies like Gabites or TDG in major NZ projects? Would that satify notability, even if the council reports, minutes etc... were not specifically about the company? MadMaxDog 05:11, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

See WP:CORP for the rules, or ask at Deletion review whether there's anything you can do, or use my suggestion above to cover the industry rather than specific companies. I'm not an expert on the finer points of when something is deleted or kept.-gadfium 05:25, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Well, thanks for the explanations, Gadfium. As an inclusionist, I tend to chafe under some of the restrictions placed on Wikipedia from (as I feel it sometimes) 'on high'. I'll likely recreate the TDG article, but only after some substantial research to establish notability. No wish to have it all wiped again. MadMaxDog 05:52, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

infobox

Thank you for your past and recent prompt attention to my queries. I'll think about the infobox template for Ellis article. At the moment I feel a little dispirited about bothering, as if being made to jump through pointless hoops. RichardJ Christie 07:55, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

I understand your frustration. Would you like me to create the userbox? I can probably do so fairly quickly, because I'm somewhat familiar with the syntax.-gadfium 08:12, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Never mind, I see Brian has already done so.-gadfium 08:49, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

It might need fulling out, I foresee that would slight be hard through. Also technically under the fairuse policy FU images are not meant to be in infoboxs Brian | (Talk) 08:53, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Genocide Potential

"No one reputable has suggested it" should read "no one who understands the potential for genocide has removed it". Gadfium I have studied international relations at a public policy post graudate level at university. Your assertion around removing the genocide considerations by the UN and international community shows your lack of depth in understanding around this issue. I ask you to return what you have removed and remove the blood on your hands should genocide develop in Fiji. Doing nothing is just as complicit in the act as taking part. Your herd mentality of looking for someone else to say it before you think it show lack of causal thinking on your part. Explaining why the international community has not used popular media to make light of the fact has to do with the need for the international community to keep cards close to the chest on this matter. The obvious reason, to me any way, is that genocide is the only reason that the UN can become involved. Nations like New Zealand and Australia can take part, with other nations, to correct the situation if genocide looks like taking place only under a UN mandate. Also other nations in the world are on the UN watch list for genocide, like Iran, and suprise disclosure is an important part of the remedy. Again the international community keeps these cards close to the chest for suprise initiation if and when the need may arise to intervene. Gadfium you may not have the courage to change your mistake but that is something that the UN will not suffer with under a South Korean Secretary General. South Korean's are noted for taking failure, in senior management, personally. Unlike your reasons which seem to be herd thinking and ignorantly hiding as opposed to cognitive rational thinking conclusions. Gadfium the genocide potential alert is in your hands and it is my hope that these comments enlighten you and my stern words prompt you to do the right actions under your control. RoddyYoung 22:07, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

My reason for rebuilding the discussion pages so that the links to verifiable references can be found is that deleters have no such standards applied to the level of deletes that they make. The onus of proof is firmly on those being deleted in the slim hope that someone catches what has been deleted before it goes. gadfium you are now deleting from the discussion page and asking for people to redirect to a central page. Stop this as each page requires its own discussion. However wikipedia still grows and is a good information location for an overview of the topic, so power to the people who want verifiable facts. RoddyYoung 00:12, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

I concur with your general rationale about deletionsW. Frank 10:40, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Proposed revert to article Nelson Central School

May I compliment you on your Portal: New Zealand and your help with the above article.

However, on 14 December 2006 I propose reverting, unless there is convincing argument to the contrary, your deletions.

The rationale for the revert is outlined on Talk:Nelson Central School so I would appreciate you discussing the proposed revert, if necessary, on the articles discussion page RATHER THAN HERE.
Thanks for your anticipated help and co-operation in this matter.W. Frank 10:40, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

St Patrick's College, Wellington

Thanks for your assistance yesterday even though at the time I was rather frustrated - I have substantially rewritten and/or reworded the material and added some other info - actually not that easy a task when the original was also "in my own words". Also attempted to reduced the "hard sell of the material". I wanted to highlight David Kennedy but of course a common name and no current Wiki article except regarding some Camelot Kennedy in the USA of no huge significance but the highlighting would point to him. I guess that means I should make a David Kennedy of my own. Forgot to sign in before the edits so now attributed under the hex code instead of my moniker. As well, I believe that the article should be renamed St Patrick's College, Wellington rather than the current St Patrick's College, Kilbirnie but not sure I know how to do that. Would appreciate your assistance in that. Kiddo54 22:47, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Gore - Nicknames of New Zealand cities

Can you tell me why you gave me a final warning and deleted my addition to the Gore article? You say it was linked to a vandalised Wiki article. Firstly, why should I be punished for a vandalism to another article I did not write? Guilty by association is not a fair and just rule, but of course, that is for you to decide right? Secondly, and most importantly. Why is the NZ cities nicknames article vandalised? It has entries under Auckland which refer to it as "Dorkland" and "The Queen City" that you did not remove. These are clearly derogatory! How is it vandalism to refer to Gore as the Gay Capital of New Zealand while allowing derogatory nicknames for Auckland? Including one which is about homosexuality. Your arbitrariness is staggering! Gore is known widely and informally as the Gay Capital of New Zealand, that is a fact. If you are to be the ruler of what nickname is or is not vandalism could you atleast have some consistency. Elliott2006 04:58, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

A google search for "Gay capital of New Zealand" shows no links to Gore other than the Wikipedia article. The Queen City is clearly a fairly well known name for Auckland, again using Google. Dorkland is fairly marginal; there are a large number of Google hits for it, but it is a derogatory term. If someone removed it, I would not reinstate it.

Your behaviour here has been appalling. You have been given several chances already. So far, you have not been punished at all. However, if you continue as you have started, your editing privilege will be removed.-gadfium 08:13, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Seriously, do you have no life apart from treating grown adults like children? If the future of free speech is in the hands of people like you then I am very much saddened. And for the record, Google is not Wikipedia, I think you're confusing the two sites. If you are only going to place knowledge as acceptable because it stems from a Google article then you are not only lazy but a narrow minded technocrat. But you go right ahead and block this account, then I will make another, and another, and another, and another until you get a life and stop using your self-righteous crusade to inflate your ego by wielding what little power you have like a spoilt little child. Elliott2006 06:40, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeepers, Gadfium, from what I read HERE exclusively, you might almost think Elliott isn't too bad. Then you look at a few edits of his and... Yeah, right. Grown adult. MadMaxDog 10:42, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Muldoon "Rise and Fall" was published with an invalid ISBN

Hello Gadfium! Recently you wrote to Rich Farmbrough about Smackbot's critique of an ISBN used in Robert Muldoon for his book, "The rise and fall of a young Turk". The ISBN shown there is 0589008731, and most libraries that hold this book also present that ISBN. However it's easy to confirm from isbn.org/converterpub.asp that the ISBN is *invalid* (the check digit does not match). For more evidence that the ISBN is wrong, look at the entry in the Library of Congress (catalog.loc.gov). They include this ISBN but they mark it as 'Cancelled ISBN'! This seems to be their special code for invalid ISBNs.

When this much research comes back with the same invalid ISBN time after time, it's logical to assume that the book was published with an invalid number. So there is no point in digging further in hope that a correct ISBN will emerge. If you are agreeable, I will replace the bad ISBN with an OCLC number, which will allow readers of the page to look up the book in major libraries just by clicking on the reference [10]. Let me know what you think. EdJohnston 05:43, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

I tried clicking on that link, and entered New Zealand as the country. I was given a list of the "closest areas that have libraries holding the specified item:

Australia

Singapore

California

South Africa

British Columbia, Canada

Wisconsin

Ohio

Barbados

District of Columbia

Pennsylvania"

None of these are very close to New Zealand. The closest, Australia, is about 1200 km away. If I click on this, it does show me the book at the University of Queensland, but that's not much use to a New Zealand researcher who is the most likely one to want this book.

I think we should leave the ISBN and add the OCLC as well.

How does it happen that a book has an invalid ISBN anyway? This is not some vanity-published book, this is the autobiography of a man who became Prime Minister a few years later, published by one of New Zealand's major publishers, A H Reid.-gadfium 08:06, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Mistakes happen, for all the usual reasons. Apparently there are French publishers that recycle their ISBNs.... However if we think the number is correct apart from the checksum, we have the option of switching to the 13 digit ISBN, which should both be valid and find the book. Rich Farmbrough, 09:41 15 December 2006 (GMT).

The value of OCLC is that it 'certifies' that your book was correctly described. E.g. the author's name is right, the title, the publisher, date of publication, etc. This is some of what the ISBN does, but the ISBN may be slightly more useful for actually ordering the book. Whether a library near you participates in OCLC may not be as significant. I'm arguing that faulty ISBNs should simply be removed from Wikipedia as a data quality issue, but not everyone agrees with me. There could perhaps be a discussion over at WT:MOS on what the policy should be for bad ISBNs.

I find it annoying that some major libraries persist in carrying invalid ISBNs in their files. They seem to have not fully entered the computer age. The invalidity is easily checked by anyone (major library or not) using isbn.org/converterpub.asp. This certainly ought to reduce the reputation for accuracy enjoyed by that library. US Library of Congress may be the furthest ahead on this issue that I have checked, but they are not free of error. See the helpful summary I added to the main ISBN article.

Meanwhile, I have added "Rise and Fall" to the list of books published with invalid ISBNs over at Category_talk:Articles_with_invalid_ISBNs and I will go ahead and update the Muldoon article by adding an OCLC number as you agreed. EdJohnston 04:00, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Re: History of Latin America Translation

Please see discussion page, Talk:History of Latin America#Translation progress. I moved some content and wanted to draw your attention to it, as you made a previous comment on the talk page. I plan to work on translating the article if no-one else claims it in a few days. Madeinsane 00:08, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. It's nice to see that someone is working on it.-gadfium 00:25, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Barry Manilow Peer Review

Thanks for setting up the rest of the peer review thing for the Barry Manilow profile that I have been steadily improving since early November. I did a couple steps, but didn't know how to start a page for the peer review as an anonymous user without having an account here. Thanks again for your help, I appreciate it. 67.98.154.56 (talk • contribs)

Reply

Thanks for the help. So would the correct format be "Indian New Zealanders" ? Bakaman 19:31, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

I think either "Indians in New Zealand" or "Indian New Zealanders" would fine.-gadfium 19:34, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I created it at Category:Indian New Zealanders. If you know of any other notable Indians there, please do help in expanding the cat.Bakaman 20:11, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Reply

I am not sure if you got the reply to a question you made on my talk page. The question was a while ago now but just wanted to make sure you got it.

Your question was regarding the year levels in New Zealand, yes, New Zealand schools can cater for students above year 13. The year 14-15's are adults who wish to continue with their education for whatever reason. So if you have removed that from any high school articles regarding New Zealand schools, you should put that back in, provided you have a souce which can back it up as other Wikipedians might not believe you. Nzgabriel 00:49, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. Yes, I did see your reply. I haven't quite decided what to do about it, since I consider calling adult students year 14 and year 15 very confusing. I also hadn't realised that some secondary schools didn't accept adult students, or perhaps they do, but don't call them separate years.

For the time being, I will not change this information on any school article, or prevent anyone from changing figures to agree with the MOE website.

Perhaps the most appropriate solution is to add a footnote to all relevant school articles explaining what years 14-15 mean.-gadfium 00:58, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

An easier solution might be to instead create an entry briefly explaining what year 14 and year 15 is and inserting internal wikilinks into each story. Nzgabriel 03:11, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Please ban

Please ban this user user:Jesus would of vandalized Wikipedia. his/her name clearly states that he/she will vandilise wikipedia. Cocoaguy (Talk)| (Edits) 01:23, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I've blocked indefinitely as an inappropriate username.-gadfium 01:28, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. Cocoaguy (Talk)| (Edits) 02:14, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Nice job cleaning up after Kevinccc

How did you do that so fast? I was still contemplating his list of "contributions" when I discovered they were gone. --CliffC 23:52, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Admin rollback.-gadfium 00:22, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Updated Explained_Atom.svg

Thank you for notifying me. Here's the updated version in Commons already: [11]. And how could I make such bad spelling mistakes :O. wykis 07:25, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar

Thanks for that Gadfium especially as this lone wolf could be much more active in the community aspect of Wikipedia. Really appreciate it! MadMaxDog 23:58, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Unconnected aside: I am just starting to read 'Consider Phlebas'. As good as it appears to be? MadMaxDog 23:58, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

You certainly deserve it for all the work you've done. I think the giving of Barnstars has gone a little bit out of fashion these days, but they are a very good way of telling an editor they're doing a good job.

If you get more involved with the community, and demonstrate the need for admin tools, you'll be a good candidate for adminship in a few months.

I'd say yes, Consider Phlebas is very good, although obviously it depends on one's tastes. As with most Banks' novels, there is a very gross section.-gadfium 00:15, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind words. I'll see about getting somewhat more involved with the community (that is why I previously inquired about meeting some of you in person, that would be good to have another meet at some point). What would you suggest (where to get more involved regarding online presence)?

However, for the near future, I am not too keen on adminship (though I am curious what you refer to with 'admin tools'?) - Adminship would mean having to enforce some rules I still chafe under myself at times. Even if I have already seen the light regarding the sense of some of them ;-) I will of course be watchlisting a large number various articles as usual (BTW, how many pages do you watchlist?)

As for gross scenes, oh well, the sections in Player of Games weren't too bad, they had their place. I am also currently working (currently in my own subpages at User:MadMaxDog/Technology of the Culture) on another Culture article. Feel free to suggest or add, though I won't move it into normal Wikispace for some time - will be working on it as I read through the book). MadMaxDog 12:16, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

The main admin tools are admin rollback (more efficient than any of the toolkits, and work with any browser/operating system, but the net result is the same), deletion of pages (also necessary for some page moves) and ability to view/restore deleted pages, ability to protect/semiprotect/unprotect pages, and ability to block badly behaved users or IPs. Everything you need to know about adminship is contained within Wikipedia:Administrators' reading list and its linked pages. Many admins specialise in a particular area; some are vandal fighters and regularly patrol Special:Recentchanges, Special:Newpages, Wikipedia:Administrator intervention against vandalism or one of the anti-vandal IRC channels. Some tackle image copyright problems, some take care of Category:Candidates for speedy deletion or close Articles for deletion. Probably the majority of admins go through a period of intense activity after being promoted, and then settle down to a more normal editing existence, only using the admin tools occasionally. In my case, I occasionally do anti-vandal patrols, but mainly I just keep an eye on my watchlist of over 1700 pages, plus several "public watchlists" such as Wikipedia:WikiProject New Zealand/Vandalism patrol and Special:Recentchangeslinked/Category:Schools_in_New_Zealand. In combination, these allow me to detect a substantial proportion of vandalism affecting New Zealand articles. When I find an instance of vandalism, I also check other recent edits by the same user or IP, and sometimes I might find a vandalised article in this way which other IPs have also played with, and I recurse into checking their edits.

No admin has to enforce any rules, although admins are generally held to a high standard in terms of obeying them themselves. For example, I understand the rationale behind the 3 revert rule, and have never broken the rule myself that I am aware of, and I have occasionally warned people about the rule, but I have not yet blocked anyone for exceeding it because for the most part blocks are not the best way of cooling down an edit war (I'm not entirely sure what the best way is...)

Admins tend to find themselves unpopular with those who break the rules or who see Wikipedia as a toy for their amusement, and so vandalism of admin pages, provocations, confrontations, and even occasional death threats or threats of violence may occur. I know of admins who have had their real names revealed and complaints made to their employers about their legitimate online activities. Most people do not carefully keep their online identity separate from their real life one, so finding a Wikipedian's real name is often not difficult.

I suggest you call a meetup of Wikipedians yourself. Advertise on the Wikipedia:New Zealand Wikipedians' notice board, and ask people to vote on a choice of two dates, perhaps the Sunday of Auckland Anniversary weekend (which might suit people who are willing to travel to the meetup, but be bad for normal Aucklanders who might have plans to go away that weekend), and some other weekend. Nominate a venue, such as a quiet and family-friendly pub or cafe, or a park somewhere with an alternative venue if the weather isn't good. After say a week of getting feedback on the date, confirm the final details, create a page at Wikipedia:Meetup and spam the talk pages of Wikipedians you believe to be living in or near Auckland and who have recently been active. There isn't any need to create a detailed agenda; it can simply be a social event.-gadfium 18:59, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the ideas. I will probably do it (arrange a meetup) for sometime in the middle of the next year (unless somebody comes along and arranges it earlier), as the next few months will otherwise be a bit hectic in private life. MadMaxDog 00:00, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:New_Zealand_Wikipedians'_notice_board#NZ_Meetup_No._2.3F. Feb 10 or 11 is the proposed date.-gadfium 00:20, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Niue, Comoros, Seychelles External Link deletion

Hello, I added a link to the creative commons travel information at Unearth Travel as the licences are incompatible so do not allow for the adding of the information itself. The travel wiki has no adverts and information is being provided for a user. The fact that Wikitravel links have been left suggests that an unreasonable bias is involved with the deletions, which are not spam for the reasons outlined above. As I am sure you know wikitravel was acquired by Internet Brands Inc in April of this year and is not part of the wikimedia foundation and has a creative commons license too. I am thus unsure of the grounds for deletion. Please advise. Thank you for your time. PSBennett

See Links to be avoided, point 1, and Conflicts of interest.-gadfium 17:29, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. So it seems I should pose the Unearth Travel vs Wikitravel on a talk page? PSBennett

No, you should not add links to your own web site. If other people consider it worth linking to, they will add the links. You might like to look at DMOZ, which is a web directory.-gadfium 18:24, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Further clarification has been made on the Spam talk page, I think I am now clear! Thanks for your time. PSBennett

Winter Gardens

Great picture. Lot better than mine. MadMaxDog 09:05, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. There was a bit of post-processsing, and I had to straighten the image. I took it about ten days ago, but didn't get around to uploading it until last night. If I'd seen your photo before I did the post-processing, I probably wouldn't have bothered with mine.

Lucky us. As I said, yours is better. At some point I may take another photo of the inner gardens, and then ditch mine to make room for it... Always tricky, deleting pics, but when it is mine in the first place ;-) MadMaxDog 08:35, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

An edit to Hillsborough, Auckland caught my eye on 22 December, and as a result I discovered Monte Cecilia Park, which I would never have known about otherwise. It's nice when routine patrolling gives you a bonus like that.-gadfium 18:17, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

I love the fact that Wikipedia actually gives me an added incentive to go out and learn about my new hometown. I'm really looking forward to getting a new digital camera soon as well. MadMaxDog 08:35, 2 January 2007 (UTC)