User talk:Jimbo Wales

(Old stuff cleared out.)

Please don't remove other people's messages from here, even if they are just being mean to me or complaining about something stupid. Yes, you're probably right that I don't need to see all that, but my concern is just that I might overlook something that ends up being important later.  :-)

Get Out the Vote

Everyone is welcome to copy and paste the following banner and links onto their own user page, to help publicize the upcoming December 2004 Arbitration Committee Elections:

Getting out the vote will help to diversify the number of viewpoints that are represented during this election, and insure that candidates who are equally qualified, though perhaps not always a part of the "in crowd", can have a fair chance of winning.

Don't let the insiders control this election. Please vote!

--DV 09:14, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The conversation on the role of 'non-insiders' in the arbitration elections is an interesting one. (There is indeed a caste of 'insiders' emerging. Wiki is governed by a burgeoning administrative hierarchy, made up mostly of users who tend to spend more time on mailing list, meta, and IRC discussions than most users.) By encouraging discussion on the Wiki project pages and the project talk pages, DV has been playing an invaluable role in keeping the broadest grouping of users engaged in the arbitration election. I have been trying to play the same role as well; I started, e.g., the endorsements list linked to the candidates statements in order to create a space where users can discuss these issues on the Wiki. Nevertheless, this should not be taken as any sort of criticism of the 'insiders'. This is instead a way to encourage new ideas and to bring additional users who are likely to see the goings-on on Wiki from a different angle into the fold . 172 09:24, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Then again, maybe not. An open letter to Jimbo.

Jimbo, I have had more than one insider now offer the opinion that campaigning is distasteful, that voters will find out about the election on their own, and now, from Theresa Knott, that the election will not even be announced until it has already started!

I believe you misquoted her. The election is already announced, and is already widely known. Your banner is quite nice, and I have added it to my own user page. It is a bit early at this point to publicize it further, but this a wiki after all, so you're free to add it to relevant places. People might revert you if you're obnoxious about it, of course.

If you can honestly tell me that the vast majority of the individual editors (those not in administrative positions) are aware of this election, and the candidates who are running for it, and maybe even a little bit about them, I would be put at ease. I would even admit I have a mistaken impression. Is that the case?

By the way, a number of folks have had very friendly remarks to me when I shared the ArbComElection "get out the vote" banner. You seem to have a bit of a jaded cynical view of elections - my experience is that most voters don't feel that way about elections, but then maybe our real-life experiences are quite different. --DV 22:40, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• In every country that holds free and fair elections, that I am aware of, the voters are given advance notice of the election. It would be silly, and grossly unfair to both the candidates and the voters, to begin telling the voters about the election the day it started.

Well, it is already announced in several prominent places. There is plenty of time for people to vote after it is announced, too. And I'm hopeful that other people will enjoy your banner as much as I do, and post it to their own talk pages.

Where is the election being publicized - can you point to a non-administrative web page? I propose that at least a very small banner (or even a small un-intrusive text link) should appear either on the main page, or if possible, underneath the toolbox links. --DV 22:40, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It's your website, (I understand that you pay for most, if not all, of it's bandwidth), so if this election is just a sham, I would heartily endorse simply appointing a few friends rather than putting up a facade of an election that will just leave a bad taste in the mouths of those who were naive enough to think it was real.

It isn't my website, but I am the president of the Wikimedia Foundation which owns the website, and by longstanding tradition I am empowered to do a variety of things, including appoint people to the ArbCom. It is likely in the current case that I will do so soon after these elections, expanding the ranks of the ArbCom if it still seems too small. But I won't do so based on who are my friends, but rather on the basis of my own judgment, in consultation with people I respect, as to the thoughtfulness and kindness of the people in question.

I thought that was your intent. Why hold an election otherwise? So perhaps these other simple issues I am raising can be helpful? --DV 22:40, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Please weigh in and let me know how this election is going to proceed. Because so far, the insiders who currently administer this site seem to have little appetite for a healthy campaign with free sharing of ideas, much less even publicizing that there is going to be an election (at least not in advance).

I think you're just completely wrong. Everyone is very much in favor of a healthy campaign and free sharing of ideas. People are opposed to spamming user pages with campaign ads, but this is the will of the voters. You can go around adding your campaign literature to people's user pages if you like; there's no rule against it, nor is there likely to be one. But I recommend against it because it's just unnecessary and will annoy people.

Is it enough to expect the voters to seek out information about the election and its candidates completely on their own? If you think so, please point to a real-world election where this was ever done. I can think of no modern precedent where the participants in an election did not actively publicize both the election (voter turnout) and the views of the candidates (to inform the electorate). If you disagree that this is necessary for a Wikipedia election, then we will simply have to agree to disagree. (Although I would be very curious to conduct polling on this issue, as I disagree with your intuition that most Wikipedia contributors would be annoyed or offended to be informed about the election and its candidates.) --DV 22:40, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I would like to participate and help insure that a diverse range of voters is both informed, and also has a chance to vote in this election. But if there isn't going to be a real election, just say so, and I'll put my tail between my legs and go back to editing articles.

I encourage you to participate fully, but I also encourage you to examine your own biases here. You're accusing some very good people of some very bad motives, and I think you're really quite mistaken. And this will hurt your chances of winning any election, because people are likely to judge you in a negative light if you go around making wild accusations of "sham elections", based on nothing more than what you've put forward so far.

I have no intention of running for anything. I have always worked as an individual contributor, and I plan to stay that way. I want to get out the vote, and make sure users are informed about who the candidates are, so in the future I can feel comfortable stretching out and writing articles about any topic I please without cowering in fear of an edit war destroying my work, or worse yet, being sucked into an Arbitration Committee proceeding by someone who thinks they know how to game the system in their favor.

I have seen some of your very experienced editors really torn up by this, and I just don't get why there isn't an imperative to get as much fresh blood as possible into the Administration of this site, because frankly, the current Administration has simply made too many mistakes, and seen too many good editors express disgust at the way the site is run.

I know that's a tall order to fill, and it's an almost impossible goal for any Administration to solve, no matter how good it is, but get enough fresh faces in there with enough fresh ideas, and I guarantee that these issues will be addressed in better and better ways going forward.

I can hope, right? --DV 22:40, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

--DV 12:38, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

--Jimbo Wales 19:31, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

As for the repeated worry about "spam": candidate's permission is hardly appropriate for "get out the vote" efforts. And I have stated in more than one location that I was hoping for a consensus to emerge if there was any way to go beyond the candidate endorsement page, to communicate the positions of the candidates to a wider number of potential voters, before I felt it was appropriate to do any candidate-specific messages. I am not so idiotic that I would put "spam" for a candidate I wanted to help on user pages, not even on pages of users I know. And of course a candidate would have to approve any message, to insure there was agreement.

So far, I have only added my endorsements, like many, many others, on the endorsements page. Only one candidate seems to be so annoyed by this concept that he thinks its an "obscene troll war" (Sam Spade), but not a single user has complained about being able to publicly endorse or oppose the candidates who are running.

Finally, I'm sure most everyone I have interacted with is "good people". No argument there. --DV 22:40, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Whoa David calm down. I was just giving my opinion. I never meant to imply that the election wouldn't be publicised until it started, only that IMO there is no need to publicise it yet. I'm not an "insider" I'm just a loud mouthed know it all who voices my opinion all the time whether people like it or not ;-) But i certainly am not able to dictate to you that you cannot publicise the AC election if you choose to do so, and you do not need the go ahead from Jimbo in order to ignore me. Finally - you are talking to the wrong person. Jimbo is not overseeing this election. Danny, Elian and UninvitedCompany are. Theresa Knott (Tart, knees hot) 19:39, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I appreciate the references. Danny very kindly created the ArbComElection tag. I'll check with those other folks you listed.

My label of "insider" implies nothing more than you are someone who is "in the know" about the inner workings of the Administration of the site. There is no problem with being an insider, but as I stated above, as many fresh faces as possible should have a fair chance to be elected.

The lack of a way to communicate with potential voters other than a passive web page that must be discovered on one's own initiative, and your's and other insider's opinions that this is an acceptable state of affairs, simply makes me think that you aren't as connected to the average editor as you may think - hence the "insider" label.

I would stand corrected if you have polling data that suggests the sentiment among most individual contributors is that they really don't care to be proactively informed about the election and its candidates. --DV 22:40, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It would be nice if we at least knew the format of this election. I assume we're going to be using approval voting, since that's what's already coded, but it is quite annoying that the page for this election doesn't even say for sure how the election is going to be run. anthony 警告 19:50, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Another example of why we need fresh faces and fresh thinking

Please see my revised remarks up above if you have a chance, but here is what Martin had to say on another page, about my making such a big deal out of this election:

"...A real-life election has far-reaching consequences. By contrast, arbitration rarely effects normal users." Martin 22:57, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

My experience contradicts that. The lack of arbitration has affected quite a few of the most experienced editors on this site. Hence the importance of getting as many fresh new faces (even if some of them are "insiders" themselves, who simply haven't had their turn at bat yet) as possible into the starting line up, to see if improvements can be made.

Please don't take this as putting anyone down. Maybe the existing administration did as good a job as was humanly possible. That still doesn't discount the possibility that fresh faces with fresh ideas might do better.

And if anyone thinks Wikipedia will not have far-reaching consequences if it is eventually successful at what it is purporting to do, they are greatly underselling what is being accomplished here and its ramifications.

This election will have far-reaching consequences. Laugh all you want, but that's my prediction. --DV 23:09, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I've responded to the near-identical post you made at Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2004/Candidate statements/Endorsements. Martin 23:42, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Spam is in the eye of the beholder

Here is a link to a better organized framework for a discussion. If anyone manages to navigate to this subpage and actually read any of this, I would be encouraged to hear from you. --DV 02:36, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Infobox for organizations?

How do I create a new infobox template for organizations? Adraeus 23:09, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Nevermind. Figured it out. Adraeus 23:15, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Letters to Jim

Dear Jim, I find your websites very good and am using them for teaching quite often. To find a place to get in touch is more difficult and you may be the wrong addressee but maybe you'd pass this on. Regarding Australia, I wonder if you'd be interested to take note of two books of mine on the country:

Australian English - The National Language

2004. 23 x 15.5 cm. XIII, 396 pages. Cloth. Euro [D] 98,- / sFr 157,- / approx. US$ 118,-. * ISBN 3-11-018194-0 MOUTON DE GRUYTER

Ethnic Englishes, Indigenous and Migrant Languages

Policy and Education

XIV, 341 pages. 23 tables. 20 diagrams. 5 maps. Cloth. Euro [D] 98,- / sFr 157,- / approx. US$ 118,-. * 

ISBN 3-11-018195-9 MOUTON DE GRUYTER

http://www.degruyter.de/rs/6506_Mouton_D_ED_DEU_h.cfm?rc=19821&id=SER-M1-WDG-LAMV-B-19821&fg=SK

Best wishes Gerhard Leitner

Wikinews

I responded to Ambi's question over on Wikinews. I'm trying to keep discussion of wikinews over there, because it's likely to get lost here. :-) --Jimbo Wales 16:29, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Fate of List of "You have two cows" jokes

There's a bit of an ongoing debate as to the fate of the article List of "You have two cows" jokes. While the majority seem to be in favor of keeping it in some form, someone brought up something that Larry Sanger had said in its favor back when the list first appeared in 2001. In light of this and because this debate has the potential to set precedence for other similar articles, I would like to get your opinion at Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/List of "You have two cows" jokes. Thanks much! -FunnyMan 06:32, Nov 23, 2004 (UTC)

Hi! I'm not sure I have anything useful to say about it. I think that this page, much like some of our other pages about humorous topics, is problematic mostly because it contains way too much "original research" or unsourced material. Larry Sanger's views should be treated on their own merits and given no special weight of course -- he left the project a long time ago. --Jimbo Wales 16:33, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Exciting new feature to control campaign messages

Please vote at Software and features, to approve an exciting new feature that allows users to control whether or not they receive campaign messages. --DV 11:08, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Ok, but I voted against it. I do, by the way, strongly support the notion of "get out the vote" even though I find your campaign against "insiders" to be curiously misplaced. If there is a party in favor of being more strict about problem editors, it is indeed the "insiders", and 'getting out the vote' is in my view more likely to result in decisions that you ultimately won't like. It isn't the "insiders" who vote against every proposal for change, after all, it is the trolls themselves. Still, sure, let's get out the vote and see what happens. --Jimbo Wales 16:46, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I couldn't disagree more that "getting out the vote" will cause bad decisions by bringing in trolls, because the ratio of trolls to good editors will stay the same, therefore the trolls will be even more outnumbered than they are now.

Thanks for taking the time to consider my ideas, even if some of them (or my methods) seem inappropriate to you.

--DV 00:51, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Exciting new edit screen feature to "get out the vote"

Putting a reminder message on the edit screen about upcoming elections - that's just the type of creativity that I like to see!

If it is really possible to make such a change, I would be darn impressed.

It focuses the message on editors, which addresses the concerns of publicizing the election to readers (something that putting it in the sidebar would have to deal with).

And Tannin's excellent improvement to the idea by checking for logged in editors would help to weed out anonymous editors who couldn't vote.

Excellent!

-DV 00:59, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

OK, so who needs to be contacted, or what page does a proposal needs to be posted on, to make Jimbo's suggestion, and Tannin's refinements to it, a reality?

Should I just make another proposal on the Software proposals section or is there a more direct avenue to pursue this?

Michael Snow has endorsed this idea, so I suspect that it may do better than my last proposal, but I am open to suggestions as to how to proceed.

Thanks.

--DV 06:14, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Sorry if you feel I am "attacking" folks

It is unfortunate that you and the existing Administration feel that way - I would probably feel the same, so I will strive to focus more on being constructively critical.

I think that this would be quite helpful.

But the fact remains that the current Administration has failed to successfully improve the editing environment around here for serious editors. Maybe they did all they really could - I saw some superhuman efforts - but it's time for fresh faces and fresh ideas.

And these are both welcome.

I was particularly disappointed when I saw Dr. Adam Carr frustrated enough to retire from working on articles he wanted to work on, and all he received was a lot of platitudes and apologies, but little action to change the editing environment to help him get back to work.

I'm hoping fresh faces with fresh ideas will help to bring serious editors like Dr. Carr back to the articles they can contribute towards.

But what might surprise you, is that the very "insiders" you decry are the people who are doing the most to change the culture to make it more friendly to such wonderful editors as Adam Carr. Perhaps you have a misconception of where the source of the difficulty lies. Jimbo Wales 14:45, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I know that won't be accomplished solely as a result of this upcoming election, but it's a start.

--DV 00:59, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Reithy

(some old discussion removed)

On this note, Reithy <reithy@walla.com> emailed me 3 days ago (I just checked now =b) asking to purchase my Wikipedia account, instructing me to name my price. I named a price of 50,000,000 zorkmids and have seen no further reply. -Fennec (はさばくのきつね) 05:07, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It's no problem. Jimbo sold me his account for 40,000,000 zorkmids, so I didn't feel that I needed yours as well. -Reithy Jimbo Wales 09:58, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC) LOL Theresa Knott (The snott rake) 10:13, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Reithy emailed me too. He offered to buy mine for $300. I responded asking whether he meant the Singaporean dollar, Australian dollar, etc., and told him my preferred currency was the pengo (a hyperinflated currency used in Hungary post-WWII). Johnleemk | Talk 13:39, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

He can buy mine for <Dr. Evil> One million Dollars!!!!</Dr. Evil> Mwwhaaaaaaa!! Theresa Knott (The snott rake) 13:43, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You forgot Poland has been adding material to the lead section of our article on the US Libertarian Party that Reithy was also persistent in adding. He has also edited Michael Badnarik, but I have not examined his edit history there. Johnleemk | Talk 15:49, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Sorry to invade your talk page, but I just thought I'd let you know that Reithy has offered to purchase my account as well. I merely informed him that it was not for sale. Andre (talk) 03:07, Dec 3, 2004 (UTC)

About Insiders

I've edited David's comments down a bit in order to respond, because it was a bit longish, so anyone who wants to read the whole thing should check the edit history. Jimbo Wales

IRC will never be used by many editors, for a number of reasons (some find it intimidating, others don't think a real-time forum is conducive to careful deliberation, and still others find it a waste of time because of a perceived lack of permanence, i.e., the discussion is gone once you exit, unless someone maintains a log).

Is it ethical for so many of the decision-makers to meet on IRC and discuss policy matters concerning this site, when logs are either not kept at all, or if they are kept, they are not publicly available on this site? The current situation with IRC leaves contributors who don't use IRC with no way to find out what was discussed in that forum.

I wonder if you can explain to me just what sorts of policy decisions you think are made on IRC? As far as I can tell there are basically no policy decisions made on IRC, although of course IRC is one means of communication used by editors to discuss and deliberate about policy.

In real life, public debate is carried out in a wide variety of places: newspapers, television, public meetings, but also friends talking by email, telephone, even IRC. Some of this is public, some of it is only semi-public, and some of it is private. I think this mix is absolutely necessary to healthy decision making by individuals, don't you? What would you think if someone suggested that it's inappropriate for you to meet in a pub and chat with your friends about an upcoming election, unless the conversation is recorded for rebroadcast by anyone who wants to listen in?

To make a constructive criticism, given that more than one Administrator has made the case that IRC discussions are a part of how the site is run, could we please have logs of IRC discussions regularly posted somewhere on this site?

This suggestion is naive. The official IRC channels are only one means of communication. There are public and private emails. There are private IRC chats. Anyone can make a new channel in IRC at the drop of a hat. And I see absolutely nothing wrong with it. Speaking privately to others is a crucial part of good decisionmaking practice, because when you speak privately with people you trust, you're free to ask pointed questions that would be inappropriate in public.

And before anyone rolls their eyes that I'm presenting another solution in search of a problem - there have been numerous successful prosecutions of cases where legislators met privately in restaurants or bars to have the "real" policy discussion, and then later held a sham discussion in the public town hall, leaving the attendees in the town hall wondering what the heck was going on.

But this is a very inappropriate analogy. What you're suggesting is more like prosecutions for citizens who dare to have a private conversation about politics with their friends. Other than myself, Angela, and Anthere, no one chatting in IRC could in any reasonable way be construed as a "legislator".

Many people take the issue of making all policy discussions public to be a very serious matter.

Yes, but surely you're taking much further than people do in real life, because you're suggesting that all discussions of policy even by ordinary citizens be considered public.

Maybe you can give me a better idea of what kinds of discussion you think is going on in IRC, and why it is inappropriate. Better yet, why don't you start hanging out in IRC for a few weeks, and talk to us there whenever you hear us having a conversation you think is inappropriate or should be broadcast?

--DV 04:17, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If IRC is as innocent as you suggest, why have several of the experienced editors on this site made comments about how negative of an influence IRC is on Wikipedia?

While I appreciate the invitation to hang out on IRC, I will take you at your word that no decisions are actually made on IRC itself.

However, I am certain that a great deal of policy is discussed by Administrators (I'm not sure about the Arbitrators) on IRC. The problem with this is that the Administrators have a great deal of influence on other users.

Despite the trolls who artifically create a different impression, the Administrators on this site largely have the respect and admiration of the vast majority of the editors, and so when the Administrators provide guidance by posting strong opinions on polls or other policy discussions here on the site, other editors will tend to give that guidance a lot of weight.

Is there a legislative body on Wikipedia, or is most policy really determined by polls which pop up now and then, that are voted upon by those who bother to show up? The perils of direct plebiscite are one of the reasons why representative democracy is superior for avoiding mob rule.

If there is not a legislative body on Wikipedia, have you thought about establishing one?

If there is (or will be) a legislative body on Wikipedia, I hope you would endorse the idea that all deliberations by that body would strictly be conducted on the site, and not on IRC. I understand that some portion of this operation is based in Florida - do you agree with the merits of the Sunshine Law, meant to keep legislative deliberations open to the public?

Since I've more than used up my quota of your valuable time, I will close by thanking you for your valuable insights - you have educated me quite a bit about this site.

--DV 09:15, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

From the Village Pump

Hello dear Jim, is the only way for me to get into "Wikepedia" some mention of 42nd Baltic Fraternities` Convention [ which Corps Concordia Rigensis/Hamburg will organize] to become a contributer/editor ? Greetings from Germany Jürgen Moeller-Nordhastedt@t-onlinde.de

I'm sorry but I don't understand the question. Would you be more comfortable speaking in German? I can have someone translate for us. Jimbo Wales 11:05, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I thiiiink what he's asking is something along the lines of "Do I have to become a contributor/editor (i.e. register) in order to put information about [...] into Wikipedia?" I thiiiiiink. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 11:30, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Wikifun

hey there jimbo, thanks for the compliment for wikifun. i started it out not knowing how it would be received, it has really grown since i started it. i didn't think it would get even as far as it has. wikifun is good for new users to familiarize themselves with wikipedia, and is also fun for those who have been long time wikipedians as it sort of lets you show of your "wikiskills". again thanks. --Larsie 14:46, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And of course, Jimbo, you're welcome to try your hand at answering the questions. Unfortunately for you, it looks like question 4 has already received a rather complete answer, but there are still 15 unanswered questions... Eugene van der Pijll 22:19, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia 1.0

Per Wikipedia_talk:Forum_for_Encyclopedic_Standards#Recommended_archive_locations, would you mind if we moved User:Jimbo Wales/Pushing To 1.0 from your user space to Wikipedia space? It would probably make more people comfortable with editing it, and I'd like to see if we can harness some of the energy from Wikipedia:Forum_for_Encyclopedic_Standards in that direction. Thanks in advance. -- Jmabel | Talk 21:16, Nov 25, 2004 (UTC)

Sure, please do move it. Jimbo Wales 09:55, 26 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Done. -- Jmabel | Talk 20:14, Nov 26, 2004 (UTC)

Hi. You might be interested in a team I've started.

Our goal is to collaborate essentially to find, screen, develop or maintain (or all of those) articles appropriate for a paper or "release" version of Wikipedia.

So far, our plan is to:

1. Start at articles corresponding to top-level categories.
2. Work through them alphabetically.
3. Branch out from there.
4. List the articles we work on and their status.

The idea was more or less instigated by disussion at Wikipedia:Forum_for_Encyclopedic_Standards.

Our name is the Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team. But of course, that can change if you or anyone else disagrees. Maurreen 10:49, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Special Pages

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but there are links on the special pages section to the arbitration committee elections, but they still refer to the elections that were held in August. I really think it's time to replace that link with one to the upcoming ArbCom elections. Academic Challenger 00:45, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Impersonator?

It might suprise you, but someone running around claiming to be User:Jimmy Wales has unbanned User:JoeM. As I didn't think you'd create a new account just to unban someone, I've changed the redirects that were created to point here from the user page and talk page into statements of my belief that the user is an impostor. If I was in error, I appologise. Gentgeen 11:34, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I should note that I blocked User:Jimmy Wales because it was fairly obvious from his contributions (most likely JoeM himself) that it wasn't Jimbo Wales. That, and because shortly after I blocked "Jimmy Wales" he came back as User:HadaL. User:The Cunctator must not have read the block log, or otherwise thought I was in error, because he unblocked JoeM and reverted my reversion of "Jimmy Wales"'s edit. I tried to point out the likelihood that "Jimmy Wales" was not you, but he did not respond. I therefore reinstated JoeM's block. I would have deleted the redirects from User/User talk:Jimmy Wales to your page, but they were created long ago by Guanaco so I wasn't sure if they were serving a purpose or not. -- Hadal 11:46, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, good call, that was an impersonator. Jimbo Wales 10:37, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Request to take a look at a particular case

Considering your actions regarding Caroline Colden and the LaRouche case, I'd appreciate if you'd care to take a look at some developments currently underway in the IZAK case. At this point in time, it seems that the Committee is headed to ban IZAK from the so-called practice of "talk page spamming", regarding people who are happy to receive such notifications.

However, this isn't against policy, and there's far from consensus that this is undesirable - the only time, to my knowledge, that this has ever been debated was when this case came up, and the responses seemed to be split about 50-50. Without making any comment on the legitimacy of the practice, it seems to me that the Committee is overstepping their authority in this case. Ambi 13:25, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I just left a comment on the talk page. No decision has yet been reached, but my recommendation to them was the same as yours. It's a puzzling issue, and shouldn't be made a general policy to deal with one problem situation. Jimbo Wales 10:33, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Ack!! Vandal at Wikinews!

Ack!!

User "24.198.49.225" (an anon IP) is systematically going through and deleting everything on Wikinews.

There is no Vandalism in Progress page on Wikinews (from what I can tell).

Please, someone with Administrative powers stop this vandal!

(I will quickly use up my 3 reverts if I try to do so myself.)

Thanks.

--DV 02:35, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I also posted this at Wikipedia:Vandalism_in_progress#Current_alerts. --DV 02:40, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

3RR does not apply to obvious vandalism (which certainly includes page-blanking). [[User:Rdsmith4|User:Rdsmith4/sig]] 02:48, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That's right, and the 3RR does not apply to Wikinews, either. It's a small project with a small userbase, and that rule (as all others) are relaxed there in order to ensure that people have the freedom to get work accomplished and learn new ways to handle the unique situations that will arise in that context. Jimbo Wales 10:21, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarifications. Users 119 and Lyellin, who is running for Admin on Wikinews, managed to sweep through and fix everything. --DV 13:46, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Public watchlist?

I'd like there to be a way to make public your watchlist, selectively, on your user page. Currently, Special:Watchlist doesn't provide an "edit this page" feature so editors have to copy and linkify topics manually. Adraeus 09:25, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

This sounds like a neat and easy to implement idea (though I could be wrong), but I'm not the right person to ask about it, I'm afraid. Try wikitech-l, or file a feature request in bugzilla? Jimbo Wales 10:22, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Removal of endorsements

Hi Jimbo,

You made it very clear that you disapproved of the "opposing" statements for any of the candidates.

Once you made your wishes known, I removed my statement of opposition to one of the candidates.

In all fairness, I also deleted my endorsements. I don't think I attributed my deletion of my endorsements to you. I instead attributed that action to "fairness". If you feel the wording of my statement is unclear, how about this one instead:

"Per the wishes of Jimbo Wales, I have removed all statements of my opposition to any of the candidates. Although Jimbo did not specifically request that I do so, I believe the deletion of my statements of opposition requires, in all fairness, that I also remove all of my endorsements."

Would that make it more clear that you only wanted folks to withdraw their statements of opposition, but not endorsements? --DV 13:38, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Rachelle Waterman article

Per your concerns, I deleted all links to the images you are questioning, both on Wikipedia and on Wikinews.

In the Wikipedia article, the one remaining photo is taken from what I characterize as a "fair-use" public news source (as was done on the Scott Peterson article), but if you feel that this declaration is also invalid, please let me know.

Cheers,

--DV 13:38, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hello

I have been dealing with similarly hateful attacks from this user whom you yourself appointed arbitrator for nearly two years. [1] But these comments cross the line. I want something done about this. 172 20:41, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• I've also recieved some rude (but not hateful, necessarily) treatment from this user, which very much surprised me, coming from an arbitrator. When I decided to be bold and fork disendorsements from the endorsements page, in an attempt to promote organisation and civility, he assumed bad faith [2] [3]. BLANKFAZE | (что??) 21:31, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)
• While I disagree with his comments about Blankfaze, they were typical of most 'disendorsements'. Yet, his comments about me were by far the most out of line seen anywhere on that page. My family was almost entirely eradicated in Nazi death camps; so I don't take lightly to this user likening me to a Holocaust denier. 172 02:13, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Request for help for unfairness

Dear Uncle Jimbo, do you feel that is it fair to harass a person by writing a hospital article Medical Specialist Centre just because it is insignificant? There are also many other people writing hospital articles (please follow this link: List of hospitals in Canada). From here, I know that writing an article about Hospitals is not wrong.

User:Gtabary even condemned me of making noise from my discussion page, and even proposed to delete the Medical Specialist Centre page. The language and content was reasonable, so there is no reason to delete it, just because it is nonsignificant.

I would plead you to help me to stop Gtabary from his continual harrasment through provocative language and words and sentences condeming people. Thanks, User:Chan Han Xiang

London WikiMeet

Just a note to say that it was a real pleasure meeting up with you last night. I look forward to another opportunity to meet sometime in the future. -- Graham ☺ | Talk 08:23, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Descriptive image names on commons

Hello. Because your user page on commons says I'd better look here, I figured this would be a better place to put this comment. I noticed you uploaded two images with quite non-descriptive image names (DSC01711.JPG and DSC01708.JPG). Commons has a (proposed) policy (I can't find it right now, but it sounds like a good idea) to use descriptive image names. DSC01711.JPG can be anything: "En-US-Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!.ogg" can not. It would be nice if you would use descriptive names in the future. Thanks. Gerritholl 20:39, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yes, I'm a terrible editor. I was in a big hurry, and I didn't even put the date, time, etc. on those. I meant to license them under GNU FDL and CC-BY, as well. I meant to get permission from the people in the photos. I did it all wrong, and I'm sorry. I'll try to straighten all this out tomorrow. Jimbo Wales 02:08, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Did you take these pictures?

Commons images

Um, Jimbo ... could you add a copyright tag to your images on the commons? Or let me know if they are GFDL and i'll do it for you. (Image:DSC01708.JPG, Image:DSC01711.JPG). Thanks -- Chris 73 Talk 04:03, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)

Deleted as requested on the commons village pump. Glad I could help -- Chris 73 Talk 12:29, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)

---

Please remove my name from the mailing list. Lirath Q. Pynnor

Meetup

Your name is on the list at Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC for December 12. In case you forgot to check the page, the venue and time have been both been set. We are planning on meeting at the Moonstruck Diner at 1:30pm. Just wanted to let you know. -- – Ram-Man ^{(comment) (talk)}[[]] 23:09, Dec 8, 2004 (UTC)

Hi Jimbo,

Work is progressing on Dutch Wikipedia Policies and Guidelines (constitutional and other). As we've come to a point where your insights might be helpful, I'm about to post a message - in English - on nl:Overleg Gebruiker:Jimbo Wales, which will be linked from the Dutch Village Pump too. --Francis Schonken 00:20, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

NPOV

Since the discussion involves fundamental NPOV philosophy, I'd be very interested in your opinion (if any) of the NPOV discussion at Talk:Reformed Egyptian (you can start at the section "details", you don't have to slog through it all). Am I fundamentally misinformed/misconceiving what it's all about? Go pseudonymously if you want<g>. - Nauvoo 02:38, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

---

Please remove my name from the mailing list. Lirath Q. Pynnor

RFC pages on VfD

Should RFC pages be placed on VfD to be deleted? I'm considering removing Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Slrubenstein, Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Jwrosenzweig and Wikipedia:Requests for comment/John Kenney from WP:VFD. Each of them was listed by CheeseDreams. Your comments on whether I should do this would be appreciated. - Ta bu shi da yu 03:50, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Complaint about User:GeneralPatton

Hi Jimbo,

I am here to report about inapriopriate behavoiur of User:GeneralPatton, who just blocked the 62.244.138.110 IP (at 06:25, 10 Dec 2004) after my edits of Paul von Hindenburg article. I made significant contributions and planned to make more. I was editing from an internet cafe in Poznan, Poland). And your name was shown on Administrators page to discuss the problem. I write this from a neighbouring computer in the same Cafe.

I made a correction of the city name Poznań, and erased the Nazi German name which is very offensive to Poznan inhabitants. I have explained my actions on the discussion page.

User:GeneralPatton has reverted my edits, reintroducing the offensive Nazi names and opinions, made no explaination, and then blocked me from editing. He called for the 'rv, user has a history of vandalism and confrontational behaviour' I do not understand, he called also for 'Broke the 3 revert rule over at Paul von Hindenburg' and at the same time did NOT blocked the User:Mackensen, who also broke the 3 rv rules. In my opinion Mackensen was the offender here, and I was defending the fair opinion.

In my opinion user Patton overused his powers in:

• reverted my edits without discussing it
• blocked me just because he disagreed with my edits
• he was not neutral (nobody can be a judge in his own case)
• violated the equal treatment rule by not blocking the oposing user (Mackensen)
• erased the POV dispute banner without any reason
• introduced the offensive and POV material without even trying to understand or discuss the case

I ask you to:

• reintroduce POV banner to Paul von Hindenburg
• make any corrections if you feel them justified (please take in mind that the name 'Posen' is offensive to Poznan inhabitants, and many of them can read English)
• block User:Mackensen for breaking 3 reverts rule, and equal treatment rule
• investigate Patton behaviour and take apropropriate actions

Additionnaly I suggest to work on a tool:

• block User/IP from editing the specified article, and not the entire Wikipedia
• if User/IP is blocked from editing entire Wikipedia, there should be place to make a formal complains with editing *allowed* here. The blocking admin should be forbidden from erasing a complaint about himself

Thank you and Good Luck An anonymous Wikipedian from Poznan

---

His IP is 62.244.138.113 that comes from the IP range of Tempest Internet Café (62.244.138.96 - 62.244.138.127) , Poznan/PL that has been blocked a number of times.

• 05:23, Jul 26, 2004 RickK blocked "62.244.138.108" with an expiry time of 24 hours (vandal)
• 05:32, Jul 26, 2004 RickK blocked "62.244.138.107" with an expiry time of 24 hours (Likes to call people Nazis)
• 06:55, Aug 2, 2004 RickK blocked "62.244.138.105" with an expiry time of 24 hours (nationalist Polish vandalism, lying on edit summary)
• 10:13, 5 Oct 2004 David Gerard blocked "62.244.138.106" with an expiry time of 24 hours (vandalism of Polish articles)
• 02:18, 22 Feb 2004 RickK blocked "62.244.138.111" (repeated POV insertions, "fuck the Nazis" comment)
• 05:56, 30 Mar 2004 RickK blocked "62.244.138.99" with an expiry time of 24 hours (Blocked user Gdansk)

Judging by RickK's last comment it is quite possible he’s the sockpuppet of the blocked User:Gdansk GeneralPatton 07:45, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

A 24-hour range block for this anonymous user is now in effect for his use of an Internet cafe's multiple addresses to evade the original 3RR block and continue reverting. Additionally, the anon was engaging in "Nazi" name-calling. Mackensen did not violate the 3RR and is therefore not blocked. Not that you have the time or inclination to worry about such things. -- Cyrius|✎ 07:51, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

User:Gdansk made smilar charges against Adam Bishop a while back [4]

May I also add that the IP 62.244.138.108 signing as the User:PolishPoliticians (see his arbcom ruling: Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/User:PolishPoliticians) made a similar assault on RickK when he blocked him [5] and later accused RickK of vandalism [6]. GeneralPatton 09:34, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

---

Please remove my name from the mailing list. Lirath Q. Pynnor