Thanks for catching the doubled words in the
Shelly Manne article (which is mostly my work). I worked for many years as an editor. As this shows, editors need their own editors. I see you have done quite a bit along these lines. I agree that Wikipedia is riddled with tiny mistakes of this kind. The total effect of these is very bad. Your mission to clean up as much as you can benefits everybody. You are performing a very valuable service.
Alan W02:39, 27 June 2007 (UTC)reply
Be it known to all members of Wikipedia that Michael Devore has corrected my god-awful spelling on the page
USS New Jersey (BB-62), and in doing so has made an important and very significant contribution to the Wikipedia community, thereby earning this TomStar81 Spelling Award and my deepest thanks. Keep up the good work!
TomStar81 (
Talk)
19:16, 6 July 2007 (UTC)reply
Shiny
The Minor Barnstar
For working to improve Wikipedia through oft overlooked
minor edits since last December, including a flurry of activity this month (July 2007), I
IvoShandor bestow upon thee this Minor Barnstar in recognition of your contributions. The community appreciates it and keep up the good work.
IvoShandor08:17, 14 July 2007 (UTC)reply
Thank You!
The TomStar81 Spelling Award
Be it known to all members of Wikipedia that Michael Devore has corrected my god-awful spelling on the page
Fort Bliss, and in doing so has made an important and very significant contribution to the Wikipedia community, thereby earning this TomStar81 Spelling Award and my deepest thanks. Keep up the good work!
TomStar81 (
Talk)
19:02, 30 July 2007 (UTC)reply
Michael, that's what I think too. I would have send it to prod immediately except I thought it might be deprodded without reason & I had to stop editing before I could AfD. I saw what you did, and yes it seemed suspicious. I'll put a suitable comment on the article talk page. But for good reason, speedy cant be used for suspected hoaxes. Once in a while, they turn out to be true, so it's good for others to see. Of the dozen hoaxes that come to AfD a week, about one or two are always mistakes, and actually perfectly true, or impt. people with vandalized or hostile articles. I speedied as a hoax a baseball player with a most improbably career early on in WP, and it turned out it was true tho not in Google, & I have not gotten over the embarrassment. There are a few admins who do speedy hoaxes, but almost all do not.
But I do not completely agree with: that simple assertion of notability is grounds for keeping an article. If the assertion is totally off the wall, yes, I have sometimes speedied as nonsense though never as A7, though some people would not--there are admins more reluctant than I to use nonsense asa criterion, and I've been called by some much more experienced admins for overusing it. Notability probably real but inadequate to justify a WP article is another matter, and I will not speedy for that, because rational people may and usually do disagree on what is enough. Some admins, though a minority, do speedy those and defend the practice, but I think anything possibly a good faith assertion needs a hearing.
My points for raising the issue were two: depending on the content, hoax articles can be classified as vandalism and therefore subject to speedy deletion; and an edit summary may serve insufficient notice of the reasons for denial of speedy deletion in the absence of further remarks.
On the first point, naturally a judgment call is required by the admin. I felt the line to immediately actionable vandalism was clearly crossed, you did not. It is a slight matter, and I defer to your experience.
On the second point, I feel somewhat more strongly. After a denied speedy without follow-up, the next logical step for me to take was an Afd nomination, something I wish to avoid. I could have prod'ed the article, but it seemed a second bite at the apple, basically a slower version of speedy delete involving just myself and one admin. MKoltnow nicely avoided that by prod'ing as a disinterested party. I believe your decision to post a prod, a follow-up to talk page(s), or take action beyond an edit summary comment for future failed speedy deletions is a wise one.
Sorry about that. I must have clicked a redirect by accident and missed the title. I've undeleted it, so hopefully it is working fine again. Thanks,
IronGargoyle02:34, 6 August 2007 (UTC)reply
Ouch. That must hurt. I separated one at the shoulder some time ago. Six weeks of agony. You can still type? I'm impressed.--
James5203:41, 10 August 2007 (UTC)reply
Thanks. Going through the third week here are modest aches, usually. Still cannot perform sustained typing, but minor Wiki edits work well.
Michael Devore15:45, 10 August 2007 (UTC)reply
Thank you!
Thank you very much for your help in fixing typos and doubled words in
2007 Texas Longhorn football team. I am hoping to get that article to GA standard and your changes were very timely as well as very helpful.
I am also trying to get a current GA article,
2005 Texas Longhorn football team, to FA quality. For the latter article, I am pasting it into Word to help me catch spelling mistakes, but if you are inclined to glance over the article that would be very welcome of course.
The
2005 Texas Longhorn football team article looks good to me as far as typos and other minor stuff. I did see a few awkward or rough sentences, and one paragraph which seems POV, but that's not really my purview to actively edit. If you continue polishing or do a GA review, I'm sure between you as author and an experienced reviewer you'll get those ironed out much better than changes based on advice I could give there.
Michael Devore20:41, 9 August 2007 (UTC)reply
WarthogDemon has smiled at you! Smiles promote
WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing! Smile at others by adding {{
subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.
Yeah, I've been on a good article candidate and GA/FA kick lately, not sure why, probably as a respite from the random user signed articles of frequent depressing quality been slogging through. As someone who has looked through a several thousand articles here, believe me, your articles stand head and shoulders above the majority. Pretty much goes for everyone on this page for that matter, guess that makes it trend.
Michael Devore04:11, 22 August 2007 (UTC)reply
Thank you. I'm grateful for the comments, especially since they come from a respected and established member of this community. Kindly accept my Best wishes,
Havelock the Dane14:36, 23 August 2007 (UTC)reply
The two I have found are mispronounciation and constestants. The first might be in the actual quote since it's a common (mis)spelling, but I suspect the second is a real typo. However, I can't get at the refs to verify that. Hope you have better luck. (Copied to your talk page.)
Michael Devore04:05, 30 August 2007 (UTC)reply
Thanks so much for catching those typos - I plan to submit it to FAC after it is done in Peer Review, so hopefully the consensus there will mirror your opinion of the article. Thanks again,
Ruhrfisch><>°°14:18, 25 September 2007 (UTC)reply
Thanks for going through all the articles I wrote and fixing the typos. Thinking of the proper way to spell a word and then typing this word the way I intended to isn't really my strength and neither is fixing my own spelling mistakes. I am currently expanding the article about the
Free Association of German Trade Unions a lot, so I was wondering if you could have another look at it in a couple of weeks, because I'm bound to make even more mistakes.--
Carabinieri02:55, 3 September 2007 (UTC)reply
Sure, I'll put it on my watchlist. Looks like you might be heading towards a GAC with it, if so I'd probably take another look at it anyway. Of late I've been checking most GACs for typos and miscellaneous minor.
Michael Devore07:41, 3 September 2007 (UTC)reply
Your helpful edits always appear when an article is in need of them, you have a great ability to find and fix those little grammar mistakes that nobody seems to notice, for your great work cleaning up Wikipedia you deserve this. -
Caribbean~H.Q.21:59, 22 September 2007 (UTC)reply
Hi Michael, thanks for the help, I'm trying to get the article up to FA level by the end of the year, but as always Criterion 1a is going to be the hardest, any assistance you can provide would be hugely appreciated. Thanks again,
WikiTownsvillian06:04, 30 September 2007 (UTC)reply
Yes, the article covers a lot of ground, which can make a hard path to smooth reading. Right now it seems rather choppy, but I'm not a reviewer, so don't take that as a bona fide fault. Peeking at history shows you have made big improvements in the past month; with luck you're not too far away from where FAR needs the article to be. On occasion I've thought about going beyond typo and minor grammar edits on FAC/GAC articles, as an aeon ago I could write a fairly decent paper. But I'm very rusty and, here, since I know nothing of the subject, I doubt I could be much more help. Looks like you're doing a smart job as the primary editor, though.
Michael Devore08:23, 30 September 2007 (UTC)reply
TTN believes the citations in the development and reception sections of the list of locations, books and magazines, are trivial sources. When I added that the 3D perspective of the game is reminicent of Equinox to the main article, TTN removed it since my souce was "the opinions of the Nintendo Power player's guide writers". Although it was actually Nintendo Power magazine, I do believe a magazine is a reliable source, and I gave a page from Next Generation Magazine which also said the same thing. In addition, I was surprized that TTN said that it was from the players guide, since he claims to own the players guide for the game. He has not verified this, since I asked him for citations in May, "Could you look in the back of the Player's Guide and tell me what “types” of … Magic? I forgot what they call it in the game … well, anyways, what types of Special Attack or whatever it is (actually, could you find out what it's called?) there are? I remember some vaguely when I owned the guide like “Fire”, “Jump”, “Electricity?”, etc. Could you provide a citation, like the page number with a quote in context?" TTN replied that he was going to "get to it" (
User talk:TTN/Archive 5#List of locations in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars). TTN claims the player's guide is "at the bottom of a box that's behind at least five others in a cramped space". Seeing that TTN did not recognize that the page was not from the player's guide when I provided
a scan of the page in question from Nintendo Power shocked me. However, I have continued to
assume good faith by not questioning TTN's honesty.
Cut down the geography section list of locations by cutting it into the regional maps the adventures use when traveling from one to another. I can get pictures and write the fair use rationals, and someone can cut down the text that has no citation and does not allude to other media.
Write the concept and creation and reception sections for the list of characters
Write the concept and creation section for the main article
TTN rejected my compromise because it still keeps the articles. I agreed I would consider a redirect, but
Wikipedia:Article size does not allow that, since the list of locations is currently 82 KB long. Instead, I agreed to help cut down the geography section that is the bulk of the article, but TTN rejected that as well because TTN states, "I am not interested in working on the article in regards to improving it." and "get past this "having sources automatically means that this information is good" mentality." TTN states, "I don't think they have or will ever assert notability." I have replied with, "
Wikipedia is not a crystal ball, so if you don't think the articles will ever assert notability, we cannot yet know this, per
Wikipedia:Arguments to avoid in deletion discussions#I don't like it.
Sorry, but I am unqualified to give an opinion, as I know nothing of the subject or which aspects of its notability are best preserved, moved, or removed. As such, my remarks should have no more weight on the topic than any random editor's would. Best of luck reaching a suitable compromise and resolving the conflict without undue distress.
Michael Devore02:58, 1 October 2007 (UTC)reply
We really appreciate you fixing the typo at
Patrick Henry College. We are constantly editing it and we do not always recognize the simple mistakes so we really appreciate when someone kindly helps us out.
Personal contact information can be appropriate for an article's talk page, but usually not the article itself. Here, your personal e-mail address has nothing to do with the article's encyclopedic content, though it may have something to do with a discussion about that content, as should happen in the talk page. For further reading, see
WP:OWN and
WP:SIG concerning editor ownership of articles and placement of signatures. I suggest in the future before you continue signing information such as your e-mail address in an article, you consider waiting for an explanation as to why it was removed, since I see from the article's history that your e-mail address has now been reverted by three different individuals following your continued placement of the information in the article. Quick reversions by multiple editors is usually an indication of a a guidelines failure, or at least a need to query further before continuing the same action. I am not personally disturbed by any e-mail address, but I do revert information I encounter in article content that conflicts with consensus Wikipedia guidelines and operations.
Michael Devore01:57, 14 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Thanks for catching the typo on free machining. I'm a new user to Wikipedia and am looking for feedback. Could you take a look again at the article on free machining and provide some suggestions to improving the article?
Blapcewi00:06, 15 October 2007 (UTC)reply
You've got a better start than many, with a real lead sentence, references, and external links. You have done a good job on filling in the basics: there are tens of thousands of articles which don't make it that far within a year's time.
My best recommendation would be to familiarize yourself with the
Manual of Style since that is the gold standard for writing articles on Wikipedia. MOS is huge and has many subarticles, but scanning the main parts pertinent to all articles is a good idea. The page on article development at
WP:IA can be useful too. If you want more user input, there is
Requests for feedback and when your article is starting to get really good, there's
Peer review.
I am not a reviewer or machinist, but my first impressions on your article are that you might want to better define what free machining is in the lead, besides what it involves. You might link to a shear article or two, as the topic of shear is likely more unknown to the average reader than the elements you link to. For example there is a sheer stress article that might be appropriate (I can't say for sure, perhaps it's not on-topic). Also see if there are other linkable articles for other concepts in the article that aren't obvious or are of additional interest. As long as you don't overdo it and link every third word, judicious wikilinking improves an article. Other than that, well, I think the article headers might need rewording in conjunction with improved wording flow in the main content, but as I say, I'm not an "official" article reviewer and my suggestions may be improperly weighted. (copied to your talk page)
Michael Devore15:45, 15 October 2007 (UTC)reply
typo
Though quite ironic, I believe there is a typo in your page.
"...for a chance of pace..."
I think it should be "change of pace"
Thanks for correcting my solenopsin page!
-Ben
Ahh, it's harder to catch the buggers when the typos stay in the real word realm. I could say it was a deliberate mistake reflecting on the something of something something life, but I'm not feeling creative, so I'll just fix it. Thanks.
Michael Devore14:36, 15 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Request to look over an article
Hi Michael,
Larrys Creek is going to be
Today's Featured Article on Friday, October 19. Would you mind taking a look at it before then? I and some other editors have looked closely at it recently. Based on what we found, I have gone through and done a lot of little nitpicky cleanup edits, but would appreciate it if you could take a look. I fear some of the recent tweaks have introduced typos. Thanks in advance for your help with this,
Ruhrfisch><>°°21:24, 15 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Didn't realize I'd left a sig on
Boot_(disambiguation); thanks for catching that. I'm still figuring a lot of this stuff out, and in fact I'm not entirely sure how I managed that, but I'll at least know to look out for it next time...
Herichon16:11, 19 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Not to worry, signing an article is a minor mistake made by many here; I revert hundreds a month. Normally you would need to sign articles multiple times for your user name to even register with me. No, the editors who chafe are the ones who add the sig back and argue that their sigs are awesome or allowed because they wrote the article, or who just silently keep stuffing it in there. Anyway, looks like you're doing well with your edits already.
Michael Devore17:05, 19 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Thank you for
these edits, Michael. It was hard paying attention to those while I was writing the text, and you certainly have a remarkable eye for detail. Cheers,
Dahn03:00, 24 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Actually, there is a large dollop of custom-written software also involved in helping streamline the interaction. Don't tell anyone, though, as that should surely destroy my burgeoning rep as a Typo-Meister.
Michael Devore04:14, 24 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Well, yeah, that would explain the removal of duplicate words, but in this case you looked through the sources to find the proper Romanian spelling. I mean, come on: give yourself some credit. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me ;).
Dahn07:06, 24 October 2007 (UTC)reply
I confess I have been sadly neglectful in locating an appropriate Turing AI software upgrade module, so I must yet check sources on my own. Stupid computers.
Michael Devore07:33, 24 October 2007 (UTC)reply
And a big thank you for your sharp check of
Trade routes and
Jim Corbett National Park as well. The faults that you detected at once in the "Jim Corbett National Park" article escaped 4 involved editors, and even the "Hanseatic trade" section in the "Trade routes" article had people looking after it (myself included). To be honest, we couldn't detect the flaws but thanks to you the articles are going to look good and readable to a user who relies on this encyclopedia.
I just realized that a high posts/thank yous ratio means less thank yous and more posts, and should have actually written "This talk page has got to have the lowest posts/thank yous ratio on WP" to be correct ! The same thing used to happen to me a couple of days after I sat through those awful math tests ! Havelock the DaneTalk00:23, 26 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Probably means I've been slacking too much on my reverts and delete tagging. Those tend to rile the folk and more of 'em should do the trick to push the thanks ratio down…err, up…err…whichever way sounds mathematically correct.
Michael Devore04:10, 26 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Incidentally, while you're here and because I was poking around again, I noticed that the Good Article
Roman trade with India has both Berencie and Berenice listed as ports. Reading along, I believe they refer to the same port and should have consistent spelling. I mention this here as you are a main editor and would know if a correction is needed. (And because I'm lazy.)
Michael Devore06:11, 26 October 2007 (UTC)reply
That has to be Berenice from Berenice Troglodytica but how did you catch that ? No one else did and it was even in one of the headings ! And thanks for getting Arsinoe as well. Havelock the DaneTalk09:24, 27 October 2007 (UTC)reply
There's a simple trick to it: inconsistent spelling within an article. If the article had only Berencie, right or wrong it would have been left alone. Inconsistency is the catch for obscure proper nouns, not knowledge (unless I check sources or by happenstance already know a bit about the subject—not the case there).
Michael Devore17:53, 28 October 2007 (UTC)reply
Thank you for the pointers ! Those pointers are especially of help to me since I tend to edit on a lot of articles involving Arabic, Latin, Persian etc., and consistency of terms (not my strongest talent thus far) is really important Havelock the DaneTalk21:22, 6 November 2007 (UTC)reply
I was going to give you a barnstar, but saw that you just got one. Here's a groundhog award for you.
Pennsylvania State Parks Groundhog Award
This award is given with respect and admiration to Michael Devore for his continuing devotion to fixing typos in the
Pennsylvania state park articles. The bearer is hereby entitled to free admission to all Pennsylvania state parks, but is reminded that hunting for groundhogs in them is strictly prohibited.
Dincher03:21, 1 November 2007 (UTC)reply
If you have a chance, could you please look at
Presque Isle State Park again? It is a current Featured Article candidate and has recently been extensively revised, so it is likely a typo or two has slipped in. Thanks in advance for any help with this,
Ruhrfisch><>°°02:38, 21 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Be it known to all members of Wikipedia that Michael Devore has corrected my god-awful spelling on the page
USS Kentucky (BB-66), and in doing so has made an important and very significant contribution to the Wikipedia community, thereby earning this TomStar81 Spelling Award and my deepest thanks. Keep up the good work!
TomStar81 (
Talk)
07:07, 8 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Good article nominations has been one of the areas I've been giving a looksee the past few months. Don't get to all the entries, and don't give them all large amounts of attention, but a fairly short article with a simple typo, like your
River Biss article, has a good chance of a catch. Much nicer than a few articles with inconsistent proper noun spellings which can take upwards of an hour to sort out, if I can at all.
Michael Devore21:22, 8 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Trade route WP:FA nom
Could you take a look
here and provide your opinion on the trade route/routes debate? So far there have been suppositions on both sides and the debate can use the opinion of a specialist. Havelock the DaneTalk07:48, 12 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Sorry, I was away for a day. Let me ruminate on the issue and try to come up with useful feedback there, or at least comment further here. As you may already know, there is a bureaucracy associated with FAs that can help or hinder. On the hindrance side, I have read editor complaints and personally seen articles where, I believe, the rules process went too far and had a negative influence on an article's quality or contributed to rejection (it also helps explain why a lot of successful FAs have a narrow content scope). A hearty cheer if you can get past all that. If not, remember that there are many articles which are better-than-typical-GA, but which will likely never get an FA for reasons unrelated to matters of interest or readability to the typical Wikipedia user. The authors did a great job, regardless.
Michael Devore06:28, 13 November 2007 (UTC)reply
---
OK, looks like you've got a fair bit of debate on the article; hopefully that will redound to article improvement rather than sterility. I just threw away a long reply which disagreed with your viewpoint based on consistency of Wikipedia usage as my own opinions began to conflict with themselves.
While many external sources cited use the plural routes per your remarks, the singular route is also represented as a valid description (Google "trade route"+keywords in .edu domain). If the validity of a standard is established, as here, then the importance of consistency in the standard looms large.
Are there are articles of a similar scope using a singular title for a group of entities? Yes, for one example, good article
Community is roughly parallel to your article as it is, stealing your words from the debate and liberally substituting, "a very broad term, and the [communities] themselves are rarely as well laid out for studies as the
British African-Caribbean community. In most cases we have an idea and a probable network and that's it. The use of [communities] is universally applicable to most cases, with names and definitions or without them." Contrived, but it sort of works.
But then, I read the exceptions clause in WP naming conventions, and you are right, the exceptions specifically address situations similar to your own: "Articles that actually distinguish between multiple distinct instances of related items can be sensibly given a plural title when the alternative would be to create an inappropriately large number of short articles". The two counterarguments there being that the exception is marked "[debated]" and the "short articles" qualification may not strictly apply.
So, I'm punting. Both sides have precedent and are consistent within existing articles and rules. I'm taking a meta view here—as I more frequently do with the passing of time—and consider either title acceptable. It will be interesting to see if you can convince the requisite FA editor(s); change your mind to the opposite view; choose to compromise for FA status; or walk away. Unfortunately, I don't think I can help influence the process.
Michael Devore22:58, 14 November 2007 (UTC)reply
My first thoughts a few hours after asking for your opinion on the matter were that I probably asked for too much this time and should not have done so since you have already done so much for the articles I tried to edit to WP:GA before. After seeing your reply I cannot help but be thankful for the patient and fair manner in which you have addressed the problem. With Regards, Havelock the DaneTalk06:02, 17 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Restoration of that blinking ceiling
Thank you for all your spelling and typos corrections and other useful things. If you are the person who left the message asking whether the restorers had admitted to anything, the answer is no.
I just want to say that before I wrote the article, I was not aware of the problems. Usually, I am in favour of removing the grime from paintings. But as soon as I was alerted to what had happened, all the problems became glaringly obvious. I added the last paragraph specifically so as not to end on a really negative note.
No, I didn't ask that question, although it's an interesting one and thanks for the follow-up. Only question I had on the
talk page was about the inconsistent spelling of Matthan and Mathan lunette within the article. It's still that way there (obviously not a issue of great importance, but probably should be cleared up eventually).
Michael Devore07:15, 16 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Thank you!
The Copyeditor's Barnstar
Who knew how many typos were all over those beautiful featured articles, eh? Thank you for polishing them up even more. You are helping wikipedia to attain a true level of professionalism.
Awadewit |
talk21:04, 19 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Thanks. It's no secret I find it convenient to randomly select and work off smaller lists when checking FA, GA, and grouped articles. I must say that after the first several of your FAs passed inspection, I didn't think I was going to get any typo hits. 'Twas one of the cleanest set of articles encountered. (Thereby forcing my use of the typo/minor mistake hunter's secret weapon: ref checks. The teeming editor masses and typo-bots seem not to check ref sections with the same diligence as other parts of an article).
Michael Devore (
talk)
10:10, 20 November 2007 (UTC)reply
I think I need to make the font bigger on my computer to read those notes. :) I do know that they check those refs for dashes/hyphens, though. Also for incorrect page ranges (i.e., 101-1 vs. 100-01 vs. 100-101). Who knew there was a "correct" version.
Awadewit |
talk01:50, 21 November 2007 (UTC)reply
It is really very kind of you to find the same stupid mistake twice in the same article and then refer to it as a "typo" instead of poor spelling. Yes, I do know how to spell it if I think, but it doesn't come automatically. I sit here with a dictionary almost at arm's length.
Amandajm (
talk)
14:18, 22 November 2007 (UTC)reply
This Groundhog Award is presented to
Michael Devore for your proofreading and copyedits to
Presque Isle State Park in support of its FAC. This award entitles you to free admission to all Pennsylvania state parks, but the hunting of groundhogs in them is still strictly prohibited. Given with respect and admiration,
Ruhrfisch><>°°15:44, 26 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Nicely judged on the longer block, thanks. Continuing a remark I made, AIV should tighten the definition of now so it's clear when reports need go there versus ANI (AIV definitely discards 12-24 hours because I tried that once). AIV is set up to work well with RCPers catching immediate vandalism, but if one reverts older edits (about all of my rvv's) one needs to guess whether to report level 4-warned users to AIV, which not uncommonly results in decline, or go to ANI, which not uncommonly gets the remark "AIV is thataway". Definite vandal policy gap, I think. When things are less hectic, perhaps I'll start discussion on a firming up the now definition at
Wikipedia talk:Administrator intervention against vandalism.
Michael Devore (
talk)
00:54, 28 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Thanks
Hi there, just dropping by to thank you for fixing those typos on
Granat. I’ve been working on it for a while and it’s always nice to have a helping hand :D
RIP-Acer (
talk)
21:29, 29 November 2007 (UTC)reply
Hello. I am sorry to say I removed your PROD notice on David Miles Huber. Both the asserted and actual (via online search) notability for him seem clear, with a significant list of authored books and works as a producer. Deletion would not appear to be uncontroversial. It is true that the current article is fairly poor quality, but it does not appear to be a hopeless case. While I would normally support your bold moves to clear out bad articles, and applaud all progress on the woeful state of the cleanup tagging backlog, here I believe your DA* article PROD swath is perhaps cut too wide.
Michael Devore11:09, 2 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Yes, the page is a good resource. Of course, it's best not to think about how for every article listed there, there are probably five or ten untagged articles in as bad or worse shape. On the upside, the listing includes mostly cleaned but not cleared items and occasionally articles ready for redirection or (uncontroversial) prod, so quick victories in the cleanup fight are possible.
Michael Devore20:41, 3 December 2007 (UTC)reply
I feel a bit silly thanking you after it's been proven that your proofreading contributions are admired and appreciated by so many, but I guess we can't say it enough. Cheers. –
Scartol •
Tok16:42, 6 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Thanks, but don't stop, it is all part of a plan. I'm trying to bank 100 thank you comments from very pleasant and highly productive editors. Then it's recent changes patrol, doing nothing but vandal reverts, until 100 very unpleasant and highly unproductive miscreants post back nasty remarks. And that will bring both breadth and balance to this talk page.
(OK, not really. RCP does perfectly well without me. But perhaps I should do more to seek out revert- and prod-worthy articles to spike up the disgruntlement factor.)
Michael Devore03:41, 7 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Notices of actions to interested parties are commendable, but as my sole involvement in that article was removing a user signature, probably overcautious in this case.
Michael Devore (
talk)
23:00, 11 December 2007 (UTC)reply
I want to thank
Snowolf and
Dincher for nominating me, those who updated the RfA tally, and everyone for their support and many kind words. I will do my best to use the new tools carefully and responsibly (and since you are reading this, I haven't yet deleted your talk page by accident!). Please let me know if there is anything I can do to be of assistance, and keep an eye out for a little green fish with a mop on the road to an even better encyclopedia.
Yes, I should have a chance to look at the article this weekend, possibly later today. Also, I haven't checked the other two (three? one? some number close to those) articles on your FA list, as I thought you might be sick of doing all those name lookups and wanted a break. If you want me to look at what's left on the FA list, let me know. Of course, perhaps they won't have anything to change, anyway. --
Michael Devore (
talk)
16:59, 15 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Feel free to look at the other FA's also for spellings etc. I will catch up with you over the holiday season. I appreciate your efforts to improve these articles. BTW, the reason I requested you to do a cpedit on
Western Chalukya architecture was because it was requested by a
WP:FAC reviewer. I am sure your cpedits will help this article.thanks.
Dineshkannambadi (
talk)
19:53, 15 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Lists of Michigan Wolverines football receiving leaders
Hi. Please continue copy editing if you have the time. If you find any terms that you dont understand, please leave a note for me, so I can clarify, correct, disambig it. From my side, the effort to improve the article continues.
Dineshkannambadi (
talk)
00:11, 30 December 2007 (UTC)reply
You Did It Again!
Re the Shelly Manne article, you know how many times I read through that without seeing "resissued" (even when the built-in spelling checker underlined it)? Shows that it always helps to have that second pair of eyes, especially when they're keen as yours. Thanks once again. --
Alan W (
talk)
05:06, 19 December 2007 (UTC)reply
No doubt about it. With a browser spell-checker, the large number of false positives for spelling errors due to names, keywords, abbreviations, and identifiers can quickly cause attention fatigue. Still, it remains a powerful tool in the toolchest for me; spell-check is responsible for a substantial percentage of typo fixes in my history.
You hit the nail on the head! That's it: all the false positives, so you quickly get into the habit of scanning past them, and in the process might miss a real typo. --
Alan W (
talk)
23:13, 19 December 2007 (UTC)reply
I am wondering if there is a reason you have not submitted
Shelly Manne as a Good Article nomination. It is already of higher quality than many passed good articles I have read or copy-edited. I realize that the Good Article process is unloved by various editors due to perceived or actual flaws, but there is a unmistakable cachet lent to articles which pass, as well as increased reader attention.
There is a reason, it just might not be a good reason. :-) First of all there is modesty. <grin> I started and wrote probably 95% of this article, and I have been reluctant to toot my own horn that loudly. Secondly, I have never been completely satisfied with some of it, and always mean to tweak it a bit more here and there. But since you and Ling.Nut are now both encouraging me to do this, I am going to look into and most likely actually do it. Thanks for the encouragement! --
Alan W (
talk)
23:13, 19 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Well, I did it, made the requested edits, and...it passed! Again, many thanks for your encouragement (and Ling.Nut's, whom I have also thanked). Without that, I might not have thought of doing this, and it certainly does bring a certain satisfaction to get this kind of recognition for my three years' work. Regards,
Alan W (
talk)
04:00, 25 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Actually, while I have you here, there is a minor inconsistency in the Emma Goldman article that you might want to address. You spell Dostoyevsky both with and without the middle 'y'. Naturally, both are valid spellings, but unless I missed a reason for doing it both ways, you might want to stick with one spelling within the article. If so, I'll leave the choice to you to make as primary author. Excellent work you've done there, by the way. --
Michael Devore (
talk)
17:46, 21 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Wow, you're my WP hero. While I think this is a case where you could safely be bold and just make the change, your willingness to defer is refreshing. (The only reason I used two different spellings is because I'm a bonehead.) I appreciate your rational approach, your kind feedback, and your professional style. Many cheers indeed. –
Scartol •
Tok18:15, 21 December 2007 (UTC)reply
As a current or past contributor to a
related article, I thought I'd let you know about WikiProject University of Florida, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of
University of Florida. If you would like to participate, you can visit
the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks and related articles. Thanks!
White Deer Hole Creek
Thanks for catching the typo on
White Deer Hole Creek. The James V. Brown Library has indexed most of the
Williamsport Sun Gazette articles (titles and dates of publication only, sometimes page number), so searching for "Alvira" at
http://jvbrown.edu/ yields a title with the normal spelling of "explosive". One of the things I want to do in the coming year is clean up this article based on changes made to
Larrys Creek since it became FA and based on
Plunketts Creek (Loyalsock Creek). Basically I want to be as consistent among these creek articles as possible, then write some more based on the model established.
Thanks too for your congratulations on my RfA - I really thought someone somewhere (though no idea who) would pop up and tell the Wiki-world what a bad user I am (as it seems to happen to otherwise very nice users routinely in such discussions), so I am either nicer than I thought or dodged a bullet ;-)
Ruhrfisch><>°°04:58, 27 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Re:Vandal reverts
I was actually reverting your edits because I thought you were the vandal. All I saw in your edit (I am using a recent changes filter that reports to me edits containing "bad words" and other common vandalism phrases) was his son is hot etc. I quickly rolled back your edits, and then realized a second later that I was incorrect and reverted my own edit. This still left you free to finish cutting out the vandalism. I'm sorry if I caused you any inconvenience. Thanks, Happy New Year!!Malinaccier (
talk)01:07, 31 December 2007 (UTC)reply
No sweat, it's an extremely small thing in the scheme of Wikipedia, and I was probably as fault as anyone. I might have been a bit miffed because you caught me in an edit conflict and your revert invalidated my subsequent vandal revert in the process, so I was trying to figure out what was going on (can be hard to keep track when there are stacked vandal changes interspersed with possibly valid ones). Normally I would (and should) have waited a little bit after your intervention to see what was going on. So, I should have just kept my mouth shut and came back in five minutes, avoided the whole tiff. (copied to your talk page). --
Michael Devore (
talk)
01:15, 31 December 2007 (UTC)reply
Happy New Year!!Malinaccier (
talk) has smiled at you! Smiles promote
WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing! Smile at others by adding {{
subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.