User talk:Flcelloguy

File:You have new messages.JPG

This user is an administrator and mediator.
If you need any assistance, please see my policy page first. Thanks!

 Welcome to my talk page! Feel free to leave comments, questions, or suggestions. Please place all messages on the bottom, using the new section header ( ==HEADER NAME== ). I will respond on your user talk page. Some responses may take some time if I get sidetracked; thank you for your patience. This page will be archived periodically.

Archives:

• The Complete and Unabridged Edition of the Archives
• The First Archive: From the Beginnings to Adminship
• The Second Archive: The Early Steps of Adminship
• The Third Archive: Adminship Expands to Mediatorship
• The Fourth Archive: From Mediatorship to Guiding Esperanza
• The Fifth Archive: COMING SOON

Yay! You won!

C~O~N~G~R~A~T~U~L~A~T~I~O~N~S! I'm delighted to see you elected to the Esperanza Advisory Committee! Mamawrites ^{& listens} 11:09, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

More Ballooooooooons

FireFox 20:47, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Shhh...I stole this one...

Congrats :-)......
I am sure you'll do a great job!!! And, by the looks of things on many User pages, we need all the good spirit and comradery we can get! Best of luck!! >: Roby Wayne ^{Talk • Hist • E@} 22:12, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations

File:Party.gif

Gryffindor congratulates you!

Hello there Flcelloguy, I congratulate you on winning the vote in the Esperanza election. I'm sure you will do a fantastic job and looking forward to further good work. I wish you all the best... Gryffindor 22:05, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Hey, Cello, congratulations on being a part of Esperanza's Advisory Committee. While I didn't get enough votes to join you there, I know that you'll do a great job, so I'm not worried. And did I say congratulations? :) Titoxd^(?!?) 22:37, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Congrats on your promotion from me too. The vote was automatic. Goood luck. Oran e (t) (c) (@) 23:08, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

No, not really...it's just my real name :) Oran e (t) (c) (@) 00:22, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations Flcelloguy, I have no doubt you will be an admirable member of the advisory committee (forgive poor spelling). All the best! Banes 03:26, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Heartiest congratulations! JDH Owens ^{talk | Esperanza} 10:08, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

A request

I get the feeling that you play the cello :)

I have a request. For a while now, I've been trying to get a copy of the prelude to Bach's cell suite I. Public domain sheet music can be found here. Can you provide such a recording? →Raul654 22:27, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Interview

Greetings, and no problem with the rush; contrary to appearances I do get away from Wikipedia occasionally. :-) Mindspillage (spill yours?) 05:52, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

1. Do you plan to run for re-election this year? Why or why not?

I'm not sure yet; I'm going to see how the next few weeks go. I wasn't previously planning to run but the experience may change my mind.

2. How do you feel about being appointed to serve on the ArbCom?

It's an honor, of course, but one I tried at first to run screaming away from! :-) Nervous, largely; there are a lot of things to get used to and it's a somewhat high-profile position to make newbie mistakes in. And honored that several people have made known they trust me to do it well.

3. Right now, what do you think are the strengths of the ArbCom?

Its main strength is that for the most part the arbcom is made up of users who are trusted by the community and who have a thorough knowledge of community policies and practices. The several differing points of view represented on the current committee I think helps to find a more fair solution.

4. Weaknesses?

The obvious weakness is that it is a slow process, hindered by the fact that several members have been inactive: though even at its best it will never be fast. It's also a dirty enough and time-consuming enough job than many qualified people burn out or avoid running at all.

5. If you could change anything, what would you change? Why?

It's really too soon for me to say. Actually, I think members' advocates doing more constructive work and being more fully integrated with the arbitration process would be helpful; sifting through evidence pages is in some cases pretty torturous and would be improved by having a competent person on each side presenting a case.

6. If you could say one thing to the current ArbCom candidates, what would you say, and why?

Please consider whether or not you have the time and the temperament for this, and whether you'll still be up for it after the first few months have passed. ("Are you nuts?" is probably also good but not so helpful. :-))

7. Do you think your job will be easy? Hard? Explain.

Hard, mostly. Not only sorting through the evidence presented, by no means easy, but also the knowledge that a bad call has a strong effect on the community, and the knowledge that my decisions here are going to affect my relationships with other users. I've also never been a party to an arbitration case (tried to stay far away from it), so learning the process is the first hurdle.

8. Do you feel that the ArbCom is appreciated by the community? If not, how do you think that could be changed?

For the most part, yes, as much as it is complained about; it's a dirty job. The AC exists because the community cannot always come to a consensus itself, and must refer the problem somewhere else.

9. What do you think will be the most frustrating thing about being on the ArbCom? Enjoyable?

Also too soon to say. Most frustrating I think will be having to restrict what I say about ongoing cases, having to deal with users who think I've treated them unfairly, and spending time reading evidence instead of writing. Most enjoyable I expect to be having some influence in the way the decisions are made, and helping to see that something I think is an acceptable solution is done.

10. Any other thoughts regarding your appointment?

Not that I can think of at the moment!

3RR

I have not broken the 3RR rule as my 1st edit was not a revert notr my last. I have been very careful. Whatever you think of my behaviour 3 reverts does not give you grounds to block me, and especially given your uncalled for attack on me yesterday, SqueakBox 23:26, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

I have never been blocked from editing wikipedia and I want to keep it that way. I tend to agree with you about the rollback and have issues about the whole Rfadmin process being a popularity contest in which some users get mauled so badly they leave the project, SqueakBox 23:44, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

For evidence of some good having come out of my accidental block see Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)#Blocked users not being able to view source text, SqueakBox 00:07, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Esperanza Spam

Hello Esperanzians! A few announcements.

The Advisory Committee election results are in. In tranch A are Acetic Acid and Flcelloguy. In tranch B are Ryan Norton and Bratsche.

My other annoouncement is that our founder, JCarriker, has founded Esperanza's sister project, Wikipediology. I have written two essays here (my name is Matt Binder). My essays are under Teenage Wikipedians and Anon Editors.

On behalf of myself and Jay Carriker and the other wikipediologists, I would appreciate it if you were to join.

Cheers Esperanza! Redwolf24 (talk—How's my driving?) 23:32, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Celestianpower is an admin

Thank you very much for your support - my bid (as you probably know) went swimmingly. I couldn't have asked for a better one. Thank you very much and I just hope I don't mess up! Do you talk on IRC? It'd be nice to see you there! --Celestianpower ^hablamé 12:37, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Process

I will no longer be participating in Cberlet's sentence by sentence attempt to subvert the nature of the Significance of Venona article. I believe there is ample evidence of him abusing the process, demanding from me citations for every sentence (which, in fact, I never even authored), and his totally unsourced sentence by sentence original research. It has been grossly unfair, and fruitless. He has consistently not presented any sourcing for any proposed changes.

I will be glad to continue the mediation process beginning with this text --> Belmont to Boardman. It is drawn entirely from primary source material, so it should not be difficult or controversial to edit. Cberlet's inclusion of secondary material is most welcome there. When it is done, we can rewrite the Introduction. Thank you. nobs 04:30, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for your support on my RfA. I'd love to come back to the Signpost, but the problem is I can't set aside a block of time to write a piece anymore because of real life pressures. It's really just a case of me editing Wikipedia whenever I can find the time, which seems to be quite often but pretty irregular. I may write a couple of one-off pieces in the near future (in fact I have a couple of ideas lined up), but probably won't be able to take on a regular slot. the wub "?!" 14:36, 19 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost

My pleasure, good article. Jayjg ^(talk) 22:01, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

What he said, and thanks also for the belated birthday greetings. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 04:39, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Dude!

Someone put my article for deletion! I haven't done changes to it yet! Help!

Mike15 13:57, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

my RfA

I also posted this on the RfA:

I said "possible" trolling. In addittion, my edits have increased shortly after I arrived at college. While I was first getting set up there, freshman year,(sept 18), I did not have much edit time. So that explains the temporary edit decrease. They are on the rise again, just get a new chart with Kate's tool or something. Also, I would not accuse him possible trolling if I was confronting him, I was merely discussing that possibility with other people. You should not the distinction. Also, thank you for your respect though, as the other two oppose votes are either unexplained or harsh and exaggerated.

BTW, that "you have new messages" bar got me all exciting, and then...huh?...that thing is evil...evil...:)Voice of All ^{@|Esperanza|E M} 02:37, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

You are the only person who posted a factual or reasonable oppose vote. I do see what you mean about words that one could easily see as a personal attack. In the future I will avoid such words, even if I am just discussing a possiblity. Thank you for your reasonable criticism, no hard feelings over the vote :).Voice of All ^{@|Esperanza|E M} 23:08, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Checkuser

Hi there! On the Q&D Checkuser proposal you refer to a fiasco on the mailing list. Could you please enlighten me what that's about, and/or give me a link? Thanks. Radiant_>|< 11:30, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Wow!

Kate's a him?? Fascinating... The Minister of War 21:04, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

From French Wikipedia

Hello, thank you for your message and for appreciating the photo of my harpsichord. I built it in 2002-2003 from a kit and it was much work and a great pleasure, as it is to play it. Best regards Gérard 13:12, 24 October 2005 (UTC) (the same person as fr:Ratigan)

Safe and sound

I take it from your last edit summary all is well in the string section? Alf ^melmac 21:29, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost ideas

Wonderful idea. I think we should have e-mail suggestions, and you're right, letters to the editor would be a good idea only if we control what gets published, solely so that it doesn't turn into the village pump.

As far as the ArbCom elections, I say we leave it as is until we get official word that the elections are a moot point, then change as necessary while still keeping the series going. Ral315 (talk) 22:58, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Re: WP:RFPP

Thanks for the revert there. [dishonest personal atatck removed], and I don't know how to get him to become a more courteous editor. I mean, he got in a fight with the probable guitarist of British Sea Power of whether the members of the band of British Sea Power were bird watchers. And the sad thing is, they are to an extent, but he totally blew the entire thing out of proportion, he seems to do that everywhere. Karmafist 02:02, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

That "probable guitarist" has now admitted to lying Andy Mabbett 12:20, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

ArbCom series

Please see Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-10-24/ArbCom election. I ran but withdrew... I don't know if this would be notable to update the article. - Ta bu shi da yu 06:58, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Re: NotificationBot

I have been on a slight programming hiatus. Although I love programming, and I love to help the Wikipedia, the unfortunate fact is that I don't live in a Star Trek world meaning that I don't get paid to do the work I do for the Wikipedia. So, please excuse me if I'm not, at the moment, writing code for the Wikipedia when I'm out trying to make a living for myself. As much I like to be locked in a closet and finish my Wikipedia work, I have some real life priorities that need attention at the moment, so please excuse me if my attention and activity level is not at par. And thank you for your award, it's greatly appreciated. --AllyUnion (talk) 10:02, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

P.S. How was the Google translator?

The text produced by the translator can be understood. I will not assert that it is fully correct french language ... and my english is probably not perfect, too ... Best regards Gérard 14:44, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Titoxd's RfA

Thank you!

Thank you for supporting me in my RfA. I never thought I would get so much support! Thanks to your help, my nomination was the 10th most supported RfA in Wikipedia history. Now, please keep an eye out on me while I learn the new tools, ok? Thanks again! Titoxd^(?!?) 17:50, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Destinyg

Hello, Flcelloguy. I just put this comment on AfD. Maybe I'm misreading the situation, but I thought User:Destinyg was someone who could use a welcome and being shown some ropes. I didn't want to step in (besides, not very experienced myself), but do you think you or someone else on the welcome committee might step in? (Incidentally, I assume Sandy Berger Biography is actually autobiography, although I could be wrong.) AndyJones 23:38, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

• I'll vote delete if not userfied, which I think would be better. Can I suggest someone with more wiki-experience than me approaches the author to explain the process? Incidentally, if doing so, note that the author is User:Destinyg not User: Destiny/Destiny as appears above. AndyJones 23:22, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Censored?

Excuse me Flcello, but what are you talking about? I've never censored POTW, and I deleted a comment at Scott Fisher's request which I agreed with since it was about personal info on his kids. Granted, that doesn't make it as confidential as i'd like, but it's something.

Also, are you ok? I've heard Wilma is doing a number on things down there, although I haven't been paying close attention and wondered if Central Florida was being hit at all. Karmafist 23:32, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

Ah, that's cool. Has it been reverted back? I tried to help Pigs out, but that whole situation has spiraled out of control. He's been in a few revert wars this week articles other than the one I protected. An Rfar is likely in the next few days, I can't seem to help him and I don't trust uncivil users like him intimidating others. Eh, suppose it's better that I didn't get on the MC,eh?. Getting into the thick of things is more my style. Karmafist 23:41, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

thanks.

AndyJones explaine the userfy question for me as well. but thank you for the help anyway.—Gaff ^ταλκ 00:16, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Signpost

I did get the e-mail, yes. For now, we might consider substituting the ArbCom duties article this week, waiting on an announcement from Jimbo. Certainly, voting will be different, even just a bit. So it really might be best to switch to the duties and requirements article. Ral315 (talk) 03:29, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

.gov

No. Some images are sourced from copyrighted sites. If the .gov domains lists out the photographer and agency, then it definately is not a free image. You can also check if the full sized image is hosted on a non .gov site. User:Nichalp/sg 05:31, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

RfA

Hi there

Thanks for your kind message; but I don't think anything will stop the utter distress and depression I feel as a result of this badly flawed RfA. In my memory, you might consider pushing for the process to be depersonalised: at the moment, it's way open to abuse by anyone with a grudge; regrettably, on this occasion it has coincided with a stouch between me and the egos behind a substandard FAC that I dared to critique. I've made things worse by defending myself against attacks during the RfA process; I do normally enjoy very cordial and productive relationships with other WPs, and shun conflict, but I will always defend myself when under sustained attack and when I can't readily escape.

While the process is transparent - which is clearly an advantage and makes it low-maintenance for the bureaucrat who signs off at the end - this very attribute is a serious problem where there's potential for personal abuse and group attack. So, it's fine for the FAC process, but IMV a mistake to replicate in the RfA process, when a person rather than text is under scrutiny.

The first thing that needs reform is the culture of changing one's vote during the process: this encourages posturing by individual reviewers and a 'herd mentality', both very much in evidence during my RfA. These are likely to skew the results and reduce the tone of the process. Therefore, I suggest that each vote should be locked in when made, based on each reviewer's research and prior knowledge of the nominee, and not on subsequent hearsay and tittle-tattle, whether put on the table by trouble makers or more innocently in the course of the current all-too-open commentaries.

The second aspect that desperately needs attention is the lack of respect for the privacy of both nominee and reviewers. I find it inexcusable that the process is unmoderated and that there are no guidelines for the participants with respect to tone, content, and evidentiary support. Commentaries and votes should be registered privately and viewed only by the moderator/bureacrat and, at the end of the process, by the nominee; the nominee should not have access to the identity of the reviewers.

These two changes, which imply a slightly larger role for the bureacrat than at present, would go a long way towards making the process:

• more balanced;
• less invasive of privacy; and
• less traumatic for the nominee where things do go wrong (I hear other stories, too).

In my memory, you might consider lobbying for a change to the process. Email me if something happens, and I'll stop bagging Wikipedia on the net (I'm angry ...). You're right, WP can't afford to lose hard-working, devoted contibutors like me (he boasts, but it's true). In under a week, I've turned from this into a bitter enemy of the project.

Sincerely and with great regret, Tony 22:25, 29 October 2005 (UTC) tony1 at iinet dot net dot au

DYK

Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Bernhard Cossmann, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

POPBot #2

Fvw, you wrote above that your POPBlocker needs another admin to run/block. I might be interested in doing that, but my level of technical competence is very low. Could you possible give me more details about what the "job" entails — i.e. is it just mass-blocking a list of IPs, or editting through open proxies? Thanks. Flcelloguy | A note? | Desk | W_S 15:14, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

I can help too in some way, doing non-technical grunt work, if this helps in cutting down excessive vandalism. Would I just be running a script, or actually writing one? Cheers, Bratsche^{talk | Esperanza} 18:32, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[from email --fvw] I'm interested in taking it over, if you need someone. How can I help? --Linuxbeak

Thanks for your offers, what I can give you is

• A list of IPs that were open proxies during the last scan
• Shell scripts that block a list of IPs
• Shell one-liners to extract a plain list of IP:port's from some of the more popular open proxy lists
• Scripts to check whether an open proxy can edit wikipedia
• A script to extract a list of tor proxies that can edit wikipedia from the node directory (this one isn't my work, it's a slight edit of someone else's script)
• glue scripts

What you'd need is

• An admin account on wikipedia
• An account on a unix machine with perl, zsh, lynx and all the usual niceties
• A reasonable familiarity with shell scripting and how open proxies work (perl might be useful too)
• The ability to write shell oneliners to scrape the list of to-be-tested addresses from online proxy lists (the current ones won't stay active or current forever)
• The willingness to dig through it all; it works well, but it's just a bunch of clumped together shellscripts. You need to work out what you want to do in what order
• The time to handle complaints about blocks

I've put a tarball of the scripts and data (with the keys and edit tokens changed) at http://www.var.cx/wpproxycheck.tar.gz, I trust you'll be able to arrange things amongst yourselves. --fvw* 00:49, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Notification Bot

Hey, when you start mind benders round 4, can you let me know? thanks! — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 03:27, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Never mind, added myself ;) — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 03:28, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Signpost article, changes

I see no problem with Duties and Requirements for next week. You could mention that there really isn't a single requirement, possibly touching on how some people wanted it to be admins-only. As far as introducing e-mail and such, I think that can be done in a "From the editor" piece. But I plan to reorganize things (the Newsroom, for one- I want to break things up a bit more) I'd like to do it all together, so I'll make sure it gets done by next issue. Ral315 (talk) 22:52, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree completely, but let me split up the newsroom first...it's on my list of things to do. Because as it stands, outside of you, me, Michael and Catherine, not many people know how the Signpost Newsroom is set up. Ral315 (talk) 23:18, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Another question...to make it easier to send e-mails, should I possibly register User:Wikipedia Signpost and allow people to use the Special:Emailuser link? Ral315 (talk) 23:51, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Judi McLeod and Canada Free Press

Thanks for welcoming me! You are so kind.

User:Mindspillage claims on Administrators'_noticeboard/Archive13 [1] that the "Canada Free Press and Judi McLeod have been the target of a smear campaign by an anonymous user who has made other attacks on them in the past (off Wikipedia)."

You said you would keep the articles watchlisted.

I'm concerned that this is a pretext to stop factual information from appearing. I appreciate the situation Wiki is in, but much of what Judi McLeod says needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Judi McLeod has a history of making wild accusations. For that reason I seriously doubt that there has been a "smear campaign" on the internet ... especially since I can't find any trace of it!

I'm telling you this because Judi McLeod and her colleague Rachel Marsden have involved Jimbo in this and are accusing User:Homeontherange of impropriety. --Cyberboomer 00:17, 3 November 2005 (UTC)