you wrote: Fortunately it's not a difficult category to do "by eye", as most of the Scottish place names ring at least a faint bell, and not a few of the Welsh ones rather leap out, too...

True, but it's easy to be fooled, too. Beware of Cornish places masquerading with Welsh-sounding names! :) Grutness|^hello? 04:33, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I do not want to get into an edit war on this page, but am getting frustrated with the POV on things people have no business refuting, when there is research in some areas and not in others. Theories are theories - things are complex enough. Suggestions on how to handle better? -Visorstuff 05:35, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

One solution might be admitting that there are other valid points of view than your own, and that these points of view must and will be represented on that page. - BeeHonest 05:45, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Nice to know you are tracking my edits, regardless of your username - and I completely agree with your statement - I realize that there are more points of view than my own - but that particular page has been pretty heated the past few days, and when you add in information without documentation, it can quickly become an issue. Having had to mediate on a few heated discussions on other pages, I'm fully aware, of what is happening and I think a non-LDS point of view from a trusted editor such as Alai and Tom can be helpful in my situation. I've added in your link from the talk page to the article - it should be there. I am also aware of the available research in the field. My only point is to show that there is little formal scholarly conclusions on the matter - and support for both sides of the argument. The studies we both referenced are valid.

Alai - if you can comment when yuo get a mintue, it would be much appreciated. In the mean time, I think i'm going to wikiholiday soon. -Visorstuff 06:17, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

If your inference/implication is that I've edited that article under more than one username, it's a mistaken one. Reverting additions is not an appropriate first response to information that displeases you. The studies you cited are certainly a variegated lot, some from academic journals and others of no academic import whatsoever. I look forward to your clarification of which of them you think supports the idea that mtDNA patterns have demonstrated Israel's colonization of the New World. Probably on the appropriate discussion page. - BeeHonest 06:24, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

On the contrary - I made no inference of multiple usernames. I simply mentioned that whoever you are, you seem to be watching me. That is all. Sorry if you find that a sensitive matter. -Visorstuff 06:30, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Just keeping track of who's calling in reinforcements. Sorry if that's a sensitive matter. - BeeHonest 06:56, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

No calling of re-inforcements - just requesting advice on how to cool down after a heated wiki day and think some mediation of recent edits is needed by an outsider. Alai is the most nuetral person I know on these sort of matters. However, since you seem very familiar with wikipedia you probably recognized this. I am going to wikiholiday this article for now, as I realize I'm too involved in the debate to make any constructive edits - I don't want to be an iconoclast. Happy editing. -Visorstuff 07:11, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for supporting my adminship — I vow to use my super powers for good not evil. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:43, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Following the long discussion at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (Chinese) regarding proper titling of Mainland China-related topics, polls for each single case has now been started here. Please come and join the discussion, and cast your vote. Thank you. — Instantnood 15:08, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

Alai thanks for your welcoming [Here]. I am actually working as an administrator at the albanian wikipedia trying to start things up with the great bunch of people that we have there! Thanks Again! j. Jonni 02:47, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

There is no need to keep restoring my IP address in the discussion section.

I am Ariadne and not a forger.

Thanks for letting me know - I will watch the comments - I think that using the Church for the theological concept as described is no different than the theological concept that the Catholic Church is the Church because it has priesthood authority - both are based on a theological concept pushing a POV - but since I have a horse in the race - I believe that CJC has priesthood authority and is "The Church" I am going to wait on commenting - however, as I stated before - I think on Wikipedia all should be referenced as "the church" since the important thing is to identify the antecedent noun using shorthand and "the church" works for that purpose just as well as "the Church". Likewise for the body of christ - the church - it should be clear from the context that the church refers to the body of christ or the sentence needs to be rewritten. Have a good day Trödel|talk 13:57, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hi, Wesley (Cc:Alai and Sam Spade). We have a new user User:Vegasbright at the WP:LDS project who is absolutely sure all of us True Believing Mormons at the project are out to squelch him. We'd really like to groom him as an important POV addition to the project (like you, Alai, John Hamer, and now Sam Spade), and I would personally hate to lose him. But he seems impatient and pessimistic about the whole thing, and he is having a hard time understanding that this is not a blog site, that we have to use our best writing. I suggested he should rub shoulders more with you and the other non-LDS project participants, but I guess it hasn't happened. Anyway, if you drop by at his user page and his personal blog you will get an idea of where he is coming from and perhaps you will think of somehow you can put an arm around him and help him scheme against all of us closed-minded True Believing Mormons. Thanks beforehand. Cc:Alai and Sam Spade. Tom Haws 05:14, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)

Hey there. Not sure if Tom was being sarcastic but he's pretty accurate in believing that I see the TBM's as not being objective. Keep in mind that I respect their opinions but I do not honor declarations of truth where they are not warranted. If you feel otherwise please inform me how you feel. --Vegasbright 07:07, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)

You are listed as a participant in the case relating to 172. A decision has now been reached. Please see Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/172 2#Final decision for further details and the full decision. -- sannse (talk) 23:01, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hello, Alai. On using using "the" as part of a title when it is not capitalized in running text, I'd invite you to comment at Talk:The Alhambra. Jonathunder 23:01, 2005 Apr 24 (UTC)

Alai, could you help out with theistic realism? The article appears that it is going to be kept, but I would like to keep it balanced. Ungtss and Pollinator don't seem to want to engage in discussion on points on the talkpage, so if you could help out, it would be great. Joshuaschroeder 15:06, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the help and advice.--Utahredrock 15:23, 1 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Alai, for voting and commenting in favour of my RfA! If there's ever anything I could do, surrealistically and otherwise, don't hesitate. All the best, El_C 03:05, 2 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Alai, you are cordially invited to join Inquiry. Adraeus 12:20, 18 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Sam Spade took over the project, and twisted its purpose. Unfortunately, the project can't be deleted; however, I'm moving it offsite so I can exhibit more control over the documentation and membership. Adraeus 13:56, 18 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

thank you for taking on the selfless task of eliminating idiotic errors on wikipeida (sorry for the typo lol). The world, and indeed all of wikipedia itself is in need of more footsoldiers such as yourself to keep fighting the good fight. thank you--mysekurity 05:00, 28 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

That was the only reason :) -- da didi 06:49, 30 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Alie, I want to thank you for your welcoming message. The links you provide will help me become a more productive Wikipedian. If I can be of any help to you, let me know. Petros The Greek 13:00, 30 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

And me too. Although I'm not a newbie, those links are very helpful as I am new to EN.wiki. Thank you, Alai.
CiaPan 19:48, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome.

Pedantism rules, "seperate" (hurts to type) sucks! 8^)
· Reisio 07:53, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Good WWW searching skills! Or did we meet at FWTWR? Unfortunately I'm still on a much to long Puerto Rico pause... --Pjacobi 17:42, 2005 Jun 5 (UTC)

I think Radiant has a fair point that I should either vote for all open RfAs or none - and I have corrected that for now. I'll try to remember that in the future too.

I explain on User:Jguk/admin criterion why I see it as being relevant: it demonstrates good writing skills, knowledge of WP practice and collaboration (to some degree). All these are good skills for an admin to have. You can argue there are other skills, some of which you may see as more important than those, but remember I am but one vote. And surely my criterion has benefits over the mere edit-counters? Kind regards, jguk 19:28, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Fortunately for me, I don't have to prove any points since the Talk:Gdansk/Vote voting did this for me. As to the edit summaries: I simply wanted to quote the text of the ruling so that all those who reverted my edits on sight and wanted to start a revert war know, that they can't win such a war. Fortunately, this policy apparently works since people started to discuss the matter rather than blind-reverting. I'm sorry if you consider it to be a spam, but for me it was the simplest way to avoid revert wars. Halibutt 19:29, Jun 5, 2005 (UTC)

I've been told I should move my page to wikibooks. Is this true?

Well, its morning here now and I have to go off to school, but I'll try to find a copy of the real syllabus online. The actual syllabus is actually even less complete than what I am posting. Basically, I'm just flushing out what you need to know with my own notes and research online. Akapsycho 05:41, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Version two-two released today includes in that green box a nice count of how many articles are left. This more or less co-incides with the event of hitting only 1000 articles remaining. Also, I have re-arranged the User:Humanbot page to make it easier to get to the right stuff. Progress charts, wikicookies, wikilove and a more thorough spelling check is promised when this is completed. (and also when the exam pressure eases off a little on me) r3m0t ^talk 17:41, Jun 8, 2005 (UTC) Note: If you think this message was too trivial for a mailing, tell me and I'll stick to more important announcements on the list.

Hi - I made a list of users who've been around long enough to have made lots of edits but aren't admins. If you're at all interested in becoming an admin, can you please add an '*' immediately before your name in this list? I've suggested folks nominating someone might want to puruse this list. Thanks. -- Rick Block (talk) 13:47, Jun 10, 2005 (UTC)

The spelling2 project (to work on secondary namespaces) was opened and finished. Progress charts will be available soon.

Version six-three tracks who made the edits, and rankings are available. Much of the work was done while I was asleep, explaining my low place ;).

The next project, which may even be released today, will probably fix incorrectly capitalised headings, particularly "See Also" and "External Links".

The mailing list has grown to 24 people and while that is very nice for my ego, it is rather difficult to send out updates. This is why I did not send out a notice that the spelling2 project had opened. From now on, then, you must watch User:Humanbot/announce for updates. r3m0t ^talk 12:03, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)

So that the Gdansk/Vote horror never repeats itself :) Please see the proposal at my userspace, it is an updated version of Template_talk:Gdansk-Vote-Notice#Constructive_proposal. After I hear (or not) and incorporate comments from you and several other users I know are interested in fixing this, I will officialy move this to Wikipedia:Village pump (policy) and I would like you to be one of the co-signatures of the proposal. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 20:09, 13 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Would you be interested in discussions on this (Talk:Military of Pakistan) particular page?--PrinceA 00:09, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

And again we have a lengthy voting on name issues - this time at Talk:Wojsko Polskie. Please join. Halibutt July 5, 2005 05:57 (UTC)

Regarding this, there is currently a tie between your third and second choice -- Joolz 02:15, 10 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Sir:

Thanks for the discussion on how to clean up my post. I am sorry I have not had time to chech it since first I asked.

I am actually in a litigation where I was treated unequally by a Native supervisor and was retaliated against for my complaints. The hostile work environment I was in prevented me from doing my job and resulted in a a suspension of an international fishing agreement.

My persuit of remedy has not been of ill will but I have had to endure every sort of ill willed retaliation imaginable including abuse of process and threat of gang like violence.

I am from Oklahoma and grew up with many Native American Friends. In Alaska I have had a glass ceiling established by a supervisor who has a chip on his shoulder. He also has a history of attacking women, creeping into girls cabins while they sleep. He coerced me to transfer shortly after an investigator flew in to our remote workplace to ask him about a rape and murder where he went to school. Yikes!

View my posts at this web address:

http://www.sarbanes-oxley-forum.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=922

I will try to improve the article and add links when I have time to look it all up again but I am now challenged with Federal Rules of Appellate procedure.

Feel free to contact me priestley.john@gmail.com

Thanks for the 'the the' removal. I notice you're planning something on Sean Kelly - perhaps my father's chief claim to fame was that he taught him briefly in Carrick-on-Suir.

Incidentally are you a 'gardner' rather than a 'garner'? Dlyons493 14:02, 20 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Out of curiosity, did you take your user name from the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card? Just curious. I re-read the book last weekend. --Barista | a/k/a マイケル | T/C 05:24, 21 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for spotting and correcting my awful tpyos!. Alf 17:00, 23 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The next time you put a rail-stub template on an article, please take a moment to review the more specific rail-stub types listed on Category:rail stubs. The Wabash Railway should have gotten {{US-rail-stub}} rather than just {{rail-stub}} as the article is about a railroad completely within the United States. I've updated the article to use the more specific template. Thanks. slambo 22:52, August 28, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for backing me up on talk:Jonathan Sarfati. I guess they seem to have missed the fact that I have a BSc in biology. Dunc|☺ 20:52, 29 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Much appreciated!

Emme 17:16, August 30, 2005 (UTC)

Hi, this is a circular to Wikipedians in Ireland to draw your attention to Wikimedia UK, where the establishment of a local Wikimedia chapter for the United Kingdom (and possibly for the Republic of Ireland) is being discussed. See the talk page, as well as the mailing list; a meetup will take place to discuss matters in London in September, for anyone who can get there. On another topic, plans are being drawn up for a UK bid for Wikimania 2006, which would be conveniently close to Ireland. On the other hand, Dublin's bid was one of the final three last year - might we bid again? --Kwekubo 03:35, 31 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hey there! Your "hero" speaking :-) Just a quick note to thank you for your support on my RfA. I wish you all the best in the hard tasks you try to achieve. Best regards, Sam Hocevar 17:41, 3 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Is your username a reference to the character in the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card? Card is my fave author, and small as his role was, I liked the character of Alai :-) --Icarus 18:38, 5 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there!

I've been trying to fact-verify Gaston Lippitt (without much success). I see you've done bits like redirecting misspellings - I wondered if you knew anything that could help our fact verification? If so, it'd be nice if you could drop a note into the article talk page.

Thanks very much! -- Mike1024 (talk/contribs) 10:46, 6 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

First Warning

Since you've made a comment on Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2005 September 6 regarding renaming the Category:Natives of Gdańsk, would you also have a look at Wikipedia:Categories_for_deletion/Log/2005_September_5#Category:Natives_of_Danzig, where I suggested deleting Category:Natives_of_Danzig ? Thanks. --Lysy ^(talk) 08:38, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

...in George Papadopoulos article. You are not Greek I guess. How come? [can I get your email address anywhere in wikipedia or wherever?] cheers

Hi, I wanted to drop by and give you this barnstar for you extensive work on VfDs.

Take care, Molotov (talk) 19:26, 13 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the message about the stub, I've replied at the stub Discoveries page. Without the heads-up, I would probably never have seen that anybody was concerned about the stub (except until it was deleted or something). I've already fleshed out the category a bit, it now has approx 25 stubs. More will hopefully follow soon, as time allows. Impi 16:49, 18 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Alai - I see you jumped early and created Wiltshire-geo-stub. I'm putting a list of all the Wilts stubs I know of at User:Grutness/Ongoing geo-stub splits if you're interested in moving any more of them - I'll start ploughing through them now. Grutness...wha? 04:53, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Don't mind at all! That was quick! Keeping a spreadsheet of the "grouped" geo-stubs is very useful when moving things to a separate category. As for moving from UK-geo to England-geo, yes, I've been picking off 25 or so a day, and I know several other people are doing the same (user:Saga City moved a huge batch of them a few days back). So UK-geo-stub's just about empty now. Grutness...wha? 05:31, 19 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Absurdistic follows from my last comments to Victoria of the United Kingdom (disambiguation). There's no real "page history" to protect, and Arrigo knows that. He has been explained so at length by the sysop who blocked him over the fact that he "allegedly" wanted to protect Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom.

The problems with Arrigo are of a completely different nature, see, for instance, User talk:Francis Schonken/Arrigo disruption and User_talk:Scimitar#Hi_Scimitar.2C.

So no, not the kind of game I want to play. --Francis Schonken 10:38, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Alai, I saw that you have written the following, regarding this issue, on the usertalkpage of User:Francis Schonken: "Can you tell me why swapping the "Victoria" disambig pages is an "absurdistic" suggestion? It strikes me that you and Arrigo are in dispute about two things: which title the disambig page should be at; and which page history that page should have. I've already stated my general agreement with you on the first point. The second, while I feel it's largely immaterial, would be taken care of by the move/swap. (In the hopes that Arrigo's objections might be partly mollified thereby.) What's the problem? Alai 02:59, 20 September 2005 (UTC)".[reply]
In my judgment, your request is the best thing to do in this situation in order to have the result you desire, and by filing it, you acted very correctly. I understand that Francis has not received any permission from you to remove that request. Also I support the process of your request and I do not consent to its removal. There are some policies against disrupting a request poll and I think Francis is working now squarely against the spirit of those principles. I encourage you to continue with your quite proper move request. We should not be intimidated by users who (despite own denial) may be gaming the system by all sorts of disrupting edits. Arrigo 11:33, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Alai, if you want to have a vote at all cost and against all wikipedia policy recommendations in that regard, then probably yes, you should probably be able to have that vote, against all odds. The "swap" vote proposed by you would however not solve a thing, while that is even in the remotest sense not the issue at hand. It's not about which page history should be attached to which page. It's about whether the "Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom" page should be a redirect to "Victoria of the United Kingdom (disambiguation)" or the other way around. So if the pages (and their histories) would be swapped, that would still leave *exactly* the same issue: should "Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom" be a redirect to "Victoria of the United Kingdom (disambiguation)" or the other way around.

There is no issue in the remotest sense of page histories needing to be preserved. Arrigo was blocked 24h as a result of the page history of "Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom". He could as well have been blocked as a result of the page history of "Victoria of the United Kingdom (disambiguation)". That block is finished, it's not as if he could be blocked a second time for any of these two page histories. So I don't see any of these pages in the remotest sense still being relevant for whomever. Certainly not to me. As I said several times: the only issue is which one should be a redirect to the other. There even was never a copy of content from the one page to the other. They were filled with near-to-identical content almost simultaneously a few days ago, the ones working on the one page not knowing that the others were filling the other page. So, accidently, redundant double content (existing in *four* disambig topics) came into being. In that case pages should be merged (which is "fictional" in this case, while they're just disambiguation for the four identical royals, + a less important note on one of the two), and one of the two pages should be a redirect to the other. Swapping their histories is not part of the solution of that problem. First it should be established which should be a redirect to the other. Than it should be assesed what method should be used: as all the merging of histories and the rest is just fictional problems, just make one a redirect to the other, problem solved.

The rest is Arrigo making people lose their time, and is as I conclude, also your time. --Francis Schonken 16:45, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Again, if your proposed solution were only part of a solution, even if that solution were no more than an "appeasement" of Arrigo, I'd gladly agree with whatever you propose.

Again, what you propose is not even in the remotest sense contributing to such solution: what you propose is a useless swap. Even if that useless swap would be performed the problem would be *exactly* the same. Because the page with the content would be turned into the redirect, and the swapped redirect page would be filled with the content. And then the game can start anew, while that would require to reswap: again a vote, again switching content of content page and redirect page by copy-paste, again a vote, again switching content of content page and redirect page, etc..., etc...

One of the two pages has been a redirect page 99% of it's life, moving that page somewhere else and then filling it with content is utterly nonsense.

The guideline on moves disadvises performing these steps:

1. copy-paste content from one page to another
2. make the old page a redirect to the new page

What you propose:

1. make a page a redirect to another page
2. then fill the new page with the content that was formerly on the first page

Which is exactly the same, and not solving a thing.

--Francis Schonken 08:56, 21 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Why did you remove that? It's a superworld like a ringworld, except that it's an everlengthy string through space, 100k miles in width.

This is regarding the changes on the Kardashev Scale.

(Reply 1) I guess it would take publishing a novel to include the Exameter Road on Wikipedia then, I take it. How long does it take to write a novel as big as Niven's Ringworld literary work? --Shultz 02:15, 27 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

(Reply 2) You mentioned that a concept would need a sufficient amount of Google hits in order to become includable in Wikipedia. How many Google Hits do you think it needs? --Shultz 04:25, 27 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

You inserted the passage on Harry Harlow which claims his most well known experiment was fraudulent. Using google as well as several current textbooks I can find no corroboration for this claim (Perhaps you confused it with the experiments using "evil mothers"?). At any rate, please provide a reference. -- markus n 02:31, 27 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies, I must have misread the history info. Thanks for the welcome. I have some wiki experience, but never yet bothered to register for the real thing. -- markus n 03:20, 27 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Note - that PBS is now asking for The Blitz to be moved, citing the naming convention. see Talk:The Blitz Jooler 21:38, 29 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. Heads-up re vote on name change at public school. A couple of us have switched our vote to back the new consensus: a merge with Independent school. I wondered if you would consider reviewing that Talk page and maybe switching support too, so that we can wrap this debate up and move on to improving new article?--Mais oui! 06:43, 2 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

What I meant was: if maybe you could put Independent school as your "first choice" and Independent school (UK) as your second choice? What do you think?--Mais oui! 07:08, 2 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Just thought I'd let you know that I've added it to WP:WSS/ST, which you hadn't done when you created it... --Mairi 02:39, 3 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hey thanks for sorting the MN geog/midwest geog stubs! -Ravedave 02:53, 4 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Alai-- Thank you for your comments concerning my RfA. However, your vote was posted past the ending time, and may not be counted. Not to worry for you though, I don't think I had quite enough support this time around. Don't worry, I'll prove to you that I'll make a valuable admin. Cheers my friend. --Lord Voldemort ^{(Dark Mark)} 13:33, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that there will be concensus, solely on the basis that you and I appear to be the only people who care. Shall we move him? kju 14:42, 5 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, my problem was that because I am a newbie it wouldn't (rightfully so) let me. I have to find time to sit down and read through all the documentation for Wikipedia. It was just that I came across something that was incorrect (and about 40 spelling mistakes!) and *had* to fix it.kju 03:48, 6 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

2005 North India earthquake --pradeepsomani