User talk:Thenatureboy
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Welcome, and thank you for experimenting with the page Phi Beta Kappa Society on Wikipedia! Your test worked, and thank you for reverting or removing it yourself. The best way to do tests in the future would be to use the sandbox. You can look at these pages as well: how to edit a page, the tutorial, and how to write a great article. All of these pages are good places to start. Again, thanks, and we hope that you will like Wikipedia. -- Avi 04:10, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
Hello there. Apologies for any miscommunication, but when I refer to "vanity" in an edit, I am referring to Wikipedia's guideline on the matter. As far as issues of split infinitives go, I am familiar with the MLA's recent granting of their acceptability; nonetheless, as it is a rule that has yet to take hold consistently across the English-speaking world, and as it in no way sacrifices clarity nor is it bad grammar not to split one's infinitive, I opt for sticking with the older grammatical prescription. In doing so, I am trying to bear in mind that the MLA and Bill Bryson are not globally recognized authorities, while English is a very widely spoken language.
With regard to my edits on Granite State Challenge, when I said "it is not unheard of," I meant that it is not unheard of for someone — anyone — to defeat a team single-handedly. The space allowed in the edit summary forced me to be concise, and so I was less clear than I should have been. My point here is that in order to keep Wikipedia encyclopedic, editors ought to hold articles of a similar ilk to similar standards. This means that if you're going to mention the incident to which you refer in your GSC edit (despite it being a conflict of interest by Wikipedia's standards), all such incidents deserve then to be reported. One might wonder then if every listing every account of every 17 year-old to have a great day behind the buzzer is what Wikipedia deems notable. Similarly, you'd have to go into the Wikipedia page of every team ever to have won or lost GSC (or any quiz bowl state tournament) and mention the team's W-L record in championship matches.
What it boils down to is this, I think: is the purpose of editing Wikipedia to build a better encyclopedia or to make a personal, social, or political point? I realize that these things may not be entirely separable, but I do hope that getting an understanding of the implications of one's edits and the Wikipedian ethos helps.
Finally, I do honestly apologize for at times being overly sweeping and dismissive in my edit summaries; I'll more carefully bear in mind that there are real people behind every edit and entry rather than nameless minions of disinformation. That said, I'm taking a moment or two to redo a small number of my edits, though not all. If other people alter your edits however, do realize that it is not done out of vendetta, but through interpreting a real set of guidelines and a valid notion of what is encyclopedic.
Cheers, Amber388 01:02, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
My point has been made. Do not disturb the Master again.
Granite State Challenge & Alvirne
Thanks for the edit. It had been a while, so I forgot about the third GSC championship. As a senior, I was the high scorer on the second championship in 1994. The team was myself, Sharon Smith(her dad owns Smith Produce on Kimball Hill Road), Ben Sayer, and Rick Osborne (team captain) Scott Fong and Amy Caron were alternates. I was a freshman (didn't play) when the team won their first championship. I remember a guy named Preston Farner was the team captain and high scorer on that team. Haven't been following it much since I graduated ('94). Nice to see the recognition for the teams. I have been working on the Alvirne article for a while. It was my first ever edit (I was still an anon) and have kept an eye on it as a pet project. My next goal is to find good references for everything, since as it stands now, the article is quite open to an AfD should anyone bother to find it. HLN did a great article about 3-4 months ago about the 4-H club opening the school to beat the deadline in the Hill's will. My parents lugged a copy down to Raleigh, NC (where I live now) but I think my wife threw it out. It would be GREAT reference if you could nail it down. Also cool would be other Nashua Telegraph, or HLN articles for references. I don't know if you still live in the area, but setting up some referecnes would REALLY help this article along. Also, the woodsmen's team was always nationally recognized when I was in school. Been over a decade, so I don't know if that is still the case. --Jayron32 04:26, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Granite State Challenge
Your memory is a bit shaky. The first GSC championship team was in 1988-89. Thomas R. Graham was the Captain and high scorer (once scoring 240 points in a game versus Hanover who totalled 210). Mark Masterson, Preston Pfarner and Scott Greenbaum rounded out the first string team. The alternates were Max Tuefferd and Marshall Murray. Don't make me get Miss Lavoie to confirm this, or get the team together or bring out the VCR tape proving this fact. I'll let you guess which one of the original six I am. If you were a senior in 1994, you were a freshman in 1990. The year after the first championship.
I guess you are right. Still, like I said, I haven't followed it much since I graduated myself in 1994. I guess I had more important things in my life since then. I am glad that it was such a highlight in your life though. Keep that torch alive brother. Also, please remember to always SIGN YOUR NAME on talk pages. Use four tildes ~~~~. Also, to begin a new topic on a talk page, use the [+] button to do so.
Welcome to wikipedia, and it is great to see another Bronco here to help with the Hudson and Alvirne pages. Like I said, we need to work on referencing both of these articles. They are vulnerable to deletion, unless we bring them up to snuff with verifiable and reliable sources. If you are a subscriber to the Telegraph, you can research their archives for free online. It would help to get issues, dates, and article names for improving these articles. As close as I hold both of these article articles to my heart (and I do. 90% of the text in both was created by me) they are VERY VULNERABLE to other editors. We have no means to defend any of the information in them as facts unless we can find reliable sources. Editors can justifiably come along and remove whole sections of text or even nominate the articles for deletion unless we can provide good references. Newspaper articles, books, that sort of thing. If you are still close to home, you stand a better chance of finding them. If you find good sources, and are unsure about how to add the references to the pages directly, leave it to me and I can add them. I just need someone to find them. BTW, I still haven't named myself from that 94 team. I did that on purpose. If you want to figure out who I was, it wouldn't be too hard. Ms. Ames (one of the coaches. Forgot the other one) will remember me. Many other teachers will as well. Anonymity is valuable on the internet. People can use your identity against you.
Oh, and I remember Max Tuefford. He was a student teacher my senior year. He was one of my track coaches, and he student taught Ken Johnson's class. If you graduated in 89, you must have known Jen Lavoie, our ONLY Alvirne celeb... Cool... --Jayron32 05:13, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Thenatureboy 05:30, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I'm a financial services attorney based in South Florida but Hudson, NH will always be home to me. Although I'll only visit in the summer to see my father's grave. Alvirne has a very special place in my heart. Take a peak at the Granite State Challenge wikipedia entry. Some witch from Hanover High kept fooling with it until I had to embarass her with her own stupidity. Have fun in N.C. BTW, How is Hudson's own Playmate these days?
She's a member of the Playboy Extreme Team. Goes on promotional tours and stuff. She's one of Playboys top models and spokespeople, and has been for a long time. For a model, she does very well. Better than most, actually.
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- Oh, and I looked over the edit war you had with the girl from hanover. Please remember a few things: 1) Always assume good faith (read: WP:AGF) and 2) always provide WP:RS reliable sources, and 3) always assume a WP:NPOV neutral point of view and 4) always WP:NPA avoid personal attacks and 5) always avoid putting WP:AUTO autobiographical information into articles. Please click on the references I added above, and checking out the manual of style WP:MOS would be good too. Getting to know them well will help with becoming a good editor. You are a new editor, so you were not aware of Wikipedias history, culture, and guidelines for editing and for dealing with others. I really would like to keep you around as an editor, but the kind of things that went on could merit a temporary block or even worse from the admins here. You have a lot to offer as an editor, and it would be a shame to see you blocked or banned because you didn't play by the rules. Oh, and you almost have the four tildes thing right. Add them to the end of the comments you make on the talk page. The title of the article can be anything you want. Just type your comments and add the 4 tildes to the END. It puts the little signature with your name and timestamp. --Jayron32 05:44, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Civility
Hi - I've noticed that your edit summaries tend towards incivility, and towards unfortunate assumptions of bad faith (For instance, calling another editor a "witch"). Please do recognize that Wikipedia is a collaborative project depending on the cooperation of editors. Such aggressiveness is unhelpful. Furthermore, you should probably have a look at WP:RS and WP:AUTO - they're both important things to keep in mind when dealing with articles on subjects related to yourself. Phil Sandifer 23:13, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I reverted your addition to Granite State Challenge Please read to understand why.
I removed your recently added statements on individual scores. I understand that the statements I removed are TRUE; yet truth is not ALL that WikiPedia is built on. It is also built on reliable sources. If we can find a REFERENCE to individual player scoring records, we can put the information back in. Unless and until we can, unfortunately it violates WikiPedia policy to keep it in. Please ready the following policies for more information:
- Official policy on Reliable Sources
- Official policy on Verifiability
- Official policy against Original Research
I understand school pride, really I do. It is why I have spent such a long time improving the Alvirne High School article. Please read the policies I have quoted above, they have a strong bearing on this issue. If you can adhere to these policies, it will make you a better editor. I would agree with you that IF we can find references to individual scoring records, we can put the information back in. On another note; I know you are proud of your accomplishments at GSC. Still, it is more common than you think for one player to beat a team single handedly. I did it in the SuperChallenge in 1994, and probably several other times that season. In the early rounds of GSC, I have seen it happen quite frequently for other teams. I have seen 1-man teams win entire tournaments at college level quizbowl. Still, simply because we have experienced the event does not mean that we can put it in the article. Writing SOLELY from personal experience is the DEFINITION of Original Research (see above), and is strictly verboten here at WikiPedia. Happy editing! --Jayron32 04:38, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
- reply The truth is the truth, but it can't be put into a WikiPedia article unless referenced. If you were honored by the General Court, proof exists somewhere. Find the proof, reference it correctly, and then put the information back in. I have nothing wrong with the information, if correctly referenced, as appearing in this article. If it has no references, we just can't have it in. PLEASE read through the Wikipedia Policies I have mentioned above if you have any further questions about this. You have valuable things to contribute to WikiPedia, and it would be a shame if they kept getting removed for want of proper attribution... --Jayron32 05:36, 3 November 2006 (UTC)
I have tape of the game and I know at one time, the General Court's commendation was in a trophy case at Alvirne along with our trophy. I'm sure Alvirne still have that proclamation somewhere. It would be sad if I have to call Alvirne, have them find the General Court decree just to satisfy this FACT. But I'll do it and let everyone at Alvirne know why. I'm sure they'll be to figure out who Jayron32 is. Thenatureboy 00:33, 4 November 2006 (UTC)Thenatureboy
You are not improving the Alvirne article or the GSC article by continuing to add the information on your GSC accomplishments. For one, it violates wikipedia's guidelines against autobiographical additions (please click on this link and read it ---> WP:AUTO ). Secondly, the information, while important to you, is blatantly original reseacrh (please click on this link and read it. ---> WP:OR ) in the sense that reference to the event cannot be found in reliable sources (please click on this link and read it ---> WP:RS ). Thirdly, it is not a uniquely notable event. It has happened since (I did it too, on more than one occasion), it probably happened before, and it will most certainly happen again. Fourthly, the additions to the articles, while very interesting and important to you, do not make the articles inherantly more encyclopedic. While true statements, they are obscure minutae(and unverifiable minutae at that) that add little to the value of the article as encyclopedic. The goal of these articles is not to promote a viewpoint, or to protect "Alvirne's reputation", or for self-aggrandizement. It is to write a high quality, well referenced encyclopedia article. That is it. One more policy you should read and abide by (besides all of the ones I direct you to above) is WP:NOT. Please click the link and read it too. I really believe you have valuable things to add to wikipedia, but you are not going about it in a way that is in line with wikipedia's stated policies. Please read these policies and learn from them. It will make you a better editor at wikipedia, and will see that your work here gets respected and admired. --Jayron32 04:21, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't need comments from a neutered "stay at home" dad. Thenatureboy 04:26, 4 November 2006 (UTC)Thenatureboy
Please desist from editing my user page.
Your recent edits to my user page could be construed as vandalism. I am certain you did not intend any harm, but please carry on all discussions in a civil manner and please carry them on in talk pages only. Thank you. --Jayron32 04:27, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
You mean you support the Ku Klux Klan? Thenatureboy 04:57, 4 November 2006 (UTC)Thenatureboy
Image tagging for Image:GMT.JPEG
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It is a watch that I own! If I want to post a pic of it I will. Take a look at the second pic on my page and shut it. Thenatureboy 05:34, 4 November 2006 (UTC)Thenatureboy
Image tagging for Image:IM040.jpg
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Block for disruption
Due to repeated disruption, personal attacks, and incivility, I have blocked you for one week. When you return, please avoid using Wikipedia for promotion of your personal accomplishments, or to carry on past grudges, and be more courteous to your fellow users. Thank you. Phil Sandifer 21:37, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
- Since you decided to return and immediately pick up the same behavior, complete with personal attack, I've blocked you indefinitely. Phil Sandifer 23:46, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
Sandifer, I'm going BUY my way back into wikipedia. For all your puffery, I'll bet you've never forked over a penny to the cause. And even you have, I'll make your contribution seem like pennies.
- Mhmm. Phil Sandifer 02:50, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
