User talk:Mathwiz2020/Archive 1

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I like your articles! Keep up the good work! 18:05, 25 Feb 2005 User:Mathwiz2020

Contents

USGS aerial photographs

Hello Mathwiz2020! Thank you for contributing the public domain USGS photographs to various articles. How do you obtain these photographs? I'd like to help out this way as well. --GRider\talk 01:10, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

  • Microsoft Terraserver. The website itself is copyright Microsoft but it says on the website "Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey", meaning that the images are public domain. I got the idea from another article. If you look at Frost's or Wootton's table code, it says that it is adapted form another high school's site. If you go there, they also have an aerial so I took the idea from them. Just remember to put the {{PD}} template on them or else they will be deleted. --Mathwiz2020\talk 01:53, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)
    • Your new sig looks great; the icon is reminiscent of the Windows XP search wizard, is that considered to be fair use? I am considering building a "schoolwatch" list of articles which could benefit from some minor upgrades and attention. Would you be interested in such a focused list and be willing to help contribute, by doing things such as dropping in an aerial photograph or table? --GRider\talk 18:19, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Let me test my new signature. mathwiz2020\Talk 23:22, Mar 8, 2005 (UTC)

  • This time, I added big and small text, all caps, PLUS I finally discovered that selecting the "raw signature" checkbox made it so I didn't have to begin and end with "<nowiki></nowiki>". — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 00:32, July 12, 2005 (UTC)

Image:Frost Aerial.jpg

Could you indicate at Image:Frost Aerial.jpg where you got that photo? You said above that such photos come from theTerraserver, but as far as I can tell the Terraserver photos are always black and white. Thanks, dbenbenn | talk 15:07, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

If you were not aware, the United States Geological Survey agency takes photographs in both color and black and white. Based upon my own experience, most of the older images or images taken in the mid-western United States are black and white, but there are exceptions. Your results will vary from place to place. --GRider\talk 22:10, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)
The image you linked to is from 1988. Looking at the description I wrote on the image's page, it was taken in 2002. You were looking at the older, black and white version while I uploaded the color one. — mathwiz2020talk|contribs 23:20, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)
But where did you get the color photo from? Could you give me a URL please? I'd like to be able to get similar aerial photos for other locations. Thanks, dbenbenn | talk 16:45, 20 May 2005 (UTC)
Go to Microsoft Terraserver and, on the left, type in "9201 Scott Drive, Rockville, Maryland", the address of Robert Frost Middle School, and click "Go". It will take you to a page listing three aerials: "Urban Areas 4/7/2002", "Aerial Photo 4/20/1988", and "Topo Map 7/1/1981". The topo map is just a topographical map; the 1988 aerial is black-and-white (the one you are referring to); and the 2002 aerial is both color and higher resolution (the one that I used in the Robert Frost Middle School article). Since the 2002 photo is labelled "urban areas", if you want an aerial of a rural or suburban area (although I consider Frost to be suburban, it is close enough to Washington, DC to be considered urban), you will only have access to the topo and the black-and-white aerial, not the color aerial. — mathwiz2020talk|contribs 16:54, May 21, 2005 (UTC)

In some palces there is no color photo on the Arieal photo system, due to the fact that the dates the pictures were taken in some areas. --BrenDJ 19:04, 20 May 2005 (UTC)

Schools template

It sure would've been nice for you to check how many pages currently used the school template before making serious edits to it. Adams' Grammar School was majorly screwed up, as was Wood Green School and Lake Zurich High School. In addition, your changes seem very US-centric and there are plenty of non-US schools on Wikipedia. Finally, I, personally, don't support the production of articles by use of generic templates for the text. I don't know what official policy is, but I can't imagine it giving school articles any more credibility in VfD. Please reconsider your changes. Drw25 16:13, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

  • Just to expand upon on what Drw25 said; we differ in that I do support the useage of templates, but must agree with him that sweeping changes cannot be made to school templates that may affect non US schools. It may be best to create an explicitly US-centric template (titled as such) and a global template for schools which can be used as a model for future regional school templates. Please bear this in mind when making revisions to templates down the road; your actions may be wide reaching. In closing I would like to add that you've been doing a great job improving the school articles and thank you for your contributions! --GRider\talk 18:27, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)
  • Sorry that my comment sounds a bit harsh - I was just quite irritated at the fact that "my" school page had been made somewhat unreadable. And yes, I know it's not mine, and Wikipedia is a community thing. Just to clarify my personal position, I think a table's good, maybe not quite as detailed as the present one, but I feel that it's much better to have article text written by a person rather than a template because I feel that would better represent the variety of schools. GRider's separate US and non-US templates sound good to me. Sorry for sounding so hostile, I don't hate you or anything! Drw25 19:02, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

More schools on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion

As of March 25, 2005, there are an additional (6) articles listed for deletion under the POV notion that schools are non-notable (even though this is invalid reasoning as per the Wikipedia deletion policy). Please be aware that the following schools are actively being discussed and voted upon:

In response to this cyclical ordeal, a Schoolwatch programme has been initiated in order to indentify school-related articles which may need improvement and to help foster and encourage continued organic growth. Your comments are welcome and I thank you again for your time. --GRider\talk

Testing schools template

I just made an updated version of the schools template which I want to test here. — mathwiz2020talk|contribs 23:52, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

{{{name}}}
School of Excellence
Students 1157
Mascot Eagle

Articles on Schoolwatch

Hi Mathwiz! There are a number of articles which could use your tender care on Schoolwatch right now. When you have a moment, would you mind contributing in any ways you can? --GRider\talk 00:00, 23 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hey Dude

I notice you have edited TJHSST, which I attend, and Frost, which i used to attend, and denote yourself as an advanced trumpeter, which I like to think of myself as. Dost thou have a name? -Jordan Hurley

Image:Stevenson Main.jpg

Greetings,

I've placed Image:Stevenson Main.jpg on Wikipedia:Copyright problems. The image is an exact replica of that found here [1] which is copyright protected. Do you have another source for this image that has no such protection? --Durin 5 July 2005 21:39 (UTC)

  • And Image:TSWStaff.jpg. Are there others? --Durin 5 July 2005 21:45 (UTC)
  • I suspect Image:RobertFrost.jpg and Image:Joey_Jones.jpg are also possible violations, though the website they came from does not have a copyright statement. However, that does not mean it is not copyrighted. Copyright law still applies. I've e-mailed the webmasters of that site for clarification. Please see Wikipedia:Copyrights under Image guidelines where it says "Someone owns them unless they have been explicitly placed in the public domain". Can you provide proof that this school has specifically placed these images in the public domain? Note that as a state entity rather than a federal one, these are not automatically in the public domain. --Durin 5 July 2005 22:09 (UTC)

What is Category:Public schools in Montgomery County?

You created(and are the only editor of) this currently empty category. I'm trying to find out what you intended to use it for; if you are not using it, would you mind listing it for deletion, to keep thing neat? Thanks for your work on the pedia! JesseW 22:38, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

I created a Category:Public schools in Montgomery County refering to Montgomery County, Maryland. To be more specific (because whenever I create a local page without the state, it gets renamed), I changed the category to Category:Public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland. Since I had created the first category which I didn't use anymore, I made that a disambiguation page that links to the other Montgomery Counties in the US in case someone makes a category for the public schools in those counties. Personally, I find that people are more inclined to start a new article if they see a non-existing article linked to. In other words, if someone who lives in, say, Montgomery County, Virginia sees this page, then they would be more inclined to make a Category:Public schools in Montgomery County, Virginia than if it wasn't on the page since they can see that it doesn't exist. I hope this helps. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 14:39, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for your answer! I've added some more text to the category, to help clarify it's purpose for other confused people like me. Thanks for your work on the 'pedia! JesseW 21:40, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
Thank you for clarifying the page. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 12:32, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Edit summary

Nah, not a silly question at all. That summary is produced when I use the "rollback" feature, which is available to administrators. See also Wikipedia:Revert. It has the same effect as reverting by editing and saving an old version of an article, but it's quicker. CDC (talk) 19:13, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 19:16, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

Churchill article

Hey - sorry for mangling your template for the Churchill article. I didn't realize it was a template and thought it a one-off thing for the Wootton article, so I ripped it off and augmented it as necessary. Anyway, I'll fill in the pictures and whatnot when I get a chance. Do you know if it's fair game to take images off the school's website and use them?

You might wanna give your template treatment to the Whitman and WJ articles too. I'll help out if I get a chance.

By the way, Churchill was, in fact, opened in 1964. [2]. I originally stated this from memory, but there's a source; you can add it to the article if you really think its necessary to cite. Thanks again. -VJ 01:04, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. You didn't mangle with the template. I'm just somewhat of a perfectionist (or neat freak, take your pick) and love consistency. Robert Frost Middle School and Thomas Wootton High School use this template, and I was planning to add it to the other schools next. As for pictures, other school articles show a picture of the entrance, school, etc., an aerial photo (if you click on the Microsoft Terraserver link at the bottom, just type in Churchill's address, center it, zoom in/out as needed, replace the link with the correct link, save the file, and upload it), and a picture of the principal. See Wootton or Frost for an example. I can help, too. Thanks again for all the info and time you've spent on school articles. I remember back in the days when most school articles were deleted almost instantaneously... now, Wikipedia:WikiProject Schools, Wikipedia:Watch/schoolwatch, and User:GRider/Schoolwatch have all helped tremendously. I will continue to work and help you with any future Montgomery County Public Schools articles. (By the way, go to Montgomery County Public Schools and see if you can help that article. I already cut it from <40 to >30 kb by wikifying it, but it still needs some work.) — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 01:26, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
Sure thing. About the images, I was asking if it was fair use to take those photographs (of the front and principal, the aerial view is clearly public domain and I already added it) straight from the MCPS schools website. The pages are marked all rights reserved, so I'm pretty sure explicit permission would be necessary (I could also take the pictures myself next time I'm in Potomac). In any case, I emailed the webmasters and my old APCS teacher encouraging them to take over the article and, of course, giving a dogmatic lecture on the importance of Wikipedia in general, so they release them into public domain themselves. - VJ 02:10, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
After the "aerial photo revolution", as I like to call it, Wikipedia even added a licensing category on image pages for USGS aerial, and you can definitle use those. As for the other images, let's just say I've had some trouble myself with the pictures. I'm not sure as to whether or not it is "fair use." — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 20:43, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

CDVF

You run the vj.jar file. Good luck! - RoyBoy 800 01:34, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 01:35, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

SOFA district

You added the extremely generic US-stub to this article. In the future, please consider using a more specific and helpful stub such as NorthCarolina-geo-stub. You can find all of them at Wikipedia:Stub_categories. Doing a quick spell check on stubs doesn't hurt either. --WAvegetarian 23:06, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Sorry about that. I went to Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types#Geographical and didn't see anything more specific than US-stub. I'll check again next time! — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 23:09, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

WikiThanks

Image:WikiThanks.png - You are on the ball! Keep up the good work :-) --HappyCamper 01:46, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. I just got annoyed with the amount of vandalism on Wikipedia. I love to use Wikipedia as a reference but sometimes can't put up the vandalism! I heard that Wikipedia might institute a "stable article" feature in which you can request to see the last "stable" version of an article, and admins will be able to choose which versions are "stable." That should help in that the regular "stable" articles won't be vandalized. Thank you, too, for your help on the pedia! — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 01:49, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
Ah yes, you might want to check out Wikipedia:Pushing to 1.0 then. See you around! --HappyCamper 01:54, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
Thanks! — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 01:55, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Bill the Goat

Please see my comments on the article's talk page regarding the db-stub. Thanks Joaquin Murietta 23:51, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Curiosity

First of all, I compliment you on your contributions and actions against vandalism on Wikipedia

Also, it seems you have devoted most of your time on the Wooton High School and Rober Frost Middle School pages. Out of curiosity, are you actually from those schools? Im also a student of WHS and I am curious to know. If it is a personal issue, then I am fine with that

About Wooton

As you have said, I do edit under my username, though sometimes I edit under my IP adress if I am in a hurry and dont have time to login...

Anyhow, if you go to A2A in the mornings your either one of four people... P****, J****, S****, and that other person whom's name I seem to have forgotten... I understand your concern for privacy, but would you at least tell me the first letter of your name? As Ive said before,if it is a personal issue, then I am fine with that.

Your J****... anyhow, dont you remember me from last year? I was the one who talked to you about time travel, in that based on Einstein's theory a time machine cannot tavel past the day the first time machine was created... Anyhow my username is user: TBC. Ill be sure to see you on monday

Page Reverting

Hey, thanks for the wiki-bling. Nice to be recognized. :) If you're ever interested in jumping in on the anti-vandalism patrol, have a look at the Counter-Vandalism Unit page which has some lovely tools for combatting vandals, page-blanking included. Cheers, and happy Wiki-ing! --PeruvianLlama(spit) 02:33, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the CVU site. I think I'll join! I already use CryptoDerk's VandalFighter but I'll see what else I can do. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 02:36, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Policy Proposal: "Wikipedia is not a fan site"

Hi, Mathwiz,

I've just put in a proposal for an addition to "What Wikipedia is not" connected to the excessive non-encyclopedic material we've been getting on the LOST articles. Please look it over at Proposed addition: "Wikipedia is not a fan site" and offer your comments, if you are so inclined :)

Thanks, LeFlyman 00:00, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Google base icon

You can find the icon on this page: http://www.google.com/about.html
The exact url of the file is: http://www.google.com/images/icons/about_base_icon.gif

Kind Regards, Laurent Van Winckel

Contact

Just out of curiosity, who are you? I go to Thomas Wootton and I'm not sure if I know you.

BTW, I fixed the discussion page for Thomas Wootton where you spelt "absurd" as "absurb."

-- David Li, Junior

Lost Template Proposal

Sounds like a plan to me! One less thing to keep watching and re-editing. Good idea! -- LeFlyman 00:12, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Deletion of 'liberal wikipedians' category

Hi! I saw you're (like me) listed in this category which is up for deletion. Hoped you'd like to vote in favor of keeping it... Thanks! Larix 02:15, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Gallery tags

I'm glad you appreciated my fix. The gallery feature was originally developed for the Wikimedia Commons due to the large amount of images used there. There is some documentation about it on the commons and on the Mediawiki user guide. QQ 00:34, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

A Wikithanks

Hello Mathwiz, I'm just dropping by. I've noticed your continual contributions to the school watch programs as well as other articles, so I believe you deserve a Wikithanks from me (though it seems you've already recieved a lot of Wikithanks lately, but one more cant hurt). --TBC 02:52, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Image:WikiThanks.png

A question about welcoming new users

Can I ask why you are welcoming new users that haven't even made edits yet? Are you using a bot? Just curious. -- MicahMN | μ 20:49, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the Wikipedia policy is on welcoming new users, but this is how I interpret the practice: A new user creates a Wikipedia account. This is most likely because either because they heard about Wikipedia and want to join the editing community or tried to create a new article and, under the new policy, were not allowed to. Either way, the Wikipedian is going to make an edit. If the user has already made an edit, then they will be able to read the manual of style, naming conventions (if they joined to create a new article), etc. If they have not yet edited an article, it might be because they either do not know how to or because they click on "edit this page" and then, confused by the wikimarkup, decided not to edit. In that instance, the user can then read the editing tutorial listed on the greeting and learn how to edit a page and what the markup means. If, for any reason, my rationale is flawed and I should stop the practice of greeting all users, please let me know. Thanks. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 20:55, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
Oh, I don't have a problem with welcoming new users before they make edits, but I think there are problems if a bot is being used to do it (without permission). I just saw a bunch of new User talk pages spring up on the RC list very quickly, and I didn't think it was possible for a person to do that by hand. I'm sure it is entirely possible to do it with a tabbed browser and doing it in a batch. I'm not a policy expert, I was just asking because I was a little curious. -- MicahMN | μ 21:03, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
See User talk:Lupin#Popups autoedit. I don't think that this script qualifies as being a bot. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 21:05, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
After taking your comments into consideration, I now welcome only users who have already made edits. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 20:50, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Your sig & Firefox

Just so you know, when I look at a diff page that has your sig in it, Firefox renders the page very widely, since there are no spaces in the sig for it to break on. It's kind of annoying. :-(--SarekOfVulcan 22:26, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Lost Season 2

Hey, I would really appreciate it if, in the future, you at least do not erase other users' messages on article talk pages. Perhaps you do not think that the citation I provided is enough to prove that it is a Mr. Eko episode, but the least you could have done is been courteous and now erased my discussion addition. I am an active Wikipedian and know the policies here, and it is uncouth to erase critical messages that I add to discussion pages. --Frag 07:16, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

I did not "erase" any of your comments. However, in this edit, I moved your comments to a new section. The reason for this is because the section in which you commented, "Future Episode Information", had changed from being a discussion over whether or not the episode title "23rd Psalm" was verifiable to over whether future episode information should be included at all. In also became a discussion of how to stop vandals. Therefore, I decided that it would be best to move your comments to a new section, titled "23rd Psalm", because, (a) the previous section was too large, and (b) I thought that this discussion (i.e., Mr. Eko's flashback being verifiable) would take up a considerable amount of room and, consequently, should be in a new section. I do not see anything against this behavior on WP:TALK. In addition, please post all new comments on user talk pages at the bottom of the page in the future. — MATHWIZ2020 TALK | CONTRIBS 01:50, 1 January 2006 (UTC)
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