User talk:GrahamColm

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[edit] 2005 ACC Championship Game

I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you so very much. If you ever need an article reviewed, just drop me a note. I'd love to be able to repay you. JKBrooks85 (talk) 23:51, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Dear JKB, thanks for the thanks; they are much appreciated and they have made me happy. It's all about team work, but you did the hard work, the accolades (?spelling - not my strong point) and FA star are all yours, well done. Graham. GrahamColmTalk 22:48, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] RE: London

Hi there,

I saw that you had reviewed London for it's latest FAC, which was withdrawn by the nominator.

I was wondering if you chip in and leave some comments at it's Peer Review located here.

I've been doing a lot of citation work so that I can remove those tags, which I now have.

Your Comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, The Helpful One (Review) 11:59, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

  • I'm sorry for the delay in replying to you. I've been looking at London, as you have probably noticed. I'm concerned about the length of the article, it takes an age to load even down my super-wide (100 mega/sec) pipeline. Could it be split? I've checked, New York City is 115 k. Paris is 101, Moscow, (bigger than London bye the way) is 84, Rome is 59, Madrid is 59 too but London is a massive 132. I know and understand that you want to do justice to such a wonderfull city, but the article is too long. Lastly, well done on getting the citations fixed. Graham. GrahamColmTalk 22:25, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mary Seacole

I can't thank you enough for all your help in various copy-editing on the Mary Seacole page, I appreciate help anytime, and will almost certainly ask for your help next time I put another article or list up for FA/FL status. Regards, Rudget (Help?) 12:50, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Hi Rudget, it was a pleasure to (minor) edit such a fine article. I really enjoyed it. Best of luck with the FA. Graham. GrahamColmTalk 17:34, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
If you could forward that, it'd be great. Thank you, further. Rudget (Help?) 18:07, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
Here's my wiki email - rudget-at-googlemail.com Rudget (Help?) 12:59, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
That is superb. Thank you very much. Rudget (Help?) 14:54, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] oh, my

Graham, dear Graham, will you forgive me for forgetting to come over and wish you a Happy Birthday ?? I have no excuse; I'm sorry :-( But please receive my best well wishes for a Happy Birthday two days late !! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:56, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

  • I guessed you were very busy ;-) You can bring my present next year. GrahamColmTalk 17:59, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
    • One should never be too busy to say Happy Birthday. I could plead extenuating circumstances, but that won't cut it either. So now I'll just have to do my pennance for forgetting :-) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:08, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
      • Hey, I didn't even know it was your birthday (congrats, by the way). Fvasconcellos (t·c) 18:55, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
        • Same from me. :) Rudget (Help?) 18:07, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Jack Kemp FAC

I don't know what the precise word count was when you said the article could be reduced 10%, but I have reduced it from a former 10383 word count to 9993 (about a 4% reduction). I have done major editing since your commentary. The article should be tighter, cleaner and better in many ways. I hope for your support or at least removed oppose at Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/Jack_Kemp.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 05:27, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] ketogenic diet

No, I hadn't seen the news. It is big news. I've been waiting years for this study to be published. I haven't read the paper but am trying to get hold of it. Thanks for letting me know. Colin°Talk 09:12, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] My watchlist

Today my Watchlist is difficult to follow because a robot is updating the Talk pages of all the virus articles. If I've got any friends out there, could you let me know here if I'm missing out on anything. ;-) Graham. GrahamColmTalk 16:22, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Maxwell

Whew, took me 20 minutes to sort that out, but regarding your post at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/James Clerk Maxwell, I don't close noms after two days with only one actionable oppose. Sorry, no can do :-) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:01, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Your presence is requested

... at User talk:SandyGeorgia#RfA; my inbox is lighting up and people are clamoring for a response. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:18, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

For handling the vandlism on the Theatre of Pompey page.--Amadscientist (talk) 10:30, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Muppets' Wizard of Oz

Well, I withdrew the nomination. But you know, I've worked VERY hard, and mostly by myself, to bring the article to a respected class, and now it looks like that'll never happen. What do I do? Should I give up? Start on another article? Limetolime talk to me look what I did! 13:24, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Hey, I can understand your feelings but only you can answer your questions. I can see how hard you have worked on the article mostly by (your)self, and that might be an answer. Perhaps you should find a collaborator. In your nomination you said that you had read the article multiple times, in my experience this doesn't help very much because knowing an article that well, blinds an editor to all the little mistakes and bad prose. I don't want to sound patronising and these tips might not work for you but I do this:
  1. Paste the article into Word and run a spelling and grammar check.
  2. I read the article out loud to myself.
  3. I asked other editors for a critical review before FAC and, I always acted on their advice or explained why I haven't.
  4. I review articles at FAC.

Limetolime, you are a good editor, getting an article to FA is the Holy Grail of Wikipedia and it is not easy, but you will. Best wishes, Graham. GrahamColmTalk 17:07, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Jack Marsh

Thanks for your comments Graham. I have attempted to address them. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 03:34, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Well done, another fine article, I've added my support. GrahamColmTalk 17:12, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
Many thanks for your feedback on many articles. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 02:06, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ouch!

My, that yellow you are using to cap is bright. Should I go with bright red so we can clash? (grins) Think you can tone it down a hair... for poor Sandy's sake. Ealdgyth - Talk 20:19, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Hi Ealdgyth, I'll let you choose ;-) If you go here, you'll find it at the bottom. :-)) GrahamColmTalk 20:32, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
  • Only joking, changed. GrahamColmTalk 20:36, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
thanks! Too much yellow early in the morning makes me cranky.... Ealdgyth - Talk 20:38, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
ROFL ... y'all are cracking me up. Roger Davies says FAC is starting to look like colored venetian blinds :-) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:51, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
...And I thought I was going loud with the MediumSeaGreen. --Laser brain (talk) 22:15, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
The yellow makes me feel like putting on sun-screen. TONY (talk) 17:54, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fixed

Hey, thanks so much for the feedback at the FAC for SE and the work on the page. No need at all to be sorry for opposing, it was very reasonable (The nom and I discussed it and he agreed to withdraw the FAC for now, which I definitely think is for the best). Do you think this wording fix deals with the vagueness? Feel free to replace the tag or let me know if not. Any more feedback you have on the page would of course be completely welcome. Peace, delldot on a public computer talk 01:38, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] advanced editing exercises

Are they too hard? Or too long? Only the "noun plus -ing" section is ready for use. The rest needs to be organised properly, and I have in mind a lot more one-sentence exercises. TONY (talk) 17:53, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

  • None of the above, you said there were four issues, (which I got), but then six were revealed. The "noun plus -ing" exercise was especially useful and fun, but all the exercises taught me something. I'd like to do more. Thanks Tony. Graham GrahamColmTalk 18:03, 26 May 2008 (UTC) P.S. Yes parents can be cruel ;-)

[edit] My mistake on aspirin

Thanks for pointing out the mistake I made on aspirin. Factual errors are one of the worst things an encyclopedia can have, and this was the type of error that many people would not notice unless they had some kind of medical knowledge.

The Original Barnstar
For taking the time to point out a critical mistake I made on aspirin, I, CrazyChemGuy (talk) , hereby award you this barnstar. 17:06, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

I had left the article like that to stand for GA, and I would not have noticed that mistake if you hadn't pointed it out. That little comment helped a lot - thanks! CrazyChemGuy (talk) 17:06, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Thanks for this. GrahamColmTalk 17:32, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request for Peer Review help

Thank you for you work as a peer review volunteer. Since March, there has been a concerted effort to make sure all peer review requests get some response. Requests that have gone three days or longer without a substantial response are listed at Wikipedia:Peer review/backlog. I have three requests to help this continue.

1) If you are asked to do a peer review, please ask the person who made the request to also do a review, preferably of a request that has not yet had feedback. This is fairly simple, but helps. For example when I review requests on the backlog list, I close with Hope this helps. If my comments are useful, please consider peer reviewing an article, especially one at Wikipedia:Peer review/backlog (which is how I found this article). Yours, ...

2) While there are several people who help with the backlog, lately I have been doing up to 3 or 4 peer reviews a day and can not keep this up much longer. We need help. Since there are now well over 100 names on the PR volunteers page, if each volunteer reviewed just one PR request without a response from the list each month, it would easily take care of the "no response" backlog. To help spread out the load, I suggest those willing pick a day of the month and do a review that day (for example, my first edit was on the 8th, so I could pick the 8th). Please pick a peer review request with no responses yet, if possible off the backlog list. If you want, leave a note on my talk page as to which day you picked and I will remind you each month.

3) I have made some proposals to add some limits to peer review requests at Wikipedia_talk:Peer_review#Proposed_limits. The idea is to prevent any one user from overly burdening the process. These seem fairly reasonable (one PR request per editor per day, only four total PR requests per editor at a time, PR requests with cleanup banners can be delisted (like GAN quick fail), and wait two weeks to relist a PR request after it is archived), but have gotten no feedback in one week. If you have any thoughts on these, please weigh in.

Thanks again for your help and in advance for any assistance with the backlog. Ruhrfisch ><>°° 21:39, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks!


Thanks again for your support and comments - Cogan House Covered Bridge made featured article today!
Take care, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 03:32, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mac Classic FAC

Thanks for your support and copyediting assistance. Could you copyedit PowerBook 100 when you have the time? (it is going up at FAC soon). Thanks. — Wackymacs (talk ~ edits) 18:38, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Hi, yes of course, but not tonight. Best wishes, Graham. GrahamColmTalk 19:38, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] LSWR N15 Class

Thank you for your review of the article. Your suggestions have been noted and you are cordially invited to take another look at the article. As you say, a fresh pair of eyes is needed, which is what I believe the FA discussion helps to ascertain (Peer Review only gets so many people to review articles, so it is little wonder that so many below standard articles get through to FA). Cheers, --Bulleid Pacific (talk) 22:52, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Ah, sorry for that. I did it just to prove that the tasks had been accomplished, and I have seen it done on other FAC article nominations. I'll revert now.--Bulleid Pacific (talk) 16:01, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
It's best to specifically address each point if possible, (even if you disagree with them!)  ;-) Graham. GrahamColmTalk 16:08, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the support on behalf of all the editors. Once again, I'm sorry for the striking out of all the points you had found for improvement. Cheers, --Bulleid Pacific (talk) 18:56, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

You are welcome, and worries, time to move on :-), Graham. GrahamColmTalk 19:18, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re: PowerBook 100

I did have the same thoughts after reverting some of your edits (thinking that I was being a pain). I don't want to cramp your style, however, it is advisable to work on articles offline in Word or a similar word processing/text editing program and keep checking over (or use a sandbox), then you can simply upload all your edits in one go. This is the way I write most my articles. I'll keep out of your way now. ;-) — Wackymacs (talk ~ edits) 16:56, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

  • Everyone has different ways of working. Graham, GrahamColmTalk 17:29, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
    • Thanks for your help. It's now at FAC. — Wackymacs (talk ~ edits) 09:01, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Peer review

Hello Graham. Can you remember this? The article is on PR right now and I would like to invite you to drop some comments there. Here's the link: Wikipedia:Peer review/Déjà Vu (Beyoncé song)/archive2. Thank you. --Efe (talk) 08:43, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The FA-Team

Hi. There has been some discussion of how to improve the FA-Team's functioning. It's be grand if you could comment on the new suggested structure, and perhaps also look at our current proposals. Thanks. --jbmurray (talkcontribs) 18:36, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Nimrod copyedits

I am very grateful for your recent copyedits on the Nimrod Expedition article - and for your support at FAC. Can I just comment on one of your edits? "Shackleton was sent home from the Antarctic because he was ill" needs a bit more context. Shackleton's health broke down during his long sledging journey with Captain Scott and Edward Wilson - a mixture of exhaustion, undernourishment and incipient scurvy. I can't say all that, but "he was ill" is a bit too stark, so I've extended it slightly. Again, thank you for your help. Brianboulton (talk) 21:40, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

  • Hi Brian, no worries, I was just trying to sharpen the prose. Actually, I would say all that, as long as you can reference it. I never object to my edits being reverted; I often call my edits of FACs suggestions in my edit summaries. I so want this FAC to succeed—it is a great story. Best wishes, Graham. GrahamColmTalk 21:50, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
    • If we can get it through FAC, it would be great to propose it for main page on 9th January 2009 - the centenary of Shackleton's farthest south. That is my hope. Brianboulton (talk) 22:19, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
      • No rush then :-) ...but seriously, that would be marvellous. Graham. GrahamColmTalk 22:24, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
        • Well, it's FA now, so we're half way there. Thanks again to you for your support, and help in improving the article. Brianboulton (talk) 10:11, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

For the time and energy invested on the very useful copyedits to ant. Shyamal (talk) 09:48, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

  • You're very welcome and best of luck with the rest of the FAC. One suggestion; could you bold your responses so that User:SandyGeorgia and the other reviewers can clearly see them? Best wishes, Graham. GrahamColmTalk 10:00, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
Done. Also attempted an expansion of the lead. If you have the time and energy, do take a look, will not impose more than just the lead section. Thanks. Shyamal (talk) 16:44, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
The Lead is the most important section, (at least at FAC), be careful with it. The sentence about termites, (i.e. not ants) doesn't belong there and the last sentence re: computers needs to be removed or re-written, it's not obvious what is meant by losses. Graham. GrahamColmTalk 17:34, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] May FAC reviewer award

The Order of the Superior Scribe of Wikipedia   
To GrahamColm,
For your superior reviews of at least 23 Featured article candidates during May, thank you for being one of the top reviewers this month and for your careful work and thorough reviews to help promote Wiki's finest work. Your work is a personal treasure for me, having watched you develop into one of Wiki's finest since your earliest days here.
SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:06, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Special thanks to Ling.Nut—a retired editor who had a strong commitment to excellence in content review—for designing this award, and to Maralia for running the stats for May.
Thanks Sandy, for what you said and for the medal which is beautiful—I shall have to move it to the top of my user page. Graham GrahamColmTalk 19:12, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rotavirus

Graham, your reverts of my contributions are beginning to offend me. Are they really called for? The point in question is a frequent source of questions on Talk:Rotavirus and related pages, so I think it does belong in the lead. --Una Smith (talk) 15:35, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

(If I may but in). WP:ROLLBACK should not be used to undo good-faith edits. The words "and a minor cause among adults" are redundant. If if was not a minor cause among adults then the preceding clause would have said "people" rather than "infants and young children". The place for discussing different causes of gastroenteritis is the gastroenteritis article. Colin°Talk 16:23, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
Una, I apologise for using Rollback. I moved your edit to the body of the article, [1] and gave my reason in the edit summary, but you just put it back in the Lead without discussion. What rotavirus doesn't do, does not have to be stressed in the lead of Rotavirus. The point in question has only been asked once on the Rotavirus talk page, (and that was six weeks ago). If the question has been asked on related pages, then the answer belong there. Anyhow, sorry for being rude. Graham. GrahamColmTalk 17:42, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, Graham. (BTW, I did not "just put it back".) --Una Smith (talk) 20:21, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
Apologies once more :( Graham. GrahamColmTalk 20:33, 13 June 2008 (UTC)
Accepted, forgiven, forgotten. --Una Smith (talk) 20:56, 13 June 2008 (UTC)