User:Gronky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Free software Portal
This user is a member of WikiProject Free Software

Contents

[edit] How to help me

While barnstars and smiles are nice, the nicest thing I can see someone doing is to get stuck into Wikipedia:WikiProject Free Software. There you will find the basic todo items and a more specific set of TODO lists. You might also find Portal:Free software to be a good starting point, and you can see my own list of needy articles lower down on this page.

[edit] GNU/Linux is a fine name

Wikipedia policy (Wikipedia:Naming conventions (precision)) implies that the name "GNU/Linux" should be used instead of just "Linux" so as to avoid ambiguity (when refering to operating systems which are based on the combination of the GNU operating system and the Linux kernel).

In 2007, with no consensus or support, one of the most active editors[1] on English Wikipedia, User:Thumperward, alone, replaced hundreds of uses of the name "GNU/Linux" with "Linux". When he did this, although there were objections and a few reverts, no one had a similar amount of time to undo his hundreds of illegitimate edits (which I refer to as an "edit flood"). It's obvious that he had no consensus or support since he wouldn't've had to do all that tedious editing himself if others also thought it was a useful act.

So, I encourage others to use the term "GNU/Linux" in Wikipedia and ignore the annoying hobby of that one wikipedian (who also makes many positive contributions to Wikipedia). At the same time, if you find him abbrasive, please react calmly. He often steamrolls over the edits of new contributors to an article (violating WP:BITE guideline), provoking a frustrated or hot-headed reaction which can be easily argued against (because it wasn't well thought out) or which allows the topic to be changed to criticism of the victim's lack of civility.

Related article: GNU/Linux naming controversy

Among others, Jimbo Wales has criticised User:Thumperward's behaviour, saying: "The project to excise all references to GNU/Linux is deeply POV and wrong. It should be reverted completely and totally as quickly as possible. Virtually all references to Linux should be references to GNU/Linux."

[edit] "Licence" is correct, for the noun

"Licence" is the noun, "license" is the verb. This is true for UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India. The only exception is the USA, and possibly the Philippines, where they use "license" for both the noun and the verb.

Interesting article: American and British English differences

Wikipedia policy: WP:ENGVAR

[edit] Love "citation needed" tags!

{{fact}} tags are very useful. If you want to help an article, please add these tags to any statements which need a verifiable source. If these tags are added to an article that you contribute to, remember that they are not a criticism. And if you replace these tags with citations, the article will be stronger for it.

[edit] Further improve these articles:

Also, see:

[edit] About me

Note: I only rarely put effort into my user page, so the content of this page has probably not be reviewed or checked or updated recently.

Wikipedia contributor since February 1st, 2004.

If you see a typo or glitch here, please feel free to fix it, and thanks to those who already have.

[edit] Why is my name "Gronky"?

Before being "Gronky", I had other usernames, but none lasted all that long. I wish my username was not "Gronky", but I picked that one night when I couldn't find a good username that wasn't already taken, and now I don't want to lose my edit history. So I'm Gronky.

[edit] Posting other wikipedian's personal information on Wikipedia as revenge

If someone went looking for my identity and the address of where I sleep at night, and posted them on Wikipedia, I would hope that the wikipedia admins would consider banning that user. If that user admitted what they did, and said that it was not acceptable and that it should not happen again, maybe a fixed-term ban would be suitable instead.

No one has posted my home address, but User:Jtdirl, during a heated argument, has posted the "personal information" of User:Skyring. Jtdirl is better known as FearÉIREANNImage:Ireland coa.png, or FearÉIREANN\(caint), and similar.

The details are incomplete because the information has been deleted from the Wikipedia database, but there are still edit summaries that confirm that Jtdirl did post Skyring's personal information. At one point in my research on this case, I read that this information included the address of where Skyring lives - but I can't find that anymore.

Wikipedia admins are clearly aware of what Jtdirl has done, but they have done nothing. Jtdirl continues to edit Wikipedia even though there has been no acknowledgement by him of his actions, or whether or not he thinks they should be acceptable, or whether or not he has resolved not to do the same again.

User:Jtdirl contributes a lot to Wikipedia, and many people value his contributions. But should Wikipedia have a class that are above common standards of decency? User:Skyring is trying to raise this issue, but his posts are repeatedly reverted and blocked by other Wikipedians (including admins) [2]

I've had disagreements with Jtdirl before (see my Talk: page). Next time I disagree with him, will he try to find of where I live, and post my address on Wikipedia? Should I fear my anonymity being taken away by another wikipedian - and by this fear should I pander to and agree with Jtdirl from now on?

Gronky 19:05, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

I've just noticed that when another other admin told Jtdirl that he's abusing his admin power [3], he reverts them [4]! (and then he locked his own talk page - making it impossible for that admin, or anyone else, to re-raise the deleted issue.)

And he seems to be doing a "rollback" on new accounts which he suspects are created by Skyring. A roll back is where all contributions by a user during a certain period are reverted by a click of an admins-only button.

All very disappointing that this is being not only tolerated, but the cover-up is being assisted. Gronky 23:47, 26 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Giz a hand

Please comment here if you know anything of the following:

  1. Why a toilet is called "The jacks" in Ireland (It may also be called that in the UK, the only reference I can turn up is "harington the jacks", but it could be false or unrelated)
    Old enough, and not necessarily Irish: as "jakes", the word occurs in Shalespeare. Palmiro 14:39, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
    Interesting to compare it with john for toilet, insofar as "Jack" is a common nickname for those named "John." --70.57.138.153 03:07, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
  2. Any info about Herminie Templeton Kavanagh, the author of "Darby O'Gill and the Good People", and "Ashes of Old Wishes"
    See much information that I have added to your article. — Walloon 06:52, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
  3. more questions to come...
    If you want your numbered list items to number correctly after people insert colon-indented response paragraphs between list items, you will need to use an HTML <ol> list; the simple #-prefixed list style only tolerates nested items beginning with ## or #*, I think. As to your questions, the Reference desk seems to be a good place to track down the arcane and obscure. --Teratornis 23:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
    Not quite true; other editors just need to remember to indent to the same level as the parent comment before switching to a colon, as demonstrated :) Chris Cunningham (talk) 13:21, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My older Contributions

I don't keep track anymore of which articles I've contributed a lot to. The best way to see that is to look at my 500 most recent edits. Years ago, when I made this list, I was proud to have created the following pages of decent size:

...and to have done the majority of the work, at the time, on: