User talk:Thegoodlocust

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[edit] The Beginning

Welcome to Wikipedia. Although everyone is welcome to contribute constructively to the encyclopedia, we would like to remind you not to attack other editors, as you did on Talk:Barack Obama. Please comment on the contributions and not the contributors. Take a look at the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:08, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, Thegoodlocust. I think you may have misinterpreted something that Grsz did. When you wrote a long multi-paragraph reply, he replied to each paragraph in turn instead of replying in a block. People do that sometimes here. Then he realized that he hadn't signed each paragraph, so it might be unclear to other readers who was saying what. That's why he added his signature — unfortunately, he mistakenly added his signature to one paragraph that was yours instead of his. In the interest of maintaining civil discussion, it might be good if you were to restore his comments, either where they were (in response to yours) or as a separate block, after your long comment. Thanks. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:28, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
Never mind — I see that he restored the comments while I was writing the above. I've removed his stray signature from your text, though. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:30, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, it seemed really off for him to do that, and without inserting my own signature, it looks quite confusing. Initially, when he did it, he didn't sign all his statements, and made it look like things had been attributed to myself that I had not written. Additionally, I didn't like how he was deleting my own text, specifically, I told him not to modify my own comment.
I just don't understand why he couldn't reply in one single comment, rather than uselessly parsing everything. Also, keep in mind, he attacked me first with his ad hominem attacks about me being a new user and therefore, supposedly, devaluing my input. Thegoodlocust (talk) 06:39, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
There's some truth there, but I'm afraid that "he started it!" isn't an acceptable defense outside of elementary school. (You'll notice that I removed some comments of his as well as yours when the two of you strayed further into personal attack territory.) Grsz was failing to assume good faith, and biting a new user — and I was probably too soft in dealing with that. But that doesn't excuse you calling his character into question. Let's just try to focus on the article, instead of each other. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 06:48, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

It looks like there were short fuses on both sides there, and a few little misunderstandings erupted into something disproportionate. If you don't mind, I'm going to remove the last section of the talk page — would you prefer to have it kept here, or is it OK if it just remains in the talk page's history? —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 07:04, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Feel free to remove it, I'm honestly surprised the minor edits I suggested were so hostility received. There are much more relevant, but controversial things I'd like to see added to the article that go beyond mere phrasing. Thegoodlocust (talk) 07:07, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

The problem is that the well at that article has been poisoned by a steady stream of trolls and sockpuppets, so the long-time editors are too ready to jump on any new face. (Did you notice the joker earlier tonight who asked why the article didn't have Obama's name in Arabic?) I'm not excusing Grsz's hostility, just letting you know that there's a context to it. (Of course, that's what Obama said in his speech, and that hasn't satisfied his most vocal critics either...) :-)
There are also a couple of long-lasting, more major disputes going on on that talk page (specifically, how much space the article should give to Jeremiah Wright and Tony Rezko, and how to express various rankings of Obama's record in the Senate on the political spectrum). You're welcome to join those discussions too, if you're feeling up to it. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 07:16, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Please refrain from making unconstructive edits to Wikipedia. Your edits appeared to constitute vandalism and have been reverted. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. I hope all is well. It's very hard to explain this edit as a result of user error. If my analysis is mistaken, please forgive me, but as you note this is a highly volatile topic (IMHO) in which editors must be very careful in discussion and project pages. John J. Bulten (talk) 19:57, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Edit summaries

The edit summary associated with this edit is inappropriate. Edit summaries are intended to summarize either the content or editorial intent of the edit. While using edit summaries is strongly encouraged, please refrain from using edit summaries which are nonsense, misleading, non-descriptive of your edit or uncivil toward other users. Please keep in mind that I found nothing wrong with the edit itself. I am just reminding you of the appropriate use of edit summaries. LaMenta3 (talk) 21:23, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

It was a joke, sort of, my dog needed to pee as I was finishing up and so I wrote that in quickly so I could finish posting (I'd turned on the edit reminder) - it seemed faster to type that in than click, wait for it to reload and tell me to make an edit summary and the click save again. TheGoodLocust (talk) 21:44, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
It made me chuckle. Just go to My Preferences, click on the editing tab and uncheck the box that says "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary". That way you don't even have to put an edit summary for talk page edits. Hope that helps. --Ubiq (talk) 22:39, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
Yeah I did, I just wanted a reminder about it since I'm fairly new and I'd just read about it somewhere. TheGoodLocust (talk) 23:08, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WP:3RR Warning

Warning

Please refrain from undoing other people's edits repeatedly. If you continue, you may be blocked from editing Wikipedia. Note that the three-revert rule prohibits making more than three reversions in a content dispute within a 24 hour period. Additionally, users who perform a large number of reversions in content disputes may be blocked for edit warring, even if they do not technically violate the three-revert rule. Rather than reverting, discuss disputed changes on the talk page. The revision you want is not going to be implemented by edit warring. Thank you. ≈ jossi ≈ (talk) 22:50, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Obama FAR

Hi there, I am just writing to inform you that we have apparently been conducting the Barack Obama FAR incorrectly. Your vote of "keep" or "remove" should be struck out and reinserted when the nomination moves into FARC (per the directions at WP:FAR). I was just notified of this myself; please see the bottom of the FAR page for more. Thanks, Happyme22 (talk) 22:54, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

TheGoodLocust, the proper statement in the featured Article Review is "Close and move to FARC." The term "FARC" represents "Featured Article Removal candidate." In my opinion, attempting to improve the article is useless because there are too many people who like the hagiography just the way it is. Kossack4Truth (talk) 23:18, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you both for the suggestions. I'll go look at it later though since it looks like there is another false attempt at getting me blocked. TheGoodLocust (talk) 23:19, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] hi

look at my post. if you agree, feel free to use the source. 116.12.165.227 (talk) 04:12, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk%3ABarack_Obama&diff=203674181&oldid=203673852

[edit] Thanks

For your passion and your tenacity in editing Wikipedia. Please assume good faith on the part of other editors. Edison (talk) 05:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] A suggestion

A lot of the content you're adding to the State legislature section really should be included in the article, or at least in the new sub-article, but the problem seems to be with how you are wording your additions. In this edit[1], your wording is implying that it was Obama's legal challenges that created the division, when the source seems to implying that Obama's decision to stay in the race is what caused the division, not the legal challenges. Also, if you had continued to read the source, you would have found on the fourth and fifth pages that such legal challenges are common in Chicago and that the other candidates had actually made several critical mistakes in collecting their signatures (namely using old voting records to validate, not having enough time to actually do the validation properly, and getting swindled by their paid signature gatherers). There doesn't seem to be any wrong doing in what Obama did, but the way in which you worded it does imply that Obama did something wrong by challenging the signatures. Of course, that doesn't mean what you added shouldn't be in the article, just that the wording is troublesome and that if it had been worded in a more neutral fashion and included some explanation beyond just the negative aspects, it probably would have been more palatable to the other editors on the article. The big thing to remember is that while NPOV does say we should include things that are positive and negative of the article's subject, it also says that the wording that we use should be neutral as well. My suggestion is that you try to include both sides of the argument and try to make the wording a bit more neutral. If you do that, chances are you'll improve the likelihood of what you're adding staying in the article unmodified. --Bobblehead (rants) 06:43, 6 April 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Image copyright problem with Image:TheGoodLocust.jpg

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[edit] New version of Wright paragraph

I've worked on a new version of the Wright paragraph in Barack Obama, and I'd be interested in your thoughts at Talk:Barack Obama#New attempt by Josiah. Thanks. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 19:20, 11 April 2008 (UTC)