User talk:WMMartin

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Hi there, WMMartin! Welcome to Wikipedia. If you want, you can drop us a note at Wikipedia:New user log to introduce yourself.

You should also feel free to drop me a question any time on my talk page.

Happy editing! JOHN COLLISON (An Liúdramán) 12:38, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hi. I'm about to revert your removal of the Guiness reference in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article. Please see the Talk page for this article and feel free to contribute to the discussion on this issue (under the "Most translated???" heading.) Cheers, Madmagic 21:31, August 10, 2005 (UTC)

Hi again. Please see the Talk page for Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- and again, as above, I invite you to discuss the changes you wish to see in the article and your reasons for the changes you advocate. And please allow other interested Wikipedians to contribute their views to the discussion. Cheers, Madmagic 13:34, August 11, 2005 (UTC)
Once more, please see the Talk page for UDHR. Cheers, Madmagic 19:59, August 11, 2005 (UTC)
Please see the third paragraph of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights article. I've tried to reword it to reach NPOV and I've included footnotes linking to both the UDHR and Bible citations at the Guiness website. Your comments are welcome at Talk:Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Cheers, Madmagic 04:52, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for your recent edit on the emotion page. Those edits (and more) are much in need and greatly appreciated. I'll probably be making some more changes along those lines soon to further balance the POV and add sorely-missing references. Hope to see you check back in. Cheers, sallison 20:38, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Prosopagnosia

Hi WMMartin,

Apologies for my incorrect marking of the edit to the article. Actually, I should have put a note on the Talk page as well, but it's easy with the benefit of hindsight... I've had a search on PudMed and have found nothing to suggest that gay men are more likely to have prosopagnosia and have never heard the claim myself (I'm involved in prosopagnosia research myself and have met a other researchers and many people with the condition). It seems unlikely largely owing to the fact that the hereditary form is quite rare.

I suspect the claim may arise from the fact that some people have been reported with poor face recognition skills in the context of autism or Asperger's syndrome, and Baron-Cohen has suggested that this may be linked to exposure to pre-natal testosterone, and that gay men are more likely to show signs of higher levels of pre-natal testosterone exposure. Although this is just a guess on my part, and seems a little tenuous.

I'd certainly be interested to hear otherwise though, or even read any articles that mention this, as it would be intriguing to see where the claim originates.

- Vaughan 19:01, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ook! programming language

Hi, one your user page you state that you hope that Wikipedia will be disrcimination in what information to include, so I was a little surprised you voted "keep" at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ook! programming language. If you don't fully understnad why you might be interested, you might want to read my little essay at User:R. Koot/Estoeric programming languages. You also state that you wouldn't mind merging this somewhere, well it wouldn't exectly be merging, but I would hope that the Esoteric programming languages article will cover the major "paradigms" and a few interesting ones, which I believe will be much more informative than several articles which will only be interesting to a very small group of people, if that. Cheers, —Ruud 12:00, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Mitt Romney

WMMartin,

I saw that you have edited this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney

This page is the #2 site that comes up when doing a "Mitt Romney" google. In my opinion, it is better than any other Mitt Romney article. However, it is not very comprehensive. I'm trying to make something more like a Mitt Romney book, instead of a Mitt Romney Article. The website is here:

http://myclob.pbwiki.com/

I examine many additional topics, but I want more perspectives than just my own. I would like you to help contribute, if you would like. Just e-mail me at: mike.laub@gmail.com, and I will give you the password!

Until we get more people working on it, I would like to keep the password a secret. I do not have enough time to correct graffiti.

[edit] Your AfD comment

Hello, just following up on your AfD vote/comment from MacGregor State High School. You listed for a delete based on the nominator, however, the nominator (before you voted) changed their comment to a weak keep based on vague notability. It would be good to have your vote counted properly, even if you still agree on deletion - but you might need to change the reason. JROBBO 22:01, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] AfD

Greetings. You may be interested in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/University of North Carolina Tower Chapel Hill, which I have just listed. I would appreciate your input. --Descendall 09:26, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Your philosophy

Excellent --SandyDancer 20:15, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Masts for deletion

Hello. As the closing admin, I'm notifying the most active contributors to Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/University of North Carolina Tower Chapel Hill, which has now been closed, in case they want to take any action about it. Best, Sandstein 12:01, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hi

I saw your contribution on the Virtual Tax, may I ask what is POV? I kinda got lost there Maverick423 22:06, 19 December 2006 (UTC) meh sorry *smacks self* I have figured it out. I can be absentminded at times so please forgive me. Talk to you later Maverick423 22:24, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Comment you made awhile back

Long, long ago in the AFD for therianthropy, you mentioned that you thought you had reference to the term in "dodgy 1930s books on psychical research". I had kept meaning to get back to this article to give it the care and attention it needs, especially having gone to the trouble to find a list of likely source books, but other projects kept grabbing my attention. In the meantime, the article has been forked in two (previously in three), and is now pretty rephrehensible. If you've got any idea what those 1930s sources might be, I'd love 'em, even if they're disreputable, since I'm finally going to buckle down and do what I should've done for this page back in December. Thanks! Serpent's Choice 09:48, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SPA Accusations

Hi, no problem. Of course you are no one's sock puppet - as I pointed out, a cursory glance at your contributions makes that abundantly clear. WP:AGF is a bedrock principal and if people violate that, no matter how virtuously they wish to portray their own efforts, they should be called on it; I admire your restraint - my language would have been more colorful. At one point a while ago, I had the dubious honour of having the highest delete to keep ratio (the tool for that has since disappeared, mirabile dictu), so it's a matter close to my heart. Keep rockin! Eusebeus 23:32, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Your AfD Comment

Thanks for your comment on the AfD discussion about the PSA Articles, i just have a few questions for you...

  1. - Do you know anything about the PSA? if you did - you would know that it is is the premier junior sports league in Western Australia
  2. - Why do we want to delete something like that? - other encyclopedias will laugh at us because we deleted it.

Long story short, this isnt about some under-10's comp that has been around for 10 years - we are talking about a sporting competition that it the premier junior sporting comp in WA that has been around for more than 100 years. Smbarnzy 14:52, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I'd challenge the notion of "premier" here - it's only open to members of the Public Schools Association, gets almost no coverage outside the member schools (apart from the Head of the River competition) and hence is a bit restrictive. The top tier of gymnasts, athletes, cricketers, footballers etc from Perth have come almost entirely from outside the PSA (I actually used to know one of the few Perth gymnasts ever to make the Olympics). There are very active junior soccer and football leagues attached to the A-League and WAFL clubs, which then feed into the main competitions. Orderinchaos78 02:48, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sungod (Festival)

Thank you for your comments. It is one of the largest student festivals on the west coast, arguably bigger than any of the biggest University festivals such as Northwestern's Dillo Day. I will find more news stories linking to this. - Ocatecir 19:46, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting

Nice comments regarding the notable alumni thing - but how do you offer something for deletion - i am not sure? hence why i blanked page etc etc. Thanks Smbarnzy 10:23, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Random Smily

For your contributions to Wikipedia and humanity in general, you are hereby granted the coveted Random Smiley Award
originated by Pedia-I
(Explanation and Disclaimer)

Jerry lavoie 23:43, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deletion review of an AfD decision you commented on

This AfD you commented on is currently on deletion review. ~ trialsanderrors 19:20, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cornell Savoyards

Do you think this merits an AfD? If you proposed it, I would certainly support it. -- Ssilvers 17:16, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/North Side High School (Fort Worth, Texas)

Thanks for your contribution at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/North Side High School (Fort Worth, Texas). I wanted to let you know that I added some references to the article. --Eastmain 01:39, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for this. I have added a comment to the AfD debate. WMMartin 14:00, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you for your comments

Thank you for your comments Re: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mount Enterprise Independent School District. I find this argument that "school districts are automatically notable" ludicrous. I'm hoping this discussion will generate some effort to remove school districts from Wikipedia, which I think have no business being here. I have no idea how such an effort would be organized, but I would certainly be willing to contribute. Best regards, Icemuon 14:29, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Salk School of Science

Not only are we on the same side, but there is no doubt that your efforts led to the inevitable retention of the article. With every school AfD, I try to judge not only the article, but to see if there is any redeeming value to the school. In a few dozen cases, I've been able to achieve a "save", adding material to an article that tilts what seemed to be sure deletion and have the article retained. It's not easy, and the worst time to improve an article is in the midst of an AfD. I'm not only glad that we were on the same side of an AfD, but I also appreciate that you were so directly responsible for turning the tide and achieving a "save" of Salk School of Science. Alansohn 18:50, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] High Schools

I looked through the deletion logs from January 5th to January 16th, and found that no American high schools - with the exception of one not yet open which had "Crystal-ball" objections - got deleted. The worst result obtained, after a long and active discussion, was "no consensus", and that was only one. A Scottish high school was deleted, but it seems to have had extreme problems with vandalism and verifiability. So, on the whole, I think my statement that American high schools seem to be notable is accurate. On the other hand, I am quite willing to attempt to "draw the line in the sand" there; I am actively AFDing Middle Schools and Elementary Schools, which people are adding to Wikipedia in droves. And of course I have actively AFDed other things that should be covered in local articles, if at all - libraries, churches, etc. --Brianyoumans 17:21, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] and others

Please take a look at Wikipedia talk:Notability (organizations and companies) where there is some very relevant discussion at the moment. DGG 06:23, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moose (drinking game)

Hi, please see the comments on the AFD. Thanks --AW 16:21, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Your Views

Thanks for the nice note on my talk page, I appreciate it. I always enjoy reading your contributions to AfD debates as well.

Soltak | Talk 19:57, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] hermatige

will you please revise your discision to delete Hermitage High School we have revised it enough that it should now be notable —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dr William Wright (talk • contribs) 20:26, 23 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Philosophy

I very much like the philosophy on your userpage, that sums it up about as perfectly as I've seen it done. Seraphimblade Talk to me Please review me! 14:40, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I feel exactly the same way. I have even described your philosophy recently when discussing Wikipedia with friends. Very succinctly and elegantly put. Best regards, Icemuon 14:55, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] hermitage high school

i see what your saying but if you look at the sports page it is an independent over all high-school sports page, not just hermitage. Is that not enough? Dr. WDW 15:58, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ultimate X-Men (story arcs): Peer Review

Greetings! In January, you participated in the discussion for the 2nd deletion nomination of Ultimate X-Men (story arcs). After two months of rewriting, reorganizing, and referencing, the article is now undergoing a WikiProject Comics peer review. Your editorial opinion would be most welcome to help us improve the article to A-class status. Thanks for your time! - fmmarianicolon | Talk 06:43, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sorry, I didn't see this until now

On March 1, you left this note for me on the discussion page linked to my User:Noroton/opinions page. I'm sorry, I didn't think about the existence of that discussion page, so I never looked at it till now (I probably need to hit the "watch" tab on it). Here's what you wrote:

[edit] Your "Argument"

Hi,

It needs saying, I'm afraid: in various AfD debates you describe this as an "argument" in favour of keeping schools, but strictly speaking it's not - it's just an expression of preference. There's no chain of reasoning here, just several repetitions, in different forms, of the view that "IMHO all schools are notable, for some inherent reason that I carefully do not specify or otherwise describe". This isn't an argument, it's just an opinion.

What I don't understand is why you want to impose your view that "all schools are notable" on Wikipedia, when we already have a very clear definition of notability that already applies to all articles ? What gives you and a few other enthusiasts the right to over-ride our community guidelines ? This project is designed to work by consensus, but you seem to think that for schools your preferences outweigh our consensus on notability. Why is that ? It doesn't seem very friendly to me. If you want to be part of this community and make a contribution, why are you flouting our shared principles ?

Sincerely,

WMMartin 14:40, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Noroton/opinions"

I'm not going to bother looking back at what the page looked like when you wrote this, but, at least currently, the page contains my reasons, including reasoning. I'm not "imposing" my view on anything. The deletion debates are open to all comers and they're not even solid votes where one side or another can edge out the rest. What gives us the right to override community guidelines is, practically, the process, which is there for all of us to override if there's a consensus to do so, and WP:IAR which sets common sense on top of all the other rules. I don't think the rules have exactly caught up with what the community wants on high schools. I'm too busy now, but later I hope to get a lot of people together to come up with a proposal that may get us consensus. You say "It doesn't seem very friendly to me." But simple disagreement over something isn't itself unfriendly. Feel free to contact me on my regular talk page, although I've just hit the "watch" button on the other page, so you could respond there too if you want. Again, sorry I took so long to respond. Noroton 20:21, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Japanese banks

The consortium had asked Toyota for money to solve its problems prior to mergers, so your interpretation seems to overlook quite a bit. I've seen reports on the companies.

[edit] Reproducing your philosophy

Hi WMMartin,

I was wondering if I could reproduce a shortened version of your philosophy on my user page, as (as I mentioned to you at some point) it's the best I've seen to date. I was thinking of saying something like: "I think the best way my philosophy of Wikipedia has been described is as a 'well-educated friend who has a lot of knowledge, not information' (courtesy of WMMartin)". I just wanted to check with you first :-)

Best regards, Icemuon 11:07, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] RfC

You should be aware that an incident in which you were involved has been used in this RfC should you care to comment. Eusebeus 23:56, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I just read your view at the RfC and was saddened to learn that you had reduced your time at WP in part due to the problem under discussion. I hope that you will be encouraged by the discussion to participate more, as I feel the best way to fight incivility is to stay the course and try to remain civil. Hope to see you around! -- But|seriously|folks  18:41, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
I am also saddened. You have been a valuable contributor and exceptionally level-headed and courteous. It's a shame that hostility forces good people out of the project. Please know that there are many people who appreciate your presence here. Best wishes, Icemuon 10:27, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Current RfC

Dear Alan,

Just to let you know that I have made a contribution to the RfC discussion that is currently going on. I hope you'll find time to look at it; if you've noticed my absence from schools debates over the past few months, this may explain why...

Sincerely,

WMMartin 18:26, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

  • It's a good thing that you just "found out about this discussion by chance" and weren't canvassed by anyone over the past few days. It's a shame to lose any Wikipedia editor, particularly someone who describes himself on your user page as "I'm more a critic than a creator.... It's easy to pick holes in an article you disagree with, but it's much harder to be fair to an article whose content you particularly dislike." It was this philosophy as a "good and fair critic" that inevitably led you to voting to delete articles with such insightful remarks as "Cruft like this makes me want to gouge my own eyes out" (see here for the details) and productive comments such as "Oh, how I hate these school articles... But I know when I'm beaten. Wikipedia has become infested with non-notable school articles, and this is another one. But there's a claque that votes to keep any article with the word "school" in the title, and they seem to outweigh the ( slightly less organised ) bunch of anti-"school" people, so the cruft accumulates." (Click here for the full text). I must also credit you with one of the earliest uses of "Schoolcruft", all the more remarkable as it was also probably the first such example of using the single word as an argument for deletion (See here). In one of your rare forays into editing and enhancing Wikipedia articles -- a school no less -- you made some improvements to Salk School of Science, an example of what could have been accomplished had you shifted from a critic to an editor (as discussed here). Remember, you can always return at any time, and I'd love to collaborate with the individual who enhanced the Salk School of Science article. Alansohn 19:13, 5 July 2007 (UTC)