User talk:Geoff Plourde/1

Trevor MacInnis 04:49, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Welcome back
 Hello Geo.plrd, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may


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And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! --mikeu talk 23:00, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

The old template is a bit out of date... --mikeu talk 23:00, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Completion status
Try 25%done. It's pretty gross, but you're well underway so I'd use 25%. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 05:34, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

American History
Looks like a significant improvement—way more attractive. I also noticed you made a tasks page, which is appreciated; I've added it to the School tasks page for you. If a browser is not at a high enough resolution, however, the History page displays somewhat strangely. Not sure how to fix this, but thought I'd note it.

One thing to consider is what exactly a "minor" would mean to the Department of American History, given the fact that it would not be (for the foreseeable future) accredited at all. You may want to create a page for the "minor" itself, listing coursework (etc.) and explaining this. Another thing to consider is what exactly the function of course numbering serves for the Department of American History. Finally, in conducting your course, make sure you keep in mind that many of Wikiversity's current visitors are very sporadic, and not highly motivated; do not expect to find students who will attend an online course for no credit regularly. As you design your course, keep this sort of thing in mind. At the same time, I believe that if an instructor were to be aggressive in keeping contact with visiting students, posting messages and discussion on student talk pages, it may be possible to get students to become more active and regular than the History School has managed so far. Whatever approach you try, I wish you the best of luck.

Finally: It would be much appreciated if you could visit the History talk page and post your comments on some of the discussions there. I'm trying to develop some school-wide policies, goals, and practices, but it's been very difficult to get feedback on proposals.

If there's anything I can do for you, just let me know. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 14:44, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Not sure what resolution; I use IE windowed. I'm guessing 1024x768 was close to the size, though maybe not exactly.  Some people out there are still using 800x600, though.  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 02:17, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Re: page deletion. Drop a note to User:Emesee since it looks like he just created that page today. He can also delete if anything is in the way of the move. --mikeu talk 18:21, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

Hello, I'm interested in your course. Keep in mind I'm not an acedemic and it has been 10 years since I was in a college setting. I look forward to start your course.--Jolie 19:44, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

just curious
I noticed that you struck out this edit but left the other part in place. I was just wondering if you consider this to be an "open issue" that still needs to be addressed? --mikeu talk 15:50, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
 * No longer open Geo.plrd 18:17, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

JWSchmidt and IRC
Forgive me if I am asking the wrong person, but I noticed that JWSchmidt is still banned on IRC. Do you still believe this is necessary? I understand if you do, just wanted to double check that it is still necessary. Geo.plrd 06:43, 11 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, there are people concerned on both sides of the issue, so I think it needs to be discussed first. --SB_Johnny talk 14:18, 11 October 2008 (UTC)

North American History
Best to talk about it on the appropriate talk pages, so everyone can see the discussion and give input. Emesee appears to have objected over at the Canadian History page. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 05:15, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't think anyone will object, either. Just make sure you include all the content that is there now somewhere, even if only at a sub-page or archive of some sort.  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 05:30, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Emesee's decided to act unilaterally on this one.
Please see Community_Review, as it relates to consensus-building at the School of History. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 06:23, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

US history course
thought I'd leave my chat here as an easier way to get ahold of you.

I apologize- but I started a rewrite of your lecture notes!

I now see the textbook. ok. so in the talk page of the lecture notes, I asked whether meso-american history is really US history? I just want to be sure because it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. (and I didn't see it on the cliff notes version of US history).

but thats ok if it is, I'll begin looking into it.


 * ok heres the link to the college board and its specified content (required for an AP history course)
 * your right on!! that's exactly the topic that given in the textbook.
 * Clearly the college board wants the Inca/Aztek/maya, hohokum/anasazi, and the mound builders mentioned.
 * no specific indication about the clovis. --Jolie 20:13, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

take a look at the rough draft rewrite of your notes. comments? Deciding what is relevant is actually much harder than getting the story right and the narrative succinct and I welcome any assistance you could give me. The cliff notes have been rather helpful.


 * One stewing thought. clearly the lecture notes were meant to prove a point to the average reader.  however a textbook should be more disciplined... there's no POINT to make exactly. so mentioning the indian removal of 1830 is definitely out of place.  A disciplined historical textbook, keeps to the epoch. and we are a Long ways away from 1830.--Jolie 20:17, 13 October 2008 (UTC)


 * actually, no I read about the indian removal act of 1830 in the wikipedia article about the 5 civilized tribes.--Jolie 11:47, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

So in the next couple days I hope to get this material into the textbook.

I wanted to add a little superfluous comment that I love this course! I love the idea we get to redo the book. this is great scholarship! thanks for the course. --Jolie 17:12, 13 October 2008 (UTC) more work on the textbook. a history of southwestern indian tribes has been posted. it is as rough as the desart sandstone landscape itself. but it is there. I have already completed some reseaches on the mound buildersr.--Jolie 17:08, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

The moundbuilders are done. Unfortunately, as the writing continued I felt less and less inspired. What really stumped me was a good summary of their accomplishments. The southwestern indians had a much better summary. I also thought I got stuck onto dimensions and shallow description- but the overall scale of the missippian accomplishement is incredible!

I need a bit of a mind break. Perhaps I can make things better in a few hours.

by the way thanks for the compliment.--Jolie 17:11, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

I appreciate your thoughts on the justification on the new textbook. Jade knight is asking us to account for this action. Wikimedia is an interesting and unfamiliar forum for me and I don't always understand what is 'ethical'.

Is it more ethical to redo a wikibook or alter the writing of the current one ,with conflicting material? Couldn't the latter be considered a form of vandalism. And yet, myself I would probably WELCOME a contribution to my material rather than the rewriting the topic altogether. The fact that the book seems abandoned, needs considered, too. if the author is not around to work with; how do you exactly build of his work???

That's what the day is about SO far. I didn't want to get stuck in a philosophical dilemma about ethics (So much of WV IS now days)- I wanted to learn. but to edit, means to make choices that some might see as unethical. I think this issue is our a test of what we consider to be ethical editing.

Even once this project has done, It will remain an ethical dilemma. even for WB. Do they boot out the current book from their 'featured textbook', will they think we wer right to redo the textbook, rather than add to the current book? If our goal is the Authoritative textbook of US history. We need to be aware that this might seem controversial to people in WB.--Jolie 15:55, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Whew! thats done, the Mayan, Incans and Azteks seemed hard to do. On to the vikings.--Jolie 16:43, 22 October 2008 (UTC)

please provide a little bit of organization in the book. I believe the next topic is "3.	American Indian cultures of North America at the time of European contact " this should be rather straitforward. We've already covered the major missippian culture that dominated the south and midwest. The Northeastern indian cultures were less unified.--Jolie 16:54, 22 October 2008 (UTC)


 * sorry, geo I think we should give. I expect mounting opposition to our efforts.  on the other hand, we've gotten unpredented permission to severely edit "US history", so.. why not?  Please understand I have the highest regard for your assistance, guidance, and judgement.--Jolie 18:43, 22 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Ok I saw your post on wikibooks, which gave me some thought. While I understand the appeal of altering AP US history (which is basically so imcomplete and stubbed that it would be a blank slate), I think you should ponder one more thought.


 * What good does it do for there to be a FEATURED book in wikibooks, where the bering land bridge doesn't exist and Mayans study asteroids to redict the end of the world. have you seen the vikings chapter?  I don't think its good for wikimedia.  I may not be an expert but I can write more NPOV and closer to the college board content than that.


 * Now peruse some later information. The civil war chapter is a little disorganized and unsiccinct but its not euro-centric. When the text coverges, the job becomes easier. Just like we wouldn't want to keep stuff like this in wikipedia to confuse and detract from serious study; I don't like the idea of keeping it in wikibooks. (The fact that it is featured will direct many students to it)


 * Wikibooks doesn't need to have a euro-centric textbook that claims to meet college board requirements and doesn't.


 * IMHO, we would do wikimedia a favor to replace it. again your opinion is everything. I will continue fleshing out the next subject "First European contact with the Native Americans."


 * If you want to work on AP US history, it would be a fairly staitforward way of getting consensus on what we wanted to do in the first place and I would gladly comply. Feel free to delete anything you don't want left lying around this is meant to be semi-private to you--Jolie 15:07, 23 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Well I could do rework US history (and still think this is the best idea as opposed to changing the stub AP US history). I could do it!  the first chapter will Look amazingly like "United we stand"  but then AP US history would look amazingly like "United we stand"

Give me the go away and I will whip out my chainsaw.

fundementally I am stuck on ONE thing, US history is a 'featured book'! if we're going to basically wipe out content and put our own thing in there... it is US history that it should go. I will pose one more 'are you sure post to mike' on wikibooks check his answer carefully.--Jolie 17:18, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

well, Mike is taking a wiki-break. really I have the feeling I'm not doing what I ought to do. If I can PUT our material in US history, you were willing to do that right? well, I gotta get back to life; but on Monday. I will take the crowbar to US history. and If I break it- I can apologize profusely to Mike.lifeguard to get all my changes unmade.

maybe your right and US history is just 'built' wrong for the AP. but I'm not going to know it until I try to change it. so have a good weekend.--Jolie 17:52, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Believe it or NOt I am still making project.

In addition to the text, I think it is important to be transparent about what I think of the text (note things that seem weak, Justify what theories I include,etc) I hope that such a conversation will help other people collaborate with me on future changes,  Which I most assuredly welcome.

This will pre-empt the effort to support the text with citations. (NOTE: General convention is NOT to clutter the text of a textbook with lots of citations). I'm not sure where citations belong. Also If I have a fact, should I state where that fact comes from in the talk page? I didn't see any references in the US History book (at all).


 * Are you one of several IP addresses that have been tweaking the chapter headings?(205.215.88.74; 205.215.119.85; 205.215.119.108) One of them left a short message in french that I believes say "One more thing to change, I'll leave the rest alone". I tried to reply in french, back.  Sadly my french is very poor and rusty. Perhaps there are actually other people interested in the book and if so, I hope they introduce themselves.--Jolie 16:04, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

US history course2
ok well someone on IP addresses 205 is out to make our job hard. I've already complained about it at wikibooks. I've assumed in the past that he was doing a best effort at (unknowingly) improving our book. However the european explorers section contained ,honest, a reference to the marco polo game. that seems very vandalism. its kind of a shame for if its vandalism its a very subtle vandalism with occasional well written stuff.

but since we want college board material, I am at wits end to figure out how to get through to him (and if he IS a vandal, he's loving my weak gestures at communicating)

at any rate. we have moved to about 1500, and the first european map of the new world. Next in land; the spanish explorations of florida; (which were prompted by a bizarre search for a 'fountain of youth'). A brief mention of Southwestern spanish settlements in CA. and then on to the french and English. English settelment is more researched than the French.


 * Actually I would welcome your help a little on french settlement of the new world. How deeply should I delve into canadian history??  While the french contributions to the new world were significant, they seemed to handle it much different than the conquistadors (who basically destroyed powerful meso-american culture and greedily seized whatever they wanted from the native americans).


 * I'm not even sure who began 'New France' as it was called. If the Spanish had columbus and England had Cabot, who was the man that developed new france?  Most of the History I could dig up had to do with a Northwest passage, and that was a french dream that didn't seem to pan out.  (I suspect that the sea passage, which does exist, isn't reliably ice free enough to allow European Trade ships.)


 * And another mystery is way the spanish seem to falter when the french really solidify their position in North America. The spanish are destroying kingsdoms siezing vast amounts of gold, competiting with brazil to supply an increasing hunger for slavery (in the 16th cetury) and then a few hundred years, France has taken control of the american south (ie New orleans) and expanding throughout Canada.


 * The war between french and english influence in North America, is of course not really over until the French and Indian War deep in the colonial period. But what of the fight between Spain and France?  I suspect a conflict in Europe, but I know nothing about it.  A few clues and I'll take it to wikipedia.  You might want to mention something more about france and spain in your lecture notes (in the interest of closely following college board requirements).--Jolie 14:13, 11 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Some internet searching does yield some answers. France's 'christopher columbus' was undoubtably Jacques Cartier who much like christopher, explored, made a settlement and resupplied the settlement at New france though several voyages.


 * Another force for french exploration was the french 'hugenaught' (spelling?), an early protestant movement that garnered sympathy in france and sought asylum from dictorial decrees. They would found a small colony in florida (that got demolished by spanish conquistadors) in the mid 16th century.


 * anyway, despite the gold spain had seized Native America, The growing superpower in European affairs would be france.  By the reign of the 'sun king' france would be considered epitomy of european culture.  Spain would lose much during the disastrous 'war of spanish succession' where the possibility of a combined spanish and french monarchy caused war throughout the world.


 * those are some of the answers I have been finding. already I have gotten immersed in the details and as normal I will have to simplify what I have to make progress in the next several sections of the textbook.  I'm still interested in what you think might be useful to mention.  Since some issues span large chunks of the colonial period ('war of spanish succession' particularly) the description of france and spanish empire might be tricky.--Jolie 16:45, 11 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Looking through the 'age of discovery' as it is called. I've come to the conclusion that the story is more multifaceted than merely columbus, cabot, amerigo and a famous map.  There is also Verrazzano, cartier, hudson, desoto, balboa and lots of others.  In a section that quickly goes throught the spanish, french and english settlements in short order, Its not succinct writing include all these people.  I'm sure you could devote whole books to just one of these topics.


 * I think then I need to focus on people that play pivotal parts of American history. I'm still undecided on the might and savagery of spanish actions in south america and mexico.  Meso-American history never made sence in a US history book (Whatever the college board says); its unclear if the conquistador's attack on them is a revelant.  I think some of that history is already been told.


 * anyway look for changes and new expansion in the textbook- I want to get through english settlement.--Jolie 17:03, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

A week-long business trip and holiday preparations as well as some extra work at work has kept me inactive from this project for several weeks. I came back to it some today and worked to establish some clarity with Englands action in the 16th century. England seems to gain determination during the very early 17th century and the whole story kind of burst out of me. I am no so sure I like what I wrote but I gained a few decades and studied throught the anglo-spanish war of 1585 today. I hope to make progress in the days to come. Wikiversity seems pretty quiet these days and I sense I am not the only one preoccupied with other things.--JoliePA 16:27, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

SAR
Thanks for contributing to SAR mission 2008 01. You are welcome to contribute more. This is an real case, unsolved, that is being redeveloped as a training mission. Some of the contributors are people in the local community who have some experience as SAR field team members, who are interested in managing SAR missions. They need coaching to learn to wear the ICS "hats" aka "thinking caps" of planning, logistics, and operations. Actual work on the ground in the local community may result from this Wikiversity exercise. --Una Smith 16:37, 14 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Well I noticed some things that most certainly should be done and added them. Another thing to do is to retrace his steps on the day he disappeared. Then start asking everyone around the area if they have seen him or the tricycle. This might end up with a lead. Another thing is to search caves and any unused buildings. I remember reading a case study where someone disappeared and was found in a old chicken coop. Geo.plrd 00:36, 15 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Yup, that's the idea. Many of those tasks have already been done.  For various practical and pedogogic reasons, this exercise involves first working out what should be done, then considering what has been done already.  There is an important step that should happen before tasks are developed, which is to examine scenarios and draw up a list of mission objectives to deal with those scenarios.  If that step is skipped, often the tasks done will focus on just one scenario, ignoring others.  --Una Smith 14:47, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

Bills of Rights and Social Contracts
Hi Geoff - I agree to an extent that we need something like these things - but only insofar as other more developed wikis (like Wikipedia) have developed policies to mitigate against specific types of incivility, or potentially damaging or unproductive activity. I personally wouldn't go as far as Wikipedia in creating a proliferation of policies - I always advocate keeping things as simple as possible - structurally, at least. ;-) So, I'd probably advocate something along the lines of a set of key pillars - perhaps civility, scholarliness, and appropriate means and ends - that all work in cohort with each other. I'm going to post something for discussion on the Colloquium soon. Any ideas you have would be great. :-) Cormaggio talk 09:24, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

History Project Box
This may be silly, but I currently have a strong dislike of the History project box for the reason that it files projects directly into the Main history cat. McCormack was working with me to fix this when he took off on wikibreak. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 12:20, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Not sure what you mean; the History project box is a template McCormack created; you added it to Third Reich. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 23:34, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks for doing that. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 07:21, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Change username
I can do the rename of "Geo.plrd" to "Geoff Plourde" but I want to check to make sure you are ready for unified login before I do it. Have you set the password and email address on all the accounts so that they are the same? This will make the unification easier if it is done first. There is also help at meta:Help:SUL if you need it. --mikeu talk 12:55, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Please see b:WB:RENAME - I've requested confirmation that you own the account on English Wikipedia. – Mike.lifeguard &#124; @en.wb 21:14, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Confirmation is here. The account has been renamed.  --mikeu talk 04:00, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Tx & Categories
Welcome back and tx 4 contributing to the community review and bureaucrat nomination as well as new content. Just a tip - try to include at least a category on each page e.g., Category:Religious studies. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 02:11, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

Gospel of John
I was pleasantly surprised to see you working on the New Testament course. It looks good and comprehensive, and I can't wait to see it when its completed. We need more high quality theology courses here! I just wrote a course on the Gospel of John, as a sort of biblical foundation for the Christian leadership program I've been working on. Feel free to look at it, or let me know if you need any help. God bless, Geoff Plourde 18:59, 19 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Geoff: Thanks for your comments on my talk page. The course is intended to be a general introduction and overview of the New Testament for those who have little or no familiarity with it (its title is "Introduction to the New Testament"). I think it serves its purpose -- that of being an entry point -- quite well. What is needed now is the next level -- courses which focus more in depth on specific books, sections, or topics. Your course on the Gospel of John does exactly that. I've suggested it as a next step in the "In Conclusion..." section at the end of the course, and also listed it under "Other Resources." It would be appropriate for people who already have some exposure to the NT to skip the introductory course altogether and go to the more specialized courses, such as yours, so I've changed the comments under the heading a little to make it clear that the course is aimed at newcomers, not at those who are ready for the next level. It would be nice to have in-depth courses covering all of the NT books eventually. I'm also hoping that someone's going to do something on the OT, as well. As of now, there's nothing at all. --gdm 16:31, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Probationary custodianship
Welcome aboard, Geoff - you are now a probationary custodian. Please add yourself to Staff and review WV:Policies. You may also like to participate in How to be a Wikimedia sysop. If I can do anything to help, please let me know. Sincerely, James -- Jtneill - Talk - c 07:29, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Subpage
Hi, I recommend to found a subpage that our discussion will not mix with the discussion in here.--Juan de Vojníkov 08:50, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No problem, see /mentoring 2010 Geoff Plourde 16:00, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Decline of RSD
Perhaps I should have noted that Category:20th Century Philosophy exists, that is why I thought the empty Category:20th-century philosophy could be deleted. Thenub314 19:20, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the heads up, went back and deleted the duplicate Geoff Plourde 22:44, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

You forgot
You forgot to make a diff stating that Juan will be your mentor and that he has the right to reverse your actions, desysop you, etc. Please do so either on the Candidates page or on his talk page and place a diff on the Candidates page of that statement. Ottava Rima (talk) 18:11, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Is that required? Adambro 18:13, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It is tradition, at least. Otherwise, JWS will say something about Geoff never having accepted the mentorship or whatever. Ottava Rima (talk) 18:33, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I've accepted Juan as my mentor on the candidate page. Geoff Plourde 19:27, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * But not the ramifications of the mentorship. Normally, there needs to be a diff to link so any questions can just be directed to that. A binding agreement that allows him to act in the fullest extent. Ottava Rima (talk) 19:31, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I never made such an agreement. Perhaps this should be discussed more generally because current policy doesn't seem to suggest that the mentor should be given the right to reverse any actions by the candidate. I think the recent situation with Abd has shown that perhaps isn't a good idea. Mentors should guide probationary custodians, not force them to act as they demand. Probationary custodians should feel able to act as they consider appropriate without worrying that they may be quickly overruled without a proper discussion. Adambro 20:44, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * WMF policy does not allow for administrators on any project except through community election or appointed as part of official function of the WMF. Therefore, no one has the right to act with the admin tools unless they meet those conditions. It isn't about "guiding" at all. As I stated before, the temporary custodianship only gives a mentee the ability to use the mentor's admin right. They are not trusted enough to act on their own or "without worrying". Ottava Rima (talk) 20:52, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not aware of the WMF policy regarding administrators, perhaps you could link to it, but our policy with regards to custodianship talks about your mentor being "your first person to contact" with any questions. I see nothing in our policy to suggest your custodian rights are just an extension of your mentor's nor that they will be able to overrule anything you may do as a probationary custodian. As I've suggested, I'm not comfortable with that idea but perhaps you should raise it for discussion at Wikiversity talk:Custodianship or similar, since we've high-jacked Geoff's talk page, with a view to seeing what others think about clarifying the policy. Adambro 21:32, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I never agreed to having my actions reversed either. However I do think a mentor could be said to be responsible for the actions of the mentee, and the current policy allows for desysop after 48 hours if the mentor no longer wants the responsibility. -- dark lama  22:28, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I think the whims of one vocal individual is not a good argument for tradition or for making decisions. -- dark lama  22:42, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

Well, I am wondering what is going on!--Juan de Vojníkov 20:49, 3 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Perhaps it has something to do with the special promise I made in my candidacy. I made that up, and Diego Grez followed it. Policy does not provide for the rights that I gave to Ottava with my probationary custodianship. A mentor may require that or not. I have argued that in theory the custodial rights of the probationer are a kind of extension of those of the mentor, but they are also independent, as shown by the 48 hour period the probationer has to find another mentor if the original mentor withdraws. The probationer has no mentor during that period. Essentially, a custodian should not mentor someone unless s/he is willing to supervise and take responsibility for the probationer's actions. For another precedent, SB_Johnny mentored User:Salmon of Doubt and requested and required an agreement for immediate desysop at the discretion of SBJ. I didn't offer that much, but I did offer a right to reverse actions, and a right to prohibit actions, with prior agreement to immediately accept desysop by Ottava (and, in fact, any other supporting custodian) if I violated such a prohibition. Emergency desysop is always available, probably should be requested by a 'crat, but it could in theory be anyone who files a report. If it doesn't look very clear, it will probably be dismissed quickly. Ottava did go for immediate desysop, but without following the provided process, and there was no emergency and he did not claim there was one, he claimed it was routine. It wasn't. Mess. Here, Juan, it's completely up to you. You consented unconditionally, but you could change that if you want, or leave it alone. --Abd 02:21, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Transcluded page that was blanked.
Re Topic:Neural Symbolic Learning and Reasoning/Topics, I didn't think to check for "What links here." I was on an i-Phone. There would have been little harm if it had been deleted, but if I get tools back, now I know to check for transclusion for a blanked page. I did put a note on the attached talk page about the transclusion, but maybe that's overkill. Thanks. --Abd 02:10, 6 August 2010 (UTC)
 * No problem. I almost deleted the whole thing right after he blanked it, but decided to contact him instead. Geoff Plourde 02:18, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Copyright
As part of your mentorship, you were asked about copyright. I deleted this as being a clear copyvio. Try to see if you can put together any evidence to verify and then post it here to show the steps you used to verify it. Ottava Rima (talk) 12:58, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
 * How we know that the contributer was not an original autor to that work? Why the original author havent recieved the chance to get/offer permission or revrite it?--Juan de Vojníkov 13:24, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
 * It was posted by an IP, who lack the ability to have solid proof of who they are and their authorship. They would also have to prove that they were the poster of the original statement on the original copyrighted website, and that they, and not the webmaster, has the original copyright. On some websites, there is an author's name, and they conflict. Such shady authorship and problems make it a mess that Wiki is best not to deal with, especially with the spammish nature of multiple websites. This is stuff that Geoff should pay attention to. Ottava Rima (talk) 23:02, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Evidence can be found at here and at several other websites and newsgroups. I placed portions of the text into Google to locate the website, then used Ctrl+F to perform a standard text to text direct comparison and confirm. Geoff Plourde 19:41, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Response to comment about "dinging."
diff, permanent link to discussion.

The term "ding" was used there as a colloquial expression for making a comment critical of an action.

Yes, we need particularly to "ding" users or, especially, custodians who do something we think contrary to policy or the welfare of the community. However, the original "ding" comment was about something I did not do, not something I did.

I was just "dinged" today on my Talk page for doing what I believe is proper, but a custodian thinks not. Criticism of actions by teachers, staff or students is, in fact, essential to a functional and productive academic environment, and if you imagine it will just happen spontaneously, well, you are a long-time participant here. How has it been working? If you look at the comments I made in that discussion, they were civil and collaborative. Now, two weeks later, you want to dig it up? To criticize a word I used, or the criticism? If the latter, shouldn't you practice what you preach? Which is more important, wheel-warring -- or the appearance of wheel-warring -- or using a mild word like "ding?" There is real wheel-warring going on, from time to time; this particular incident was just a mistake, nobody ended up looking bad. I'd thought!

Thanks for your work improving Wikiversity. --Abd 18:20, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

A missed opportunity to help a newbie?
Geoff, I came across a problem on Requests for deletion. You can see it now at the RfD undeletion request I section-titled and supported. When I was looking for the edit that had placed the request there, I came across this archiving from that section. This would have been an opportunity to notice the request when it was still fairly fresh. It would have stood out as an unsigned section, exposed by what you removed, as you can see in the diff. Obviously, we all overlook things sometimes, but I thought I should let you know. Thanks. --Abd 23:02, 10 September 2010 (UTC)

Activity
So no interest in wv any more?--Juan de Vojníkov 05:56, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Full custodian
Congratulations, you are now a full custodian. Thanks for your contributions. -- Jtneill - Talk - c 09:00, 29 November 2010 (UTC)