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I am referring to fascists in power. I cannot find anyone who says that fascist government was not right-wing. Sternhell thought that fascist ideology developed from left-wing thought but that they moved to the Right once in power. The Four Deuces (talk) 03:38, 16 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Articulocity, Factchecker? You talkin' bout me? Have you studied my typos at all. ;) --FormerIP (talk) 01:33, 18 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, for all I know you could have a harelip IRL. I am talking about pristine word usage. The best word I can think of is, congratulations. Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 02:53, 18 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In an attempt to turn a divisive RfC into something productive I have created a new page. I hope you will come and do what you can to help make it work: Wikipedia: Areas for Reform Slrubenstein | Talk 16:29, 22 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I do not mind your questions. I believe that Wikipedia is an experiment in a kind of community and a kind of process. Both involve certain policies, the one inviolable one, NPOV, being central, and the principle that anyone can edit any page any time (Jimbo's declaration of principles has a slightly more circumspect and nuanced formulation), made possible by wiki technology. I believe that this basic structure creates endemic problems or challenges, like the ones faced when editing the Sarah Palin article prior to the election: what happens when people with passionately held and antagonistic beliefs clash? the wiki technology means that people must cooperate, and as in any system where people must cooperate, this means that there are many situations where none gets what they want, but everyone gets something they can live with. I earnestly believe that people acting in good faith, who earnestly comply with the core content policies of NPOV, V, and NOR, can collaborate to write very good articles. But it can take a lot of time and effort. Some consider that a failing, I consider it the cost of doing business, and well worth it.

I think there are other problems that arise from the culture of Wikipedia and need to be addressed. I think that because this started on the internet, the community has long been dominated by white men working in IT or applied sciences. There is nothing wrong with that, but such people have a communication and interaction style that has made Wikipedia unhospitable to others, especially some women and minorities. I think as Wikipedia grows we must make conscious efforts to recruit a more diverse group of editors. If we can do this, this problem will be solved.

I think another weakness is a lack of another kind of diversity - not enough editors in the social sciences, humanities, or fine arts. Consequently, there are fewer articles on these topics, and they either are not good, or are good thanks to the effort of one or two editors.

I wish we could think of policies or strategies to address these two weaknesses but I do not think they are intrinsic or fundamental to the project.

I do think that the creation of ArbCom created the seed of a problem, by which I mean the development of some centralized authority, or hierarchy. I think these two things are anathema to Wikipedia. With regard to the policy council, my point was not that Wikipedia is perfect and there are no problems - there are problems, I have just mentioned two, and we need to address them. I just do not believe that ArbCom had the authority to create the council, and that any council should be created by the community, either with members who are elected 9like ArbCom iself0 or with an open membership (like the way anyone can watch and work on improving any policy).

In fact, I think the biggst problem facing Wikipedia is the creep of hierarchy (service awards are one seemingly silly example; that some administrators believe they should be held to higher standards of behavior in return for more prestige or authority is another). I think we need administrators, bureaucrats, and stewards, and ArbCom, and oversight - but I think the greatest threat to Wikipedia is that these people may use their technological powers in non-transparent ways, and abuse them i.e. use technological powers to seek social power, power over people. I think there is a real risk of people with oversight abilities to out anonymous wikipedians and to harass them off-wiki. I think these are serious problems that definitely need to be addressed.

This kind of sums it up. I wrote two essays on wiki-process that further explain my views (of course, other editors contributed). They are the first two, here. Have I answered your question? If not, please let me know. I would be happy to answer any other questions you have. I am sorry my statement at the RfC was unclear and if you feel, based on what i wrote here, I could clarify it, I would be in your debt if you would show me how. Slrubenstein | Talk 18:58, 23 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To answer your new question, you have to answer a question: if someone does not agree with Wikipedia's principles, why would they want to come here? Slrubenstein | Talk 17:05, 24 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps we just disagree. My answer is simple: Wikipedia is not the only game in town. Aside from Conservapedia there is Encyclopedia Brittanica. If you want to speak in metaphors, Wikipedia is not a country you have to live in, no University Physics course is ever going to force you to read Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is like a game. If someone went to an ice hockey game and said "It's okay but I would much prefer they play with a bouncing ball on wood rather than a hard disk on ice," I would say "Well, don't keepo coming to ice hockey games, go to a basketball game!!" I would never let that person screw around with the rules of ice hockey!!

Wikipedia will never be the only gam in town. it is the only game in town only to lazy people who do not wish to take the effort to explore the other games. And this is tied up with what is wrong in Western education. No encyclopedia is perfect. There are flaws in encyclopedia Brittanica. There are flaws in Wikipedia. We need schools that can teach students how to assess critically the strengths and weaknesses of all sources of knowledge. Anyone who comes to Wikipedia thinking it is "the truth" or even thinking that all articles really will present a good account of all different views is just a mark, a sucker, a dope, a victim waiting to be hustled. No information source will ever be perfect. Wikipedia has some advantages over brittanica, Brittanica has some advantages over Wikipedia, and if you know how each encyclopedia is written, and by whom, and guided by which policies, then you can assess them critically and not be conned. I am speaking of the attitude of the reader of an encyclopedia article.

If you wish to write for an encyclopedia, Wikipedia is not the only game in town, you can look for a job with Encyclopedia Brittanica. You may find that they won't hire you. But this does not make WP the only game in town, it just means it may seem easier to edit than Encyclopedia Brittanica. Now come the policies. You may not have to sit through a job interview as you would with EB, but to be a success at WP you need to learn the policies and follow them. I think this is reasonable.

People are free to create their own competing encyclopedias. Others have tried and failed. But there is simply no serious barier to you if you want to write your own encyclopedia on the web. If you think Wikipedia is the only game in town, I can only infer that you do not think anyone would read your encyclopedia. But please do not blame Wikipedia. In fact, I would say that it is Wikipedia's policies (esp. NPOV, V and NOR) that give it the edge over othe encyclopedias using Wiki technology. So no offence but it seems kind of disengenuous if you are saying you want to edit Wikipedia because people read it, but you do not believe in the policies or principles.

If you have a fundamental problem with the polciies and principles, register a domain name and start your own encyclopedia using wiki technology and your own policies, and see if people join you. If your policies and principles are better than WPs, people will start to catch on. The cost will not be very high to maintain and if you give it a few years it may begin to compete with Wikipedia.

But if people prefer Wikipedia, why not open your mind as to the wisdom of th principles and policies? Of course this does not mean that Wikipedia is perfect. You know, some people still debate whether the designated hitter rule in baseball was a good idea. You can always propose a new policy and see if people support it. But it sounds very strange if you insist that you want to contribute to Wikipedia, and you do not believe in its policies, and you haven't proposed a new policy for people to vote on. You can't have everything. Am i misunderstanding your position? You have not really explained to me what about my explanation of why I like Wikipedia you find wrong. Maybe I am completely off-base and if so i apologize, but so far you have just hinted that you do not believe in Wikipedia and you don't say why. Slrubenstein | Talk 01:55, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, my views are well-developed because I have been here a long time. But if it helps any, I am a skeptic too. To be clear: I am not at all convinced Wikipedia is a good encyclopedia, or that it ever will be. I think it does have some advantages over Brittanica especially because I do have an idea about how their articles are written, I guess i would have to say I am askeptic aout Brittanica too!! But I am definitely a skeptic about Wikipedia. I was initially drawn to it because I anted to make sure that the few articles on topics I really care about aren't wrong. BUT: I do "get" the idea behind it (the principles and stuff I articulated above) and I think that it could work. I think it is an experiment. I think my being an editor (and reading any article) is a gamble. it may not pay off. It may be that in five years it collapses in on itself, an on-line data-base high school students use to cheat, like Cliff Notes, but good for little else. I have no idea. But I think that the principles, as I understand them are interesting enough that (1) I am willing o make a little gamble that maybe it really will work and (2) I am enough of a betting man to be glad to see one encyclopedia out there that is written and edited on completely different principles than any other. This paragraph is the most honest expression o why I stick around. Slrubenstein | Talk 20:30, 25 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I won't judge you. But I would say I am the guy who will play hockey, not at all convinced I will be much good at it, or that my team will win. But even if my team loses I am not going to tell everyone else they should be playing basket-ball! Slrubenstein | Talk 08:29, 28 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I guess we are in the same ball-park now. Perhaps a better metaphor would come from a casino - If I decide to play poker, I want to win. If I loose I may go over to the blackjack table, but I won't try to get the people at the poker table to change the rules of poker. The point is: I do not think one has to be convinced Wikipedia will work, to "play by the rules." I think when one contributes to Wikipedia the gamble is precisely this: that following these particular rules we can come up with a better encyclopedia than those that follow different rules. I am not convinced Wikipedia will be better than Brittanica, but I am glad that there exists this other encyclopedia that is daringly trying to build itself with very different rules than EB's. Slrubenstein | Talk 15:30, 29 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How did you know? The Four Deuces (talk) 00:15, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

He certainly is an interesting character. Read this: Talk:Fascism/Archive 24#Horowitz and Bale quotes. It's one of my favourites. The Four Deuces (talk) 22:55, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

FYI: User_talk:Gwen_Gale#odd. The Four Deuces (talk) 03:29, 3 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hope you're doing well, too. Coincidentally, I was thinking of you just the other day when things started percolating on this health care topic at Palin, recalling that you shined some sanity and balance on similar subjects in the past. I actually ignored her comment initially, dismissing it as yet another Palinism (for lack of a better term). "Death panels?" C'mon! Since then, the media has turned that into a rally cry for opposition to the reform bill. It's a mess... there's nothing but intellectual dishonesty on both sides of the debate. We need leadership that outlines, in simple bullet format and in an honest way, what the changes mean to Americans. My only hope is that no one breaks my government-administered, single-payer health care system which I have enjoyed for the past 35 years! :) Fcreid (talk) 20:41, 15 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, as you may know, the other user has to have set his or her preferences to allow for an e-mail to be sent/receeived. Also, you have to have your preferences set to allow e-mails. If both conditions are met, on the left side menu there ought to be an option to e-mail this user. I am not the best person to ask as I seldom e-mail users and do not have my own e-mail setting enabled. So if in some design change they moved the link, I won't know about it. But the fact is, if you look carefully enough at a person's user page you should see a link for e-mailing the user .... if you do not consider the possibility that the person does not have his or her link enabled. Slrubenstein | Talk 15:24, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Factchecker, I replied to your note on my talk. Peace, delldot ∇. 04:39, 14 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

And great to hear from you again, my friend! Hope all is well. Fcreid (talk) 13:33, 14 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As always, nice to hear from you. Hope you're enjoying a bright new year! Fcreid (talk) 23:59, 7 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I feel as though I am being bullied out of Wikipedia when all I do for the most part is qualitatively improve articles by adding citations. I have a group of malign editors that have formed a cohort against me. They have searched really hard to find a few matters of dispute out of my 20,000 or more edits that I have made to this Project. I would appreciate some of your time.
B9 hummingbird hovering ^{(talk • contribs)} 10:20, 1 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In answer to your topic heading, pretty much always!

Kidding (sort of). But...

Hi there, I have been quite inactive for some time but logged in to make a single, highly obscure edit, and saw your message. I can sympathize with what you describe but want to stress that this sounds like typical personal conflicts which inevitably arise in a setting such as Wikipedia for a variety of good and silly reasons and combinations thereof. I would guess that many users have felt similarly. While I can't devote the time to do much to help you, I'd say the best advice is to take a step back a bit, perhaps edit a different type of article, and take the initiative in avoiding conflict as the primary means of seeking compromise. The result of such an approach on the large scale tends to be bureaucratic, slow, and often wrong, but it is what it is given the circumstances which attend an online user-edited enyclopedia. If you are still frustrated by this issue, I'd recommend talking about it on a Wiki message board, talking to an admin, or perhaps shooting a message to the guy whose comment appears just before your own on this page, Fcreid. He is wise in the ways of getting along with other Wikipedians, and may have a sage word or two for you. Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 23:34, 27 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Shortly after posting this same message on numerous locations around Wikipedia including Jimbo's talk page, B9 was indefinitely blocked from editing Wikipedia for refusing to accept consensus and work with other editors. There had already been a month long RFC on the subject, which B9 refused to participate in until the decision was reached that without his cooperation the only option option left was to pursue a full site ban. Thanks for trying though. Beeblebrox (talk) 00:36, 28 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Singular flags are generally deprecated on Wikipedia as they over-emphasize nationality without adding any information. I have therefore undone your restoration of the flag on the Greek protests article. It took a bit of searching as you didn't mention in the edit summary that you had restored it. --John (talk) 23:34, 5 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure it was me? If so, it was an accident. Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 23:36, 5 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind. It was just an accidental by-product of restoring a previous version of the infobox. Sorry bout that. Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 23:41, 5 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No problem, I thought it must be something like that. --John (talk) 23:48, 5 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I like what you are are doing, not that I am important. I might need your advice at some stage, because I am on a similar crusade. However, I see that you are up to your eyeballs in Greeks, so I will leave you to it for now. pietopper (talk) 21:33, 7 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I can't imagine what led you to think I'd be able to help, but I am happy to try, or at least point you to someone who might be better at it. However, be warned that I am only sporadically active and have gone months or years without checking my Talk page. Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 23:15, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I saw your latest post on Talk:Michele Bachmann in my watchlist, but when I went to the page to respond, I didn't see your post and searching for it was unsuccessful. Can you see it there? Drrll (talk) 12:52, 22 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You currently appear to be engaged in an edit war according to the reverts you have made on Michelle Bachmann. Users are expected to collaborate with others and avoid editing disruptively.

In particular, the three-revert rule states that:

1. Making more than three reversions on a single page within a 24-hour period is almost always grounds for an immediate block.
2. Do not edit war even if you believe you are right.

If you find yourself in an editing dispute, use the article's talk page to discuss controversial changes; work towards a version that represents consensus among editors. You can post a request for help at an appropriate noticeboard or seek dispute resolution. In some cases it may be appropriate to request temporary page protection. If you continue to edit war, you may be blocked from editing without further notice. SarekOfVulcan (talk) 17:00, 4 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The disruptive editor has been blocked for a week.Mattnad (talk) 19:07, 6 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the note. I felt a pang of guilt for willfully violating 1RR and reported myself to the admin too in case he wishes to take action. Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 19:09, 6 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your self claimed lack of comprehension, is not an excuse nor an invitation to restore your annoying comments at my talk page. Stop restoring your comments there once I've deleted them. -- ClaudioSantos¿? 19:42, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My English reading comprehension is just fine. What I'm trying to get across to you is that yours is fairly limited, and at the very least you should not be using the "Advanced English" userbox. You've repeatedly failed to understand clear English obviously supporting article text, and have wrongfully reverted, removed, or tagged article text due to your lack of understanding. Further, as I mentioned in the talk page comments that you keep deleting while complaining they are "insults", when you actually add text to an article it is always broken English — not just grammatically incorrect, but broken English.

Your recent summary reads: "I am neither discussing nor negotiating. I do not mind if th author is not able to understand, but it is quite simple: I do find that sort of comments as rude insults which solely deserve to be deleted."

Besides providing a further example of your English problems, this summary seems to reflect your unproductive attitude towards WP. "I do not mind if th author is not able to understand". That's great that it doesn't bother you, but it is not your prerogative to go around mangling WP articles simply because your English skills are limited yet you still insist on editing English WP. Why not try Spanish WP? Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 20:18, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I still do not matter at all if all this has to do with your lack of comprehension or with your ability to trim down and decontextualize or with a common delirium. It will suffice here to mention that for a reasonable reader it would be enough clear that I was NOT claiming that I do not mind if people understand my edits at wikipedia. But then, for a reasonable reader it would be clear my point is: Whether YOU (Factchecker) are able or not able to understand that your recent comments are not welcome at my talk page, at any rate your recent comments will be deleted because I do find that sort of comments to be rude insults which solely deserve to be deleted. If YOU (Factcchecker) are still not able to understand this simple point, at any rate you are still NOT invited to restore your comments at my talk page NOR to abusively edit my user page, so you will be automatically reverted. I do neither really matter nor want to discuss your lack or excess of comprehension, due pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli. -- ClaudioSantos¿? 21:01, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You are a fucking idiot with limited English ability and should not be editing English Wikipedia. Factchecker atyourservice (talk) 15:59, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]