"Wikipedia's articles are no place for strong views. Or rather, we feel about strong views the way that a natural history museum feels about tigers. We admire them and want our visitors to see how fierce and clever they are, so we stuff them and mount them for close inspection. We put up all sorts of carefully worded signs to get people to appreciate them as much as we do. But however much we adore tigers, a live tiger loose in the museum is seen as an urgent problem." --WP:TIGER

We are only 993171419 articles away from our 1,000,000,000th article... --Guy Macon

--Guy Macon

• "A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction into a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day." -- Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes. --Guy Macon

Today the WMF is spending 300 times as much (52596782 ÷ 177670 ≈ 296) to accomplish basically the same job it was accomplishing just fine ten years ago.

I could accept a 10X increase, but 300X? How can anyone justify something like that? I would really like to see someone argue that the WMF is accomplishing three hundred times more than it accomplished ten years ago.

Comments welcome. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:50, 20 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Wow. Just wow. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 16:18, 20 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Believe it or not, I found someone who thinks that that 300X spending increase was a great idea, and is advocating even more spending. See User talk:Jimbo Wales#The elephant in the room. --Guy Macon (talk) 00:01, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm hoping they decide they have way too much money and need to give a chunk of it to any editors who happen to be British bureaucrats who support Norwich City and like writing Featured Articles. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 08:30, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting information: Assessing endowment performance (Vanguard, PDF) --Guy Macon (talk) 03:27, 25 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Guy! I closed (nac) that sea lion barking on ANI but wanted to say that if you wish to pursue a tban further, more power to you. Just seemed like that post was going nowhere fast with a noisy sea lion in the rear seat. Feel free to revert if you wish. Hopefully they'll return to Pier 39 quietly. EvergreenFir (talk) 06:55, 26 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Very well. We shall resume in an hour. :) Good call. --Guy Macon (talk) 07:02, 26 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I really should refer to that comic more frequently. Makes me giggle every time. EvergreenFir (talk) 07:10, 26 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You didn't get an answer. I don't know if it's the sort of thing they could answer on WP:VPT but maybe it's worth a try.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:21, 27 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Guy, I am writing to you because you have edited Antony Flew's page. Can you please give your opinion on my suggestion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Antony_Flew#Antony_Flew_about_.22Brexit.22 . I do not know if my source is good enough. I would like to hear the opinion of other editors but so far I haven't drawn any attention. --Nekdolan (talk) 11:59, 1 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! I saw a while ago that you had some inquiries about whether Californians speak with a General American accent. Assuming you are yourself a native Californian, I'm going to ask you a few fun questions that you can answer at your leisure:

1. Which sound represents best how you pronounce the "short E" vowel in the words bet, mesh, or dead (listen to all of them!): Sound A^ⓘ, Sound B, Sound C^ⓘ, Sound D^ⓘ, ?
2. For you, do these pairs of words rhyme: spa and thaw; cot and bought; song and gong; gods and broads?
3. Do you make this distinction in the pronunciation of the word rider versus writer: listen here^ⓘ?
4. Which sound represents best how you pronounce the "short A" vowel in the words bat, cab, or laugh: Sound A^ⓘ, Sound B, Sound C^ⓘ, Sound D?
5. Which sound represents best how you pronounce the "oo" vowel in the words soon or too (this may be difficult to determine!): Sound A^ⓘ, Sound B^ⓘ, Sound C^ⓘ?
6. Does the word centaur rhyme with store or star?
7. What do you call the flying insect that glows in the dark?
8. What is your generic term for rubber-sold shoes used for athletic activities, regular everyday walking, informal settings, etc.?

Afterwards, I'd be happy to explain what I know of the relationship between California and General American! Wolfdog (talk) 16:14, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I just wanted to verify that this edit to my DRN request was some kind of mistake, since I don’t see any direct relation. Was I mistaken (feel free to restore it if so), or did you mean to add it to the request before mine? Thanks. —67.14.236.50 (talk) 02:03, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yup, I got it in the wrong section entirely. Thanks for catching the error. (Note to self: next time, smoke crack after editing Wikipedia...) --Guy Macon (talk) 02:54, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Do you intend to open that thread for discussion? Should one of us mark it as open? Robert McClenon (talk) 15:23, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Right now I am waiting for everyone to make their statements before opening this up for discussion. --Guy Macon (talk) 16:07, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Good luck. It appears that we are in a period of editors complaining and then not following up. The Eritrea discussion is in the same state. I had to close the Unseen Character discussion due to lack of response by the other parties after 72 hours. At least a dispute in which no one says anything is a dispute in which nobody comments on contributors. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:05, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is the Do Not Archive Until date arbitrary, or is that the actual time of the little-known concealed binary doomsday? Robert McClenon (talk) 20:18, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Answered. Do not archive until the end of the world, or at least the end of this server. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:23, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

(What we passed 16 years ago was the naked decimal doomsday, and it was a self-defeating prophecy. The prophecy wasn't wrong; it was just averted. Sometimes the prophet would say, "If you do not repent, you will face the wrath of God." That has an out clause. Sometimes people repent. They repented of using two-digit years in time. Robert McClenon (talk) 20:18, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

See Fact Checking: Adams Law of Slow-Moving Disasters for an interesting take on this. --Guy Macon (talk) 01:42, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

In short, humans are relatively ingenious, and, if a problem is anticipated, a solution can be found. Robert McClenon (talk) 02:36, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

As to Y2K, there were certain systems where there was a particularly high degree of panic that they would fail, where I knew as a fact that those systems could not have Y2K failures. One of the particular lines that was repeated the most frequently by the panickers was that Social Security would stop being able to print Social Security checks (and that healthy older people would riot and blood would run in the streets). I was reasonably sure that Social Security in particular wouldn't have a Y2K problem, because it had to have four-digit years, because, when Social Security was first automated in the 1950's, it was paying old-age pensions to people who were born in the nineteenth century. There was also panic that electrical generation would stop. That was nonsense. I had worked on a power plant monitoring system, and I knew that power plant monitoring systems do not use a date as such for monitoring (possibly only for reporting to management), because they measure time from an epoch, often from 1 January 1970, and 1 January 2000 was just 14400 seconds after 31 December 1999. There was also concern about bank software. Banks had known about Y2K in January 1970, because banks hit the Y2K wall in January 1970 when trying to generate amortization tables for 30-year-mortgages. (They may have hit the wall again in January 1995 on car loans if they hadn't imported the fix to mortgage loans.) So I had known that two of the systems that there was a particularly high level of panic about were things that couldn't possibly fail. I wouldn't have been surprised if inventory control systems, written in ancient stupid COBOL, had failed, but that would have been a nuisance to the stores, not a disaster. In any case, people repented of the idolatry of the two-digit year. Robert McClenon (talk) 02:36, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I saw only one actual Y2K bug, and I was looking hard. The "today is..." on a website rolled the year over from 1999 to 19100 (it was fixed the next day). Of course by being cute with the expiry date I just set myself up to have archiving on those parts of my talk page kick in if nothing changes between now and 2038. I think I will risk it... --Guy Macon (talk) 02:58, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I never suspected I was obligated to answer questions that others post on my talk page. I did not ignore your question. I did decline to decide whether to answer it until I had a clearer idea of what you were trying to say, so I asked a question.

I have never been offended by another Wikipedian's omitting to answer a question I asked. I was surprised by what appears to be your anger about that. Michael Hardy (talk) 04:17, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Evasion noted. If you are not willing to answer a reasonable question (See User talk:Michael Hardy#Would you be willing to request a voluntary desysop?) then I am not interested in interacting with you any farther. Please don't post to my talk page again. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:40, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hi

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-from Diptanshu.D (talk · contribs · count) and others of the Editorial Board, Wikiversity Journal of Medicine.

Diptanshu^Talk 10:00, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Guy Macon": You _need_ to learn the following. When you post a personal question on a stranger's talk page, they are not under an obligation to answer. If they respond by asking why you ask, that is appropriate, and in fact you invited that question. You have no business being indignant at what you call their "unmitigated gall" in not answering your question. Michael Hardy (talk) 06:44, 9 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]