User talk:Lympathy/adoption/archive1

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Wikipedia Mentor
Lympathy is patiently mentored by xeno (talk) since July, 2008. * If you're interested in being involved in this project visit: Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User.

Adoption

- Archive 1

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Talk pages: Lympathy - xenocidic
My Classroom.

Hey, I'm looking to be adopted.

I've been on wiki for a while, yet there are many things to learn so I'm searching for someone who can give me guidance through my journey here. I've searched for someone who is experienced yet may be compatible with my personality and you seem to be a fantastic candidate. I'd like you to consider adopting me although be aware that I may be annoying with questions at times. Thanks and let me know. Lympathy ^Talk 14:36, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

I would be delighted to. Feel free to ask any questions, don't worry I won't get annoyed. Looking forward to working with you, –xenocidic (talk) 14:40, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, I'm very new to this but where is the best place to ask for advice? Here on your talk page or is there a better place?Lympathy ^Talk 14:52, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

For now, just ask at my talk page, if discussions get rather lengthly then we'll create a separate page to centralize discussions. –xenocidic (talk) 14:54, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I feel really annoying because I have heaps of questions. So that's why I thought I'd ask. No pressure to respond quickly, I understand we all have lives. Firstly I want to introduce myself. I'm Dale aka Lympathy and I'm an avid gamer, musician and ex-soldier. I currently work for an major sales company in Melbourne and I have a high IQ, so I only need to be told once, :P Lympathy ^Talk 14:59, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

No problem at all; I'm always happy to help. To keep things organized, from now on, I'll reply at my talk page and just leave a short note here (basically update my signature) to let you know I've responded. –xenocidic (talk) 15:02, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

First question - How do I automatically archive my talk-page. I've tried but I don't think I've done it correctly?Lympathy ^Talk 15:07, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

The reason your talk page isn't auto-archiving is because miszabot has a default "minthreadsleft" value of 5. Since your talk page has less than 5 threads, things aren't being archived. You could add "|minthreadsleft=0" to the configuration if you don't mind your talk page being completely harvested. I also think you need to delete the "counter" line because you're using date-based archiving. –xenocidic (talk) 15:12, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

thanks, you're a legend. I still feel like I'm pulling you away from more important duties. Another question, in your opinion what sort of editing deserves a Barnstar??Lympathy ^Talk 15:20, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

heh, not at all. if anything, you're pulling me away from less important RL work. ;> as far as Barnstars, it's really up to each editor's discretion. they shouldn't just be handed out willy-nilly, but they also don't need to be restricted to people who've written a featured article from scratch. I typically hand out a da Vinci barnstar whenever anyone has helped me with a particularly difficult technical/wiki-code issue that I may have brought up at WP:VPT for example. or when someone may have gone thru a particular stressful wiki-incident and they don't completely implode, they'll get a resilience barnstar. stuff like that. in other words: you determine your own threshold. –xenocidic (talk) 15:24, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

One day, well in the future, I'd love to be an Admin. What sort of policies should I know well, or what should I do over the next few years if that's the direction I want to head? Lympathy ^Talk 15:29, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Well you could check out WP:NAS. There's so many guidelines and policies you have to know, it would be tough to point you to one specific policy. In a potential admin most people like to see experience with deletion, vandal-fighting, article building, wikiproject participation, etc. Basically, a well-rounded individual. One suggestion would be to keep an eye on WP:RFA and see what people are opposing for. –xenocidic (talk) 15:38, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

am I able to put a status update in my profile like the one you have? I can see the status code but what do you include in your article/profile page?Lympathy ^Talk 15:45, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

Just put {{Statustop}} at the top of your userpage, and then use a system like WP:QUI to update your status as desired. –xenocidic (talk) 16:00, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

• Just a quick comment, it might have been easier to just add the statusbar once to your header =) –xenocidic (talk) 14:45, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
  • ha, I've no idea how to do that, I've been doing this for ages, lol Lympathy ^Talk 14:47, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
    • just paste the same thing you've been pasting to all your pages onto /Header... =) –xenocidic (talk) 14:49, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
      • oh really and that would transpose it across all pages... I feel stupid now, :D Lympathy ^Talk 14:50, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Since the old conversation on your talk-page has been archived, where am I best to ask you questions? Lympathy ^Talk 15:06, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Since you're pretty active, if you want, you can create a user subpage like User:Lympathy/adoption, and then ask questions in there - and then just leave me a note in the first section of my talk page and we can keep it all there. –xeno (talk) 14:33, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Supress table of contents?

Hey, I was wondering how I can remove the automated contents that appears on a page when you have a few headings? Lympathy ^Talk 14:18, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Just put __NOTOC__ (two underscores, then NOTOC, then another two underscores) at the top of the page. –xenocidic (talk) 14:21, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I really appreciate all your help Lympathy ^Talk 14:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

No problem. –xenocidic (talk) 14:30, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Locking AFL Season 2008

How can I get 2008 AFL season temporarily locked to new users? The page has received a number of bad edits recently and will take a bit of work to repair. Lympathy ^Talk 14:23, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

WP:RFPP is your place. :) GlassCobra 14:30, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think there's sufficient history to have it protected though. Bad edits in good faith won't qualify, I'm afraid. (Are they vandals or just poor editing choices?) –xeno (talk) 14:32, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

After editting it I realised that it was just poor formatting over several different users. It looked worse to me than it was. All fixed now. Lympathy ^Talk 14:38, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Subpage

Ok so your subpage is all set up now. Feel free to still post to my talk page if you'd like to get a faster or wider range of responses as you've seen I have a few talk page stalkers that hang out there =). Anything you add here it's best to let me know by signing the very first section of my talk page (there's a link at the top of this page called "advise xenocidic of changes" which will take you right into editing that section. Let me know if you have any questions about this. –xeno (talk) 15:12, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou very much for your help (and for making this page sexy), I'll use it wisely and poorly :D Lympathy ^Talk 15:24, 17 July 2008 (UTC)

Vandalism

When I find a page has been vandalized I usually just fix the page. I'm guessing I should leave a note on their talk-page but what is the normal course of action for finding a vandalized page or just a poor edit? etc.? Lympathy ^Talk 17:01, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Hrm, if you are running Firefox you can install Twinkle which helps with leaving the warnings and provides a vast array of warnings to use. Normally if the user has never been warned, I'll leave something like a {{uw-test1}}, or if it's clear and blatant vandalism, I might jump right to a {{uw-vand3}}. You can see more warnings at WP:UTM –xeno (talk) 17:07, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Templates

I've been trying to create a new template system for ASP and rankings etc. However Template:ASPRanking/2008 isn't formatting to Template:ASPRanking as I thought it would? Can you have a quick look and see what I've done wrong? Lympathy ^Talk 16:05, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Fixed =). You were using a table close instead of a template close. –xeno (talk) 16:13, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou, that was really frustrating me. Lympathy ^Talk 16:15, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Regular Vandal

Just wondering what process happens with a consistent vandal like User talk:62.239.159.6 who only seems to contribute badly? Lympathy ^Talk 15:01, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Due to the fact that it's an IP, it can only be blocked for temporary periods of time. If they've received the full gamut of warnings, and are actively vandalizing, you can consider reporting to WP:AIV. P.S. Don't forget to sign your warning templates, admins need to see the timestamps. Also, if you have Twinkle installed, it will properly subst and sign the warnings for you (the "warn" button) and also has a feature to report the user automatically to AIV (the "ARV" button). –xeno (talk) 15:06, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Reference a users edit

Just wondering how I can reference a specific edit by a user? I've tried a few things but can't seem to work it out. Lympathy ^Talk 17:43, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Go into the history and copy the "last" diff. If you want to combine several edits then you can use the circle boxes to select a range of edits. –xeno (talk) 17:48, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Collapsing part of a page

I love bothering you don't I!!

Just wondering if it's possible to collapse part of a page to save space? We've been discussing how we can improve 2008 Tour de France and it would be useful if we can collapse most of the G.C to save space and to create a better look of the article. Lympathy ^Talk 18:09, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think collapse boxes are to be used in articles per the MOS... Perhaps a split? (for future reference if you do want to collapse something, there's a number of templates that will do it, my personal favorite is {{divhide}} ). –xeno (talk) 18:11, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

In this instance I think it will suit the article but I will consult the MOS. Thankyou so much again. Lympathy ^Talk 18:16, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I think the reason it isn't used is because it won't render properly for all readers. –xeno (talk) 18:17, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I can't find anything relevant in the MOS yet but if I created a seperate article as well as the collapse, would that be acceptable? Lympathy ^Talk 18:22, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

How about give the collapse box a try and see if anyone complains. I'll see if I can poke around and see where that guideline is. –xeno (talk) 18:50, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Rollback

Ok. I'm a bit confused about Rollback, as it seems as if I already have that ability (doesn't everyone?) yet if I try to use Huggle I need permission to use it. I can understand that it's something that should be protected but what's the difference between the granted permission and the implied permission that is given with a regular editor? Lympathy ^Talk 18:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The rollback you have is Twinkle's rollback... Huggle requires native rollback (see WP:Rollback feature). I can grant it to you as long as you make sure to only ever use it to revert plain and obvious cases of vandalism. In case there's any question, you need to use a descriptive edit summary to indicate why you are rolling back. And as for huggle...go slow... No need for haste otherwise you can get Huggle misfires. –xeno (talk) 18:34, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou for your faith in me. I hope you've learned that I am extremely responsible but not infallible to error and if you see me make a mistake let me know and I'll make sure I don't make it again. Lympathy ^Talk 18:47, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

As long as you go real slow with Huggle you should be fine. Remember: it's not a race =) –xeno (talk) 18:49, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Don't worry, I'm not in any race, lol. I'm more concerned about my new Big Screen Sony LCD that arrived finally, ;) But thanks again, I've been having a good run lately. I've been promoted a few times at work and hope to get one more as was promised a few days ago, hopefully it's a BIG promotion. Lympathy ^Talk 18:56, 28 July 2008 (UTC)