User talk:Mav/archive 6

User talk:Maveric149 archive 6 (November, 2002)

You might be interested in seeing the current state of my IBM 1620 page. I have expanded it with lots of good information reciently received by the Computer History Museum's 1620 restoration project from some members of the original development team! -- RTC 19:36 Nov 17, 2002 (UTC)

Re your message about admin status on my talk page - I've thought about applying for adminship before, but have put it off. I think this time, though, I will ask to be made an admin - that last splurge of goatse.cx posting has convinced me it's worthwhile. I'll write to the mailing list about it shortly. --Camembert

I'm glad to hear you accept. :) --mav

Hi Mav, some more about Explorer not sizing the Periodic Table properly and also sometimes showing the menu and table on the same position: this weekend I used another PC, this time not high res. XP MSIE 6, but a low res. Win 98 MSIE 5.5. Same thing happened (I also saw it on another page some time ago on my work, that time Win 2000, MSIE 5.5)

I have made a screendump, see ScrPrint.gif. Even if it is an Explorer issue only, some 90% or more of the Wikipedians probably use Explorer, at least half of them 5.5 or higher.

Cheers, Erik Zachte

That looks horrid. But like I said a bug report needs to be filed. You might also want to let user:Bryan Derksen know. He is a bit of an HTML table guru around here and might be able to come-up with a temporary fix. Does this also happen with the other perio tables? How about with the ones that have been translated into other languages? --mav

Spanish table has same width issue, but no bleed. (As an aside: for chemistry fans, I added some very interesting external links to the Mendeleev article) Erik Zachte

Well, I see that I've already managed to get you to edit one of my articles (since comments go in the talk page). At least I added something to the article (quite a bit, actually) besides the comment, albeit while creating tons of stubs* that may or may not be filled in an irrational and unnecessary attempt to make sure the format of the original article stayed the same. I have to admit that I'm already addicted to Wikipedia. However, my addictions come and go. http://gamehippo.com takes up a bit too much time to allow other addictions to take hold...in most cases. I'll see.
Honestly, I doubt I'll read your talk page (or my own) for quite a while. As such, a response to this message is probably not worth your time.

Well, it turns out all those new topics I thought were in my edit were already in here. I should've guessed.

Yes Wikipedia is addicting. Welcome aboard - I hope you won't tire of the 'pedia (there is always something to do). --mav

I guess I lied about not seeing your response. Aguydude

Not a problem, mav. I enjoy doing the daily updates. -- Zoe

Hi Mav..I got a problem: I uploaded a photo onto the wikipedia image file or list and I need the photo for my article about Aeroflot. I need to know how to merge the photo into that article and also how to put the name of the owner near it. He gave me permission to use it, but requests that his name be near it.

Thanks and God bless!

Sincerely yours User:AntonioMartin

Image:283403.art doesn't appear to be in a web format image. I have no idea what program can read .art format. You need to find out what image program can read the .art format so that it can be converted into a .jpg. You might want to ask LDC about this (esp. the legal question). BTW, in the future please place comments on my talk page. I rarely check my user page for comments. :) --mav

Mav,

question. Someone apparently vandalized my user page (or rather expressed their opinion in a rather strong way) but there was no record of the change in the history of the page. Can you look into that? Christopher Mahan

I'm not mav, but I took a look. The history shows such a change made by RK with the comment "Just as example, here is an OPINION. And according to Chris, we can't disagree.". --Brion 19:18 Nov 7, 2002 (UTC)

I was just about to say the same thing. --mav

Yeah, Sorry, I got my placed crossed again... Christopher Mahan

You created List of famous football players from Famous football players but it seems that most of the list is missing, it only covers A-G where did the rest of the alphabet go?

That was not mav's fault, but an accident that seems to have happend to MrH in late September. If you find such an occasion again, look at the 'History' link at the bottom at the page, that will show you the old versions of the page. Re-add the material that was left out by copy-and-pasting from the newest version that still has it, and voila, problem solved. Andre Engels 11:17 Nov 8, 2002 (UTC)

Hi Mav, I tried my hand at the gazelle article using the WikiProject Tree of Life guidelines. These say to link everything in the table which is of level genus or higher. However, I have put in all the species with links as well, linking the common name, and putting the formal name in parentheses. Is that correct, or not? Thanks, Jeronimo

It looks good. I did reduce the with by using pipes. Also for same reason the WikiProject decided to show the latin but link to the common names (if they exist) when making links. Oh now I remember; the reason is that most life forms do not have common names. So the result is kinda odd tables for groups of animals who all have common names (such as gazelle). --mav

Thanks. Another question. I wanted to apply the "template" the elephantidae family, of which the common name is elephant; this is of course also the animal. What is the best approach here? I find the project page not entire clear on this point. Jeronimo

In this case regular naming conventions come into play; Place the table in the elephant article. Although on second thought this may be problematic when dealing with extinct taxonomic groups; The common name for the order Proboscidea is elephant. However there is only one living family of Proboscidea, the elephantidae. So placing the table into elephant, and redirecting Proboscidea and elephantidae to elephant will work for living elephants but I'm not sure if Mammoths or esp. Mastodon's are in the same family as modern elephants. We can deal with that later. --mav

--- Hey Mav, did you notice that this is the third time someone with an id. of 66.32.x has screwed with the Columbus page? I notice you reverted recently; I had to twice in the past couple of weeks. IF it is the same person who switches computers, I am not sure what can be done, but it is effectively vandalism and damn irritating. Can you think of any more systematic solutions to this problem? Slrubenstein

Its not just this week. Ive been watching 66.32 for awhile now. I believe it's somebody that already has an account trying to vandal anonymously. Lir 19:21 Nov 10, 2002 (UTC)

He's probably just switching IPs. I banned him/her this morning twice for vandalising Lir's comments in Talk repeatedly. This is indeed a difficult problem. Jeronimo

I've banned three IPs by 66.32.xxx.xxx for vandalizing the Columbus page and for mounting a campaign against Lir. If this keeps up our only option will be to contact the ISP and give the times of the attacks. The ISP should known which of their users was using any particular IP at any particular time. --mav

Why are you moving Margrethe to Margaret? Lir 21:20 Nov 10, 2002 (UTC)

Because that is where the page was before you moved it. --mav

But the article isn't about anybody named Margaret. It's about somebody named Margrethe. Obviously, you haven't even read the article. Lir 21:23 Nov 10, 2002 (UTC)

But I do know your MO. And that is enough to revert whatever move you make that even slightly appears wrong. --mav

Yes, Ive noticed your MO as well. Lir 21:31 Nov 10, 2002 (UTC)

Yeah. My MO is to work within the community's standards and to use the proper channels when trying to change them. Oh, and I also respect our rules even when I don't agree with them. --mav

Hi Mav,

you noticed my corrections for the elements. I have to disappoint you: I did not verify most of the figures. I've translated nearly all existing tables in Dutch by now, and I only corrected a few figures when they seemed illogical (percentages for abundance not adding up to 100% made me check, sometimes a ionisationpotential is the same in two lines, obviously copied and not edited, a few beta decays had clearly wrong products, I spotted a wrong group number but may have missed others.

So I caught a few errors, but many more are still there. From what I've seen I estimate that every table has about 2 to 5 errors.

Of course it is a huge undertaking, so errors are unavoidable. Cheers, Erik Zachte

Fair enough. Yes errors are unavoidable; it takes me 2 - 3 solid hours to finish just one element. A lot can go wrong in that time. :) --mav

mav, please block 216.99.216.121! -- Zoe 03:40 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

Never mind, Danny took care of it. Thanks. -- Zoe 03:42 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

Sorry about not seeing that earlier. --mav

Sorry about going over the top with the wikifying, I'm trying to do it right, honest! ;) I'll try and scale it down a bit, though some times wikifying long articles improves readability, as it draws your eye to the key concepts. Anyway, I'll do my best, though I may not alwaysd remember what I've wikified before! Smelialichu 10:44 Nov 11, 2002 (UTC)

No biggie at all. You are right about drawing the eye to key concepts but obviously redundant links are a distraction. --mav

whats wrong with the table mav Lir 06:15 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

It doesn't follow the quidelines set forth by Bryan's WikiProject at Solar system/Factsheet template. Your version is also way too wide. --mav

Then please make it less wide mav. I don't know how to do that. My version has more accurate information. Lir 06:20 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

Then propose your ideas for changes to Bryan's WikiProject and work with those members to improve the template. Then you can help update the info and layout of all the current tables to match the new template. --mav

BTW, mav, I want to apologize again for how about six months back I went and changed the formatting of the headers on your element factsheets without running the idea past you first. I was young and naïve back then. :) Bryan

No problem. In fact I eventually came around to your line of thinking and readded the wiki headings. --mav

why? the dude doesnt like having the box decreasing the amount of text on the page. either the box is on the left or right, doing just that, or it goes above or below. Lir 07:00 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

Having linear tables to the right of text is a well-established convention here. This also happens to be the format choosen by Bryan's WikiProject. Either respect that format, try to work with the members to change it or prepare to have your edits reverted to oblivion. --mav

WOULD YOU FUCKING EXPLAIN WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE GODDAMN TABLE? HOW THE FUCK CAN I COOPERATE WITH YOU PEOPLE WHEN YOU NEVER STATE WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS. Lir 07:05 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

Sigh. Bryan has already done so on the WikiProject's talk page. You still haven't answered his response. He also stated that he did integrate much of your new data. --mav

not into the table it isn't integrated. would you explain to me whats wrong with the current version of the table that I have in the talk page? Lir 07:13 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

The width looks nice and I can no longer object on that point. The other changes will have to be run past Bryan. --mav

But Bryans only complaint was on the width! Lir 07:18 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

Not true, I also had problems with the format. I mention some of them in the talk: page, but it's hard to keep up with the flurry of edits you were making. I'll look at it again in a few minutes to double-check. Bryan

And I'd just like to point out that basically, I've never, had an issue with someone modifying or adapting my text. It's only when I add new info that nobody disputes BUT GODDAMN FUCKING EVERYTHING GETS REVERTED because somebody doesn't like one minor point. Lir 07:30 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

Well obviously you are either pig headed or blind because Bryan and I already told you that he integrated much of your added info into the article. That is far from being a revert. How about you take a time out - and maybe you can grow up a bit while you sob in your corner. --mav

nothing you say has ever been in the least bit productive Lir 07:40 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

Oh I am hurt. That is also very ironic coming from you. Please use the preview function when editing pages - you are causing edit conflicts which prevent others from talking. --mav

Im trying to work on the table atm. It is seperate from the article. Lir 07:51 Nov 12, 2002 (UTC)

Dear Mav: Just wanted to command you on your bravery for putting your name on the page of Other Wikipedians. That really took some guts from you, brother.

Once again, you have all my respect.

Sincerely yours, AntonioMartin

Well thank you. But I am open about myself (even if I don't use my real name on my user page -- just visit the wikipedia mailing list archives to find that info). --mav

english hopper bridge? Lir 06:13 Nov 13, 2002 (UTC)

Your guess is as good as mine. This is the third subtle content vandal I have discovered this week. It is disturbing to think that vandals are quietly changing facts like dates, names and values. It almost makes me want to ban non-logged-in users. --mav

Aaah, thanks. I suppose Wikipedia doesn't hate me, though it does seem to love Lir and tells her all about the numerous people that have visited Talk:Social contract and probably sends her money whenever she wants and writes articles for her and does her laundry and gives her massages every day. Not that I'm bitter that this stupid site prefers stupid Lir over poor old Tokerboy. It's probably racist. Tokerboy 07:22 Nov 13, 2002 (UTC)

No we don't love Lir. And Lir is lying about being able to see the count. I for one definitely prefer you over Lir and as a matter of fact we are trying to figure out just what to do with anti-social users like Lir (She has already been banned once). --mav

I gotta wonder what mav's problem is. Funny how I should be banned cuz I'm able to see the count.

Why doesn't wikipedia host primary sources? Otherwise we are going to have to constantly check to see if links work. Lir 08:24 Nov 13, 2002 (UTC)

I'm not the one with the problem. Anyway, m:Project Sourceberg was an attempt to start a sister project that would host and wiki-link public domain primary source material. IMO such a sister project would be a great idea but I and others couldn't convince a developer to create such a thing. This stuff isn't OK at all for Wikipedia because it is world editable (we can change what historical people said) and it is POV (which is counter to our number 1 policy).We are also an encyclopedia (our number 2 most important policy) so we summarize human knowledge, we don't regurgitate it. --mav

And why can't we freeze such pages just like the main page? wikipedia is whatever we want it to be. Lir 09:06 Nov 13, 2002 (UTC)

Because then only Admins would be able to edit it to add new/updated links and commentary -- that is just not very wiki. That still leaves us with points 2 and 3. --mav

but mav-the idea of a primary source is that it shouldn't be edited. As for 2 and 3...those aren't exactly arguments since the question here is, "Why are those the case?" Why should we limit what we have here? Lir 09:25 Nov 13, 2002 (UTC)

Becasue we already have decided a very long time ago to have a clear focus. --mav

Sounds more like blinders to me. Lir 09:29 Nov 13, 2002 (UTC)

Call it what you want - it is the state of affairs. Good night. --mav

Mav, de alternative periodic table has three times group VIIIB. I suppose this is a typo, but want to check with you first. Erik Zachte 14:01 Nov 15, 2002 (UTC)

I'll have to look into this (I'm at work right now). FYI, I have never been able to fully wrap my brain around the odd alternate table (this was created a long time before I started the project). --mav

I got an answer on the Dutch wp. from a chemist. There are indeed three columns VIIIB for historical reasons (some metals were considered 'pure' like the noble gases, an idiosynchracy, one of the reasons to abandon this numbering system, which is only of historical interest). Erik Zachte 00:03 Nov 16, 2002 (UTC)

Something went wrong with the ionisation potentials of Yttrium, some entries are duplicated. I can't find your source so don't know what to do with it. Are there really only 7, not 10? Erik Zachte 22:44 Nov 15, 2002 (UTC)

Opps! Thanks for seeing that. I guess I shouldn't be making the tables at 2AM anymore. :/ In theory there is 39 ionization energies for Yttrium - one for each electron. The data source outlined in WikiProject Elements for this is WebElements. But I have yet to find out their selection criteria. They could be listing the most common / useful ionization energies or the only ones that have been measured (their data are from c. 1991) or they might have no particular logic on what they choose to list. This isn't an area of chemistry that I know much about so I really can't say just what criteria we should use when listing these. The result is that I usually now list all of them listed on WebElements - hopefully somebody can later devise a natural breaking point and then I will go through and delete the superfluous ionization energies (the selection could either be based on depleting shells or orbitals of electrons). --mav

Hi mav, could you give your opinion on Talk:Republic of Ireland please? Thanks. --Scipius 18:55 Nov 17, 2002 (UTC)

I did me best. Ireland is problematic because the republic and the Island have exactly the same name. I don't think strict adherence to the factbook short conventional form rule outweighs general disambiguation in this case. --mav

Howdy mav:

I just created a WikiProject for math; aka Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics. I'd love to see any input comments, etc. you might have. Cheers. Chas zzz brown 00:01 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Looks good to me. I left more feedback on the talk page. --mav

Obviously you arent aware of what the correct names are. Lir 06:45 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Obviously you have no concept or respect for our community standards and conventions. --mav

To be honest all references I've ever seen the them refer to them in the style she does. On the other hand a google search shows about 10k references to "Sputnik 1" verses about 8k references to "Sputnik I" perhaps it might be better to just settle on one style arbitrarily and redirect from the other style. On another note Talk:Star Wars *cough* *cough*. V

Sputniks 1 and 2 are kinda borderline and were not moved by Lir. I moved these to follow the same convention used by the higher number Sputniks. --mav

roman numerals should be used on these... russian names should be used for russian aerospace vehicles...Lir 06:53 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Read the naming conventions. --mav

Mav, who are you to say what is the commonly accepted name in use for an object? I hear Space Rocket I more than I hear Luna I and I hear Lunik I far more often.

Mav, I don't know how you have the patience, the sang froid. Why stop at Lunik? Should we not demand &#1051&#1091&#1085&#1081&#1082? Somewhere, your Karmic resources are accruing! -- Someone else 07:39 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Right. We needn't start down that road. That would only lead to en.wiki going to UTF 8 and allowing for native non-Latin fonts. Which would be madness. --mav

non-Latin fonts are the way to go... Lir 07:45 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Keep dreaming; that's not going to happen. --mav

Is that sarcasm? because I have been wanting to put some Japanese Glyphs in some of the articles eg Japan.

Can't unicode do that? IMO allowing for UTF 8 opens the flood gates to very badly named articles. --mav

That's cool, I was reading what you said as an outright ban on all non-asci glyphs, articles and names. Although can links include umlouts (sp?) etc It's fairly common for peoples names not to be Anglicized nowdays. --v

Yes, links can contain umlauts. As far as I know, the current policy is that the page title is not umlauted, and the umlauted page is a redirect. I would like to see that reversed, but am not enough interested to make a hassle about it. Andre Engels 12:09 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

I am enough interested. Lir 12:14 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

just go ahead and do it. people like mav can't stop progress. Lir 08:09 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

what are you talking about? stop vandalising my talk page. Lir 08:18 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

STOP vandalizing other people's words. You need professional help if the only way you get positive feedback from other human beings is by changing what the say about you. --mav

The disclaimer at the top of my talk page clearly states that I can edit whatever is there at will. Plz do not post to my talk page if you do not want me to edit what you have written. I have an email address and whatever you send there I will probably not edit. Lir 08:27 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

You can't take away people's right to not be misrepresented by some stupid disclaimer. The disclaimer is morally wrong if not illegal. --mav

My talk page represents nothing but my own fictional conversations with fictional people. Lir 08:33 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Then make up names that are very different than the nicks of the people leaving comments. --mav

There is no relation between characters in my fiction world and real people, living or dead. Said links exist only for comparison between my fictional person and a real person. Lir 08:36 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

It was a stub. Lir 08:53 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Nope. At best it was a micro-stub without even a single sentence. --mav

Microstubs are small stubs. Lir 08:56 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Definition does not equal name. --mav

How confused you are... Lir 09:02 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Hardly an argument. --mav

Nobody has left because of me. Stop being such a hatemonger. Lir 09:19 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Oh. I haven't seen Lee around much lately and Andre did leave for a couple of weeks because of you. Others have cut back their contributions. --mav

I don't even know who they are, they couldn't possibly have left because of me. You make it sound like people are going on strike because of me. How absurd. Lir 09:22 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Hm. Anti-social person not knowing the names of a string of people. Sounds consistent. Keep on being anti-social and you will be banned. BTW, Lee is the person who banned you, Andre is the person you were arguing on the naming convention talk page and Zoe is the person you have been pestering. Does that ring a bell? --mav

No mav. I have never spoken with Zoe or Lee and I have a right to argue with people on the naming convention. Maybe you'll get banned for harrassing me! Lir 09:28 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Yeah right. Nobody is talking about leaving because of me. See also: [1] and and [2]. You do have a right to argue about naming conventions but it is childish and rude to just go ahead and do things your way after being told by many people that you are wrong and working against community standards. Good night. --mav

Mav, just ignore Lir. If he wants to edit what people write on his user talk page, it's idiotic, but it's hardly illegal. --The Cunctator

Misrepresentation is wrong any way you cut it. Slander is part of a continuum of misrepresentation. --mav

Jimbo once banned a user who edited other people's talk: the mysterious "OsmosisTwo" vandal (IIRC), around autumn 2002. -- Tarquin 17:04 Nov 18, 2002 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. --mav

LDC also did that. I forgot whom, though. ... And where is Lee? I chased him off? Damn. --KQ

Dear Mav: Hi! Thanks for praising my airport and boxing articles! As you can see Im a big fan of boxing and of aviation. But I guess I didnt have to tell you, I make a good job at making it obvious...LOL!

Anyways, I really overjoy when I know something I wrote is helping someone to find out about my interests and I enjoy reading your inputs too. Ive discovered a world reading your articles and those of other people out there.

I set a goal for me here: four new articles a day...LOL my bones are suffering, but I love it!!

Well buddy, I just wanted to say thanks and hope to hear from you again soon! And God bless you!!

Sincerely yours, your friend,

AntonioMartin

Maveric,

I think we should make a policy:

no "forging" of talk messages

If anyone (like Lir for instance) attributes to another contributor words they didn't say (either by entirely making it up, or by "creatively" editing something they already said) -- then let's just quietly change it back. Or even just delete it.

If we were to allow "forging" it would destroy trust within the community. I think we should put our collective foot down on this one -- whether via Cunctator's SoftSecurity idea, or even *shudder* banning. I'm about ready to leave Wikipedia myself, what with one thing and another...

P.S. Thanks for your support last week on the Wikipedia-l list. I may have gone too far with the F.A. thing, but I was just trying to raise an issue. --Ed Poor

That seems like a reasonable policy to me. It should be added to the Wikipetiquette policy. Also, please don't go - at most just concentrate on Sifter as Larry has. By definition Sifter members are also Wikipedians because Wikipedia is where the final edits are made. No problem on the list support. --mav

Mav, do you have an e-mail address?

Yes I do Arno. You will have to log-in to use the "Email this user" link on my user page. --mav

Maveric - "complete lack of talent and beauty' is perfectly neutral since i prefaced it with 'some people'. I dont understand your need to change the article on Sarah Michelle Gellar. - and im geussing your another person who has been to Syracuse NY either. "very little content"? - well apparently their was enough to upset you and Zoe. You have just decided, as a God might, that negative comments are impossible in Wikipedia. I actually got my college degrees in areas far more suited to making jugments on cultural trends in society than you - hat makes your opinion infallible. Be honest here? Cultural persective on SM Gellar is not allowed? A negative comment about Syracuse is not allowed despite that fact that youve never even been there? I can see you searching for vandalism, but my comments were valid. I see from this page that you know Zoe .... a little bias?

user:tridessch

Have you read our NPOV policy yet? I already explained why the POV material was taken out and you can't negate POV by only adding "some people" esp for such a strong statement. There are many negative comments in Wikipedia but they are balanced by the various other sides of any particular issue and are attributed to their sources. Opinions can and do find there way here - but if they are not self-evident they need to be attributed to who said them. Even then you have to be careful not to give minority opinions majority time. Alas, I am not a god, yet at least. --mav

See User:Ram-Man

I noticed that it is unnecessarily difficult to find the Wikipedia articles on individual letters of the alphabet. Since they are listed as (for example) J (rather than Letter J) they cannot be searched for with the search function as it is not a 3-letter argument. Any good solution? --Dante Alighieri

Just edit the URL in your browser. For example change http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Maveric149 to http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/D . You can also check out Latin alphabet. --mav

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I know how to get there easily. What I meant was that someone who came to Wikipedia and said "Hey, I wonder if there is an entry on the letter J" would have a hard time finding it. --Dante Alighieri

Yup - they would have a hard time finding it if they used the search function. The software can't handle anything under two characters. It used to be three and I'm pretty sure they want to make it possible to search for just one but performance issues have to be solved first. --mav

Well, in that case, there's another issue. When you try to search for a single letter it tells you that you tried to search for a word that was less than three characters long. That should probably read two characters. Also, perhaps rather than defaulting to the bad search screen there could just be 26 simple, case-by-case redirects to the individual letter articles? --Dante Alighieri

Sounds like a good work a round. Go ahead and make a feature request. The "three" part needs to be changed anyway. --mav

On second thought redirects aren't needed. Just a list of links to the letter articels along with the search fail message. --mav

Hi mav,
I've got a couple of questions:

If a protected page needs to be editited, how is that done? See my comments about Genetics for an example.
I'm having a very difficult time finding information about how to work within Wikipedia. When I first came here, I read a bunch of the introduction pages, and I know that certain resources exist, but I forgot where they are I can never find them when I need them. The page protection issue is a case in point. Also, I have looked for the standard "disambiguation" and "stub" comments so that I can copy them word for word, and I have a terrible time finding them

adam

Genetics should not have been protected. An Admin probably did this on accident because "Watch this page" is on top of "Protect this page" for a sysop-enabled display. I've unprotected this for you. If you come across any article that is protected in the future and there is noting on the talk page to indicate why, just ask me or another Admin to unprotect it. We do, rarely, protect an actual article in order to stop Edit war or a single-minded vandal who is focusing their attack on one article. Other than that only non-article policy/convention pages and the Main Page are protected.
Wikipedia:Help has a lot of good links for you. If you need a boilerplate to copy the place to do that is Wikipedia:Boilerplates. Also, if you have a general question about the project or how to do something then either ask me, another Admin or better yet the Village pump (that way other people that may have the same questions would benefit from the responses as well - there is also a faster turn-a-round on responses since most if not all active Admins and most old hands watch that page).

I hope this helps. :-) --mav

Hi mav ! I ve left you a message on my talk page (I want to be an ambassador, if you agree) Youssefsan 03:32 Nov 30, 2002 (UTC)

Talk continued at user talk:maveric149/archive 7