Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Nikola Smolenski

User:Nikola Smolenski (5/14/7) Ends 15:08, 3 August 2004

I would like to nominate User:Nikola Smolenski for an admin. He has been the member of the Wikipedia since 18th May 2003, had impressive 3500 edits and wrote 150 new articles. He has uploaded couple of dozens of pictures. Nikola promoted Wikipedia project in Serbia and Bosnia and you can see his speech at IT convention in Bijeljina in 2003 here. He made couple of patches for MediaWiki. His edits are mostly about themes concerning Serbia and the Balkans. He was fighting vandalism strongly since the beginning. He is also administrator and bureaucrat on Serbian wiki, and is one of the best examples of the work from that encyclopedia. I think he deserved to become an admin long time ago, but it`s never too late. [[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 15:08, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Support

1. Support off course [[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 15:08, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
2. I will forgive for the edit war; he lives in Serbia! --Merovingian✍Talk 17:19, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

   I call this-common sense :). He was in edit war but about Serbian province. Of course he knew much more than other users.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 17:22, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

3. Everyking 20:50, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
4. Lst27 02:14, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
5. Of course not this time, but I suppose he might become a sysop. It's not a political office, and Nikola would be a good "garbage collector". Read comments for details. Dr Bug  (Volodymyr V. Medeiko) 22:30, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
6. Support --Oldadamml 12:54, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Oppose

1. Snowspinner 16:47, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC) Dori's comments below, combined with quality of judgment usually showed by nominator makes me exceedingly wary. Snowspinner 16:47, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)
2. Oppose, based solely on the fact that I don't like the nominator. (Avala should understand this one!) blankfaze | (беседа!) 16:48, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   I am really happy that you don`t like me. Miserable people don`t actually deserve my comments. I am happy to see that I did a right thing when voting against Snowspinner, because it`s nominator blankfaze seems to be the same problem as GeneralpPatton.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 16:58, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Pardon me, I'm really reaching to try to make sense out of this one... but you did change a vote from neutral to oppose because you didn't want to be on the same list as Patton. Never mind that, when you were voting neutral, you were already not on the same list as Patton. I think frustration and puzzlement at you is pretty fair. Snowspinner 17:12, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

   Sorry , but I said I will vote for you if you give up of his support. You told me he didn`t support you and then I saw his vote. All this made me vote against.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 17:15, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   I told you I didn't support his personal attacks against you. It's hardly my fault whether he supports me or not. Nor am I quite sure how to give up his support. It's his vote, not mine, and he's free to cast it wherever he pleases. Snowspinner 17:28, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

3. I am really not liking this situation. I'm sorry. Oppose. Mike H 16:54, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

   As I can see some users wanted that whole article should be referred to as Kosovo only not Kosovo and Metohija, also some claimed ,as I have seen, that Kosovo is not in Serbia. Of course Nikola had a reaction to thos wrong statements. He was maybe harsh, but I am sure that user from Serbia knows much more than a user from Colombia about Kosovo.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 16:58, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Possibly. Still, I'm opposing for now. Mike H 17:13, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

   Hope that you will realise and vote for him.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 17:33, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   If I do change my vote, I will do it in my own due time; I resent having people petition for my vote. It is my own. Mike H 17:40, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

4. He's made some good contributions, and I hope he continues to work as an editor. Unfortunately, I think his strong feelings on the topic of Kosovo may hurt his ability to use his admin priveleges wisely. moink 17:37, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
5. Oppose. Is this a joke? I have no confidence at all that this user would not misuse admin privileges. Ambivalenthysteria 19:38, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   I would be first to vote him desysoped but I can assure that that will never happen. He has the face we can trust to. :) [[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 20:02, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   It's not his face I'm worried about. It's his actions. IMHO, this is the most absurd nomination since User:Plato. Ambivalenthysteria 20:07, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   . Ambi did you go on IT coventions to hold speeches about Wikipedia? Ever? I think that such action of his shouldn`t worry you. Plus that Plato guy is not even similar with Nikola.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 20:21, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Not exactly an IT conference, but a meeting organized by a Serb library focusing on how to present the Serb "cause" online.--GeneralPatton 22:35, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Just as illustration of the extent of GP's lies, I have translated titles of all the works presented at the conference and attached it to the bottom. There are people here who are not Serbs but know Serbian and can confirm this. Nikola 08:05, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Nikola, I see you are name calling, once again, but as i've said, the list precisely shows that the event was about presenting the Serb view of things online. There is no need for you or Avala to be over-reacting like this. I presume you are Orthodox, so do you know what your Patriarch Pavle said the other day? *There ought to be more peace and tolerance*, you and Avala should take note to that and stop seeing me as some kind of an enemy just because im a Croat. To be an administrator you need to be less emotional, less biased and more cooler-headed. GeneralPatton 09:11, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   The whole Project Rastko thing is pretty much about presenting Serb view of Balkans History, and it*s ok, everyone has every right to their own opinion, and the right to spin or interpret stuff their own way, but here at wiki, we try to do it differently, we try to have a neutral point-of-view, not advocating any side. You are probably surprised to hear this from me, but I don*t think you are that bad of a contributor at all, some of your non-controversial stuff is really decent, it*s just that you tend to be biased and with an agenda. Now, that is not a problem when you are just a contributor, since other users will argue until the NPOV is reached, but it is definitely not good to have really biased administrator. That is why I personally would never accept being an admin, I am biased, I admit it, but so are you, and the truth is somewhere in between. You need to understand that and learn to accept other people*s opinion and agree to common consensus, and not just vilify and demonize everyone who doesn*t agree with you. GeneralPatton 09:21, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   GenralPatton are you sure you know what are you talking about? I mean you called me a cunt and reverted everything!!! How can you sat something like not just vilify and demonize everyone who doesn*t agree with you when you are doing that? Also how dare you to call for tolerance when you always call me :YOU SERB! I think that such calling shows that you have some problem with Serbian people, not me with Croatian. [[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 09:52, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Ahem ? I think this may be bothering to the non-initiated, but Rastko project is a mixture of valuable (say, 30%) presentation of Serbian culture and virulent lies expressed in obsolete books and articles, used in particular against Croats and Bosniaks (and Albanians). It falsifies general history of Bosnia, it lies about the standard languages Croatian and Serbian (e-books by infamous linguists like Branislav Brboric), it falsifies the demographics of Kosovo (for instance, it avoids the facz that in 1931. census Albanians constituted more than 60% of Kosovo populace), it propagates serbdom in: Montenegro, Bosnia and parts of Croatia like Dalmatia (not bad per se, but it falsifies everything by claiming the state of these lands were/are ethnically Serb); it gives false info on virtually all aspects of Croatian culture-from scripts to the architecture and tries to present them as parts of Serbian heritage (in Miroslav Pantic's disgraced articles); it intends, as a new project, to put on the Web a chauvinist-looney book by Sima Lukin Lazic (who claimed that Jesus was a Serb and half of Roman emperors; also, that Serbs waged the Trojan war). This site has not presented one text of any critical Serbian scholar that had dealt with examination of Serbian propagandist myths (for instance, Miodrag Popovic in the debate on Dubrovnik in 1967. that costed him academic position, Djura Danicic when he opposes classical Serbian linguistic nationalism, Dimitrije Tucovic, Svetozar Pribicevic in his autobiography, ...). We can only see a parade of old (Stanoje Stanojevic, Vasa Glusac,..) and new Serbian nationalist propaganda generally rejected by the world (Djordje Jankovic, Miroslav Pantic, certain picturesque Jeremija Mitirovic, Dusan Batakovic,..). So much for Rastko: good e-books by Serbian classical writers (Laza Lazarevic, Bora Stankovic, Petar Kocic,.., but overwhelmingly dated propaganda. Mir Harven 12:13, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   And, yes, that's what I had in mind: classic example of manipulation with figures. It boils down that Albanians were ca. 60% majority in Kosovo in 1921. and 1931. censa (despite efforts to cleanse them). However, the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Kosovo_and_Metohia gives false figure for 1921. and the muddle for 1931.- while even pro-Serbian propaganda page at http://www.agitprop.org.au/stopnato/19990922borba.htm was more "honest": "..Under the 1931 census, Serbs accounted for 151,000 of the province*s 552,000-strong population, while ethnic Albanians accounted for 332,000.". Now-if this isnt a distortion of the facts the nominee had administered- I dont know what it is ? Mir Harven 20:26, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

6. Most definitely not. RickK 20:34, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)
7. Hilarious.--Neutrality 21:40, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
8. User Nikola is a Serb nationalist hard-liner who along with his friends Avala and Igor is promoting a Serb radical POV through wiki. The nominator, user Avala has been a problem maker for a while Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Avala.--GeneralPatton 22:25, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   I don`t count your vote because you have been calling me cunt. Also I saw you were using ZDS Ustasha salutation which crosses every line of normal behavior. [[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 09:52, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Here you go again, slander, insults half-truths and distortions. Well, you say ZDS is fascist, but you know ZDS as an abbreviation means Zagorska Demokratska Stranka (Zagorje Democratic Party), a moderate, centrist, regional party in Croatia. see for yourself @ zds.hr

   One of your many lies. Of course ZDS is that party also but you admitted using that Za Dom Spremni. And there are no comments about attacks? [[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 16:41, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   GeneralPatton, please stop those blatant ad hominem attacks. Igor would pass as a something of a hard-liner, but to describe Nikola like that is by and large unfair, let alone Avala. --Shallot 22:13, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Shallot, as Mir Harven has just shown, Nikola's agenda tends to be on the far fringe of the Serbian extremism. Some of his manipulations of facts are highly offensive to the Croats, Bosniaks and the Albanians, others are just an insult to the Wikipedia*s NPOV policy. But I do agree that Avala is far less radical, he doesn't spin the facts as much, but as others can attest, he*s having major problems communicating. Personally, I*d rather have Avala as an administrator than Nikola.--GeneralPatton 22:41, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

   Hmmm....I dislike this personality dissection, but a few things got to be stressed. I dont think that anyone should have the definite say- anytimes-if they entertain following notions, as NS has shown innumerable times. It's not nuances, but completely unacceptable Serbian chauvinist junk (pardon my French). He advocates/d:

• that Serbs were essentially expelled from Kosovo during Tito rule and that Albanians succeeded to become majority in Kosovo province only after WW2. Lie. Albanians were the majority (ca. 60%) in Kosovo in the entire 20th century (as all censa had shown), and were subject to massacres during Balkan wars (Trotsky himself was a witness) and persecution during Royal Yugoslavia when Serbian settlers were intentionally settled on disposessed Albanian ex-properties. See for instance Cubrilovic and Andric plan for "making Kosovo Serb again".

• that Dubrovnik is "essentially" Serbian city and that only "Croatian nationalists" (and not the entire populace, Croatian authorities and the UN) opposed Serbian JNA's siege in 1992.+

• that Croatian language is a "stolen Serbian" (an opinion prevalent among only most extremist and most ignorant Serbian linguists-to their intellectual and professional detriment)

• that major part of Croatian culture is "essentially" Serbian (or Italian, in Dalmatia). Again, a mixture of chauvinism and ignorance about history, art history and general culture development

• that ca. 600,000 Serbs were murdered in Jasenovac concentration camp, while virtually all realistic estimates are bracketed between 50,000 and 85,000 of *all* victims (Serbs, Croats, Jews, Romany). The motive ? Bigger Serbian death toll, bigger Serbia in future as a sort of emotional-territorial compensation. Morbid ? Yes. That's the Greater Serbia mindset.

• that Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) are Islamized Serbs (false-he's ignorant of the complex process of islamization) and somehow "ethnic traitors". Srebrenica number of victims is inflated. Serbs did not start the war in Bosnia (although they got 99.999999999% of the artillery, ammo, tanks and everything back in 1992.)

• Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Croatia in Operation Storm. Never mind they fled, never mind that they cleansed 400.000 Croats in 1991., supported by JNA and Serbia proper. Never mind that negotiations were held to persuade to stay. They fled-like French from Algeria or Portuguese from Mocambique.

• Nikola Smolenski's expertise in history, historical linguistics and dialectology, history of art, history of literature, history of culture (architecture, paleography, ethnology, relevant historical sources and their status re credibility) is very, very meagre, and even such as is-it is completely selective and geared upon the achievement of the goal of spreading the propaganda for the Greater Serbia myths. It boils down to that Bosnia and Herzegovina and at least 70% of Croatia are, "essentially", Serbian and all Bosniaks and the majority (say, 70%) of Croats are, essentially, "Serbs"- the first category islamized, the 2nd catholicized.

Therefore- this nominee (the correct word ?) is, I guess, beyond remedy. Only complete change in attitude could make him acceptable. As it is now, the web of distortions, fabrications, illusions, ..is too much to stomach. Mir Harven 18:41, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

1. What is really worrying is that this nomination seems to be a part of some deal between Avala and Nikola based on their discussions on serb wikipedia [1] it seems Avala got to be an administrator on Serb wiki but in return he apparently had to nominate Nikola on the English wiki. Nikola suggested the text of the nomination on the talk and then approved it on a separate page[2] [3] GeneralPatton 12:01, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

2. Jerzy(t) 23:34, 2004 Jul 27 (UTC) Oppose, based on general recollection of past behavior, opinions of others with more specific recollections, and tone of the campaign for him.
3. Oppose. This nomination is dumb, too. Cribcage 02:35, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
4. Opposed. Apart from being a Serbian nationalist (IMO, not a disqualification per se), Mr. Smolenski doesnt bother to explicate his views which are Serbocentric to the extreme. Thanks to his "contributions" (not only his), the articles on Kosovo, Greater Serbia, various histories of neighboring countries....are distorted and very flawed in the passages where his handiwork can be detected. So, what could we get with him ? Serbian POV on ramapage. Censorship in favor of Serbian nationalist agenda, and enmity towards Bosniaks, Croats and Albanians as such. Not to mention that SYSOP should (I may be wrong) have a broader view on things, more general knowledge and interests- and, the vital point: more tolerance towards opposing views. No, it wouldnt be a good choice. Mir Harven 11:45, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
5. Gentgeen 17:11, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)
6. Rmhermen 19:27, Jul 28, 2004 (UTC) Not at this time.
7. Oppose because of a history of confrontational editing. I completely agree with Shallot's comment below. Zocky 00:05, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Neutral

1. Dori | Talk 16:39, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC) (Close to oppose, see comments below)
2. Acegikmo1 16:50, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC). I am going to look into what Dori says below. I may change my vote after that.
3. Jwrosenzweig 16:53, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC) He seems to have done many good things here, but his behavior at Talk:Kosovo was borderline -- certainly it was far more polite than behavior I've seen elsewhere around here, but it wasn't exactly productive. The clincher for me is that Nikola said if the vote concerning naming conventions at Kosovo went against him, he'd just mark all affected pages with a factual dispute marker -- strikes me as a bit too petulant a response, and one that indicates he still work to do in terms of respecting consensus (a key part of being an admin). I am, however, open-minded, and interested to see other reactions -- perhaps I haven't seen enough of Nikola's work recently.
4. I'm sorry, but I'd rather stay neutral for now.Ilyanep (Talk) 15:41, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
5. Chris 73 | Talk 00:44, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC) (See comments below)
6. 172 01:06, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC) At root of Nikola Smolenski's conflicts seems to be a Serb nationalist POV (not bad quality of judgment), which naturally makes him the odd man out in a site dominated by Westerners. Many admins also edit from a strong POV (often from a strong nationalist POV-- I can name names but I won't); the only difference is that their nationality is a bit more prevalent on Wikipedia, and their POV a bit more accepted.
7. Shallot 09:40, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC). Like Dori, close to oppose, see comments below.
8. Kim Bruning 16:47, 29 Jul 2004 (UTC) Needs a little more practice wrt using his own POV to his advantage. Might change to support in a couple of months if Nikola manages to get the hang of it.

Comments

I would be in the oppose, except that I have personally had some arguments with Nikola. He is a very POV editor. The evidence rests in many pages regarding the Balkans. The most egregious and non-admin-like act that I have seen from him involved him removing my announcements for a vote on the village pump, the RfC page, and the talk page of the article (Kosovo). This was done several times, and he was reverted by a couple of people. He then proceeded to ignore the result of the vote which he claimed was invalid. I can dig for the diffs if someone really feels the need to check for him/herself. Dori | Talk 16:19, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

I don`t know about that article, but maybe you were wrong. Also I have seen myself some situations where the vote is invalid(when voters are not from neutral side).Anyways it is nothing to compare with his great contributions and how well he worked to promote Wikipedia.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 16:28, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The vote was perfectly valid, well advertised (despite his efforts to cover it up), and voted on by uninvolved users as well. Also, Nikola spends a good deal of time just reverting articles to his POV version. I don't consider him good admin material (or editor for that matter when it comes to certain kinds of articles). Though I won't deny his committment to the Wikipedia project. Dori | Talk 16:31, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

I am not sure, but it is good that he has own POV and it is not a bad thing if it differs from yours. [[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 16:37, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Please do not remove other people's votes. Dori | Talk 16:39, Jul 27, 2004 (UTC)

I thought that this was only a comment. Sorry. Avala 16:47, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I will answer to this, when I have more time. Nikola 08:16, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

About Kosovo problem: Nikola was the part of edit war in that article. He is the user from Serbia, and I can say that his knowledge about Kosovo. Some users which argued didn`t see any difference between names Kosovo(short unofficial name), Kosova (local Albanian short name), Kosovo and Metohija. Many other users thought that he was pushing some weird POV but actually he was posting the right info. He was harsh though. As Wikipedia needs complete information, not just easier to write one, he wanted the name K&M to be used. Also some user disputed what is Kosovo and compared Kosovo and Metohija term with Kosova Republic term. First one is officialy used and the second one is proclaimed by separratists. After all I think that dispute is over and that we should all give him a support for his great contributions.[[User:Avala|Avala|★]] 17:10, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Me being also part of the Kosovo edit war, I would like to add some comments. I got involved when User:Dori dropped a note on the VP about a vote. After checking, I found that Nikola removed the vote three times ([4], [5], [6]), and unilaterally declared the vote invalid. A move of the page to Kosovo following the vote was reverted two (three?) times by Nikola. He also removed a Wikipedia:Requests for comment three times ([7], [8], [9]) I believe these actions go against proper Administrator behavior.

On his good side, however, I would like to point out that in the following naming dispute he used proper channels, requesting page protections, and listing me (correctly, i have to admit) on Wikipedia:Requests for comment for using admin rollback to revert pages in the edit war ([10]). To my knowledge he did not repeat such blunders as above. Also, I would like to point out that during the entire controversy he always used a polite and proper tone. The worst he called me was anti-serb, after I called him pro-serb. Nevertheless, I have my doubts about Nikola being an administrator. (Vote Neutral above) Chris 73 | Talk 00:44, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Nikola has been making worthy contributions all over the place, and yet he has also been involved in notable problem spots. In the controversial items that I've observed, most recent examples being Bokelji and Greater Serbia, he has held a position directly opposed to User:GeneralPatton and User:Mir Harven, which is certainly useful for the dialectic nature of Wikipedia editing. However, this has since evolved into slow edit wars which are rather pointless, and he has not been eager to discuss various things in Talk, even less eager than Mir Harven (who generally gets dissed much more because of his emotional writing). I'm not particularly afraid that Nikola would abuse his sysop rights, because Wikipedia likely already has decent mechanisms to deal with such things and he would know better than to cross the line. But I am concerned whether it is a good idea to award people with privileges when they haven't shown a particular ability to handle emotional editing situations. We lowly Wikipedians should be able to rely on admins to be able to handle conflicts gracefully and use their elevated rights for the greater good. In this case, I don't think I could stop myself from second-guessing Nikola's decisions. Sorry! --Shallot 09:40, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Indeed, Nikola is still engaged in some perpetual edit wars, just look at Greater Serbia and Bokeljs, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He refuses to compromise and find middle ground, and just reverts everything opposing his "agenda" without any serious discussion or sufficient fact based explanation. It’s like he’s working based on hard-line Serb nationalist Talking Points made by Dobrica Cosic.

I'm worried by the fact that the discussion looks like we decide whether or not to grant Nikola some political power. Sysops don't have a power, but have a technical ability to collect garbage with a bit less efforts. It's hard to abuse "sysop powers" - desysop'ing would be imminent and prompt, not to mention that sysop don't have any ability to make something really awful. I don't see real risks.

On the other hand, considering that Nikola has a bit special area of knowledge, he could recognise some vandalism, trolling, or simple disinformation that no other sysops see. He is very attentive to what he considers to be duty. Therefore, opposing him we just abandon an option to make Wikipedia a bit better.

However, of course, it's just my oppinion. I see and understand why some other wikipedians afraid that Nikola could be a troublesome sysop.

I don't have illusions, the nomination will definitely fail this time. He is maybe just a bit too young. Dr Bug  (Volodymyr V. Medeiko) 22:30, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Questions for the candidate'

A few generic questions to provide guidance for voters, if you care to respond:

1. Have you read the section on Administrators?

A. Now, yes :)

2. Are you interested in, and do you think you'll have some time to perform, the chores that only sysops have access to do, to help keep Wikipedia up to date?

A. I am interested, though I have to say that I am not sure that I won't get bored later ;) My time varies; sometime, I could devote 8 hours per day, and sometime, I might be absent for weeks.

3. If you become a sysop, which sysop chore or chores (WP:VFD, recent changes, watching for vandals and vandalism, responding to editor requests for assistance, any other) do you especially think you would be able to help with.

A. I think, VFD; I think that I could help about identifying foreign topics and their notability, and maybe RC; currently, I'm not following RC oftenly, but it might be interesting for me.

4. In your opinion, what article have you contributed the most succesfully and helpfully to?

A. I think that my best contributions are new articles; I'd like to single out Book of Veles, subject relatively unknown in English world (when you google for it eight of ten hits on the first page are Wikipedia and its clones) and controversial, but I think presented in a NPOV manner and containing AFAIK the only translations of the book's text to English; Serbs, probably the most complete article on an ethnic group; and the short but sweet Ya; outside of the main namespace, Template:Europe and Wikipedia:Language recognition chart. But an already existing article to which I have contributed the best to would probably be Racak incident which seems to be the only non-disputed article about the whole Kosovo conflict; I'm sorry that I don't have time and nerves to contribute in the same way to other articles. I'd also like to mention User:Nikola Smolenski/Cyrillic tables, which is/will be a contribution to a lot of articles.

5. In your opinion, what has your best contribution to the running and maintenance of Wikipedia been? (i.e., have you reverted a bad stretch of vandalism, done extensive work categorizing articles, helped mediate a dispute?)

A. I have reverted vandalism, but I can't recall of reverting a stretch of vandalism which was non-nationalist based. Few times I reverted a vandalism that was long-unnoticed. Maybe it could be said that my best contribution could be several removals of copyvio inserted to an article after its creation[11]; it seems that most of the time only copyvio at the creation of articles is noticed.

6. Of your Wikipedia edits and experiences thus far, what is your biggest regret? What do you wish you'd done differently?

A. I would surely fight Dori's vote in a smarter way.

Thanks and good luck! -- Cecropia | Talk 05:21, 28 Jul 2004 (UTC)

---

List of works at the Bijeljina IT convention[12]:

1st part

• Zoran Stefanovic: Values and limitations of Cyrillic in globalisation, on the example of Yugoslavian Internet
• Dr Stanislav Polic: Open Source and Cyrillic
• Marjan Conic: Serbian Orthodox Church on the Internet and localisation of programs
• Milorad Simic, institute for Serbian language of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts: Programming package RAS [spelling checker for Serbian]
• Nikola Smolenski: Program "Vucko" by Aleksandar Veselinovic - transliterator of HTML pages from Latin to Cyrillic
• Presentation of electronic catalogua and site of the national and university library of RS from Banjaluka
• Evelina Haca, Dusan-Vladislav Pazdjerski University of Gdansk, Poland: Serbian cyrillic on the Gdansk university
• Alaksandar Rakovic: Official state sites and Cyrillic
• Ljubisa Radovanovic: Overview of translated Windows programs
• Dusanka Novakovic and Olivera Mazibrada: Multimedia publication "Bijeljina"

2nd part

• Dragoljub Zbiljic: Activity of Society for protection of Cyrillic and Serbian language in last two years
• Dragoljub Zbiljic: Serbian language and script after Vuk
• Dragoljub Zbiljic: Short today's view of Serbian language and script
• Dragoljub Zbiljic: (Un)solved question of Serbian script in Serbian ortography
• Prof. Dr Nedeljko Bogdanovic, Faculty of Philosophy, Nis: From work of the Board for standardisation of Serbian language
• Mirko Gasovic: Proposal for a law of free access to information of public importance
• Mr Milan Secujski, Prof. Dr Vlado Delic, Darko Pekar and Radovan Obradovic, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad: Automatic reading of texts on both scripts of Serbian language. Automatic speech synthesis based on text.
• Aleksandra Turanjanin, Dr Srbislav Bukumirovic, Dragan Turanjanin: Some questions and problems of Old Slavic and modern Cyrillic in multimedia publications
• Nikola Smolenski: Wikipedia in Serbian language and Cyrillic
• Nikola Smolenski: Method for searching and editing of Cyrillic texts in solutions which don't support Cyrillic
• Nikola Smolenski: Program Cyr-Lat for transliteration of Cyrillic texts in Latin [This is actually a wrong title]
• Milutin Atanackovic: Multimedia publications of monasteries of eparchy of Ras and Prizren on Cyrillic

Dejan Skrebic: Presentation of Cyrillic translations of known programs

3rd part

• Ljubisa V. Jovanovic, prof.: Question of the script of Serbian language at the beginning of the third millenium
• Jelena Grmusa, Mathematical faculty, Belgrade: Use of Cyrillic script in the world of global communications
• Nenad Vuckovic, Dragan Turanjanin, Aleksandra Turanjanin: Multimedia chess primer on Serbian language and Cyrillic
• Dr Milos Malis, assistent on the Faculty of Medicine, Belgrade: First Serbian edition of "Atlas of human anatomy: 3D osteology"