User talk:Michael Hardy

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Hello, Michael Hardy. You have new messages at L'Aquatique's talk page.
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[edit] Career Entry

Hello M Hardy. I saw that you contributed to the "Career" entry and I am interested in printing the article (or a similar article) for reference/background in a student publication. I am hoping you can guide me to it in its original state. (You are the earliest contributor with whom I have the option of Talking.) If you wrote it, or know where it exists outside of Wikipedia, I would be much obliged.

Best, Voorhees EliVoorhees (talk) 02:09, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Archive of Fourier transform Talk page

Hi, the Fourier transform Talk page is now rather long and I believe that at least the content related to discussions up to 2005 (possibly also 2006) could be moved to an archive subpage. I dont't know if this is an admin-task or can be done by non-admins. Any advice? --KYN 17:42, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

You don't need to be an administrator to do that. Maybe I'll do it if no one beats me to it.... Michael Hardy 01:16, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

In that case I'll make a try for it, and have already posted an announcement on the talk page. Thanks. --KYN 15:23, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Henry Balfour Gardiner

Hello, and thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia! I noticed that you recently added commentary to an article, Henry Balfour Gardiner. While Wikipedia welcomes editors' opinions on an article and how it could be changed, these comments are more appropriate for the article's accompanying talk page. If you post your comments there, other editors working on the same article will notice and respond to them and your comments will not disrupt the flow of the article. Thank you. – Zedla 00:31, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

My comment was commented out so that readers of the article would not see it, and it was located EXACTLY where those working on the article could best make use of it. Michael Hardy 00:34, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-gravity

Michael Busch has requested a straw poll of Anti-gravity. You may want to add your comments. Tcisco 01:16, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Page move requested for rope length --> ropelength

Hi I have a new account and cannot move pages yet (also it was moved once before). I noticed you edited the article and appear to be an admin. Please see my reasoning and data on Talk:Rope_length which you can verify for yourself. "Ropelength" is just much more common as a knot-theoretic term than "rope length". Thanks. --Horoball 02:08, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Meetup in Minneapolis

[edit] Impressive

Just thought I'd mention my amazement when I came across your name on the wikidragon page, and tracked you a bit. You seem to be one of the few remaining legendary wikidragons. This is my primitive version of a big fat smiley face graphic on your page, beacause I don't know how to make one of those.

Zantaggerung 03:43, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Nevermind! I just learned how!

Zantaggerung has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing!
Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Zantaggerung 03:45, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. I didn't know I was listed there. Michael Hardy 02:33, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

I did not see that μ was the mean of the log in log-normal distribution. Acct4 16:58, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How NOT to fix a double redirect

#REDIRECT[[estimation lemma]]

If [[ML inequality]] ever becomes an article rather than a redirect, then this page should be changed to redirect to that.

The redirect page titled ML Inequality currently reads as above. To change the second link to "estimation lemma" makes no sense at all. Please don't do that. Michael Hardy 17:13, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The bot processed the list at Special:DoubleRedirects.

Any link1 → link2 → link3 will become link1 → link3

This is the recommended action as per WP:2R

I am uncertain what exactly the problem is. Consider using {{softredirect}}

-- Cat ^chi? 18:51, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I've never seen a clearer case of unwillingness to understand. Please look at what the page says. Look at the profoundly stupid form in which your bot left the page. Look at my edit that fixed the problem. My edit is consistent with the policies you cite, so you should have no objection to it on those grounds. On the other hand your edit obviously defeats a purpose that helps Wikipedia. "Softredirect" is for a different purpose. Michael Hardy 23:13, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

My bot processes data as it appears on Special:DoubleRedirects. Anything beyond that is not my problem. If there is something wrong with Mediawiki's Special:DoubleRedirects page, that is a bug with Mediawiki, not my bot.

From what I can see the bot is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. You are creating a self redirect chain by linking to a redirect page (from a redirect page) and hence cluttering Special:DoubleRedirects.

What is the purpose of linking to ML inequality on ML Inequality (mind the case difference).

-- Cat ^chi? 23:17, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I disbelieve your statement that your bot's absurd edit is required by that page. Damage done by your bot IS your problem. Why do you ask what the purpose is? The purpose is obvious. Don't come to me citing policies that say different things from what you claim they say. I have no problem with fixing double redirects; if that's ALL your bot did I'd have no problem with it. But it did something else. Michael Hardy 23:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Look closely. you are/were linking to a redirect from a redirect. That is a double rediretc as far as mediawiki is concerned. You should not be having wiki-links on a redirect aside from the actual redirect link. Use an html link if you must - or just create a stub. Please stop fighting mediawiki. -- Cat ^chi? 00:09, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not fighting mediawiki; you're fighting common sense. You say "That is a double redirect as far as mediawiki is concerned". That defies common sense. Policies exist for a reason.

And if you're against even that kind of so-called "double redirect", why didn't you just remove the link, so the words would appear there with no link, instead of replacing it with something absurd and incomprehensible? Michael Hardy 03:12, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Take it to ANB/I. I have nothing to add here. With the amount of words you have told me you could have simply started a stub. -- Cat ^chi? 13:41, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

This would be quite simple to fix by simply telling the bot not to edit the page that is the redirect in question. Instead, it can remove the square brackets that make a link. I tend to agree with Michael that the bot's edits in this case defy common sense; they are just the result of your bot's loigc not handling this case in a reasonable manner. — Carl (CBM Â· talk) 14:54, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Simplistically usage of a template solves the problem: [1]. Why is it so hard to do that? -- Cat ^chi? 15:12, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] template:Redirect future article

I hope this template meets your needs. Had I understood the exact problem sooner I would have offered this solution sooner. Does this completely meet your needs?

Also it may perhaps be better to tag the redirects talk page. This is merely a thought.

The key problem is, it takes a lot of resources (time wise) for bots to process a lot of text on redirect pages. Even in their bald form 200 redirects can take a good 2-4 hours to process especially when wikipedia is slow. If there is extra text on redirect pages, that is an extra strain on bots. A handful of redirects wouldn't have an impact but if "lots of pages" contain extra text thats lots of extra strain. With this I was merely expressing my standpoint.

-- Cat ^chi? 18:12, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Comment requested

Hi there, you might be interested in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Human chemistry. Comments are welcome. Tim Vickers 20:25, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] G. Whitehead

Thanks! I was beginning to wonder how long it would take someone to get the hint. R.e.b. 04:14, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] George W. Whitehead

The article was created at 23:11 October 8 2007, and the hangon tag was added at 23:32. I deleted the article at 23:46, because it was only a one-liner (easily a CSD A1) and I thought (incorrectly, apparently) that there was not an assertion of notability. I'm sure if this was not your area of expertise, you might have made the same judgment call. Nishkid64 (talk) 11:53, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Also, if the user places a hangon tag on an article, then it is their responsibility to actually provide their reasons for keeping the article on the article talk page. I would think 15+ minutes is enough to make this assertion if this subject is clearly notable. Nishkid64 (talk) 11:55, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

By the way, I did restore the backlink here, so I did recognize the possible notability of the subject. Nishkid64 (talk) 15:35, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Easly a CSD A1? No context? How is saying so-and-so is a mathematician who invented J-homomorphism, no context? Would you also CSD A1 an article that consisted of "so-and-so is a baseball pitcher who pitched a no-hitter"? There is just as much context there. In both cases there is a claim that a professional of a certain type did something worth having a Wikipedia article about. If you make a mistake deleting fine, but what is worrisome is that you don't seem to realize you made a mistake out of ignorance. Instead you seem to have the attitude that it's something that clearly would be deleted. You also say there was no "assertion of notability". What CSD criterion is that? A7? Nope, that explicitly says not about notability. I think it would be wise to carefully read over the criteria and actually apply them strictly. Don't just make up a reason to justify some feeling that an article should be deleted. --Horoball 17:55, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

The problem is you should judge an article to lack an assertion of notability only if you KNOW there is none, not simply if you don't understand it. Michael Hardy 17:22, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I think you're being too hard on the deleting admin here. A7 is about whether it is clear just from reading the article that the person is notable. We can't assume the deleting admin will know which parts of advanced mathematics are important and which are not, or to research the subject of the article to decide whether it asserts importance. It's not really a burden to start each article with four or five sentences that clearly explain why the person deserves an article. — Carl (CBM Â· talk) 17:51, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

No, A7 is not about notability. Please read the criterion again, where it explicitly says it's not about notability. Besides, Nishkid64's reasoning is A1 not A7. I would like to see some consistency in the reasoning given by people supporting the speedy deletion. --Horoball 17:55, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm quite familiar with the CSD criteria, and the way that they are applied in practice. I think you are misreading my comment above. If an article can be deleted under two different CSD criteria, that's a stronger argument for improving it. — Carl (CBM Â· talk) 18:22, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Any time you read an article on a subject with which you are not familiar, you may fail to understand why it's notable, no matter how well explained it is. That's not enough reason to conclude it doesn't assert notability. Michael Hardy 17:58, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree that some people won't see an assertion of notability even in a 1000 word article, and we can point out that they are being stubborn. But a one-sentence article that only states that a person conducted research using jargon that I don't recognize, without explaining why this is important, is a different matter than a 1000 word article. As a mathematician, I am likely to be more patient with jargon than the average admin.

In practice, to avoid deletion, the text of a new article needs to clearly point out that the subject is important in a way that an average admin can clearly understand. I realize that there was a time when one-sentence stubs were normal, and even encouraged. But that's is no longer the case. My interpretation is that the encyclopedia is at a point where the need to create new articles is not as strong as before, and the requirements on new articles have increased accordingly. — Carl (CBM Â· talk) 18:22, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I used A1 as a backup claim. Apparently, Michael Hardy says A7 shouldn't apply, so I reaffirmed my position with CSD A1. I admit A7 was a mistaken rationale for deletion. The article has been restored. All is fine. Michael, stop badgering me on this deletion or other deletions. Nishkid64 (talk) 19:39, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I do not think Nishkid64 is mature enough to have the priviledge to speedily delete articles. The article creator has made a valuable contribution to Wikipedia. Rather than waiting and seeing what comes out of it, Nishkid64 "would think 15+ minutes is enough to make this assertion if this subject is clearly notable". And what harm would be inflicted if it were 24 hours, and not 15 minutes? For example, for me personally, almost any significant edit takes at least one hour. This comment itself reveals that Nishkid64 is more interested in asserting his ego, by abuse of authority, if necessary, than in maintaining high standards of articles on Wikipedia, which should have been his motivation. Additionally, making up reasons to back up one's past actions contravenes the process where there are clear criteria under which the decision has been based. You can't go down the list of possible explanations saying "Ok, someone didn't like X for the reason, then let me quote Y, Z, and W instead to reaffirm my position". Rather than "reaffirming a positon", it is "reaffirming the absence of a position as well as the relativity of the judgement". Not a good trait for someone entrusted with making unilateral decisions whose soundness is unreviewable by anyone save a minority of editors.

By Wikipedia's rules, if someone, anyone, decides to put a speedy deletion tag on it, whether good-heartedly or out of malice, the author should not remove it, all he can do is to put a "hangon" tag. In the case at hand, the author not only put the hangon tag, he also posted a note on the math project page to alert other people with the knowledge of the subject (anyone other than the author is allowed to remove the speedy deletion tag). Clearly, the intention is not to punish people for creating articles, it is to filter out inappropriate content. How do you determine that the content is appropriate? Here are a couple of quotes from the official policy "Criteria for speedy deletions" (with emphasis added):

Where reasonable doubt exists, discussion using another method under the deletion policy should occur instead.

Before nominating an article for speedy deletion, consider whether it could be improved or reduced to a stub; if so, speedy deletion is probably inappropriate. Contributors sometimes create articles over several edits, so try to avoid deleting a page too soon after its creation if it appears incomplete. Users nominating a page for speedy deletion should specify which criteria the page meets, and consider notifying the page's creator.

Very short articles. Short articles with sufficient content and context to qualify as stubs may not be speedily deleted under criteria A1 and A3; other criteria may still apply.

Thus, in case of doubt the prudent thing to do seems to leave it alone and wait for the author's or an expert reaction first. And having made a mistake, one should admit to it gracefully. Arcfrk 18:45, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

And one shouldn't be attacking the deleting admin who admitted earlier to having made a mistaken call on the CSD A7. Nishkid64 (talk) 20:40, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

And a request: will people just drop the matter already? The article has been restored. There's nothing more to see. Nishkid64 (talk) 20:43, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] George Whitehead

Thank you very much for your note. I have changed the link accordingly. If you come across any other links on my page which need fixing on my sandbox, please feel free to do so.

I do occasionally check a certain number of the bluelinks to articles for which I know I'm not responsible, but I hadn't gotten around to checking this link as yet. When I focus more on article creation than I am currently doing, I shall make sure to double-check links. Bobo. 18:20, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Derrick Gardner" article deletion

It meets WP:CSD#G12. The entire text (all except the last line) is taken from CD Baby. That is grounds for speedy deletion. If the user who created this article (and a number of other articles that were deleted as copyright infringement and/or have notability issues) wants to recreate the article, then he/she may do so. Nishkid64 (talk) 19:36, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Also, did you happen to see the article's history? Hangon tag was added 15:03, I deleted at 15:57. Adding a hangon tag does not mean administrators have to sit around until the author argues his case on the talk page. The article can be deleted if it's clear the article meets speedy deletion criteria, regardless of whatever persuasion the author can muster up. Nishkid64 (talk) 19:43, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Even if it is grounds for speedy deletion, it is still no reason to say that it "unquestionably" violates copyright. The word "unquestionably" was used. That is nonsense. You can't conclude that under those circumstances. Michael Hardy 22:34, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

I didn't say that. That's what the policy says for CSD G12. Nishkid64 (talk) 23:28, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

If you think it needs to be changed, then go ahead and change WP:CSD or discuss it on the talk page. Nishkid64 (talk) 23:29, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] AfD nomination of List of Jewish American fashion designers

An article that you have been involved in editing, List of Jewish American fashion designers, has been listed for deletion. If you are interested in the deletion discussion, please participate by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of Jewish American fashion designers. Thank you. Stifle (talk) 21:00, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] CSD

I was not aware of the prior post when I wrote that. -- But|seriously|folks  03:45, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quantum logic

Could you help me figure out what happened to the revision history of the quantum logic article? In the recent renames, it got obliterated. I also sent John Baez a note. The original rename is probably where the disappearance occurred. Thanks. --CSTAR 15:44, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

OK I resolved the problem.--CSTAR 20:47, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merger proposed: Missouri Collegiate Mathematics Competition → Mathematical Association of America

It has been proposed to merge the content of Missouri Collegiate Mathematics Competition into Mathematical Association of America. Since you have previously edited one of these articles, I thought you might be interested. You're welcome to participate in the discussion if you like. --B. Wolterding 16:19, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Comment

"It is certainly not true that I have ridiculed this user nor am I going about attacking his every deletion. I have, however, paid some attention to his deletions after I noticed that his talk page has complaints from various users about his excessive haste in deleting articles. Michael Hardy 02:41, 11 October 2007 (UTC)"

If you have noticed, anyone who does deletions gets bombarded by complaints from new users. They expect their articles will be on Wikipedia because they fail to comprehend policy regarding notability. Also, you saw only one deletion complaint on my user talk page. That matter was quickly handled, because it was indeed copyright infringement (according to WP:CSD policy). Nishkid64 (talk) 16:53, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Cover2 nature.jpg

Thanks for uploading or contributing to Image:Cover2 nature.jpg. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is not a suitable explanation or rationale as to why each specific use in Wikipedia constitutes fair use. Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale.

If you have uploaded other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on those pages too. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any non-free media lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. NOTE: once you correct this, please remove the tag from the image's page. STBotI 19:09, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ivor Wilks

It said "Ivor Wilks is a noted British Africanist, with a specialism in Ghana." Please tell me where the claim of notability is. It was a valid A7 speedy, and that's why it was deleted as tagged; if you believe that it should not have been speedied then you might want to talk to the admin who clicked the Delete button. Or not; after all, I did tell Johnbibby what the problem was: lack of any sources, claim of notability, or "hook" to tell anyone why they shold care.

As to "people like me", you have absolutely no idea. None whatsoever. And I don't think I'm going to enlighten you. But I don't think your attacking me for daring to add an A7 tag to a non-article like this is going to change anything. Your analogy was pointless. Do you really think that Ivor Wilks and William Shakespeare have anything close to parity of name recognition? It was a silly example. Of course I don't know who Ivor Wilks is, and the article didn't tell me who he is or why I should want to know, but please be assured that I unquestionably would know William Shakespeare from a hole in the ground, whichever spelling of his name he was using that day. I'd also recognise Francis Bacon or Kit Marlowe for that matter, provided you gave me one of the better-known portraits to identify.

So please do resist the temptation to rudeness and sarcasm - it looks from Nishkid's coment above that this is not the first time you have fallen into this trap. You may well be an ardent inclusionists, inclusionist admins are good, and I have no problem with assuming good faith and helping Johnbibby out, but you really ought to recognise that the main issue here lies with his original article: "foo is a noted bar" is classic A7 material, since there is no tangible or referenced claim of notability. I take it you have read WP:BLP? It does make quite a point of sourcing for biographical articles. Cruftbane 06:54, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

I repeat: you did not use common sense and you should have. The content that was there would have told you that google would settle the matter in seconds, and so it did. Michael Hardy 15:06, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

You are being rude, and unnecessarily so. People who write articles that say "John Does is a professor" and then act hurt when somebody tags it as A7, are more of a problem that the people who tag them as A7. Completely unsourced articles on living individuals are a serious problem, and I'd say that applies even if they are half-sentence stubs. Cruftbane 20:22, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Again I repeat: You did not use common sense and you should have. When you find something is validly tagged as A7, that's not when you should stop thinking about whether it should be deleted; it's when you shoud start thinking about that. Michael Hardy 21:35, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Template correction

Thanks. :) --Moonriddengirl 00:02, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Zeisel number

Helmut Zeisel is an austrian Mathemacian. He is not famous and not lucky about naming this numbers after him. In the german Wikidia the Article "Zeisel-Zahl" was deleted after i wrote an AfD. I wouldn't delete "Zeisel-Zahl", but most of other Wikipedian, who wrote to the AfD, were for the deletion of that article. I wouldn't be lucky, if Zeisel number would delete here too. --