User talk:Alexwcovington/Archive 1

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Hello Alex, welcome to Wikipedia.


You can help improve the articles listed below! This list updates frequently, so check back here for more tasks to try. (See Wikipedia:Maintenance or the Task Center for further information.)

Help counter systemic bias by creating new articles on important women.

Help improve popular pages, especially those of low quality.


You might find these links helpful in creating new pages or helping with the above tasks: How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Naming conventions, Manual of Style. You should read our policies at some point too.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. If you made any edits before you got an account, you might be interested in assigning those to your username. I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian!

Angela. 08:41, Jan 12, 2004 (UTC)


Good clarification on Sacagawea, thank you! - Hephaestos 01:52, 20 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Hi, Alex. Could you possibly use the Show preview button instead of making so many minor changes? You're taking up a lot of the space in the Recent changes page. Your work is very much appreciated, though. RickK 03:43, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Associated Press photos are NOT fair use, they are copyrighted. RickK | Talk 05:41, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Fair use images are copyrighted by definition; I'm not sure I follow. - Hephaestos|§ 05:42, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

We're all struggling with "fair use", especially with current events articles. Ideally I think it would be good to cordon them off into a separate section in the database, so that everything could be downloaded under GFDL without them. That would present a lot of coding challenges though I think (removing the preformatting from the articles etc.)

At any rate, there are fair use images all over the 'pedia already, there's no real way to go back from that now, and I tend to think Rick may have been mistaken in his judgment (as I implied above). - Hephaestos|§ 06:36, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

AP would disagree with you. Album covers, etc. are fair use, but a photo taken by an AP photographer is their property. RickK | Talk 14:56, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

This is hardly the actual photo though, it's low-resolution and noticeably compressed (see the red areas around his jacket).... This is not the same as the 300dpi resolution version that the AP took for the papers, this is a reduced version for online distribution... and Wikipedia is well within its rights to use the image. Newspapers do just fine simply by adding a photo credit; Why couldn't we? --Alexwcovington 15:30, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Best I can think of at the moment would be to list it on Wikipedia:Fair_use and see what other people think about the matter. (I'm not aware of the AP challenging the fair use doctrine on Wikipedia, or anywhere else for that matter, but I might just be "out of the loop".) - Hephaestos|§ 20:32, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)


Hi sorry you are annoyed I moved it to match the full and correct name of the party I hate redirects sorry but you know what is great about wikipedia anyone can edit and what is bad about wikipedia is anyone can edit.Smith03 dude check out what the party calls it self and think of this as well no party is going to use the word non partisan in its title the party is call the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party not the Democratic-Nonpartisan League party or what ever you have put it under Smith03 I don't think we need to identical pages. I think the page should be under the official name of the party. I didn't make up the title I just moved to give people the actual name of the party


James River[edit]

Can't believe I missed making the article, even after making the graphic. I'll go ahead and do so now, unless you were about it. -- Decumanus | Talk 04:26, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)

You edited this page in a way that means that Sacagawea golden dollars were in circulation from 2000 to 2003 and are now taken out. Where is your source?? 66.32.251.152 01:32, 19 May 2004 (UTC)[reply]

Not from North Dakota[edit]

No, but at least I wrote the article! I'll leave it to the natives to fix up the details. :) -- Decumanus 03:27, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Source of error [1]. The Columbia Gazeteer is chock full of errors, and I usually double check everything on my atlas, but this time I didn't. -- Decumanus 17:57, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Garrison Dam[edit]

Hi Alex, I really enjoyed the Lake Sakakawea article. And I'm sorry I missread the hydroelectric generating capacity, and stated a wrong number in the talk page, since you were right to begin with.

I'll edit the page and fix my mistake.

Pud 17:43, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Aclu.png[edit]

Hi. You uploaded Image:Aclu.png and marked it as in the Public Domain. Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure the ACLU logo is copyrighted. Quadell (talk) (help)[[]] 18:23, Oct 1, 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing[edit]

Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 1000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

Option 1
I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:
{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

OR

Option 2
I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:
{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" with "{{MultiLicensePD}}". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

You removed a significant amount of material, Id love to know why... You are not the only mod around, its best to discuss dramatic changes in article discussion... --Cool Cat My Talk 07:43, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC) Nevermind you moved it. --Cool Cat My Talk 07:49, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

It shall be done. --Cool Cat My Talk 15:57, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Enterprise cleanup[edit]

If you're gonna post {{cleanup}} on a page, like Star Trek: Enterprise, then make a discussion on the talk page about what and why you think needs cleaned up. Cburnett 16:32, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Improvements to CST[edit]

Thanks for expanding my bit about Conan O'Brien's CST countdown. It reads much better now. Acjelen 15:56, 16 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Tribes[edit]

Hi! I've noticed that you appear to be the person who has done the vast majority of work on the above tribes. I was considering splitting the articles into tribes but leaving the article on the nation to include the history of that organization after it's founding in the late 19th century. There is a plethora of information on the individual tribes on the Nation's website and I have a few resources including the Handbook of American Indians and Gloria Jahoda's Trail of Tears: The Story of the American Indian Removals which includes a chapter on the smallpox epidemic and Four Bears. In addition, Smithsonian Magazine has an article in this month's edition that discusses the epidemic and provides some of the story from the white man's point of view which is absent from Jahoda's version. Since you have done the vast majority of work, I thought I'd ask you before I made any changes. Ganymead 02:12, 3 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for such a quick response! I'll only make additions to the current article for now. Take care! Ganymead 02:41, 3 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I wrote a fairly extensive article on the Mandan and with its length, just placed it at Mandan instead of adding it to Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation article, though I did provide a link within the article. There is still work that needs to be done on the Mandan, as well as adding some of George Catlin's paintings. Do you have any idea when the Nation was officially established? I searched their website and was unable to locate any date and none of my sources have one either.Ganymead 07:32, 5 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

North Dakota/Wikiproject proposal[edit]

Hi, please move North Dakota/Wikiproject proposal to your userspace and out of the main namespace.--nixie 02:35, 12 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

  • It'd be better if you moved it and mentioned it on the Notrh Dakota talk page and on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. regions, keeping temporary pages in the main namespace isn't really encouraged--nixie 02:45, 12 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thanks, good luck with the project--nixie 02:50, 12 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]


Alex, I would love to help out with your proposed WikiProject. My only concern is finding other interested Wikipedians. It seems like you and I are the two most active editors of ND articles. The population of North Dakota is so small that there just might not be enough people out there who would want to devote time to a project like this. I'm not very familiar with WikiProjects...do we need to have a certain number of interested users before we start Wikipedia: WikiProject North Dakota or could we just start it and hope that others will join the cause?

Do you think it would be smart to add a "WikiProject North Dakota" proposal link to the talk pages of some of the ND articles? That way, maybe we could find some users out there who would be interested in the project and get them to look at your proposal and (hopefully) sign up. --MatthewUND 05:41, August 11, 2005 (UTC)

Re: US Highway banners[edit]

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, a United States Federal Highway Administration, thus public domain, publication. Denelson83 04:26, 12 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

A dispute going on at the Saturn Footer template[edit]

I've been arguing with an anonymous editor for the past two months or so over at Template talk:Saturn Footer about whether to have an exhaustive listing of moons in the footer or just the "highlights". Actually, it hasn't so much been an argument as it's been a slow-motion revert war - he's refusing to say anything about his position because "It takes too long and I can't be bothered." Now he's going around to all the articles that used this footer and changing them to use Template:Saturn Full Footer, which is kind of defeats the purpose of splitting off a different version in the first place. You spoke out on the talk page about reducing the size of the footer a while back so I figured you might want to add a comment to show I'm not on a lone crusade here. :) Bryan 1 July 2005 01:04 (UTC)

Major cities in North Dakota[edit]

:I have to agree with Gene; that statement was dense. A little more background below. --Alexwcovington (talk) 05:00, 10 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

  • Although you recanted your statement, I still had time to read it. As I stated on the CFD, I have not been disruptive, rude or demeaning to anyone on Wiki. My comment was just to lighten the mood on Cfd, as it can be a tedious process when working with so many categorization schemes. It had nothing to do with my vote in general, and I usually always comment on my vote when I feel there is more to be said about the discussion. I realize that it may seem personal to some people, especially if you have any invested interest in the category in question, if I had meant it to be a sly comment, I would have not included the ( ;) ) smiley. I did not mean for the vote to not be taken seriously as per the coment I made. I am now going to read the message you left me earlier and go back through your proposals, I just wanted to get this part over with first. Thank you. <>Who?¿? 06:06, 10 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I do not personally hold anything against you for the comment, and understand that it was a defensive gesture, as was the reasoning for its removal. I hope that I did not offend you further by responding to it.

As for the current Cfd, I just added a comment about the reasoning behind my decision. It was more on keeping a standard structure in the current schema of Category:Cities in the United States. The "Major" part is ambiguous, and could lead people to add/remove cities to it in the future, for what the y "feel" is major. I have no objection to the design of the template, and feel it does a good job at dividing the sections. Just don't feel that a sub-cat is warranted at this time, for just large and small cities. I am not an expert, just trying to keep a uniform and disambiguous category structure.

Thank you for your responses and understanding. <>Who?¿? 06:26, 10 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Towns in [state] and Villages in [state].

Ahh, I did miss seeing that in Category:Cities in the United States, I had to go back and look, and I do recall a previous Cfr on villages. I see your reasoning in the subdivisions. I would suggest renaming it "Large cities" and will adjust my comments on the Cfr. This way it will accomplish the same thing and get rid of the disambiguaty. <>Who?¿? 06:33, 10 July 2005 (UTC)[reply]

  • Alex, I have chosen to change my vote on CFD. What you have done with the category tonight is great work. My main reason for initially voting for deletion was because I thought that keeping the category would probably result in eventually loosing the "Metropolitan..." category. I really think that having categories for metro areas is important...especially in ND where the three largest cities are metro areas with either two or three large towns spanning one or two states. For example, it's nice to have one category where you can find articles relating to Fargo, Moorhead, and West Fargo instead of just a Fargo category. I am more than satisfied with your efforts to properly categorize and arrange things here and I am off to change my vote... --MatthewUND 06:40, July 10, 2005 (UTC)
  • I commented on the vote page. I think having "major" cities (or some such distinction) is beneficial, although I would make that a subcategory of Category:Cities in North Dakota. The category system is, IMO, one of the most frustrating parts of Wikipedia because it requires such a high degree of standardization to be effective. Don't get discouraged. --L33tminion (talk) 16:00, July 10, 2005 (UTC)

North Dakota[edit]

I understand your point, but I believe the limit of 2450 is too arbitrary and that's not really what categorization is for. It would be (imho) more useful to create a List of cities in North Dakota ordered by city size. That way readers can start at the top for the biggest cities and ignore the bottom from whatever threshold they do not care to read about any more. Yours, Radiant_>|< 19:28, July 10, 2005 (UTC)

Grand Forks peer review[edit]

Alex, I have submitted Grand Forks, North Dakota for peer review. You have also worked on this article and you are one of the more prolific editors of North Dakota articles. I would appreciate any advice you could give during this peer review process. I think it would be great if we could get Grand Forks to featured article status. Happy New Year! --MatthewUND(talk) 02:30, 29 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Steve Gibson[edit]

I'm working on cleaning up Steve Gibson. As you seem to have been a regular contributor to it (and a voice of sanity on a surprisingly insane page), I'd appreciate any help you can offer. ;) --Falcorian | Talk 05:29, 15 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I nominated MatthewUND for admin[edit]

If you'd like, please vote for him here. (Opes 00:11, 1 February 2006 (UTC))[reply]

Sadly, it doesn't look like I've got a chance of making it this time. Guess I need to get out there and spend some more time talking instead of editing, huh? Oh well...I guess I'll have another chance. Anyways, thanks for the support, Alex. Actually, I've recently been going to ask you if you would like it if I nominated you to be an admin...what do you think? You've been on here a long time and deserve the recognition. --MatthewUND(talk) 19:24, 2 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikiproject North Dakota, adminship[edit]

I'm willing to do anything to help the pending Wikiproject North Dakota. I see that you let Opes know about the proposal. I bet he might be interested in helping out too.

As far as adminship, I think we both probably will gain that status over time. Guess we have to be more sociable, huh? --MatthewUND(talk) 23:02, 2 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I still think you have a chance. As far as I know you can drum up support for your cause, you just cant spam doing it. (Opes 23:04, 2 February 2006 (UTC))[reply]

And Alex, yea I have been thinking about getting involved with that ND project, so I will declare my intentions. (Opes 23:04, 2 February 2006 (UTC))[reply]

Yes, I'd be interested in helping out as well for WPND, what would you want me to do? misternuvistor 05:10, 4 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

beverlin and others[edit]

slngo82://

thanks alex. i really appreciate your comments and suggestions. i guess i wasn't expecting all this to happen so viciously. i was going to contact the inclusionists last night which i just found out about. find out how i could make my articles better. i know they were very bare, but i just wanted to start somewhere. i'll work on some of them in the sandbox and maybe send them around for suggestions. if you're interested, i'll try running it by you. thanks again. BrycebeverlinII 18:25, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, can you do me a favor and revisit Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Hyperspace? ---CH 22:52, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Videography Revert?[edit]

I noticed that you reverted one of the edits to Videography. There seems to be trouble brewing there again as User:Bob Kiger seems intent on turning it into a vanity piece for his writing on the subject. Take a look when you get a chance. Regards --Jeremy Butler 22:08, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for stepping in there, AlexWCovington. When User:Bob Kiger likened my edits to book burning in Nazi Germany, I feared we were heading for a revert war. It could still happen, but perhaps now he can see that his edits really don't fit in with Wikipedia policies. Regards --Jeremy Butler 12:16, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My RfA[edit]

--MatthewUND(talk) 05:34, 23 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Your vote on Userbox policy[edit]

Support. Banning political userboxes stifles free expression, and limits the ability of editors to determine the general stance of others in certain situations. --AlexWCovington (talk) 06:21, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
This user believes that only articles need reflect a NPOV, and that displaying political, religious, or other beliefs using userboxes and user categories should not be banned.

Did you intend to support then? The policy clearly does stifle free expression, in part by banning lists of Wikipedians and userboxen.

StrangerInParadise 18:14, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yaaay! Now, you need to remove your struckout vote, as the counters just look at the last one for the tally.

StrangerInParadise 20:19, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

North Dakota wikiproject[edit]

I grew up on the western part of the state near Watford City, ND, so I can give as much information as I can. You just need to direct me to what you would like me to work on and the link to where the project is. --Leopold Samsonite

Perth[edit]

For your WP:RM listing of Perth, Towner County, North Dakota I have added the template and discussion area on its talk page. Gene Nygaard 14:13, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

High School Sports[edit]

Would an article on North Dakota High school athletic association be appropriate? It would mostly be on the past champions and all that stuff mainly in football basketball and wrestling.--Leopold Samsonite

North Dakota High School Athletic Association has been started but the NDHSAA won't give out any information, and the only play that has all the information is the Almanac of North Dakota Sports, and I can't find out if anymore are in print. --Leopold Samsonite

Wikiproject[edit]

Good to see it finally off the ground! Great job - I will help in any ways possible. Weatherman90 18:14, 25 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

RCAF Station Saglek at AFD[edit]

Thanks for doing the cleanup on the article. I'd like now to withdraw my request to have the article deleted. How do I do that? ekedolphin 18:34, 23 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

At the risk of sounding like a n00b, what tag do I use to strike my comments? ekedolphin 18:53, 23 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

AfD[edit]

Would you mind giving this case a second look? I agree that it's strange that the article has been around for so long, but there is no statute of limitations on AfD precisely because of the possibility that material like this will go more or less unnoticed for so long. I don't think that he was notable in 2004, nor do I believe that he's done much to be considered that much more notable today. And it's a bit disturbing that most of the voters in the AfD seem to be people who've done either no editing before, or almost exclusively editing on his or his friends' pages. Which makes me think that it's more like a small group of friends not quite notable to be here who are putting themselves on here and supporting each other for the hell of it. If he's really on his way to bigger and better things, surely there's no harm in waiting until something clearly notable occurs before giving a marginal writer (as of 2006) an entry on an encyclopedia? Anyway, that's my two cents. I'd be very grateful if you gave it a second glance anyway. With many thanks, Girolamo Savonarola 08:37, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Climate of Bismarck[edit]

Thank you for you quick and courteous reply. I was worried an edit war might start, you never know when the nasty things might pop up. I'll keep your significant figure suggestion in mind though, as I have a few articles to apply it to now. Thanks, RyanGerbil10 12:33, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. I was hoping someone would do that. - CrazyRussian talk/contribs/email 21:01, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

heads-up: Gibson Research Corporation to be prodded[edit]

Dear Alexwcovington,
I wanted to give you a heads-up that I contemplate to propose the article you created, Gibson Research Corporation, for deletion in a couple of days. A year and a half after its creation, there is still no original content and it is highly unlikely there ever will be:

We already have a complete Steve Gibson article and grc is basically just a corporate wrapper around him, so there's really no point to keep both. Of course, I'd welcome any comment you might have on the talk page of the article. --Ministry of Truth 14:49, 19 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

mottos in state article infoboxes[edit]

Hi. I reverted your removal of the ND motto in the state's infobox. After seeing a couple of states with them inculded and the parameter being available, I added them to all of the states. We should discuss whether or not the info boxes should include mottos and whatnot. Either way, consistency among the infoboxes on the US states is the key. Cheers. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 18:59, 21 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Template talk:Infobox U.S. state might be a good place to discuss the changes. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 19:01, 21 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Unrelated question. Also, are you anywhere near U.S. Route 52? The article seems to harp on and on about some sections, but has little about the section in ND. Is there anything that can be added about the northern end of the road? youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 19:10, 21 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the people that work on the template have fixed it, as it now says motto(s). What is ND's other motto? youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 15:17, 22 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Rt 52[edit]

Sounds good to me. Cheers. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 16:13, 22 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Awesome work. Now if I can just find people in the umpteen states inbetween WV and ND... :) youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 19:13, 22 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Barnstar[edit]

For your tireless work on improving Wikipedia's coverage of the great state of North Dakota, I hereby award thee the Barnstar of National Merit. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 19:24, 22 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Image:CurrentNorthDakotaPlate.jpg listed for deletion[edit]

An image or media file that you uploaded, Image:CurrentNorthDakotaPlate.jpg, has been listed at Wikipedia:Images and media for deletion. Please look there to see why this is (you may have to search for the title of the image to find its entry), if you are interested in it not being deleted. Thank you. Nv8200p talk 19:11, 29 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Does not qualify as fair use in either article the image is linked to. -Nv8200p talk 19:11, 29 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sorry if you feel that I was out of line and harrassing User:Idontsteal. It's just tough to assume good faith on someone who's adding things about nuclear missle silos, protecting the city from lasers, and no US presidents giving a speech in front of it. I kept reverting because the Chia pet claim still seems teenage prank-ish, like the other edits. I apologize if you think I was out of line, but his edits did appear to be vandalism. Metros232 18:24, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have made a few slight changes to your edits of my contributions in order to satisfy myself and I feel that some of the edits that were made to my contribution were misleading (eg, its not call the Jamestown Arts Center, it's simply the Arts Center). The Chia pet claim is true and I would encourage any doubters to follow up on my claim with a phone call before they boister their egos by deleting factual information. I look foward to working with everyone, and thank you for leaving my factual post up.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Idontsteal (talkcontribs)

If you would have taken time to look at the webpage, you would have more than likely noticed that it is indeed the Arts Center, however I can see how you would think otherwise, you had me guessing as well. I don't appreciate your sarcastic attitude, or the English lesson, however I am sure I deserved it. In any case, I think we've created a better, more information page on the World's Largest Buffalo. Idontsteal 18:48, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Copies of the book are still available. To order a copy go to [www.ndclassbsports.com]