User talk:Colin Angus Mackay

Hello to all.

If you are here I'm guessing you want to tell me something. So first a little note about how I indend to structure my talk page.

I've sectioned my talk pages into different subject areas. If all you want to do is say "hi" then the Welcome Mat is always there. If you want my help then add a section to the "Requests for Help" section.

I may occasionally restructure things in the "Everything Else" section if it gets too cluttered.

If you add something here I will normally reply to your talk page unless you indicate you will monitor mine. If you are willing to monitor my talk pages it makes the threading of the conversation easier to read through, however if you're busy and don't want your watchlist cluttered with what's going on here then that's fine also.

Regards, --Colin Angus Mackay 19:42, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Welcome Mat

Meelar

Hello Colin Angus Mackay and welcome to Wikipedia! Hope you like it here, and stick around.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

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• Try the Tutorial, and feel free to experiment in the test area.
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• Follow the Wikipedia:Simplified Ruleset
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• Explore, be bold in editing pages, and, most importantly, have fun!

Good luck!

Pcb21

Hi Colin, welcome to Wikipedia. Thanks for your addition to Current events about CIRA. You are obviously right, it wasn't vandalism. I am sorry that you got "caught in the crossfire" as someone tried to fix some genuine vandalism related to Sonic the Hedgehog. Hope you aren't deterred from contributing to the current events page. Pcb21| Pete 08:26, 14 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Requests for Help

Point Arena, California

Hi Colin, and a belated welcome from me too. Two things:

1. clearly your spanish exceeds mine (not that that would be hard) - I'd be grateful if you could check my clumsy translations of placenames in Point_Arena,_California#History and fix as needed
2. oh, it also occurred to me that you might like to add yourself to Wikipedia:Wikipedians/Scotland (it's not compulsory, naturally)

Thanks -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:48, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Everything Else

add it here, or create a new section --Colin Angus Mackay 19:42, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Categories in previews

They DO show up in previews - but way below the edit box. They exist where they are on the article, at the plum bottom. :) --Golbez 19:58, Sep 26, 2004 (UTC)

Surnames

Hey, i'm William James MacKay, and it's good to see another Mackay on Wikipedia. Unlike you, i live in Florida in the United States—my ancestors haven't lived in Europe since the potato famine and the highland clearances in the 19th century. But i'd love to visit there someday. It looks beautiful. Foobaz·o< 03:26, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

VFD

On Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Connor Osburn you wrote, I seem to have messed up adding this entry and I can't figure out how to fix it. Can someone assist? So what was the problem? It looks fine now. And remember, it may take several minutes for the database to update the VFD pages, especially the Wikipedia:Votes for deletion page, after you create a new VFD entry. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 01:13, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

New Maps

Hi Colin. The new 'satellite' location maps for Scottish towns are based on a template which I created yesterday, using copyright-free clipart and Paint Shop Pro. When uploading these new images, I used the '{{PD-self}}' statement, as I thought they constituted personal work. If I am mistaken, could you please inform me as to what I should do to avoid these files being removed in future? If you are satisfied with this explanation, I would be most grateful if you could revert the affected articles back to include these new maps. User:K851jg2 (Talk) 14:37, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

If you based the maps on something else then you should cite that source. I've never heard of copyright-free clipart (unless that is a synonym for public-domain). Most commonly clip art is royalty-free which is something different. If the maps have a public domain source then that's fine, but your statement should say that you've based your work on top of another public domain source. I've noticed that NASA produce public domain satellite images and if that is the source of your map then that is fine to use it. But there is a specific Wikipedia tag for NASA images.

I've not put in motion anything to remove your images from Wikipedia, although I did revert the pages that I spotted with the maps - I just wanted to know that they come from a valid source and I'll be happy to revert back to your maps if so. --Colin Angus Mackay 16:10, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hi again. I'm sorry if I've overstepped the mark in already reverting the maps in question. I used the term, 'copyright-free' wrongly and should actually have said 'royalty-free'. As I'm still pretty mutch a fledgling at this, I'd be most grateful if you could tell me how I can retro-adjust the copyright tags on existing maps I've uploaded, as I reckon your suggestion of a "modified from a public domain source" statement sounds all-encompassing. Do you think I'll need to change the tags? I've noticed that some of my images, which I'd uploaded in the 'early days' without tags, have had copyright information assigned to them by the administrators. One way or the other, though, thank you for your advice and please accept my apologies if I've 'tread on your toes'. --K851jg2 17:30, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

No, you've not "overstepped the mark" nor "tread on my toes" if you think these images are genuinely acceptable. However, if the images are "royalty-free" then you have to be careful because that means the images may still contain copyright with a license for you to use the images in certain ways. Unless the images are compatible with the wikipedia license then they are not permissable. You should read the Wikipedia Image Upload Policy for more details. You also need to check the license you got with the clip art to ensure that it is compatible with Wikipedia. As Wikipedia is licensed under the GFDL everything in it must be licensed under the GFDL or is public domain (as is my interpretation). You may also want to read Wikipedia:Copyrights as a general guide to what can and cannot be included.

Once you have assertained the correct status of your maps you can update the image notice by clicking the "Edit this Page" button on the image page. This will give you an edit box to change the copyright notice and add any other relevant infromation. I tend to give also a one line bit of information about the image as well as the copyright notice just in case anyone wants to use it in another article and they want to be sure of its relevancy. You can see my images on wikipedia and on Wikitravel (Note: Wikitravel uses a different license)

I hope this helps you to get the right copyright notice on the maps. --Colin Angus Mackay 18:20, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Good morning Colin and thanks again for your advice. I'll really need to brush up on my copyright 'skills', as on reading through the blurb, I hadn't realised just how complicated it all was. I'll try to get around to polishing up the relevant information over the weekend. Cheers for now. K851jg2 08:32, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Mackay

Hello Colin, I think that it is interesting that we both have the same last name, though it is spelt differently. I also run into a bit of trouble with the spelling of my name, since i live in Mackay, but my surname is spelt McKay. Do you know if there is a reason why our names are spelt differently, and what is the relationship (if any) between the two? --Rob McKay 07:31, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

McKay is a contraction. My history on the subject is a little hazy, but if I recall correctly the reason is that at some point a few hundred years ago there was immigration between Scotland and Ireland and, I think, it was the Irish that originally contracted it. Then there was some more immigration and people moved back to Scotland so the spelling spread back. Over the centuries other spellings have cropped up also. As I remember, there is no known record of the first use of Mackay, but McKay is about 800 years old. --Colin Angus Mackay 22:44, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Public school (UK)

Request for comment re Talk:Public school (UK). There is unreasonable resistance to acknowledging Scottish linguistic differences.--Mais oui! 09:06, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Scottish Wikipedians' notice board

Since joining Wikipedia I have learnt an awful lot, and one of those things is the value of teamwork. It has become increasingly apparent to me that there are absolutely tons of people out there devoted to editing the Scottish articles, but we communicate only haphazardly. To begin to attempt to remedy this, I have initiated a notice board for all Scoto-fans!

You can find it using this shortcut: WP:SCOWNB (yes, I know that it ain't very "short", but our nordic neighbours had first call on WP:SWNB).

Please sign up and post notices, or at least Watch the page.--Mais oui! 08:33, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Image:PICT0009.jpg

Hello Colin Angus Mackay, an automated process has found an image or media file tagged as nonfree media, such as fair use. The image (Image:PICT0009.jpg) was found at the following location: User:Colin Angus Mackay. This image or media will be removed per statement number 9 of our non-free content policy. The image or media will be replaced with Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg , so your formatting of your userpage should be fine. The image that was replaced will not be automatically deleted, but it could be deleted at a later date. Articles using the same image should not be affected by my edits. I ask you to please not readd the image to your userpage and could consider finding a replacement image licensed under either the Creative Commons or GFDL license or released to the public domain. Thanks for your attention and cooperation. User:Gnome (Bot)-talk 04:50, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, I've looked and it was a photo that I took of only a small portion of a figurine which is fair use. I entered the photo itself into the public domain and if you've got a problem with that then it is your loss. Quite frankly the amount of crap that's been put on Wikipedia over the last two years is astonishing. Lots of petty bickering over things and article being rewritten or tweaked so that the facts are obscured to make it fit contemporary views rather than fit the truth. --User:Colin Angus Mackay (talk) 23:18, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!

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Hello, Colin Angus Mackay. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

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ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

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The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

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Hello, Colin Angus Mackay. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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Scots Wikipedia

Hi! If you're interested, the Scottish Wikipedia seems to be in need of experienced Wikipedians who can speak Scots. The news made the rounds today that nearly half of the articles were created by someone who doesn't seem to have that much experience with the language, so a cleanup effort may be needed. More details are at this slightly hyperbolic Reddit thread. Please let me know if you're interested in helping out! They're also looking for administrators for the wiki, too, as a side note. Enterprisey (talk!) 21:36, 25 August 2020 (UTC)