Talk:K*bot World Championships

This page was published to Wikipedia on 31.08.2009.

Initial query answered by own research; questions removed.

Edits: 8/7/2010

1) From memory, Chris's surname is 'Becket', not 'Bowdon' - unless, of course, he's changed his surname. Changed all I could find for now.

2) I've been using Wikipedia several times a day for a good few years now, and I've never ever seen a person add their name as a 'written by'. I don't think that's why we have Wikipedia, so I've removed it. I have no doubt the appropriate people are named and credited on the official K*Bots website - that's why it's there.

3) I'm not very sure about the style of writing this article has, or its length. If you compare this with the main FIFA World Cup article......well, the lengths are actually very similar. With all due respect, I don't think K*Bots warrants that sort of length or any of the tangents it has. I'm sure people would be happy to go to the K*Bots website if they want some of the information here. A few, concise paragraphs should suffice, in my opinion.

Not flagging this article up though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.49.194.114 (talk) 23:09, 8 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, thanks for your comments. I will address them all here.

Chris Bowdon is the correct name. He used "Becket" as an online alter-ego, which is why it was not published. With all due respect, if you do not know facts for sure and are just guessing, you should not be editing this article.

I accept your point of view of "Written by", which has been duly removed.

As regards the length of the article of its written style, I regard this as a thorough, informative and articulate article which fully explains something that people may not have heard of. The kbotworld.com website does not explain much of what is on this page, as it is solely a repository for current reports, photos and rules. I do not feel it needs to be shorter. Bear in mind that the FIFA World Cup page does not need to explain the history of football and all its rules, it focuses solely on the competition. This article attempts to cover everything related to K*bots around the World.

Thank you for your comments. I understand that anybody is able to edit Wikipedia, but if you do not have a specialist understanding of this area, then I would appreciate it if you did your research before editing.

Kind regards, K*bots team —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kbotworld (talk • contribs) 09:29, 24 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

18/8/10

Hello,

Ultimately, people do tend to make assumptions and communicate or act accordingly. It's a mistake I think everybody makes. The suggestion that I may not have a 'specialist understanding' is a bit void; I knew some of the British K*Bot builders personally, and competed myself. I haven't talked about the post-US linkup era because that was after my time and therefore beyond the boundaries of my knowledge.

I would be very surprised indeed if what you are saying about Chris using 'Becket' as an alter-ego is true. I knew him, used to talk to him online for hours on end (I, too, remember his two-account trick on the RW forum) and our robots battered each other to destruction. I was even physically next to him when he signed some papers - his signature clearly shows 'Becket' as the surname. For me, that's just about as close to a fact as can be without actually taking a picture of his passport. I don't know why you suggested I was guessing, because I don't think I gave that impression at all.

As it happens, I bumped into David online almost accidentally a while ago, and he referred to Chris using 'Becket' too. I politely and enthusiastically await a confirmation of some sort that the person David and I knew for such a while didn't even use his real surname with us when chatting on a personal basis. :)

With regard to the length and written style of this article, I refer you to a few of the published Wikipedia guidelines. If you'd like me to do go into details as to what I'm referring to, feel free to ask. Anything to help with this article and Wikipedia in general.

1) "Only add verifiable and factual information rather than personal views and opinions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About#Contributing_to_Wikipedia

2) Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information

...merely being true, or even verifiable, does not automatically make something suitable for inclusion in the encyclopaedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_an_indiscriminate_collection_of_information

3) Be clear and concise: Be both plain and concise. Clarity and terseness are not in opposition: direct and brief writing is more clear.

Emphasise the spirit of the rule: ...omit needless words, especially adjectives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines#Content

There's a last one as a small point:

"...assume good faith on the part of others. Be open and welcoming."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars

From experience of situations like this, I know to keep my specific opinion about this well away from this exchange, though I feel if others were to read this, they may not feel your response was the most open and welcoming possible. If you, for example, responded with some genuine interest at how I showed some knowledge of people who were involved, and perhaps asked if I had ever followed K*Bots, the spirit of this discourse from that point on would have been a great deal better.

Personally not that bothered though. We've got more important things to worry about, and I don't think what I've said is that important from a wider perspective after all! :)

If you like, I could help out with changing some things, and actually do something with this article besides removing that 'written by Toby Wheeler' line'!!

I am sure if Wikipedia have issues with this page they will contact me directly.

If you genuinely know Chris, I am surprised you haven't asked him about his name by now. Please, do not take my word for it; ask him directly.

On another note, changes were made to this page in April 2011 which look like vandalism - people entering their own names into the 'World Championship winners' section, for example. These changes were reversed and the correct statistics re-entered on 16.06.2011. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.216.204.253 (talk) 05:47, 16 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Blacklisted Links Found on the Main Page[edit]

Cyberbot II has detected that page contains external links that have either been globally or locally blacklisted. Links tend to be blacklisted because they have a history of being spammed, or are highly innappropriate for Wikipedia. This, however, doesn't necessarily mean it's spam, or not a good link. If the link is a good link, you may wish to request whitelisting by going to the request page for whitelisting. If you feel the link being caught by the blacklist is a false positive, or no longer needed on the blacklist, you may request the regex be removed or altered at the blacklist request page. If the link is blacklisted globally and you feel the above applies you may request to whitelist it using the before mentioned request page, or request it's removal, or alteration, at the request page on meta. When requesting whitelisting, be sure to supply the link to be whitelisted and wrap the link in nowiki tags. The whitelisting process can take its time so once a request has been filled out, you may set the invisible parameter on the tag to true. Please be aware that the bot will replace removed tags, and will remove misplaced tags regularly.

Below is a list of links that were found on the main page:

http://www.examiner.com/x-15011-Las-Vegas-Family-News-Examiner~y2009m7d17-Kbot-World-championships-come-to-Las-Vegas
Triggered by (?<=[/@.])examiner\.com(?:[:/?\x{23}]|$) on the local blacklist

If you would like me to provide more information on the talk page, contact User:Cyberpower678 and ask him to program me with more info.

From your friendly hard working bot.—cyberbot II ^Notify_Online 19:56, 8 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved This issue has been resolved, and I have therefore removed the tag, if not already done. No further action is necessary.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 00:21, 4 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Students"[edit]

Competitors are constantly referred to as students, even though there is technically no age limit to competition - even adults could in theory partake. Should this word be edited out to accommodate this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.18.44.173 (talk) 12:19, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]