User talk:Klondike53226

Welcome!

Hello, Klondike53226, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

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Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or , and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! MrClog (talk) 00:58, 18 March 2020 (UTC)

NYS plates

Hi Klondike, you seem to know a few things about NY license plates. Do you know what is required to register an old car (early 1990s) on period plates? I have some seemingly suitable Liberty plates, and have been told a variety of different things. Some say the number has to be in the correct sequence for the year, some say it just has to be the right style. Does the state of the plate (rust, scratches, missing paint etcetera) matter? Or is this all subject to the whims of the particular DMV employee I encounter? Anyhow, until the DMV opens up again nothing will happen. Best regards,  Mr.choppers | ✎  01:51, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Liberty plates are considered "vintage" plates by the DMV, and you'll need to submit quite a few documents in order to register an old car on such plates:

https://dmv.ny.gov/apply-vintage-plates

Motorcycles aside (and presumably trailers too), it does not matter what type of vehicle the plates were originally issued to - so you could register the car on Commercial, Tractor or even Ambulance plates. No mention is made of the physical state the plates have to be in - though I assume that plates that are badly rusted, peeling away or in any other state that renders the serial illegible would not be allowed.

As regards the year, the DMV site says "Any motor vehicle manufactured more than 25 years before the current calendar year... may be registered with vintage plates from the model year of the vehicle" (https://dmv.ny.gov/learn-about-historical-and-vintage-plates). I take that to mean that, for instance, a car manufactured in 1994 may be registered with Liberty plates from 1994, but not with such plates from before or after that year. Whether or not the DMV currently has records for which Liberty plates were issued in each year, I can't say I know for sure (though in 1994, passenger serials were in the A12 3BC format, and would, by my reckoning, have progressed through the 'D' and 'E' series, and at least some of the 'C' and 'F' series).

Hope I've answered your questions satisfactorily. :)

Kind regards, Klondike53226 (talk) 23:48, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Talk:Roman numerals

Freely admit that the edit I reinstated to this talk page seemed pretty brain-dead - no real problems with your re-deletion. I was just applying the (generally very sensible) rule that edits to talk pages - unless they are abusive or indecent - are left intact, as well as that good old chestnut about "assuming good faith" might apply here. Also I was a bit concerned that the "editor" may have actually believed he had a point, in that we had "missed" barred numerals. It probably didn't hurt to point out the section where we give these appropriate treatment. Certainly not going to argue this one, much less edit war over it! Very much appreciative of your "good faith". --Soundofmusicals (talk) 22:47, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

Well, it's fair to say that I wouldn't have been drawn into this matter if this anonymous user hadn't also made a flurry of similar edits to Vehicle registration plates of Wisconsin, which is on my watchlist. And I wouldn't have gotten so mad that I felt compelled to report this anonymous user to the admins, either. Just one of those unfortunate things...

I suppose I *should* be that bit more lenient towards certain anonymous users. Alas, that's easier said than done. But there is one thing I will certainly never do regarding *any* anonymous user (and, for that matter, any registered user too): comment on their state of mind, background, or English literacy skills. That's one of the worst things any user could do. (Please don't take that personally, BTW - it's just my view.)

Thanks for stopping by.

Kind regards, Klondike53226 (talk) 00:35, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

Vehicle registration plates of Kansas

Hi, Klondike53226, I just read your message on my talk page and feel that I need to explain a few things about why I left that message in the history revision.

First, I will go on record by stating that it was probably not the most professional thing for me to post that message on the revision page, however at that point in time I was angry and it seemed like the only way to grab your attention.

When I was editing the Kansas License Plate page for months and nobody changed any of my edits it was great, I felt as though I had the freedom to make the page informative and not just the minimum amount that it had seemed like before. So, as you saw, I added the sections about vanity, educational, and military plates with pictures, descriptions, etc. Then, when you came back and revised all the edits that were done since August and said there were "questionable" edits done to the page and you needed to fix it, rightly so I became angry and felt like that was specifically targeting me and taking a cheap jab at my integrity. Especially when there was a cite of mine taken down, lots of notes gone, descriptions completely changed and serial numbers edited that I had put in, it did feel like you were trying to take ownership of the entire article or moderate it and I was not happy about that. It just felt like a big attack on me, and so after I added the Organizational and Other plates, I was angry and wrote that message.

Not saying I am proud of it, but I'm sure you can understand how that may have seemed like a personal attack on myself, even if it was about someone else. I have no problems with people changing my edits to make them more informative or "readable", (as that's the whole point of Wikipedia), but deleting specific items and just having small amounts of information is not what I personally like to have. You are right and there is such a thing as too many cites, as I'm sure we've both seen on other pages. I like the truth with my information, and that's what I had been adding into some of the notes sections. (I'm also still mad about Kansas making ugly ass flat plates instead of embossed ones anymore, but that's a subject for another day)

Also, I did want to thank you for changing the section about educational plates with the serial number system, I actually had no idea that they all shared the same numbering scheme, I just thought that every college had their own set of 5 digits to use, (just like the commercial and antique plate numbers) and that was my mistake, so thanks for catching that.

With that said, I am no longer angry at you after reading your explanation and also am sorry about writing the message at you. I hope you can accept my apology and we can be more communicative towards each other in the future about edits on pages.

-Sincerely, Stowellg (talk) 01:12, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

About the NJ plate thing

Yeah my bad, just figured it out a couple minutes ago after browsing moini's plate list, lmao

- 7r7

Regarding Vehicle Registration Plates of the NWT

Hi, Klondike.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

For what it’s worth, there is no “Driver and Vehicle Services” branch under the Dept. of Infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. The IDMV website groups services differently for easier navigation.

Driver and Motor Vehicles offices in the NWT are operated/contracted by Licencing and Administration under the North Slave Region division of the Dept. of Infrastructure. I understand the government website does not do a good job of reflecting this.

As well, I thought the front plate requirement for overweight commercial vehicles was an important distinction to make, if not in the lead, at least in the notes about commercial plates.

Take care.

Calculus31 (talk) 18:25, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

P.S. Just now seeing the reply button on my talk page — my bad. See: Rookie Status Calculus31 (talk) 18:27, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

"As well, I thought the front plate requirement for overweight commercial vehicles was an important distinction to make, if not in the lead, at least in the notes about commercial plates."

Well, here's another thing to bear in mind: all Wikipedia articles are supposed to appeal primarily to casual readers.

That means licence plate articles (to use the Canadian spelling) are supposed to appeal primarily to casual readers, too, and therefore should not contain trivia (referenced or not) that might *only* appeal to licence plate fans.

It *is* a tricky balancing act, however - particularly for me, having been a licence plate fan for quite some time now. :) In my two-and-a-bit years on Wikipedia, I've removed a number of things from licence plate articles that I feel are more appealing to fans than they are to casual readers, and I've added a number of things that I feel will appeal to both fans and casual readers. And it may well be that some of the things I've removed probably *do* appeal to casual readers after all, and some of the things I've added probably *don't* appeal to casual readers after all (though no-one has explicitly raised either issue with me up to now). I'm well capable of changing my mind, however, and hence putting back things that I've removed, or removing things that I've added. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy editing in the future. :)

Regards, Klondike53226 (talk) 19:44, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Time to say goodbye

After nearly two and a half years, my time on Wikipedia is over.

More than likely - and understandably - one will think that this is because I have been blocked indefinitely having been suspected of being a sockpuppet. But - believe it or not - it is actually *my* decision to go, as I shall explain...

My last lot of edits were on the Fourth of July 2022. As with pretty much every other lot of edits I've made, these mainly consisted of updating the high serials spotted in numerous states and Canadian jurisdictions, which as ever didn't take much time (even including the double-checking to make sure that I had correctly copied the new serials and their corresponding dates from LicensePlates.cc). However, this particular lot of edits also included much tidying up of the Alaska license plate article, and much sorting out of the table of non-passenger plates in the Oregon article - and not only did both take a great deal of time, but I also didn't feel any great sense of fulfilment afterwards.

I then thought about some other large, time-consuming sets of edits I had made to other license plate articles in the past - like similarly big tidy-up jobs on the Vermont and British Columbia articles in June - and realized that these also hadn't brought about any great sense of fulfilment. So much time, so much poring over until I was absolutely satisfied with what I was submitting - and it had in fact turned out to be quite thankless (not that I'd ever ask other editors for thanks, of course - no disrespect intended).

I had had disillusioning experiences before, and had taken a Wikibreak each time - but now I found myself considering the possibility of leaving Wikipedia for good. If editing it wasn't as greatly fulfilling as I thought it was, then why go on doing it?

It was then that I was suspected of sockpuppetry, and blocked indefinitely. I appealed as, IP addresses aside, I have nothing in common with the user I was suspected of being a sockpuppet of - the total number of edits that user made could be counted on the fingers of two hands, most of them were on the talk pages for motor racing articles (I have zero interest in motor racing of any kind, and indeed no great interest in *any* sports outside of major events like the Olympics), and the user clearly had the attitude of a spoiled child. My appeal was dismissed, the next avenue to go down looked complicated - and, again without any disrespect intended, that made my decision whether to stay or go considerably easier.

(In contrast, Mick Jones *still* can't decide, even when he sees that there'll be twice as much trouble if he stays than there will be if he goes...)

So, as I said, my time on Wikipedia is over - but I'm leaving with no hard feelings whatsoever. No hard feelings towards the admins, who have the toughest and most emotionally demanding jobs of any Wikipedia user, and have to be respected for sticking to these jobs. *thumbs up* No hard feelings towards any user I've come across who might have failed to realize that Wikipedia is supposed to appeal to casual readers first and foremost, and should be edited from a neutral point of view (being such a big license plate fan, it was always tricky for me when editing such articles to decide what might appeal to casual readers and what might not). And no hard feelings towards even the most troublesome users and the genuine sockpuppets, because they shouldn't matter to me and indeed they don't.

I'd like to look back on these nearly two and a half years as some sort of rollercoaster ride. It had its fair share of ups, it had its fair share of downs, and it was fun for the most part. :)

Of course, leaving Wikipedia doesn't mean I'll stop being a license plate fan - far from it. I'll continue to visit sites like LicensePlates.cc, Allaboutlicenseplates.com and the Plate Shack, and get excited when new passenger plate designs hit the road (as one will do in Nebraska at the start of 2023), when new serial formats are introduced (even if they're strange ones like in Arizona and Alabama), and even when a new series starts in a current format (at the time of writing, Pennsylvania has just rolled over to the 'M' series in the ABC-1234 format, beginning with MBA-0000, and New York will soon roll over to the 'L' series in the same format, beginning with LAA-1000). And I'll continue to look for and read newspaper articles about license plates, and follow the ALPCA Plate of the Year competition.

Obviously, life on Wikipedia - and, indeed, on all its license plate articles - will continue without me. But it's good to see that there are plenty of other license plate fans editing these articles - and I'm sure there'll be even more in the future, too. :) I wish each and every one of these fans nothing but luck - though I do recommend following my example and taking Wikibreaks, or indeed stopping altogether, if they become disillusioned and/or they feel that editing these articles is not greatly fulfilling.

So that's it. All that remains is for me to say goodbye, and thanks for the experience. :)

Kind regards,

Klondike53226 (talk) 11:10, 15 August 2022 (UTC)