Talk:Alfred Newton

Disambig link
Why do we have a disambig link to a page that does not exist?! Macdonald-ross (talk) 17:53, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Spelling
Just to note that the spelling in quotations is exactly as given in the source, and therefore should not be changed by spell-bots. Macdonald-ross (talk) 18:59, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Referencing - suggest the article contains separate Notes and References sections
I believe that this article would be easier to read if it contained a Notes section containing Harvard style citations and a separate References section containing the full references of the cited sources. I'm seeking a consensus on this talk page to make this change.

When I came to the article I was confused by the "W p104" syntax used and also initially thought that p112-4 in reference 11 referred to pages in Macmillans Magazine (actually p241) rather than in Wollaston 1921. I was also surprised to find that the external links were actually to scanned copies of the publications referenced in the text. It is more usual to link to these scanned images when giving the full reference to the publication. For reference 13 - W p118-120 - I've demonstrated how the pages can be linked to the page images. I find this useful - but would expect "Wollaston 1921, pp. 118-120". I consider the Internet Archive and Google books to be wonderful resources that Wikipedia should exploit. Very few libraries will have Wollaston's book to allow the reader to check the facts in the article. Where convenient I would prefer to use the Harv and the Citation/Cite templates as I find them useful in maintaining consistency. Aa77zz (talk) 11:05, 16 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I'm almost a one-man consensus, because most of the content comes from me. I do content, that's me. My grasp of the wizardry of WP is limited, and am happy there are others able to handle the technical bits. I had thought, in my innocence, that the note to ref 1 would avoid all problems.
 * Personally, I avoid meaningless punctuation, and if full name is used would put "Wollaston 1921 p118–120". It is all too easy for reference sets to carry a huge load of needless uppercase letters, spaces, full points, commas, parentheses... &c &c. Anyway, I'd be quite content if you go ahead and make whatever changes you feel are appropriate. And thank you for taking the interest. Alfred Newton has been underestimated for a long time, but he had interesting things to say. His take on the Hux/Wilberforce debate is priceless, and was unknown to quite a few who wrote papers on the subject. Macdonald-ross (talk) 12:59, 16 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Many thanks for your rapid response. I agree that it is good to have another take on the Hux/Wilberforce debate. I found the original Macmillan's Mag article on the Internet Archive. I'll include this in the article. Although Google scanned the volume - it is not available from Google - I don't understand what is going on - it isn't a question of copyright - perhaps libraries believe that Google is becoming too powerful. I've made a start by creating a References section - currently only containing Wollaston 1921 - and converting the inline citations to use the Harvnb template. In doing so I came across some W## citations in the actual text. I intend to do more with the references. Aa77zz (talk) 14:16, 16 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the Macmillan's Mag article link is a real plus. I had never read the whole article, just the excerpt in the biography. Macdonald-ross (talk) 08:41, 17 September 2009 (UTC)
 * I was a bit disappointed when I read the "Early days of Darwinism". It covers his personal experences and not the bigger picture. As with Darwin, letters are much more revealing than public statements. I've just looked at Newton's list of publications on pages 316-324 in Wollaston. I think you did a good job in just selecting a few - and highlighting his efforts in protecting wildlife. Aa77zz (talk) 11:57, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

External links modified
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