User talk:Abu Amaal

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Rational Trigonometry
I'm having trouble with rational trigonometry, see the talk page. I'm going to chase down one of the people involved with the field theory mathematics pages and see if they want to be involved. Meanwhile, if somebody would review the discussion on Talk:rational trigonometry I would appreciate some general thoughts as to how to proceed in such cases. I seem to be getting sucked in to a rambling pointless discussion here and I could just stop, but I suspect I should have just flagged the page somehow and left a comment. And if it were made useful then NPOV would start to be an issue. I'm not really familiar with the range of options (tags and such).

I have added an 'expert' tag now.


 * Hello. It's a shame you found yourself in a content dispute, but well, we all do from time to time. The mentality is to keep an open mind and remain civil. Now from where you are at now, it is best to go to dispute resolution. Make sure you follow the correct guidelines at that page. Pepsidrinka 17:04, 12 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but having reviewed the dispute resolution page I don't see how it applies. The disagreement lies entirely on the talk page already. My concern is how to move the page itself forward, and I don't really want to edit it. The page you reference appears to concern edit wars, and to date there is none. But I will explore it. (NB: I hope you have my talk page on watch at the moment. I would also appreciate guidance on forms of communication - are these comments of mine in the correct place?) Abu Amaal 17:46, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Sent for the Cabal. Which seems premature but cannot possibly hurt. Abu Amaal 18:20, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Your mediation request

 * Not until I understand the layout here a lot better than I currently do. Probably two years off. And my time is severely limited. I'm not sure you don't have better things to do with your time as well (which remark is kindly meant)

Out of curiosity, what and whom do you mean when you write that in a wiki form you are posting to an unknown audience? If you think mediation is a waste of time maybe you shouldn't make an attempt to use the service yourself? --Fasten 19:44, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

It's an expression of gratitude, in advance, and quite possibly misplaced. Abu Amaal 21:39, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Re: Complaint
Your comments on Talk:rational trigonometry directed at me seem inappropriate. The information is useful but you could put it on my own talk page. As you know from the information sheet you reviewd, the recommendation to seek dispute resolution came from Pepsidrinka and met with skepticism on my part. You also are aware that I stated I saw no "problem" myself, and that I requested any response should be directed to me privately. I requested advice, on my talk page, as to how to move this discussion forward in the Wikipedia environment. You can review the talk page itself if this is unclear. Pepsidrinka appeared in response to the help tag. It's nice to know you agree with me so emphatically but it's not so nice to have that point made in such an inappropariate setting. I wonder if I should edit it out. I favor a full historical record but it is certainly misplaced. I'll be watching here, or you can come over to my place.
 * No, the inappropriateness is invoking dispute resolution, in particular mediation, over a matter that hasn't even reached the point of acrimonious discussion. Do you believe everything people advise you? If it met with skepticism, why did you do it? Calling for mediation is a high-level option - see Resolving disputes - and likely to be perceived as bad faith when there are no grounds for it. Tearlach 01:00, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
 * So you see nothing inappropriate in compounding an error, knowing that that is what you are doing, and over my own request not to bother people unnecessarily. What is inappropriate is asking for help and then taking the response seriously, or expecting people to respect a request for a modicum of discretion. Clear enough. The answer to "why did you do it?" is on this page, a few lines higher up, if the question is not merely rhetorical. Anyway, we have made our views mutually clear, and we remain thoroughly dissatisfied with one another. Enough said.

public discussions of rational trigonometry?

 * if you are interested, look at the public discussions that have taken up the topic and keep your eyes open for strongly worded dissent - but only if you are interested, as it is a tedious business.

Could you tell me where to find the public discussions to which you refer? Michael Hardy 21:25, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I was simply referring to the usual use of Google, skipping over the authors' own pages, the publisher's pages, and any news accounts that don't allow comments. Any page that does allow comments will do. But don't look for very thoughtful evaluations there - for the most part the reactions are the usual sort of blog comment reactions. They serve to indicate a certain range of opinion. I reran the search and the first site with comments that came up was | this one. I was amused to see that the first comment on this page ended as follows: 'As you can see, the subject is quite controversial.' There is also a link to a discussion at Drexel of some sort that looks worth following. Last time I looked I found substantial public discussions very quickly. I also exhausted their sociological value (from my personal point of view) after a brief look. I think you'll find what you are looking for soon enough;if not, I can look again. Abu Amaal 00:25, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

P.S. forum.physorg.com was one of the ones I glanced at. And that's the sort of thing I had in mind. Abu Amaal 18:54, 14 April 2006 (UTC)