User talk:BIO267 F13 04

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Better source request for File:Nocturnal Bats.jpg
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 * File:Nocturnal Bats.jpg

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Disambiguation link notification for November 20
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Antipredator adaptation
Hi, thanks for your edits in this article, which certainly needed attention. However, we need to take care to keep it in balance and not to dive too rapidly into technicalities. In general we don't need to say "studies by Dr X and Prof Y proved that A causes B", it's enough to say "A causes B" and to give the ref to the paper by X and Y.

On the specific matter of "uniqueness", we only use the term if we actually mean that an instance is the one and only occurrence of something - a circle is unique among polygons in being the only one that has no corners, for instance. Being 'noteworthy' is none too good either, as we only include facts that are indeed noteworthy. So I hope you won't mind if such claims get copy-edited out - there's a reason for it. All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 22:17, 20 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I see you are starting to edit-war over "unique", which is a deprecated behaviour here on Wikipedia. Please refer to unique, which defines the term as "Being the only one of its kind; unequaled, unparalleled or unmatched." Let us please use the term in that sense; I am aware there are other meanings which Wiktionary rightly states are "disputed", let's avoid them as at best too colloquial for use in an article. I hope we can agree on that.Chiswick Chap (talk) 22:28, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

(copying here from my talk page to avoid splitting discussion)

Is there another term that is more appropriate than the word "unique?" We did not realize there is a specific meaning to the word that Wikipedia uses, and our backup choice was the word "noteworthy" which is also a term you suggest is inappropriate. Does the term "atypical" work better? BIO267 F13 04 (talk) 22:36, 20 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Hallo, and thank you for turning to discussion rather than battle. Well, you seem to be looking for an adjective, which is very likely the cause of the difficulty in itself. If we do need to use one here, then 'atypical' might be the right one, but its usage, whether in the main text or (especially) in a section heading implies one of two things:
 * a) that you are expressing your opinion, which Wikipedia calls a Point of View, not encyclopedic, or
 * b) that Bloggs, Smithers and Robinson (1927) called it that, in which case you must say so, and cite B, S, and R at once ("Citation Needed"). Of course, if you merely interpret them to have MEANT that it was 'atypical', that is again your theory, and WP calls your invention Original Research, which is the job of a research lab, not of an encyclopedia.
 * The upshot of this extended theorizing is simply to say that adjectives are generally not a terribly good idea in articles, unless you quote and cite them directly from reliable sources. Hope this all helps - it may keep you from banging your head against a lot of Wiki-walls. Chiswick Chap (talk) 04:22, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

BTW this is not a special Wikisense of 'unique', but the plain dictionary definition, try OED or Webster. It may help to know that uni- comes from Latin for 'one'. Unique = one-off. Chiswick Chap (talk) 04:24, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Dear Chiswick Chap: We are Duke University students editing this page as an assignment for our Evolution of Animal Behavior class. We do not mean to start a "battle" but rather are trying to edit this page for our class. I'm sorry this has turned into an editing battle but our goal is truly to improve the page as I feel we have done with our extensive work. Bio267
 * Right, we are making progress, and glad to hear it. One thing, if there are several of you, you really each ought to have a separate Wiki-account rather than a joint one, that's policy too. Should be done right away. Chiswick Chap (talk) 19:14, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

Possibly unfree File:Nocturnal Bats.jpg
A file that you uploaded or altered, File:Nocturnal Bats.jpg, has been listed at Possibly unfree files because its copyright status is unclear or disputed. If the file's copyright status cannot be verified, it may be deleted. You may find more information on the file description page. You are welcome to add comments to its entry at if you object to the listing for any reason. Thank you. Stefan2 (talk) 23:16, 1 January 2016 (UTC)