User talk:Curtis85

Welcome
-- PBS (talk) 17:14, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Your articles
I have copy-edited Dutch 7th Infantry Battalion, but it needs citations to reliable sources if its content is to be kept. Please see WP:SOURCES and WP:RS for what are reliable sources is. See WP:CITE for how to cite reliable sources. Also see WP:PROVEIT as to why all articles have to have reliable sources.

I have copy-edited Brigade van Bylandt, but I am not at all sure that an article on this subject is needed. The formation was a temporary one, created by staff officers for the duration of the campaign. Why not redirect it to the appropriate entry in Order of battle of the Waterloo Campaign?

-- PBS (talk) 18:49, 1 January 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for providing a host of sources, however please see WP:PROVEIT and WP:CITE he citations need to be inline. If you do not understand what this means then please leave a message on my talk page. If you look at this short biography it may help you understand what is required in the way of inline citations: -- PBS (talk) 02:07, 3 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Friedrich Wilhelm von Goedecke

Unfortunate spelling error in title Brigade van Bylandt
I have to draw your attention to a capitalization error in the title of the article Brigade van Bylandt that you initiated. First of all, there is some ambiguity in that title. If you intended the title to be in the Dutch language the title would have to be "Brigade van Van Bylandt" as the surname of the general-commanding was Van Bylandt. Dutch surnames with separable affixes like "Van" capitalize the first prefix also (like the noun, but not following affixes, if any), except after a given name, or an initial, or a title of nobility. "Brigade" is none of these, so "Van" needs to be capitalized here (see Capitalization where you'll also find the reference to the apposite capitalization rule of the Nederlandse Taalunie, the authority in spelling matters concerning the Dutch language). But you probably intended to use a translation of the name in "military Dutch" which would be "Brigade-Van Bylandt" (note the hyphen). Similar names in this context would be "Brigade-Detmers" (1st brigade, 3rd Netherlands division) and "Brigade-Aubremé" (2nd brigade, 3rd Netherlands division). If this is the true intention the "Van" should stil be capitalized. I noticed that in the article you commit the same spelling error with "van Zuylen" which should be "Van Zuylen" under the same Dutch capitalization rule. You call "Van Bylandt" "Bylandt" in the text of the article, which is OK, as you gave the full name of Van Bylandt in the lede of the article. You'll notice that in that full name "van" is correctly not capitalized because it follows a title of nobility. Lower case would still be correct if Van Bylandt hadn't been a count, as his given names also precede the surname there. I suppose you are not a native Dutch speaker and (like many others in that position) are led astray by the exception to the capitalization rule. But that is just an excuse, not a reason to perpetuate it. Ironically, the name of the 2nd brigade, 2nd Netherlands division, would have to be "Brigade-von Goedecke" (the name was misspelled in the Order of battle of the Waterloo campaign article, but I have edited that) as the capitalization rules are different for German names. But Van Bylandt was Dutch. In case you wonder if Dutch name-spelling rules have to be observed by Americans, let me refer you to the Chicago Manual of Style, which says on page 315 (rule 8.13) that they indeed should obey those rules. I hope this is instructive. Ereunetes (talk) 22:22, 3 May 2023 (UTC)


 * I just looked at the revision history of this talk-page and saw that it has not been "seen" by you in a very long time, so you'll probably remain unaware of the above comments. Just for the record, I have put a proposal to change the name of the article Brigade van Bylandt to "Bylandt's brigade" on its talk-page. I intend to make the move next week. If you object, please do that on the talk-page of the article. Ereunetes (talk) 22:39, 4 May 2023 (UTC)