User talk:Dvyost/Talk Archive 11/11/05 - 12/14/05

help
How do i change the title to the Fourth & Town article, it is actually spelled, 'Forth and Town. how do i write a comment such as this on your talk page? Atacama 09:54, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment moved from user page.


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 21:52, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Côte d'Ivoire —> Ivory Coast move
I have no idea what you opinion is on this, but I thought I'd give you a heads up that Côte d'Ivoire is currently up for move to Ivory Coast. If you have any opinions on the matter, check out Talk:Côte d'Ivoire. —BrianSmithson 22:56, 11 November 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm actually quite in agreement with you here--thanks for pointing that one out. It's Cote d'Ivoire in the map on my wall, and if it's good enough for my map, it's good enough for Wikipedia... --Dvyost 23:13, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Merci beaucoup!
C'est fini! On m'a sysoppé. Grand merci pour l'investiture. Maintenant, je peut bien utiliser le balai à franges de flanquer un coup aux vandales. Ou bien de me claquer. . . . Mais, puis-j'avoir une serpillière plutôt? Je me suis plus habitué à utiliser ça. Thanks again! —BrianSmithson 15:54, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Côte d'Ivoire
I probably would not have noticed that this change was proposed if it had not come up on the mailing list, where there was an accusation of block voting on the part of the French speakers. My "herd ignorance" comment was probably a little softer that the "racism" that I called it on the mailing list. I also object to the way Jtdirl has been posting in the vote. Limiting voters to one line of comment with the vote is reasonable, and that should not give the green light for lenghthy rebuttals. In the extreme, the response to oppose vote #3, those comments cannot be read in their entirety without scrolling.

My view on this has not changed from the time that I commented on this on March 14, 2002. My first impression then was to promote the change, but then I did a little research. The United Nations officially lists and seats its member states in the General Assembly based on the English Alphabetical order. I believe this is because the United States, as host country, is English speaking.

To be sure the list of names used by the United Nations is full of strange inconsistencies. Macedonia is alphabetized under "The", and the democracy of the two countries listed as "Democratic" may be viewed with suspicion by many.

There are four member states using the Roman script where it appears that the native form used is different from what the anglicizers would have. Côte d'Ivoire is the only member state to retain a diacritic in its name. São Tomé and Príncipe uses this hybrid form without the diacritics. Timor-Leste has insisted on the Portuguese form, and Suriname retains the final "e" that is normally dropped in English. Eclecticology 19:25, 14 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Responded there. --Dvyost 18:48, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Quantrill Response
(from your message on my page). I'll make a point of digging that out; and please note I was careful to use the term "apocryphal". 19th Century British Columbia is crawling with hideaway criminals, bandits, thieves, and errant nobles and remittance men; and there are deep-South roots in BC's early history, as the bulk of the migration from California had been from the South. Many stayed, but most returned to the US for other gold rushes and, more often than not, the Civil War. There's a few better-known Civil War-related Americans in BC's history I've been meaning to write up; a certain Philadelphia lawyer named Ned McGowan, on the lam from the Vigilance Committee in SF no less, who's pretty high-profile in the opening months of the Colony's existence. Others, too; but I know how controversial the Quantrille story is and will back it up with the book reference; it's a popular history and I don't know ITS source. There's a huge stockpile of British Columbia-related American corresondence and memorabilia at the Bancroft Library in San Francisco, by the way, which largely hasn't been studied at all.

In the case of Quantrille, I gather from other knowledge of police investigations and use of legal power in BC that there might have been some substance to the men's allegations that the man they had killed was Quantrille. British investigation practices and all that; they were pretty thorough; can't remember what happened to the men involved; I think they got out of Victoria before the law got them. If it had been Quantrille and the law had found him out first, I'm not sure there would have been a trial as there were no war crimes charges in those days, and the British weren't particular about extraditing anyone to the US for any reason. Might have provoked an international incident if his presence had been discovered and publicized while he was alive, and BC/Ottawa/London didn't want him extradited for whatever reason. Anyway, promise to provide reference; glad you liked the item.Skookum1 01:52, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Ibn Hawqal
No problem, we should get an answer on where he got the information from... he needs to cite it and it looks like a paraphrase of the cite you gave to me... so, it's good if it gets us an answer on that issue. gren グレン 07:27, 17 November 2005 (UTC)

African COTW
I've added a nomination for Black Consciousness Movement. I'm hoping I can help you save this COTW by putting up a recent subject which was quite notable, and may generate some real improvements. I'd appreciate your support. Thanks. Harro5 06:10, 18 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 06:13, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

Congo Railroad Company
I finally got to reading your comments on the talk page from over three weeks ago.

I think we should move the page to the other name but am a little confused about what the then empty Congo Railroad Comapany page should say. I could make a one sentance stub with a little note about the other article, but I'm against makeing an "article" that short.Comments? Suggestions? Cheers to Wikipedia! Wikifun- Banana04131 23:57, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the message
I will pursue a block on the IP. Have a barnstar and Happy Holidays!



Take care,  ε  γκυκλοπαίδεια  *   (talk)  03:30, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Hi from a vandal
HELLO 8)


 * Hi! Guess you got my message on the talk page--why not join us and do some real editing?  There's lots of good articles left to be written.  =)  Thanks for dropping by... --Dvyost 06:48, 28 November 2005 (UTC) I AM TRYING!!! 8)

Linking to subheads
Hi, I'm taking up your invite to ask you Qs, as I can't work out how to use the Village Pump! What is Wiki-consensus on linking, not to an article but to a heading within an article? I've found this coming up a lot, as a place, person or event may not be significant enough to get its own article, but is nonetheless usefully explained somewhere. JackyR 03:00, 29 November 2005 (UTC) (oops!)


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 01:54, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Cheers. One example is the article I've just been working on, John de Cobham, 3rd Baron Cobham, which includes a reference to the Wardens and Commonalty of Rochester Bridge. As yet there ain't no page for the Bridge Wardens, and I'm not in a hurry to make one - indeed I'm not sure I should have wiki-ed the name. But the Bridge Wardens are a significant presence in the Medway Towns, pop up in A2_road already, and could well acquire references in Rochester, Kent, Strood and other areas where they own land, fund colleges, etc.


 * I guess in this case the John de Cobham article is so tiny one can hardly miss the Bridge Wardens - but what do I call the link? Under the principle of least astonishment I can hardly link Rochester Bridge Wardens to J de C. Perhaps: 'See under John de Cobham, 3rd Baron Cobham', but that's hardly inviting if one's interested in the prosaic A2.


 * Other examples were:
 * Cooling Castle, which is currently under Hoo Peninsula - I'm pulling a lot of the material out into a separate Cooling, Kent article (in progress), which will solve this particular eg, but you get the prob.
 * In Chatham Dockyard, under Defence of the Dockyard, is a list of the local forts and defensive lines. These x-ref to the list of Castles (defence of the Medway), and many to their own articles. The separate forts can only be understood in the context of the overall defence of the Dockyard, so I'd like each separate article to link there. (One of my projects at the moment is to make all those little fort articles coherent.)


 * Thoughts most welcome! JackyR 03:00, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

Moving a page
...And with another finger in another pie, I'd like to move the page Stephen Gray. There are two Stephen Grays of (as far as I can tell) roughly equal standing. One is an C18th astronomer in Canterbury, UK, the other a C20th poet in South Africa List of South African writers. It's not an uncommon name, so my inclination is to: a) move the existing C18th Gray to Stephen Gray (scientist), b) delete the existing page Stephen Gray c) create a disambiguation page Stephen Gray d) create a page Stephen Gray (writer) This is cumbersome, and would need the help of an Admin such as your fine self, but I think would result in the most appropriate set of pages from the reader's point of view (esp as 'Stephen Gray' also appears under Grey (disambiguation). (Did I mention that I used to be a book editor... and a mathematician... and eligible for Micropedants Anonymous...?) JackyR 18:31, 29 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 05:42, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

School Vandalism
These following addresses are all school IP's

While there are some freshman who have been vandalizing pages, I try to correct as needed and several times this last year I've found the school blocked from editing for a day or two. Are there any workarounds for this do you think?

User_talk:68.224.164.101 User_talk:68.224.164.102 User_talk:68.224.164.103 User_talk:68.224.164.104 User_talk:68.224.164.105 User_talk:68.224.164.106

Deltaspectre 22:56, 2 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 23:11, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Gratitude
thanks very much for a barnstar whose content is clearly a unique honor. Joewright 06:17, 3 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 06:18, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Isaaq
Oops! That was quick. Thanks for your help! -- Gyrofrog (talk) 19:17, 7 December 2005 (UTC)


 * No problem--thanks for the catch! --Dvyost 19:18, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Deeceevoice RFC
I'm sad that you view the Deeceevoice RFC as "ill-conceived and already turning into a gratuitious racial pile-on". An RfC is the standard next step in dispute resolution, after trying to discuss it on her talk page (and getting nothing but invective). What would you suggest? &mdash; Matt Crypto 17:26, 8 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I posted a more expanded version of my comment at the RfC itself--discussing there would probably be the most useful. I want to say, though, that I do think your edit summary was a model of fairness and even-handedness, and I'm sorry that my comment there rather implied that I didn't; I'm about to give a final exam and working in haste this morning.  =)   --Dvyost 17:37, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

My failed RFA :)
Dear Dyyost, I would like to thank you for supporting me on my RfA. Even though it failed with a with the final tally of 55/22/6, I want to thank you anyways. I don't want to be one a admin anymore until I reach 10,000 edits now that it's over with. Thanks --Jaranda wat's sup 03:17, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

personal remarks
Dyvost,

You might take a look at the "Avoid Personal Remarks" policy. Messages on talk pages inviting editors to comment on an RfC do not violate this policy.

''If you have opinions about other contributors as people, they don't belong there — or frankly, anywhere on Wikipedia. Wikipedia prospers on people working together toward improving articles. Anything else – especially attacks directed specifically at users – detracts from the wonderful thing that we are creating here.''

rfc messages are about user conduct not users "as people"

(Unsigned message from User:Justforasecond)

good luck
hey dyvost -- good luck on your finals -Justforasecond 23:47, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Africa Award
Hey, I'd appreciate it if you could check out User:BrianSmithson/Africa Award and give me your feedback on the talk page. I've been meaning to create something like this for a while. The idea (which I cribbed from WikiProject:Theatre's Tilly Blobbs Award) is to have something users can give editors who are doing good work on Africa-related stuff.

I thought about calling it the "Baobab Award" and using this image, but there's a guy standing in front of the tree!

I'm not sure about the title, even the image, just yet. I wanted something iconic of Africa but that wouldn't seem exploitative. If I did the "bush taxi award", for example, that'd probably be in bad taste. That left me with flora, fauna, and geographical formations. I suppose a mask or something would work, too, but I can't find any good ones on Commons. Any suggestions? I'm also going to post a note on the regional notification board. —BrianSmithson 19:59, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

AU stubs
yeah the stubs i haven't alphabatized because it's just alof work that i'm doing and that just adds to it i'll try harder to remedy that. Actuallly i have a requestcould you tinker with and try to increase the number of articles in the Caribbean Community artice. Briaboru 00:47, 13 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 02:39, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

removing vandalism
hey dyvost,

i thought it was pretty much standard course to remove vandalism/personal attacks from user pages. deecee wanted to retain *some* of the vandalism while she was editing, but now that she's gone i don't think we should have people stomping all over her talk page; it just makes wikipedia look bad. anyway no big deal, if her friends want it to go untouched i'll leave it be.

-Justforasecond 05:15, 13 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Replied there. --Dvyost 08:33, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for support
Thanks to everyone for their support. I've now had time to clear my head. I agree that we can't back down to the idiots who drove out Deeceevoice. Personally, I hope she returns but until then we've got work to do. I'd strongly suggest that everyone keep an eye out for users engaging in racism and bias. I'm also hoping that we will keep in touch about this issue and let each other know when we encounter racist editors and such. Any other ideas how to combat this?--Alabamaboy 15:05, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

hey dyvost
Sorry I think this may be a misunderstanding; whoever put that there was not being supportive of deeceevoice. I'm pretty sure it was suppposed to be sarcastic. I don't think any of her supporters (folks like jcarriker, encyclopedist, alabamaboy, etc) would say that wiki was overrun with "racist whities" (not whites) and that we need more "tough biotches to stand up to them". It sounds a little bit like User:Blackpower. Read it a couple of times and see who its easier to imagine putting that there, an agent provocateur, or a true supporter. Anyway! :)  -Justforasecond 15:57, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

Africa Award


I think you've earned one of these for your work on List of missing Africa topics, among others. Congrats! — BrianSmithson 12:57, 14 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Warmly seconded by me! Your work has greatly improved our coverage of African topics of all kinds and you are the king of DYK. Keep it up! &mdash; mark &#9998; 13:06, 14 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks, fellas. The kind words are much appreciated!  --Dvyost 16:42, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for my Africa award - I'll wear it with pride! Warofdreams talk 17:10, 14 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Thank you for mine, as well! I appreciate the kind comments. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 17:57, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for the award and kind words, I will do my best to pass it on to others who deserve it too.--Jcw69 18:45, 14 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Heh, its kind of funny that so many editors are thanking each other for this award. But, to tell you the truth, it is nice to see that we have such a good community of editors working on articles about Africa.  I will wear my award with pride.  Thank you. Smmurphy(Talk) 21:48, 14 December 2005 (UTC)