User talk:Firstorm

Welcome to Wikipedia!!!
Swem is spelled with one "m" rather two. (Referencing your correction to "Flat Hat Club")

Flat Hat Club
You say you are a former president of this society, and that's your cite for saying that the society's secret words are Latin. Well, I'm a former vice-president of this society, and at the time I was, it was the commonly held view that the words were probably English. You say you've done a detailed study of the society - could you reproduce that somewhere online? What's your evidence that the words were Latin? Boxjam 23:15, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Nice cleanup of the prose in the Sea Shepherd article. Thank you for your good work! I'll leave you with this standard template message to help you further explore Wikipedia. Sancho McCann 02:40, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Welcome! Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. The following links will help you begin editing on Wikipedia:
 * The Five Pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
 * Editing tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

Please bear these points in mind while editing Wikipedia:
 * Please respect others' copyrights; do not copy and paste the contents from webpages directly.
 * Please use a neutral point of view when editing articles; this is possibly the most important Wikipedia policy.
 * If you are testing, please use the Sandbox to do so.
 * Do not add unreasonable contents into any articles, such as: copyrighted text, advertisement messages, and text that is not related to an article's subject. Adding such unreasonable information or otherwise editing articles maliciously is considered vandalism, and will result in your account being blocked.

The Wikipedia Tutorial is a good place to start learning about Wikipedia. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: &#126;&#126;&#126;&#126; (the software will replace them with your signature and the date). Again, welcome!

Citing sources
Since you asked (when correcting Juan Bautista Alberdi), you can cite bibliography as a source (WP:CITE). Or you can simply make a new section called "Bibliography" and list the books there. The code should look like this:

Zimbabwe
Thanks for those edits to Zimbabwe - great work! Perspicacite 00:30, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Famous Macedonia
Hi, the original version said "Βούλγαρους" and that was later substituted with the word "βάρβαρους", not the other way around.--   Avg     20:11, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The phrasing, "Y was substituted for X", indicates that "X" was employed first and "Y", next. The phrasing, "X was substituted with Y", is not a native construction and does not clearly indicate anything, but could imply that "Y" was employed first and "X", second. Firstorm (talk) 02:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Repair of von Weizsacker article
Hi. I completed your repair of the article on Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker. The problem was that when you removed the garbage, you accidentally also removed the header which defines the infobox format. However for next time, an easy way to revert recent vandalism is to find the last non-vandalized version, in this case the one on Dec. 6, and perform a null edit on that version. This means open the good edit, click on Edit this page, which gives you a warning that subsequent edits will be lost. But that is what you want, so just save it. The edit summary can be "Revert last 4 edits - vandalism (or spam if you like)". This works as long as there have been no useful edits subsequent to the vandalism. Dirac66 (talk) 03:09, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, "Dirac66". And thanks, too, for putting this notice here, where I can check it against a fading memory. Firstorm (talk) 16:11, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Your edits to French nobility, etc
I've called for the name of the Nobility particle page to be corrected. If nobody complains (and when I remember) I'll do it. --Old Moonraker (talk) 06:47, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, O.M. I'd never heard or seen "nobility particle" used before I read the article (I suspect that the wording was invented by a self-taught writer in English, though with the current push here in the States to replace adjectives with nouns, I really don't know). Just how does one go about correcting titles of articles? Firstorm (talk) 02:07, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Done. Method here. Best. --Old Moonraker (talk) 06:16, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Barnstar
Wow! I'm surprised and, yes, flattered. Thanks! Firstorm (talk) 02:19, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

Grammar of "handfuls"
The Oxford English Dictionary says: "Though composed, like mouthful, of n. and adj., the compound was in OE. and ME. a true n., inflected as a whole; hence its plural is properly handfuls, not handsful." David Underdown (talk) 15:00, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Mr. Underdown. Firstorm (talk) 18:08, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Use of minor edits
Thank you for your contributions. Please remember to mark your edits as "minor" only if they truly are minor edits. In accordance with Help:Minor edit, a minor edit is one that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. Minor edits consist of things such as typographical corrections, formatting changes, or rearrangement of text without modification of content. Additionally, the reversion of clear-cut vandalism and test edits may be labeled "minor". Jrcla2 (talk) 04:04, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, "Jrcla2". I hadn't known that reversions could be labelled "minor" but now will do so. Firstorm (talk) 13:40, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Grammar of Loaned
Hi. You changed "loaned" to "lent" in the SMOM article. With respect, I have changed it back again, as the original was entirely valid, and you left no edit summary to suggest why you had made the change from one verb to another. "Lent" is the past participle of the verb "to lend", whilst "loaned" is the past participle of the verb "to loan". It has been suggested to me that "loan" may exist only as a noun in some international versions of English, but in European English it is a common transitive verb (as well as a noun, of course). Indeed, it may have advantages in some cultures (including that of SMOM), where the past participle of the verb "to lend" may cause confusion with the similarly formed ecclesiastical proper noun!  Timothy Titus Talk To TT  12:21, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Regarding the SMOM: I've no interest in battling reversions but do believe that "lent" (no, not capitalised!) is more apt than "loaned" in writing of temporary use of another's possessions. And that was taught at Winchester, forty-some years ago. Firstorm (talk) 22:04, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I know what an adjective is
At Aramaic language you changed "language family" to "linguistic family" with an edit summary to the effect: "Doesn't anyone know what an adjective is?" Yes, I know what an adjective is--it is a word that modifies a noun or nominal phrase. Nouns in English can often function as adjectives (e.g. "railroad track", "family jewels", etc.). The phrase "language family" is standard usage in the linguistic literature. "Language family" means a family containing languages on the analogy of "coin purse". "Linguistic family" is not used in the literature at all in this sense. The Sapirs (father Edward, son David) might be called a "linguistic family" since the son followed in the father's footsteps as a linguist. Contemporary English is not nearly so constrained (and never was actually) as our secondary school teachers 40 years ago led us to believe. It is a vibrant and ever-changing language. --Taivo (talk) 15:27, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

A singular noun can be used as an adjective, particularly if the noun lack an adjectival form; "language" does not. But, yes, "Taivo", my native tongue is changing rapidly. I regret that most of those changes reduce the precision and subtlety of an extraordinary language. Firstorm (talk) 15:38, 28 July 2010 (UTC)

Copyedit
You did a wonderful copyedit at Darius I of Persia. If you have the time, could you clean up Ahura Mazda as well? warrior 4321   04:34, 1 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks! Yes, I'll try to do so fairly soon.  Firstorm (talk) 12:33, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

Likewise from WikiProject Namibia: Many thanks for the recent work on Oorlam people and Windhoek. Always a bit difficult for non-native speakers... feel free to visit our other 1759 pages ;P Cheers, Pgallert (talk) 15:41, 29 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your kind comment, PGallert. I enjoyed the work and look forward to more.  Firstorm (talk) 01:59, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

Use of minor edit flag
Thank you for your contributions. Please remember to mark your edits as "minor" only if they truly are minor edits. In accordance with Help:Minor edit, a minor edit is one that the editor believes requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. Minor edits consist of things such as typographical corrections, formatting changes, or rearrangement of text without modification of content. Additionally, the reversion of clear-cut vandalism and test edits may be labeled "minor". Thank you. --John (talk) 17:55, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Again, could you please uncheck the "minor edits" box unless the edits you are making are actually minor? Thanks. --John (talk) 18:07, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I think that I'm doing so. If you'd like to PM examples to me, perhaps I'd understand your concerns better.  Firstorm (talk) 18:19, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * This was the one that caught my eye. It isn't minor. I found a bunch more on looking through your contributions. Please don't do this. Thanks. --John (talk) 18:22, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Ah, I see that you may have been offended by a change to your writing! Well, of course you may change it back; but "to set afire" and "to set on fire" are virtually identical in meaning, with chiefly a stylistic difference between the two (there is no "modification of content").  Clearly, I prefer the change I made; but I've no proprietary feelling and certainly won't revert your reversion.  And I do regret giving offense.  Firstorm (talk) 18:30, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * You misunderstand; I was not offended and did not write the material you changed. I just wanted to ask you not to use the minor edit flag for edits like these as they do not fall within the definition of a minor edit. As I said, I found a bunch of other non-minor edits that were mislabeled and I also notice you have been previously warned for this. Thanks, --John (talk) 18:35, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm relieved that you are not -- were not -- offended, as no offense was intended. However, I fail to see how changing "setting on fire" to "setting afire" is not a "minor change"; I think it a stylistic improvement, not a change to the sense of the article.  Again, if you think otherwise, do send me a PM in explanation.  Firstorm (talk) 18:38, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * "Minor edits consist of things such as typographical corrections, formatting changes, or rearrangement of text without modification of content." Your "stylistic improvement" is a (minor) modification of content. Therefore it is not a minor edit. --John (talk) 18:50, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Well, then, consider it a "rearrangement of text without modification of content." How do you see "setting afire" as differing in meaning from "setting on fire"?  If a reasonable distinction could be made in actual sense of the intended content, I'd understand how change from one to the other might be considered as other than "minor".  Otherwise, I continue to see the revision as a "minor change".  Again, I'd prefer a private message, "John"; I'd rather not reply just now nor clutter this page.  Firstorm (talk) 18:58, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Here's another example. This was not a minor edit either. I am sorry to labor the point but it is important to me for you to realize and acknowledge that you cannot mislabel your edits as minor as you have been doing. Can you do that? --John (talk) 19:25, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Again, "John", I do not understand how you distinguish "setting afire" from "setting on fire" in essential meaning. Again, I'd be grateful if you'd do so.  Will you, please?  That will help me to understand what you see as a "minor change" and as not one.  Firstorm (talk) 19:58, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * It is not my job to give lessons in basic English. If you don't understand that changing "on fire" to "afire" is not a minor edit, I am worried that you will be blocked. If you make any more edits like this one and label them as minor you are likely to be blocked. If you realize your mistake and do not repeat it, even though you lack the courage to admit it, that will also work, though it is kind of lame. Once again, please do not mislabel non-minor edits as minor. Thanks. --John (talk) 20:23, 10 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Indeed, "John", I do not think that a distinction in basic meaning can be drawn between "setting afire" (not "to afire") and "setting on fire". And, yes, we may view your refusal to do so while maintaining that a distinction in essential meaning does exist as -- well, I'm not here to fight anyone.  Firstorm (talk) 20:28, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Abolitionists
I saw you were adding the nationalities of a few people at the 1840 convention. I have a draft article on the convention that gives nearly all the nationalities and some other stuff. If you are interested then you may have it... otherwise ... thanks anyway. Victuallers (talk) 10:14, 19 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I am interested, both for the article here and as a former historian -- thanks! Firstorm (talk) 10:16, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Cleanup at Mahar
Saw your exasperation at Talk:Mahar, and just wanted to let you know I've done a basic teardown of bad material, and will be looking for new and better material to improve it. Are you interested in lending a hand? MatthewVanitas (talk) 16:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

You're invited! New England Wikimedia General Meeting
Message delivered by Dominic at 09:11, 11 April 2012 (UTC). Note: You can remove your name from this meetup invite list here.

2nd Annual Wikimedia New England General Meeting
You are invited to the 2nd Annual Wikimedia New England General Meeting, on 20 July 2013 in Boston! We will be talking about the future of the chapter, including GLAM, Wiki Loves Monuments, and where we want to take our chapter in the future! EdwardsBot (talk) 10:05, 16 July 2013 (UTC)

New England Wikipedia Day @ MIT: Saturday Jan 18
(You can unsubscribe from future notifications for Boston-area events by removing your name from this list.)

You're invited!
(You can unsubscribe from future notifications for Boston-area events by removing your name from this list.)

This Friday: Women in Architecture edit-a-thon @ Cambridge, MA
You are invited to join the Women in Architecture edit-a-thon @ Cambridge, MA on October 16! (drop-in any time, 6-9pm)--Pharos (talk) 18:28, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:33, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

October 2016
Hello. This is a message to let you know that one or more of your recent contributions, such as the edit you made to Ruben Salazar, did not appear constructive and has been undone. Please take some time to familiarise yourself with our policies and guidelines. You can find information about these at our welcome page which also provides further information about contributing constructively to this encyclopedia. If you only meant to make test edits, please use the sandbox for that. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you may leave a message on my talk page. ''Just a tip: You can remove the bias which you see in the article by making simpler, less obtrusive changes. This kind of editing simply annoys other Wikipedians who have to clean up after you. '' BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 23:11, 19 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Interesting. Reverting the edit both restores grammatical errors and reintroduces argumentative assertion of political views. Ought not Wikipedia seek neutrality in all matters? Firstorm (talk) 00:30, 20 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, there is a way to do what you want; nevertheless, it seemed to me that you substituted one set of biased statements for another. You could have simply removed them, as I did here. Sincerely, your friend, BeenAroundAWhile (talk) 22:15, 21 October 2016 (UTC)

Sunday July 16: New England Wiknic @ Cambridge, MA
(You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future notifications for Boston-area events by adding or removing your name from this list.)

Conrad Richter editions
Apologies - I see that "Perpetual Reader" was responsible for the initial changes - I mistakenly thought your cleaning up of the language was the original post. Unfortunately, I can't contact Zolasattic, the mysterious Amazon reviewer, and I did leave a message for PR, so I hope to have some clarification. As I wrote initially, there are no substantial changes in the Ohio University Press editions, so I am really curious as to what motivated the claims on Amazon that were repeated on Wikipedia. Thanks again for the quick response.

Puritans edits
Hey. Just wanted to leave a friendly reminder that, per MOS:BOLDLEAD, the first mention of the article title in the lead should be displayed in bold. Also, per MOS:WORDSASWORDS, editors are supposed to use italics when writing about words as words—as in the Terminology section. Have a nice day! Ltwin (talk) 01:46, 29 December 2018 (UTC)

Your edit at Richard Lynn
I've reverted you for two reasons - "(although the idea of innate intelligence has existed from time immemorial" wasn't sourced and can't be sourced, and the rest was also not sourced as we don't use our articles as sources (at least I assume that's what you were doing, I could be wrong). Doug Weller  talk 14:37, 31 May 2019 (UTC)

Kurdistan Region
For what reason do you believe that it should be "Flag of Kurdistani Region" when it's sufficient with "Flag of Kurdistan". --Ahmedo Semsurî (talk) 23:34, 6 June 2019 (UTC)

ANI
You were not reverting Ahmedo Semsurî at ANI; you were reverting me. My removal of the IP's edit was per WP:DENY. Leave it alone.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:14, 7 June 2019 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll gladly leave it alone. Although I do find the entire matter confusing. Firstorm (talk) 17:16, 7 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks. It's fairly straightforward. There have been a slew of sock IPs attacking Ahmedo Semsurî in various venues. The one at ANI is another.--Bbb23 (talk) 17:35, 7 June 2019 (UTC)

No personal attacks on wikipedia
Please stop attacking other editors. If you continue, you may be blocked from editing. Comment on content, not on other contributors or people. Horse Eye Jack (talk) 17:11, 12 August 2019 (UTC)


 * "Horse Eye", I make no personal attacks, even if the editor be ignorant or inarticulate. I do, however, support Wikipedia as an instrument for publication of objectively verifiable information, not of editors' personal beliefs. Is that troubling? Firstorm (talk) 21:44, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for November 10
Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. An automated process has detected that when you recently edited George Fox University, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Baccalaureate ([//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dablinks.py/George_Fox_University check to confirm] | [//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dab_solver.py/George_Fox_University?client=notify fix with Dab solver]). Such links are usually incorrect, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of unrelated topics with similar titles. (Read the FAQ* Join us at the DPL WikiProject.)

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 07:47, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Discretionary sanctions alert
– Muboshgu (talk) 20:44, 13 November 2019 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for April 10
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Greyfriars Bobby (novel), you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Scots ([//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dablinks.py/Greyfriars_Bobby_%28novel%29 check to confirm] | [//dispenser.info.tm/~dispenser/cgi-bin/dab_solver.py/Greyfriars_Bobby_%28novel%29?client=notify fix with Dab solver]).

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 12:58, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

ArbCom 2022 Elections voter message
 Hello! Voting in the 2022 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2022 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:31, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

May 2023
Please do not add or change content, as you did at College of William & Mary, without citing a reliable source. Please review the guidelines at Citing sources and take this opportunity to add references to the article. Thank you. Pbritti (talk) 22:04, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

September 2023
Hello. In a recent edit, you changed one or more words or styles from one national variety of English to another. Because Wikipedia has readers from all over the world, our policy is to respect national varieties of English in Wikipedia articles.

For a subject exclusively related to the United Kingdom (for example, a famous British person), use British English. For something related to the United States in the same way, use American English. For something related to another English-speaking country, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, India, or Pakistan, use the variety of English used there. For an international topic, use the form of English that the first author of the article used.

In view of that, please don't change articles from one version of English to another, even if you don't normally use the version in which the article is written. Respect other people's versions of English. They, in turn, should respect yours. Other general guidelines on how Wikipedia articles are written can be found in the Manual of Style. If you have any questions about this, you can ask me on my talk page or visit the help desk. Thank you. TEDickey (talk) 18:54, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message
 Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:26, 28 November 2023 (UTC)

Disambiguation link notification for December 17
An automated process has detected that when you recently edited Michelle Wu, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Baccalaureate.

(Opt-out instructions.) --DPL bot (talk) 06:07, 17 December 2023 (UTC)