User talk:Gidonb/Archive 2009

My RfA
Gidonb, I'd like to thank you for voting in my RFA. Thanks also for expressing your trust in me, and I hope that I live up to your expectations. Don't forget, if you have any questions (or bits of advice), please leave a message on my talk page. Thanks again,  Spencer T♦C 02:38, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank to both of you for your warm words and for offering assistance. Good luck as admins! gidonb (talk) 17:43, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

CfD nomination of Category:Dutch Children's musical groups
I have nominated dutch children's musical groups for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at the discussion page. Thank you. Soap Talk/Contributions 00:18, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Note: I supported this deletion.gidonb (talk) 17:54, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Jakob Wasserman/Wassermann
Shalom, Gidon. The Jakob Wasserman page you created seems to require merging with an existing page, Jakob Wassermann. I've left a comment on the the former's Talk page and tagged it with the "Suggested Merge" template. I'd appreciate if you'd follow through by: As I have no experience with merging and am reluctant to tamper with your previous editing on a topic of which I have no knowledge, I'm turning to you for help. -- Thanks, Deborahjay (talk) 17:16, 18 December 2008 (UTC) Coda: As you appreciate civility, I suppose our exchange (see further) rates high marks. Am looking forward to collaborating with you again; do contact me if you need an assist with Holocaust content. -- Cheers, Deborahjay (talk) 05:30, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
 * editing your content into the Jakob Wassermann page
 * retaining the Jakob Wasserman page by transforming it into a Redirect page for Jakob Wassermann.
 * Thank you. I look forward to continued working with you as well! gidonb (talk) 17:43, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Dario Bellezza
Hello!

I have completed the proofreading and revised the page above by adding a significant number of sources after some reading; since you contributed to it in the past, I invite you to take a look at it, and leave any comments, feedback or suggestions on the page's talk by starting a new section. I'll watch it for a few days. Thanks! -- Campelli (talk) 00:56, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Campelli! I think I only added the Viareggio Prize template. Now I have done some more work. Mostly helping out with titles, references, and the intro. The article would benefit from organization of ideas in somewhat longer paragraphs. Other than that it already looks good. Clever move turning to all past contributors for comments. Keep up the good work! Best regards, gidonb (talk) 05:03, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * In the meantime, I also worked on the infobox. gidonb (talk) 11:56, 24 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Awesome, thanks, I'll look at expanding as soon as I have a few minutes.--Campelli (talk) 06:26, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/button_headline.png
 * You are most welcome. Good luck! gidonb (talk) 17:43, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Ramon Flecha
Note: answered at that page, already archived by now.

Hi Gidonb. First of all thank you for your contributions on my article. I would like to comment you some news in the article; I have added citations needed in the text to improve it. About your doubt, I would like to comment you that scientific contributions referenced in the text demonstrated his notability, but I can add other references to improve it; for example references of Scientific Journals as Harvard Educational Review about his contributions; Booknote - Harvard Educational Review, Do you think that I should add this kind of content?. Thanks for all. Writer28 (talk) 12:11, 27 January 2009 (UTC)


 * You are welcome. I was glad I could be of help. gidonb (talk) 17:43, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Category:History of the Roma people during World War II
I notice that this category you created is unpopulated (empty). In other words, no Wikipedia pages belong to it. If it remains unpopulated for four days, it may be deleted, without discussion, in accordance with Criteria for speedy deletion. I'm notifying you in case you wish to (re-)populate it by adding to articles/categories that belong in it.

I blanked the category page. This will not, in itself, cause the category to be deleted. It serves to document (in the page history) that the category was empty at the time of blanking and also to alert other watchers that the category is in jeopardy. You are welcome to revert the blanking if you wish. However, doing so will not prevent deletion if the category remains empty.

If you created the category in error, or it is no longer needed, you can speed up the deletion process by tagging it with db-author.

Best regards, --Stepheng3 (talk) 20:53, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Note: This name change was not according to our policies: another category was created and this was emptied and deleted as unpopulated instead of proposing a name change, however the ultimate outcomes were fine with me. gidonb (talk) 01:50, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Lists of Jews
What is the purpose of such lists on WP?? Do we now register every public Jew? And for what? I find this is way over the top. WP is not a storage for random information. Cush (talk) 18:10, 14 March 2009 (UTC)


 * The lists of people by ethnicity serve many purposes and definitely have downsides as well. Throughout the process of combining the different lists that now make up List of Dutch Jews into one article and referencing entries with independent, verifiable sources, I have detected several hoaxes, eliminated doubles, excessively wordy descriptions, improved Wikipedia qualities, formatting, readability, navigation, eliminated orphans, updated articles, interwikied, removed old stub notices, updated and inserted Wikipedia project templates etc etc. I understand from your user page that you are against all religions and I respect your personal convictions. I was not waiting for barn stars for my endless quest for improving the entries of Wikipedia, for the hours I have put into this list and will put into the list, and am fine with your critical approach, however if you want a constructive discussion on this topic I suggest that you do it on the most relevant talk page, while at least paying lip service to fact that these lists are not unique to Jews. Good luck and best regards, gidonb (talk) 17:43, 28 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Again: what is the purpose? What is the significance of someone being Jewish? We don't have lists of Catholics either or of voters of the Green party. Why does WP need lists of who adheres to what ideology? Cush (talk) 15:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Again, I am not pushing an agenda, only work hard to improve our encyclopedia. Feel free to discuss the matter at Category talk:People by race or ethnicity. In the three (!) CfDs you will find many pros and cons! gidonb (talk) 17:33, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * More discussions and one CfD were held at Category talk:Lists of Jews. See also the archived discussions. gidonb (talk) 18:02, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

Of course are you pushing an agenda. And btw Judaism does not constitute an ethnicity or even race. Ethnicity is defined by birth and genetics, not by upbringing in a certain ideology. So again, why have lists of people by ideology (as which religion always qualifies) ? Cush (talk) 16:49, 22 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Cush's position was added to this archive two and a half months after the archiving. It illustrates my point that different opinions on these lists exist and have been expressed in the relevant forums. Many of these opinions were based on valid arguments. Almost all were argued in a civilized manner.

Orlady RfA
Thought you might want to know about Orlady's Request for adminship. Kaldari (talk) 17:50, 14 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Kaldari, thank you for letting me know! gidonb (talk) 05:40, 22 May 2009 (UTC)

List of Dutch Jews
Hi GidonB. Could you take a look at the talk page Talk:List of Dutch Jews. Waarom de opname van niet-joden? Thanks, Metzujan (talk) 14:27, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Metzujan! Thank you for drawing my attention to the new issues with VKing on this list. He has been banned from nl.wiki for edit warring, hate speech, copyvio violations, lying about them and pushing a fringe right-wing agenda. See and  for more details. It is sad news that he has just started to "improve" this list. As for the inclusion and formatting question. Other formats than this one are possible but more complicated to implement. Please do not view this list as detached from similar other lists. BTW I would love to chat sometime and exchange Wikipedia experiences. Regards, gidonb (talk) 15:06, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * By all means... I have already noticed that we have encountered the same problems, in particular relating to Jewish topics, see here and here and the spelling of shabbat (it's one of my top priorities to tackle). For almost 3 years clearly wrong information was not corrected. But it can be even worse. Since 2005 till very recently you could find a painful wrong explanation of this word. Enough to be done, and slowly but surely the problems are being solved. As for the above mentioned user, thank you for the relevant feedback. I wasn't aware of his background hence my polite explanation of his rather racial view, which brought me back to memories of my college friends who also had their own "particular" view on the holocaust, and jews. Never a dull moment. Metzujan (talk) 15:39, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The Dutch Wikipedia is a mess. I am so glad I am here. Used to get lots of requests to return or contribute, as many of the better editors have left. I think they should not worry about this or that editor but improve the way people interact and whether fringe or moderate writers get the upper hand. One of the biggest pains for Judaism-related content on nl.wiki is a person who keeps adding evangelical, messianic, self-invented, and misunderstood content to Jewish articles. You gave an example that I did detect. They forgive him, as he does trivial editing work around the clock. Jewish content is thus sacrificed for the general good. But the "general" was not so good either. There were similar issues in many content areas, people who take ownership over articles, self-proclaimed experts, endless warring, discussions that never get to the point, random bans, bad interpersonal relations, discrimination, racism, etc. Sometimes, like in the case you raise above, there is even overflow to en.wiki. You know, I have not lived much in the Netherlands, but sometimes I get the feeling that this reflects society in the Netherlands. I hope it isn't true. En.wiki, with some occasional stress in the highly contentious subject matter areas that I edit here, is really an antithesis to the Dutch Wikipedia. gidonb (talk) 13:50, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, am I a reincarnation of Gidonb? Here and here your name is recently mentioned. I think I am fighting now a lost battle, but it tells a lot that after you left the Dutch Wikipedia a couple of years ago, your spirit is still alive!! :-) I agree with your analysis above. Although for almost over a year, he didn't change the article: just recently adding his pov, which prompted me to correct it and start a discussion. So my opinion you never know what impact your edits can have :-)
 * Hmmm, on a more positive note then. I think I am following again in your footsteps since I have changed nl:Portaal:Jodendom portal after years of neglect. Unfortunately zero feedback, I personally think it's an improvement, but since it was almost unchanged since you started it, I thought you might appreciate it that I actually did something with the portal.
 * I also started yiddish acticles like Hoteldebotel, Koefnoen (uitdrukking), Tacheles, Gannef and I have created and am working on nl:Categorie:Jiddisch, by adding new articles and I am planning on starting a portal as well. As for other jewish topics, I find it hard that like Sjabbatkaarsen, Jitschak Abarbanel, Israël in de Davis Cup or Jiddisch van A tot Z and many others there is no input from others whatsoever. Maybe that's the key difference with the English Wikipedia, there are many more people here that are contributing on these topics. I hope to become more active here as well, probabely in a month orso. Kol tuv! Metzujan (talk) 11:37, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Paris
Hello! Why did you remove the change I made on the page "List of metropolitan areas by population"? The metropolitan area of Paris (see the article about Paris on Wikipedia) actually has 12,672,000 (2007 data) habitants. So, Paris should be included in the list of metropolitan areas by population! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.253.134.34 (talk) 02:41, 2 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Hello 130.253.134.34, please see the answer by Polaron in the edit history of the article. gidonb (talk) 02:45, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Catherine II of Russia


I am a sporadic copy editor and still learning my way around. Ariel*Gold is my mentor, and I would like to be able to call on someone like you as the need arises. For example: I question the neutrality and accuracy of the Catherine the Great article, but don't know how to 'tag' it. Thank you, Shir-El too  23:20, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Shir-El. You may ask me questions. If your concerns with the article are this serious, adding the template is the most straightforward solution. Be sure to write in some detail on the talk page why you believe that the article is biased and inaccurate. Do consider the following alternatives, however. Rewriting and improving the sections you are unhappy with, while using the references on which you base your knowledge, is a more constructive approach to the problems that you encountered. Another approach is adding  on top and using templates such as  and  in the text, while deleting some real nonsense. This approach directs the reader and other editors directly to the sections that need improvement and is attractive, for example, for articles of mixed qualities. You can also use tags now and improve later. It really depends on your judgement. Regards, gidonb (talk) 01:53, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! I hope to do all of the above at a later date. My view of Catherine is largely predicated on Henry Troyat's biography of her, which means that I may also be biased. However some facts do stand out: that she founded the first vocational schools for orphans, the first institute of higher education for daughters of the aristocracy, and circumvented controversy, superstition and political intrigue to introduced mandatory smallpox vaccination into Russia by - having herself inoculated first! Thank you again, and have a good one! Shir-El too  19:37, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
 * You are welcome and good luck! gidonb (talk) 20:10, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

KAM Isaiah Israel
Hi,

Sorry for not responding to your request on my talk page; I have been away from my PC for the past month, so was unable to deal with anything. I'm glad it has been resolved for you, I'm just sorry that I wasn't able to help you out. Stephen! Coming... 09:24, 6 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Hello Stephen, no problem! Hope you had a good wiki-vacation! Thanks for getting back to me. Working on the synagogues of Illinois is a longterm project I undertake, so no worries! Best regards, gidonb (talk) 10:04, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Ladyhawke
Cannot get the [7] reference/link right on Ladyhawke. I'm missing something, but what? Thank you, Shir-El too  23:42, 14 July 2009 (UTC)


 * You were missing a title. I also simplified the URL. Welcome, gidonb (talk) 09:29, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Dutch transliteration into Hebrew at he.wiki
Hello Gidon,

Can you hop over here and answer my transliteration questions?

Many Thanks, Kulystab (talk) 11:39, 18 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Done. gidonb (talk) 12:05, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

Rafael Evers at he.wiki
Shalom Gidon! What about the other way around? Could you check this article on its spelling and content. I must note that my hebrew writing skills are very poor and that I could use your help. :-) Thanks in advance! Metzujan (talk) 09:08, 10 August 2009 (UTC)

Canadian Jews


The article Canadian Jews has been proposed for deletion&#32; because of the following concern:
 * This is nothing more than a dictionary definition.

While all contributions to Wikipedia are appreciated, content or articles may be deleted for any of several reasons.

You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.

Please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Removing  will stop the Proposed Deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. The Speedy Deletion process can result in deletion without discussion, and Articles for Deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion.  -shirulashem (talk) 03:18, 22 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Comment. I created this article as a redirect to eliminate red links. Later an article was created which lacked substance. The prodding prompted the restoring of my redirect. gidonb (talk) 01:12, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

WikiProject Classical music
I was drawn into a hot debate by a message which may or may not be "canvassing." I decided to take part after reading the discussion and based on my own experience, not because I 'supported' anyone. Now one of the participants who's point of view was rejected has left me this message:
 * "If you joined as the result of canvassing you should withdraw, as your presence will unfortunately render the discussion invalid."

I feel strongly that this person is attempting to use the rules to manipulate the situation, but in all fairness I would like a second opinion from someone more knowledgable, outside the debate. Please let me know what you think, or whether you know someone I could refer this question to. {I would ask my mentor, but she is absent.} Thanking you in advance, Shir-El too  00:48, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Hi Shir-El, can you point me the page where the discussion was held? Best, gidonb (talk) 01:07, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
 * It was mostly held here Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Classical music and on our various talk pages, but I am happy to say it has since been resloved. I would appreciate your opinion anyway - as opposed to any form of action - so I'll know better next time. Thank you! Shir-El too  07:37, 11 November 2009 (UTC)
 * It's difficult to form an opinion right now and not very necessary if the differences were resolved. The title you gave to this discussion however was I need advise. I can give you some advise. As an editor of your own talk page, you can considerably improve the tone and increase the topical focus of the exchange by replacing user-chosen headers into the names of the Wikipedia pages which are the basis for the discussion. It also makes discussions easier to follow for an occasional outsider who takes interest. gidonb (talk) 13:47, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Givat HaMivtar
תרגמתי סיכום של הערך העברי

he:גבעת המבתר

ולא כולם התלהבו מהתוצאה. האם תוכל לחוות דעתך? תודה.

Eddau (talk) 16:51, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Eddau, I have improved the article. I would appreciate if you take time to look at the referencing and improve your references next time you write an article. gidonb (talk) 02:10, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Palestinian saints
Category talk:Palestinian Roman Catholic saintsEddau (talk) 01:45, 17 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I have seen it. gidonb (talk) 02:11, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Twin towns or Sister cities?
Hi Gidonb, I notice you have recently been working on Twin town/Sister city lists. I though you might be interested that there is a new discussion open on proposed name modification (Twin towns, Sister cities or both?) on this talk page. Your comments would be much appreciated. Thank you -- User:Marek69. 07:25, 20 December 2009 (UTC)