User talk:Jamie Mercer

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Edits to Orders, decorations, and medals categories
re. your recent edits to the above. I am unclear as to your rationale for removing the WP:ODM header. Unless it has been mandated against by Wikipedia policy I'm not sure why you would be removing it. As you can see from including a link to the appropriate WikiProject within categories is widespread and accepted practice.

X damr talk 03:16, 17 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Well I think it looks pretty bad. You won't see any such thing in Encyclopedia Britannica. But if lots of people want to keep doing it anyway, I guess we're stuck with it. There is a lot of other mess in Wikipedia anyway. I just found an article where most of the content had been replaced with the comment, "History kicks ass". Jamie Mercer 15:15, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Your category creations within Indonesia
Are you aware of the Indonesia project ? - before you create many more - it would be well worth your checking in at the project - having a look around and maybe check whats there...SatuSuro 10:55, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Are you aware of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CATEGORY#Look_before_you_leap ? It would be well worth a read SatuSuro 11:02, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

It would appear you have created parallel categories for official residences/palaces - can you give a clear reason why you are creating these extra categories? SatuSuro 11:05, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
 * "Palace" and "Official residence" do not mean the same thing, which is why dozens of countries have both categories. Jamie Mercer 21:33, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Category:Castles in France
I've let it live, as a redirect. My concern is that if we don't leave a redirect someone will just create it again as "missing". If you disagree let me know and I'll kill it as scheduled. -- Prove It (talk) 14:21, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

To User:Angusmclellan, User:Cool Cat, User:Jamie Mercer, User:Bluap, User:Postlebury, User:LukeHoC, User:Johnbod, User:Sam Blacketer

I'm writing to you because you contributed to the discussion on Category:Castles in France, which resulted in the category being deleted, or redirected articles in that category. This decision, as I hope to show, was wrong and needs to be reversed. Please take the time to read the following and respond.

Firstly, I should say that I did not take part in the discussion because I did not know it was taking place. (I was actually in France following the presidential election campaign and, ironically, taking photos of French castles!)

My reasons for questioning the decision are:

1. As far as I can discover, the debate was not advertised on the WikiProject France page, so that editors with a declared interest in topics related to France could be aware of it.

2. Similarly, no mention was made on the WikiProject Castles page.

It would have been sensible to at least mention the proposal in these projects and to seek advice.

3. The problem identified is very real. The French word château does not translate easily into English. It can mean a castle (in the usual English understanding of the word - a medieval, military defensive structure). It can mean palace/stately home/ mansion (and in fact, English speakers will frequently use the word château with that meaning). It can mean a vineyard, with or without a castle or palace attached. And, even more confusingly, the thousands of water towers in France are named château d'eau.

4. Even the French sometimes need clarification. In recent years, French language guide books have often described castles as châteaux-forts to distinguish them from the palaces.

5. Some months ago I came across a page in Wikipedia called List of castles in France (see original). This made the mistake of including article links solely because of the word château in the title; in fact only about half of the list were real castles - the rest were palaces etc and even some vineyards. I set about revising the list and along with other editors we managed to get the page as it appears now. We have gone on to add dozens more articles, particularly by translating pages from the French Wikipedia. All of these articles were categorised as Castles in France; any then categorised under Châteaux in France were moved over to Castles in France. The Châteaux in France category was left to be just for French palaces etc (i.e. what we as English speakers would call châteaux).

6. The Category:Castles by country lists 56 sub-categories and many of these are further divided (e.g. Castles in the United Kingdom is divided into Castles in England, Castles in Scotland, etc). The only country without a category concentrating on castles is France and this is a serious oversight. Anyone looking for details of castles in France now has to wade through a category that is not dedicated to castles!

7. The problems you identified with the original Category:Châteaux in France are real and need to be sorted, but this has been made worse by now lumping in all of the castle articles. Château de Puivert, for example, does not belong in the same category as Palace of Versailles, any more than Conisbrough Castle belongs with Buckingham Palace.

I would be interested in your comments, particularly on how to give French castles the same category status as castles in Denmark, Spain, England and other countries. I have to say, the only way I can see that happening is to reinsate the Castles in France category as it was and for some work to be done on where the real problem lies - in the Châteaux in France category. Emeraude 10:40, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
 * The process and assumptions described in 5 seem to have been quite wrong, as it simply isn't the case that English speakers think of a chateau as being mostly the same thing as a palace. Point 7 can be resolved by moving a few articles around. Jamie Mercer 15:58, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Small text
If you think you need small text for your signature, ALWAYS remember to /small it at the end. You screwed up other people's text which followed yours on a page. I fixed it once I scrolled up to find that you were the source of the problem. Wryspy 16:52, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I have never consciously used small text for my signature, and have no intention of ever doing so. I do not format the default signature in any way. Jamie Mercer 00:39, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

No content in Category:Seminaries and theological colleges in the United Kingdom
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ArbCom elections are now open!
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