User talk:Mintguy/archive 1

Hello there, welcome to the 'pedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you need any questions answered about the project then check out Help or add a question to the Village pump. Cheers! --maveric149

Hi. Thanks Maverick. I can see this becoming a bit addictive!!


 * You got that right! --mav 16:59 Aug 6, 2002 (PDT)

Yeah, welcome! There's no high quite like it... --GayCom

Is an Irish person only someone who is a citizen of the Republic (or N. Ireland)? This isn't how most people I knew growing up (in NY) saw it! As you may infer, I have no personal stake in the matter. But the heading of the article seemed to suggest that it would include people of Irish descent, and not just people born in Ireland ... Slrubenstein

Well. My parents are Irish, but I was born in England. I predominantly consider myself English, but I describe myself as Irish by heritage. Now in theory I could play for the Irish football team, and then perhaps I might be called a famous Irishman. However, if I became famous in some other field not directly linked to my parents nationality I would be surprised to find myself described as a famous Irishman. Mintguy


 * fair enough. Still, I wonder how Gene and Grace saw it.  Slrubenstein

Welcome. And on the "serious separation of powers" issues in Kyoto Protocol, I think that is someone's POV -- as opposed to general knowledge. In Wikipedia, advocacy positions are always attributed to their proponents. So if there is some organization or constitutional scholar who raised the "separation of powers" issues, we should mention them. --Ed Poor

nice work on speling of separate and separated. --Ed Poor

I'm beginning to think you found a "list of commonly misspelled words" and are on a vendetta. Good hunting! --Ed Poor

Hi there. Sorry for ranting about Worlds' / World's - i'm doing lots of work on the Sandman stuff, it was 2:30am, and it looked like you'd mucked up a bunch of links, when you actually hadn't :). I just added an entry to the talk page for Worlds' End, clarifying that it really, *REALLY* is Worlds', and explaining why. Since you found so many sources with the mistake, though, I don't blame you for "correcting" it. Cya! --AW

Thanks for the copy-editing on U.S. plan to invade Iraq, mint guy. I'm also anxious about whether I have introduced any bias into the article, either for against Iraq or the US. --Uncle Ed

Thanks for your comment. You're really funny. -- Sam

Hi. Just joined on 5 August 2002.

So far, I've made major changes to the entry on the light bulb and Joseph Swan. Minor additions to the entries of MUDs and corrected spellings in the entries about Edison and London.

Just made an entry for Lewes. the town where I've lived for the last 8 years. It probably needs some editing, as I've basically just gone on about the bonfire.

Harry Paget Flashman... yeah cool..

God. I've got to go to bed, I've been editing for hours.

Ok.. some major missing articles Exchequer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Office, Home Secretary, Harrow School, Tom Brown's schooldays... loads more... but need sleep ...

Hi, Mintguy, thanks for the tip. The Sussex Ouse is on my waterways map, all alone and forlorn on the south coast...Have a look at Ouse, I've called it the River Ouse, Sussex. Let me know if this is not satisfactory. Do you fancy adding to the article? Renata 17:15 Nov 26, 2002 (UTC)

Bye

My students screwed up the James I page, and then we "fixed" it. Seems you managed to revert it exactly - but how did you do that? I'm still ignorant on these matters. David Martland 15:38 Dec 6, 2002 (UTC)


 * Hi. Go into older versions(it used to be called 'history', I dunno why they changed it) of the article you wish to change, select the version you wish to revert to, then edit it and hit save.

I take your point about GPO. Do you want to go ahead and fix the disambiguation? I'm logging off now for a while. David Martland 15:55 Dec 6, 2002 (UTC)

I apologise, but only because you live in Lewes, home of the Sussex Archaeological Society. See One-hit wonders in the UK --Deb

Thanks for putting up the Will Self picture... its suitably sinister. -- Greg Godwin

Plz do not erase a text like Neil Hamilton again. You have to move it elsewheres instead of erasing it. Vera Cruz 11:03 Dec 16, 2002 (UTC)
 * It has been moved to Neil Hamilton (author) Mintguy 11:05 Dec 16, 2002 (UTC)
 * see: Neil Hamilton

Hey, do you think you can add Moore's specific gun deaths/year numbers and the population figures you used to the Bowling for Columbine article? It's not that I disbelieve your analysis, but I think the argument would be more compelling with the figures included. --Ryguasu
 * Yeah I was thinking that myself recently. I didn't include it originally, because I thought it would look untidy and long winded. I'll hunt them down though. Mintguy

Constructive criticism involves suggesting how one's contributions might be more constructive, rather than merely asserting that one's contributions are not constructive. Vera Cruz
 * I'm sorry what is this in reference to? Mintguy

It's best to respond on the talk page of whom you are responding to. Re: User:Saprtacus

So explain to him why it's such a bad article. Otherwise it doesn't accomplish much except make him bitter. Vera Cruz
 * Gimme a break Mintguy
 * Give him a break. He is being friendly.Vera Cruz

Note:http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy

Mintguy: I'm noticing something of a pattern, where you back out my edits. Most of the time, you'd be well advised to raise your issue on a talk page first, since I usually know what I'm talking about, and practically always triple-check my facts. (The little incident of Ada "Babbage" being a counter-example I'd just as soon forget.) --Len
 * Look at my edits and you'll see this is what I tend to do mostly. You're not the only victim of my anal retention. Mintguy


 * No offense taken; I'm open to being shown wrong. This is a case where conventional wisdom is mistaken, but I sympathize: I too type words into google and use the hit-count to decide whether I spelled it right. :-)

3. is taken care of, I think, with the wonderful wiki redirect feature. I never would have found aluminium otherwise. ;)

Yeah I know. It's just a rant really. :-) But isn't there something about hits on google and common names for articles and all that stuff. Mintguy
 * of course now I find a perfect example on your user page; fiberglass, mentioned only once as fibreglass now that I've edited it, not many google points for someone searching for fibreglass. But what can you do - Ce La Vie.
 * Cape Guardafui also. Note the talk page.  Google's not perfect as a search engine, but I think it's valuable for the text it leads one to.  It's up to our minds to interpret the text.  ;)  Hephaestos


 * It is odd. Maybe it got deleted at some point in the past. Still Google only finds a couple of hundred hits for this. Fibreglass gets 125,000. As an aside why did you not redirect? Also is Len right?


 * Not redirecting, I plead ignorance. I'm still learning.  Len right, I'm leaving it up to the jury.  I have the impression that plenty of Wikipedians speak Esperanto. Hephaestos

Thanks for the tip on Laurence Binyon. I'm pretty sure about the spelling, because I normally check things like that before I write them. (Sorry, that wasn't a dig.) Anyhow, I think it's all okay now. Deb

Aha! That would seem to clear some things up (re agglutinative language). Thanks! Hephaestos

Hi, Mintguy, thanks for the message. I'm sure Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother/Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon is up somewhere enjoying a G&T, watching two Irish guys disagreeing on what precisely she should be entered as in Wikipedia, with one almighty smile on her face. You know Wiki is worth it when we all take it so seriously we row over technical terms! I suppose that is Wiki is getting as good as it is. Thanks for the comments. Have a good christmas (I nearly wrote 'Xmas' but that wouldn't be right on Wiki? Oh, no, I feel another long argument involving people from all the world brewing. Coming up. The 'Xmas' vs 'Christmas' debate!!!) Enjoy the festive season. JTD 01:29 Dec 24, 2002 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments re Durham. The funny thing is I had got depressed and given up after the torrent of criticism of the idea, then some nice bloke stepped in and did it anyway! Ah well. It's not like it's a cure for cancer or anything but I did think that the previous situation was ... well, daft! Have a great Xmas etc. Nevilley 08:42 Dec 24, 2002 (UTC)

Is this google? Vera Cruz

--

Mintguy:
I do not apologize for removing the irrelevant, ideological-charged commentary.

I will even do it again.

I quote:

“Treating Wikipedia as a chat forum. On talk pages, it is all too easy to get involved in emotional, partisan debates about various topics. Unless this results in an improved article, which it often doesn't, for drawn-out, emotional squabbles, please just sit on your hands. There are many other places online where you can engage in debate and to try to persuade other people of your views. That's really not appropriate on Wikipedia, because we're trying to focus on the task of creating an encyclopedia. Please see What Wikipedia is not. “

if this is not an emotional, partisan debate, then I don’t know what an emotional, partisan debate would entail:
“The American conservatives were most sternly anti-Soviet, and the magniude of the Soviet's crimes against humanity show that in this they were in the right; the leftist media might downplay these crimes to avoid admitting their political enemies were right all along. Surely the media wasn't leftist during the cold war, when the government ended up instituting legislation against it being so? Huh! You learn something each day...as a technical note, do the crimes of the USSR end up being counted as genocide per se? I was under the impression that genocide referred to the targeting of a particular ethnic group, whereas Stalin pretty much killed people randomly. I think it might be better to use most murderous or some other superlative like that.”

By the way, do you think that that above partisan has a sophisticated, objective, scholarly understanding of Russian history? I know that that doesn't matter on the talk pages, but I'm kind of hinting that Wikipedia is not losing insightful dialogue due to my deletions. At least the out-of-place ideological debate could be a bit more elevated.

172

172 - This does not give you the right to delete the comments of others.


 * Cleaning up talk pages is a good idea, especially when the talk has turned unproductive. But if this is done in the middle of a debate, it will be taken as an action within that debate. Best to explain what you're trying to do, or ask first. Even better than deleting would be refactoring lengthy discussions into simple points. But that's hardly ever done. -- Tarquin 17:00 Dec 24, 2002 (UTC)


 * The information deleted included genocide figures from various sources along with comment. 172 was trying to excise this. One might say a 'Stalinist edit'. Mintguy

--

I will continue to delete that partisan debate. Don't slander me either. I don't appreciate being called a Stalinist.

I would delete Stalinist politicking if it were in the article as well. Why don’t you address this issue to me directly?

172

Slander is not cool. Vera Cruz


 * 172 - Why are you deleting estimates of genocide figures and their sources? Mintguy

-

Why not address my page directly. 172.

Those discussions do not pertain to the article. They’d be relevant if they were, for example, disputing some of the figures in the article. But they’re not. These partisans (the apt term in the Wikipedia lexicon) are merely illustrating how much they dislike the Soviet Union.

--

Not to divert attention from the dispute, but I have to criticize the kind of research evident in the deleted sections.

Rather than trying to cite the most sensational figures from black books and Robert Conquest, readers should focus on trying to improve this terribly weak article. The History of the People's Republic of China,for instance, is a far more informative and illuminating article. I take credit for most on the post-Mao era. This article tells you little if anything about the Soviet economy, Soviet society, the Cold War, the origns of the Cold War, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the casuses of the breakup, Perestroika, Glasnost, the Brezhnev Era, the Sino-Soviet Split, Communist ideology. In short, it’s not really going to help people understand why Soviet history unfolded as it did. I look forward to revamping it.

Why not talk to me directly? 172

Hello. I hope you haven't gone away. I was tinkering with the Lewes article, and noticed that there is nothing there about the avalanche. Not many (if any) British towns have suffered from such a phenomenon, and I think it deserves a mention, but I don't know much about it. I can't even remember the year. Are you on for including it? --Deb

Why did you disambiguate Boom to Boom, Belgium? AFAIK, Boom is the only town currently having an article in Wikipedia, so there's no need to do that. Or are you planning to include some more Booms? :-) D.D. 14:24 Jan 16, 2003 (UTC)


 * Move it back if you want. I just thought that in future someone might want to put more stuff at Boom. Was there a band called Boom? I dunno, maybe there's a comic called Boom? or a film. Mintguy


 * I've moved it back. Mintguy

Talk:Encapsulation (object-oriented programming)

improve the article


 * I have generally avoided writing about computer science topics and OOP in particular. It's my job, and for me Wikipedia is about things that are not my job. I tinkered with a few words on some articles in the last 24 hours, but I'm not really interested in making major edits to such topics. Mintguy

Yeah, you are right! God I am a glutton for punishment (to use an Irish phrase!). I'm heading off in a couple of minutes. And I won't even think of the Famine, let alone dream of it!!! :-) JTD 05:25 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks Mintguy, both for moving Bodyline and for teaching me a little more about the technicalities here. Tannin

I think 172 has good constructive ideas but I think the original worked better. We just have to fight to make sure that changes are accurate and not agenda-loaded. That in trying for consensus, we don't look for the lowest common demoninator, with wacky theories being treated equally with accurate history. Please, please make your views known on the talk page. All too often, those happy keep quiet. It is just those who have complaints who complain (in this case, complain, complain, complain, complain . . . ). But I do really appreciate your comments. It is nice to know that not everyone thinks I'm a 'Tory tyrant' pushing a 'British point of view'! ;-) JTD 23:12 Jan 20, 2003 (UTC)

Concerning your question: How big is Eastbourne, New Zealand? -> Pop. 4600 est. - Updated the page and added some links to local website.kiwiinapanic 08:34 Jan 22, 2003 (UTC)

Hi mintguy. I like your pages. Please take a look at John Stark and Talk:Battle of Bennington and Talk:Edmund Burke when you get a chance. Seems like some of the articles you have edited have dealt with similar editorial issues and I'd appreciate your opinions.

I wish to apoligize for insinuating that you are not cool. As I would like to add some information on Salim I al Sabah, Kabbar, Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman ibn Saud, Najd, Faisal I, Political Titles of the Ottoman Empire, Warba, Abdulla II al Sabah, the First Kuwaiti Crisis, Abdullah ibn Hussein, Mashian, Failakah, Auhah, al Khalifa, al Jalahima, al Sabah, Abdul Karim Qasim, Jaber III al Ahmad al Sabah, Muhammad I al Sabah, the Second Kuwaiti Crisis, Zaki Arsuzi, Salah al Din Bitar, Ghazi ibn Faisal, Bakr Sidqi, Abdullah II al Sabah, Ahmad al Sabah, Abdul Ilah, and Percy Cox, as well as (obviously) the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of October 1922, the Turkish Petroleum Company, the Basra-Baghdad Highway, the Berlin-Baghdad Railroad, and the Abudllah Khor Waterway, Nuri al Said, Abdulla III al Sabah, Aramco, the Kuwait Oil Company, and the Anglo-Kuwaiti Treaty of 1899; I would like to inquire as to what objections you might have to my doing so? Vera Cruz


 * I never raised any objections to you. But from what I understand you've subverted a ban twice. It's not for me to judge whether this means you should be let back or not. Mintguy

But it is for you to judge! Because wikipedia is a democratic community and you are a registered voter! And i only subverted a ban once. Vera Cruz
 * I wasn't aware this was a democracy, and if there is some kind of ballot taking place I reserve the right to abstain. What was Lir II then? Mintguy

Never heard of Lir II. Vera Cruz
 * User:Lir II - perhaps an imposter.)


 * I'll cast a vote. ^_^  Lir/Vera Cruz/Adam Rinkleff, I wish you would go away.  Following that, I wish you would stay away.  Koyaanis Qatsi 00:49 Feb 1, 2003 (UTC)

Human Remains is not about WWII, it's about the personal lives of those individuals. Full of little-known biographical facts, mostly culled from quotations and personal correspondence - completely unique AFAIK. There is precedent for mentioning notable biographical movies and books in biographical articles. Hitler's article even mentions the forged diaries; how can that be relevant and a factual account of his personal life not? Mkweise 02:32 Feb 1, 2003 (UTC)


 * A 30 minute short film about 5 individuals presumably only devotes about 6 minutes to each person. It can hardly be an in depth work. Mintguy


 * I'm guessing your NPOV must be in the laundry today? :-)
 * Seriously, if you live in the US and have cable, keep an eye out for it on IFC or the Sundance Channel (can't remember which.) Or have a look at the IMDB entry (http://us.imdb.com/Details?0164053, rated 8.6.) Mkweise 04:30 Feb 1, 2003 (UTC)
 * I already had a look at IMDB. That's how I found out that it was only 30 minutes long. I also noted the 8.6 score it's got from the HUGE number of 46 people who voted for it. I don't live in the US. Mintguy

Hi Mintguy, Yup, Karen is correct: "chip" is standard Oz usage, and the Kiwi term too as I recall. You do hear them called "crisps" once in a while, but mostly only by expatriate Britons. Funny you should raise the matter here though - not so long ago, I wrote on it at some length, though without my usual NPOV over here - Tannin

Mintie, why didn't you just apologize to Isis? Now she's deleted herself -- and the way I had to hear about it was when Jimbo e-mailed me to block her account "at Isis's request". Guys like Sheldon Rampton can take care of themselves; he's not going to quit just because he thinks I called him disingenous -- he's a published author, runs his own website, has the world by the tail -- but sensitive folks like Isis need a little more tender concern and understanding.

All you had to do is say, "Sorry, I didn't mean to question your knowledege or competence. I must have misunderstood you." That would have smoothed it over nicely.

Please e-mail Isis privately, and try to patch things up. Would you do that, please? As a favor to me? ^_^ --Uncle Ed
 * I think you got the wrong end of the stick Ed. Please see the comment on your talk page. Mintguy

Hello. Just wanted to say that I think your slant on "Ironic" is hilarious, even if you did pinch the basic idea from Ed Byrne. (I think you now owe him a wikipedia article, don't you?) Deb 19:04 Feb 5, 2003 (UTC)
 * Hey thanks. Yeah you're right. He looks so different now that he's cut his hair. Mintguy

I'm going to have to start checking my facts more carefully and stop giving you opportunities to correct me. I really always believed that UC came before College Bowl (and I've been on it!) Which just goes to show how imperfect I am. Deb 00:03 Feb 8, 2003 (UTC)

Hi,

Something seems to have gone a teensy bit wrong wrt this:

N 18:59 Talk:List of places in London, England (cur; hist). . Mintguy (Talk) (moved to "List_of_places_in_London")

In other words it seems as if you have accidentally moved a talk page to an article target page. Just hoped you were aware of this.

Regards, Nevilley 00:52 Feb 8, 2003 (UTC)


 * Bugger!!. I can't fix it as i'm not a sysop. Mintguy


 * I know the feeling, good luck! :) Nevilley 01:02 Feb 8, 2003 (UTC)
 * Well I've fixed it, in as much as the talk page is moved back and List_of_places_in_London redirects to List_of_places_in_London, England. But obviously the former needs to be deleted before the later can be moved to it. Mintguy


 * Yep, & nice one for putting it right so fast! :) Nevilley
 * Goog luck and good night. I'm off to bed, you kept me up! Mintguy

Mintguy RE:line of sucession, ist no lonmger true that sons come before daughters, until recently yes it as true but now its equal, so if Prince william had a duaghter first then a son, the aughter would be heir to teh throne. -fonzy
 * I don't think you are right, and neither does Deb. AFAIK it requires an Act of Parliament to effect such a change in the rules of succession and there hasn't been one. Mintguy


 * Fonzy is definitely wrong. It depends on the country, and so far as I know, this is only true in Sweden and the Netherlands, although other Scandinavian countries may have done so, but it is definitely not true of the UK.  -- Zoe

Fonzy is 100% wrong. The Law of Succession has not been changed in the United Kingdom. If William has a daughter then it no doubt will be, but apart from an proposal from Geoffrey Archer (which was soon forgotten about) the law remains has it has remained for centuries. JTD 04:29 Feb 11, 2003 (UTC)

Bloody vandals. We should let DW loose on them. (Naw. Maybe that's too cruel. We'll just let Two16 read some of his poetry to them and drive them to insanity!) JTD 04:46 Feb 11, 2003 (UTC)

I'm unclear why Frigatebirds has been moved to Frigatebird, which did not exist before. I named it as such because I wanted to deal with the group Frigata and link from that to the individual species accounts. To me, it seems bizarre that groups of birds at genera or higher taxonomic levels are described as eg vulture or duck. However, as a newcomer to the 'pedia, it may well be that there is some convention that overides normal ornithological  practice. If this is so, could you explain, otherwise can it be moved back. 195.93.51.168 14:50 Feb 14, 2003 (UTC)

Sorry, forgot to log in before last diatribe. What about raptor/raptors or bird of prey/birds of prey jimfbleak 14:54 Feb 14, 2003 (UTC). Some 40 group monographs advertised in a birders' magazine used the plural invariablly for the title, eg Owls of the World. It is standard practice to use the plural for groups, eg woodpeckers, and capitalised singular for species, eg Great Spotted Woodpecker Jimfbleak


 * I didn't move it. I did make a link to frigatebird more direct, and remove a self-reference. It is standard practice in Encyclopaedias to name things in the singular and not the plural. Look at raptor in Encylopaedia Britannica . Mintguy

Only because I haven't made my way to Zevon's house yet... BWA-HAH-HAH! Seriously, some of the sites I used were obviously unreliable, so I did as much cross-checking as possible. I'm sure more than one slipped through. Tokerboy

Help. I've uploaded a picture Flanhinga2b which I've checked is viewable in the upload file. However, in the article Anhinga it only shows as a place marker. I've put pictures in Ibis and New World vulture without problems. Any ideas what's wrong? jimfbleak
 * Sorry to butt in, but have you cleared your browser's cache? the image on that page shows up on my browser.   Koyaanis Qatsi


 * I just fixed it. Mintguy


 * many thanks jimfbleak

Hi Mint, I notice you called a list of soccer players the List of Football players. Football means different things to different counties and different sportspeople. It could mean Soccer, rugby football, gaelic football, American football, Australian rules football, etc. It is not the right term to use in the context of that article because it has so many different meanings to different readers of wiki. It should be changed to a more clear term, and the obvious one is soccer. JTD 01:46 Feb 18, 2003 (UTC)


 * Absolutely not!


 * The aritcle resided quite happily under list of famous football players for quite some time until, User:MyRedDice decided to rationalise the list of occupations and move it about 2 hours ago. I moved it to list of football players. You can have list of American football players and list of Gaelic football players, but 95% of the world think football is what you're calling soccer and football players belong there. Mintguy

Oops, sorry, I didn't see who created the test page. -- Zoe

Until the page is finished, LEAVE IT where Maverick left then. I'm moving it back to where Maverick left it. JTD 21:28 Feb 18, 2003 (UTC)


 * No you leave it where it was until this time yesterday and for over 1 year previous to that. STOP moving it. Mintguy

If you read some of the FAI and links sites you'd see the use the word soccer. A lot. Look at the talk page right now for more information JTD 23:23 Feb 18, 2003 (UTC)