User talk:Patobeirne

Your edit to James Clark McReynolds
You made this edit to the James Clark McReynolds article. Just so you know: the DEFAULTSORT tag is a technical tag that tells Wikipedia that when articles are listed alphabetically, this article should be listed in a slightly different manner than its spelling indicates. Traditionally, names that begin with "Mc" are alphabetized as if they were spelled "Mac" (so McKinnon would go before May). In addition, the capital R in the middle of the name also causes some problems when doing automatic sorting (as capitals letters are sorted before any lower case edits due to their ASCII code, so macReynolds would go before macarthur). Thus, the page has a special tag that tells Wikipedia that McReynolds should be sorted alphabetically as if the name were Macreynolds. That text never appears on the page. I've reverted the change, but I'm letting you know so you know why and so you can spot this in the future and other pages. Magidin (talk) 18:25, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I would say they are incorrect, but we may be running into the issue of conflicting standards. The standard I cited is the one followed by the Encyclopedia Britannica (which went so far at least in their 1969 edition as to spell all names that began with the patronymic "Mc" as "Mac", whether the person spelled it that way or not) and the Chicago Manual of Style, but others may offer different standards. I just checked the manual of style and they have nothing there, nor in the page relating to DEFAULTSORT, so perhaps I/you/we/someone should ask around to see if there is a consensus on this. Magidin (talk) 22:56, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, feel free to bring up the subject in the Manual of Style page or some like; if there is lack of awareness, then some awareness is a good thing! Magidin (talk) 03:26, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Okay, I poked around a bit; the issue was brought up briefly before here, though no definitive answer was provided. The article on collation states that Mc is traditionally sorted as if it were written Mac (as I indicated), but that computer sorting has made this less frequent (because of the issues I mentioned). The telephone directory for my area does not follow that convention, placing all "Mc" after all the "Ma" last names. I would say to go with majority vote for the list of AAGs and change them all to be consistent, perhaps adding a note in the talk page (and a pointer in your edit comment) so that well-meaning sorts like me don't revert you. Magidin (talk) 14:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Lee J. Lofthus


The article Lee J. Lofthus has been proposed for deletion&#32; because of the following concern:
 * Direct copy and paste from a public domain US gov website. No meaningful edits in over 2 years of existence. References are available that quote him, or refer to his job, but no real biographical details, so I'd say that he fails to meet the WP:GNG requirements of significant coverage.  I don't think being an Assistant AG is inherently notable.

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. The-Pope (talk) 15:20, 17 March 2011 (UTC)