User talk:PStrait

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[edit] Straw person/man

Because Wikipedia is founded on verifiability, not Truth, it often lags behind changes in the field until someone thinks to document such changes. Thus, in the case of the straw man/person article, a change would require a reliable source that talks about this new usage (note that an example of this new usage doesn't suffice—it has to discuss the new usage). (See Wikipedia:Verifiability.)

Beyond this, our article naming policy says that an article about something with multiple names must be titled with the most common variant. In this way too, Wikipedia often lags the cutting edge as new usages spread outward and overcome the old usage. In this case, I would think that the new usage has not yet gotten beyond academic circles. The term "straw man" has a lot of currency beyond academic rhetoric still, and even though this is the field that spawned the term, it doesn't "belong" to rhetoric exclusively. So, the common usage is just as relevant as the academic usage. (See Wikipedia:Naming conventions.)

Quite apart from that, be mindful of our vandalism policy in case you misquote it. Content disputes are explicitly discluded from Wikipedia's working definition of "vandalism". Rather, such things are considered content disputes and it is the responsibility of the editors involved to settle the dispute civilly. Sometimes, this will require soliciting the input of the wider community, or an investigation of the applicable policies or editorial guidelines. Confrontational stances tend to inhibit the smooth working of the consensus-building proces. (See Wikipedia:Vandalism and Wikipedia:Resolving disputes.) — Saxifrage ✎ 08:08, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia generally prefers accuracy. Since the goal of the project is to document existing knowledge and usage rather than act as a force for change, gender issues aren't pro-actively addressed from within. A distinction is that, as editors, our own gender bias should actively be countered. But, this doesn't extend to actively countering the gender bias of the "real" world or sources.

In this case, what I think would be the best for the article is to add a significantly-sized section about the trend in universities and academia in general to use the gender-neutral "straw person" instead. Since Wikipedia isn't static, at some point in the future when "straw man" is obviously outmoded usage, the article can be changed again to have the new term as its title and change the section on the "straw person" trend to a section about the historical "straw man" term. How does that sound?

Re: mediation cabal, my apologies for jumping to conclusions. I thought you were misrepresenting the case, and I'm very sorry for not assuming good faith and looking for alternative explanations for what I saw as a discrepancy. — Saxifrage ✎ 19:40, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: edit

No problem. Being able to have one person rough out the content and have another person polish it up is part of why Wikipedia is collaborative. — Saxifrage ✎ 16:34, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] what should I do with a bad english?

Hey mister the "recent changes patroller" I have a really bad english cause i'm french. Even if I try hard, it's always bad. Son what can I do if I want to add informations in an article with my bad English??? Instead of reverting things, (on the Bremen (manga)'s page) why not backing me, when I'm writting, by correcting my sentences? In french, I did good things on Wiki fr. On this english wiki's page, I wrote links where I found my informations and points that I wanted to tell on the discutions page...But I think that it's frustating to see someone deleting what you did instead of correcting... why users like you never communicate, in the discussions pages, before doing it? So what should I do? only writting in discussion's page? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 132.203.236.67 (talk • contribs).

[edit] Greetings

Well, since no one has done it for you yet,...
Welcome!

Hello, PStrait, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! 


I am willing to adopt you if you would like. I am also willing to assist you with your userpage. :-) Leave me a message on my talk page. Note that on Wikipedia, each article has a talk page; similarly, each user has one. This page is your talk page. I don't mean to sound patronising, but it took me three months to figure it out :-) The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! ^{You can't control me!} _{I'm a P. I.!} 11:18, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Userboxes

Howdy ... I happened to notice that your userpage was listed under Category:Intelligence user templates, where it doesn't belong. That's when I discovered that you were using template code directly on your page!

Instead of all that code, use "{{User Mensa member}}" or "{{User vigil}}" ... see Category:Vigil Brother Wikipedians or Category:Wikipedians by IQ for examples of how to use templates.

Using "{{User TNS}}" instead of trying to copy&paste the template code avoids mistakes like getting listed in a Template Category, and getting correctly (alphabetically) listed in Category:Wikipedians in the Triple Nine Society.

By having your own copy, you also miss out on changes like how "{{User vigil}}" now adds your userpage to Category:Arrowman Wikipedians and Category:Wikipedians in the Boy Scouts of America in addition to Category:Vigil Brother Wikipedians. (Your userpage is not listed in any of them, but it is listed in Category:Scouting user templates, where it does not belong.) —141.156.240.102 (talk|contribs) 14:32, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

thanks for the advice RE: userboxes. I really appreciate it. PStrait 21:29, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

No sweat ... BTW, you might want to check out the discussion pages at User:Rfrisbie/Userbox/RC and Category:Roman Catholic Wikipedians. (Someone should probably copy the examples in the former article to the latter.) I've been cleaning up Boy Scout/OA related templates/userboxes/categories lately (see Category talk:Wikipedians who survived Philmont), so I don't have the time/inclination to deal with it myself. :-) —141.156.240.102 (talk|contribs) 03:24, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adoption

Consider yourself adopted! Damn, now I'll have to go to Centrelink and pick up my Sole Parent's pension. Heh heh. At the moment (for the next fortnight) I'm on Wikibreak (holiday from Wikipedia) as I have my exams. Feel free to leave me any questions on my talk page. The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! ^{You can't control me!} _{I'm a P. I.!} 06:56, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Your answers

Today I just had my first exam for the last year of High School. I'm 17, turning 18 on December 21st. You? For more of my personal details, see this subpage of my userpage.

• You can make subpages of ANY page by typing /(name) after the page's name; for example, User:Hunterd/About.

1. Using this same method, you can make an archive for your talk page. Most people do it when the page becomes long, but I am weird and do it at the change of the financial year... once the subpage is created, you can simply cut and paste the stuff on your talk page into the subpage, and then provide a link to the subpage from the main talk page.
2. There isn't really any software one can use to interface with MediaWiki code (what Wikipedia runs on), unfortunately it's a matter of either using the buttons at the top of the edit page or remember a lot of code.

• To use this bullet point, use an asterisk.

1. To use numbers, use a hash.
2. Pictures can be uploaded by clicking the "Upload file" link to the left of every page, under the Search box. Alternatively, you could simply click here... anything that you upload must provide usage licences. This, this, this and this may help.

• To make links with a different name, use [[article name|desired display name]] rather than [[article name]] for simple links. You can also use [[article name]]s to add the s to a link, for example: apples (note that this doesn't link to "apples" but "apple").
• People tend to get angry about spelling, but I have been brought up unlike the majority of my generation; that is, I (hopefully) have reasonable spelling. A spell checker within a word processor (i.e. Microsoft Word) should be able to assist if this is a problem.

1. To check your contribtuons, see Special:Contributions/PStrait. There are various ways of having a counter display the number, but I am unaware of the specifics at the moment. I'll do some digging around and find something :-)

• To look at an article's edit history, click the History tab at the top of any page. You can check the code itself for each revision by click the date for that revision in the history log. Alternatively, to find the difference(s) betwen two revisions, select the two versions (by clicking on the radio buttons - the circle ones between "(last)" and the date) and clicking the Compare selected versions button at the top and/or bottom of the page.

To leave a line between text, use <br> .

To indent a line (as I have done here), use a colon (or as many as you like to further indent).

• Finally for tonight's lesson, to make the page ignore MediaWiki code, use <nowiki> MediaWiki Code, such as [[article page]] </nowiki>.

I hope I haven't confused you too much.
Happy editing.

The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! ^{You can't control me!} _{I'm a P. I.!} 12:35, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Some other things...

1. This is a subheading of Your answers. It will show up in the table of contents as a section of Your answers. This is done by adding an extra equal sign on either side of the heading, so for this I used ===Some other things...=== , and to get that to display, I used the nowiki tags that I discussed above: <nowiki> ===Some other things...=== </nowiki>.
2. _Subscript can be made by using _text ; ^superscript by using ^text> .
3. There was something else I intended to say here, but my memory has failed me... it was soething important, too... oh well. I'll remember it once I go to sleep. I'll remember IN my dream. :-)

The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! ^{You can't control me!} _{I'm a P. I.!} 12:50, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] RFA

I just wanted to let you know that I've accepted. Thank you again for the kind words! — Saxifrage ✎ 06:46, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

I just wanted to say thank you for your nod of support during my recent RfA. While I cannot keep John Kerry from saying something that makes us all slap our foreheads, I can now help you out with any administrative tasks on Wikipedia. If you need any help, just drop me a line and I'll be right there. Cheers. youngamerican (ahoy hoy) 13:26, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My RfA was a success, thank you

Thank you for nominating me for adminship! It succeeded with 59 in support, 2 opposed, and 1 amusingly-surreal neutral comment. I could not have asked for a better nomination than the one you wrote. I hope how I wield the mop makes you proud. Thanks!

— Saxifrage

[edit] PStrait, I am your father!

Yeah... just letting you know that I am back from WikiBreak. Call upon me at any time. Stuart says: Heweyeweyeweyeweyeweyewey... The Duke of Copyeditting, Bow before me! ^{You can't control me!} _{I'm a P. I.!} 15:03, 16 November 2006 (UTC)