User talk:R'son-W

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[edit] Welcome

Hello, R'son-W, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! --Viriditas | Talk 22:29, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Template:User Customary

Hi R'son-W, if you'd like to read more on how templates work, you can look at Wikipedia:Template_namespace. Also, I noticed that you reverted the size of the "lb.ft." text back to size 14pt. I had changed it to 10pt because at 14pt, it stretches it's containing div. A number of other templates use a 10pt font to prevent this, such as Template:User_java. I would like to change your template to be consistent with the other ones, what do you think? --mdd4696 00:09, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

I changed it to ft-lb because that is the abbreviation for foot-pound, an obscure but entirely valid unit, and that makes it just small enough to stay at 14pt without stretching the div. I wanted to keep lb in there somehow, since it is such a weird abbreviation. (And about the way it looks on my screen: sometimes I have to remind myself that my screen doesn't always look like other's, because I have mine set at 125dpi instead of the normal 96dpi, which can sometimes do really screwy things!) Anyways, I think the current revision is a good compromise. --mdd4696 01:34, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
I mistyped the link, it's foot-pound. --mdd4696 01:42, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] American versus British spellings

It does bug me that there's no set standard on what spelling to use on pages which are not generally associated with one region or another. However, while Americans may make up the majority of Wikipedia's English speakers, it is definately not an overwhelming one. The problem with the reasoning on your user page is that the majority might change at any time, and then all of the articles would have to be rewritten for the appropriate spellings. If you can think of any better policies, send me a message, I would certainly be interested in hearing it. --mdd4696 00:14, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Whoever writes the article first gets to set the spelling - your eccentric American spellings also grate with a British audience - who use the pure language. If you want to see the adulterated article - then write the article first... :) Brookie: A collector of little round things 20:25, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
Exactly, even though Americans may have the slight majority, the British spelling is the "pure" form. American English is technically a colloquial form of British English. (And I'm American) Tewy 23:58, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Oh, and as for the metric system, that is a wonderful system that the Americans should adapt to, probably by teaching children it in school. And besides, the metric system isn't used exclusively by the British. Tewy 00:02, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
One last thing, the SI (metric) system is internationally recognized, and was designed exactly for this reason. It's an international standard. The old system was for the most part abandoned by the British because they and others recognized how easy and efficient the metric system was. We Americans could do well to drop our egos and go with the easier system. Tewy 00:09, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi R'son-W. Thanks for providing very interesting views on dialects. I hope you don't take the above comments about British English being "purer" seriously. Such a view is, of course, nonsense. (Indeed, it reflects tremendous ignorance of the history of English.)
However, the fact that most native speakers (for whom English is their primary language) speak American English may not be a good reason to have all non-region-specific articles be written in American English. I think the current policy about spelling is a good compromise.
But here's the problem: the current policy is ignored! There has been a systematic "dialect drift," especially over the last one or two years, away from American English, and this drift has been in violation of WP guidelines. For example, violet/riga, with whom you recently had a dispute about spelling, changed the spelling of breastfeeding to British spelling. When I tried to change it back, she screamed "no way." Similar changes have taken place with humor and theater. There are a lot of unprincipled English people out there who are trying to get as many spellings switched to British English as possible, and don't seem to care about WP Policy or Guidelines. Getting WP to adopt American spelling as a standard is probably not a great idea, but getting the WP community to respect its own policy and guidelines is a good idea. But I think there may now be too many Commonwealthers who simply don't care about guidelines for this to work, alas. --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-02 08:57 (UTC) P.S. Go Ducks!

Your assertion that because a greater percentage of native English speakers use American English, therefore Wikipedia (and by extrapolation, the entire Internet) should conform to this standard, ignores users with English as their second language. Users from India, China, and all of Europe most certainly use and prefer British English over American English. If you check the Wiki reference page of English language statistics, you will see that it estimates up to 1 billion people who consider English as their second language, the majority of which I would suspect use British English. --198.129.218.240 16:18, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Hi there. I'm not sure who you mean with "Your" (assertion...). I certainly don't think the whole of WP should conform to the standard of American English! (Out of curiousity: where did you get that idea?) We should stick to policy more rigorously, in my view, and even make the policy less ambiguous.

About dialect preferences: you couldn't be more incorrect. Most of China (outside of Hong Kong) prefers American English, as does most of Eastern Europe (for obvious reasons), and many people in the rest of Europe as well (though most in the non-academic world in Western Europe prefer British English, that I would agree with; in the academic world, the preference is generally for American English). I have worked as a translator in Europe, so I speak with some authority on this subject. Anyway, no point in arguing about this. Let's just try to respect others' choices! --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-13 16:30 (UTC)

[edit] Re:re:Vin Diesel

There's always a first :-) - Akamad 09:38, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Nationalities

Hi, hopefully you can find time to weigh in on Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style_(biographies)#Proposal: it's time we put this one to bed. Mark1 18:56, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re:Template: US Customary

I'm very curious as to why you edited the template User:Customary to redirect to a template which you created. Also, there's no need for a US Customary-0 template. I created the Customary template because there was a Metric template, so it's already counter to something. If you want to say you don't like Standard measurements, get the Metric template. Also, it's no accident that it said "American Units," it's shorter and works better in the template. So, I'll revert the template to it's original form.

I didn't actually edit the template to add the link to US Customary-0, but I believe it was added as part of WikiProject Userbox standardization. Anyway, the US Customary-0 template indicates one's wish not to use this unit system, while in some cases still forced to use it (eg. engineers). Also, U.S. customary units is the official name of the units system, and as such, I feel obligated to revert back, unless you can give me a better reason why I shouldn't (it still takes up 2 lines either way). — TheKMantalk 21:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
"Systième Internationale d'Unités" referers to an updated version of the metric system, not a separate off-shoot. "American units" is a non-standard usage (unlike "metric"). "US Customary" is the American derivation of the Imperial units system (which has a number of different values and units). The wording, "US Customary", should be used to separate it from other forms of measurement used in the US that are not part of the "Customary" branch, and other similar forms of measurement (see Metrified English unit). — TheKMantalk 22:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image copyright problem with Image:UGA_Arch.jpg

Thanks for uploading Image:UGA_Arch.jpg. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

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[edit] re:UGA_Arch.jpg

Are works of a Public University considered fair use? R'son-W 01:35, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Generally, no. It's quite possible for a Wikipedian to make a free-license replacement for an image like Image:UGA_Arch.jpg. --Carnildo 07:50, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Are...

you from grass valley?

[edit] LOL

You are so from Nevada County.

I was just curious because I grew up there.

BTW Olbermann is superior to O'Reilly in every way possible.

PS Doolittle sucks.

[edit] I've got to ask

Did you go to NU?

If you didn't that's cool.

[edit] You are a libertarian

So I figured you might have been homeschooled.

What year did you escape that funny farm?

[edit] Image copyright problem with Image:MSUGreatseal.gif

Thanks for uploading Image:MSUGreatseal.gif. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikipedia because of copyright law (see Wikipedia's Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikipedia are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Wikipedia:Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this: {{TemplateName}}.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. --Hetar 04:51, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] meters, feet, bridges

Hi, I'm an admin, and work on many of the bridge pages. I'm interested in you comment that "American Measurements get preference on articles about the US". Is this your opinion, or have you read this on a wikipedia style guide somewhere. My understanding about this is that it is not as simple an issue as you have stated, and depends upon many considerations, the subject matter, precedent, who first wrote the article, wikiproject discussions, etc... The one thing I've come to realize is that this is something that cannot reach a solution that is satisfactory with everyone until there are some software changes that make it possible to alter articles for different versions of English. Software upgrades have been discussed, and might happen some day. Until then, it seems counter productive to fight about with editors from other English speaking countries. I would be interested to read any pages that you can point to that support what you have stated about policy. Thanks. -- Samuel Wantman 09:00, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

You seem to have misconstrued my comments above. I reacted to you comment "American Measurements get preference on articles about the US" because you had stated it as something that had consensus, and made a change to an article based on that statement. I was interested to see the discussion about it, because I am not aware of any. I don't spend time reading style guides and watching their discussions. I thought perhaps you did. I did not say that I agree with you or not. Frankly, I am just as happy with meters as with feet. What I do mind is people making changes back and forth and generating ill will while doing it. I have gotten used to seeing things on Wikipedia done many different ways, and am waiting for a technological fix that will keep everyone happy. I don't appreciate your comments about me on the village pump and my talk page. If I have learned anything about Wikipedia in the time I've been here is the importance of assuming good faith, and responding calmly and with civility to the concerns and comments of others. What may seem obvious at first, often isn't. -- Samuel Wantman 06:10, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] BE/AmE

Please don't change from British English to American English purely on the basis that you think it is right. Your change on fast food advertising was incorrect. violet/riga (t) 20:53, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

You want me to AGF from someone that has their AmE views blatantly posted on their user page? Perhaps you don't understand the Manual of Style properly, but the important thing is for the dialect to remain the same within an article, thus your change broke that. violet/riga (t) 21:13, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
Violet/riga, from what you told me, I gathered you believe that "common sense" overrides the MoS. Perhaps common sense was motivating R'son-W. --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-03 19:04 (UTC)
I disagree. Common sense is to have an article all in one dialect, and he didn't do that. violet/riga (t) 19:32, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
That's your "common" sense. Many at WP think (sense) differently. Sections within one article about UK topics should be in British English, sections on Canadian topics should be in Canadian English, etc. -- so these people feel. Same with photo captions. And, by the way, his "blatantly" posted views should, in fact, be seen as a sign of openness and honesty. Indeed, I'd prefer to see you be open about your anti-Americanism (orthographical anti-Americanism, or broader anti-Americanism, whatever it be) on your user page. I would read that, too, as open and honest, not "blatant." --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-04 07:46 (UTC)
I'm not anti-American - I find it amusing that people use that line of attack simply because someone chooses to protect their own spelling choice. Anyway, it is ridiculous to suggest that we have articles in several different dialects, and it is sensible to have them in one consistent style. violet/riga (t) 10:25, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
1) "Yes, I have a natural bias against AmE." -Violet/riga [1]. And you weren't simply protecting a spelling choice, you were protecting your past violation of spelling guidelines, as well as your attacks on me for trying to rectify them, attempts which I firmly believe are in the spirit of trying to help Wikpedia (by fighting "dialect drift"). 2) Many people believe it is not all ridiculous to have some articles in several dialects. Indeed, many publishers adopt this strategy (not just across essays within a book, but even within a given essay; depending on layout and other formal matters). Your tendency to invoke "common sense" and the "sensible" when defending your views seems unproductive. --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-04 10:38 (UTC)
1) Nice idea to quote part of a sentence (you should represent it properly, not using your own punctuation) that shows that I have a natural bias against the language being pushed on Wikipedia (not all things America!). 2) Then kindly direct me to the discussions about this - there must be some if "[m]any people" believe it. violet/riga (t) 11:02, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
PS. It's not normal to hold these discussions on another person's talk page. violet/riga (t) 11:03, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
The way I quoted your sentence wasn't intended to misrepresent. (It was nice of me to provide a link so people could, with one click, see the entire context.) 2) About your #2: I'm working on it. 3) I have reason to believe R'son-W appreciates this discussion, but I'll continue it elsewhere (later -- big workload right now). --Cultural Freedom talk 2006-07-04 12:38 (UTC)

[edit] Administrator President Lethe

Hi there.

Thanks for nominating me as an Administrator.

Now and maybe over the next few days, I'll be looking into what would be different if I were an Admin instead of just a regular Wikipedian.

I'm curious to know something: Is your nomination mostly a compliment, or is there anything specific that I, as a regular Wikipedian, am not able to do but that you would like me to be able to do (as an Administrator)?

Let me know. Thanks.

President Lethe 18:26, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Hey there. I finally decided and accepted your nomination. The voting is at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship#Preslethe. I have a feeling I'll lose the vote, but that's O.K. Thanks again for your support. — President Lethe 05:57, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image tagging for Image:ColorSeal.gif

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[edit] Yogurt/Yoghurt

This notice is to inform you that there is a new discussion open on the Yogurt/Yoghurt debate. Please visit Talk:Yogurt#Requested move revisited and consider participating. Thank you. —Mets501 (talk) 00:49, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Radio Blagon

Hi, I saw you participated in pages related to radio. I just wanted a little bit of help to correct an article I've tried to translate from French. It's about a French independent Internet radio called Radio Blagon. If you have a bit of time to have a look at the grammar, the spelling and the general style of this article, that would be great. Thanks, Ajor 18:42, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

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