User talk:Zerrakhi

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My reply policy I may reply here or on your talk page, as I see fit. But if it takes me longer than a day to reply, I will do so on your talk page. This means that if you leave a message here, you should check to see if I've replied for one day, but after that you no longer need to check this page.

Contents 1 Welcome to Wikipedia 2 What Zerrakhi Doesn't Want People To Know 3 Your templates 4 Re: Hello 5 Regarding Category:User pages displaying original userboxes and corresponding code 6 Re:Hi 7 Possible Userbox Solution 8 Meetup on 24th August 2006 9 Family First Party 10 South Australian English

[edit] Welcome to Wikipedia

Since you've actually been doing this for a while, I can probably skip the usual Welcome to Wikipeia speil (he said, as though he'd ever done it before.) Experiment in the Sandbox, ask questions at the village pump, etc. You know all this. Daibhid C 12:30, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What Zerrakhi Doesn't Want People To Know

I should know. He ate my entire family before I had a chance. — Itai (talk) 20:53, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Your templates

The octarine one, I definitely want. The apple one is maybe a bit obscure. (I've got the IT reference, but I'm still not sure what it actually signifies). Daibhid C 17:24, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

The whole userbox thing is in turmoil at the moment. I've added the boxes to my own page for now (other people can copy them from there) and will ponder the question of submitting them to the central repository. Zerrakhi 03:26, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

I've added the octarine box to my page, with one modification; I linked the word "octarine" to Minor Discworld concepts#Octarine. That way, anyone curious as to what it means can learn all sorts of Discworldly stuff 8-). Daibhid C 12:25, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I thought about that, but the problem is that the blue colour for links doesn't show up well against the black background, and I don't know how to make the link on the userbox a different colour. So I had to choose between having the word "octarine" in white so that you can actually read it, but unlinked, or to have it linked, but in dark lettering so that you can hardly see it. This is why I suggested on Wikipedia_talk:Userboxes that the template for making userboxes should have options for customising link colour. Zerrakhi 13:26, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

I've just noticed that on my version... Daibhid C 16:17, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Hello

We do really share some interests. I've never been outside of Canada, so I can't really say where I've gone. BTW, I like your changes to the tropical cyclone article. They really improve it. It was nice to hear from you. Miss Madeline | Talk to Madeline 21:36, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Regarding Category:User pages displaying original userboxes and corresponding code

An excellent idea. But I think copy&pasting raw code is a bit... clunky... I implemented the "German solution" of the userbox issue on my userbox page - templates, but located in userspace. What do you think? CharonX talk Userboxes 22:09, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

One issue is how to differentiate between pages that show original userboxes designed by the userpage owner (like mine), versus pages that show an archive of selected userboxes by various users (like yours). I'm thinking there should probably be a seperate subcategory for the latter.

The problem with such archives is duplication - i.e. if several people or more create archives like yours, then some userboxes are going to end up on more than one archive, and that's unfair to new users who are browsing to see what userboxes are available. It's much fairer to guarantee that every archive a user visits will contain fresh userboxes, not repeats of userboxes that were on various other archives as well. The only way to solve this problem would be for a group of people to work together and coordinate who archives which userboxes.

So if you like, you could create a subcategory for user pages that archive selected existing userboxes and code (the hardest part might be choosing a name for this subcategory) and on the subcategory index page you could write a message inviting people to use the discussion page to coordinate who archives which userboxes. (User BigDT has an archive of religious userboxes, so later you might want to contact him and invite him to link to the category.)

The other issue is to improve the documentation about how userboxes can be added to a page. There are essentially three, namely substing, including the Userbox template without substing, and templates. There is currently no documentation explaining that you can have templates on your user space, so you might want to do something about that. Also, it is my understanding that one is allowed to include the Userbox template without substing, provided that one does not make that into a template. This isn't documented either, and the only reason I haven't done so myself in my edits of Wikipedia:Userboxes is that I'm not 100% sure of my facts.

And finally, I agree that raw code, if it's truly raw, is clunky, but I don't think including the Userbox template without substing is too bad, really. Zerrakhi 07:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Re:Hi

Sorry I've taken so long to reply to you. Your userboxes are great. I especially like the octarine one. I'm rereading Guards! Guards! for about the tenth time at the moment. I've tried to make some userboxes myself. The sean nós article is very interesting. I know very little about Irish traditional music myself. That's what I love about Wikipedia - someone from Australia can tell me about something that's happening in my local pub. Alnaschar 02:30, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi Zerrakhi. Thanks for the Austen essay, I thought it was very interesting. The part about the soppy movie adaptations is so true IMHO. The cover of Northanger Abbey in the essay reminds me of an old copy of Pride and Prejudice belonging to my mum. It looked like a bodice ripper, which was why I read it the first time :-)

Regarding Pratchett's books, I came across an article here about an Irish real-life Nanny Ogg. The name Biddy Early even sounds like a Discworld character. She married her step-son, and when she was in her 70s she married a guy in his 30s - and he died within the year! All her husbands died because of too much alcohol - how Irish is that! The people she cured gave her whiskey and the husbands drank themselves to death with it. I put a link to a book with more information about her at the bottom of her page, if you're interested. The same chapter also has William Butler Yeats visiting a healer for help with his eyesight. Alnaschar 01:01, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for that. I'll probably reply by email sometime. Zerrakhi 01:59, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Possible Userbox Solution

This is a form letter, please don't reply directly. Do, however, feel free to discuss this solution I've come up with.

I've made an unofficial place for all User Boxes (hopefully) safe from overzealous Admins. Feel free to add any you like, edit any there, or just list your already made userboxes there. Also feel free to edit the main page (the user page) in any way that you think might help. Please note, however, that this is a user page and not an official Wikipedia page, so almost any User Box will be tolerated as long as it's within reason. UserBox 03:29, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meetup on 24th August 2006

Apologies if you're already aware of this, but the Inaugural Adelaide Meetup will take place on Thursday 24th of August at Brougham Place Uniting Church, thanks to Alex Sims. Please indicate if you will attend or not.

This message left by May the Force be with you! Shreshth91($ |-| ŗ 3 $ |-| ţ |-|) on behalf of [ælfəks], 10:14, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Family First Party

I understand your concerns. Family First, I believe, is concerned about issues like the homeless and refugees. I agree they should be more outspoken on them. At least where they have spoken or voted (e.g. Steve Fielding on the asylum seeker legislation) it has been positive. Rocksong 06:05, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] South Australian English

We need a reference for the following statements which were added to South Australian English under your user name:

The following statistical observations may also be made about South Australian speech:

• The phoneme /ʊ/ is often substantially fronted in certain phonological environments (e.g. before "d", as in should, good, etc), whereas this fronting is generally less substantial in other parts of the country.
• South Australians are more likely than people from Sydney or Melbourne to pronounce "air" (and other occurences of the same phoneme) as a centering diphthong rather than a monophthong.
• There is a tendency among many Australians to convert a schwa that occurs at the end of a phrase to a more open vowel, but this tendency is less common in South Australia than in the east.
• For some Australians, holy is homomorphic with wholly and does not rhyme with lowly, whereas for others, holy rhymes with lowly and is not homomorphic with wholly. Among other words affected by the same underlying distinction are solo, Polish and Cola. The rhyming of "holy" with "lowly" may be more common in South Australia than in the eastern states.

What "statistical" evidence are you referring to? I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but the article has been the subject of two separate attempts to delete it and merge it into other articles and needs to be as well-referenced as possible. Grant65 | Talk 03:16, 1 November 2006 (UTC)