User talk:BrianSmithson/Archive7

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Contents

Re:

Check Note 6 - it just has the name of the author (no page numbers). LuciferMorgan 23:53, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Replied there. -- BrianSmithson 04:52, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Copyedit request

Noticing your experience with editing and bringing articles to featured status, can I kindly ask you to copyedit or maybe point out some problems I am not aware of for the k-os article? It's currently a featured article candidate. Thank you. - Tutmosis 00:27, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I've got the article printed out, and I hope to give it a look sometime soon. Sorry for taking so much time, but things are busy at the moment. — BrianSmithson 12:35, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Spelling and grammar

sorry i did not know that and thanks for help in the furtureOo7565 05:33, 14 November 2006 (UTC) Also one more thing how use can i help on this websie thanksOo7565 09:27, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Don't worry about making mistkes; we were all new at one point. You'll get the hang of it pretty soon. As for how you can help on this website, you already seem to be doing a good job. Just edit articles that need help. Wikipedia can always use people with good copy editing skills. Look around and be bold when you see something that needs fixing and fix it. And don't hesitate to ask me any more questions you may have. — BrianSmithson 09:44, 14 November 2006 (UTC)


How about Charlie "Brown"?

While B.S. is in Japan.

The American Broadcasting Company did air only two half-hour specials on Charlie "Brown", which is the cartoon dog character I know of, so it is him. I am sure it did INDEED feature him, but I didn't watch these "specials" on television, has anyone seen these comics? - Why? Because it said Charlie "Brown", and who said he should not be aired. - I haven't watched any of the reruns of his own half-hour shows from the early 1990s to today.

--65.54.155.54 03:09, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Me neither. — BrianSmithson 22:08, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

J A P A N?!

I do not believe you're going to be living in Japan, taking citizenship as part of the JET program (Japan Exchange Teaching) program for only a few years over there?

Well, I'm not exactly a citizen, just a resident alien. It will be for a few years, then I will go back to the US. — BrianSmithson 08:50, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
Too bad, you are going to be living in Japan for only a few years, and they still have no help from me about researching more of the dog character:
Get out of Japan. (1978 Disney Inc.)
Get out of Japan. (1978 Disney Inc.)
Oh, the dog that you are seeing, wasn't ever shown at the Thanskgiving Parade, except Snoopy? - Who is Snoopy.
Unless, the Japanese government has either a right to grant citizenship to Americans. -
Yup. — BrianSmithson 08:05, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Good work

Have a cup of tea on me.
Have a cup of tea on me.

Just dropped by to say I'd seen you out hard at work and that your efforts are appreciated; have a nice cup of tea on me. Keep up the good work, and if there is anything I can do to be of help to you, please let me know. Essjay (Talk) 06:34, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

I'll take it (it's cold here)! Thanks! — BrianSmithson 06:38, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Manual of Style - fiction

Hi BrianSmithson - I've noticed you are an active participant on the MoS (fiction) page & I was quite impressed by your User biography page. Quack688 and I have been working on a revised MoS (fiction) that better encapsulates our views on guiding new Wikipedia users to generate better articles on fictional subjects.

My hope is to generate a guide that is less prescriptive and confrontational. I've noted that some people have very strong views on what they think all fictional pages should be like. I personally feel a balance has to be struck so that we can push for an encyclopedic style while not discouraging the active Wikipedia contributors that have helped made Wikipedia what it has now become.

The current page is also mainly focussed on discouraging an in-universe style. As you can tell from my previous posts, I think this style is not intrisically inferior. I also feel that there are far more important features to focus on when developing a great article about fiction.

If you have a chance, please take a look at our Wikipedia:Manual of Style (writing about fiction)/draft revision. I'd be interested in your comments; feel free to leave them on the talk page and/or make changes to the draft itself.

Warm regards, Dr Aaron 11:23, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the link. I'll try to give it a look this weekend. -- BrianSmithson 06:15, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

WikiJET

Hi there. I thought you might be interested that I've now started WikiJET over at Wikia.com. It's still in the early stages at the moment, but I'd be interested to know what you think so far.

PS. Have you been accepted for JET in 2007 then? Bobo12345 04:55, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I'll definitely check it out. Have you seen the Wiki they have at Ithinkimlost.com? As for your last question, I was actually accepted to JET for the 2006-2007 year. I'm pretty sure I'm recontracting for another year, though. -- BrianSmithson 06:15, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Request

Hi! Sorry to bother you. I am working on wikipedia for a long time and I had other user names before I started editing under my current user name. I would like to move the contribution list and pages of those usernames to my current page. Is such a thing possible? Would you please help me with this problem. Thanks a lot in advance and sorry for the inconvenience. Sangak 13:23, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. Tough question. I really don't know if that's possible. You might try reading over Wikipedia:Changing username and perhaps asking your question there. Sorry I can't be of more help. — BrianSmithson 14:22, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

DYK!

Updated DYK query On 25 November 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Sorry couldn't use the picture. --Aksi_great (talk) 18:46, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Updated DYK query On December 4, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Sso (rite), which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Thankyou for creating this fascinating article. Blnguyen (bananabucket) 01:06, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Kaissa

Hello there,

I am glad to see that you have written so much about Africa. I enjoy doing the same. I noticed your recent edit to Kaissa added the "Africa-bio-stub" to it. I just wanted to let you know that only people without national templates (like an African from Mayotte but not Comoros) should get the Africa-bio-stub template. Good work otherwise and keep it up!--Thomas.macmillan 04:25, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi, Thomas. I'm not sure what you mean. I'm laying the groundwork to propose a {{Cameroon-bio-stub}}, so I'm going through tagging pages that need it with {{Africa-bio-stub}} and {{Cameroon-stub}}. If and when my proposal is accepted, these will all be replaced with {{Cameroon-bio-stub}}. -- BrianSmithson 04:29, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
That is not needed. All you need to do is do a hand count of the Cameroon stubs with people and then propose it. I am all in favor of dividing the Africa national stubs wherever possible, so you can count on my support for that. Let me know when you propose it so I don't miss it. But otherwise, you should revert the edits adding Africa-bio-stub, as its redundant and says at the top of the category. Check out the category to see for yourself. Also consider moving the stubs to the bottom of the page, as this is proper stub etiquette.--Thomas.macmillan 04:37, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Greetings Brian

I'm glad you take an interest in the African material. We need a lot more editors like that. The reason I wrote like I did was that Cat:African people stubs was getting completely out of hand. Back when we only created new stub templates whenever we were 100% sure we had 60 relevant articles or more, you can imagine how this category completely swamped with 20 articles from one country, 30 from another and 40 from a third, etc etc. I remember sorting 800+ politicians out of the entire mess, and that was just the beginning. Having all of this material grouped together also made it extremely difficult to check for new potential splitoffs since it meant that I had to count all of it everytime. Even worse, many articles were only tagged with {{Africa-bio-stub}} rather than e.g. {{Sudan-stub}} and it makes more sense to me to sort material by country rather than by continent.

I couldn't see any better way to get this material under some kind of control. It is also a response to some of the criticism we've faced for adding too many stub templates to articles. Since it is pretty easy to browse e.g. Cat:Sudan stubs for articles about persons, we can still get a good idea about the size of this material.

After I wrote this note, WP:WSS has somewhat softened the requirements for new templates, so if you know of a country with a large number of biographical stub articles, e.g. 40 articles or so, feel free to propose an upmerged template at WP:WSS/P. Imagine this is the case for Cameroon. If we create a new {{Cameroon-bio-stub}} template but make it use the existing Cat:Cameroon stubs category (rather than creating a new Cat:Cameroonian people stubs), this will mean that we can begin using the new template before we have the required number of 60 stub articles. Once the material grows beyond the 60+ threshold, we can simply create a new category for the template to use. The benefit of doing things this way is that people can find a template under the expected name, and we can avoid a few high-risk categories from getting completely out of control. Cat:African people stubs was a very bad example of this. Happy editing. Valentinian (talk) / (contribs) 13:31, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks & reply

Hi Brian, just wanted to let you know that I've responded to your recent kind note at my talk page User talk:Cclowe. Thanks, Chris Lowe 02:13, 30 November 2006 (UTC)


Thanks for the Barnstar!

Thank you for the barnstar, it is much appreaciated. I look forward to working with you again on filling in the important gaps on Wikipedia. Thanks again!--Thomas.macmillan 14:24, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Old Dan Tucker

From Old Dan Tucker:

The first confirmed public performance of "Old Dan Tucker" was by the Virginia Minstrels at the Bowery Amphitheatre on February 6, 1843.
On January 28, 1843, The New York Sporting Whip reported that the song had been adopted by a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, street gang called the Hallow Guards.

These dates would seem to contradict one another. Andrew Levine 06:38, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Good catch. I'll look over the sources again this weekend and see what the deal is. Thanks. — BrianSmithson 07:39, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
Okay, I've corrected the error. — BrianSmithson 08:13, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Harlan Ellison - blackface minstrel performer?

Hi Brian. I see you added a new category to the Harlan Ellison page. What's your source for doing so? I'd never heard (and I can't find any reference on the page) that Ellison ever performed in blackface. Yonmei 14:49, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

The article includes this line: "As a child, he had a brief career performing in minstrel shows." If this isn't true, the line and category should of course be removed. The article doesn't specify exactly how brief his minstrel career was, so feel free to remove the category anyway if you don't think it's significant enough. I'm not really familiar with the subject. — BrianSmithson 22:16, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
I assume that the line about his performing in minstrel shows is true (or at least, since this is Harlan Ellison, part of his self-created history: it's sometimes hard to tell) - but the page is re-read so many times by his fans that I would have guessed any outright invention would have been removed long ago.
But, we are in cultural miscommunication territory here - I would never have associated "minstrel show" directly with "blackface ministrels". Thank you for responding to my query - I'll ask on the Talk page of the Harlan Ellison page if this category is appropriate for that biographical reference. Someone will know.
Yonmei 08:01, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Some pointers

Hi, i was reading the FAC and noticed you gave a very descriptive response pointing out all the errors and such. I was hoping maybe you could do the same for Slayer, which i have been working on lately attempting to get it up to FA status. I have asked other user opinions and they have said it needs a copyedit so perhaps you could (or direct me to someone) who could give it a good copyedit. If you're busy or its not an area of your interest then no problem. Thankyou for your time! :) M3tal H3ad 08:15, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi, M3tal H3ad. At this point, I can't make any promises, but if time permits, I'll give the article a look. Real life is seriously limiting my wikitime, unfortunately. -- BrianSmithson 04:46, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

pretentious prose!

Yes, it's a problem, isn't it. Many inexperienced writers want to use short-cuts to spruce up their prose with overly formal, difficul-to-read constructions. "Whilst", "amongst", "upon" are words I particularly hate in most contexts. Long sentences need to be chopped up, but here, the boundary beyond which a sentence is too long is harder to establish.

I'm all for providing examples and asking them to fix it. Plain English is very important given the wide range of backgrounds—linguistic and educational—of our readership. Tony 10:50, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Kitsune

I wanted to thank you for putting so much time and effort into copyediting the article. I'm particularly grateful because, even though I've worked as an editor, I tend to have some difficulties editing my own prose. Too close to the text, I suppose. Anyway, I appreciate the support. Shimeru 01:14, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

It was my pleasure; I'm fascinated by Japanese folklore and mythology, so I was happy to learn so much about the critters while I worked. It is indeed difficult to edit one's own prose. I can only really do it if I let the piece go fallow for a while before returning to it, and then it's still always better to have a second pair of eyes go over the thing. I've got access to one other source from which I may add a bit here and there, but I think the piece is pretty solid now. Good work. -- BrianSmithson 02:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

Category:Douala

Konbanwa, I just created the category Douala and I included it in Category:Capitals in Africa. As Douala is Cameroon's largest city and commercial capital, as it states in the article Douala, as well as being the main port, I think it might belong there, but I am not sure I can deal with specific questions or strong criticism on the subject. Of course if it doesn't belong there it doesn't belong there and it is not that important anyway. PS I noticed your user page, have you checked Chester Himes (which was one of my first Wiki article contributions)? He is to the crime novel as Stephen Bochco is to the television crime drama or as Miles Davis is to jazz.--McTrixie/Mr Accountable 17:30, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. I'll check out that category before I say whether or not I think Douala belongs in it. My gut says no, since Yaoundé is Cameroon's capital. However, sources often identify Douala as the "commercial capital". I'll check it out. Oh, and thanks for the link to Chester Himes; I'd never heard of him before. — BrianSmithson 22:20, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Merry Christmas

Darwinek wishes you a Merry Christmas!
Darwinek wishes you a Merry Christmas!

Hi Brian! I just want to say Merry Christmas to you! Have a nice holiday time. - Darwinek 20:09, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Same to you! — BrianSmithson 22:20, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

New vandals

Assuming you're still an admin, I wonder if you have some time to block this new User:Mdey33 whose only apparent purpose is to vandalize the Rosie O'Donnell page. Thank you! Wahkeenah 23:13, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Also User:Ajent's purpose appears to be vandalism. Should I be taking these complaints to you, or is there a more appropriate way to do this? Wahkeenah 01:24, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

It's fine to contact a specific administrator, but for wider exposure (and the likelihood of more rapid response), you may want to check out Wikipedia:Vandalism in progress in the future. As for your request here, I'll take a look at those pages soon. -- BrianSmithson 02:03, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
The first user appears to have been blocked, and the other hasn't been active for the past couple days. Let me know if they start acting up again. -- BrianSmithson 02:07, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Category:Douala

Hi, I wasn't sure if Douala was the seat of the Duala people or not. --McTrixie/Mr Accountable 21:51, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

Felix the Cat

Watch the Felix article and make sure that User:Grant65 doesn't make any major pro-Sullivan changes. - Pietro Shakarian 14:44, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Littoral Province (Cameroon)

"Hmm. Since Douala is IN the Littoral, I don't think that category should be applied to the whole province." - Not only is Douala in the Littoral, it is also the capital of the Littoral, and as such the government, government buildings and government workers of the Littoral are all located within the city. It could be said that the Littoral is an important part of Douala's economy. --McTrixie/Mr Accountable 18:43, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

It is the capital of the Littoral, but I think it's normal practice for the bigger thing to categorize the smaller thing. For example, Erie County, New York isn't categorized in Category:Buffalo, New York, even though Buffalo is the capital of Erie. The same goes for the Duala people; the Douala article might potentially belong in a Category:Duala people, but I don't think the reverse is true. — BrianSmithson 09:45, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Dixie authorship

Hello, Brian Smithson. Joseph Byrd here. I appreciate the contributions you've made to the Encyclopedia, and your breadth of interest, but I'm confused as to why you removed my edits to the Dan Emmett page. Everything I said is well-documented, and I'm told by another editor that I've violated no copyright in my citation from a Dan Emmett outside link. I wrote defending Emmett's authorship of Dixie, and added a bit that refutes a common misinterpretation of his feelings about the song. I could easily quote you the details (which I felt were too scholarly to bother with in a popular setting). There is no doubt about the correctness, yet you essentially eviscerated everything I wrote. Would you care to explain why?

Thanks,

Josephbyrd 04:35, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

P.S. In Nathan's exhaustive book, he says, "Ëmmett was devoid of any business instinct. Instead of publishing and immediately copyrighting "Dixie,' which was on everyone's lips, he waited more than a year before giving it to Firth, Pond & Co. They deposited it with the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York on June 21, 1860. Other publishers, considering the tune public property, were hard at their heels. For example, on June 26, Joh Church Jr., in Cincinnat, 'filed a piano arrangement...but acknowledged in a later edition, no doubt under pressure, the permission of the original publishers'."

There is also citation of a convention of music dealers that year, in which it was acknowledged that Emmett was the author.

The matter of Emmett's feelings about the legacy of his song is more complex. There is, I agree a story of Emmett's having said, "If I had known to what use they were going to put my song, I will be damned if I'd have written it." But that story is countered by the interview he later gave to the editor of The Confederate Veteran in 1895. And the context of the premiere performance, in the Bowery district, the heart of Democratic opposition to the coming war, together with the lyrics I quoted (likewise from Nathan), make it clear that he was sympathetic to the view that blacks were better off in the South.

As to Emmett's memory lapses and inconsistency, if that were the criterion, composers (including myself) would be in deep trouble. I'm currently being questioned by people regarding what I wrote or said 40 years ago, and my memories are as flawed as Emmett's. The alleged comment in the previous paragraph is at best third hand, being quoted from a letter from Col. T. Allston Brown, who was not even present at the conversation. It is thus third-hand hearsay. In any case, it is not justification for wholesale removal of an edit.

Josephbyrd 05:14, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Moving conversation to Talk:Dan Emmett. — BrianSmithson 06:38, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

List of Cameroon-related topics

I saw your revert of my edit removing the link to CDU from List of Cameroon-related topics. I've been trying to fix references to CDU (most of which refer to the German party). I found the Cameroon page pointing to the CDU disambiguation page, but with no reference to the Cameroon party on that page. After you reverted my edit, I dug some more into this and found that there is a page on the Democratic Union of Cameroon and have added that as a link on the CDU page, though it appears as though this party is more commonly referred to as DUC or its French acronym UDC.

I'm fairly new to disambiguation, so I'm curious about your suggestions about how to handle the current link to CDU on the list page. As I understand it, there we should avoid links to a disambiguation page if there's a specific page for the topic. Should I change the CDU link to point to the specific page like this?

Or should I leave the CDU link pointing to the CDU disambiguation page?

Thanks. Rickterp 01:42, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Rick. No, you did nothing wrong. The reason I restored the link was because List of Cameroon-related topics is as much an administrative list as it is an actual Wikipedia article, so there are other concerns involved from the run-of-the-mill disambiguation link repair. The idea is that the acronyms on that page should remain linked until they are checked to ensure that the organizations referred to are listed on the appropriate disambiguation pages. For example, CDC should stay linked until someone checks to make sure that the CDC disambiguation page lists the Cameroon Development Corporation. Only then should the link be removed from the list page. You did this for CDU, so I've gone ahead and removed the link. Thanks for taking the time to ask about this. — BrianSmithson 06:00, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Sounds good. Thanks Rickterp 22:15, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Piggy

The character's full name is given in the MM short AT YOUR SERVICE MADAME. -- Jason Palpatine 08:49, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Suspicious

The change you are taking in the ALT section looks like you are from the Interac yourself. What kind of JET program are you in? Who organized it? Interac? In Japan everybody knows that Interac is owned by Selnate is owned by Selnate Utah, which is obviously a mormon company working with the BYU (mormon university). The head of Selnate is mormon and the the evidence of Selnate being a mormon company is very strong. The involvement of mormons in Asian English language training is very public fact, that is being hidden by Interac without success.

http://www.amazon.com/Lords-University-Freedom-Authority-Byu/dp/1560851171/

Why are you defending the Interac? I am curious about you now.

I have nothing to do with Interac. I'm just a firm believer in Wikipedia's source citation and verifiability policies. Rumors don't belong in articles unless there is proof that they are true. So far, you haven't shown that Interac is affiliated with the Mormon church, so I've removed the material. — BrianSmithson 08:18, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

MedCab Case:Mami Wata

You have been named a respondent in MedCab Case: Mami Wata. If you wish to proceed with this informal mediation with me as your mediator please edit the discussion section, state you wish to proceed with User:Alan.ca as your mediator and sign your name. Alan.ca 20:52, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

An article which you started, or significantly expanded, Sao civilisation, was selected for DYK!

Updated DYK query On January 16, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Sao civilisation, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Thanks for your contributions! Nishkid64 23:46, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

MWHS article

I noticed that the Mami Wata Healers Society of North America Inc. article was deleted today. This could get very interesting. Dmoon1 03:47, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I'm trying to stay out of it as best I can. They seem legitimately confused as to how they failed to satisfy WP:N, but I don't think anything I can say to them on the matter would be perceived as me trying to help. Oh well. -- BrianSmithson 05:09, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

An article which you started, or significantly expanded, akabeko, was selected for DYK!

Updated DYK query On January 22, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article akabeko, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Thanks for your contributions! Nishkid64 22:28, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

The Nihongo template

It is generally used as such:

  • {{nihongo|English translation|Kanji/Kana|romaji|other|other}}

The extra parameter automatically places something in the first "other".—Ryūlóng (竜龍) 23:05, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. It currently looks fine in akabeko; I just wanted to make sure things remained clear. I copied the template from another article that apparently used it incorrectly. -- BrianSmithson 01:22, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
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