User talk:David.Monniaux/archive1

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[edit] le monde diplomatique

I think that we should avoid describing anything as "left wing", because that really is dependent on your point of view, as are most political labels. That's why I put in the assertion that it is merely generally considered left-wing. It's readers (those I know) don't describe it like that.Vintermann 10:37, Jun 11, 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Unfinished Dreyfus Affair

Has the page The resolution of the Dreyfus Affair ever been written? Or has it become lost due to restructuring? David.Monniaux 16:06, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

As far as I can tell (as an admin) it's never been written. Perhaps you could solve that problem? ;-) Martin 20:01, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I dropped a whole lot of public domain text there, but its huge so annoyin to wikify--Wonderfool 17:42, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Welfare reform

Well, I wrote what I knew. Feel free to add in or edit details. See Wikipedia:Be bold in editing. Meelar 03:38, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Here is a copy of what i put on the talk page: I'm new on this page...Canadian. Maybe the difference is in how you view the term of "welfare reform". It isn't positive or negative on its own. In the US it has a particular value though: cuts to funding (a POV way of getting to my point).Use the term "Common Sense Revolution and you'll get a huge reaction in Ontario....for or against...but the term itself doesn't mean anything...it was a slogan for a set of political changes to (mainly) social programs--Marcie 07:01, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)... ....i'm not sure since you are a sysop if you work different then the rest? I'd be willing to give this one a stab, but i don't think it can neccesasarily go under the term "welfare reform", which is a vague term and can mean both improving services or decreasing them or any number of combinations depending on culture. Is there some way to put it like "decreases in social programs/income supports funding" and go from there? Just an idea...i can't really work around the term welfare reform that well...but i know a hell of a lot of what the equivalent was in ontario and it was called "The Common Sense Revolution"...it wasn't all of the "revolution" but that and ODSP and Workfare are the terms you will find associated with it. Want to drop by my talk page...it interests me but i'm still fairly new here...i think it needs renaming if you want it to be broadened (which could be a good idea...and someone did put a lot of good work into the US version of it from what i read--Marcie 07:13, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Re: 1905 Law

I really don't know much about the 1905 French law on secularism. I'm pretty strong on the early years of the French Revolution, but other than that I wouldn't consider French history one of my areas of expertise. Sorry. -- Jmabel 04:04, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Details about the Capetian beginnings (Paris)

Hey, thanks for the quick clarification, I was translating the article in Romanian and didn't know how to interpret the old version. Your changes do make it a lot clearer, I'll go back into the Romanian version and integrate your changes. --Gutza 15:08, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] List of regions in France

If the Regions don't have legislative autonomy, what do their legislatures do? Presumably you mean they have limited legislative autonomy? Adam 00:20, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Regions don't really have legislatures, because they don't pass legislation. :-) As explained in the Politics of France article, the national parliament passes statutes, and the prime minister issues regulations (other ministers or lesser administrative authorities, such as mayors, may also issue some subordinate forms of regulations). Regions can issue neither. Regional councils and their presidents basically have a budget to manage, maybe half of which go to building and supporting highschools (the main function of regions is, indeed, to support highschools), and the rest of which is spent discretionarily on supporting job creations, research, infrastructures etc... That's why those positions are politically important: while regions are not responsible for much, in the sense that they will be blamed if things go wrong, they manage large sums of money that they have wide latitude for spending. Contrast that with the far bigger budget of the national government, which is largely tied down with paying fixed costs (salaries, retirement pensions for former civil servants).
There was a proposal to offer some legislative autonomy to, say, Corsica, but such things are highly controversial (if only because the Corsicans themselves turned down a proposal increasing Corsican autonomy).
Oversea countries and territories etc... have legislative autonomy on many topics.David.Monniaux 06:26, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
merci beaucoup. Adam 07:26, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] User:WHEELER on reactionary

I agree with most of your assessment. I think he does have something to offer, though -- there are kernels of important fact in his otherwise frustratingly confusing, contradictory, and biased writing. Furthermore, we can't really do anything but what we've been doing. We should discuss things on the talk page, and edit his writing mercilessly (that's the Wiki way). He is, however, very good at citing his sources, so we need to be even better at it. He has an advocate in Sam Spade who is very aware of policy here and who has defended WHEELER almost unilaterally, so WHEELER knows policy and knows he's not alone. The only approach we can adopt is to follow policy in opposing his work, which really isn't difficult. His work follows policy in citing sources -- our work needs to match that, and then go beyond it simply by being truly NPOV. As yet he's done nothing that would deserve a larger reprimand. I ask that you remain patient, and work with Andy and I to edit the articles back with the use of sources -- do you have any that would suffice? Part of the problem is that WHEELER finds positions so strange that there are few sources to contradict him (as I've noted before) simply because people see no need, for instance, to assert that the founding fathers were not reactionary. Let's work together to edit the articles he works on so that we preserve the good material he adds, and to remove the biased and unwarranted assertions he adds. That's the only way to do this, I think. If you continue to be frustrated, let me know: I'm happy to help. I've been trying to work with WHEELER for 6 weeks, and I understand your perspective completely, believe me! :-) Jwrosenzweig 17:26, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

My point is that it's almost impossible to discuss with somebody that does not make sense. To criticize a point of view, there must be a point of view to criticize, not series of mad exclamations and off-the-point accusations. Wikipedia is not a weblog or a soap box.
Of course, he finds SOME sources - but what he quotes from them has little connection with the matter, or is posted in the wrong section etc... On the other hand, I contend that for many of his offending statements, he does not have any valid source. Think, for instance, of when he pretended that Russia was enlightened like the United Kingdom – this is blatant historical untruth, and he had no source.
Furthermore, I'm a bit wary about his alleged "sources". If you go to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, you'll find all kinds of "historical" writings to cite as source. Would they be relevant? Are they unbiased? What is their agenda? David.Monniaux 17:35, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I agree with you. But we must avoid even the appearance of evil. :-) Therefore, we must cite sources. It irks me also, especially when I can see sources that have an obvious bias. And even when sources are provided that contradict WHEELER, he ignores them or insists that he will only accept them if he can see them with his own eyes. But at least if he does that regularly to us, we'll have grounds for censuring him. And perhaps he will surprise us and change his approach. I know, I know, but believing in the ability of others to change and become productive is part of what we're doing here. All we can do is edit articles and cite our sources. You're right: sometimes we can't argue with him. So we won't argue, we'll just edit and explain. That's my advice. :-) Sorry if it's not what you wanted to hear. :-) Jwrosenzweig 17:39, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Publishing photographs of convicted children

Je répond en français c'est plus simple. Je ne suis pas une référence en droit. Normalement ca devrait être dans le Code Pénal dans la section relative aux "Délits de Presse". Sinon je pense que c'est une loi de 1948 qui organise la liberté de presse en France. Ericd 18:35, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Non, c'est une loi de 1881 [1], et on n'y parle pas, si je ne m'abuse des coupables mineurs, seulement des victimes mineures. Par contre, en effet, les procès de mineurs sont à huis clos.
Je pense qu'il faut être très prudent quand on parle de lois, car, souvent, on pense que telle ou telle chose est légale ou non sans qu'on sache vraiment si c'est vrai ou en vertu de quoi. David.Monniaux 18:58, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Je ne trouve pas le texte mais j'ai trouvé quelque élémentq. Je pense qu'en fait ce n'est pas un délit de presse mais une interdiction plus large s'adressant à la police et aux juges mais je n'arrive pas à trouver un texte prévoyant des sanctions pénales.
Ericd 19:31, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Ordonnance n° 45-174 du 2 février 1945 - Article 14. 6000 ? d'amende (seulemnt).

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/texteconsolide/PJFAP.htm Ericd 19:54, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Merci beaucoup. David.Monniaux 20:32, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Une preuve que la législation française est bordélique....
Ericd 21:44, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Pas vraiment. Là, on parle de loi pénale punissant des agissements de la presse à l'égard de mineur délinquants. On peut donc valablement penser que cette information puisse être dans le code pénal, la loi sur la presse, ou la loi sur les mineurs délinquants. C'est difficile de ranger les choses quand on a plusieurs catégories au choix... David.Monniaux 21:48, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

You wrote: "Why change Great Britain to Britain? Great Britain is the official name used in the full name of the United Kingdom, isn't it? If what was meant was that Mireille Mathieu (or others) toured England, Scotland or Wales, wasn't it ok?"

This is a frequent question. The issue is that people use the wrong name for the country all the time. Occasionally they will be lucky and it might be possible for them to argue that they knew exactly what they were doing. It is much better if people use the correct name.

It would be a similar issue if the United States had been called "The Thirteen States" and for people to say "He toured The Thirteen States". It might sometimes be true but we should not use the wrong name.
Bobblewik 12:17, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] where to begin?

Honestly the whole thing is a mess, I would say. The intro is perhaps the worst of it, esp. as it now stands. Sam Spade 19:15, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The mentioning of "left" and "right" within the body of the article w/o clarification that these terms are so flexable and evolutionary as to be worse than useless oftentimes... this is another factual error. Sam Spade 19:20, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Ah... Well, I would not call this a factual error (which would imply saying something that does not fit reality) but a factual imprecision. Indeed, you are very right in saying that "left" and "right" have definitions that have vastly varied with time and place. In articles explaining differences between political doctrines, such words should be avoided except when alluding to the particular circumstances of a defined time and place (and then explained). David.Monniaux 19:24, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Arguing with WHEELER

An admirable job arguing with WHEELER, but I fear the fellow is utterly impervious to, well, I would say logic, but really more broadly, to any kind of communication (at least in English) with other human beings. My main hope is that he give up on Wikipedia and go away - I don't think he's ever contributed anything even vaguely useful.

As to your discussion with Mr. Spade above, I think that the Nazism and socialism article, as far as I can tell, the usage of "right" and "left" in the article either refers to 1) left and right as they existed in Imperial and Weimar Germany; or 2) to present day notions of left and right; and that it's very clear which is meant at which points. Sam is just continuing his crusade to make all articles about political phenomena useless. john 21:04, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Actually I think it is not clear, and that removing these terms, and using more precise terms might make articles on the subject of politics a good deal less useless. I wish you could see thru your blinding assumption of bad faith against me to be able to understand that I also want a sensible article. Your writing on the article is/was very good, but you need to understand it is also a persuasive argument for nazism being a form of socislism, and your usage of left/right terms (while it may help you make your argument more convincing) is POV. You can write well and still fail to be NPOV, and this is what you have done. I am simply trying to reduce the imbalance and (un)intentional (unintentional w you I believe, clearly intentional w other editors) bias. Sam Spade 00:23, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Not sure about the first name issues. I can't find anything. It would be a useful table, though, certainly. As to WHEELER, he's been nominated for adminship! john 06:59, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I basically agree with you about WHEELER, although I think it goes further than that, to a strange ideology involving ancient Greece, and so forth. I don't think the guy is purposefully being difficult (as Andy says, perhaps too generously, his heart's in the right place), but I think he's so set in his ideas as to be unwilling to accept, or possibly even understand, any criticism of his work. john 07:08, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I suspect his poor English expression goes a long way in explaining why he comes across so badly. I think, for instance, that he still has not understood that if you explain some political group's positions, you have to express a distance between and the group's position, otherwise you're endorsing their position.
He also (like many right-wing Americans, I should say) has an obsession with "Socialism" and "private property" which he applies to many issues that have fairly little to do with private property or socialism. David.Monniaux 07:11, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Yes, but it's all rather more idiosyncratic than a right wing quasi-troll like User:TDC. He proudly calls himself a reactionary, and tries to make just about everybody in history whom he likes a reactionary! I don't know that I've ever met an American who was willing to call himself reactionary (and I'm American). It's almost exclusively a pejorative used by people on the left. People on the right tend to identify themselves as conservatives or, if they are particularly literate, claim for themselves the mantle of 19th century liberalism. john 07:15, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Witness how WHEELER resisted the notion that the general usage of "reactionary" today was pejorative! He then cited Hoover describing proudly himself as a reactionary, and challenged me to pro

[edit] removing your comment

Hi, a quick question, just curious: has this edit been agreed to by you? ("Deleted a response to me that belonged on a different talk page.") Regards, High on a tree 04:57, 29 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Admin nomination

It was a pleasure to support your admin nomination. Your participation in the Peter Lynds debate was most appreciated. I have a feeling we have not seen the last of it. -- Decumanus | Talk 02:12, 3 May 2004 (UTC)


David, prends ton plus beau keyboard, et va mettre ton approbation ici si tu ne veux pas que l'instit aux grosses lunettes et au chignon, te tape sur les doigts avec sa plus belle règle :-). SweetLittleFluffyThing 04:44, 3 May 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Sysop

Congratulations! You are now an administrator. You should read the relevant policies and other pages linked to from the administrators' reading list before carrying out tasks like deletion, protection, banning users, and editing protected pages such as the Main Page. Most of what you do is easily reversible by other sysops, apart from page history merges and image deletion, so please be especially careful with those. Good luck. Angela. 14:52, May 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Learning Project

Hi there, I saw you speak both French and English, so maybe you are interested in this projet I describe on my user page. Get-back-world-respect 19:16, 23 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-French sentiment article

The current state of the article Anti-French sentiment in the United States appalls me, and I just tried moving the egregious "Accusations" section to the Talk page, but I was reverted by user Sam Spade shortly thereafter. Care to weigh in with your opinion on whether this material should be included in the article? I fully understand if you don't. -- Viajero 17:53, 24 May 2004 (UTC)

Well, the problem is that you erased some text without looking at the talk page where that text was discussed. This is not the proper procedure. David.Monniaux 19:48, 24 May 2004 (UTC)
Je ne suis pas du tout d'accord avec ton opinion sur cet article, mais peu importe. Fait juste attention où tu met les pieds avec Sam.
Oui, je vois un peu comment est le personnage... Mais, en l'espèce, il avait raison: il y avait une discussion en cours avec des arguments des deux côtés, et un type débarque, ne lit pas la discussion et vire le paragraphie litigieux. Ce n'est pas la bonne manière.
En ce qui concerne cet article, je pense que Wikipedia n'a pas à faire la bégueule: si des insultes ou des thèmes d'insultes reviennent sans cessr dans le discours anti-français, il est approprié de les lister. Je dois dire que ma liste originale était largement plus courte, et centrée sur les problèmes politiques, mais il est vrai que, souvent, les remarques désobligeantes sur la politique sont souvent associées à des clichés sur le mode de vie.
C'est un peu comme certains en France pour qui tout américain est un gros beauf semi-crétin et obèse... David.Monniaux 06:20, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
Je crois que cet article et l'article sur l'anti-Americanism devrait aller à VfD. -- Cecropia | Talk 16:25, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
Pourquoi donc? On documente la realite, meme si celle-ci n'est pas flatteuse. Si on commence comme ca, autant virer tous les sujets d'actualite et ne mentionner que les evenements dont les principaux protagonistes sont morts, voire uniquement les evenements qui n'attisent plus les passions. David.Monniaux 16:30, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
Ce semblerait insulte de ces articles tellement et enflamer tant de passions, celle elles rendent des personnes fâchées plutôt qu'informer. En outre, les gens sont encouragés à exprimer leur préjudice plus laid. -- Cecropia | Talk 16:51, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
Sorry to say so, but I can hardly understand you. Would you mind speaking English?
I think that documenting prejudice is by no means encouraging it. If we were to write about nazism, we would, understandably, talk about the anti-Jewish Nazi hysteria and the nazi allegations on Jews. Does this mean we support the Nazis?
Controversies exist, and they should be documented objectively. David.Monniaux 16:54, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
My French teacher always did call me (and two others) "the unHoly three." Anyway, my point is that these articles have no proportion and I think they more reflect people's individual prejudice and are blown out of proportion. No one says "Freedom Fries" except as a joke, and not even that any more. I will admit that when I bought French butter recently I jokingly called it "Freedom Butter" but obviously if I were that annoyed with France I wouldn't be buying it at all. Americans respect the French for many things, including support against Britain through most of the 19th century, French food and much of French culture.
But my broader problem is that these things antogonize people--I'm thinking of Anthere. To what end? -- Cecropia | Talk 18:29, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
Well, of course, we must keep some proportion. Still, I've heard the said jokes many times. What's worse, sometimes they were heard from people who should know better - national politicians, or editorialists in national newspapers. I am pretty sure that Americans would label "anti-American" any person who made remarks of the same kind on the United States.
Of course, such remarks antagonize people - they are meant so. Still, we cannot pretend that they do not exist, or that they are negligible. We should not apply a rosy tint to reality. David.Monniaux 19:10, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] NED

Well, tongue-in-cheek devil's advocacy aside, I think we can agree to disagree on this one. A question--what instance were you referring to re: Church of Scientology? Yours, Meelar 15:05, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

Throughout the Clinton administration, the US government bombarded France and other countries (I think that Germany was in the lot) with accusations of religious intolerance, lack of freedom of religion etc... because of the way those countries treat the Church of Scientology and other groups. In France, the Church of Scientology is widely regarded as a mafia-like organization that extorts money from disoriented people seeking assistance, and masquerades as a religious organization. Groups like the Jehovah witnesses also made some quite unreasonable claims.(*)
That pressure went quite far. If I remember well, there was a law that mandated the US government to apply "sanctions" to countries that, according to these reports, did not respect freedom of religion (the executive could waive the law, I presume to avoid very awkward diplomatic hassles when it came to close allies like NATO countries).
For most of tthose who noticed it in France, these actions were unwarranted meddling into French internal affairs, probably induced by some funding from those allegedly persecuted political groups. This view is corroborated by the cessation of the pressures when the Bush administration came in power - you would have thought that if there was real substance behind them, and not mere lobbying, the Bush administration, quite in favor of religion, would also have pushed them.
(*) I think I remember some declaration before the US congress that it was a shame that France did not recognize the Jehovah witnesses as a religion, whereas this religion had a long history. The speaker apparently totally missed the point that, by law, France officially recognizes no religion, and thus that what he required was essentially illegal. This is, I think, a clear example of the difficulty of meddling into other countries' affair: some very important background information is missing, and people act based on biased and uninformed reporting. David.Monniaux 15:25, 25 May 2004 (UTC)
Well, I can't say I know about the controversy (before my time), but it's certainly been interesting to get a foreign perspective. Best wishes, Meelar 15:54, 25 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Middle Eastern portion of "Foreign Relations of France"

Hi David,

I'd like to take a shot at fixing bias in the Foreign relations of France article. Could you tell me where you believe the problems are?

Thanks, Ta bu shi da yu 05:54, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The section on the Middle East is highly critical of France's policies in that region. Even if some of the points are true, it's an incredibly one-sided commentary. David.Monniaux 06:34, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Sys op help please

User:K1 keeps deleting my contributions to several articles (currently mostly) Religious minorities in Iran and William C. Rogers III either without comment or with abusive comment only. I do not want to participate in a revert war, but rather debate matters on the talk pages. Could you please protect both pages at whatever stage you feel ok to force some debate ? If you have other suggestions to make matters a bit better, that would be great too. I have put the matter onto the RfC pages [[2]] Thanks a lot ! I have already asked User Morwen who declined as she had previous conflicts wth K1 and User:Roozbeh who declined as he had asked unsuccessfully K1 to tone down and feared getting abuse too. I am a bit at a loss, particulartly as I do not know many people yet. Refdoc 09:17, 17 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Laïcité

I'm a bit unsure as to the meaning of civil religion and the link between it and laïcité. Does this suggest, for instance, that the French government is pushing some kind of set of official religious practices? David.Monniaux 20:36, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)

No. You will note that the civil religion article says that in France, the religious and and the non-religious forms of "civil religion" are separated from each other. I had in mind that the civil religion article bears on the general topic of varying degrees and varying styles of separation of church and state.


[edit] Search applet

David, some comments and observations:

  1. I figure that when the applet first starts, it has to load some or all of the .idx files. Right now it appears that the applet doesn't draw anything until it has done so - so even on my broadband connection the applet languishes for many seconds (a time in which one could mistake it for having crashed). Perhaps a "loading..." paint or something is in order?
It loads one of the .idx files. I'm considering splitting it too. I can also probably make progress bars.
  1. hmm, the button appears to have some kind of fancy texture. Surely the jar doesn't contain a swing LnF?
Actually, no, it uses the default LnF on your Java installation.
  1. I get the search to work, and it brings up a window listing the matches - but hitting a given match doesn't do anything. I imagine its supposed to launch another browser window or something, but I don't get anything (and there's no exception in the console either). FYI I'm using
 Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) 
 Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9

and

 Sun j2se 1.5.0-beta (build 1.4.0-beta-b32c)

Bitter experience tells me you're more likely to be able to manipulate a preexisting browser window via the appletcontext, and so using the otherframe-target thing seems to be the safest idea (i.e. where your search applet is in one small frame, and the wikipedia itself in another). Still, the search seemed to be fairly sensible, and that's assuredly the hard task :) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:47, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

If you check off the checkbox at the top of the search window, it'll open another window.
Thanks for your remarks. David.Monniaux 19:03, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
It works okay on Opera 7.51 and IE, but not on Firefox (regardless of whether the box is checked or not). It's not caused by firefox's built-in popup blocker either, as disabling that didn't help. Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:40, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Works here with
Linux/x86, Debian, Mozilla Firefox Version: 0.8-12, j2sdk-1.4.2
Linux/x86, Fedora Core 1, Mozilla 1.4.1, j2eesdk-1.4.2
There's definitely some mystery here! I'll build a framed version. Ah, and I'll put in some progress bars! David.Monniaux 21:08, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The progress bars are in (but they don't seem to kick in unless your connection is really slow). See the new version and the test version. David.Monniaux 20:12, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I don't see the progress bar at all. Assuming it's a swing applet, you'd need to be doing the network IO asynchronously in another thread, and be mailing the swing event thread back messages telling it to update the status bar (otherwise the updates will all just pile up until the download is done). I have some code that does just this somewhere, let me know if you want it. Things are worse than before on firefox - I get a zip exception during that download - but I'm running a beta jdk, so I won't whinge properly until I've updated it to the latest 1.5. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:54, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Sorry, the applet on the page had a bug with respect to the thread handling.
If you get a Zip exception, it's probably a bug in your JDK, unless I was upgrading the index at the same time. David.Monniaux 16:57, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The current version of the applet is slow, but the reason for the slowness is understood and the problem will be fixed at the expense of some added memory costs (I may try some more subtle strategy later). I tried to be "too clever" with some of the caching code. David.Monniaux 23:44, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Fixed. David.Monniaux 05:58, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Search engine

I've made a simple search engine in Java. The engine can work off-line (i.e. if you copy all the files in the directory to your hard disk, the engine can be run off the hard disk), which, coupled with a static HTML copy of Wikipedia, would make a portable, searchable encyclopedia.

You need a recent Java Virtual Machine to use it; in particular, the one shipping with Microsoft Windows won't work. There's a link pointing to Sun Microsystems' virtual machine.

I'm working on reducing the memory consumption.

I'm interested in hearing impressions from people on various computing platforms.

Comments on my talk page or here.

If you mean that you just want to copy the names of articles onto your hard disk, then what would be the point? If you mean that you're trying to create an offline version of Wikipedia, then that's essentially impossible for most people. The Wikipedia database is more than 16GB in size, and it would be obsolete within seconds because of the number of edits to Wikipedia. [[User:Mike Storm|Mike∞Storm]] 19:07, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
False. The current Wikipedia database, which I downloaded (see the download page, is about 600 Mbytes long in compressed for, 1.4 Gbytes long in uncompressed form. This means that one could conceivably generate all HTML pages for Wikipedia and obtain a static version in less than the capacity of a DVD, and certainly well within the reach of current hard drives. The only issue is the size of the images (21 Gbytes).
There are many people on there without a good Internet connection, often without any Internet connection at all. It makes sense to me that these people would like to use an offline version; it also makes sense that they would like to use a search engine that does not require the installation of a SQL database or other complex stuff. ;-) David.Monniaux 20:27, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Yeah, but this could mean a Wikipedia snapshot DVD. Consider the possibilites, releasing a new DVD every month. Post the image on the wikipedia website. It'd be like Encarta for Wikipedia — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 20:34, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Putting an ISO up for download would be a huge hit on our bandwidth - instead, make it a BitTorrent file, which can soften the blow. - jredmond 22:18, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Yes, the ability to put a CD version out would be fantastic for areas of the world with some access to computers, but no internet - many areas of the former Soviet Union have libraries without many resources, but with a computer or two that are not used for much, even pre-loading computers that are donated. Mark Richards 21:37, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

A CD version is a bit unrealistic, but we have been considering the feasibility of making a DVD version. MandrakeSoft have been pondering putting such a DVD in their distro. The images are about 3.5 GB for en, not 21 GB, and MySQL on ariel uses 108 GB in the InnoDB data files, not 16 GB. -- Tim Starling 01:36, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC)

The current version of the applet is slow, but the reason for the slowness is understood and the problem will be fixed at the expense of some added memory costs (I may try some more subtle strategy later). I tried to be "too clever" with some of the caching code. David.Monniaux 23:41, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Fixed. David.Monniaux 05:58, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hi David. I wasn't sure if the above comments would still be useful to you so I've moved them here in case you need them as it was time to clean the village pump. Angela. 19:22, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Javascript "automatic" wikilinks

Read this page. When the mouse hovers over a wikilink, the top of the linked definition is brought out in a "tooltip" popup. This is done client-side with Javascript; the generation of the page does not require more database requests.

It works on Mozilla and related browsers, on Opera and on Internet Explorer; it is broken on Konqueror. (Apparently, Konqueror lacks support for some CSS properties.)

Comments on my talk page or here. David.Monniaux 22:00, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Doesn't it need more database requests, though? Either through the server sticking the text in the generated page, or through the client loading something from another page? =/ - Fennec (はさばくのきつね) 02:07, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
The server does not stick the text in the generated page. The client indeed needs to download the text for the boxes (on-demand), but this is text without decorations or personal options, so it's perfectly cacheable by the Squids. David.Monniaux 07:39, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
FYI. This seems to require IE 5.5 or later. (I can get the exact 5.0 version # it fails on later today). Niteowlneils 17:35, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
It works on Mozilla 1.7.1 for me (and nicely I might add). No sane individual would use IE, unless in a public environment. --TIB 05:19, Aug 15, 2004 (UTC)
Fine, just so long as folk remember to optimise wikipedia for the insane, who make up the vast majority of visitors. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 01:55, Aug 18, 2004 (UTC)

Hi David. Here is the discussion from the pump again. You might want to put a page on Meta about this (in the MediaWiki tools category) so the discussion can be moved somewhere if you don't want it on your talk page. Angela. 03:38, Aug 18, 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Your Paris photos

They're really excellent. I tweaked some page format to link the north front of Les Invalides more closely to text. Wetman 15:21, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Great work

Hey, just dropping by, I didn't know it was you, I have to say you've made some great contributions. GeneralPatton 21:43, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] European Union copyright

A template is probably a good idea. RickK 04:46, Aug 20, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Grandes écoles

You wrote: I note that you capitalized the É in Category:Grandes Écoles. Why this decision? École is a common name; you would not use "Universities and Colleges in France", would you? David.Monniaux 06:50, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't know French, I just followed the capitalization of the article, which I notice you have since moved. Feel free to revert the category back. Postdlf 06:57, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

A spelling with a capital É is occasionally used for added pompousness when referring to the set of all grandes écoles... Sorry for the reaction, I was just a bit surprised. David.Monniaux 07:05, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Reign of Terror

Please see my recent question to you at Talk:Reign of Terror. -- Jmabel 15:32, Aug 21, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] PLEASE

You made this one word statement on Talk:Socialism. I am intrigued as to your particular meaning, and to your advice to me generally in dealing with a messy and seemingly intractable situation regarding this most vexing subject with perhaps the most difficult editor I have come across. I've requested mediation w andyL in the past, but he has declined, and despite my complaints regarding him he has recently been awarded adminship, so it would appear community consensus favors him. This debate has been rolling across several pages (is occurring even now on Talk:Nazism for example) for many months. You strike me as a level head. Your thoughts, if you will? Sam [Spade] 17:11, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'm unsure as to how solve this issues. I have my own personal views on the topic, but I would not like to enter the quarrel, because I would like to stay neutral just in case the quarrel gets excessive and sysop intervention is warranted.
I should have been less elliptic. By "PLEASE", I meant that I think that this quarrel is getting personal, and diverges away from the topic at hand, and thus that I invited people to behave in a civil manner. David.Monniaux 17:31, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Great, thank you. I appreciate your impartiality and neutral involvement. Please feel free to advise us in our "great debate", and I assure you I want nothing less than a quality wikipedia article to emerge from these discussions. I would ask again that you not unprotect until we have at least calmed ourselves, but I think that as in all things, you will exercise your ample judgment here :) Thank you for your cautious and balanced wisdom. Cheers, Sam [Spade] 17:55, 21 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Tom Clancy

I'm interested in why you added the following line: However, the real accuracy of the technical details given in the books is also disputed. to the Tom Clancy article. Could you show me your sources for this please? Impi 23:09, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Moteur de recherche

Salut Submarine,

Je te laisse un message ici comme tu as l'air plus actif sur en: ces temps-ci. Comme je ne sais pas si tu es abonné à wikitech, je me permet de te communiquer ce message concernant un moteur de recherche plein texte. Comme tu en as fait un je me suis dit que ça ne peut que t'intéresser. http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2004-August/024843.html .

Voilà! À bientôt sur irc.

Med 23:24, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Télé

Salut David. Ici Liberlogos, du Québec... je crois qu'on a dû se croiser sans le savoir de par nos contributions. Je t'écris car je requiert une aide précieuse, la tienne, pour la page que j'ai créée: List of French television series. Après avoir commencé ma grande List of Quebec television series, et en constatant le nombre d'émission avec des incarnations sur nos deux rives (Star Academy/Star Académie, Un gars, une fille, La Fureur, Loft Story, Les feux de la rampe/Viens voir les comédiens, Tout le monde en parle (eh oui, on va nous flanquer une version québécoise l'automne prochaine... avec un animateur un peu moins agaçant, tout de même ;P), Union Libre (on a eu un Union Libre des Amériques pendant un certain temps), etc.), j'ai songé au fait que les français méritaient bien une page au sujet de leur télévision. J'ai créé la page, et j'y ai ajouté quelques émissions que je connais (grâce à TV5 et à l'internet, ce dernier m'ayant permi de découvrir les très étranges et fort amusants Les guignols de l'info). Mais, l'apport de quelqu'un qui demeure en ce bien beau pays serait bien, bien utile. Enfin, c'est si tu veux. --Liberlogos 05:35, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Popular sovereignty

Please see my remark at Talk:Popular sovereignty. Offhand I don't have citations; I'd appreciate knowing if you think whether what I've written is substantively correct. In any case, I think the question is not so self-evident as to be dismissed in one short sentence and deserves some sort of citations. Are you interested in following up or should I? -- Jmabel 17:35, Sep 1, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] About the name of Paris

I think you made a mistake about the name of Paris... the legacy with parisii is too much superficial to justify, the historical background of Isis in France is too much complex to be described in that manner... But I'll need some time to write a complex article about that 'cause I have to consult some books and find some ancient illustrations. (I suggest you to read "the Talisman" by Graham Hancock, its very interesting... very) Surcouf 20:55 CET 01/09/2004

[edit] Franco-phobic vandalism

I reported on wikipedia about WTO datas for world tourism rankings, those data was also published on "Capital" n°155 magazine in France and in TV (sur France2), the ranking reported France first world tourist destination with 77millions tourist a year (FOREIGNER), I'll make links on "economy section" to USA, GB, France, Spain and Italy (impossible: italy is blocked) with no problem (it's an official World Tourism Organization stat!) but a boy with nick Marcus2 reverted my edits on france denying the facts (and so the WTO official datas...) claiming that there's no evidence about that... What I can do? He menace me to block my user... Surcouf 21:14 CET 01/09/2004

[edit] Lord Chancellor

He has several non-ceremonial roles, all outlined in the article:

  1. He is president of the law lords in the House of Lords, is president of the Supreme Court of Judicature of England and Wales, and also has some authority over regulation of the legal practice (judicial power)
  2. He is president and member of the house of lords, and represents the Sovereign in parliament (legislative power)
  3. He appoints most judges, fills many Church of England vacancies, proposes most judicial legislation, keeps the Great Seal, and is part of the Cabinet (executive power).
  4. The Prime Minister consults him on all other judicial appointments (executive authority).

I guess you could argue that being speaker of the lords and holding the great seal are ceremonial duties; however, the rest are not ceremonial. Pmadrid 00:26, 14 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Patrick Bruel

Thanks for re-adding the bit about his poker playing not being common knowledge. I didn't mean to accidentally remove it. Cheers. CryptoDerk 18:59, Sep 21, 2004 (UTC)

I think that, at least in his early career, Bruel or his producers did not want his gambling interests to be known among the general public, for it might have contradicted his image of neat, proper young man. David.Monniaux 05:52, 22 Sep 2004 (UTC)


[edit] Could you please check the recents edits about cults in France?

Cult#France. See also talk:cult. Thanks Andries 08:23, 25 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Nicolas Sarkozy image

Hi! Thanks for uploading Image:Nicolas Sarkozy.jpg. I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? (You can use {{gfdl}} if you release it under the GFDL, or {{fairuse}} if you claim fair use, etc.) Thanks so much, – Quadell (talk) (help)[[]] 15:47, Oct 8, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Gobelin

Can I use the picture of gobelinloom for the swedish wikipedia? You have a copysign AND GFDL? (sorry bad spelling!) --Damast 23:06, 10 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Of course I have a copysign and GFDL. To be able to grant the rights of copying my photographs to other people (which is what the GFDL does), I assert that these photographs are mine first. This is exactly what happens with works under the GPL or LGPL: the authors assert that they're the rightful copyright owners, then they grant rights to others under GPL or LGPL.
I recommend that you get acquainted with copyright law, because you seem to believe that GFDL, GPL and LGPL are opposed to copyright law, whereas they're actually applications of copyright law. David.Monniaux 08:10, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I am not sure I understand the answer but I will bring it back to Sweden for help whith translation before I ask you what it means. My english is bad and can only understand more simple words than abouve (sorry again for bad spelling! I only try what I think might be right) --Damast 22:20, 13 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I did get help whith translation and explenation. For us in sweden it usally means you can not copy a picture whith copysign whitout special permission. But we have understand that this is not common behavior in rest of the world after your answer. We sign our photos with "Foto by..." and whitch kind of use (license) wee approwe (PD or GFDL...). I will write down a explanation in swedish when i upload your too looms. --Damast 14:26, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Libération

Do you actually know Libération? You deleted a paragraph saying that it's a left-leaning newspaper; this is something with which you'll find nobody in France disagreeing (Libé is not linked to any political party, but "left-leaning" is not synonymous with "linked to a specific left-wing party"). I've just pasted a few quotes from Libération officials saying that Libé is a militant, left-wing newspaper, but I think that they make the article awkward.

Since, by your own admission, your French is poor, I would advise a bit more caution. Merely typing the words that you disagree with in Google would have brought you a number of articles supporting my position. David.Monniaux 05:38, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I am not sure if this is a misunderstanding. If you check what I changed you will see that all I did was adding the link to the French article (sic!), and removing obscure phrases about the paper's alleged position towards the US, "counter-culture" and "trendy" chronices. The inverted commas already indicated that the author did not know how to write in encyclopedia style. The changes did not involve any statement about "left-leaning". Although I think I can write better in French than some people here write in English I do not regard my French writing skills as good enough to engage in writing detailed French encyclopedia articles. I am however able to read and appreciate a quality newspaper. Get-back-world-respect 14:36, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
As I said, in their own word, Libération was founded upon support for "counter-culture". I think that the double quotes are appropriate because the notion of what constitutes counter-culture is inherently POV; here, it reflects the POV of the Libération redaction. Interestingly, many now think that Libération is now a bourgeois newspaper catering to the "bo-bo" public.
Similarly, Libération aims at being trendy; but the notion of trendiness is also inherently POV: what some people find bleeding-edge and interesting, others will find dull and uninspired.
In your April 2004 edit you removed the fact that Libé has a left-wing slant, claiming that it was derogatory and not specific. Since important members of the redaction of Libé claim that their newspaper is militant, with a left-wing outlook, I don't see how this is derogatory. It is difficult to make this qualification more specific because Libé is not affiliated with any specific party. David.Monniaux 17:10, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi David I think the Libération article definetely need some historical perpective... I remember the time when I considered Liberation as a far-left paper. BTW I read somewhere that July buyed the tittle (obviously at a nice price) to Jean-Paul Sartre do yo know more ? Ericd 21:35, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

BTW Jean-Paul Sartre.... Juliette Gréco don't you think she's worth a better article ? Ericd 21:42, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Yasser Arafat page

Please protect it again; otherwise HistoryBuffEr will return and insert a new version, thus forcing a resumption of the edit war. Jayjg 21:11, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

We shall see whether this happens or not. People should be able to act reasonably, even when discussing Palestine. David.Monniaux 07:53, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Yes, in theory they should be, but are rarely able to in practice. And as you see, the article does seem to attract vandalism. Jayjg 18:16, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Trying boilerplate text.

[edit] In the news

Hello David, please note that entries on the In the news section need to be added to the current events first, before being listed on the Main page. Merci, [[User:Solitude|Solitude\talk]] 13:41, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Woops. Thanks. David.Monniaux 13:45, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Chemical weapon status for France

Heya David. I finally got around to working on chemical weapon proliferation and I remembered your question. Here's what I found for France:

France's chemical weapon programs ran during the years of 1921-1926, then were dormant from 1927-1934, and restarted from 1940-1945 (under German occupation). The only weapons it ever produced were chlorine and phosgene: it never manufactured or possessed nerve agents of any kind, especially VX.

Also, as per http://cns.miis.edu/research/cbw/possess.htm:

In a 1988 speech to the United Nations, French President, Mitterrand, claimed that France had no chemical weapons, and would produce none. Victor A. Utgoff, The Challenge of Chemical Weapons: An American Perspective, (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1991), pp. 123-124.

Hope this helps! -- [[User:ClockworkSoul|User:ClockworkSoul/sig]] 23:51, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thank you very much.
As a matter of fact, France has very annoying stockpiles of unexploded WWI ammunition. The French government is designing and building an automated factory for the disposal of chemical WWI ammunition (see chemical warfare). David.Monniaux 08:57, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Laïcité

Not me. Never edited there. Sluj 20:58, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Sorry. We seem to be having database problems with respect to usernames. David.Monniaux 22:41, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Hmmm

FYI, les "gens de Rennes-le-Chateau" ont efface ta Userpage. La meme chose m'est arrivee et je m'en suis apercu par hasard. A+ olivier 18:44, Dec 5, 2004 (UTC)

Ah, ouais. Qui sont-ce?
Je ne sais pas vraiment. Regarde l'historique, le talk et l'historique du talk (!) de Rennes-le-Château et tu comprendras mieux. J'avoue avoir du mal a gerer l'un d'entre eux, la, tout de suite.... olivier 19:13, Dec 5, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Pythian Games

Hmm, that is odd. I admit I don't know very much about the various ancient games, but I do remember learning that the Pythian Games had no chariot race. I could be wrong though. Adam Bishop 19:32, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Checked with an expert on sports in the antiquity. There was a chariot race, held in a track in the plain, where the former stadium was built.

[edit] Article Licensing

Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 1000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

Option 1
I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:
{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

OR

Option 2
I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:
{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" with "{{MultiLicensePD}}". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. – Ram-Man (comment) (talk)[[]] 13:43, Dec 9, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] RFC pages on VfD

Should RFC pages be placed on VfD to be deleted? I'm considering removing Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Slrubenstein, Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Jwrosenzweig and Wikipedia:Requests for comment/John Kenney from WP:VFD. Each of them was listed by CheeseDreams. Your comments on whether I should do this would be appreciated. - Ta bu shi da yu 03:31, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

My opinion on the topic is that RFC pages should be moved to archives after there's a consensus on the outcome. Perhaps if the RFC page is "inappropriate" there could be a VFD on this. I'm sorry, I'm no "Wikipedia lawyer" (the procedural, court-like aspects of WP annoy me). David.Monniaux 07:32, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] image licensing

You created Image:Celtic-cross.png -- if you want to release this into the public domain, could you add the tag { {PD-user|David.Monniaux} }? Thanks...I didn't want to mark it PD unless you wanted it that way. -- Metahacker 04:03, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Chirac and Saddam

Hi David! Well, I am not so sure whether the impression from this picture is illegitimate. Note that my last name may indicate that my approach to this question is likely less biased than your approach, judging by your last name. ;-) All the best, Lubos --Lumidek 22:09, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Perhaps. I'm not a fan of Chirac's, personally. (You may note corruption scandals in the Paris region, which I largely wrote, for instance.) However, I'm concerned that Chirac should be singled out as a "friend of Saddam" whereas, in reality, much of the West were pals of Saddam's.
Also, we should keep a matter of proportions. I understand that Americans put much importance in Iraq, now that they are bogged down in a war there, but, in reality, Chirac's dealings with Iraq are a little matter in his whole careeer. It has to be mentioned, but it should not take center-stage. Chirac's a French politicians, and, frankly, my impression is that the average Frenchman does not give one dime about what happens exactly in Iraq or such.. more significant would be an analysis of Chirac's economic, social and judicial policies. David.Monniaux 22:49, 11 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Unverified image

Hi! Thanks for uploading Image:Dreyfus3.jpg. I notice it currently doesn't have an image copyright tag. Could you add one to let us know its copyright status? [...]

Thanks, Denni☯ 01:39, 2004 Dec 13 (UTC)

I claim "fair use". I suspect that this photo is really public domain, because it was shot a really long while ago, and presumably the photographer is now long dead. Still, I'm unsure. David.Monniaux 10:00, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hi. Another one - Image:Dsc06217 rio antirio bridge jacks.jpg Thanks. Denni

[edit] sorry, but pertinent info was errantly moved, then quality was reduced

Are you on IRC? I have been discussing on the talk page. The decision to move the info was a mistake, the new article was way too generic, improper title, should NOT be daughter or Energy development, and after it was moved quality was apparently sabotaged. I simply moved the content back (leaving it in both places, will be some overlap between generic vs specific for a while perhaps). zen master 19:31, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hello again David, I think we've achieved some semblence of consensus/understanding on the talk page about the content that was "moved". Can you unprotect the Hubbert peak article that you protected? zen master 03:36, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] re: oyster

"the affirmation about the 'belon' being prized is very POV, and sounds inexact to me"

Change kept, although the fact of the Belon being the most highly-prized is also the POV of French gastronomes.

Phrases such as, "Some might say that the Belon might be considered highly prized" are tiny tragedies -- but that's my POV.

And not even of all of them. Many people don't appreciate the belons! Better not include such sentences. David.Monniaux 16:40, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Some might perhaps say that it can be claimed that Belons are not-unregarded as possibly prized French oysters, among those who do not deny perhaps appreciating oysters, in France.

Life, David -- life is full of horror. Auto movil

[edit] Chemical warfare

You've done some work on chemical warfare, so I thought you might be interested to know that I've nominated it to Featured article candidates. I was hoping you would take a look at what we've done, and maybe help me perfect the article into something that we can all be truly proud of. -- ClockworkSoul 02:14, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] vous tu

hi, do the wikipedians on french wikipedia use vous or tu?--Wonderfool 17:44, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Some use "tu" (more natural for people used to online forums), some use "vous" (more natural for communications with other people one does not know). Whether to use "tu" or "vous", in general, can be somewhat annoying — "vous" may sound a bit icy and out-of-place, while "tu" may sound too familiar and demeaning. David.Monniaux 20:10, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Images

Bonjour, que penses-tu des licences gfdl des images Image:Arch-moore-hiroshima.jpg et Image:Laputa-robot-ghibli.jpg ? (le sujet de la photo est sous (c) dans les deux cas)

sur #wikipedia on m'a assuré que la protection de statues se limite aux replicatio. Mais ce n'est surement pas le cas en europe ou au japon alors j'ai mis un avertissement en bas de page mais peut être faut il changer la licence en fair use ?

( le droit international est un casse-tête >:[ )

FoeNyx 02:00, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Help from Dutch programmers

Hello, you wrote something in nl:Wikipedia:De_kroeg#Help from Dutch programmers and there you gave the url http://www.di.ens.fr/~monniaux/ip-classify which is not working. Maybe there are Dutch wikipedians who can help you when you give a working url. JePe 13:31, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, a part of the URL was missing. David.Monniaux 14:59, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Please check portal design

Thanks for your comments about the proposed portal design not working in Konqueror 3.1 -- we've made some fixes to the CSS now; could you please come take a look and let us know if it's any better or worse for you? Your comments on the talk page would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! 68.67.170.26 20:29, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Iraq

It's about Zen's ridiculous claims that the Iraq elections were all a fake and the turnout figures are lies, claims for which he provides no evidence despite my challenges to do so. Adam 17:19, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] iraqi election results article revert war

It was basically over the phrase "...but a rigid security clampdown succeeded in preventing major disruptions of the polling". I took issue with that because at least 44 people died on election day, presumably voters or those wishing to vote, so I removed that phrase, and was repeatedly reverted, then I sought compromise with "election day violence was less than expected" but that was reverted too. We also had a lenghty and heated IRC debate on the issue. Apparently I am the only one (or at least the only one willing to go to such lengths to defend what is perceived as a small issue). I believe that any voter than dies in polling line on election day is a major disruption, others focused on the numbers of dead in terms of impacting the election overall statistically. Also the word "succeeded" in that phrase needs POV clean up.

There also seems to be an effort to limit any and all counter sources and arguments that do not paint an "everything is going great picture" in iraq as far as the iraqi election results article goes. zen master T 18:25, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)


[edit] page still blocked?

why is the iraq election page STILL blocked? Pellaken 19:52, 2 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] About-Picard law

I don't think it's appropriate to quote one rather technical paragraph of the About-Picard law to illustrate it. A summary of the law would be more appropriate, if only because it would not suppose knowledge of the French legal framework (who in the English-speaking world understands what a civil party is in a French criminal trial?). I furthermore did not see the logical link which the Council of Europe's decision; that's why I removed the paragraph. David.Monniaux 10:37, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The logical link is that the Council of Europe didn't condemn the French law, and the explanation why was in what I added because the article was incomplete in that respect. The only other solution is to delete the part about the petition, that is misleading without my addition --Pgreenfinch 13:45, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Well, I didn't see any explanation. There was a translation of an article of law, preceded by a sentence that I could not parse as English. David.Monniaux 14:13, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Of course it explains something. Namely that the French law has nothing against religious freedom but against the destructive agendas that some sects follow, which means that this law is protecting freedom, not suppressing it as the critics pretend. That is why the article is biased if this law is not quoted while the Council of Europe's statement is quoted. Either both quotations should be there, or none of them --Pgreenfinch 16:50, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The law is several pages long. I don't see how quoting at length ONE article from the law helps the comprehension of the reader. I added a link to the text of the law, and I wrote a summary of it. This should be sufficient for the reader interested in the content of the law. Your statement about the law being directed at destructive agendas is already stated elsewhere in the section; be sure to note, however, that this is what the French government says, which does not necessarily coincide with the point of view of some groups, who allege they are unfairly targeted. David.Monniaux 17:03, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] voyages en Siberie

Hello. I'd've thought that the Manu Chao album article should be called Sibérie m'était contéee, cos thats what its called on the actual album cover, although the spelling is wrong (but I'm sure you know that). you made many redirects to that album title, some of them double redirects too. So put the article wherever u want, but Sibérie m'était contéee is where I'd have it. --Wonderfool 10:41, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Woops, right, it's an intentional spelling error. Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea to create a nearly empty page for an album. If somebody has stuff to flesh it out, ok, but otherwise... David.Monniaux 10:56, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] WP:JW

I am glad to see you show up at the WP:JW. Rest assured we are doing our best to improve the presentations there. I hope you will sign up as a participant and assist us in drafting a better direction. Tom Haws 21:16, Feb 7, 2005 (UTC)

second george 18:40, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Hey, David, nice catch on improving the "awkward English" in your recent edit. Don't ask me to do that in French!!! --DannyMuse 22:12, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Jayjg and the ArbCom

There's some confusion about this, since the wording of the decisions may be confusing and the summary was inaccurate (I've just fixed it). The decision says "for the period of editing restrictions", but there is no period of restriction on Jayjg (HistoryBuffEr's is one year). Apologies for the confusion. I've unblocked Jayjg. I suppose for Jayjg, the warning would be taken only as an advisory on good practice - David Gerard 00:48, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Blocking

No problem. By the way, if you plan to block people, it would be helpful if you set up a Wikipedia e-mail address, so they can e-mail you from Wikipedia to discuss the blocking. Jayjg (talk) 01:25, 9 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] tsunameters

You initially mentioned "tidal gauges installed under the sea". I think what you meant was the tsunameters, as used by the DART system. -- Curps 08:10, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Exactly. Pressure gauges with telemetry. Quick measurement of the water depth, no coastal or port effects to compensate. Problem, they seem to be pricey. David.Monniaux 08:23, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Less pricey than satellites, surely. :-) -- Curps 08:54, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Cults

Good rewrite - thanks - Trödel|talk 13:05, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] User:Keetoowah

I just had my first unfortunate run-in with Keetoowah. I later saw the chauvinist anti-French attacks on you that he'd made on the Rumsfeld talk page. Let me know if he continues making them, and I'll look into blocking him. 172 23:18, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] NSM88

I see you're drafting an RFC on NSM88, did you see [3]? He's now stated to first discuss changes on talk. Jordi·✆ 11:01, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks to

In French, u know how u have 2 phrases: grace a quelquechose and à cause de qqch. And i believe I'm right in saying that the first one is more positive, with the second one being more negative...well is there a neutral phrase in French, in between grace a and a cause de?. --Wonderfool (talk) (contribs) (email) 14:24, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Grâce à <qqch> means "with the help <something>" or "owing to <something>".
À cause de <qqch> means "because of <something>". It is not, I think, intrinsincally negative; but you can use it in an accusatory meaning (C'est à cause de VOUS que ça s'est produit !). David.Monniaux 15:09, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] User Talk Page

David.Monniaux Can you explain why you are interested in the neutrality issue of these two articles Paul Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority? I am disturbed to discovered that it's OK to write "criticisms" as you call them about a topic without introducing a different viewpoint on the subject matter. -Paradigmbuff 18:24, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

I don't see how GEO SWAN's and RAMA's views are not influenced by personal opinion? I myself do not know the person for which they would like to criticize about. My plans are to incorporate more "successes" to both articles instead of "failures" or "shortcomings". And I don't think that's being "dogged" in my defense of this individual at all. If I am accused of being "dogged", how is that not a personal attack? Paradigmbuff 18:37, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

I moved all of the discussions from both articles to my talk page so to protect the integrity of the subject matter of both articles. Paradigmbuff 18:53, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

Just to summarize what I received from you: Wikipedia:No personal attacks, Wikipedia:Wikiquette, Wikipedia:No legal threats, libel actions & undue aggressivity. Please do explain why I received these from you? And especially the part of Libel actions depending on my jurisdiction. I am most interested to know exactly what part have I contributed to Wikipedia that prompted your response in such a way. Paradigmbuff 19:13, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

You have accused User:Rama of having used "criminal means". Accusing people of "crimes" can expose you to libel actions. David.Monniaux 19:46, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

In Reference to "Finally, I note that you intend to edit the French-speaking Wikipedia. Since you do not speak French correctly..." My comment on a French Version of Wikipedia does not mean I intend to edit it in French, but only to point out that there is a French version already. My purpose for learning French is a practical one such as going out in the field and communicating to people in French who speaks French instead of English. The only goal I have here is promoting truth; not oneself. Paradigmbuff 19:35, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Articles On Wikipedia

On second thought, it would seem that my untethered version of the U.S. rebuilding Iraq should be removed from Wikipedia and including that segment which I wrote defining the true meaning of Christianity. And as you pointed out to me earlier, no one agrees with my perspective and will only be subjected to further criticisms including facing libel actions. I suppose to answer my own question, the jurisdiction you refer to is the state of Florida, U.S.A.

[edit] Request Account Deletions

I am formally requesting the deletion of two accounts I created on Wikipedia: User:Paradigmbuff and User:Puffydoogle. I don't have anything more to contribute to Wikipedia. Paradigmbuff 04:16, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Donald Knuth

I have seen Donald Knuth today, and even took a photograph. For a dead person, he discusses mathematics surprisingly well. David.Monniaux 21:30, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Please. If you look at the date on the posting you're responding to, and the edit history of the article, you see that we settled this issue last November, concluding that it was a hoax. The user responsible got banned. Michael Hardy 23:25, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Police Nationale

Hi there. As a bit of a police historian, I'm curious. Are there no longer the various grades of Inspecteur in the French National Police? Do detectives now hold the same ranks as uniformed officers? -- Necrothesp 19:30, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

There was a reshuffling of the ranks of the Police some years ago. In the past, indeed, there were inspecteurs. I think indeed that uniformed divisions, perhaps only the CRS, had military-sounding ranks, while the plainclothes detectives had ranks such as "inspectors". I think that the "inspector" ranks correspond to tbe middle corps (though I'd have to check in the appropriate government decisions).
I'm told that the new police ranks resulted in bitterness from the French Gendarmerie, because a police captain has the same level of responsibilities as a gendarmerie lieutenant, though he has a higher-sounding rank.
This is, I think, part of a general move of the government to simplify the French Civil Service by reducing the number of corps. David.Monniaux 19:35, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)
As I remember it, there were four separate corps: Gardiens de la Paix (as today), Officers de la Paix (Officer de la Paix, Officer de la Paix Principal, Commandant, I believe), Inspecteurs (Inspecteur, Inspecteur Principal, Inspecteur Divisionnaire), and Commissaires (as today). Officers de la Paix were the junior uniformed officers, and did not generally have OPJ powers - those who belonged to the CRS did indeed have military ranks. Inspecteurs were the detectives (although commissaires could also be detectives) and all had OPJ powers. It was possible to join directly at the bottom level of any of these four groups, but promotion from uniformed officer to inspecteur/commissaire was relatively rare. I'm assuming that the current middle grade (Lieutenant - Commandant) now covers both what used to be Officers de la Paix and what used to be Inspecteurs, but it would be interesting to know. -- Necrothesp 20:47, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)
A little remark: all members of the police have a uniform. However, members that are in detective functions (police judiciaire) rarely wear it – but I have seen commissaires directing large operations of public order.
Perhaps this has coincided with a recategorization of the corps. As you perhaps know, civil service corps are classified into a number of category that depend on the minimal diploma requested for taking the external competitive examination for the corps – category A is for corps needing at least a 3 year degree in university or equivalent, category B for a highschool degree, etc. I am under the impression that while commissaires were A, inspecteurs and equivalent uniformed ranks were B; nowadays, both seem to be A.
On Police in France, I wrote about who has OPJ powers. David.Monniaux 21:49, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)
I think detectives having a uniform but rarely wearing it is true in most countries. I use the term "uniformed" out of habit because in Britain the Uniformed Branch is one of the three branches of the police, the one that wears uniform most of the time - but even that branch has sections that almost always operate in plain clothes (Royalty Protection officers, for example). I've also seen British detectives wearing uniform on occasion. And American detectives certainly wear uniform at police funerals and the like. -- Necrothesp 02:37, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Right. Compare with the French Gendarmerie, which always operates in uniform except with a special authorization if the circumstances want it. David.Monniaux 02:39, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Indeed. That's quite unusual in a world context, I think. Although I could be wrong. -- Necrothesp 17:21, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sarkozy

Hi,

I understand that he says that he is a Roman Catholic, but since this is a NPOV encyclopedia, we should be objective about this. He has a Jewish mother, so he is technically a Jew who was raised Roman Catholic. It is about accuracy not how someone sees themselves.

Hope you understand,

Guy Montag 10:13, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Although not everyone agrees that having a Jewish mother makes one Jewish, this has been the tradition accepted by the Jewish nation since inception. I do not believe the perceptions have any bearing on Jewish legal reality, and I do not want to reducethis discussion absudum ad infinitum.

Guy Montag 10:30, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Right. So this is the point of view of some who pretend to speak for the Jewish nation. Unfortunately, this does not coincide with the opinion of many Jews. David.Monniaux 11:08, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Anyways, glad we could reach a compromise.

Guy Montag 11:23, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Hi David, I was about to edit the Sarkozy article too for the same reason. If Sarkozy's mother was Jewish, then he is regarded as Jewish. I was concerned about the wording (now gone): "His mother has Jewish origins, from Thessaloniki; for this reason, Sarkozy is occasionally described by foreign sources as a Jew. However, Nicolas Sarkozy is a Roman Catholic." The "mother has Jewish origins" (instead of "is a Jew") and "occasionally described by foreign sources" were both POV and a little strange, in my view, and in fairness to Guy, this is possibly what he was concerned about. Best, SlimVirgin 18:24, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)
I do not see any POV in there. I read that Sarkozy's mother had Jewish origins. This can mean, for instance, that her father was a Jew and her mother an Orthodox. In order for you to state she was a Jew, you would have to have supplemental information, otherwise it's just plain supported invention.
Second, nobody ever calls Sarkozy a Jew in France. Only foreign sources do so. David.Monniaux 18:28, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Thanks for your response. If his mother is a Jew, then so is he; and she is a Jew if her mother was a Jew. It is quite simple, which is the beauty of it. Regarding the "foreign sources" edit, it was just the wording that gave me pause: it made it appear (to me) that there was something about being Jewish that would only be mentioned by foreigners, but not in polite society. I know that wasn't the intention, but it had that ring to it, which is why I was going to rewrite it, but someone beat me to it. Best, SlimVirgin 18:35, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)
Problem (since the beginning!): we don't have a single source saying that his mother was a Jew. They talk of Greek-Jewish "descent", which can mean that her mother was a Greek Orthodox and her father a Jew. David.Monniaux 18:36, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Source posted at Talk:Nicolas Sarkozy, though I don't know how authoritative it is. SlimVirgin 18:54, Mar 20, 2005 (UTC)

I must have rushed to conclusions. I should have read the talk page before reverting, but I still think that the origins part is very messy. I don't know if we should focus so much on the father, and perhaps cut information not relevent to Nicolas himself. For example, in the Hilter article (no comparison intended), people wanted to know about what his reasons for development were and why he became what he became. In the bio it is mentioned that his father was abusive, his employment and other brief tidbits unusual or important to his life, but nowhere is there a tangent about his father's life or sexual escapades. Finally, I do not have any obsession with labelling people's Jewish origins. I genuinely wanted to improve the article on Sarkozy and other politicians, not only because I personally find him as one of the few likeable politicians in France, but because there were errors in the article construction when I read it. If you look at the history, you will see that his origins were a minor edition to the various other fixes to the article itself. Finally, the information I had at hand pointed to him being Jewish at the time.

I have also fixed syntax and npoved various other articles relating to politicians purely because they were bad articles (Guy Verhofstadt). So please, dont rush to conclusions yourself. I made an honest mistake and rushed in editing after more information was given. Wont happen again, but I await your opinion on how to shorten his origin sub article.

Guy Montag 07:57, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps the subarticle should be divided into different parts. For example, instead of origins, an earlier life section similiar to Bismark's article. Normally, I do not follow European affairs, even though I am from Europe myself. But I am very interested in how the French government is organized, most notably the judicial system. Since it is a very unique form of government I found myself more involved in French affairs, even though I have no vested interest myself. Nicolas Sarkozy looked like a very principled man, with a strong personality so lacking in other politicians. What happens if the court rules an order unconstitutional and the government carries it out anyways? But yes, as the guardian of the article, you are doing a good job.

Since you seem to know alot about the French system and have written most the articles yourself, perhaps you can help me out in understanding some of the more byzantine regulations. For example, what does it mean that the court of cessation has to issue a mandatory non binding opinion on every order in council? Does the government have to follow this opinion?

Best regards,

Guy Montag 21:35, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Terri Schiavo

I've looked at the history of the article and it seems to me that the whole thing was just a minor scuffle between User:TheCustomOfLife, User:NCdave and one or two others. Could you please unprotect? If the revert war continues it can be dealt with by blocking the miscreants for a couple --JM Robert 00:07, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)of hours rather than stopping anyone editing this article on a developing news story. I'd unprotect it myself but I wanted to sanity-check with you first. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 10:32, 30 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Twestgard

David, I have been monitoring changes made by Twestgard. Some of the changes don't seem to be NPOV and anti-French in my opinion. Care to add your thoughts? --JM Robert 00:07, Apr 1, 2005 (UTC)

  • Je suis désolé. David, I feel bad for causing such tension between you and Twestgard, but I agree with you. Company topics should be about the business. Personality topics should be about the significant. More importantly, articles should hold NPOV. Thanks. --JM Robert 22:53, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Twestgard's response to being called anti-French

Let me say first that I have no tolerance for those who want to Bowdlerize history, and suggesting that NPOV is promoted by Bowdlerization of Nazi history is intolerable. That is what the Holocaust deniers do.

Thanks for the comparison. Godwin point.

David and I have been discussing a series of articles regarding L'Oréal and it's various connections to a particular French Nazi / Collaborationist group named La Cagoule. Here is my talk page, where he posts some of his objections. You should also review the L'Oréal talk page, and also look here to see what's really bothering him. I would like to point out that most of these entries didn't exist at all a week ago, and given that the people and the organizations did/do exist, the fact that they've been started is by itself an improvement in the accuracy and completeness of wikipedia. Nor has anyone, or can anyone, reasonably dispute the accuracy of almost everything I wrote - all the objections are questions of balance. The fact that neither La Cagoule nor Andre Bettencourt had an entry at all until I wrote one is pretty darn anti-French, taken from that perspective.

It is my position that L'Oréal and La Cagoule should be described together, because they are connected in so many ways, over so much time. For its entire existence, L'Oréal has been owned by people who were at one time La Cagoule agents, most worthy of note being Eugene Schueller and Andre Bettencourt. Post-war, the company hired lots of people associated with La Cagoule. Even in the 1990s and under the current CEO, the company's PR department acted to conceal the history of Jacques Correze, a convicted war criminal and CEO of L'Oréal's US subsidiary, which was a major scandal for the corporation in the business world in the early 1990s. These connections are solid, long-lasting, and go far beyond being mere acts of the individuals. These individuals have brought the company into the situation all along the way for the past 85 years.

I'm glad I came to see what might be on this page, because it suggests what I thought was going on - a kind of ostrich-style "keep the history nicey-nice" at the expense of accuracy and candor. What I originally published (which has now been changed) could in no way be reasonably viewed as being "anti-French," unless publishing truthful information about French collaboration is itself anti-French, a premise with which I vehemently disagree. Those French who fought in the Resistance, or even just those who merely avoided active collaboration, are worthy of note and respect because they had the judgment not to cooperate with rounding up Jews for the death camps and other such ill deeds. If we don't tell the story of those who did these things, like some of these La Cagoule folks did, we are not doing proper justice to the French people, or to good standards of the truthful history of all the French, whether good, bad, and in-between.

Then I go here and find David's complaint, in response to someone calling me anti-French for writing accurate French history, is that I don't customize my links at each page (!) and that he only noticed one book, despite the series of links and references to a list of books and periodicals, which ARE more carefully customized at each wikipedia entry. Not to mention that none of this is based on, gasp, actual research to find a source saying I'm inaccurate (not that I think there is any). But lack of data on the topic is apparently no barrier to David boldly deleting the accurate statements I make in the entries.

Avoiding the truth, even the unpleasant stories, is no more NPOV, or fair, or whatever, than lying, and calling me anti-French is a totally baseless and undeserved slur, not to mention inaccurate. And complaining about links as an accuracy issue is just specious. If you don't like the links, just change them and move on to gather the pieces of your shattered life. If we're looking at motivations, what kind of person wants to hide the true history of the Nazis and those who helped them in France? Twestgard

If you don't like the links, just change them and move on to gather the pieces of your shattered life. Personal attack.
If we're looking at motivations, what kind of person wants to hide the true history of the Nazis and those who helped them in France? Personal attack #2. David.Monniaux 17:43, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
That's great, David, taking the high road with me and all right now, but where's the part where you say, "Hey, JMRobert, baselessly calling Twestgard anti-French on my talk page makes both you and me look bad." Look at the same wikipedia standards you're asking me to follow and try to justify it in those terms. It doesn't work. As for my comments (quoted above), if you said that I was snide beyond what was needed to make the point, you'd probably be right. Whether this looms large enough to constitute a "personal attack" is probably a matter of splitting hairs IMO. But where's your rebuke to JMRobert for using your talk page as a platform to do something blatantly improper?
Here's the history of our interactions at this point. JMRobert accuses me of being "anti-French" on your talk page, without explanation. You go back to his talk page and post something that does not confront him on his improper personal attack against me on your talk page. You do, however, accuse me of bad research and writing. Neither of you brings me into the discussion at that point, so that I can defend either my attitude toward France and the French, or my research or writing style. Then, you go to the articles I wrote and make changes in the substance that aren't supported by any research (removing all mention of La Cagoule from L'Oréal in particular).
What you should have done instead was immediately say to JMRobert, "Hey, don't use my public talk page for your personal attacks on Twestgard - go to him directly in private if it has to be done at all." Then, to the extent you had questions (not answers) about my research, you should have just asked me to clarify or justify. The fact that you and JMRobert took this sneaky, roundabout way of starting the discussion is what is annoying me, not to mention the fact that neither of you seems to be willing to admit that it's improper to call me "anti-French," in public but out of my sight. At this point I'll guess it's too much to ask for a concession on the substantive research point. But the name-calling on your talk page against me is glaringly wrong. Can you just grant me that much? Imagine a situation in which you sent me the thing about the links and suggested I work on bringing them up to wikipedia's guidelines, instead of handling it the way you did.
All right, I'm sick of making this point repeatedly and getting no concession. For the record, I'm not anti-French and actually very much like France and the French. In thinking about particular individuals, however, the list of people I know who were born in France who are apparently unable to say "Hey, I made a mistake and I plan to learn from it" has gotten a lot longer in the last couple of weeks, that 's for sure. And yes, David, that's personally about you, but it's not an attack. Given our discussions, it's perfectly NPOV.
I find it quite unbelievable that you should choose to hold me responsible for the suppositions of another user. Last time I checked, at least in this country (but I understand that it varies around the world), one is responsible for one's own actions, and not for whatever somebody else has done, even if that person is a fellow countryman. If you disagree with JMRobert, go settle the matter with him — I don't know him personally.
You should understand that suggesting that people are tolerant of nazis, or akin to holocaust deniers, is not good practice. At least in this country, this is a very strong allegation, and, given that you seem to have read some books on article on the topic, you should be able to understand this.
There are, on Wikipedia, a number of topics that are excessively delicate to handle. One of them is, for instance, the Israeli vs Palestine conflict, where mere factual editing may get one insulted and accused of being an antisemite or an anti-Muslim racist. You must understand that unwarranted name-calling does not help the matter and only infuriates other users; and you can see that I've not engaged myself in such behavior.
I perhaps could have handled the matter differently, perhaps in a more diplomatic manner. I must admit that I was a bit suspicious of a new users whose edits only concerned one single very specific topic (in your case, the involvement of Allied corporate owners with fascist/nazi groups in the 20s, 30s, 40s), apparently with a very specific point of view (in your case, focused solely on antisemitic activities). In my experience, this generally does not bode well for the objectivity and background knowledge of the users. So, I admit, I overreacted.
But, let this be clear: if you think that somebody unduly erased something you wrote, it is very easy to "revert" the deletion and explain yourself on the talk page. There is no reason to go around name-calling, or suggesting intellectual dishonesty (especially, if I may say, in users who, I think, have a record for fair and balanced writing). David.Monniaux 06:31, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Link on Pope John Paul II

Polish pronunciation (help·info)

David, this isn't working. This file doesn't exist; have you uploaded it at all? I don't even know whether uploads support non-Latin 1 characters; you might want to try a different name. The link that's now on Pope John Paul II is broken, as you have no doubt noticed. JRM 17:41, 2005 Apr 2 (UTC)

[edit] Dwarf Tossing

"For having the oddball sensibility to create and refine dwarf tossing, I hereby saddle you with The Oddball Barnstar – ClockworkSoul 17:53, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)" (KC)
"For having the oddball sensibility to create and refine dwarf tossing, I hereby saddle you with The Oddball Barnstar – ClockworkSoul 17:53, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)" (KC)

Riffsyphon1024 pointed the gem of dwarf tossing out to me. So, for having the oddball sensibility to create and refine such an informative yet unusual article, I hereby saddle you with The Oddball Barnstar – ClockworkSoul 17:53, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Uncomplimentary History

David - Thank you for your additions to the proposed policy changes on uncomplimentary history, which IMHO have significantly improved and expanded the article/proposal. Twestgard

[edit] Champ de Mars

David, can you help me? The Wikipedia article title for this park uses hyphens thus: (Champ-de-Mars). What I think is the correct spelling (Champ de Mars) is merely a Redirect. I've only spent ten days of my life in Paris (5 days holiday in 2001 and 5 days in 2002, I'm from Bristol, England) but the two guide books I've got use the non-hyphenated version. Just to be sure I've looked at the official Eiffel Tower Site (www.tour-eiffel.fr) and they don't have hyphens. Since I think you might live in Paris, can you tell me which is correct?

On another topic, I've discovered that I have already put the Champ de Mars view from the Tower onto Commons (it's at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Paris). I'm forgetful!! So I've corrected the filename in Champ-de-Mars, Eiffel Tower and Tour Montparnasse. Best Wishes - Adrian Pingstone 20:09, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Prononciations françaises

J'ai vu que vous avez ajouté des enregistrements de la prononciation en français dans un certain nombre d'articles. C'est une très bonne idée. Je l'aurais bien fait moi-aussi, mais malheureusement je n'ai pas l'équipement pour ça. Je ne sais pas si c'est votre voix qu'on entend dans les enregistrements, mais si c'est le cas, je me permets de vous faire remarquer la chose suivante, surtout ne le prenez pas mal: on entend comme un chuintement à la fin des mots "Paris" et "Quercy". C'est une particularité de prononciation qu'on entend chez certains francophones, qui chuintent la fin des mots se terminant en -i. Pour être plus scientifique, disons que la personne qui a prononcé ces mots a ajouté une consonne finale qui est la consonne voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative (symbole API: /ɕ/). Ainsi, au lieu d'avoir /paʀi/ on a /paʀiɕ/, ce qui ne correspond pas à la prononciation du français standard. Dans le cas de Quercy, non seulement on a ajouté /ɕ/ à la fin du mot, mais on a aussi chuinté le -s- précédant le -i. Si c'est vous qui avez réalisé les enregistrements, réécoutez-les, et essayez de percevoir le /ɕ/ qu'on entend à la fin de Paris et Quercy. Il faudrait ensuite refaire les enregistrements pour ces deux mots, en s'appliquant bien à ne pas rajouter le chuintement à la fin du mot, et aussi à ne pas chuinter le -s- de QuerCy. Encore une fois, ne le prenez pas mal, je ne critique pas la prononciation de la personne qui a fait les enregistrements, dans toute langue il existe beaucoup de variantes de prononciation d'une personne à l'autre, mais ici, comme le but est de donner à des non-francophones la prononciation standard du mot en français, il convient, je pense, de prononcer le plus proche possible du standard. Je le ferais bien moi-même si j'avais l'équipement adéquat.

Sinon, si vous le souhaitez, vous pourriez aussi réaliser des enregistrements pour la prononciation en français standard des villes suivantes pour lesquelles j'ai écrit la prononciation en API: Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, Rouen, Reims, Detroit, Saint Louis, Des Moines, Louisiana, New Orleans, Cape Girardeau, Montreal (la prononciation en français standard seulement! mieux vaut laisser un Québécois faire la prononciation en français québécois). Pour les prononciations en accent du sud de la France, il vaut mieux les laisser faire à un natif du sud (et encore, pas un sudiste qui a vécu depuis des années à Paris!). De même, je pense qu'il vaut mieux laisser des personnes de langue maternelle anglaise faire les prononciations en anglais. Un personne de langue maternelle française, même si elle a un très bon accent anglais, ne prononcera jamais aussi bien qu'une personne de langue maternelle anglaise. Enfin, je pense que ce serais mieux de prononcer les mots deux fois dans les enregistrements, en laissant une pause de, par exemple, deux secondes entre les deux émissions du mot. Cela permet de mieux saisir la prononciation. Voilà, tenez-moi au courant. Hardouin 19:55, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Je me demande s'il ne s'agit pas d'un « artefact » à l'enregistrement du son. En effet, je n'ai pas un équipement audio de grande qualité, et en particulier, le système son de mon ordinateur portable a tendance à ajouter un certain « souffle ». Pour éviter qu'il n'y en ait trop, j'ai un peu « nettoyé » les enregistrements, mais j'ai l'impression que ça laisse un petit bout de souffle à la fin, qui peut sonner comme une chuintante (une chuintante, du point de vue du son, c'est un bruit de souffle modulé). En plus, je peux difficilement ôter le souffle au milieu des mots. Il y a aussi le fait que, pour avoir plus de volume à l'enregistrement, le micro était très près de la bouche du locuteur, ce qui a tendance à donner une impression de chuintement dû au souffle d'air, sans parler des p qui deviennent « explosifs ».
Je vais réessayer avec du matériel de plus haute qualité (mais c'est très difficile d'éliminer le bruit électronique). David.Monniaux 06:26, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] farmer plowing

here you can load the picture in full Resolution (1,6MB, 1600x1200): [4] -- 217.226.131.10 14:48, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proxy servers

Hi, I am still tring to find the IP range of SAIX's proxy servers for you. But here is 198.54.202.210 which I seem to also get. It belongs to SAIX and has being blocked twice this year for 24hrs as far as I know. My IP address that is allocated to me is in the 165.165.n.n range--Jcw69 16:43, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Nevermind

It said your name in the diff, but on the left side. Ah, Tannin is on the right. In my disgust while flipping through the edit history, I looked at the wrong side. Sorry... I appear to be yelling at the wrong person. No problem. I'm glad that, of all the people to accidentally yell at, it happened to be someone like you. You shouldn't make excuses for people though. Edits like that just should not happen. - Pioneer-12 01:15, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

And mistakes like I made should not happen, either. If the interface were better, it would not have. What do you think of the wikimedia software? I find it merely so-so. (And I don't even have my Ph.D. yet.) - Pioneer-12 01:55, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Chirac

I answered on my talk page. I also notice you put back this sentence:

An lifelong enemy of America, on foreign policy, his career has revolved around his lifelong friendship with, and support for, Saddam Hussein.

Could you explain? Peco 16:36, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Accidental. David.Monniaux 18:25, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Michel de L'Hospital

I put this on the talk page of List of justice ministers of France some time ago, but, being left without an answer, decided to start asking people. I created an article on L'Hospital, a 16th century chancellor, but there doesn't seem to be any listings on the page that go that far back. What should I do with him? Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 04:53, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You never got back to me on this, should I ask someone else? Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 19:58, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Personal Attacks

You came to my user Talk page and wrote:

"You lately wrote to a person living in Switzerland:

Really this is a pretty offensive form of ethnocentrism or cultural bigotry. Because your fallen country allows this stuff in supermarkets all the rest of us should follow suit.

As an administrator, I must remind you that ad hominem attacks, including and especially attacks on another user's country or ethnic origin, are prohibited on Wikipedia. Please keep your arguments to the point instead of making broad judgments of value on entire peoples or countries.

There are plenty of arguments that can be made on the question you're discussing without having to insult Switzerland or whatever country. Such kind of nationalistic arguments are rude, don't contribute anything, and only make everybody more irate. David.Monniaux 10:24, 2 May 2005 (UTC)"

#1 - I did not know the country he referred to was Switzerland. #2 - He and another user had already specifically "insulted" my country (saying its emphasis on "morality" was fake and cheap). #3 - Has your esteemed Adminship also reprimanded them? I thought not. #4 - The term I used ("fallen"), while certainly not positive, is not really an emotional ad-hominem term. #5 - I am getting sincerely weary of Administrators sticking their noses into small tussles like this. Part of the function of Talk pages is to let editors blow off a little steam while they work toward consensus. This keeps the bickering out of the encyclopedia itself (in the form of petty retaliatory edits, deletions, etc.,.) Please learn this lesson and spread it among your fellow rookie Administrators: Do not attempt to sterilize Talk pages, it cannot be done and even if it could be done it would be counterproductive. JDG 16:18, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] VfD David Mertz

I see that you did a bibliographic search in computer science for my name (i.e. David Mertz). In the VfD page you mention finding a few articles--I added a comment there trying to clarify which are by me. In some cases, I was not sure--specifically, I know about but have not really written directly about mathematical and philosophical logic. But neither do I know of anyone else with my name who has done so. I was hoping you would tell me the titles you located; or if you used a publicly accessible DB, where it is. I'm curious either way. It might be something I wrote that only touches on those areas, or it might be someone else. Either way it would satisfy my curiousity. Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters 18:59, 2005 May 5 (UTC)

See my link page, section "bibliographies". I read again the ones found on Achilles' database, and I think that they belong to a logician distinct from you, if only because of the dates. Best regards, David.Monniaux 19:42, 5 May 2005 (UTC)
Thanks. D.W. Mertz is indeed someone different from me. Aside from having the middle initial Q, being 40 y.o. my first academic publications were around 1988 (and not in math or CS); so he's probably at least a decade older than me. Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters

[edit] Chirac's photo

We should avoid having different photographs whose name varies only by filename extension. I'll try to fix this. David.Monniaux 17:27, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Thank you for looking into this. Please let me what I can/should do with this problem I created. Thanks. -- PFHLai 18:56, 2005 May 12 (UTC)
Thank you very much for fixing this. It's very nice of you to help out. Thank you. -- PFHLai 14:20, 2005 May 13 (UTC)

[edit] fr squid src

is in ennael:/home/jeronim/squid-2.5.STABLE4-20040219-mark -- Jeronim 23:04, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Carte de France

Ouais, j'ai édité à la main. Que ne ferait-on pour Wikipedia! Hardouin 21:06, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Je viens de regarder à nouveau, et ta carte est toujours aussi buguée. Tu ferais mieux de laisser ma carte. Hardouin 21:11, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

C'est toujours la même chose. Est-ce que tu as La Rochelle et Le Havre sur la carte. Moi sur mon ordinateur, même après refreshing cache, c'est toujours l'ancienne carte, sans Le Havre, sans La Rochelle, etc. Hardouin 21:27, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Bon, maintenant il y a quasiment toutes les unités urbaines de plus de 100,000 habitants, mais il manque encore Le Mans et Annemasse. Hardouin 23:13, 27 May 2005 (UTC)

Le problème avec la carte utilisant les racines carrés pour le diamètre des disques, c'est que le disque de nombreuses aires urbaines est trop petit pour être lisible (à moins de télécharger la carte grand format, ce que tout le monde ne fera pas). Avec la carte utilisant le log, tous les disques sont bien visibles. Ce qu'il faudrait faire, c'est programmer la carte avec les racines carrées de manière à ce que le disque de la plus petite unité urbaine (Angoulême) soit aussi large que le disque d'Angoulême dans la carte avec les log. Le problème, bien sûr, c'est que ça rendrait le disque de Paris énorme. Une solution serait, pour Paris, au lieu d'avoir un disque blanc, de laisser juste le contour du disque en noir, et à l'intérieur du disque laisser le fond de carte. Voilà mon idée.

Sinon, ce qui peut-être ferait encore plus sens, au lieu de mettre des disques pour les unités urbaines, ce serait de figurer les aires urbaines à taille réelle (les aire urbaines, pas les unités urbaines, qui sont trop petites sur une carte). Regarde cette carte: [5]. Les limites des aires urbaines sont en vert. Je ne sais pas si tu pourrais remplacer les 53 disques actuellement sur la carte par une représentation exacte des aires urbaines.

Oui, mais je n'ai pas les données nécessaires. L'IGN demande des sommes énormes pour ses fichiers. Je peux peut-être bricoler un truc à partir des populations légales, mais ça risque de ne pas fonctionner.

Une autre pensée, ta carte fait plus de 4 Mo, c'est trop grand. Tu devrais réduire la taille. Je l'avais réduite à 1 Mo dans mon "bricolage". Hardouin 12:27, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Je peux bien évidemment la faire calculer à une échelle inférieure (à partir du Postscript ou du PDF). David.Monniaux 12:52, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

Non, ce que je voulais dire, c'est que tu peux te servir de la carte don't j'ai copié le lien ci-dessus, ou bien de tout autre carte montrant les aires urbaines de France, pour remplacer les 53 disques par une représentation géographique des 53 aires urbaines. Un exemple pour que tu me comprennes: au lieu du disque pour Paris, on aurait une aire urbaine qui couvrirait la quasi-totalité de l'Île-de-France plus le sud de l'Oise et l'est de l'Eure-et-Loire. Tu comprends ce que je veux dire? Avec ton programme je sais pas si tu peux le faire. Moi la façon dont je le bricolerais, ça serait de découper à la main chacune des 53 aires urbaines dans la carte ci-dessus, et ensuite de les coller sur ta carte. Puis ensuite trouver un moyen pour faire les racords avec ton fond de carte. STP, répond sur ma page la prochaine fois... Hardouin 23:03, 29 May 2005 (UTC)

C'est toi qui voit, en fonction de ce que tu as envie (et le temps) de faire. Puisque tu m'as demandé mon envie, je continue de penser qu'une carte représentant les aires urbaines est meilleure qu'une carte avec des disques, que ce soit des disques log ou des disques racine carrée, puisqu'elle permet à ceux qui consulteront la carte de réaliser concrètement l'étendue réelle du phénomène urbain en France. Pour les droits d'auteur, je ne vois pas comment il pourrait y avoir des droits d'auteur sur les aires urbaines. Il y aurait un problème si on recopiait intégralement la carte, avec les même couleurs, les mêmes polices de charactères, etc. Mais là, on se propose de recopier la forme géométrique des aires urbaines. Je vois pas comment il peut y avoir des droits d'auteur sur des formes géométriques. Hardouin 12:29, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Sarkozy

Thanks for letting me know. Jayjg (talk) 20:59, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Art pics

I reckon you have an ample quantity of works of art in your photo collections (such as Image:Rubens.adoration.650pix.jpg). Would it be possible for your to upload the full-res versions to commons?
Thanks for your note, apologies for the huge delay in answering. The honest answer is No, I won't be doing any art uploads to Commons. The reason is that I'm overwhelmed (in a nice kind of way) with the number of public domain pics coming off my own camera. So there's no chance I'll be adding to Commons any pics that I haven't taken myself. Sorry again, Best Wishes - Adrian Pingstone 21:34, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Template:WikipediaSister

salut david! can you please change the content of Template:WikipediaSister into <!-- IF YOU VANDALIZE THIS TEMPLATE YOU WILL BE **BLOCKED** IMMEDIATELY AND CAST INTO A BOTTOMLESS PIT. --> Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia hosted by the non-profit [[Wikimedia|Wikimedia Foundation]], which operates several other [[Wikipedia:Multilingual coordination|multilingual]] and [[Wikipedia:Copyrights|free-content]] projects: {| align="center" cellpadding="2" width="100%" style="text-align:left" | [[Image:Wiktionary-logo-en.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[wikt:en:Main Page|'''Wiktionary''']]<br />Dictionary and thesaurus | [[Image:Wikibooks-logo.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[b:en:Main Page|'''Wikibooks''']]<br />Free textbooks and manuals | [[Image:Wikiquote-logo.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[q:en:Main Page|'''Wikiquote''']]<br />Collection of quotations | [[Image:Wikisource-logo.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[wikisource:Main Page:English|'''Wikisource''']]<br />Free source documents |- | [[Image:Wikispecies-logo.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[Wikispecies:|'''Wikispecies''']]<br />Directory of species | [[Image:Wikinews-logo.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[n:Main Page|'''Wikinews''']]<br />Free content news source | [[Image:Commons-logo.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[commons:Main Page|'''Commons''']]<br />Shared media repository | [[Image:Wikimedia-logo.png|35px|<nowiki>]] | [[m:Main Page|'''Meta-Wiki''']]<br />Wikimedia project coordination |} according to the naming reform of the wikimedia logos? Schaengel89 @me 09:50, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Loom basse lisse DSC08828.jpg

I found this image without license information. I presume it is released under the GFDL, and have used the image tag GFDL-presumed. Please confirm or correct this. — Sverdrup 21:02, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Edit war

Comme tu es administrateur (enfin aux dernière nouvelles), j'ai pensé que tu pourrais jeter un coup d’oeil sur ça: j'ai édité la section Demographics de l'article Vietnam. En particulier, j'ai ajouté pas mal d'infos sur les minorités du Vietnam. L'article n'en disait quasiment rien. Comme c'était malheureusement à prévoir, mes edits ont suscité l'ire de divers Wikipedians d'origine vietnamienne. En particulier, il y a une controverse sur le nombre exact de Khmers se trouvant dans le sud du Vietnam. Tu sais peut-être que le Vietnam a annexé le delta du Mékong au 18ème siècle, delta qui était jusque là un territoire cambodgien peuplé de Khmers, et quand les Français se sont établis en Cochinchine ils ont confirmé l'annexion vietnamienne. Depuis, la question des Khmers se trouvant dans le delta sous contrôle vietnamien a toujours été sujet à controverse. J'ai eu l'audace de fournir, en plus des chiffres officiels Vietnamiens, des chiffres fournis par des sources non gouvernementales (associations d'exilés Khmer en particulier). Il semble que ça ne plait pas du tout, mais alors pas du tout à certains Wikipedians vietnamiens, qui ne veulent tout simplement croire que la version officielle du gouvernement vietnamien. Résultat, edit war depuis quelque jours. C'est fatigant, et je n'ai vraiment pas l'envie de me battre. Y'a d'autres choses plus intéressantes à faire. Enfin j'ai quand même pensé que tu pouvais jeter un coup d’oeil. Lis la page de discussion à l'article Vietnam, tu y trouveras le fil de la controverse. Il me semble quand même que sur des sujets controversés comme celui-là, la moindre des choses serait de présenter des statistiques venant des bords opposés. C'est comme si à l'article Tibet on ne présentait que les statistiques chinoises, sans présenter les statistiques des tibétains en exil. Mais les Wikipedians vietnamiens ne veulent rien entendre. Demande-moi si tu as des questions sur le sujet. Tu peux retrouver la partie de mon edit qui a été supprimée dans l'historique de l'article. Hardouin 1 July 2005 23:12 (UTC)

[edit] Projet Communes françaises

Je viens de lancer un projet un peu fou sur les 36,782 communes françaises, et j'ai pensé que tu serais peut-être intéressé à participer au projet. En tout cas ta participation est vivement souhaitée. Tu peux voir plus de détails sur le projet à Wikipedia:WikiProject Communes françaises. J'envoie copie du même message à: Olivier et Ericd. Hardouin 6 July 2005 18:11 (UTC)

[edit] Edinburgh G8 Photos

Hi David —

I was looking through your photos of the G8 protests, since I had seen that you were there as well and had been uploading pictures. Imagine my surprise when I saw your picture Image:Edinburgh G8 protests 20050706 DSC04799.JPG. Check out my picture, Image:EdinburghProtests6.jpg. It's a miracle we didn't show up in each other's photos! I'm sure we must have seen each other, but, of course, everybody was taking photos that day.

— Asbestos | Talk 7 July 2005 20:28 (UTC)

[edit] Marechaussee

Hi David, could you tell me what your source is for your addition to Gendarmerie, stating that the Koninklijke Marechaussee is a civilian force? According to my information, it is still a military force. Kind regards, Minuteman 10:32, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] limitedgeographicscope

It seems like I made a mistake when I placed the tag on Talk:France, it is now removed. I read a couple of articles relating to France and I was appalled by what I considered an anti French POV throughout those articles. --saxet 21:23, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Tourism and the Paris Page

Dear David,

I can see where you think that attractions "fit in" to the Paris page, but please be reminded (as I was) that it is an encyclopedia entry. "Paris" should concern everything that Paris is as an independant entity - that is to say how it functions and through who and how it came to be that way. Any "offer" of anything Paris "has to offer" from outside the above to anyone unconcerned with the above has no place in an encyclopedia. The line has to be there otherwise there will be no end to the ambiguity.

In addition to removing the links I changed the section sub-title to belay any further confusion. And committed myself to making an entry of my own it seems.

Thanks for your understanding, take care,

Josef.

David,
I'm new here but that has nothing to do with what is in a page or not. The intent of having "tourist info" on a page concerning Paris destined for English-speakers is all too obvious. This section of Wikipedia is for ecyclopedic purposes, and Wikipedia has kindly set up another "WikiTravel" page for anything tourism. You may have noticed that I put the "wikiTravel" link up top in a very obvious place - and, if you like I will put the "WikiTravel" template down at the bottom. Unless you somehow have a direct relation to these amusement parks, I can't see your reason for objecting : )
Have you ever tried to research anything conrning Paris on the web in the English language? The quality of what's out there (that isn't buried under three pages of search results by tourist spam) is head-hanging shameful. Wikipedia has helped me a lot in the past, though mainly through its French Paris pages. I would like to return that favour by bringing the same quality to English speakers, as I am the same, as that already present in the French Wiki Paris pages.
I have already re-arranged the "missing" info on its proper page, and later will look to arranging it in a more coherent manner for an English speaker. As you say, I just got here.
Take care,
Josefu

Alright then. I've just had a word with Rl - I'll put those links in again, but can we find a way to do it that is more coherent ? From now I will give fair warning should I feel something be removed. I'm sure you understand from my former messages where I'm coming from.

Take care,

Josefu

The links are up again. Thanks for your thoughts - I feel the same way about the spam links, and in fact these were the first thing I saw to. I did have some hesitation there but kept everything that concerned directly Paris. I even verified the link claiming to be the "official" Tourist Paris site, and it was. So it's still there. I had a look at the French Paris page and there's tons of links there, but I don't feel one way about it or another. What does concern me that everything presented is what it says it is - and for sure it would be great if everything could be contained within Wiki.
I'll take a break on this for now as I've had a bit of a dose of doubt over what I should or shouldn't do. If you will, in my changes this morning, I do think I managed to put things together in a way much more coherent than it was. I'll check again anything I may have removed and see to it later.
Take care,
Josefu

[edit] Science pearls

Hello,

Since you contributed in the past to the publications’ lists, I thought that you might be interested in this new project. I’ll be glad if you will continue contributing. Thanks,APH 09:35, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-French sentiment in the United States

Dude, Jerry Lewis' Legion of Honor is a significant item in anti-French folklore in the United States, and deserves a mention on the Anti-French sentiment in the United States page. If you don't have first-hand familiarity with such folklore, then you should leave it to those who do -- or at least provide an explanation for your actions. AnonMoos 15:49, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Jacques Chirac's health issues

Hi David, thanks for clarifying the issue about Chirac's health and putting some those statements into context with your edit.[6] --AI 22:06, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Overseas departments

1. Sorry, I didn't add semi-colonial, somebody else did sometime ago. You are right about not using that term. It is better to speak about departments and territories, or about dependent territories. I even wouldn't use posession. 2. You added that the list is incomplete. I couldn't find other parties from the DOM in the national assembly at the site of the Interior Ministry. What parties are also represented? 3. Do you know the meaning of the world Walwari? Thanks for your contribution. - Electionworld 14:20, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Salon international de l'agriculture de Paris

David, I saw your photos at commons:Category:Salon de l'agriculture 2004. Are you able to either translate fr:Salon international de l'agriculture de Paris or write an article on the subject for the English Wikipedia? I'd like to add a link to it from Agricultural show to show these are not specific to Commonwealth countries. You might also want to add a photo to the French article. Thanks, --Scott Davis Talk 08:11, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you, David!

For answering my questions on two articles: France and Jacques Chirac! --Vlad 07:19, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] No problem

I have no other interest in the article (Status of religious freedom in France) from any other perspective then correcting the English. I'm about to change it again, the sentence "From this follows that..." sounds bad to me. I had made changes to it that you reverted, (again, no problem, that's the point of the wikipedia, right?) but that part just sounds unnatural to me. I've taken a different approach this time, let me know what you think. --Easter Monkey 09:19, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Alain Vivien

ZappaZ has discovered that this article needs some "more information". Could you help seeing to it that this info is not completely one-sided - you have probably better resources regarding French politicians than I have. Irmgard 17:42, 28 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Names

I was fascinated to read your article on the French use of names. I've made a first attempt at copy-editing. However, there were a couple of things I wasn't sure about. I wasn't sure what you meant by "the whole of their children" (have I remembered this phrase correctly? - I changed it to "all their children") in the context of choosing a double-barrelled name. Did you mean that they can choose separately for each child or that they must make one choice and apply it to all the children? I was also not sure what you meant by a double hyphen.

I dropped the word "disambiguation" as I've never heard it except on Wikipedia. No doubt it will spread but I think it may be a relatively new invention.

On the content, I remember meeting a French person called "William" who told me that it was a standard form in Brittany, where he came from. (As for Kevin, I only know one Kevin, who happens to work at the CNRS.) As for official rejection of first names, I remember a work colleague, a Belgian living in Paris, exasperated after the birth of his son by being told by the registrar that he couldn't call his child Geoffrey. As I remember the story, he had the impression that he had no option and must simply choose another name. There was no suggestion of going to court. Obviously, I didn't hear the full story, though, so he may simply have been dissuaded rather than refused.

Apologies if I've misrepresented what you meant with any of the changes I've made. I'll be happy to have another attempt. Adrian Robson 12:24, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] French communes

There is some action at Wikipedia:WikiProject French communes. If you haven't done so yet, please come and have a look! Some people are planning a bot to mass-create articles. Your input would certainly be valuable. olivier 12:42, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

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