User talk:75.80.63.244

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[edit] Spelling

Please do not change the spelling of articles relating to England and the Commonwealth from British spelling to American spelling. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 05:33, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Noah Webster's Dictionary was used - most prolific.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.80.63.244 (talk • contribs) .

Sorry, I should have explained the situation in more detail. So here's the thing. Many English words aren't spelled the same way in every English-speaking country. Everything that you changed in those articles was already spelled correctly according to British spelling rules. Since every country has its own rules of spelling, the way we keep everybody happy is to use these two rules:

  1. If an article is related to a specific country, then the spelling rules of that country must be used. So British spelling is used in England, American spelling is used in New York City, Australian spelling is used in Melbourne, and so on.
  2. If an article is not related to a specific country, then the spelling used by the first major contributor to the article is used.

Ok? -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 05:50, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Here are some references that might help:

-- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 05:58, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Your edits to United Kingdom

As I have explained Wikipedia standards you you in extensive detail, you must be aware that what you are doing is vandalism. I have to treat any further spelling changes that you make, changing British spelling to American in clearly British topics like United Kingdom, as vandalism.

Your change to the page United Kingdom was determined to be unhelpful and has been reverted or removed. Please use the sandbox for any tests you want to do. Take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Thanks. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 06:01, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Your edits to England

This is your last warning.
The next time you vandalize a page, as you did to England, you will be blocked from editing Wikipedia. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 06:02, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Gotcha. Just read this. I still think the Noah Webster's Dictionary should be the standard. Noah Webster English by far the most "common." Noah Webster has standardized and modernized the English language. Noah Webster is the father of the modern English language. Sorry for the misunderstanding.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.80.63.244 (talk • contribs) .

BTW, I would not call what I was writing "vandalizing," rather "modernizing."—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.80.63.244 (talk • contribs) .

So your position is that you didn't notice the big orange bar that said "you have new messages" for more than half an hour while you repeatedly applied the same spelling changes to articles that I had already told you to stop making? And you chose to make your "spelling corrections" only to articles directly related to Britain? I'm finding this a bit hard to believe, sorry. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 06:41, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
The terms are still contemporary and in use. Only Americans use such unusual spelling and pronunciation.--Vercalos 06:36, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
You have been blocked from editing for 24 hours. I would suggest you spend some of that time reading WP:MOS per the many, many suggestions above. Alphachimp 07:18, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
Hard as you may find it, it is true. I was not paying attention to any "orange bars." And when I did notice, I immediately stopped and agreed to the terms provided. I just kept making accurate corrections as I found them, not intentionally trying to avoid the rules.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.80.63.244 (talk • contribs) .
"Only Americans..." The thing is that these correct spellings from the Webster's Dictionary are used by more people than any other form. But I am not here to argue, I have already written that I agree to the rules, and accept the errors in spelling as they are submitted to articles from countries that use such misspellings. I bet when you are writing HTML (universal internet language) and coding a text style, you write "center," not "centre," and "color, not "colour." I wonder why that is?—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.80.63.244 (talk • contribs) .

A 24 hour-block seems so juvenile, especially since when I discovered the notices, I immediately ceased correcting the errors.

I do have a question. If I write an article about England or Great Britain, do I use the English that I am used to using, or do I have to figure out the English used in England, being that is to what the article is referring? Because I have no idea what the proper spelling for most of the words used in England, if that was the case. There seems to be a quagmire in the rules. This is a legitimate question and I am not trying to be facetious. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.80.63.244 (talk • contribs) .

I don't expect that you'll be writing any articles about England or Great Britain, so there's no problem. When the block is over, I strongly suggest that you stay away from non-American articles as long as you insist on referring to British spelling as incorrect. In all honesty, since you specifically targeted high profile British articles for your spelling corrections, it seems more likely that you were trolling for a reaction, and you are well aware of Wikipedia's rules of English spelling. But if you are sincerely confused, you've got 24 hours to go back and read the references listed above. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 07:56, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Here's a suggestion: if you write an article with an English theme, use your own English. But be ready for someone else to change it. Also, definitely don't change the spelling of British articles. I'm not going to say stay away from British articles; just be careful. and if you edit and existing article, try to conform to the standard. As for the block, it's only 24 hours, and in the course of a lifetime, that's pretty short. :) -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 08:04, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your understanding (I think that is what is was) and I am sorry for your skepticism. I honestly was not trying to cause any problems. I was looking up something under an article about (I think)"Commonwealth of Nations" and then clicked on links taking me further. I just got a new computer and it shows me errors in spelling in my web browser. I am an administrator for a few websites and Yahoo groups, so I am constantly correcting spelling errors. I am also a retired police lieutenant, and was in charge of all reports submitted. I had to make sure all the reports were accurate and spelling was one of my pet peeves. So I guess it is just in me to make such corrections. As for my question, the use of writing an article about England was only and example - it could be any subject; the fact is the question/point still remains: what happens in that situation. As for the comments about my alleged assertion that British English spelling being inaccurate, others have made similar comments about American English. E.g. "Only Americans use such unusual spelling and pronunciation." I would not call it "unusual," rather most common. E.g., when writing HTML code, "color" and "center" are used, not "colour" and "centre;" just two examples I notice. So again, sorry for the inconvenience and "upheaval" of you proper gents :) Believe me, I am much more an asset than a trouble maker. Respectfully submitted. PS. I still think that Noah Webster is most excellent ;) [Just jesting, guys, just jesting] —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.80.63.244 (talk • contribs) .

Ok, let's start over. First, you should sign you posts to talk pages. Refer to WP:SIG. If you don't sign, the talk page is just a bunch of text with no indication about who said what. Here are your edits: Special:Contributions/75.80.63.244. Let's ignore everything before the time you acknowledged reading my first note. Why did you go back and make nine more changes across three articles over the course of half an hour? All the time you were doing that, did you wonder why your changes were being reversed as quickly as you made them? Also, you obviously saw the "you have new messages" notification the first time; you responded to it. How did you miss all of the other messages telling you to stop? The message notification isn't meant to be subtle; it's meant to get your attention. It's hard to believe that anyone could not notice it over the course of half an hour and nine edits.
New editors are always welcome; desperately needed, in fact. But if you still think that you were "correcting errors", you need to review the references I gave you before you make any more edits. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 17:16, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
I think what Jim's trying to say is that he felt a little frustrated by the situation at continually having to revert some changes, even after having a conversation with you. Please understand; we don't hold anything against you; in fact, we given editors a ridiculous amount of slack even for blatant vandalism, mostly because we understand that new editors make mistakes. So it's not a problem, just something to watch out for in the future. We welcome your contributions. -Patstuart(talk)(contribs) 18:46, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
But I'm over it now! :-) Hey, I found another article that you might find interesting: American and British English differences. I hope you stick around and contribute to the project. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 20:08, 12 November 2006 (UTC)