User talk:Acuster

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Contents 1 Welcome! 2 Welcome 3 Tsetse 4 Probability Distributions 5 "Tsetse", from a Sesotho speaker

Welcome!

[edit] Welcome

I'd like to welcome you also, and to thank you for the additions to Tsetse fly. I've wikified that article quite a bit, as well as doing a little rewording and copyedit. I hope you stay and add some more articles. Jonathunder 03:32, 2005 Apr 2 (UTC)

[edit] Tsetse

Hi Adrian,

I spotted your comment on the proposed move at Talk:Tsetse fly. I've got a few things to say that might clarify the issue. The thing is, as I said in my brief comment to my 'Oppose' vote, that Wikipedia is by definition descriptive and not prescriptive. To cite the Neutral Point Of View guideline:

We should fairly represent all sides of a dispute, and not make an article state, imply, or insinuate that any one side is correct.

By sticking to a neutral point of view, we avoid articles to degrade into political or otherwise subjective statements. As I take it, NPOV is what keeps Wikipedia from becoming one large open wound of edit wars and what (hopefully) keeps Wikipedia encyclopedic.

Another relevant and important guideline is 'No Original Research'. In the section 'What is excluded from articles' you can find a list of things that are considered 'original research' and as such do not belong in an encyclopedia that is ideally only reporting things. Redefining a term, or dismissing certain uses of a term as 'incorrect', is simply not Wikipedia's job. WP:NOT

This might explain why people like me see and understand your arguments (and even might agree with them), and yet don't want the article to be moved to 'Tsetse'. Redundancy, or political connotation, or stylistical nature — those things simply don't count in an encyclopedia where the Naming conventions explicitly specify that an article be located at the most common term for its subject matter. For the same reason, I would oppose locating the article at Glossina; Tsetse fly is simply the most common term, so that's where the text is to be found.

Of course, if there is a reputable and significant source dismissing 'tsetse fly' and recommending the use of 'tsetse' instead, the Wikipedia article Tsetse fly might report that. Wikipedia itself, however, should not be prescriptive — neither in the naming of its articles nor in its actual content.

As for the fact that people come and vote without having edited the article itself, that is easily explained by the fact that it is listed at Requested moves.

Well, it's become quite a lot of text — I hope I've clarified the issue a bit. I certainly hope you'll stick around and make many more excellent contributions! If you have any questions, you can always contact me by email or on my talk page. Kind regards, — mark ✎ 23:13, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Haven't seen you around for some days now. I hope you'll return and grace Wikipedia with a splendid article (and many more). I hope you aren't taken aback by Wikipedia's guidelines because really, Wikipedia is one of the places where many people do their very best to dethrone prejudices and cultural biases. You might like Wikiproject Countering Systemic Bias, for that matter. Hope to see you again! Kind regards, — mark ✎ 12:47, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Probability Distributions

Hello - I think the Template:Probability distribution page is the proper place to talk about template modifications, (I have left a message there in response to yours), and I agree that the probability distribution articles would benefit from standardization. I don't think the introductions should be incorporated into the template, if that is what you are suggesting. I can make changes to the graphics if you have any suggestions. PAR 14:05, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

PS - you can sign your name using four tildes (~) and it will make a link to your user page as well.

I have made an first cut at some standards for probability distribution articles into the Wikipedia:WikiProject Probability page. Can we get a consensus on this? I would like to start standardizing the discrete probability distribution articles, at least the PMF and CMF names, and method of handling parameters. MarkSweep has suggested the talk page for this project Wikipedia talk:WikiProject_Probability as a good place to discuss these standards. PAR 13:50, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Tsetse", from a Sesotho speaker

In Sesotho, a fly is "tshintshi" and allegedly "tsitsi" is an archaic word meaning the same. I don't really know Setswana so...
Next time you need advice on South African and "Bantu" linguistics, be sure to ask me as well. You are less likely to see me talking about refering to some book etc. since I'd actually know what I'm talking about, and not have simply read about it in some malinformative article somewhere.
Bye! -ZyXoas 12:45, 17 February 2006 (UTC)