User talk:Jamiepgs

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Welcome!

Hello, Jamiepgs, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome!  Sophia 20:45, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] You'd better cut it out or the admins will block you soon

Please stop vandalizing the U.S. state article or you will be permanently blocked from Wikipedia. --Coolcaesar 22:48, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Block

Why in the hell have I been blocked? I have not "vandalised" anything. I've not posted any false information. Just because you think it's wrong doesn't mean it is. People do argue that there are only 46 states. And it's a fact that by being commonwealths they don't receive constitutional powers (or at least any significant ones).

And the Thailand one, Bangkok is NOT the capital of Thailand. The area was officially re-named once it become capital, and is officially the city with the longest name. Does Bangkok look very long to you? Shortened, the capital of Thailand is Krung Thep. It is believed to be the Thai name for Bangkok, but it's not. It is said that Western people calling the capital of Thailand Bangkok is like Eastern people calling the capital city of England Winchester (a former name for the area of London) The area is no longer called Bangkok, and hasn't been officially for more than 200 years. In this area, I think it's possible the reason it was un-done was because simpletons don't know it. I've heard of cases like it before that content was removed because it "wasn't well-known". Yeah, bloody great Wiki. Disallow people from knowing the right, because most know the wrong.

{{helpme}} Is there anyone I can speak live to? Such as on Googlemail, MSN or Yahoo? Expressing my complaint is difficult and pointless through e-mail.

I'm not sure if there are wikipedia helpers that specifically give out their MSN or Gmail details for that purpose. However, there is an IRC channel that would count as being for that purpose: see [1] - and I think you will need an IRC client to connect to that such as mIRC from [www.mirc.com].
I would like to recommend that you do simply just express your query on Wikipedia for convenience purposes, it would be both more convenient for you I think, and for the people reading it, and will allow a greater number of people to see it. Hope this helps Rfwoolf 00:11, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Are you Okay

Hi, I have just responded to your helpme tag.

I have seen the block warnings that have been made against you, and your one response, and I just wanted to say that if you're new to Wikipedia sometimes it can be very strange and frustrating - when people say that you're vandalising and you don't think you are - but you might be. So I just wanted to point out the following:

  • Anything on a Wikipedia article usually has to be verifiable using references to things like published sources, including newspapers, books, etc.
  • If you do something, and somebody reverts you (undoes what you did), it is better to contact that person to talk to them about it before you go and REDO it again. In fact if you keep it up it can be quite serious
  • If you want to add something to an article and you're not sure about how to go and do it, why not put up another helpme tag explaining what you want to do and let an editor guide you?

Good luck Rfwoolf 00:21, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] block 2

Y

Your request to be unblocked has been granted for the following reason(s):

I accept Sophia's judgment that we may have been too hasty. If we have, apologies.

Request handled by: ElinorD (talk) 11:17, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
Although I'm not an admin and don't have the ability to unblock you, I have reviewed the situation myself for my own understanding...
It seems that indeed all your contributions have been false information attempts. While this is very fascinating and entertaining it is also very wrong, and cannot be tolerated, and any wikipedian that sees your false content is obligated to automatically fix it - meaning that you're just taking up your own time and every body else's.
Yes, anything you contribute has to be verifiable. Even if the moon smells like gunpowder then you should have a source for that, especially such a wild and vivid clime. If you come up with sources for all these things (acceptable sources) then there would be no reason to revert your edits
Finally I agree with and endorse the block - you were warned although the warning could have been slightly better.
What I'm not sure about is that the blocking is indefinite. I think the admin that blocked you would have been better to specify a time.
Please note that you are able to still edit your user talk page (this page), even though you're blocked.
Rfwoolf 01:14, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


Actually, you're wrong there.

Capital city of Thailand:

Source: The Book of General Ignorance Pg 121

"What is the name of the capital city of Thailand?

Grung Tape.

The city's day-to-day name, which means 'City of Angels' (the same as Los Angeles), is an abbreviation for the official name, which is the longest place name in the world.

Only ignorant foreigners call it Bangkok, which hasn't been used in Thailand for more than 200 years. For Europeans (and every single one of their encyclopaedia's) to go on calling the capital of Thailand Bangkok is a bit like Thais insisting that the capital of Britain is called Billingsgate or Winchester.

Grung Tape (the rough pronunciation) is usually spelt Krung Thep.

Bangkok was the name of the small fishing port that used to exist before King Rama I moved his capital there in 1782, built a city on the site and renamed it.

The full official name of Krung Thep is Krungthep Mahanakhon Amorn Rattanakosin Mahintara Yudthaya Mahadilok Pohp Noparat Rajathanee Bureerom Udomrajniwes Mahasatarn Amorn Pimarn Avaltarnsatit Sakatattiya Visanukram Prasit.

In Thai, this is written as a single word of 152 letters or 64 syllables.

It translates roughly as 'Great City of Angels, the supreme repository of divine jewels, the great land unconquerable, the grand and prominent realm, the royal and delightful capital city full of noble gems, the highest royal dwelling and grand palace, the divine shelter and living place of the reincarnated spirits.'

The front part of the name Bangkok is the common Thai word bang meaning village. The second part is supposed to have come from an old Thai word makok which means some kind of fruit (either olives or plums or some sort of mixture of the two). So it could be 'Village of Olives' or 'Village of Plums'. Nobody seems to be quite sure which - or to care.

Krung Thep (or Bangkok if you insist) is the only city in Thailand. It is almost forty times larger than the next largest town."



The 46 states of America:

Source: The Book of General Ignorance page 111

"How many states are there in the USA?

Technically, there are only forty-six.

Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are all officially Commonwealths.

This grants them no special constitutional powers. They simply chose this word to describe themselves at the end of the War of Independence. It made clear they were no longer 'royal colonies' answering to the King, but states governed by the 'common consent of the people'."


The moon dust has been sourced.


The beige universe:

Source: The Book of General Ignorance page 101

"What colour is the universe?

It's officially beige.

In 2002, after analysing the light from 200,000 galaxies collected by the Australian Galaxy Redshift Survey, American scientists from John Hopkins University concluded that the universe was pale green. Taking the Dulux paint range as a standard, it was somewhere between Mexican Mint, Jade Cluster and Shangri-La Silk.

A few weeks after the announcement to the American Astronomical Society, however, they had to admit they'd made a mistake in their calculations, and that the universe was, in fact, more a sort of dreary shade of taupe."



The North American Camel:

Source: The Book of General Ignorance page 109

"Where do camels come from?

North America.

The icons of the African and Arabian deserts are American in origin.

Like horses and dogs, camels evolved in the grasslands if America 20 million years ago. In those days they were more like giraffes or gazelles than the humped beasts of burden we know and love. It wasn't until four million years ago that they crossed the Bering land-bridge into Asia.

They became extinct in North America during the last Ice Age and, unlike horses and dogs, haven't made it back.

It is not clear why the North American camel species died out. Climate change is the obvious culprit. More specifically it may have been due to a change in the silica content of grass. As the North American climate got cooler and drier, silica levels in grass tripled. This new super-tough grass wore out the teeth of even the longest-toothed grazers and the horses and camels gradually died of starvation, as a result of being unable to chew."


As for the 21 possible senses, that was sourced, so I have no idea why it was deleted.

Just curious, does The Book of General Ignorance have references for any of its facts? Rfwoolf 02:06, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

No.. it doesn't, but hardly any other book dictating "facts" do either. The book is based of a round in a quiz show called QI. (Quite Interesting) The round is called General Ignorance, and is a parody of General Knowledge rounds found in most quiz shows. QI is a recognised organisation (Quite Interesting Ltd) and has its own website (www.qi.com) If you're ever in London one day, pop into the QI building, and you'll find all the reference you could ever hope for. QI Ltd. Aim on proving that 'Everything you know is wrong' Of coarse they don't mean that in a literal sense, only the garish facts considered general knowledge that are indeed wrong.

The climax of the book says:

"The book is the distillation of many people's attempts to understand the world around them, but owes most of all to the QI research team, a collection of people with high curiosity levels, low boredom thresholds and a knack for asking difficult questions."

These aren't random things they've chosen and put some random thing in to make it seem un-true. These people do their research. And the web is not where they do it. Books will always be a much greater source of information, with a much higher reliability scale.

{{helpme}} So is this request going to be looked at or what?

[edit] Moon Dust

I checked and reformatted his posts to the Moon article - I must admit at first glance I assumed they were wacky but I checked the source and unless it's a very good clone it is a NASA source. His writing style needs work but he didn't undo my changes. As for the other claims I will check them but please everyone - remember WP:BITE.

To Jamiepgs - sorry I'm not an admin but if no one comes here soon I will contact WP:AN on your behalf. Sophia 10:26, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Just to say thanks for adding the information about the smell and texture of moondust, which I found absolutely fascinating. Don't get put off contributing here, but note it does help others to evaluate your contributions if you take care always to cite your sources. Espresso Addict 04:56, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bangkok

Looks like that one checks out too:[2] [3] Sophia 10:32, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Beige universe

Another ok fact [4] Sophia 10:34, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Number of US states

Harder to track down but looks correct [5] Sophia 10:42, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Camels

Yep - that one is ok too [6]. Sophia 10:51, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bite

This poor guy has got a book with neat facts and he thought he would add them. I know vandalism is rife but his behaviour is not typical - vandals don't give their sources or stick around in an account that has gotten so much hassle. His writing style doesn't fit in too well with the articles he has tried to add the "facts" to, but that is basic editor settling-down and-getting-the-hang-of-things stuff. I think he is owed several apologies and an unblock asap. How is he supposed to get the hang of 3rr etc if we just jump on him rather than teaching him how things work here. Sophia 10:51, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

I've logged this WP:AN so hopefully you will be unblocked soon. Please ask me on my talk page if you need any help in how to edit here and I would suggest reading some of the links in the welcome I gave you above as they will give to a headstart in some of the wierd ways things are done here. Hope you settle in well and sorry for the rough start you have had - don't let it put you off as I personally have enjoyed learning the new stuff you have added. Sophia 11:04, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot Sophia. I guess I should have got some "more known" sources, but still, thanks. Jamiepgs 11:08, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unblocked

I've unblocked you. I admit I haven't done a lot of research before the unblock, but I'm willing to trust Sophia, so I hope the blocking admin won't mind. You're lucky to have someone like Sophia willing to look into the block for you and to raise it with admins. Perhaps you might seek some advice from her before making any more edits that are likely to be disputed. Apologies if we've been too hasty to assume you were vandalising, and best of luck with your future edits. ElinorD (talk) 11:17, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unblock and barnstar

You have been unblocked (thanks Elinor) so you should be ok. If you want to check these things click on "User contributions" in the toolbox on the left hand side of the screen - you then will see your username at the top left hand corner with "block log" as one of the options in the bracket - clicking on that will show you your block log.

I'm sorry you have had such a rough ride but vandalism is rife and as your facts are so little know (I've got an astronomy background but didn't know the moon one!) people jumped to the wrong conclusions - read WP:Verifiability and this will help you understand the quality of sources we require - especially for little known stuff. Hope you like the barnstar - (people like to display them on their userpage) and thanks for being so good natured about this. Sophia 11:24, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

The Resilient Barnstar
For being so good natured after being bitten Sophia 11:24, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
One other big tip - if you think it's going to be disputed, post it on the talk page first - never be tempted to edit the article and tough it out - that is one of the worst ever wikicrimes - known as edit warring. Sophia 11:41, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
Sorry for the revert on camel - check the talk page for reasons. I'll help out soon but I need to be somewhere else for a few hours - regards Sophia 13:03, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Good to see you're unblocked

Ive been reading your discussion and I think it's good someone has made the changes required, it annoys me that the majority of people editing Wikipedia are such fools that don't take any other sources of information into account. That's that rant over p.s, I'm reading the QI book as well. Ukuser (talk) 12:06, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion about Krung Thep

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Thailand#Capital_City_-_wrong_name.3F