User talk:Paul Pieniezny

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archive 2006 Archive 2007

Welcome!

Hello, Paul Pieniezny, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

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:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  --Ghirla | talk 17:47, 9 February 2006 (UTC)



Contents

[edit] Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/Elonka 3

Thank you for your participation in my RfA. It was definitely a dramatic debate that landed on WP:100, but ultimately was deemed a successful declaration of consensus, and I am now an admin. I definitely paid close attention to everything that was said in the debate, and, where possible, I will try to incorporate the (constructive) criticism towards being a better administrator. I'm taking things slowly for now, partially because of the holidays and all the off-wiki distractions. I'm working my way through the Wikipedia:New admin school, carefully double-checking the relevant policies, and will gradually phase into the use of the new tools, with my main goals being to help out with various backlogs. I sincerely doubt you'll see anything controversial coming from my new access level. :) I also fully intend to keep on writing articles, as there are a few more that I definitely want to get to WP:FA status. If you do ever have any concerns about my activities as an administrator, I encourage you to let me know. My door is always open. Have a good new year, --Elonka 19:07, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Your comment at Biruitorul's RfA

How can you not see that all mainstream Romanian editors are opposed to Bonny? Why are you comparing us to extremists? Please, do watch Biruitorul's edits in the next months: convince yourself who he is. Dc76\talk 21:01, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[1] And of course, Bonny also made an appearance, but you need to check the history (which will also show the discussion title was renamed). I must say, you (=DC76) had guts not archiving this before his RfA. That would probably have made the history disappear. And before you say, Biruitorul has nothing to do with what happened there, come on, you cannot really make us believe that he and you watch each other's talk page very carefully, can you? User:Mukadderat saw it plainly. --Paul Pieniezny (talk) 10:25, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] There's a word for "World War II collaborator" in English

and it's quisling, which is particularly appropriate when the individuals in question are not only collaborators, but collaborationist leaders. --Paularblaster (talk) 21:33, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thank you

  • I'm the author of the article Myrzakulov equations. So I have some questions for you. Can you give me your e-mail? (Really sorry for my poor english)Ngn
  • Please help me to keep and to improve my article Myrzakulov equations. Ngn 92.46.72.14 (talk) 19:27, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] English?

Thank you for fixing the capitalization of the French titles in the Dimitri Kirsanoff article. In the future, I'd appreciate it if you didn't leave snide remarks in German in the edit summary. The fact that I wrote an article about Kirsanoff does not mean I claim to be fluent in French. For your information, some of the same mistakes are present on the French Wikipedia (though that wasn't my source). If I am misinterpreting the tone of your remark, I apologize; perhaps I would have understood it better if you had used English. MagnesianPhoenix (talk) 07:55, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

You did misunderstand the tone of my remark. I was NOT implying that the author of the article was German speaking or did not speak French or English or Russian fluently. I tend to criticize people's edits, not the editors. I am just a fool who is always boasting about his linguistic abilities, and that is not a snide remark either. --Paul Pieniezny (talk) 09:43, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry for reacting so hostilely. The reason I mentioned the use of German in a negative way was simply because this is the English Wikipedia, not because of any prejudice. I have nothing against the language or the people. What I meant was "in a foreign language", but there's no such thing as foreign on the Web and I didn't want to sound like a chauvinist. I understand that your remark was not a personal attack; I suspected it was a boast of multilingualism but I didn't want to accuse you of that (as that really would have been ad hominem). As for the capitalization, my thanks was sincere. In the United States, we capitalize all the important words in a title (e.g., The Irony of Destiny), and while I knew the French (European) convention was different, I did not succeed at following it, so I'm glad you did. I was just a little put off by the linguistically exclusive comment.

As for your comments on Kirsanoff, I shall take that to the talk page. I am confused by the ambiguity of his birthplace (Riga or Derpt/Dorpat/Yuryev/Tartu). And are you sure he was Jewish? I mean, I'm glad to hear it - my great-grandparents were Lithuanian Jews (they emigrated when it was still Russia) - I'd never heard that about him. MagnesianPhoenix (talk) 07:25, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] ?

His corpse was put on the internet, do you have a source for that? Sherurcij (Speaker for the Dead) 19:40, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sikhs in BElgium

Hey man !

hoe gaat het?

comment cava?

ik ben ook van belgie en ik ben sikh

ik was hier geboren....

ik heb een paar dingen aangepast bij die artikel van sikhs in belgie... kijk maar eens en zeg wat ge ervan denkt.. en die nederlands journaal had ik ni al reference genomen want deze site is in het engels en de meeste zouden niks snappen wat er in die journaal staat.

dag he salut!

Sunnybondsinghjalwehra (talk) 16:18, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Two things which remain unclear

Hi, Paul. I've responded to your questions at Talk:St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery#Two things which remain unclear.. Sorry for the delay, I just noticed that there's a new section.. —dima/talk/ 03:10, 27 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Communist terrorism

It is the systematic bias we are facing in wikipedia. The section Promotion of terrorist organizations by Communist states - in espionage enemy countries are obviously targeted and if KGB is blamed for supporting any organization can be considered terrorist, the same is applied to CIA. Not only this, problem exists in the article Terrorism in Russia also. The concept of Red terror has been included in the article as terrorism in modern sense. See the section Internal Soviet terror in the article. "The Soviet collectivization of agriculture was accomplished by terror against those peasants that resisted". This is not related to modern concept of terrorism and clear case of SYNTH. In the article Terrorism in Russia, Soviet government is equated with Chechen terrorists. The main problem Biophys is a blatant POV pusher. Third nomination of the article Communist terrorism is not possible immediately, wait two to three months, then another nomination will be needed. But one thing I will request you now to please join the article Terrorism in Russia. It is extremely POV article. I tried to fix some problems, but it is quite tough to do it alone with Biophys. The entire section Russian terrorism in 19th century and Soviet Union should be removed as revolution is not falls under the criteria of terrorism. By that sense, any independence movement and revolution use violence and will be fall under terrorism, American Revolution also. Some people use the term "terrorism" in this context do not imply it was terrorism. There are questions of WP:UNDUE and WP:SYN. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 13:17, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Agree with everything above. Thanks for the note on my page Paul. I wish I had seen the AfD but I don't think it would have made any difference. That article is a disaster. A bunch of unrelated topics strung together to make a point; it is the very definition of WP:SYN. I think it's become pretty clear in the intervening time since the user in question filed an abusive, disingenuous, and bullying -- and ultimately completely unsuccessful -- RfA against me that it was his behavior and not mine that was the problem. I have stayed away from disputes with that user at the recommendation of the arbitration committee, but I do think that if there are others who feel his actions have continued to be unwarranted that a conduct RfC may be in order. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to initiate such action, of course. But as I see it, there are three issues at stake here -- (1) a misunderstanding of (or simply a refusal to take seriously) Wikipedia policy concerning original research, and (2) a faulty assumption that "Communism" or "Communist" has a single objective and agreed upon meaning in all the various contexts in which it is used. As Otolemur points out above, the word is being used in a variety of contexts that are equated willy-nilly by writers who refuse to use language and concepts precisely. It may be POV-pushing, or it may be simply a lack of understanding of the issues. (The same is true of the word "terrorism" in the one article, of course). (3) Again, we can just call this POV-pushing, but there seems to be a specifically polarizing understanding of anything to do with Communism or the former Soviet Union that treats anything negative that can be said about them (no matter how poorly sourced or just plain batty) as a higher truth that would only be opposed by some kind of Red sympathizer. I thought the Red Scare was over but it's alive and well here. Ridiculous conspiracy theories about former Soviets hiding Saddam's nukes, or about Soviet spies planting nukes in the Shenandoah Valley, or about Chinese intelligence agents dressing up as Mexicans so they can take over Texas are treated on some of these pages as eminently credible, not because they have any actual evidence to back them up, but simply because they make "communists" look bad. I don't know what can be done about any of this, but a lot of it does seem to be prohibited specifically by Wikipedia rules on original research. csloat (talk) 17:43, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
Well, I now know why the first people who contested the WP:OWN on that page, ran away. I agree with a lot of things you both say, of course, sometimes on other grounds. If Biophys believes communism is a monolythic entity, and you should not make any distinction between Maoists, Trotskists and organisations which combine nationalism and communism (interestingly, the Natioanl Bolshevik party of the RF actually has an electoral pact with Biophys's hero, Kasparov) then we should try to take him at his word: organisations which call or called themselves Marxist, Naxalite, populist should not be in the article. And since the word "communist" was only used before 1917 by the French anarchists and followers of Jules Guesde (who actually condemned terrorism like Lenin), it follows that everything before 1917 must be deleted. Well, he or we could try to include the Bonnot Gang, of course, though that may be ahistorical as well, since between 1902 and 1917 the term "communist" was no longer used in France.
The bias in the article against non-communists should also be addressed. I mean, this thing has a link to something called "List of communist and socialist terrorist organisations" . Yes, socialist terrorism, when socialism is one the the three main political currents in most of Europe. Surprise, surprise, the link is dead.
Apart from the many cynical lies (have a look at the Nepal entry: it says communist terrorism started there in 1994 when the communist party lost the election, when in fact they won that election and their leader took over as Prime Minister, the trouble really started in 1996 after political machinations of the Congress party nullified that election victory) the main problem is of ourse the structural WP:COATRACK, the combination of both terrorist insurgency and state terrorism. That is the major problem. I would be in favour of doing away with the state terrorism part as it obviously not sourced, only passingly mentioned in books.

--Paul Pieniezny (talk) 07:58, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Paul, I do not entirely dismiss your opinion. However, if we want to separate the "communist terrorist insurgency" and "communist state terrorism" issues, we will end up with two articles: Communist terrorism ("communist terrorist insurgency") and Political repressions by Communist states ("communist state terrorism").Biophys (talk) 15:56, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
Paul you can see the problem in the response to your comment above, where a user suggests (apparently in all seriousness) remedying the WP:OR and WP:COATRACK problem by proliferating articles that create such problems rather than eliminating them. csloat (talk) 21:56, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
Well, in his own eyes he is doing away with the coatrack, because he splits up the article between communist insurgency, which would be sourced and the communist state terrrorism which is not. But that does not solve most of the problems. There would still be a content coatrack (as opposed to a structural coatrack, which in my view should always be sufficient reason to delete, which unfortunately was not the decision now) in both articles, and the second article (communist state terrorism) is obviously OR and a POV fork from state terrorism. Apart from the fact that the coatrack content (stalinist, marxist-leninist, maoist, trotskist and other versions of communism all lumped together) would be far more important in the second one than in the first.
Another point: I noticed how fast people were on the draw when I deleted the Kurdistan Workers Party from the article - I think this article and the prospective two are POV magnets. WP:BEANS means I will not say which dictators still governing today were at one time considered Marxists (and yes, I mean when they were already in power), but there are quite a few of them (and two major ones at that). So, that would create havoc in the second article too. Basically, I think the first article quoted by Biophys has a reason to be, but it should be cleared from POV and COATRACK concerns by clearly stating that not "all communisms are equal" (inside joke) and that for some of these groups who may have claimed to be or were claimed communist and terrorist it is a matter of opinion whether they are communist or ever were and that even the terrorsit charge is not always proven (well, it is a major editing point at Wikipedia that you should be careful when using the word "terrorist" but in this article this rule does not seem to have been adhered to very carefully). The German RAF is a good example: OK, obviously a terror gang, but what about the communism? A writer famously called them children of Hitler (not of Stalin or Lenin) and both the main surviving leader and the main non-terrorist advocate are now active in extreme-right parties. The (first) article will also have to be watched attentively, because the mistakes in the present article indicate that some users are trying to push their own viewpoints on territorial conflicts. The second artticle would indeed be an attempt to proliferate OR and Novel Synthesis and is a POV fork.--Paul Pieniezny (talk) 14:21, 30 April 2008 (UTC) (forgot to sign)
Paul, you are missing the point. Yes, one could argue that German RAF did not really follow "communist ideology" (although we could argue forever what is the communist ideology). However, as long as certain group was directed and funded by a communist state (like the Soviet Union), it belongs to "communist terrorism" category in my opinion. As about "Communist repressions" article, it could be sourced to many hundreds of sources.Biophys (talk) 17:25, 4 May 2008 (UTC)
Then you should add the United States as a proliferator of Islamic terrorism, since it funded Afghani Islamists fighting the Soviet Union. Oh, you meant the other way around.... ok, so the Islamists should be listed under "Capitalist terrorism"? 129.215.37.190 (talk) 09:52, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Orthodox Easter

Mykola Pymonenko, "Easter morning prayer in Little Russia", 1891, Oil on canvas, 133x193 cm, Rybinsk Museum-Preserve of History, Architecture and Art, Rybinsk, Russia.
Mykola Pymonenko, "Easter morning prayer in Little Russia", 1891, Oil on canvas, 133x193 cm, Rybinsk Museum-Preserve of History, Architecture and Art, Rybinsk, Russia.

Hi Pasha. Thanks for your greeting. In return please accept this small present. Here is the great piece of one of my favorite Ukrainian painters depicting this event in my homeland as he saw it a little over 100 years ago. Enjoy! --Irpen 08:01, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

(sings with loud voice) Khristos voskrese iz mertvich, smertiu smert poprav, i soushchim vo grobyech zhivot darovav! Christus verrezen uit de doden, door Zijn dood overwon Hij de dood, en schenkt terug het leven aan hen in het graf!--Paul Pieniezny (talk) 14:19, 30 April 2008 (UTC)