User talk:Sblachly

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[edit] regarding your edits to Harry Potter

Please refrain from changing British spelling to American English spelling in articles related to the Harry Potter series. Spelling and terminology in such articles is generally kept in line with the variant of whichever country the subject is best associated with. Because the Harry Potter series is by a British author, British English needs to be used, such as using S's instead of Z's for words such as "organisation" and "ou" in words like "favourite." Please see American and British English differences for more information. Thanks! AshleyScripter [talkback|contribs] 17:12, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

In response to your message on my talk page: Both Wikipedia:Manual of Style#National varieties of English and WP:ENGLISH might be helpful in this case. AshleyScripter [talkback|contribs] 21:17, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Harry Potter

Hi, as I understand it the way dates are shown depends on a reader's preference settings and will default to whatever location they're in; so there is no need to format them in any particular way, and I have reverted your changes. Thanks for your help, however. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 18:26, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

“ In June 2005, the Arbitration Committee ruled that when either of two styles is acceptable, it is inappropriate for an editor to change an article from one style to another unless there is a substantial reason to do so. Edit warring over optional styles is unacceptable. If an article has been stable in a given style, it should not be converted without a style-independent reason. Where in doubt, defer to the style used by the first major contributor. ”

On the basis that this is policy approved at one of the highest levels here, and you have given no substantial reason to make these changes, I will revert them. Please feel free to disagree elsewhere. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 19:04, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

  • Your edit original note reads thus: I edited the dates so a to reflect the british way of arranging them (31 October as opposed to October 31) and for consistency. The second part of this, which is a substantial reason for changing the format, was somewhat lost behind the first, which is not a substantial reason if the date formatting is stable. Hence I saw no reason for the edits; I apologise if I missed that, but it didn't stand out and in this my opinion was coloured by the fact that it had previously been pointed out that you had changed spellings of some words to American English rather than British English, which is the standard for all Harry Potter articles.
  • Communication between editors on Wikipedia is important, and that's why we have Talk pages; it is easy to assume that if you don't get a reply, your comment is somehow considered unworthy rather resulting from than a lack of experience. However, most editor's sigs have a "Talk" field which you can just click on to go straight to their Talk page; adding a new topic (at the bottom of the page) is as easy as clicking on the "+" sign at the top of the page, and your signature can be added by clicking the button at the top of the edit box.
  • With regard to the second revert of your edits by me, the Diff I saw only highlighted an apparently incorrect spelling of "disheveled", which on checking I now find is a correct version; my apologies for that. However, there was also a missing space, which I have now added.
  • As to your reference to that reversion as "revenge" and "petty", I think you might have failed to assume good faith there, because you didn't question it, and indeed, your initial edits to my talk page did not make any reference to that.
  • As for edit-warring, I've seen tons of it, and one reversion does not an edit war make. Edit-warring to me is a pig-headed refusal to accept content changes using consensus, rather than making an honest mistake.

Regards. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 20:09, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, the back and forth over the dates stops now. English spellings are being used. Its faily consensus that we use the American dating scheme. If you have issues with it, take it to the discussion page, and make your case there. - Arcayne (cast a spell) 21:36, 20 January 2008 (UTC)