User talk:Dforest/2006-7

Just so you know...

Just so you know, that after a full year long recovery from the tse tse immune defective virus, The Hardest Questions in the World Section is back on my user page!! Don't be too quick to tire the section out too quickly, but make sure you pop round to make sure you get a good score on the leader's board.... Spawn Man 04:55, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

HQITWS

You are currently tied 2nd on the leader's board, being behind of 1st place by 3 points. Spawn Man 02:59, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Yoko Ono

I updated the article on Yoko Ono based on your suggestion on the article's discussion page. Please see my comments and the changes I made. Let me know if you feel these changes could be further improved. Thanks. JJ 23:08, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Gruyère (cheese) False Cognate

Thanks for your message. I replied to it on my discussion page. I suggest we take any directly related talk and place it on the Gruyère (cheese) discussion page. What's your view? CJ Withers 02:57, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Cask Ale etc

Hi! Thanks for the comments. The cask ale article was moved over almost entire from RateBeer. I made several changes, and then other people have made further improvements. Be Bold!

Keg beer. Hmmm. I have noticed that it is tricky dealing with some spellings, let alone words and expressions on a global basis on Wiki. Keg beer is tricky. In Britain the expression is long used and has a very specific meaning. Usage in America and Australia is - as far as I am aware - confined to the meaning: "beer from a keg" and perhaps wouldn't require explanation, other than a reference to the word Keg. What do you have in mind? SilkTork 08:59, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

RateBeer

Someone else mentioned RateBeer in relation to another article. I am an admin on RateBeer, and a lot of the material I bring over was written by me so there wouldn't be any problem. I try to change the material so that it is less personal and more encyclopedic, but don't always manage. Sometimes it takes a few attempts. I'll take a look at bottle conditioning. There is so much to do on beer. Given the part time nature of working on Wiki - a bit here and there, now and again during the day - it would take one person a year to sort out everything. But I have noticed that there are plenty of other people working. And that when an article gets to a certain size more people join in. That's the encouraging part. The communal, co-operative effort. The majority of edits are positive and good, and make an article more informative, helpful and readable. The very few edits which take an article backwards can easily be dealt with. And then there are the grey areas where people debate over the focus of the material. And that's great as well, because anyone can make an assumption which may have changed or be based on out of date or incorrect sources, so it is good to have assumptions challenged. I'm enjoying doing this. I started working on the beer articles because Wiki was getting a great reputation generally, but not for the beer articles. People within the beer community were making jokes. It seemed to me that a person could sneer, or a person could join in and do the right thing. But the impersonal style of writing is not my thing, so I don't think I'll hang around long after beer is sorted out. I prefer the greater freedom of journalistic articles. Cheers! SilkTork 08:09, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Ohsawa

I must confess I don't know much about this guy; he seems to have cultivated a bit of mystery about himself with all the different names, and then there are the other individuals who purport to have been part of the creation of macrobiotics. I just hope my addition about the French spelling was accurate... Badagnani 06:10, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Well there's no doubt there were people who came before and after him who influenced macrobiotics. Even Hippocrates used the term macrobios. Many of Ohsawa's principles come from Taoism and Buddhism & his followers did much of the work in making his teachings known. But for better or worse, he gets the lion's share of the credit for the Macrobiotic diet as it is known today. For more on the etymology, read this paper: [1] --Dforest 06:58, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

DYK

Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Tomitaro Makino, which you recently created, has been featured in that section on the Main Page. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

--Gurubrahma 04:16, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

"Spelt"

"Spelt" is deprecated by whom, and on what grounds? --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:55, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Spelt is very current in the Home of English. Used everywhere. :: Kevinalewis : ^{(Talk Page)} 16:30, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree; the claim that it is deprecated is simply false, I think, though it's used less often in the U.S. than in the U.K. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 17:43, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Really - Is "spelt" actually preferred in the U.K.? Does it differ at all in meaning or usage from "spelled"? I was under the impression it was falling out of use in general. Dforest 17:57, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

"Spelt" is probably more common than "spelled" (it's certainly at least as common); there's no difference in meaning. Back in 1965, in the second edition of Modern English Usage, Fowler noted that "spelt" and "spelled" had been equally popular at the time of the first edition, and that there had since een a general move towards the -t forms in those cases where both existed. That seems to have increased since. At the time of the first edition, for example, "dreamed", "kneeled", etc. had been more common than "dreamt", "knelt", etc., but now they're certainly less common. (The on-line version of the new Fowler's doesn't seem to include this issue, though it uses "spelt" not "spelled" throughout.)

Note also that there's a big difference between a word's being less used and its being deprecated. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 22:19, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

• I see that, despite the above, you're still trying to exclude "spelt" from the article, now by rewriting it in a clumsy form. Your edit summary claims that this is to bring it in line with the MoS; could you explain which part of the MoS justifies your edit? --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 22:35, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

From WP:MOS:

Cultural clashes over grammar, spelling, and capitalisation/capitalization are a common experience on Wikipedia. Remember that millions of people have been taught to use a different form of English from yours, including different spellings, grammatical constructions, and punctuation. For the English Wikipedia, while a nationally predominant form should be used, there is no preference among the major national varieties of English. However, there is certain etiquette generally accepted on Wikipedia, summarized here:

• Articles should use the same dialect throughout.
• If an article's subject has a strong tie to a specific region/dialect, it should use that dialect.
• If there's no strong tie, try to find synonyms that can be used in any dialect.
• If no such words can be agreed upon, the dialect of the first significant contributor (not a stub) should be used.

Clearly the article Laozi has no strong ties to a specific dialect. Thus it is generally accepted etiquette to find synonyms that can be used in any dialect. For another example, "fall" and "autumn" are both acceptable synonyms in U.S. English (although the former is more common). However, "fall" is often considered obsolete in Commonwealth English, so I generally avoid it in pages that have no strong tie to the U.S. dialect. In the spirit of compromise, I have changed "spelt" to "transliterated", which in the case of Laozi/Lao Tzu I believe to be more accurate. --Dforest 04:21, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

If you'd done this originally, instead of rewriting the summary so as to produce rather tortuous English, there'd have been less of a problem. "Transliterated" isn't a synonym of "spelt", but the principle's OK. --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 10:25, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

There is also romanised, which is a variant description of what we do from Chinese to English. --Fire Star 18:38, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that's better than "transliterated". --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 19:55, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Abraham on List of people known as father or mother of something

Could you please explain your objection listing Abraham as "Father of many" on List of people known as father or mother of something? As it is the original meaning of the name Abraham, it seems most appropriate. Dforest 04:30, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Ah, nevermind. Now I see that it wasn't you who reverted it. Dforest 04:42, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

As it happens, I agree that if Abraham is to feature on the list, it would be more useful as the father of monotheism than "of many (see Abrahamic religion)". People discover that the name "Abraham" can be translated as "father of many" within the first few words of the article on him.
Regards, David Kernow 11:07, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. I agree that "Father of monotheism" is an apt title. But as "Father of many" is the literal translation of the epithet of which he has been referred to for several millennia, I believe it is best to include both. Dforest 16:47, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

I've just rephrased the entry, in order to indicate that Abraham's name itself has the "father of something (=many)" meaning, unlike the other people listed (so far). Hope that's okay. Best wishes, David Kernow 17:08, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Abraham has of course been called the 'father of' many things; what should the criteria be for inclusion in the list? The thing I preferred about the previous version is that it included a link to Abrahamic religion, which discusses in some detail why he would be known as father of monotheism. Yes, the name itself means "father of many" but his original name was said to be Abram; thus I see it is an acquired epithet or title not unlike the others listed on the page. Regards, Dforest 04:13, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Have just rephrased Abraham's entry; what you think now?  It seems to fit the criterion of brief (mostly one or two-word) descriptions of each field in which someone is known as a "father". Regards, David Kernow 05:17, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Ya, red == good

CSS compliant too! :-) No deprecated HTML 3.x tags for this little black duck. - Ta bu shi da yu 08:21, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

ESL etc.

Hi Dforest. This is the first time I've tried to merge something and I hope I have done it correctly. The order of acronyms doesn't really matter to me, as long as readers can find the page (via redirects ) when they need to. You seem to know what you are doing; do you think everything is in order? BrainyBabe 18:00, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Partially true editorial comment

Greetings, you reverted my edits... apparently my browser doesn't handle unicode character... but rather than wholesale revert a previous edit try looking to see if any of the edit you are reverting is valid... there were vaild wikilinks that I added as well. Thanks EastCoastGhost 12:53, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Ah. Sorry about that. No harm intended. Dforest 13:32, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

BTW, I changed your metropolitan area link to New York metropolitan area, which seems more appropriate. Dforest 13:40, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Image uploaded by User:Tommyllew

Hello Dforest, sorry, I am unable to conclude that image is self created by the image page status. Will you clear my doubt please, so that it can be saved from deletion. Regards, Shyam ^(T/C) 12:07, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you Dforest, I really did not notice that. Now it has been tagged with {{GFDL-self}} as uploader did not mention any type of holding the copyright. Thanks once again, Shyam ^(T/C) 16:32, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

mantra

yes, we might want to say that the neuter is much rarer than the masculine. The dash in mantra- indicates the stem (while mantras vs. mantram give the nominative in each gender). Btw, does that quote really say "my hovercraft is full of eels"? regards, dab (ᛏ) 19:36, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Syllabic n

Hi User:Dforest, and thanks for inquiring about debate on syllabic n in Japanese. I located some discussion at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style for Japan-related articles/misc1#Syllabic n. This happened around the time I joined Wikipedia. There might also be earlier discussion --- I didn't see it, though. If the page had been merged from somewhere else, there might be an old talk page somewhere. Best regards, Fg2 20:45, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Invitation to Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan

As you are a member of the Japan-related topics notice board, I thought you might be interesting in helping out with our new WikiProject. We'd love to be able to tap into any particular expertise you may have in order to improve Japan-related articles here on Wikipedia. We look forward to working with you. (^_^) --日本穣 06:20, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

The WikiProject is just formalizing some of what the notice board was doing, making things easier to find and more familiar to those who've worked on other WikiProjects. --日本穣 05:04, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

So will it supercede the notice board? It seems like there would be a lot of overlap between them. Dforest 05:48, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

No, I don't think so. I think the notice board should continue to function as just that: a place for announcements and sharing of information. The project page is more for those actively working to improve articles and structure on the site. --日本穣 06:22, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Beer cats

Hi D. It has been suggested by User:BrianSmithson that the Beer and brewery categories should be renamed. The proposal has been supported by User:Syrthiss, and supported and expanded by myself. The notion is that the regional categories should follow the format of "Beer and breweries in Africa" /Europe/Asia/North America/South America/Oceania. "Brewers and breweries" could also be renamed "Beer and breweries by region". And all the countries should also be renamed (and merged if needed) as, for example, "Beer and breweries of Germany", "Beer and breweries of Britain", "Beer and breweries of Poland". The word in each case would be beer rather than beers to allow for general articles on beer culture in each region as well as individual beers.

Comments, suggestions, objections and simple votes to Wiki Beer Project SilkTork 15:12, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Revert

Quite right. Sorry I missed that. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 05:43, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Draught beer

Hi D. I've just noticed your ammendments to the Draught beer article. I do tend to agree with you that my focus on the more global understanding of the term was unbalanced, and that the references within the main article were too slight to be picked up on. So I have adjusted the intro to take into account the residual, although still quite widespread, use of the word as beer dispensed from a large container. I think it is more balanced and acceptable now, but please let me know what you think. SilkTork 06:35, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Welcome back! Good points. I've made some adjustments. See what you think. Cheers. SilkTork 08:58, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

HQITW is back!

HQITW is back & you are on the scoreboard!! Spawn Man 22:15, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

Essential Oils

Can you tell me where you how you found the information? I'm trying to edit Flavor and Essential oil and such information is invaluable. Sjschen 06:25, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Oh yeah, and pls reply on my talk page Sjschen 06:26, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

A lot of what we have been discussing has to do with food engineering and flavouring, and you seem to have keen understanding of the stuff. Aree you interested in helping out with the Flavor article? Sjschen 06:34, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

HQITWS is back!

With my virus gone, HQITWS is back! Spawn Man 22:57, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Poll

Hi Dforest. Your vote/opinion on brewery notability is requested here: [2] SilkTork 12:13, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Election day

You changed "national holiday" to "federal holiday." But isn't "national" the better descriptor? A "federal" holiday usually means a holiday designated by the federal government---only federal agencies would have to observe it. A "national" holiday, which has less of an official meaning, implies that it's a holiday for everyone in the nation. And that's what the advocates of the holiday are trying to accomplish---not just a day off for federal agencies and employees, but for everyone to go and vote. Theleek 15:59, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

You posted on my talk page a link to the national holiday article, which states that the term generally refers to "a statutory holiday enacted by a country to commemorate the country itself." True enough. My view is that the context of the article makes clear that an Election Day "national holiday" is not a Fourth of July or Bastille Day, but a "generic public holiday," which the national holiday article also acknowledges as a definition. In any event, I don't feel strongly enough to revert it; my view would be to stick with "national," but I leave it up to you. Thanks for your thoughts. Theleek 22:31, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Japan taskforces

In order to encourage more participation, and to help people find a specific area in which they are more able to help out, we have organized taskforces at WikiProject Japan. Please visit the Participants page and update the list with the taskforces in which you wish to participate. Links to all the taskforces are found at the top of the list of participants.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you for helping out! ···日本穣^{? · Talk to Nihonjoe} 08:30, 7 August 2007 (UTC)