User talk:ZorkFox

Welcome[edit]

Hello, ZorkFox, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you are stuck, and looking for help, please come to the Wikipedia Boot Camp, where experienced Wikipedians can answer any queries you have! Or, you can just type {{helpme}} on your user page, and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Mushroom 16:06, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Mushroom, and thank you for the welcome. I have a question regarding my watchlist. One of the pages I watch, Shadow of the Colossus, had a large number of edits made to it overnight, but none of those edits show on my watchlist. Why would this happen? The edits were made by an anonymous user, but my watchlist contains contributions by other anonymous users, so it seems unlikely that would be cause for exclusion. I am not set to filter minor edits, and none of the edits have been marked as minor anyway. Ideas? I hope you enjoy your wikibreak. —ZorkFox 01:50, 3 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Replies on Shadow.[edit]

Yes I know that my sentences are hard to read sometimes thank you for pointing this out to me, I will work on it. Placing things is different issue, Im not going to wait on a talk page for a reply on asking. where to put 2 to 3 sentences (a entirely different section I could wait for) , but correct I should try to make things flow. Dont you agree that it was quite shocking how the fictional language wasnt metioned? -- Psi edit 20:21, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also I thought that this a little redundant. the changes in his degrading appearance have reached their apex.

to this near the end

His appearance is more ghastly than ever: his eyes are glowing, his voice is severely distorted, his hair is now dark blue, and horns have sprouted from his head.

The latter is more descriptive and shows how his appearance has changed the fisrt sentence should be removed right? -- Psi edit 20:30, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know that "shocking" is quite the right word to use in regards to the fictional language. I didn't know it was fictional until you mentioned it; it sounds like garbled Japanese to my untrained ear. I'm glad you added that. About the description of Wander's appearance, I find the first version to be more concise (which is important in an article that is fast becoming too long) and adequate. I realize there is a spoiler tag at the top of the story section, and that anyone reading it before playing has already ruined part of the game for themselves, but it seemed like a good idea to me to leave it a bit more vague, so as to leave them something in the surprise category, even if only a minor bit. I think it's enough to say that the changes have reached their penultimate level (before Dormin possesses Wander). Besides, adding the description in this place makes the description later in the section redundant (when Wander is confronted by Emon and his appearance is revealed in its complete horror). I say we leave it alone.

—ZorkFox (Talk) 19:52, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well whats kind of funny is that the language is sketchy "backwards" Japanese. In regards to the appearance sentence: ill leave it to you. -- Psi edit 20:04, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, Psi. I really think it's better this way. Do you speak or read Japanese? How did you come by the information that the language is invented, other than that it sounds funny? :)

—ZorkFox (Talk) 20:12, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hah! You complement me. actually Im just beginning to learn Japanese. I found a link a site that gave an explanation of Ico's language I put that link on Ico's article. -- Psi edit 22:25, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Signature glyph[edit]

Hi, ZorkFox; thanks for your message! It's a letter in Bengali, the language of my people (see Bengali script). I've always found both the language and the script quite beautiful. I'm glad you like it and you're free of course to use something yourself. There's no "z" sound in Bengali; the closest character would be জ. (Or let me know if you would like a different one.) — Knowledge Seeker দ 22:40, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

History of Earth[edit]

Thanks for your edits at History of Earth, which are a real improvement on what was there. I still have trouble with American English (I'm British), giving rise to inconsistences like "co-operation" for "cooperation" and "towards" for "toward". But what about "alternately" in "Colonization of Land"? It means something very different in this country.

What is your preferred usage of the dash? I've been doing <text><space>ndash<space><text>, but you prefer <text><mdash><text>, as does Knowledge Seeker. Chapter & verse is here.

Under "Civilization", you say that "the concept and practice of agriculture" began, but this is not so. Hunter-gatherers began the concept and practice; farming people made them systematic (see Colin Tudge: Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers -- How Agriculture Really Began, Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1998, ISBN 0297842587). The original phrase is ambiguous to the point of being wrong; can we find a better way?

You have introduced commas into BCE dates: can this be right? Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(dates_and_numbers)#Dates_of_birth_and_death.

I'd be very glad if you'd put this article on your watchlist and help out with the polishing. Many hands make light work! Thanks again.

P.S. I see you are a Jack Vance fan. The Eyes of the Overworld is one of my favourite books. Extremely funny in parts. -- Puffball 11:25, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Puffball! My usage of the em-dash is from a stylistic standpoint: I find the en-dash to be too short (people think it is just a hyphen) and so it doesn't set off a parenthetical expression as well as the em-dash. Also, I leave off the surrounding white space because a renderer (browser) should know that it is all right to break a line after a dash, whereas if you place white space around it, the renderer may decide to break before the dash, which is inappropriate. Or, so I have been taught.

About alternately versus alternatively, I see that you are correct and I have used the wrong word. Please put it back to "alternatively." (I'm at work right now and don't have much time for editing.)

About agriculture, the definition I have says, "The science, art, and business of cultivating soil, producing crops, and raising livestock; farming." To me, hunter-gatherers have no such codified method of obtaining their food: they are dependant on what they can find, kill, forage, or scavange. This would seem to indicate that hunter-gatherers did not use agriculture per se. On the other hand, I don't have access to the book you referenced and may be operating on an obsolete notion. —ZorkFox (ষTalk) 21:28, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh! And the addition of the commas to the years BC was merley an error. I'll see to it. In retrospect, it's obvious I shouldn't have added them. After all, I wouldn't dream of adding one to the year 2000. (Though I'd probably start using them if the numbers climbed past 9999 in either direction.) —ZorkFox (ষTalk) 01:48, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I took care of "alternately," too. By the way, there's nothing (technically) wrong with using "towards" or "co-operation," it's just they're not the preferred methods. I find using "toward" is cleaner, especially when speaking aloud (or reading aloud) and helps keep one from running one's words together. :) —ZorkFox (ষTalk) 02:00, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your speedy response ... OK, let's standardize on spaceless emdashes for the article. I'll have a think about the agriculture thing. One of the interesting disciplines about this article is the need to fit an amazing amount of information into a small space, while keeping it in line with orthodox science. Tudge, a Darwinist, argues convincingly that hunter-gatherers began to protect food resources long before the conventional beginnings of farming. They also influenced the landscape very profoundly by using fire to flush game, which led to the use of fire to control the environment in a more deliberate way, i.e. to encourage species which were tasty or easy to catch. His views are more or less accepted now. -- Puffball 09:54, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Re: Gratitude[edit]

No problem; it's my job! Yikes. That behavior is quite inappropriate. I'll keep an eye on him. — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:41, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Orphaned fair use image (Image:Wander-garden.jpg)[edit]

Thanks for uploading Image:Wander-garden.jpg. I notice the 'image' page currently specifies that the image is unlicensed for use on Wikipedia and may only be used on Wikipedia under a claim of fair use. However, the image is currently orphaned, meaning that it is not used in any articles on Wikipedia. If the image was previously in an article, please go to the article and see why it was removed. You may add it back if you think that that will be useful.

If you have uploaded other unlicensed media, please check whether they're used in any articles or not. You can find a list of 'image' pages you have edited by clicking on the "my contributions" link (it is located at the very top of any Wikipedia page when you are logged in), and then selecting "Image" from the dropdown box. Note that any fair use images not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. Gay Cdn (talk) (email) (Contr.) 14:50, 15 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Invitation to Meetup/Seattle6, a focus group[edit]

Hello. I'm part of a research group at the University of Washington (Seattle campus), and my group is reaching out to Wikipedians in the Puget Sound area. We're hosting a focus group designed to gather information on what Wikipedians would like to know about each other when interacting on Wikipedia. Our end goal is to create an embedded application that helps people quickly know more about others' history and activity on Wikipedia, and we feel our design will be much more useful if it's based on insights of users like you.

I'm hoping that the chance to help out local researchers, to engage in lively face-to-face discussion with other Seattle Wikipedians, and to contribute to Wikipedia in a new way will entice you to join us. The session lasts 2 hours and snacks are provided. Sessions will be held on UW Seattle campus - directions will be sent after registration. Your contribution will be greatly appreciated!

Willing and able to help us out? RSVP here. Want to know more? Visit our user talk page . Please help us contact other local Wikipedians, too! Commprac01 (talk) 01:56, 15 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

NEW CATEGORY PAGE[edit]

Hello Washington-user!! What do you think of this category?
Either on a scale of 1-10 or with commentary.
Let me know through the "Special:EmailUser/" section. #TTiT# 13:00, 14 August 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by The-Traveller-in-Tacoma (talk • contribs)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message[edit]

Hello, ZorkFox. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

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