User talk:Wahib Frank

Thanks for coming to my talk page to help in writing a better encyclopaedia!

Because my native language wasn't English and it's often easy to misunderstand the tone of brief comments made under time pressure by a slow typist, I apologise in advance if I sometimes appear brusque or unhelpful or less than conciliatory. (People who meet me in the flesh usually find me a friendly old codger).

Please just address me as Frank and NOT Wahib (- everybody does in real life since some of the more unusual [for English speakers] names on my passport are invariably mangled by English speakers).
These references may assist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_name#Name_order and [1] and [2]

Welcome

Tasks: start a new article • add basic, wanted or requested articles • add definitions • add metadata • edit new pages

Welcome to the Citizendium! We hope you will contribute boldly and well. Here are pointers for a quick start, and see Getting Started for other helpful "startup" links, our help system and CZ:Home for the top menu of community pages. You can test out editing in the sandbox if you'd like. If you need help to get going, the forum is one option. That's also where we discuss policy and proposals. You can ask any user or the editors for help, too. Just put a note on their "talk" page. Again, welcome and have fun! --Ruth Ifcher 22:25, 17 April 2007 (CDT)W. Frank 19:43, 26 April 2007 (CDT)

Thank you for your welcome. I'll go and read http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Citizendium_Pilot:Start now before I get started.W. Frank 09:33, 21 April 2007 (CDT)

Henry the Navigator

Hi W. Frank, thank you for your help on Henry the Navigator. Regarding the question you made on the summary, yes sometimes I get a bit of a doubt about Afonso or Alfonso. The first is the Portuguese form and the second Spanish. What happens is that in English there is sometimes a tendency to use Spanish names to refer to Portuguese-related people and places (as in Cape Blanco/Cape Branco), I don't know why. In the Peter Russel biography about Henry he uses Afonso; Britannica [3] and Wikipedia use Afonso [4], so I think we can use Afonso too. --José Leonardo Andrade 10:24, 23 April 2007 (CDT)

Thank you for being so tolerant of my little cleanup - I think I'm of the generation that tends to spot piffling little trifles.

The English speaking peoples have never been famous as linguists, and this trend is likely to continue - although I am interested to see what happens in places like Singapore. Until and unless this particular Afonso/Alfonso becomes a household word in English, I think the choice you've made is probably the correct one.

It is strange that Spanish should be favoured - especially considering the ancient alliances with Portugal and ancient (and modern) enmities with Spain. W. Frank 07:31, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

Ireland

Good catch on the disambiguation page I created at Ireland. I just started here today - after two years at Wikipedia, it'll take me a while to get used to different naming conventions and suchlike. Regards, Anton Sweeney 19:36, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

I'll take the liberty of changing the relevant stubs on your user page if I may?

I hope we can co-operate in a more collegiate and congenial manner in trying to reflect the various referenced points of view in Citizendium articles - Ireland [the state(s) and the island] as article topics certainly have been prone to uncompromising and warring positions at WP - hopefully we can keep cooler heads. Feel free to pop in for a dram if you ever find yourself in Glasgow - I'm housebound right now. W. Frank 19:48, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the invite - I'm developing a taste for single malt Scotch (far superior to the vast majority of Irish whiskey!)

Actually, thinking about the naming of Ireland articles further - I'd rather neither of us did anything too hastily (no problem with the change of stub names, though).

Over on Wikipedia, here, you can see the endless "discussion" (its in the archives too!) over what article should go where when it comes to Ireland (the island) and Ireland (the state). The problem being that "Republic of Ireland" is officially a description of the state, which is officially named just "Ireland". The reason I picked the names I did here when creating Ireland as a dismbiguation page on CZ was to stave off that kind of interminable debate. I'm working on articles at the moment for both the island and the state (as you've noticed), so before moving them from my sandbox to mainspace when I have them in a fit condition, maybe its something we should talk about on CZ:Geography Workgroup so we can head off potential trouble before it arises? We effectively have a clean slate here on CZ, so a bit of planning and thought now will save a lot of time and debate later, hopefully. Regards, Anton Sweeney 20:14, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

I fully concur! W. Frank 20:17, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

Just noticed your 'PS' when I went to save. I wasn't aware of a change in the status of the "Republic of Ireland" being a description - I'll check it out at a more reasonable hour (work in the morning!), but if you have any links you could point me at, that'd be great. Regards, Anton Sweeney 20:14, 24 April 2007 (CDT)

Hi W. Please see the discussion here. Regards, Anton Sweeney 06:28, 26 April 2007 (CDT)

Timestamps

Will it stamp this with the CDT or UTC stamp? W. Frank 11:10, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

W. - if you click on the "my preferences" link on the menu, you will see a "Date and time" tab. An option there lets you specify to use your browser's time, and you can also put in an offset for BST. That should work and give you local timestamps. Anton Sweeney 11:16, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

Hmm. Apparently not :-( Anton Sweeney 11:18, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

Balky

Thanks for your cleanup work on John Logie Baird. Balky is what was meant; though the usage may be more common in the UK, it's known in the US as well:

balky. adj. balk·i·er, balk·i·est. 1) Given to stopping and refusing to go on: a balky horse; a balky client; 2)Difficult to operate or start: a balky switch; a balky engine. (American Heritage Dictionary).

Russell Potter 12:24, 25 April 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for that, Russell - and apologies for being lazy with the dictionary!W. Frank 23:47 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Signing posts

With reference to [[5]] please remember to sign your talk page posts - I sometimes forget myself. Derek Harkness 12:54, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

Yes, we're all human and, on that score, I'm a great human. Sorry, Derek!

Are you going to get cracking on a Glasgow article? W. Frank 13:08, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

Not planed to do Glasgow yet. I'm currently studying up on the Antonine and Hadrian Walls as the WP article on them are useless. Especially the Antonine one. The Scotland article needs major work too but every time I look at it I get depressed. Just too much to do. We need to have a think about what a Geography of X should include. Also the current article is segmented in the wikipedia style and not a coherent whole in the CZ style so I fear a near complete rewrite may be in store. Derek Harkness 13:40, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

Kingdom of Great Britain

The name Kingdom of Great Britain was not the first. It was the first after the union of parliaments but between 1649 to 1660 the title was 'Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland' during the Cromwell period. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was used after 1801 and then later adding 'Northern' to the mix.

To save explaining the whole history of the UK within the history of Scotland I combined the two Unions and just stated the end result. I think it keeps things simple without misleading anyone. Derek Harkness 13:29, 29 April 2007 (CDT)

Image:Juvenile rimu.jpg

Image:Juvenile rimu.jpg lacks documentation of its copyright status inclusive of the real name of the copyright holder or person who released it and must be deleted soon if not fixed. See Help:Images#Copyrights for how to fix the problem and document it. Please initiate solving this upon reading this message. You might also state steps being taken on the image's talk page. If you need additional help, just let me know. Also, please address the email I sent this morning as soon as practicable. Thanks! Stephen Ewen 21:57, 30 April 2007 (CDT)

Replied to your e-mail. I've e-mailed the photographer too; if you look at the same image in WP you'll see that she's released it to the Public Domain. W. Frank 10:48, 1 May 2007 (CDT)

Amundsen and Northwest Passage

Dear Frank -- many thanks indeed for having a look at Northwest Passage, and catching that typo! However, I don't think we need to footnote Amundsen's career -- or if we do, I'd rather add those sites to a list of "External sites" at the article's end. Commonly known and acknowledged historical facts don't need footnoting here on CZ, that's my understanding -- only if there is some controversy, or the fact is not widely known and might need documentation. Also, reference marks are preferred to in-article hotlinks.

I will create a links subsection, if you could move those items there I'd be grateful! They look like very useful resources. Kind regards, Russell Potter 10:37, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

Best if you do that, Russell - you're the expert and I only provided the Norwegian links and others in case you doubted that his family name is Amundsen. While we're on the topic of family names, please note that Mr Frank is wrong - just plain old Frank is better - take a look at the top of this my talk page for details Wahib Frank 10:43, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

OK, will do. The name's misspelling was a typo, but in any case I am glad you caught it! Sorry about your name as well, and again, many thanks for your work. Russell Potter 10:46, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

re: template

Hi, I'd put 4 tildes, theoretically the date could be meaningfull. Happy editing :-) --Aleksander Stos 16:33, 6 May 2007 (CDT)

Scotland

I notice you tinkering with the Scotland article. I think it needs much more radical alteration than just adding or changing the occasional word. I had been going through and rewriting entire sections at a time. I suggest you do likewise rather than just tweaking one word here or there.

The WP article is very good at massaging the ego of Scots but provides little useful information for the non Scot to use. For example, the detail that Scots still use pound notes when the English don't is way over played. To someone from outside Scotland, it's almost irrelevant. The article is describing the differences between Scotland and England rather than describing Scotland it's self. Radical bold editing is required here. Derek Harkness 00:23, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

Please continue your radical re-write, Derek. I'll do a bit of tinkering (copyediting, factual corrections and adjusting the balance here and there) when I have time. Your point about writing for the ignorant is well made -perhaps we need to state that full Highland dress (except at Weddings & Graduation ceremonies, etc) and bodies painted in woad are not usually to be seen. Perhaps we could also emphasise that the SNP is not a fascist party that advocates the repatriation of people not born in Scotland? Wahib Frank 08:52, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

I was hoping you'd help out some more. Even if it's just making some suggestions. There's too many aspects to this article for me to do all of them. I've been waiting since last year for someone to be interested on working on this one. Derek Harkness 13:12, 7 May 2007 (CDT)

Modena

Hi Frank, although I was born and raised in Montreal, yes, I do have a Modena connection as that is where my father was from. I do have cousins and an aunt there and I lugged back three litres of balsamic vinegar a year ago. :-) Zanasi is a relatively common name there. Luigi Zanasi 15:00, 7 May 2007 (CDT)