Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:40, 16 August 2006

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Clean Up

Can you just clear up swearing, personal refeneces here: . The swearing is libelous and the personal references are uncalled for. These are both covered by Oversight. Thanks! 192.160.62.60 12:47, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages)

Hi you added some information to Camden - it was not in accordance with the Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages). I know you weren't the only culprit who didn't conform to the MoS on that page but I am trying to educate people about the style guide. Thanks--A Y Arktos\ 01:46, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I disagree with some aspects of that MoS page; and it is clearly stated only to be a guide. Charles Matthews 07:36, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Uganda YMCA

Heck, I'm probably wrong. Sorry. What do you want to do about Ugandan YMCA then? Dweller 10:36, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm actually typing this in the office of the Deputy Sec. of the UYMCA. Just hold off while I go on explaining to her! Charles Matthews 10:40, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

lol. No worries, I'm sitting on my hands. btw Uganda's a gorgeous country. I do my best for the tourism industry by telling everyone. Dweller 10:47, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Anglicanism and the Anglican Communion

Hello! I noticed that you have been a contributor to articles on Anglicanism and the Anglican Communion. You may be interested in checking out a new WikiProject - WikiProject Anglicanism. Please consider signing up and participating in this collaborative effort to improve and expand Anglican-related articles! Cheers! Fishhead64 23:31, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Highways

Is there a reason the ArbCom is not touching any pages other than the proposed decision? --SPUI (T - C) 01:33, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Contract bridge

Hi. You might be interested in participating in new Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Contract bridge. Regards, Duja 10:17, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Dan Sperber

Charles, a few of your user subpages link to this article, which has now been created as a one line stub. Please improve it if you have time, otherwise it will likely be deleted. Thanks. Harro5 00:29, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

I've done some work on this. --Charles Matthews 21:11, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Buffett and Buffet disambiguation

Buffet (disambiguation) and Buffett were merged per Misplaced Pages policy on disambiguation (WP:DAB). Hence your recent edits to those pages will be reverted.

If you wish to propose a change to WP:DAB, please head to Misplaced Pages talk:Disambiguation. Thank you. —MinorEdits 08:26, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, you have lost the links I added to Buffet (disambiguation), namely toLouis Buffet and Marie-George Buffet. Would you like to show me where exactly on WP:DAB it says it is policy to do that? 'Misplaced Pages policy on disambiguation' is a broad area, isn't it? And much of the manual page is at most guideline. But nowhere, I think, will you find trashing relevant links as policy. --Charles Matthews 21:17, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Maggie O'Sullivan

Hi Charles. I noticed you did a bit of editing on the Maggie O'Sullivan article. Anyone who enjoys Maggie's work can buy me a drink any day :)! The pub seat is pulled out and waiting for you to sit down. Cheers! SilkTork 13:03, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Jeremiah Burroughs

I just added a page for the Puritan preacher Jeremiah Burroughs, and I saw that one of your user pages links to him. I had trouble discerning if you would actually be interested in the article or not, but I thought I would mention it here just in case. --Flex 20:23, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for prompting me. The list of names is from a book I no longer have - possibly English Puritans of 1910 by John Brown. I look to have the red links gradually filled in, over time, as a test of the completeness of the coverage here over various areas. --Charles Matthews 08:12, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. I also added List of Puritans and have compared it against your list and added names as appropriate. (Some of the names on your list point to the wrong people or disambiguation pages, to influencers of the Puritans , and to their opponents, so not all were added.) --Flex 13:45, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, my lists have random stuff on them - they are magpie collections. --Charles Matthews 10:53, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Discussion at Village pump

Please have a look at Misplaced Pages:Village_pump_(policy)#Resolving_content_disputes. Please help me to find the answer to my questions. Thanks.

Alienus RfC

Charles, would you consider changing your vote to allow an RfC to go forward? Alienus does have many blocks, but a few recent blocks have been controversial, some of which were eventually overturned, hence the heated AN/I discussions. I do think an RFC is in order, as there are some legitimate concerns that need to be worked out. As a few users have noted, Alienus has been getting better as an editor, not getting worse. As such, I think it's premature to go straight into RFA. Al has indicated that he is willing to abide by the outcome of an RFC. I'd like to see that he is given that opportunity before resorting to arbitration. Tony has suggested he won't stand in the way of this proposal. ^^James^^ 23:22, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

There is clearly a problem of his not assuming good faith. --Charles Matthews 09:45, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

I understand that. But consider that a number of users have indicated he has been improving as an editor, not deteriorating. Also, Sophia has been making an effort to mentor him: I suppose there is a personal aspect to this as I have tried to play a mentor role to Al and he has responded as well as you could ever expect someone to do in the short time we have been in communication. He still needs to work on his civility occasionally but I genuinely think sometimes he has no idea how his comments will be taken by others. These are errors everyone in the world is guilty of and a successful community will educate people and help them avoid problems in the future. Throw in the international element of this project and you have even more issues as culturally we do approach things differently. In my mind, arbcom is a last resort, to be used when other avenues have been exhausted. Considering his recent improvements, and the questionable nature of the recent blocks (which would challenge anybodys good faith assumptions, imho), I hope you will reconsider. ^^James^^ 16:44, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, we'll see what comes out of the Fred Bauder suggestion of throwing this to an RfC. That could generate some discussion: I haven't yet had anything further out of Fred on it, but I'm certainly flexible if he thinks there is a good case. OTOH an ArbCom case could result in making a mentoring role official, which also has its points. --Charles Matthews 16:51, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

It seems it was all for naught, as Alienus has decided to leave rather than face arbitration. But thank you for considering my request. ^^James^^ 00:18, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Human-computer interaction, hyphen vrs ndash

Hi Charles, I don't know if you can help clarify a query. Human–computer interaction has reciently been moved to Human-computer interaction, I suspect that the original punctuation is correct, but I'm no expert on these things and you seem to know about these things. Comment welcome on Talk:Human-computer interaction. --Salix alba (talk) 10:41, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

I'd say the move was good Charles Matthews 14:54, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

A favor to ask

As I am in the US for te forseeable future, would you mind dropping by a local pub in Cambridge (preferably the Six Bells on Covent Garden, near Mill Road, but any pub will do) and having a Greene King Abbot Ale for me? Not a drop of Real Ale to be found in these parts, I'm afraid. Cheers. youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 16:39, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, no can drink alcohol ... Charles Matthews 13:07, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, then one of the following would suffice: have a proper curry from one of the curry houses on Mill Road, enjoy some good fish n chips, slather HP sauce on something, or have a proper Sunday lunch. If you find those to be impossible also, just look outside and appreciate the fact that Cambridge is one of the nicest places on earth and you are lucky enough to be there :) youngamerican (ahoy-hoy) 14:27, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Another favour?

Could you put {{WPCD}} on the talk pages of key maths articles for me? --BozMo talk 15:07, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Integer square root

Is it appropriate to include any fast, tested, working language-specific code to calculate the integer square root in the integer square root article? Iamunknown 20:04, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Sam Sloan announcement

"I did not 'attempt' to post 100 chess biographies on Misplaced Pages. I did post 100 chess biographies on Misplaced Pages. All but one of them is still there. I merely waited until , and Louis Blair were not looking and reposted them. I added a new biography yesterday and no I am not going to tell you where it is for fear that they will vandalize it again." - Sam Sloan (samhsloan@gmail.com, NNTP-Posting-Host: 68.199.110.255, 11 Jul 2006 05:23:13 -0700) http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.chess.misc/msg/f245a0650c22f010?hl=en

"My Biography of Dimitrije Bjelica" - Sam Sloan (sloan@ishipress.com, NNTP-Posting-Host: 68.199.110.255, Sun, 16 Jul 2006 19:09:34 GMT) http://groups.google.com/group/samsloan/msg/eefc91bb2aeda9d0?hl=en http://en.wikipedia.org/Dimitrije_Bjelica - Louis Blair (July 19, 2006)

Arbitration

Hello, please help with a case about alleged adminship abuse by JzG, which had been rejected by three arbitrators before an administrator warned the accused one and undid part of his actions. The conflict is going on and I do not know how to find a solution. The only arbitrator who has sinced voted on the case is one who in my eyes is in a conflict of interest as he did a very similar block on me in the past that I think was abusive and that was undone by Theresa as it lacked any evidence of wrongdoing by me. I had suggested a change to the blocking policy but the discussion about it has up to now been inconclusive due to a lack of participants. Socafan 02:11, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Residue Number System

I have a question on the Math Ref Desk that I'd like you to take a look at, since you're the only name on Residue number system's discussion page. Black Carrot 19:09, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Forest-fire models

Hi Charles—I noticed you moved the article on forest-fire models. I should point out the rationale for having the plural when I created the article: there are several of these models, although one in particular gets a lot of attention (the Henley-Drossel-Schwabl one).

You're a more experienced Wikipedian than I, so can you clarify the policy? —WebDrake 07:45, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

This is discussed at Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (plurals). There is a strong preference for the singular form. Charles Matthews 16:02, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Lyrics Policy?

Hi! I'm fairly new to Misplaced Pages and trying to learn from my mistakes. I posted a lot of sample lyrics on the Peter Alsop page, and you took them off because they were inappropriate. I realize now that I should not put on so many lyrics. But why did you remove all the lyrics? They were not the entire songs, only portions--single verses, or even sometimes a couple lines--and I think that portions illustrated Mr. Alsop's style sufficiently to add to the usefulness of the article.

I want to find out more about Misplaced Pages's policy, or the copyright policy in general, surrounding the use of lyrics, so that I can consider whether or not to reintroduce (far fewer) lyrics onto the page, or leave them off entirely, and so that I don't make a similar mistake in the future. Thank you. Kilyle 07:19, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

See Misplaced Pages:Fair use, under the Text section, for a delineation. Charles Matthews 15:58, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Lamech

Hey Charles, I saw you've edited Lamech, descendant of Cain before. I merged info from Lamech to it awhile ago because of the similarities between the characters, but I think "Lamech" is the most intuitive title for the article. Could you move it over?--Cúchullain /c 00:27, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Never mind, Ta bu shi da yu already did it.--Cúchullain /c 03:10, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Elliptic rational function

Hi Charles - Are you certain that Elliptic rational functions are Elliptical functions (names notwithstanding)? PAR 02:58, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

They involve Jacobi's elliptic functions, certainly, and are some type of division polynomial for the cn function. They belong in the category, therefore. Charles Matthews 05:59, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Gauss sums and Kummer sums

Hi Charles, how are you enjoying the membership of the ArbCom? I'm glad to see that you still have time left to work on the encyclopaedia according to your list of contributions. I'd like to ask you to cast a look at the new articles Gauss sum and Kummer sum. I don't know anything about advanced number theory, but a 1979 article in Invent. Math. on Kummer sums which you may remember from a previous life, seems to state that the expressions treated in Gauss sum are the same as those in Gaussian period#Gauss sums. I asked for clarification on User talk:Mon4#References (who wrote the articles), but that editor could only say that indeed, something seems to be not quite right. Thanks. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 12:34, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

The definitions aren't the best. The quadratic Gauss sum is kind of OK, since the definition is equivalent; but the Kummer sum one is wrong, I'd say. There is, as it were, a Fourier transform involved, and we have got on the wrong side of it; the quadratic case can mislead, since there is the phenomenon equivalent to the FT of a Gaussian again being Gaussian. Charles Matthews 13:07, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

For a moment, I was scared that you expected me to rewrite the article. Fortunately, you did so yourself; many thanks. I'm pleased to see that you put encyclopaedic value above modesty. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 05:08, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

M/z issue

Hi Charles, I wonder what made you vote against me on this issue? I still think that I am defending the official notation and that Nick is defending a minority POV. Could you give me some hint where, you think, I am wrong in this issue? --Kehrli 15:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I voted to hear the issue, not against you. Charles Matthews 15:56, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I did not realize this. I will try to get better educated on this arbitration procedure. Thanks. --Kehrli 16:01, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Aurelian Townsend

Hi Charles,

I saw in August 2004 you began the article on Aurelian Townsend, the English Poet. I would like to challenge the spelling of his name, which I believe should be Townshend.

Firstly, Aurelian's father has been identified as John Townshend, son of George Townshend who was the brother of Sir Robert Townshend (whose tomb is located in Ludlow Parish Church, spelled Townshend).

Secondly, Aurelian's descendents, known as the Hem-House Townshends which then splits into two main groups - The Townshends of Trevallyn House and the Townshends of Wincham Hall. All these descendants spell their name as Townshend.

Lastly, it is known that Aurelian Townshend received permission from Horatio Townshend to rename his step-son Robert Agborough to Robert Townshend (later Sir). FYI, Sir Horatio Townshend (1st Viscount Townshend) was the father of the more famous Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (a.k.a. Turnip Townshend) of Raynham Hall.

If, by some chance, you are interested in Aurelian Townshend you may also be interested in knowing that he was a colleague and Steward of Robert_Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury. This appears to relate to Turnip Townshend's neice, Letitia Townshend who married Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter of Burghley House).

In 1643 Aurelian Townshend, for some reason, was granted the freedom of privilege of Parliament.

Interestingly, Inigo Jones admired Aurelian's talents and used them in his court masques. This is especially interesting from an architectural point of view, for it is believed but not proved that Inigo Jones was the designer of Raynham Hall begun by Horatio Townshend's father, Roger Townshend, 1st Bt, in 1619.

Eltharian 15 August 2006

It turns out that Aurelian Townshend already existed, so I have merged the Townsend page into that. Charles Matthews 15:32, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Giano - pour encourager les autres?

The original quote is by Voltaire in Candide

Dans ce pay-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres. In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, to encourage the others.

-Applicable in many situations when a punishment far heavier than is warranted by the offense is imposed in a politically motivated, and fairly cynical, attempt to prevent others committing the same offense, and to deflect blame. copyvio'ed in haste from http://www.zanthan.com/itymbi/archives/000851.html

Is this really how you would have wikipedia treat a well respected, productive, 'non-problem' user? I urge you to rethink your vote in favour of banning Giano at Misplaced Pages:Requests for arbitration/Eternal Equinox/Proposed decision. Many thanks. --Mcginnly | Natter 15:12, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

It was a considered opinion. I thought about it for a day. I like Giano. That however would be a bad reason to go on easy on him. Charles Matthews 15:16, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Banning Giano, and Giano only (for I see you oppose banning Eternal Equinox) is an excellent idea, a real inspiration of Fred's, and I'm glad to see it getting some support at last. The users opposing it on the workshop page have surely reckoned without the in itself valuable effect of humiliating a conceited and touchy user (what do you mean, not a problem user?). That'll cut him down to size. Well, and make him (and me) leave the project, but what the hell, omelette, eggs, other pests like him will have learned a lesson for it. Anyway, to encourager EE is surely the main thing here. Bishonen | talk 16:35, 16 August 2006 (UTC).

Hang on. You can say what you like to me here. But a one-month ban is a holiday, a one year ban is a maximum sentence. Charles Matthews 16:40, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

But a good reason would be that the case should be judged on it's merits, and the principle of Equity should be applied. Especially in consideration of the thousands of excellent edits Giano has made for the encyclopedia, it seems anachronistic in the extreme to 'throw the book' at him for something which nobody really believes involved a serious death threat - merely a barbed satirical comment.--Mcginnly | Natter 16:38, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

You don't mean 'anachronistic', I think. Charles Matthews 16:40, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Alexander Grothendieck

I see that you are interested in this article. Can you please help with the editor who keeps trying to deny that Grothendieck and other mathematicians are Jewish?

I am very willing to help. I would not say that the evidence about Grothendieck's mother is at all clear. Cartier says one thing; but the AMS biography seems quite thorough and mostly points the other way. All we can do here is to summarise the evidence. That is why I made a separate section for the family background; under the NPOV policy we have to report fairly on this issue. Charles Matthews 15:31, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for being so fair. The point I have been bringing forward is that aside from Cartier's article, which the Grothendieck Circle states has biographical inaccuracies, other sources seem to say that Grothendieck's mother was Lutheran. However, there are several editors who have decided to side with whatever Jinfo says, which strikes me as dubious given the fact that Jinfo provides neither credentials nor the name of any real life individual behind the project. 128.148.123.7 15:40, 16 August 2006 (UTC)