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Revision as of 22:33, 30 May 2006 editRcpaterson (talk | contribs)1,793 edits The Scottish Reformation← Previous edit Revision as of 11:55, 31 May 2006 edit undoDave souza (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Administrators48,669 edits The Scottish Reformation: improvementNext edit →
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Thanks for your message. I am sorry to report that I begin to feel-after very few weeks of browsing and editing-the whole Misplaced Pages enterprise verges on the worthless. Please see what I have written on the talk page of the main ] page (Highest Quality?). It's a pity, really-but there are just two many people with perverse agendas, who care little for clarity or objective truth. I do not think that the area of Scottish history is unique in this regard, but it attracts more than a reasonable share. The piece I mentioned on the ] is atrocious not just in its factual inaccuracy but also in its banality, although my own editing was confined to matters of fact rather than style. I did try reversion, as you suggest, but it was promptly edited back again without explanation. The whole exercise then becomes pathetically childish, and I simply refuse to compromise myself any further. If people prefer ignorance, so be it. I do not want to give you the impression that I consider myself to be infallible; I am as capable of error as any other individual; but I always welcome reasoned challenges to any point I put forward. Sadly, apart from one or two people like yourself, it is not forthcoming. Thanks for your message. I am sorry to report that I begin to feel-after very few weeks of browsing and editing-the whole Misplaced Pages enterprise verges on the worthless. Please see what I have written on the talk page of the main ] page (Highest Quality?). It's a pity, really-but there are just two many people with perverse agendas, who care little for clarity or objective truth. I do not think that the area of Scottish history is unique in this regard, but it attracts more than a reasonable share. The piece I mentioned on the ] is atrocious not just in its factual inaccuracy but also in its banality, although my own editing was confined to matters of fact rather than style. I did try reversion, as you suggest, but it was promptly edited back again without explanation. The whole exercise then becomes pathetically childish, and I simply refuse to compromise myself any further. If people prefer ignorance, so be it. I do not want to give you the impression that I consider myself to be infallible; I am as capable of error as any other individual; but I always welcome reasoned challenges to any point I put forward. Sadly, apart from one or two people like yourself, it is not forthcoming.
] 22:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC) ] 22:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC)
:Rather against my own policy, I've been leaving messages in various places about this. It's a long haul on many articles, but some articles are definitely getting better, both in content and in sources. I'm hopeful that there enough editors with a positive approach to take on the task of keeping the children from damaging the sort of good work you've shown yourself capable of producing. ...], ] 11:55, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Revision as of 11:55, 31 May 2006

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handy hint: to keep discussions in one place, if you leave a talk message I'll answer it here, though I may put a note on your page if getting your attention seems important. However, if I leave a talk message on your page, and you respond here, I will respond on your page for consistency. Apologies if I fail to notice changes on your page, must trim my watchlist.

DYK!

Updated DYK query Did you know? has been updated. A fact from the article Reverend John Thomson, which you recently nominated, 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.

Nice nom! Thanks for bringing that to the DYK crew's attention. But what's up with you lot wearing tartan trousers??? ++Lar: t/c 01:29, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Ta, credit's all due to our prickly friend. As for the second point, never have worn tartan breeks, tho in my youth did wear a kilt on occasion. The what's up probably goes back to the visit of King George IV to Scotland, my we are a bunch of romantics! ;) ...dave souza, talk 17:51, 13 May 2006 (UTC)
Well the spiked one may have done some of the writing but I see your hand in there too, and you were the nominator (which is why you got the nombox not the creatorbox)... thanks again. And thanks for the pointer, I have made good use of it already. ++Lar: t/c 19:11, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
Hi, you seem to be a big contributor to Catherine Cranston, and I just wanted to tell you it reached GA status. Cheers, Highway 07:02, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks, the notice on the article talk page did show up on my watchlist, though I did a double take as at first glance just took it as another notice to do with DYK. Don't know who nominated it for GA, but many thanks to all concerned. Now have to add a bit about her success in promoting temperance having the unfortunate effect of luring in those who would have avoided pubs, making them into "tea sodden wretches" ..dave souza, talk 09:51, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Glencoe massacre

You've edited the Glencoe massacre page, saying the massacre took place in the old village. This is incorrect - the massacre took place at many different locations along the glen, as the article had previously stated. Lianachan 16:12, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Fair enough, what I wanted to do was to point out the old village location, which is where I understood it to have started. Will try to check how it's going soonish. ..dave souza, talk 18:15, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
Right. Have tried to make amends and also clarify the intro a little. Feel free to improve it further, apologies for my misleading edit, ...dave souza, talk 18:58, 14 May 2006 (UTC)
Cheers. You know, I have it at the back of my mind that the massacre didn't begin at the old village either - but I'm currently far from any of my books. I would have thought a better article to give the location of the old village would be the one about the current village, though. Lianachan 08:04, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
Ok, that was going on memory when the ugly visitor centre was on or close to the alleged site of the village and massacre. This started because I edited the Glencoe, Scotland article about the village to clarify the old village location, and noted that there was no link to that article on the Massacre of Glencoe page. There didn't seem to be any other obvious place to make the connection than in the intro, and it seemed to me that readers might welcome an early link to maps of the area. Doubtless there's going to be a better way of making these connections. dave souza, talk 09:51, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
I've edited both the massacre and village pages with accurate historical information about where events took place, and the history of the settlement. Your grid reference fell through the cracks, as there was never any settlement there. Some farmsteads nearby, but nothing approaching a village. The nearest to that GR is Achacon, slightly to the west, which is one of the places where blood was first spilled in the massacre - but it's never been called "Glencoe" or "Glencoe Village". Lianachan 20:09, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
Thanks: that's interesting information...dave souza, talk 20:13, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Why did you change my contribution, better why erase it? of course, it is possible you don't agree, but why don't you first discuss it, seems to me the most logical thing to doQuaggga

Your entry was blantant POV, the second time you've tainted the article in that way, and the statements you made fly in the face of all the historical, documented evidence. Lianachan 16:20, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
Quaggga, more to the point is why you ignored discussion of the paragraph in question and put it back to something remarkably similar to the paragraph you introduced on 20 April 2006. You're welcome to put the case for your paragraph on the talk page, preferably with citations for an analysis that appears contrary to the historical record. ..dave souza, talk 16:49, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Dave, thanx for your comments, i'll try to do so, Lianacan, it is obvious to me you're not a campbell fan, but why can't you see the views of the other side. And a pov, blababla, i wrote it was a just a Possibility, read first, judge later Quaggga

I don't believe I've made any anti-Campbell comments anywhere that would cause you to leap to a bizarre (and wildly inaccurate) conclusion like that. My views on the massacre of Glencoe are a result of many years of study of the history and available documentation. Your "possibility", as I said earlier, flys in the face of all of that evidence. But all of that is irrelevant - your edits are not suitable for inclusion in an encylopedia, and your methods of putting forward your views are borderline vandalism. Lianachan 17:10, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Islamic creationism

Hi. I saw that you started that article and so I assume that you're interested in the subject, and maybe would like to help out at Fethullah Gülen, where his disciples deny his connection to the ID movement, and keep removing references to the subject. Azate 06:40, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Ouch. It's really a peripheral interest, and I'm rather bogged down just now, but looking at the links you've given on the talk page it seems to me that he's anti materialism and anti Darwinism, and so a creationist who latched on to the ID bandwagon in 2004. Categorisation seems to me a side issue, I can add a comment, but dealing with persistent POV editing by the faithful is just a long struggle. If it is approaching an edit war, Misplaced Pages:Resolving disputes points the way forward. ..dave souza, talk 09:29, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Darwin Pic

Hey, thanks for editing the Darwin pic. I knew there was some rule of thumb about which way a pic of a person should face the text it references (like yearbook photos aren't supposed to face the crease, or something), but I couldn't remember them. I tried flipping the picture so that it faced the text, but since the pic was a close up, it almost looked like he was "reading" the text about himself. I thought it looked weird, so I kept him facing outwards. Now that you changed it to a zoomed out pic, I think i do like it better facing the text. comment by GuildNavigator84

Yeah, glad you like it. It just felt a bit uncomfortable looking out, though it's a nice close up. The photo now is by Julia Margaret Cameron who's noted as a photographer. ..dave souza, talk 23:29, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

self-organization

are you sure that erasing closed system and referring to isolated system makes sense? have you read the differing definitions? -- Kku 09:23, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

no, i'm not sure, but as discussed at Talk:Self-organization#Self-organization vs. entropy to me it didn't fit. Since a closed system can exchange heat and work, but not matter, with its surrounding, then it can thus exchange entropy, and so logically the paragraph could read with more accuracy but less clarity for the newcomer: "It would appear that, since isolated systems cannot decrease their entropy, only open systems or closed systems can exhibit self-organization. However, a closed system can gain macroscopic order while increasing its overall entropy. Specifically, a few of the system's macroscopic degrees of freedom can become more ordered at the expense of microscopic disorder." From discussion at talk:Evolution it seems that the terms isolated and closed systems tend to get used interchangeably at times. please clarify. ..dave souza, talk 11:18, 24 May 2006 (UTC) `

The Scottish Reformation

Mr Souza I left a message for you on the Church of Scotland talk page. Very best wishes RCP Rcpaterson 10:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your message. I am sorry to report that I begin to feel-after very few weeks of browsing and editing-the whole Misplaced Pages enterprise verges on the worthless. Please see what I have written on the talk page of the main Misplaced Pages page (Highest Quality?). It's a pity, really-but there are just two many people with perverse agendas, who care little for clarity or objective truth. I do not think that the area of Scottish history is unique in this regard, but it attracts more than a reasonable share. The piece I mentioned on the Auld Alliance is atrocious not just in its factual inaccuracy but also in its banality, although my own editing was confined to matters of fact rather than style. I did try reversion, as you suggest, but it was promptly edited back again without explanation. The whole exercise then becomes pathetically childish, and I simply refuse to compromise myself any further. If people prefer ignorance, so be it. I do not want to give you the impression that I consider myself to be infallible; I am as capable of error as any other individual; but I always welcome reasoned challenges to any point I put forward. Sadly, apart from one or two people like yourself, it is not forthcoming. Rcpaterson 22:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Rather against my own policy, I've been leaving messages in various places about this. It's a long haul on many articles, but some articles are definitely getting better, both in content and in sources. I'm hopeful that there enough editors with a positive approach to take on the task of keeping the children from damaging the sort of good work you've shown yourself capable of producing. ...dave souza, talk 11:55, 31 May 2006 (UTC)