User talk:Monkeyblue

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I have a busy real life. Don't expect a replies in a hurry. _{06:29, 1 June 2008 (UTC)}

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[edit] Muslim

I'm afraid that I must take exception to your edit. First, that you did not really wait to see much discussion about your proposed change. While waiting some number of days is much better than many people do, it is not the same thing as waiting for some amount of discussion. As far as I can see, there was only me objecting at length, and then one other person saying 'yep, do it!'.

Second, I really still don't see much justification for a *change*. You say

I feel that there should be system.

and yet I feel you didn't respond to my pointed questions "why?" and "then why not translate every God-related word in every article?"

If I may give another example. Look at the article Schadenfreude. Now click on What links here on the left 'toolbox' area. See all the uses of this 'non-English' word? Here is a German word, but that has a lot of additional meaning beyond a literal meaning. It has additional cultural meaning and is used as a shorthand word for all that that article talks about. And then there's angst and smorgasbord and many dozens of words, borrowed/added from other languages, that mean more than their literal meanings, by virtue of their cultural meanings and associations.

Look at the article Empathy for example, where they use the word and also give the main meaning

... schadenfreude (taking pleasure in the pain of another entity) ...

They don't replace the magical word with a boring literal meaning, but rather continue to use this word with its rich meanings. If people want to know more about the word they can click on the link. In the meantime they have a basic definition.

I just don't understand the desire to make the language poorer, by taking away 'difficult' words. We grow by learning new words and their associations, not by discarding them. If you want to simplify English for people that find it difficult, please see the Simple English Wikipedia (you can start at my page there, where I make obvious that I know English is difficult, but also that some people appreciate that the fact that it isn't too simple.

'Allah' has additional meanings and associations beyond just 'God'. When you delete the word 'Allah' you are taking away some of the meanings and associations needed by the article as used in the text.

Please reconsider. I think you have reducing ambiguity confused with simplification. Replacing an ambiguous word or phrase with something unambiguous is a "good thing". Editing a text to make it clearer is a "good thing". Simplification is not always a good thing, when it starts to take away things from the article.

Shenme 03:00, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Muslim

Excuse the order, kept adjusting things and they all went out of order.

I'm sorry. How am I meant to wait for discussion when nobody is commenting. I replied to your comment and received no return comment. What was I meant to assume? Everyone disagrees with my idea because there was nothing further said?

If you felt that I didn't respond to your question then why didn't you tell me?

Allah — The main reason for the change is because Allah is just an/the Arabic word for God. This is not any specific god, just God. Whether or not it is related to Islam, Christianity, Judaism or another religion. Why would the latter just use God rather than just using the original words, their god-words carry significance too.

Arabic Christians, when praying, use Allah.

Removing Allah from the article will not reduce the quality of the English Language. It highlights (or adds) another connection to the word God. I do not understand the need to separate God from Allah, they should be interchangeable. Why not use the native term?
Loanwords — Loan words are "usually words for exotic concepts or ideas." God is not an exotic concept or idea.

Monkeyblue 03:45, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I understand that you did wait, and that no other comments were forthcoming. I had really hoped that other people would comment, even trying to draw attention to the 'issue' (I put that in quotes because I understand it is hardly a _big_ issue). Unfortunately, people are too busy arguing in other articles to worry about something this small.

But actually, that is a big part of my underlying concern. Let me clarify. If you look at the history and ongoing conflicts of other articles involving Islam, you would see, I believe, an ongoing low-level assault on many aspects of these articles. In particular I point to Muhammad, and its talk pages Talk:Muhammad, Talk:Muhammad/Mediation and especially the issue Talk:Muhammad/images. While I have come to believe that most (if not all) of the editors wanting changes believe they have defensible and by-policy reasons for each change, I feel that the sum of the changes damage the encyclopedia's coverage of these important areas for the reader.

Most worrisome to me, I believe that the sum of the changes could easily be used to "show obvious evidence" of the bias against Islam/Moslems/etc. within Wikipedia. Each change is defensible, but I wonder if it is not reasonable to look at the result of all of them and conclude "Wikipedia is in the hands of anti-Islam forces". (or some such inflammatory statement)

And so I bothered you over your small change. Because though I try to avoid troublesome areas (I'm not a Miss World candidate and so can't hope to "contribute to world peace") I get frustrated at what I see when I stumble onto raging controversies like which and how many representations of Muhammed to put into that article. (And I had never heard of the term 'aniconist' before, so I guess it is educational)

I didn't want to bother you too much. I've explained my worries, and you've explained your reasonings. We can wait for other discussion. It is merely a surface-level change. I just worry about what might be read into it on a deeper level. But that's why they like me at work - I worry so much, no one else has to. (and they sleep better for it!) Shenme 04:24, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I really don't mind. I just stumbled over Allah/God (what I would call a quirk) in the article. I didn't expect there to be much discussion, I would either have 'NO NO NO' yelled at me or no-one would care. I thought it would just be a visual adjustment and that would be it. I can understand where you are coming from. Revert. Monkeyblue 04:35, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

As a side thought, Christians don't call God Allah. Sure they can mean the same thing & Allah indeed is the Muslim "God", but you'd never see the word Allah replacing God in the Bible, nor the English word God replacing Allah in the Koran. Thanks, Spawn Man 05:49, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

English Christians don't call God Allah. Arabic Christians call God Allah. If it were a Arabic bible then I suspect that it would have Allah. The Koran like the Torah is always used in its original tongue (I think).

[edit] Welcome to WikiProject Kayaking!

Hi there! I would just like to extend a warm welcome to WikiProject Kayaking. We have lots of open tasks if you would like to help out. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask on my talk page. Cheers, Bennyboyz3000 21:50, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Overlinking in Popcorn (disambiguation)

Just a note, no big deal - but you might want to take a look at Overlinking, especially the second bullet, characterizing overlinks as "Links that have little information content, such as linking on specific years like 1995, or unnecessary linking of common words used in the common way, for which which the reader can be expected to understand the word's full meaning in context, without any hyperlink help"; and Wikipedia:Manual of Style (disambiguation pages) advising in favor of "avoiding distracting information, such as extraneous links (internal or external)". Regards. --CliffC 18:22, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm still pretty new. Thanks for the tip. Monkeyblue 23:53, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Wikipedians

Umm...you still used weasel words. Who in particular is "a faction of users"? bibliomaniac 1 5 03:32, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedians' are the people who write and edit articles for Wikipedia. Some people might think that Wikipedist would be a more appropriate name, as an encyclopedist is someone who contributes to an encyclopedia. "Wikipedian", though, suggests being part of a group or community. So in this sense, Wikipedians are people who form The Wikipedia Community. A faction of users believe that Wikipedistian is the most appropriate even though it is almost impossible to say. -- Wikipedia:Wikipedians

Note the "Some people ...", then [my edit] "a faction of ...". This is not an encyclopaedic article, it is humourous (or supposed to be). Reverting my edit was a little harsh.

The weasel words are there, one can ignore them. Thanks, Monkeyblue 03:42, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I understand. At least I reverted the Homo wikipedophilus vandalism. bibliomaniac 1 5 03:48, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. The wikipedophilus link was well spotted. Monkeyblue 03:50, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipaddle

Hi,

Sorry I have been so slow to the message you posted ages ago on wikipaddle (http://wikipaddle.org/wiki/Forum:Wikipaddle_license%3F). The license was chosen for similar reasons to that as wikitravel, however I think it would be useful to have the wiki under the same license as wikipedia, which would allow content to be used across wikis. I do not know how to relicense the wiki but if you have any ideas on how to do it then please say. I think if I emailed everyone that signed up to the wiki and said we are relicensing it under GFDL in 30 days and gave them time to object or remove their content if the wanted that would be ok? Any other ideas? --George Drummond 10:42, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

I think that the change in policy would have to start with a vote of members. Before any licensing changes take place. If the license change is accepted then you should be able to start the re-license. I am currently looking into the proper way to change the license if the change has been accepted. Thanks, Sorry about the delayed response, Monkeyblue (talk) 09:38, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Adoption

I'll gladly accept your offer! However, I already know most of the basics, I'm just looking to participate in something other than WP:UBX. So maybe the adoption period will be short, and a little more casual than other adoptions. The Userboxer^Complain/_ubx 15:14, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Sounds great. Monkeyblue 10:51, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

So, is there anything to Wikipedia besides discussions, and articles? Or is there a very, very strict policy against non-wikipedia-related affairs going on at Wikipedia. Also, what can a person, like me, with little or no knowledge that is not already in Wikipedia, so to help the project? --The Userboxer^Complain/_ubx 21:13, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

What are you interested in? I am currently working through Freedom of speech & Freedom of speech by country mainly referencing and rewriting. Pretty much, contribute to what interests you, whatever that is. Monkeyblue 13:16, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll start working on geography-related articles, particularly on Canada, but I'm a geography nut anyways, so I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to help out as I can. The Userboxer^Complain/_ubx 19:03, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Main Page Alternative

Hi, please check out (and maybe iron out the bugs) of a new Main Page Alternative that I made. I am really rather new at this (strict syntax guidelines are not my thing), but after several hours of trying, fixing and threatening to smash my computer, I finally completed a sort-of-buggy version. Thanks. The Userboxer^Complain/_ubx 20:37, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Looks great! I have made some quick CSS fixes. TODO;:

For usability reasons all widths should be as relatives (%, em, pt) but this does not need to be done for ages.
I'm not at a MS computer so I can't see how my changes look in IE.

Great effort, Monkeyblue 14:07, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

Great! Whatever you've done, its sure causes less confusion, especially with the extra lines of tabular code that I put in. I'll fix the rest of the pages to conform with the first one sometime within the next few days. Thanks again, The Userboxer^Complain/_ubx 19:10, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

I've tested the alternative in IE, it works pretty well, except that there is no longer any gap between the header section and the tabs. I'll see if I can fix it with the little skills I have. The Userboxer^Complain/_ubx 14:06, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Userpage

happy to help :} ♥Fighting for charming Love♥ 14:36, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome to VandalProof!

Thank you for your interest in VandalProof, Monkeyblue! You have now been added to the list of authorized users, so if you haven't already, simply download and install VandalProof from our main page. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or any other moderator, or you can post a message on the discussion page. Daniel 05:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Talk:Christianity

Thanks for the message left on my talk page. The reason I reverted the edit was it does not fall under the heading that it was under and it seems like the statement was not a discussion topic - seems like some random statement by somebody. However, I am happy for you to revert the edit =) Thanks. --Cyktsui 13:40, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for understanding. Monkeyblue 22:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re: Welcome to Wikipedia message

Oh, thanks for pointing that out. I no longer contribute regularly to Wikipedia, and now use it for reference only, so I don't use the templates any more. To that end, you're welcome to change the template ad-lib or make a derived version if you want. Thanks for letting me know. haz (talk) 14:42, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Editor review

I reviewed you. If you have any questions or comments about your review, or anything else, please contact my talkpage. Cheers, w p k t sfs 03:15, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] You helped choose carbon dioxide as this week's WP:ACID winner

Thank you for your support of the Article Improvement Drive.
This week carbon dioxide was selected to be improved to featured article status.
Hope you can help.

Spamsara 22:14, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 2007 tour de france winner

AMAZING! Wow I was about to do exactly the same thing with swapping the image on exactly the same minute. Wow!!! How strange ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you?" Contribs} 12:07, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Who'd have thought! Monkeyblue 06:12, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Freedom of Speech vs personal policy.

Hi Monkeyblue,

I wrote a little piece on the freedom of speech page about wikiscanner. Because I seriously think this is an issue. You deleted it with this vague incrowd comment: Oh no! Wikipedia's cabel strikes. This is not a discussing, we state what we can refference. I saw your page and think it is against your own personal policy of being friendly as stated on this page. That's too bad. I am serious about the dangers of Wikiscanner and think it should be discussed. Also, maybe especially on Wikipedia. Any place here you suggest for commenting on Wikipedia and the freedom of speech? Thanx 3wisemen —Preceding unsigned comment added by 3wisemen (talk • contribs) 04:02, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

I personally do not think that it is a notable issue. I am happy to be convinced otherwise. Please remember that all content should be citable. Thanks, Monkeyblue 08:52, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Backlog at Category:Wikipedians seeking to be adopted in Adopt-a-user

There is currently a backlog of 52 users at Category:Wikipedians seeking to be adopted in Adopt-a-user. Please consider offering adoption to one or more of these users. Don't forget to change their {{adoptme}} template to {{adoptoffer|Monkeyblue}}. Thank you for your continued participation in Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User. xenocidic (talk) 19:54, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

Hello Monkeyblue! I'd like to leave a note of appreciation for your recent support of my request for adminship, which ended successfully today (and to my surprise) with 83 supports, 4 opposes, and 2 neutral. What I have taken back from my RFA is that I've perhaps been too robust in debate and I will endevour to improve upon that aspect of my usership. I would like to thank you again and state here that I will not let any of my fellow Wikipedian's down. Thanks again! --Jza84 | Talk 11:32, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Barnstar

The flat barnstar: I absolutely love your flat userboxes, and the page is hilarious. Hope you don't drink your coke flat too though...
→ Tim Kloske, 5/29/08 ←

[edit] Replied

Hi there, Have replied on my talk page. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 12:29, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Orphaned non-free media (Image:IPhone Home.png)

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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 all non-free media not used in any articles will be deleted after seven days, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. Thank you. BJBot (talk) 05:10, 14 June 2008 (UTC)