User talk:NYArtsnWords

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[edit] Anglicisation

Hello - I'm contacting you because of your involvement with many French articles. A few have undertaken the task of "Anglicising" French terms in Wiki articles (eg/: "Région => Region"; "Département => Departement") - there doesn't seem to have been any discussion about this, so your point of view would be welcome. I think a good place for this discussion would be the WP:FR page. Thank you. THEPROMENADER 14:24, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there has been any real discussion, other than some comments made by two people during the initial proposal of the France wikiproject (a copy is available at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject France). I don't know what User:Olivier and the group around Wikipedia:WikiProject French communes (and its various former wikiprojects) think of this, or, for that matter, what they think of the creation of the WikiProject France. It might be a good idea to get everyone involved in a consensus decision/vote on the matter of région/region and département/department on the WikiProject talkpage. --NYArtsnWords 16:55, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

No such area set up at WP:FR so the discussion is taking place here. Thankyou. --Bob 16:56, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

There is an area there now, so please find it here. THEPROMENADER 17:01, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
You seem to be the custodian of the WP:FR project, NYArtsnWords... I have the impression that this could turn out to be a lively debate : ) Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to wider attention to the France articles... there only seem to be a few working there. Am I wrong? Anyhow, anyone and everyone should be contacted about this as so to have an objective a discussion as possible - perhaps you know of some who would be interested? Thanks and cheers. THEPROMENADER 17:38, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
User:SlaveToTheWage is without a doubt the real custodian of WP:FR, but I try to do my part. I will contact some people when I have more time later. You should definitely contact the people at Wikipedia:WikiProject French communes for their input. Cheers- NYArtsnWords 17:53, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

On a similar note, thanks for the heads up. The anglicisation of département to department was bothering me when I made a load of edits to Départements of France the other night, but I was too busy with that to get round to working out where to bitch about it  ;o) — OwenBlacker 10:20, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Thanks

I'm trying to be as concise as possible but you know how complicated it can be. I don't feel like I'm going in details but if it's too much informations feel free to move around what I write :). I planned to do more, as you can see I also did Gaul, Roman Gaul, Frankish Kingdoms and middle-age... basicly at this rate (I have time lately) the entire page would have been more extensive. Matthieu 17:49, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WP France template

The template is working, I corrected the error on Paris. Most probably that is why you contacted me. STTW (talk) 17:37, 9 February 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Request on Template:France_tasks

You requested Minister of Housing (France), would you like this article to be about le ministère de l'emploi, de la cohésion sociale et du logement ? There is no distinct ministerial office for housing in France. Or would you like the article to be about the views of some French politicians (communists) who would like there to be a separate minister of housing ? Jackaranga 15:03, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Here is the article on the French wikipeadia | ministère de l'emploi, de la cohésion sociale et du logement, would you like me to translate this ? --Jackaranga 16:10, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
Jackaranga - many of the French government ministers are combinations of various departments, and they have been combined in various ways over the years. For example, the Minister of Transportation (France) has frequently been combined with the positions of Minister of Public Works ("Ministre de l'Equipement"), Minister of Housing ("Logement"), Minister of Tourism, Minister of Territorial Development ("Aménagement du territoire") and Minister of the Sea.
There exists an article on Minister of Social Affairs (France) which covers the various prior versions of the Minister of Employment, Social Cohesion, but there is no current separate article on the prior versions of the Minister of Housing (which was frequently attached to Minister of Public Works (France) and Minister of Territorial Development (France) in the past.). --NYArtsnWords 16:42, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
I'll see if I can write this article, it's been a while as I studied Institutional history at the beginning of my studies, and then moved on to the constitutional side more, but maybe I can find more about it in some books. As far as I remember it was created in 1981, when they split up the ministère de l'environnement et du cadre de vie, into several parts. There was however before that the Ministère de la Construction which built most of the blocks of flats round where I live. I will try to put all this in order. Might not be easy, I have loads of books from my studies but information is all mixed up in them, because of the frequent changes in names :-'( --Jackaranga 18:38, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
It's a real labyrinth of changes in portfolio names... I notice that the expression "ministre du logement" apears from 1966 on (see Minister of Public Works (France)#Ministers of Public Works ("Equipement") (1966 - present)). I don't know if this was the first appearance of the portefeuille. --NYArtsnWords 18:46, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Arsène Wenger

Hi. Arsène Wenger is well known to anyone who follows world football. I hope you change your mind. Xiner (talk, email) 19:22, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Yay, I knew I could win you over. Thanks! Xiner (talk, email) 19:48, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anglicisation Arbitration

NYA,

I'm game for your suggestion for arbitration - this turned into a stand-off with little hope for consensus - all we can hope for is to call to an objective light the scope and consequences of the widespread but no-consensus actions of those few. What's more, those concerned have made no effort at all to discuss the quality of their edits, nor made any proposition to change them - proving even more that this 'Anglicisation' movement was based for the principle more than real reader comprehension.

User:Olivier, possibly Wiki's most active France-related article contributor, had a rather wise (yet resigned) take on the matter - perhaps you would like to read it [[1]].

Thanks again, best regards,

THEPROMENADER 21:13, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History of French language

Hello, I saw you contributed on the History of French page, and your credential seems to indicate that you are knowledgable in this field. I am writing to you because I left a note on the discussion section of History of French page, and I am no specialist in this field, so I thought perhaps you could contribute to the page. Thanks. Marcus wilby73 21:48, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Marcus, although I was responsible for the bulk of the prose of the History of French article (originally on the French language page), most of the technical linguistic additions and examples have been added by others who are more knowledgeable in these matters than I am. I will however try to do what I can. --NYArtsnWords 02:20, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Kiarostami

Hi! Since you are an experienced wikipedian, interetsted in art and an English native speaker:

I am going to nominate Abbas Kiarostami for GA/FA soon. It is now under peer review. It would be nice if you could take a look at it and comment on it. Thanks and have a nice day. Sangak 16:40, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] French/English words arbitration case

In connection with the arbitration case you filed, I just wanted to be sure that you (and the other parties) had seen my comment here, which may be helpful to you. I hope your dispute can be resolved quickly. Regards, Newyorkbrad 00:20, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Outside opinions are always appreciated and helpful. The RfA might have been more substantial if the other involved parties had said their piece as well. Cheers. -- NYArtsnWords 02:13, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Religion(s)

Personally, I strongly oppose the singular, as you know - I see you have a phD in philosophy - that the singular implies unity - at least, as you suggest, in French. You may even see that the French Wiki, which took the very surprising option to name categories by singular terms (instead of "French politicians" they put "Politicien français"), found out that this choice was a bad idea when they came to speak about religions. Thus, they create the syntaxically-speaking absurd category of Catégorie:Religion et mouvement religieux en France, that is, they wanted to underline that they are various religions and religious movements in France; but since Wiki consistency" (an argument that stands for conservatism without justification - I've got nothing against conserving stuff, as long as it justified) in the French Wiki advocated singular for categories, they were forced to make this dubious singular-plural category. Furthermore, I'll underline the fact that the Minister of Interior is called Ministre des cultes, and not Minister of Worship nor Ministre du culte (which would refer to the clergy giving the sacrements, as you know that ministre is a term that originally comes from the religious semantic field). All of this to say that, I know Wiki consistency would advocate for singular, but I think it is very wrong. I guess others opinions would be nice - maybe I should been a bit more cautious and asked them before moving, I'm sorry for going fast, but I did that because the article seemed to have been long forgotten... Cheers! Tazmaniacs 17:22, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Taz - although I can appreciate your desire to deconstruct the categories in order to counteract bias, in English, the use of the singular "Religion" does not strike me as unnecessarily ideological. I would say "Food in France" or "Wine in France", even though there are many wines and kinds of foods, and I would have a tendency to say "tell me about religion in America" without feeling I was unconsciously being a conservative (I hope!). This would be different if the prepositional phrase "of France" was used: the "Foods of France" or "Wines of France" or "Religions of France" would seem more natural. You should check out Wikipedia:Naming conventions (categories) and -- if this is a cause you want to champion -- you should suggest a whole-hearted reorganization of ALL of the RELIGION(s) categories on the appropriate "naming conventions" talkpage. Remember, the work of an encyclopedia is different from academic/political debate: do not disrupt Wikipedia to illustrate a point, but work toward consensus through discussion. Cheers -- NYArtsnWords 17:54, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
p.s. For clarification: while I have a PhD ("doctor of philosophy"), it is not in "philosophy".
That last distinction clears my understanding problem. A classic historical dissertation - in French - would say Les religions en France (if it said La religion en France, one would clearly be implicitly asked to question the unity of religion in France - i.e. see debates concerning Jean Touchard's book on Les gauches en France, or René Rémond Les droites en France and not La droite en France). I assume you are correct - and will thus drop it here. Thanks for your clear explanations! Tazmaniacs 18:48, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
PS: my point was not to disrupt nor to make a "political point", but to respect the mainstream and official appreciations of religions in France. See le ministre des cultes... Tazmaniacs 18:49, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Oooh on Christopher Janney

This is just a little note to thank you for Christopher Janney. It was written well and I enjoyed reading it. :) --Strangerer (Talk | Contribs) 05:49, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] About Your Marvel Comics Userbox

Hi, i am glad you liked the Image:UserboxCapShield.JPG and decided to use it for your own user box. But I thought I should tell you that there is a better looking Marvel Comics user box out there.(the black on the blue background just looks weird)

M
 This user reads Marvel Comics.

{{User:Scepia/Marvel Comics}}




This one also has a few lines of code to include you into the marval comics catagory. If you are still bent on using your own, then i would be happy to upload a new image for you so that you dont see that black background which, at least in my opion will make it look alot better. O and and feel free to use the user box that I made especially for the shield.

This user is mourning the death of The Star-Spangled Avenger

{{User:Phoenix741/RIPCap}}



Sorry if i seem forcefull or something, if you wana keep it the way it is, be my guest. I am just giving you some info that you might find usefull.Phoenix741 02:31, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Phoenix- I know about the Marvel UB, and used it for a while, but frankly I thought it looked a little dull (and the "Magneto was right" UB isn't a knockout either, IMHO)... that's when I put up my own Marvel UB (yeah, I know, forgoing the Marvel Comics cat inclusion, but I'd rather wait for a sharper UB to come along). Unfortunately, the pic which I initially used in my UB -- which looked awesome (Image:Movie poster spiderman 2.jpg) -- was not licensed for use on userpages, and so it had to go. Today, when I saw the Cap Shield (nice, btw), I thought I'd give it a try in the box (without putting up a RIP Cap message). I just changed the background color in my image box to better fit your shield. Now... if you come up with a cool Spidey/Marvel, or an "I'm with Anti-Registration", or a "None are so blind as those who will not see", etc. UB... let me know. Excelsior! -- NYArtsnWords 03:06, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
p.s. Of course, with your inclusion of the Marvel UB in your message, I am now in the Marvel Comics cat. -- NYArtsnWords 03:19, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

You know your right there are no Marvel/Spidey Userboxes, when i get the free time, i will make one.Phoenix741 12:35, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merger of Noble of the Robe/Sword and French Nobility is worth consideration

Merging all of these articles is worth consideration. However, Noble of the Robe and Noble of the Sword are commonly used terms and would still need small pages briefly explaining the terms and referring them to the major article. As the French Nobility article currently stands it needs a lot of work before it could stand alone. Wikipediatoperfection 06:36, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History of France

Hi--Given your knowledge on the topic, could you check the current History of France? Specifically the material on the Belle Epoque. I know some of it is bogus, but you will be better able to assess the whole enchilada. Thanks, JNW 02:44, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reply

I replied to your query at MediaWiki talk:Recentchangestext#recent change pages for wikiprojects? :) --Quiddity 06:09, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. It's not exactly the same thing as the citizendium working group watchlist, but it is close enough and it's an effective tool, especially within Categories. NYArtsnWords 15:06, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Portal: France

I see that you maintain the portal for France. I was thinking it met the requirements for a featured portal, and should be submitted for candidacy or at least a peer review, but I figured that I should ask you, since you would have the most intimate knowledge of the portal. Would you be interested in pursuing that? The only thing I have any concern about is that it might overcover it, especially once you get past recent events. Atropos 07:56, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Atropos - I agree that the France portal could eventually meet the requirements for featured portal and that, as a preliminary step, it should go through peer review. The only reasons that I haven't put it up for peer review so far are because of the time (and sometimes technical knowledge, especially for formatting issues) that it requires to respond to and implement peer review suggestions. This being said, if you are willing to wait a couple of weeks (my teaching semester ends May 14) and are available to help it through the process, I would be happy to put the France portal up for peer review at that time. Cheers - NYArtsnWords 15:04, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
Sounds like a plan. Atropos 22:46, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spammer

You're welcome. That's one of the most unpleasant spammers I've encountered in recent memory (see the chit-chat on his talk page, on mine, and his contribs list). You should see the lovely e-mail he sent me last night. Sigh. I need to go through and see if those sites are linked elsewhere on Wikipedia. Cheers, Antandrus (talk) 15:20, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Concerning your work...

Hi ! C'est avec plaisir que j'aurais contribué au WikiProject France mais hélas avec les dures révisions du bac, je n'en ai pas le temps pour l'instant, et mon niveau d'anglais est très bon avec cependant quelques failles qui pourraient se révéler gênantes pour les lecteurs :-s. Mais je trouve ça génial que des personnes d'une culture et d'une langue différentes s'emploient à faire découvrir à leurs compatriotes d'autres cultures et langues qu'ils affectionnent autant que leurs maternelles. Internet contribue à la mondialisation, et donc à une certaine peur d'une seule culture partout dans le monde ; mais l'erreur serait de croire que la mondialisation n'a que des points négatifs pour les cultures. Ce n'est pas toujours le cas en effet, Wikipédia et ses contributeurs nous prouvent le contraire ! Je passais par là "par hasard" et tenais à vous remercier, car vous êtes l'une de ces personnes qui contribuent ainsi à la sauvegarde des cultures. Thank you for reading me, Aurore. (I wouldn't have been able to write such a message in a very perfect English. So I'm sorry for the English speakers who don't speak French.) 2 May 2007. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.124.255.129 (talk) 16:18, 2 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Culture of France

Hi. Just wondered if the following (empty) link at the end of the Culture of France article - "Notes" section, Casey is Really GAY!, was supposed to be there. I tried to remove it but I saw you reverted the edit. If I messed the article in the process, I'd like to express my apologies : I thought it didn't fit in the article but I don't know the procedure to edit an article. Anyway, thanks for your work here. Gabknight2005 23:22, 4 May 2007

That was my mistake. I was trying to revert to a version prior to another bit of vandalism, but in so doing missed that bit. I think it's back to normal... for the moment. Culture of France gets vandalized daily. -- NYArtsnWords 01:18, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I just saw your vast contributions to Culture of France and you are probably more qualified than many to do that. I made some modest contributions during the past year and you kindly left some of them as they were! I translated some exerpts for the Dutch Wiki. I think there is no need anymore to mark this article as 'needing clean up'. Is any user authorized to change the status of this article? regards, --BertSen (talk) 22:41, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

BertSen - Removing a tag can be done by any user once they feel that the tagged problems have been dealt with, although it is usually best to see how the main contributors to the article feel about it before doing so. I'd say we're close to removing the "clean-up" tag once I get enough footnotes into the stuff I have added so as to avoid new "citation needed" tags. Thanks for your contribs. - NYArtsnWords (talk) 23:29, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Louvre

Hi ! I needed your help in improving the article on Louvre, perhaps you could leave some suggestion on its talk page. thanks, STTW (talk) 11:21, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image:JeanPaulSartre.jpg

Hello, NYArtsnWords. An automated process has found and removed an image or media file tagged as nonfree media, and thus is being used under fair use that was in your userspace. The image (Image:JeanPaulSartre.jpg) was found at the following location: User:NYArtsnWords. This image or media was attempted to be removed per criterion number 9 of our non-free content policy. The image or media was replaced with Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg , so your formatting of your userpage should be fine. Please find a free image or media to replace it with, and or remove the image from your userspace. User:Gnome (Bot)-talk 09:59, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia New York Meet-Up

NEW YORK CITY MEET UP!!
NEW YORK CITY MEET UP!!

Howdy! Please come to the First Annual New York Wikipedian Central Park Picnic. R.S.V.P. @ Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC
--David Shankbone 19:55, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Your opinion on "internationalisation"

Hello - I'd like to ask you for a reasoned second opinion about a practice that I have noticed for more than two years now.

I question the phrase "Paris metropolitan area" that is present in most of the Paris-related articles as a translation of aire urbaine.

My arguments against this are many:

  • Most importantly, no official French organisations use this term as a translation for aire urbaine - or even use the term for anything concerning France - in their English-language documentation, not even the INSEE.
  • "Metropolitan area" is something different in every country that uses the term - but France does not, so has none.
  • Some foreign articles on France try to use the term all the same for the comfort of their "local" readers, but since France does not use the term, its interpretations are many: up at the top of the list (in a search for "Paris metropolitan area") you'll see Encarta's description of the term is Paris' pôle urbain (urban area), not its aire urbaine.
  • Some foreign demographics papers/studies striving for an "international methodology" use the term, but provide a definition in the the context of the paper; Wiki provides no such context. Some foreign papers use the term where no precision is needed - to say "in Paris' populated area" - but its use here is a translation of the quite well-defined aire urbaine.
  • Finally, you'll see in the above Google search that the only "encyclopedia" websites using this term are Wiki and clone "info" websites that scrape from it. Demographia is an exception, but they equate the "Paris metropolitan area" with the very precise adminsitrative Île-de-France, and always place the latter in brackets afterwards - in an internal methodology similar to the abovementioned studies.

... so in short, in its present use in Wiki, I see the term as being original research, misleading, and as being ambiguous where it could be precise. As a solution, I propose changing any instances of the term to aire urbaine (as it is a proper name) and, along the lines of Demographia's solution, putting "metropolitan area" in brackets afterwards. This should clear things up nicely.

I should normally be able to just open up a talk-page discussion on all this, but it is extremely hard to get consensus in this way these days: traffic to French-subject articles seems low. I'd just like your opinion for now, and perhaps we can take this discussion elsewhere later. THEPROMENADER 07:42, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

PS: I am also asking the above of another of English Wiki's most prominant French-article contributors, Olivier. Thanks, and cheers. THEPROMENADER 07:55, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

UPDATE: It didn't take much research to clear the issue up - please see here. I would still welcome any thoughts on the issue, but it's all become quite simple suddenly. Thanks for your time. THEPROMENADER 09:29, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anti-Sacrilege Act

Hallo, you were involved in a discussion on Talk:Anti-Sacrilege Act. Would you care to chime in again? Str1977 (talk) 13:48, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New York City Meetup

The Brooklyn Bridge New York City Meetup


Next: Saturday November 3rd, Brooklyn Museum area
Last: 8/12/2007
This box: view • talk • edit

The agenda for the next meetup includes the formation of a Wikimedia New York City local chapter. Hope to see you there! --Pharos 20:10, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] French Literature page (Hugo/Dumas père)

We seem to have a difference of opinion on the inclusion of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, père in the list of exemplary French novels of the 19th century. My basic position is as follows, and I'm sure you disagree with at least one of the points (I'd just like to know which):

  • Victor Hugo's literary greatness is undisputable, but his novels are undeniably (as far as I can tell) of a lower critical standard than his poetry. The typical Anglophone preoccupation with his (mediocre) novels is not something that needs to be reinforced in any scholarly forum. In fact, the more we promote the novels, the more we shut out his critically-acclaimed and seriously understudied poetry. Out of respect for Hugo, a brilliant poet and a deeply flawed novelist, I think we should cut his novels from the list. The way it stands now, with both the poetry and the novels mentioned, it's something like having Le Sexe faible on a level with Madame Bovary.
  • Alexandre Dumas, père is a highly enjoyable writer, but as far as I can tell has never attained anything like the critical respect of the other writers on the list. More importantly, he's another example of a writer highly overrated in the world of Anglophone "laymen." Putting him in the same list as Balzac, Stendhal and Flaubert is an insult to him and another reinforcement of the Anglophone layman's prejudice that his novels are critically-acclaimed. Yes, I know he's in the Panthéon, and yes, I know he has partisans, but honestly - find me a respected critic that considers him seminal to the course of later French literature (I don't doubt there is one, so this is a good-faith challenge) and I'll feel much better about his inclusion in the list.
  • If these fairly weak novelists are included, we're diluting the list. I myself would put Constant, Alphonse Daudet, Bourget, Mirbeau, and maybe even Feuillet in before I'd even think about Hugo and Dumas; I'm sure you have your own favorites, not to mention your chers inconnus (Fromentin, anyone?). Yet if the list is going to be useful, it's going to have to be limited. Balzac, Stendhal, and Flaubert stand above the rest; the Goncourts, Zola, and (I suppose) Maupassant occupy the level immediately below them. Including the novels of Dumas and Hugo would open the floodgates for a panoply of similarly second-rate works; I for one would like to keep Eugène Sue and Paul de Kock away from this list, but if Dumas and Hugo are on it, I can't see any compelling reason not to include them, too.

In short: this segment of the list needs to be consciously limited to the very best novels of the French 19th century. We may disagree on the details of what constitutes the very best, but I hope you'll agree that Hugo and Dumas père's novels do not qualify for the title.

Please do let me know where you disagree, and thanks for opening up the discussion. Hubacelgrand 16:48, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Hubacelgrand-
While I don't entirely disagree with your esthetic/literary reasons, the inconvenient problem, as I see it, is that the French literature "selected list of French literary classics" doesn't specify criteria for inclusion. One option, of course, would be to specify criteria for the list. Easy enough to do as a member of an editorial board of a review or in a blog, but I suspect that we would never get to the end of it — Harold Bloom canonization? period sales? contemporary sales? popularity among the grand public? among academics? etc. — unless there is some wikipolicy I don't know of. In my own mind, my unarticulated criteria were probably: a list of titles and authors that a reasonably well-educated public should be aware of (the Allan Bloom meets Jeopardy! criteria). The thing being, even with a well-articulated guideline, you will still have to carry on endless vigilance to counteract well-meaning fans of the Broadway Musical and the Hollywood film versions of those texts. Alas, this is the problem with lists in articles such as this one.
I think that perhaps it would be easier to explore the matters you discuss in the articles on the individual writers or in the French lit century sub-pages. This would, of course, require a good deal of sourcing of all critical opinions so as to avoid those pesky NPOV, original research and weasel word problems that wiki editors are always working against, and it may also get one caught in edit wars with the previously mentioned fans. Still, if one can address the issues of period sales, impact on writers of the period, current popularity, critical appraisal etc. with citations and what not, I think that would be a valuable contribution.
On a side note. Speaking of canons: so many of the French lit and history articles are based on the Wikipedia:1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica and are unfortunately rife with the condescending tone and out-dated esthetic pronouncements -- not to mention the anti-French sentiment -- of the Victorian period. Now there is a big job to clean up all those pages!
Anyway - that's my two cents. - NYArtsnWords 22:45, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for responding so quickly; you've brought up a good number of things I hadn't thought of. I still don't like their being on the list, and I may well try to open up a discussion on the talk page regarding what criteria need to be met for inclusion on the list (and hope it doesn't get bogged down in endless arguments.) On a side note, keep up the fantastic work on France and French literature, and especially the 16th century - I had no idea just how much of it was yours, and you probably have no idea just how much people appreciate it. Hubacelgrand 23:49, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that. It is true: one never really knows... - NYArtsnWords 02:03, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Newsletter n°1

Bonjour and welcome to the first WikiProject France newsletter!! It should become a monthly special of our project, but until the next issue, here are some points to consider for the month:

  • In an effort to determine the active members from the inactive, all members are asked to simply sign on my special userpage.
  • I have slightly rearranged and updated the Project page, putting all the featured lists in collapsible tables. This unclutteres the page and you only have to see them if you want to. Give your feelings at the talk page.
  • I have made a Wikipedia advert for our project, Image:Qxz-ad108.gif, what do you think? Personally I feel the words need improving ...
  • There are still map problems at Template:French commune - any help at resolving them would be greatly appreciated.
  • What about starting a monthly drive? We currently have no Featured Portals (except for the Basque Portal which really isn't French any way), so how about improving Portal:France??? I don't know what's exactly wrong but the criteria can be seen at Wikipedia:Featured portal criteria.

It doesn't seem like a lot, so I hope we will still have enough problems for nexts months issue. Salut till the next issue, ChrisDHDR (17:18, 10 November 2007 (UTC)).

[edit] RE: France Portal

You wrote:
Chris- a note on Portal:France - I just took the portal through portal peer review this summer (see Wikipedia:Portal peer review/France/archive1), so it is nearly ready to go for featured status. There is however one issue that needs to be fixed: the news updates need to be better maintained. Wikinews is hopelessly devoid of France-related articles (very few and far between), so other news sources need to be used. In addition, as sole maintainer of the portal, I don't always have time to update the news feeds. It's all I can do to keep the article, picture and person of the month changing on a regular basis for the past two years. If WikiProject France could help maintain French news briefs on the portal or on wikinews (or both), that would be great. Thanks- NYArtsnWords 17:54, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

I live in France so I naturally know what's happening. I will try to keep the news in order but just give me a nudge if I start forgetting. ChrisDHDR 10:02, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
About the news section, It looks a bit long to me. Couldn't we make it more like the Main page with short headlines and then "Read more" links to Wikinews (or somewhere else if Wikinews doesn't have an article)? ChrisDHDR 11:14, 11 November 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. That would be a great help. Shorter headlines are fine, altough I will have to modify something on the page to avoid having a huge blank area, either shortening the DYK and Selected article sections or moving the You Can Help section to the other column.-- NYArtsnWords 15:00, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Château de Vendeuvre

Hi I'm sorry I signed the task board (kept me awake last night wondering about whether I should have signed or not). Anyway - easily resolved. Apart from the loading of some photographs from Fr:Wiki, I've completed as much as I can on the Château de Vendeuvre.
Take a look and tell me your opinions, good or bad, I'm thick-skinned!
Kind regards
Dickie (talk) 15:13, 22 November 2007 (UTC) PS Is there a simple way to access/upload/copy photos from one Wiki to another ?

Dickie - (1) Don't worry about signing the task board; it was a simple mistake. (2) The easiest way to have access to photos across wikis is to upload them one time only to Wiki Commons. That way they are available to all wikis.
Cheers- NYArtsnWords 16:03, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Portal:France

Dear NYArtsnWords, you have nominated Portal:France at Wikipedia:Featured portal candidates. I am here to acknowledge that the portal which you nominated is promoted to featured portal status. Congratulations! OhanaUnitedTalk page 01:33, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

No problemo! Best, — Rudget speak.work 11:47, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] RE: France Portal - Featured Portal!

Why are you thanking me? You're the one who kept the portal going, did all the dirty-work and nominated it. In recognition of your contributions to the French Portal, I give you this French Barnstar of National Merit. ChrisDHDR 17:53, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Newsletter n°2

It's been one high aiming month! The French WikiProject and related pages have been aiming high for Christmas - and have received an equal number of presents in return!

Well, that's this issue. Au revoir et à bientôt till the next time, ChrisDHDR (18:55, 9 December 2007 (UTC)).

[edit] Franco-Provençal

Salut ! With all due respect, please do NOT use the neologism « Arpitan » or « Arpitan language » in articles or links. It is a modern construct that is very aggressively promoted by a couple of Wiki Users that belong to the Aliance Culturèla Arpitana in Fribourg, Suisse founded about 3 years ago. The neogolism is not used by any university program, governmental authority, or in any standard source in linguistics that I know about. (If you know one, of course not published by this group, please let me know on my user page.) And, most speakers in Italy, where most speakers reside, have never heard of the term. I have not made any attempt to « kill » all mentions of « Arpitan » (except in a few article opening paragraphs and some tables, and attempts at redirects) because it simply results in an edit war with them. - - On the other hand, I will admit that I am somewhat sympathetic to their cause. « Franco-Provençal » is a lousy name for my ancestors' language and « Arpitan » has rational etymological roots - but a univerity colloque, or a major linguistics research center, like GeoLang in the UK, should announce the acceptance of the neologism « Arpitan » before Wikipedia accepts it. It is really a very fringy term outside of Wikipédia. (Fr.Wikipédia is fighting the same battle.) - - You can help by refraining from using it. Thank you. Tchao ! Charvex (talk) 11:45, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Will do. I think I do usually use "Franco-Provençal". - NYArtsnWords (talk) 13:24, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] You're invited!

...to the next New York City Meetup!

New York City Meetup


Next: Sunday January 13th, Columbia University area
Last: 11/3/2007
This box: view • talk • edit

In the morning, there are exciting plans for a behind-the-scenes guided tour of the American Museum of Natural History.

In the afternoon, we will hold a session dedicated to discussing meta:Wikimedia New York City issues (see the last meeting's minutes).

In the evening, we'll share dinner and chat at a local restaurant, and (weather permitting) hold a late-night astronomy event at Columbia's telescopes.

You can add or remove your name from the New York City Meetups invite list at Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Invite list.
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 01:17, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re:Portal:France/WikiProject

Hi there, sorry for the late response. In answer to your question, I moved the template because I am trying to clean up the large number of single use templates and because its difficult to understand why you need a template when a box-header could do the job. However I cannot figure a way out of the problem of the v/d/e buttons linking to the template instead of the box header. I tried with an alternative portal subpage but the v/d/e buttons link to an empty portal. I think this is a coding situation within the {{Navbox}} or maybe {{Navbox/core}}. For the moment I will request the template be speedily deleted and I will restore it so that there should be no problem with the v/d/e buttons. However, I will look into some way of adapting the box-header so that it solves the problem without needing a template. Green Giant (talk) 04:24, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I think I ran into the same problems when I was setting it up, and the v/d/e buttons and the collapsable nature of those nav boxes were a definite plus. Hopefully, coding will catch up to our needs. Thanks. - NYArtsnWords (talk) 06:40, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Vincent Cronin

Hello,

I'm a french contributor, who maintain the French Revolution Portal in wp:fr. I have a problem with a contributor who sourced his contributions with a book disputed : Deborah Cadbury, The lost king of France (about Louis XVII). He refers to the writer Vincent Cronin. Is Vincent Cronin a serious historian ? I don't know Vincent Cronin. Could you help me ? Thanks, Serein (sorry for my very bad english) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.205.133.94 (talk) 08:47, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Response left on Serein's talk page: Serein- Je ne connais pas Vincent Cronin. D'après les indications sur Amazon.uk et d'autres sites, ces œuvres historiques (sur Napoléon, Louis XIV, la Renaissance florentine...) -- qui datent des années 50-70 -- semblent être des vulgarisations tout à fait convenables, genre Fayard/grand public. Certains de ces livres ont été réédités récemment. NYArtsnWords (talk) 19:51, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming articles that are in French to English

I've found two articles that I believe should have the English translation as the article's name. I'm not too sure about the naming conventions in this case though, as I didn't spend a whole lot of time reading it. The two articles I found are, Pic du Midi de Bigorre and Pic du Midi d'Ossau (Ossau Peak? or something close?). Wouldn't it be more helpful and make more sense for the article names to be in English on the English Wikipedia? I ask you, because you were the first participant on the list on the WikiProject France. Thanks in advance. ←Gee♥Alice 07:59, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Generally, article names should be kept in French if the subject is better know by its French name (like Mont Blanc). Regardless of whether French or English is ultimately chosen, redirects can be created for the other language. A quick English-results-only google search of Ossau shows a few "Midi d'Ossau Peak", but nothing overwhelming (Britannica uses: "Midi d'Ossau (mountain peak)"); in the same way, there are a couple of "Midi de Bigorre Peak". It looks like the French is more often used by hikers/climbers, although you might post a remark on those articles' talk pages or create redirects for "Midi d'Ossau" and "Midi de Bigorre". - NYArtsnWords (talk) 18:57, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New mailing list

There has been a mailing list created for Wikipedians in the New York metropolitan area (list: Wikimedia NYC). Please consider joining it! Cbrown1023 talk 21:26, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] French communes

Wikipedia:WikiProject French communes:

I would like to welcome you back to the project. With some help from User:AlbertHerring, User:Blofeld of SPECTRE, and User:Jj137, I have successfully revived the project. Welcome back, we hope to see you there, Basketball110 what famous people say ♣ 17:06, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] You are invited!

New York City Meetup


Next: Sunday March 16th, Columbia University area
Last: 1/13/2008
This box: view • talk • edit

In the afternoon, we will hold a session dedicated to meta:Wikimedia New York City activities, and have salon-style group discussions on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects (see the last meeting's minutes).

Well also make preparations for our exciting Wikipedia Takes Manhattan event, a free content photography contest for Columbia University students planned for Friday March 28 (about 2 weeks after our meeting).

In the evening, we'll share dinner and chat at a local restaurant, and (weather permitting) hold a late-night astronomy event at Columbia's telescopes.

You can add or remove your name from the New York City Meetups invite list at Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Invite list.

You're also invited to subscribe to the public Wikimedia New York City mailing list, which is a great way to receive timely updates.
This has been an automated delivery because you were on the invite list. BrownBot (talk) 03:17, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] French communes WikiProject Newsletter
The French Communes WikiProject Newsletter
Volume 1, Issue 2 • April 5, 2008 • About the Project • Written by: Basketball110 and Editorofthewiki
News

Project and team news:
Features

Featured French commune articles of the week:
Collaboration of the Month
  • The push for cantons has begun! See Canton of Champagne-en-Valromey for an example of what the canton articles are to look like. We want to get articles on all of them by the end of the month.
Archives • Newsroom

If you would not like to recieve this newsletter, please add your name here.


Delivered by: Basketball110  Talk 

[edit] NYC Meetup: June 1, 2008

New York City Meetup


Next: Sunday June 1st, Columbia University area
Last: 3/16/2008
This box: view • talk • edit

In the afternoon, we will hold a session dedicated to meta:Wikimedia New York City activities, elect a board of directors, and hold salon-style group discussions on Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects (see the last meeting's minutes).

We'll also review our recent Wikipedia Takes Manhattan event, and make preparations for our exciting successor Wiki Week bonanza, being planned with Columbia University students for September or October.

In the evening, we'll share dinner and chat at a local restaurant, and (weather permitting) hold a late-night astronomy event at Columbia's telescopes.

You can add or remove your name from the New York City Meetups invite list at Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Invite list.

Also, check out our regional US Wikimedia chapters blog Wiki Northeast (and we're open to guest posts).
This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 00:14, 20 May 2008 (UTC)