User talk:Darwinek.html



Welcome to my talk page. Feel absolutely free to leave me a message. I will reply on your talk page (everyone likes that orange bar). :) Peace.

My RfA

Thanks for your support at my request for adminship, which passed today with 42/0/0! I would like to thank Wizardman for nominating me, Darwinek and everyone else for their support and comments. I'll continue with contributing to the encyclopedia's content (hopefully writing an FA here and there :) and will help out with admin-related tasks which you just entrusted me with. If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask! Thanks again, —dima/talk/ 01:43, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

My Rfa

I wish to thank you for being supportive of my effort to regain my adminship. Though it was not successful, your support was still very much appreciated. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Thank you!--MONGO 06:23, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Page Move

Thanks for moving the page to Giuseppe Fioravanzo. I never knew that that was his Italian name. Now I do :) - Milk's Favorite Cookie 22:06, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Oskar Zawisza

Witam! Napisał artykuł o pewnej postaci ze Śląska Cieszyńskiego. Mam pewien problem - Zawisza był przez pewien czas wikarym w Niemieckiej Lutyni, tylko nie mogłem znaleźć odpowiedniego hasła na en wiki. Czy Niemiecka Lutynia to dzisiejsza Lucina?

Z góry dzięki za odpowiedź i ewentualne poprawki w haśle.

Pozdrawiam Sir Mmt (talk) 18:51, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Europa infoboxes TfD

F.Y.I:

There's a few more settlement TfDs over at WP:TfD

—MJCdetroit ^(yak) 14:37, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Śląsk Cieszyński - ciąg dalszy

Witam! Na en wiki planuję od czasu do czasu zajmować się Śląskiem Cieszyńskim, głównie biografiami. Byłbym wdzięczny, jakbyś je sprawdzał, głównie pod względem języka i stylu. Właśnie kończę pisać hasło Józef Balcar. Pozdrawiam Sir Mmt (talk) 23:01, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Re: Eva Bosakova

Darwinek:

Thank you so much for adding the diacritical marks to Eva Bosáková. I would have done it myself, but being a rather green Wikipedian, I didn't know how. Thank you also for your redirect of my redirect. LOL. I am learning, though.

I notice that you have also created some articles about Mississippi and the Civil Rights movement. THAT IS SO COOL. Even though I live in Toronto, I am originally from Mississippi, and I can definitely appreciate your work.

Keep up the great work and thank you so much.

Miloluvr (talk) 16:29, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Stefania Bojda

Witam! Czy można zdjąć już szablony z tego hasła? Pozdrawiam Sir Mmt (talk) 11:56, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi

This you will like http://xkcd.com/285/ :) ≈Tulkolahten≈^≈talk≈ 15:02, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Hello

Congradulations on creating so many articles. By the way, I think the bar is orange. Basketball110 :) 02:02, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Lemuel A. Penn

On 21 February 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Lemuel A. Penn, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Elkman ^(Elkspeak) 21:57, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks...

Hello there. Thanks for updating the Indonesian volcano articles. They really need a bit of work since the departure of User:Indon the Great. Hope to see you around more. regards --Merbabu (talk) 10:10, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Hiram Wesley Evans DYK

On 22 February 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Hiram Wesley Evans, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--BorgQueen (talk) 12:06, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Formatting templates

Hi, Darwinek! Since you are on a roll formatting the templates (thanks for doing that, by the way!), could you also format {{Geo-Alexander}} when you get a chance? Thanks!

Thanks!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 15:54, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Here is another one for you: {{Districts of Volgograd Oblast}}.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 13:42, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

Thank you for defending my user page. :) Jacek Kendysz 21:59, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Czech Statistical Office

Thanks for your kind words. Just started the article you requested, although it's still quite skimpy. CzechOut ☎ | ✍ 16:31, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Ol Doinyo Lengai Eruption Edits

According to the information I have the current eruption started in September of 2007 and has not stopped since, therefore to be accurate the entry should read 2007 (Ongoing) or something similar. I based my latest change on the entry for [Jabal al-Tair Island|Jabal Al-Tair], we need to discuss this. Graham1973 (talk) 00:30, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

Got your message thanks for clearing that up with me. I've added a reference link the archive on Beltons website which has all the Jan-November 2007 news covering the start of the eruption. The current archive runs December - February. Graham1973 (talk) 00:52, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

RMs

Thanks! Almost've missed them :)—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:31, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Articles you have created

That is an impressive and diverse list of articles you have created. I know I have linked to at least a couple of them in the past. If the list gets unmanageable you might want to consider using a format like I used on this page. Keep up the good work! --House of Scandal (talk) 17:47, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

RfA - Toddst1

Hi, Darwinek, thanks for supporting my RfA, which passed with 42 supports, 0 opposes, and 0 neutrals. I'm pleased that the Wikipedia community has trusted me with the mop. Of course, special thanks goes to my nominator, Kakofonous. Cheers! Toddst1 (talk) 15:19, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your support!

Hello, and thanks for your support in my recent RFA! The final result was 61/0/3, so I've been issued the mop! I'm extremely grateful for your confidence in me and will strive to live up to it. Thanks again! —Scott5114↗ [EXACT CHANGE ONLY] 07:28, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Greetings

Long time no speak - possibly i even had my earlier user name - your edits flow past me on my watchlists - please excuse any rude or impolite edit summaries as I check back on those arts on my watch list - trust all is well - and thanks for your cleanup of oz mountains - cheers SatuSuro 11:40, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

yeah sorry about that (my edit summary comment) - hey youre doin a great job - thanks again - SatuSuro 11:45, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for changes!

Hey there. Thanks for the changes to McFaulds Lake page, I couldn't figure out how to capitalize it for the life of me. As for the image, it is a screen shot from Google Earth, and I haven't a clue on how to go about the licence and author information that is being requested for the image. As you may be able to tell, this was my first page :)

Thanks again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bernieha (talk • contribs) 19:33, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Ship articles

Hi Darwinek. I notice you've been fixing a few dabs lately on ship articles I've worked on. That's great, thanks!

I wonder though if I could prevail upon you not to remove the carriage return between the references and the ship template at the bottom of the page? If a line of whitespace is not left, the template ends up very close to the text above, which makes it look cluttered. I deliberately put that line of whitespace there to prevent that from happening. Thanks, Gatoclass (talk) 16:59, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I guess we are eventually going to have a huge ship database here at Wikipedia, but it's daunting to look at all the articles which haven't been done yet - in the US Navy alone!

Thanks again for your understanding, Gatoclass (talk) 17:25, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your support

Oh snap, the DEA is an admin

I would like to thank you for your participation in my recent RfA, which I'm very glad to say was successful at 81/7/0. Some of the very best that Wikipedia has to offer came out to support or oppose me and the kind words from all the editors has really given me confidence to be an admin and I can't wait to start. I will take the advice of the opposes and not jump into any content disputes immediately. As well, I will try to add more content myself. Anyways, in thanks for participating in my RfA, here's your very own personal humanoid robot. Enjoy! --ÐeadΣyeДrrow (Talk - Contribs) 14:08, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

:)

As today is the official day of Polish–Hungarian friendship, I just wanted to wish you a beautiful day :) (and Happy Easter, too!) – Alensha talk 17:27, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Copyediting

I am always ready to do what I can for my WikiProject pals. What would you like me to do? --Milkbreath (talk) 15:19, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

KKK

Thanks for your offer of articles from JSTOR on this. I need to decided how much effort I want to exert on it, as so much of it goes back and forth. The article is way overloaded with too many sensational details, rather than providing deeper material on how the Klan came to be, in both iterations.--Parkwells (talk) 18:23, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

FAR nomination

Ku Klux Klan has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. OrangeMarlin ^{Talk• Contributions} 23:17, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Prague Spring

Hello. I'd be interested to see your input at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Prague Spring - as I said in my own comment, there's still some work to be done, but it's not a bad start. Biruitorul (talk) 18:58, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Have replied. The Dominator (talk) 21:28, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Proposal

Hi Darwinek, as an important West Slavic editor, I'd like to hear you're opinion on this proposal, your opinion is especially valued as you represent two different nations here. The Dominator (talk) 00:36, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Municipalities/communes of the CZE

Hi Darwinek! Long time no see. I saw your recent creations of former municipalities of the Czech Republic. I thought we ought to set up a category for them, like Category:Former municipalities of Norway. After all, many former municipalities today constitute parts of a city, such as Fluntern. But I noticed there were no category for municipalities, or communes (I don't know what to call them), of the Czech Republic. Only districts and regions. Shouldn't such a category exist? Punkmorten (talk) 19:51, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Romanian electoral reform

I happened to see the message on Dahn's page - I hope neither of you minds if I try to give a quick answer. Last November, there was a referendum to do just that - change from a proportional system (common in much of Europe) to a French-style two-round majoritarian system. It got 81% support but failed because turnout was just 26%. In March, the Parliament approved a one-round majoritarian system (not identical to Britain's, though) and, assuming legal challenges are met, will be used in the November elections. Most parties, the president and most of the people are behind the idea because parliamentarians, as they are named on closed party lists, aren't directly accountable to the electorate, and there's a desire for more transparency - one vote for one MP (actually two, since the parliament is bicameral). A desire to avoid fragmentation might also be a factor but Romania has just 5-6 significant parties, which isn't that many. Biruitorul (talk) 04:35, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanking Biru, I would like to add some other info which Darwinek might fight helpful. Unfortunately, the reform is so new that there does not appear to be any academic survey for it, in case you need a bibliography of some sort. But I was able to find a CEEOL doc in English, where the dispute leading up to the vote and the alternatives proposed are being discussed.

I was unsure about what the mixed plurality/majority we adopted exactly means (I had lost track of the debate), but I found some more details about the peculiarities of the system in place in a newspaper article by sociologist Marius Kivu ("Ce a rămas din legea votului uninominal", in România Liberă, March 8, 2008). He explains that Romanian counties are going to be divided into 10 colleges each, "three persons running for each of them from parties A, B and C. After voting, in the first college the candidate for party A receives over half of the votes, and in the second the candiadate for party C receives over half of the votes. In the other eight colleges, no candidate receives half of the votes. Presuming that all three parties surpass the national-level electoral threshold, these two candidates [A and C] are declared elected, receiving each a mandate." And: "In phase two, that of redistribution, all county-level votes for the candidates of each party are taken into account. Let's say party A received 40% of the vote, party B, 30%, and party C, 30%. Thus, party A has a right to four mandates out of ten, from which it has already received one. For all the other three mandates, the candidates are those nine party candidates who have received less than half of the college votes. They are ordered after the percentage of votes they received, and the three who have highest scores become deputies. In the same manner are distributed all three mandates to which party B is entitled and the two mandates left for party C (which had the right to three mandates, but had already received one, in the second college). The number of mandates received by the parties through this voting system will not differ significantly from the number of mandates it would have received in the old proportional [and] list-based system." Kivu notes that the resulting hybrid system was not the one proposed by supporters of plurality, and that it maintains much of the old system - the only differences, he argues, have to do with the fact that people may no longer be propelled into office solely by their party's will to have them elected (in the past, parties used to place their favorites on top positions on a list, which usually meant that they were elected no matter who they were). The article was form a time when the law hadn't been adopted, and Kivu announces that there is more to say about the "traps" of such a system.

I don't know how much of this will be useful to you; if you want me to look into the follow-up to this, I'll do my best to locate it and translate the relevant parts. I also found some stuff on the grounds for the law being contested by two small parliamentary parties, just in case you need this sort of detail.

Oh, and sorry for the delay: I had logged off just moments before you wrote on my talk page. Hope this helps, and best of luck on that paper. Dahn (talk) 14:09, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Any time. Dahn (talk) 16:37, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

So, how did it go? Dahn (talk) 02:29, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Congratulations! I'm glad to have helped. Dahn (talk) 18:29, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

New naming convention

A new naming convention for places in Slovakia is being discussed at User_talk:Elonka/Hungarian-Slovakian_experiment#Proposed_naming_convention. Your input will be greatly appreciated. Since these new rules might be later regarded as a precedent by non-involved editors (remember the Danzig/Gdansk case?), I think you will find this ongoing discussion and a poll interesting. Tankred (talk) 02:56, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

You might like to know that there's a poll going on about modifications to the Hungarian-Slovak naming convention proposed earlier. Voting is open until 11 May 20:06. Markussep ^Talk 14:31, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Translation

Hi. Would you be able to translate Makedonsko Devojče into Czech? I'd like to create an interwiki for it. BalkanFever 04:29, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

t(h)anks for tweaking

Thanks for tweaking Memorial to the victims of Communism (Prague) and correcting the Czech text. Much appreciated. Tjones4 (talk) 16:42, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Category:Czech Republic districts by region templates

Thanks for correcting the "body" parameter in these templates. The {{navbox}} code has recently be revamped and the "body" parameter removed, but I hadn't realized this and updated the AWB settings I was using. They are updated now, though. Sardanaphalus (talk) 15:02, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

New Project

Myself and several other editors have been compiling a list of very active editors who would likely be available to help new editors in the event they have questions or concerns. As the list grew and the table became more detailed, it was determined that the best way to complete the table was to ask each potential candidate to fill in their own information, if they so desire. This list is sorted geographically in order to provide a better estimate as to whether the listed editor is likely to be active.

If you consider yourself a very active Wikipedian who is willing to help newcomers, please either complete your information in the table or add your entry. If you do not want to be on the list, either remove your name or just disregard this message and your entry will be removed within 48 hours. The table can be found at User:Useight/Highly Active, as it has yet to have been moved into the Wikipedia namespace. Thank you for your help. Useight (talk) 06:10, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

Award

Thanks for this award I was not expecting! Be sure I appreciate this attention. Keep up the good work too!--Latouffedisco (talk) 16:14, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

Euro squads

Hi, I am wanted to get some opinions from people here and here. Libro0 (talk) 20:38, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Oria (river)

Hi Darwinek, I saw you changed the title, less appropriate I think, what convention is it?, I tried to revert it but it doesn't change. The name is just Oria; in case there is a conflict (there may be, I can't remember) there are the brackets for disambiguation and at any rate "river" can't have a first capital letter, it's just part of the description, not of the proper name. Iñaki LL (talk) 20:50, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh God, it's really ugly..., in capital letters? (!!) OK, since it's the convention, don't going to argue about it. By the way, thanks for your mention of the article, sometimes a bit boring gathering so many data, but that's Wikipedia. Regards Iñaki LL (talk) 14:44, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for adding the category on Bouck's Falls. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sgt. bender (talk • contribs) 23:22, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

Nomination for admin

Hello! Your nomination is flattering and tempting, but at this moment I have to decline, mostly because I'll be moving from the USA to Japan to take a new job during the summer, so I don't think I'm ready to take on this new responsibility for now. I'll let you know if I've changed my mind in a few months once I've settled down. Thanks for your consideration! Chanheigeorge (talk) 14:07, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Adminship

Wow, I really wasn't expecting that. I would be happy to accept your nomination for adminship, but I think I would have to really familiarise myself with the tasks that an admin is expected to perform. Also, my disciplinary record is not so great. Just last week I was blocked for a day for a 3RR violation. Anyway, if you wish to nominate me for adminship, then please do, and we shall let the community decide. – PeeJay 17:59, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

I feel I had a justifiable reason for making the reverts, particularly given the slipshod nature of the edits being reverted. However, as they were not technically vandalous edits, I might suggest that opinion would be divided as to whether I was in the right or not. – PeeJay 18:15, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

On a related note, I feel that most of the people who have seen my edits would agree that my edits are, overall, positive contributions to the encyclopaedia, and they know that I would never be a disruptive influence without a damn good reason. – PeeJay 18:22, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Did you look at the directions here? It appears the person you nominated hasn't accepted yet. --Sharkface^T/_C 19:04, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

You'll need to untransclude the RfA, as PeeJay2K3 hasn't accepted the nomination or answered the questions. He'll certainly need to explain the 3rr block before starting. Epbr123 (talk) 19:06, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Admindahn

Hi, friend. I'm touched by the proposal, but there are several reasons why I would have to decline it. For one, I want to keep being focused on editing, and I would have little patience for performing the tasks implied (and I am the first to admit I don't have much patience for the administrative process in general). Secondly, we'd never see the end of the ensuing debate - there are a few of my co-national editors here whose main purpose is to aggravate me, and they would have a field day making me seem a controversial choice. And lastly, it would mean going back on my word (I have already stated elsewhere that I do not intend to occupy such a position). But thank you for considering me for the job. Dahn (talk) 18:25, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for adminship/PeeJay2K3 (2)

Hi Darwinek. I've removed you listing of PeeJays RfA because he hasn't accepted the nomination or answered the questions yet. Some people may have taken this as a refusal to answer the questions and opposed on that basis alone, so it's only fair to give him a clear run by allowing him the opportunity to answer the questions. I hope you understand my reasoning for this. Best wishes, Ryan Postlethwaite 19:12, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Rudolf Doležal

Hi. Can you see if any words needs translating for this article. Cheers ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 17:16, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

(Thanks) Having bot trouble too I see!! ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 18:06, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Thanks!

Thanks so much for your support in myRfA, which closed successfully this morning. _{TravellingCari}^{the Busy Bee} 19:16, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Foxdale River

Hi Darwinek - just for future reference, technically the Isle of Man isn't part of the UK, and has its own stub type ({{IsleofMan-geo-stub}}). Not a big problem, but one worth remembering :) Grutness...wha? 01:32, 25 May 2008 (UTC)

Cats

Hi, Darwinek! Have you somehow got a copy of my to-do list or what? :) Because these items are there, only at the bottom of it.

Anyhoo, I don't think it makes any difference as to how the North Ossetia cat is titled—both Category:North Ossetia or Category:North Ossetia - Alania are fine. The Sakha cat is called that only because the main article used to be called "Sakha" (instead of the current "Sakha Republic"). This one definitely could use a renaming. Finally, the Chita Oblast cat needs to be retained, but it should be cleaned up as well. Most of the items should be re-categorized to Category:Zabaykalsky Krai, but Chita Oblast-specific topics (such as Chita Oblast itself) should stay.

What I am getting at here is that if you are willing to put in time to have these three cats cleaned, I'll be able to cross three things from my to-do list, so you won't be hearing any complaints from me :) Do let me know if you need help or if anything is unclear, though. Thanks much!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:18, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you ever deplete your supply of mindless grunt work, just give me a hollar :) As for Sakha, it would be better to rename all of the cats to use "Sakha Republic", since that's the title of the main article. Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 14:34, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Most of the contents of that cat refer to pre-oblast times anyway (mostly Civil War), so it should be safe to re-cat them to "History of Zabaykalsky Krai". Thanks for taking care of this stuff; much appreciated!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 19:48, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Władysław Michejda (1876-1937)

Hej Darwinek! Jakbyś miał czas, zobacz na to hasło, głównie pod względem językowym. Pozdrawiam Sir Mmt (talk) 21:29, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Nikolai Markov

Hi. I notice that you put the Russian version of the name in the article I recently added on Nikolai Markov. First of all, thanks for doing that. Secondly I wonder if you might be able to do the same for another entry I have added recently on Aleksandr Dubrovin. Unfortunately I have no Russian language skills and so would appreciate any help on this. Thanks in advance. Keresaspa (talk) 14:39, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

cape verde geo stub

Hi Darwinek. I saw you changed the image for the {{CapeVerde-geo-stub}} template, but I must say I don't agree with the new image. Not only it doesn't show the flag colors or shapes clearly, but also being a map of the islands, which are much spread in the ocean, the image is much less visible, especially in that small size. please consider restoring the previous image. Cheers, Waldir ^talk 17:59, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Ágnes Szávay, Balázs Taróczy

Hi Darwinek, I see some articles were moved to Anglicised names, some others were moved back. Until there is no real concensus (at least among administrators) would you move Ágnes Szávay and Balázs Taróczy back to their Hungarian names? At least people will have a slight chance to pronounce these right... Squash Racket (talk) 03:19, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, although someone changed it already. And there is one more I know of.

I think one solution could be letting those who don't have the necessary keys on their keyboards write the name as they wish to and let the main article remain at the original name. Squash Racket (talk) 03:00, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Karelians

Please keep an eye out for IPs from the University of Helsinki reverting the Karelians article. They are the banned user Jaakko Sivonen, and I have been reverting his edits on sight. I might have to semi-protect the article if he persists. Khoikhoi 19:48, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Chodowiecki

Darwinek, why you choose to support the decision of moving Chodowiecki into category "Germans" ? Szopen (talk) 14:57, 31 May 2008 (UTC) In voting on moving "Polish-Germans" into "Germans of Polish descent". Szopen (talk) 15:16, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

You are saying you are supporting this move? He wasn't "German of Polish descent". He was Pole. (And German maybe too). Szopen (talk) 15:31, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

No to lepiej wrzucic go do dwoch kategorii (Polish painters, German painters) niz do jednej. Szopen (talk) 15:58, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Correct spelling of tennis players

Hi. I can se you was correcting Radek Štěpánek's name and some so called lectour reverted that. Same think is whit Serbian tennis players Novak Đoković, Jelena Janković, and Ana Ivanović. He was reported my changes on http://en.wikipedia.org/en/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard and I am discussing there whit him and whit some admin. --Pockey (talk) 01:15, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

I have reverted the mass page move from earlier in the day. Orderinchaos 10:43, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Listen all. Serbian Wikipedia users totaly agrre whit our statment. And I made a comment on mail list of Serbian Wikimedia. We must open some voting where! Serbian, Croatian, Slovak, Bosniak, Czech, Slovenian, and Poland speaking Wikipediand can vote. --Pockey (talk) 11:27, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

6 of the moves have ended up at WP:RM for 4 June. Orderinchaos 13:10, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Writers and soccer

No problem: as I said, that is a very constructive proposal, and I encourage you to add it. There are two issues other than the one I spoke about in my comment there. One is about people of disputed ethnicity - I really wish your proposal will not aid territorial pissers to POV-push in certain articles (meaning I would recommend the parameter not being filled in any of those cases). The other is generic: I wish they'd come up with a stable version or at least some editing process through which those boxes would be updated automatically updated (a bot or something); what they have now is time-consuming and subject to whims.

Well, I wouldn't call it a football fever. Romania is feverish as a rule over one issue or the other, but my perception is that, although it's supposed to be "historical" (the first time that the Mutu-Chivu generation didn't screw up in the qualifying stage), people don't care as much as they used to back in the 1990s. There was as much fever over the local elections and (to stick to football) CFR Cluj winning the championship (the first Transylvanian team to so in Idunnohowlong a time). But, yes, I definitely will watch.

Fortunately, Romanians (me included) have a long tradition of self-irony, so, if we do lose, we'd be sure to make the best of it :). And, alas, it looks like we will lose: Piţurcă did brave it saying that we could make it out of the group stage, but he also said that we could come back home with no victories. Oh, believe me, I do wish we could at least tear up the Italians, but the tradition of it all is against us - whenever Romania met them face to face as far back as I can remember, they scored as many goals as the forwards they had :).

I feel embarrassed over asking you this, since we go way back, but it was never clear to me if you're from Poland or from the Czech Republic... I do apologize for my ignorance, but I simply forgot if I ever saw you discussing this subject, and I wouldn't want to assume (though, looking above on this page, I did notice polish-language messages). In my book, both countries are equally cool, so don't worry about me judging you on the basis of your answers :). Dahn (talk) 18:34, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Wow, it seems you're both :). And quite an interesting community, if you don't mind me saying. Of the two countries, i only visited Poland (a long, long time ago), and I missed out on the Cz. Rep. just this year (I was in the vicinity, let's say, but I couldn't manage to get there and back in the time frame I had at my disposal).

Anyway, I'll use the occasion to say that I'm glad every time I get a chance to talk to an articulate and intelligent fellow Eastern (Central, Eastern-Central) European such as yourself. I've met open-minded people on all sides of the divides, but unfortunately all communities have a record of obnoxiousness and agenda-following that puts us all to shame. As a personal observation, my fellow Romanian users have been leading the bunch when it comes to vandalism and monotonous POV-pushing, which, I'm glad to say, is not representative of our country at large. Extremism always becomes over-represented in this area of the globe, particularly because it has the most committed of followers (which is probably why regional wikipedias are always on the verge of disaster). I have always dreamed of an extensive dialog between the able and sincere people from each community, abiding by a common set of values, determined by moderation, logic and a promotion of wikipedia rules.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about the Polish team ever since the Olisadebe years, and whatever I know leads back to Romania and this absurd friendly Ro and Poland had in 99 or 2000 (an empty stadium, as many changes as the coaches wanted, and both teams playing crap). I too have traditionally cheered for the Czechs and, at times, for the Turks. Well, except for when the Czechs neatly beat Romania - it gave me a chance to examine Koller, and, judging by what he did before and during the match, I'd say that the Czechs did not always project this image of self-confidence. I remember him being very reserved about the team's chances, going into the routine about how Romania is a good team, then playing efficiently and winning against a useless Romanian squad. In fact, he reminds me of Clark Kent or Hulk - glasses and a book in hand before turning into an unstoppable soccer machine. Too bad he doesn't play any more (and Nedved too).

Romanian commentators seem to have a different idea of the Czechs than the one you paint (though I do believe you know better). The cliche here, which reflects the view Romanians have of the Czechs in general, is of the "most German-like among the Slavic teams" (two terms of comparison which generally leave me indifferent, as cliches tend to do). But it's fun to see how the Romanians compare (themselves) to that: a team of talented egotistic individuals who play by the ear and tend to either shine or fail miserably, squandered intelligence, the promotion of mediocre players from the local league once the few stars become unavailable, a tendency to fake injuries, binge drinking while in training, a lot of hair gel... the works. If this compliments the view others have of Romanians in general, then I can assure you also compliments the view many Romanians have of themselves (check this out if you have the time - I do believe it explains some things about that). Sorry if I digress.

And yes, though I'm not so sure about Turkey and Croatia, I think Russia has a major card to play. But I also happen to think that Greece won only because nobody expected a team to play that kind of conservative, boring, stale football... (no offense, my Greek friends). And Czechia out of the World Cup was mostly bad luck, plus the fact that they had been waiting too long for a Cup to happen (which, as you say, may have made them arrogant). As for Romania: given my thesis above, it would seem to me that, no matter how high some teams look upon ours, and though we do have an unbeatable tendency to be unpredictable, the confidence we get from time to time surpasses the "third world" image others have of us and is most usually shattered. I still have the Ro television commentators' words ringing in my year from the last qualification campaign. They claimed that, since we were playing our last chance against Denmark, we were out only because the referee took a "controversial" decision. And then, as the match was ending, they were going: "Not like that, Mr. Referee. If we have to be going into Europe [sic] with our heads bowed, then it's best not to go at all." Yeah...

Please address me with as many questions and comments as you may have at any moment. I thoroughly enjoy these conversations, even though it may take me a while to respond now and then (Biruitorul and others have grown accustomed to my silences, but they mostly result from the fact that I don't know how much time I have at my disposal whenever I start editing). So, if you feel the need to, fire away. Dahn (talk) 20:34, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Goran Vlaovic

hello,

thanks for your welcome message

I had a quick look at your page, and noticed that you started the article of Goran Vlaovic, who was one of my favourite players in the middle 90s. I knew that not much before the Euro 1996 he underwent brain surgery, so I looked after it now on the web, and found some references which I added to the article. since the article is currently bout Vlaovic's playing carreer only, I put it to a new fleck, but feel free to move it wherever you find it suitable

another fact which I read about him at that time, and could possibly added is that he was a devoted Christian. unfortunately I did not find any external references about this yet, but perhaps it worths some research

best regards

Gruen (talk) 13:51, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Consensus on footy navboxes

Hi, I saw your comment; more support = stronger consensus and fully agree with what you say. Where do you think we can "advertise" the discussion? I don't really know who would be interested in footy navboxes. Regards EP 13:22, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Seems like a good idea, alternatively we could start a "recent proposals" section on the main page, maybe under the AfD log. There is another straw poll further up the footy page about notable player sections so it wouldn't be a single link section. If we did it this way people would get used to checking there for links instead of scrolling through miles of text to find the relevant discussions. What do you think? EP 13:42, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Please give me some support if I get slammed for being too bold :-) EP 13:53, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

done, I hope that no-one shouts at me and that people actually use it. Regards EP 14:14, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Long-awaited reply

Hi, Darwinek.Please excuse the long delay: a close relative and good friend of mine is in the hospital - they just found out that he has cancer, and that nothing can be done to save him. I was shattered by the news, and spent most of the time at my disposal in the hospital, where I also did much of my sleeping. I can't picture doing much besides that, and I only entered wiki at this point to take my mind off these things - I'm probably not the best partner of dialog at this moment, and I cannot promise I'll be able to appear more often than this over the following period (months, but, alas, not that many months).

Thank you for the infobox thing - I haven't yet updated it in the articles you mention because it kept changing, and, given my editing hiatus, it may take me a while to do so. But I'll make a note of it for now.

That said, I could never dream of putting a stop to this exchange, nor, for all the awkwardness of the situation I'm in, your line of posts on my talk page. I will answer whenever I have the time, and I assure you I look forward to more on these subjects. But please excuse my delays, which are now getting longer than usual.

In my early years, I had an image of Poles and Czechs naturally getting along - before I learned about the territorial issue. But, from the little that I know on the issue, it looks to me like it's all in the past: I was recently watching a EuroNews report on how Poles in Poland set up businesses in the Czech Republic to get away from the supposedly excessive taxation in Poland. Capitalism, this great leveler... Then again (and I'm not being polemical), one may expect Poles in Czechia losing at least part of their overt identity. I always found it odd that minorities are expected to behave in ways that majorities are not, and present a textbook image of their national identity that the majority in either the country they inhabit or look to is not expected to adopt. If they still treasure that identity, I guess the best way to show it is by valuing it for themselves, in a way that they feel represents them best; if they don't, well, it's just how things go... I'm not saying this is the case with your fellow Poles in Czechia, but it strikes me as a symptom that the dividing lines will always move about the place.

In my country, the biggest problem is that people don't let go of what they consider the past to be, and a restrictive interpretation of 19th-20th century realities still seeps into modern-day discourse. Thank you for the kind words on the Mitică article (and not just): I enjoyed writing it not just because it is an interesting subject in itself, but also because it shows that, for all its nationalist emphasis on singularity and isolation, Romanian culture (like all cultures) is actually diverse and lively. For all his defects, Mitică is also a lifestyle that I would readily if self-ironically identify with - you'll have to leave out the image of Mitică as a centralist to get that image, and focus on the part where he wants them to play "Awaken Thee, Romanian" at his funeral :). Caragiale speaks about Romania in the same way as Čapek and Hašek (both of whom I love) speak about Bohemia and Moravia.

If all national identity is part-artificial, I for one say "you can't go wrong with losing some of it, and become what you think you should become instead of what you're expected to be". It is indeed a shame that people lose interest in a language, but, to me, that is primarily because a language is a means of expression that one should strive to preserve (rather than an obligatory mark of distinction).

Indeed, I will not disagree that German cultural elements are a strong presence in Czechia. In fact, that is a weird context within the former empire - if you think about it, you'll notice that most other regions have borrowed not the overtly German influence, but the diffuse and mellow identity associated with the Habsburgs (in a manner that made German nationalists angry). It's probably what also happened in areas of Transylvania, Hungary, and in Slovenia.

Local commentators like to think of Romanians as "Latin" footballers, so, from that perspective, the Portugal and Italy analogy isn't perhaps that far off. I mean, I don't know if the stereotype applies (and I tend to dislike its implications), but it may be that the people to whom it refers have found it to their liking. After all, Italy is where all Romanian players seem to go when they're any good... Indeed, mentality is a relevant factor, and I guess what Romania did for its debut on the Euro stage confirms your assessment that anything can still happen. 0-0, man... but let's not count our eggs before they're hatched ;). I've heard about Poland (sorry about that, but you have to admit they weren't any good on the pitch - as annoyed as I am to see the mediocre team that is Germany take the laurels in such a face-off), but, at the moment, I haven't managed to keep up with what who the Czechs play against and how they manage.

I share your irritation over the moronic comments about how "the Negroes cannot manage to beat the white man's team", especially since it's quite clear that most African teams we've heard of have the upper hand against any team from Eastern Europe - they play cleaner and more beautiful. And I'm not so sure that one of the few countries in Europe to have been made into a colony of its western neighbors some 60 years ago should be cracking jokes about the state of former colonies - Poles of all people should know that building stadiums is not what colonizers focus on... And I always believed in the Asian teams (I love opportunistic Korea in 2002, and I always hoped that Japan and China would score better at some world competition).

In Romania, this exact type of arrogance is rare - most likely because we rarely faced a team from one of "those" regions. It would seem that Romanian aficionados have a respect for the "exotic" teams that they have encountered - back in the early 90s, people spoke highly of Cameroonian and Nigerian players. But we do get a lot of (for now justified) ironic comments about players from Luxembourg and Andorra and whatever small team ends up in the same group for the qualifiers. TV reporters seem to find it enormously entertaining to crack jokes such as: "The Luxembourgian coach is making one change - I suppose the player warming up has just returned from his day job" or "Perhaps the goalkeeper should return to his career as a fisherman".

But what I do find entertaining myself is the Romanian-Bulgarian soccer conflict, which mostly manifests itself as jibes the Bulgarians aim our way. A while back, there was a hype when Stoichkov and his staff referred to us guys as "mamalidzhky" (or something like that), which I understand means "mămăligă-eaters". I "investigated" a bit, and, it turns out, Bulgarians are perplexed by the fact that a maize paste is (or more likely was) the staple food in Romania. Similarly, Romanians seem to quietly agree that this was not the best image to project, and the cliche about Bulgarians being "that nation of gardeners" partly results from jealousy (they ate what we could not afford, and many Bulgarians made fortunes as gardeners this side of the Danube). What's also funny is that it fits so nicely with the mămăligă-like color the Romania side picked for a main football equipment :D. (Coincidentally, ever since this, me and my friends have come to refer to the Romanian team as "a clockwork mămăligă", to match The Netherlands' moniker, hee hee).

To answer your last question: Bănel Nicoliţă is supposedly a Rom (I for one never looked it up if he identifies as such, just that he is commonly believed to be one). Incidentally, even Hagi was a minority player - here, Aromanians tend to be seen (quite abusively, if you ask me) as "a kind of Romanians", but even under that restrictive definition, he is not from the "ethnic mainstream". Indeed, there were a lot of Hungarians around back in the day (I honestly don't know why this changed since), and we had a number of Germans; in all honesty, it is hard to say if all of them really were Hungarians and Germans - names in Transylvania tend to "float" between communities, meaning that people who identify as Romanians may carry non-Romanian surnames and even first names, and, during the nationalist phase of communism, discussing their ethnic allegiance was anathema. Belodedici was, as far as I know, the only Serb to have made it on the national squad. Presently, there's also this guy, but I've never seen him play and he's just on some waiting list.

Well, I'm signing off now, and hope to hear more from you soon (as unsure as I am about being able to reply in reasonable time). Na razie! Dahn (talk) 01:00, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Wilga River

DO you mean what do I think about the templates? I think the continent specific tmeplate like Tourism in Africa look fine and in coordination with the other topics on wikipedia which are organized in the same way. What we need is consistency, and the Africa topic, Europe topic templates which work across a rnage of subjects and topics work well I think. The red links also I think encourage editors to start the articles. Recently created this morning was Tourism in Morocco. Haven't seen the Tourism in Asia plate yet but I think its on the right track. I;ve been adding a few articles from the public domain Library of Congress such as Agriculture in Laos and Agriculture in Mauritania. Articles on agriculture also should be covered in the same way. These are quite important articles which should have been started years ago, regards ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 11:02, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

200 countries in one template?? Urggh no. I created some global templates in the past for things like world cinema which only covers about half of places which actually have industries and even that is admittedly way oversized. If you are visiting the Tourism in Morocco page for example, all you need to do is type in Tourism in Thailand and voila you have the page. By continent is the best way to manage it I think, besides this they are linked by categories anyway. Thanks for noticing. ♦Blofeld of SPECTRE♦ ^$1,000,000? 11:08, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Answer

I wholehartedly agree with you. If you look a bit further back into the history of the template, I actually removed all the links to the articles, though it was readded later by another editor, presumably the disruptive one you were speaking about. Cheers --I'm an Editorofthewiki^{citation needed} 13:04, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Hi Darwinek. I agree with you too. I've noticed {{Tourism}} in some "tourism in..." articles and thought that the template wasn't suitable for those articles. That template is too broad in scope for the country articles IMO. Also, every single in the country in the world can't fit on the {{Tourism}} template. Perhaps as a compromise, tourism could be linked to in the headers of all the continent specific templates ({{Tourism in Africa}} currently doesn't do this), and tourism could be wikilinked to in the leading paragraph of the articles? That way readers would be lead to more information about tourism. A "see also" section could be used either. I don't know if that will resolve the conflict, but it might be worth a try. All the best, Bláthnaid 18:49, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

I've put it on my watchlist. Regards, Bláthnaid 21:06, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Name

Hi, can you please tell that in an article if I have to mention several historical organizations, original names of which are in non-English language, then what will be the format. Should I mention the non-English name first and English translation within bracket, or English translation first and non-English original name within bracket? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 11:00, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

For example here are two sentences:

Which format is right? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 11:05, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Díky za uvítání od krajana!

--Sokoljan (talk) 16:23, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Re: Vatreni naprijed

Done and done. Thanks for the suggestion. It has helped somewhat to shake off today's embarrassing defeat :/ .--Thewanderer (talk) 23:30, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

African national parks

Hi Darwinek I've begun creating templates for each of the African countries and getting them started. Then I'd like to see no stubs and them all developed bwyond a start class. Thanks to the conservation sites th