Just a note to say yes, dropping notes on user talk and ANI simultaneously is a bogus move. Additionally, the implicit idea presented on ANI than an editor should have to review ANI before editing or they deserve a block reaches the realm of insanity. On the other hand, referring to another editor's health wasn't a good move. The best response to unwarranted nonsense is usually to ignore it. Happy editing! [[User:Gerardw|Gerardw]] ([[User talk:Gerardw|talk]]) 14:59, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
Just a note to say yes, dropping notes on user talk and ANI simultaneously is a bogus move. Additionally, the implicit idea presented on ANI than an editor should have to review ANI before editing or they deserve a block reaches the realm of insanity. On the other hand, referring to another editor's health wasn't a good move. The best response to unwarranted nonsense is usually to ignore it. Happy editing! [[User:Gerardw|Gerardw]] ([[User talk:Gerardw|talk]]) 14:59, 5 May 2011 (UTC)
== Your comments on the logarithm FAC ==
In case you have not seen it: I have responded to your comments at [[Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Logarithm/archive1]]. I'd appreciate your feedback on this. Thank you, [[User:Jakob.scholbach|Jakob.scholbach]] ([[User talk:Jakob.scholbach|talk]]) 17:26, 6 May 2011 (UTC)
Please note that I do not normally (1) copy-edit articles or (2) review articles that are not already candidates for promotion to featured status.
Current listening obsession: BWV11, last movement: Wann soll es doch geschehen (JS Bach). Here's the Harnoncourt version, which is great in many ways, but the flutes needed separate miking—they're drowned out in the tutti passages.
The Guild of Copy Editors has a Requests page where editors can list their articles to request a copy edit. During January and February, the requests have been arriving at the rate of several every day, and we are getting a bit behind! We are putting out the call for a little help to get caught up. If you are interested in lending a hand, please select one or two articles from our Requests page and do a copy edit. Help a little or a lot; it's good karma! Thank you very much for any assistance you can offer.
The Featured Sound Main Page Proposal Voter Barnstar
I was truly humbled by the overwhelming community support for the recent proposal to place featured sounds on the main page. The proposal closed on Tuesday with 57 people in support and only 2 in opposition.
It should take a few weeks for everything to get coded and tested, and once that is done the community will be presented with a mock up to assess on aesthetic appeal.
Finally, I invite all of you to participate in the featured sounds process itself. Whether you're a performer, an uploader, or just come across a sound file you find top quality, and that meets the featured sound criteria, you can nominate it at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates. Featured sounds is also looking for people to help assess candidates (also at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates.)
Ancient Apparition has given you a tall pint! Pints promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by giving someone else a tall pint, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. I don't think I apologised to you properly for that little kerfuffle you and I got involved in on my talk page, please accept this pint with the same respect with which it is given :)†
Clinton Lewinsky watermark
I do not know how to remove watermarks. On a single image it would take me an hour to do a half-arsed clone job. At 15-30 frames per second I am hopeless. Basically, my primary strategy at removing watermarks on images is to crop them out. I don't have any video technology that allows me to crop frames. I do not know any other sophisticated techniques that I could hope to do for a whole video.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 13:50, 24 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
OK; I didn't seem to notice it first time, during the nomination. Now it's a brown blobbish rectangle. I'd have thought a watermark would provide the icon of whoever produced the vid originally—very strange. Could you have go at obtaining a clear copy from them? At least you're a citizen. I'd suggest phoning them to find the best person to email, with a phone call to that person later if there's no response. You could say their organisation/producer would be acknowledged via the main page eventually, if we can get a clean copy ...? Tony(talk) 14:09, 24 April 2011 (UTC) PS Cropping would be difficult, given the positioning of the blob, I think. Tony(talk)14:10, 24 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Isn't it a Miller Center archive video? If it is then the watermark is for identification purposes yada-yada, if not edit it out. —James(Talk • Contribs) • 3:44pm •05:44, 26 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
So what's the deal with watermarks? If we ID them in the caption and/or the SDP, I'd have thought that would cover their kindness in releasing it. The ID is not legible in thumbnail size, at least not for me. It's an ugly, solid mud-brown rectangle that looks like a technical glitch. Tony(talk)06:12, 26 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Apparently it's part of their terms, per Template:Miller_Center their files are watermarked, but it says that the Presidential archives should have better quality files and those should be uploaded in a new location if the Miller Center file is an FS, it doesn't say anything about editing the Miller Center file, but to be safe I wouldn't touch the Miller Center file. —James(Talk • Contribs) • 7:38pm •09:38, 26 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
OK. So would cropping be in the same league? Or altering the contrast level? I think it requires further discussion, or a query to the experts at WP:NFC (the Commons talk page for copyright is also very good). Is there an analogy with featured pics? Tony(talk)13:12, 26 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I think altering it in any way is not allowed, the wording of the actual MC template is slightly ambiguous, I'd upload a Presidential Archive file as it suggests and nom that for FS. It'd definitely be a good idea to pay them a visit to get this issue cleared, I don't particularly like the quality of the MC files tbh. —James(Talk • Contribs) • 4:14pm •06:14, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
TTT, what do you think? Worth taking this up? Also, it would do the Foundation a favour if you pursued better access with the Miller Center. Are you a member of the US Chapter of the WMF? Tony(talk)08:12, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think a FS is suppose to be altered without going through FSC again. If we were to propose a significantly altered version, it would take over a week to confirm it is still and FS (after however long it would take to produce).--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 13:25, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
OK, thinking of the longer term here, and I'm sure if we did have the technology to remove it, there would be no problem in getting a "clean" version through FSC. There's no hurry, anyway. Tony(talk)16:03, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
True, Miller Center recordings are PD, but the template says new versions should not be uploaded over Miller Center files, so altering of Miller Center files is not permitted, that is one of the conditions of us hosting Miller Center files for others to view/listen. The template for Miller Center files also says that the Presidential Archives have better files and if available:
“
Video files from the Miller Center are watermarked by the center. In many cases a higher quality version of video, or one without the watermark, will be available through the respective presidential libraries. Users with screencasting software are encouraged to upload new versions of the videos if comparable or greater audio and visual quality can be achieved. If the speech is listed as a Featured Sound, please do not upload the new version over the old one, instead upload a new version and inform Featured Sounds at Wikipedia talk:Featured sound candidates. If it's not a featured sound, feel free to upload the new version over the Miller Center version.
Since your FA review the article went through changes. Is there a chance you can revisit your review to provide more feedback? Thanks. — [d'oh]06:46, 2 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I saw your name come across my watchlist, so I stopped in to take a look. I just wanted to say that I am very impressed with your tutorials. I'm a writer who has long been interested in linguistics and in how language leads to comprehension. I found your tutorial to be an excellent guide, highlighting several mistakes I often make. I just wanted to say thanks and, if it's OK with you, I'd like to provide links to them on my own user page. Zaereth (talk) 19:46, 2 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Zaereth, thanks, you are very kind! I need to go through them all when the next RL work deadline passes: the garden needs tending. Also, I have vowed to create a tutorial page for non-native en.WPians on the use of deictics such as "the" and "a", which has defeated me twice before. Tony(talk)09:54, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, you want to tackle deixis, huh? I guess, then, that you'll have one heck of a job ahead of you. It's an especially difficult subject to explain to native English speakers, let alone non-natives. I've found the book Pragmatic meaning and cognition to be helpful. The book goes into some of the problems faced when trying to give a universal explanation of deixis, to quote:
In the absence of a general theoretical framework of deixis, linguists have generally tended to establish categories of deictics according to their function and the contextual parameter they define. It should be noted that these categories have been identified mostly in relation to Indo-European languages and English in particular. The study of deixis in languages such as Finnish, Yucatec Maya, Tzeltal Mayan, and several Australian Aboriginal and Papuan languages reveals not only different categories from those of most Indo-European languages but also completely different systems of referring to space. Apparently, the conception of space is culturally embedded to such an extent that any claims to universality must await results of extensive emperical investigation before they can be sustained. --Sophia S. A. Marmaridou
I checked google books, and it looks like the relevant pages are available. I hope that helps. If I can be of further assistance, please feel free to ask. Zaereth (talk) 20:34, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Not all deictics, but "the" and "a", which are a particular problem for non-natives from many languages. Even Halliday doesn't go into it from the angle that is necessary; native speakers (including me) find reverse-engineering it very difficult; I think I'll start this time from examples and work back to the explanatory text from there, rather than the opposite, which got me tangled up last time. Tony(talk)04:06, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, I see. I remembered reading about deixis in other languages but, since I don't speak any others, I'm afraid I won't be much help. I guess I'd better just work on not using commas where a hyphen is needed, and other such mistakes. I often deal with technical and scientific writers, and had thought about writing a little essay specifically to help them. It seems to me that sometimes those who are well versed in the language of math are not always so in the language of words, and visa-versa. I think it would be helpful to explain some of the similarities and differences between drafting an elegant formula and writing an eloquent paragraph. Many of the functions are the same. (ie: "is" means the same thing as =, where "and" is the same as +, etc...) I've come across many articles that rely too heavily on formulas and diagrams to explain the subject matter. It's almost an alien concept to some people that, although it's nice to have diagrams and formulas, an article should be understandable from the writing alone. Oh well, perhaps I'll do something in the future.
Anyhow, thanks again for your efforts. I have placed your tutorial box on my page. Hopefully, others who stop by will find it as useful as I have. Zaereth (talk) 00:29, 6 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Well, it has finally built up to crisis point over weeks and months, all the more stressful because no one can work out why it has almost ground to a halt and the fixed-line phone has noise. Tried everything. Just to apologise if my presence is intermittent. Drop-outs are frequent and unpredictable. Now it's with the ISP's emergency fault technicians, out of the hands of Australia's hopeless, complacent, still partly government-owned copper-wire monopoly. Tony(talk)14:29, 3 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The Guild of Copy Editors – May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive
The Guild of Copy Editors invite you to participate in the May 2011 Backlog Elimination Drive, a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles that require copy-editing. The drive began on May 1 at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on May 31 at 23:59 (UTC). The goals of this backlog elimination drive are to eliminate as many articles as possible from the 2009 backlog and to reduce the overall backlog by 15%. ! NEW ! In an effort to encourage the final elimination of all 2009 articles, we will be tracking them on the leaderboard for this drive.
Awards and barnstars
A range of barnstars will be awarded to active participants. Some are exclusive to GOCE drives. More information on awards can be found on the main drive page.
You are receiving a copy of this newsletter as you are a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, or have participated in one of our drives. If you do not wish to receive future newsletters, please add you name here. Sent on behalf of the Guild of Copy Editors using AWB on 09:06, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
ANI
Just a note to say yes, dropping notes on user talk and ANI simultaneously is a bogus move. Additionally, the implicit idea presented on ANI than an editor should have to review ANI before editing or they deserve a block reaches the realm of insanity. On the other hand, referring to another editor's health wasn't a good move. The best response to unwarranted nonsense is usually to ignore it. Happy editing! Gerardw (talk) 14:59, 5 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
