User talk:Stan Shebs/archive 1

Welcome to the Wikipedia, I hope you enjoy your stay here! Smelialichu 20:45 Jan 30, 2003 (UTC)

Nice work on the Kings of Asturias. Would you consider creating a page List of monarchs of Asturias so that all of them could be listed on a common page? -- Zoe

Thanks! I have been thrashing a bit with crosslinks, a nice list page would indeed be handy! Stan Shebs

Thanks for the work on the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. This is something that has been on my plate, but I have been distracted with work on Roman Imperial History, filling in the gaps on Arthur-related topics, & now trying to flesh out materials in my native state of Oregon. Lots of work here in Wikipedia, too few hands to do it with. -- llywrch 00:51 Feb 9, 2003 (UTC)

Hi there. When you import articles from the 1911EB, could you convert units to SI please? You'll find links to online converters for different types around the Orders of magnitude pages --- Tarquin 16:43 Feb 12, 2003 (UTC)

<groan> :-) OK. Stan Shebs 17:52 Feb 12, 2003 (UTC)

Sorry about that List of Battles deletion. No, I did not get any warning when I was saving. I think I may have at least edited some English Civil War entriest but that's about it. Skysmith 19:09 Feb 12, 2003 (UTC) Some of its fixed Skysmith 19:46 Feb 12, 2003 (UTC)

Two weeks later, it seems more like being an ADD-afflicted magpie in a bottle cap factory! -- ROTFL! Beware, Wikipedia is addictive! -- Tarquin 12:01 Feb 14, 2003 (UTC)

Ha! That one is going into my highly selective Wikipedia quote file. -- Stephen Gilbert 18:13 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)

Wow, that was quick! Thank you. That's one of the things I like about Wikipedia, I get to learn something new practically every day. - Hephaestos 17:34 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)

Just returning the favor! You do a lot to make the 'pedia useful to me! Stan Shebs 06:18 Feb 23, 2003 (UTC)

Hey, Stan, when you import an DANFS article, would you mind expanding the highly-abbreviated stats? For example, "(CA-68: dp. 13,300; l. 673'5"; b. 70'10"; dr. 26'10"; s. 33 k.; cpl. 1142; a. 9 8", 12 5"; cl. Baltimore)" is slightly harder to puzzle out (especially for some of the lubbers around here) than

General Characteristics

Displacement: 13,300 tons
Length: 673.5 feet
Beam: 70.9 feet
Draft: 26.9 feet
Speed: 33 knots
Complement: 1142 officers and men
Armament: nine eight-inch guns, 12 five-inch guns

--the Epopt

I was going to go back and do those, I swear... (plus SI equivs per Tarquin request previously) Stan Shebs 11:49 Feb 25, 2003 (UTC)

We may want to divvy up the ships in some way. I spent some time formatting the two Alabama BBs, only to find that you'd already done them! You wanna take odd hull numbers and I'll take even? ;-> --the Epopt

Bummer - I hate when that happens! Perhaps even/odd first letters of names? I've been doing some Bs because hazegray.org has complete histories from Vol 1B, so I could continue with Ds, Fs, Hs, etc. Stan Shebs 17:52 Feb 25, 2003 (UTC)

Hey, Stan, do you think we would benefit if we organized our work on military matters into a WikiProject? --the Epopt 18:18 Mar 9, 2003 (UTC)

Yeah, sounds like a good idea. I'd want it to be somewhat lightweight - I notice that some of the wikiprojects seem more like solutions in search of problems to solve - but our growing collection of material is starting to look a little ramshackle... Stan 19:39 Mar 9, 2003 (UTC)

Please inspect and improve Wikipedia:WikiProject Ships. Once we like it, I'll update the naming standards page. --the Epopt 16:47 Mar 10, 2003 (UTC)

Check out USS Texas (BB-35) and tell me what you think of the layout. --the Epopt 06:26 Mar 15, 2003 (UTC)

Neato! Gotta include metrics so the pommies and frogs know what the numbers mean, but it looks like there's space. Colorwise, I'd say to pick something per-nation, dkbl for US, red for UK, etc. (a red-white-blue pattern in html would be even more patriotic, but probably excessive :-) ). Presumably the dates in the "construction/launching" paragraph can go away now.

I like that idea, tho red says Soviet to me ... gold for Germans, green for Italians ... white (as in the Ensign) for the British?

In other news, I have over 100k of material on BB-43 -- any objection to my calling dibs on that article? --the Epopt 21:39 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

Shouldn't Germans be white letters on black? :-) Could finesse by not trying to mess with colors and using small flags in corner of table - extra data is not large, and conveys exact meaning. On the subject of BB-43, is your material not DANFS? I pasted in the 89K of DANFS, but got worn out trying to wikify and prune out the lengthy recaps of the entire rest of the PacWar. In any case, have your way with it, I'm temporarily tired of BBs... Stan 22:27 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

Germans should do like the German battleship Bismarck does. Thus far I have ensigns for the Kriegsmarine, the Royal Navy, the Soviet Navy and the United States Navy (well, okay, the later is a jack, not an ensign, but I'll salute if you will).

You don't have the history with Lir/Vera Cruz/Susan Mason/Bridget/Adam that Jtdirl and I do. -- Zoe

Admittedly no, but I have worked on the conceptually similar GNU project for some 14 years, and with some of the same problem people for that length of time, and it never ever works to personalize things. Stan 06:10 Mar 11, 2003 (UTC)

Lir has in the past, among other things, called me a racist for refusing to allow him to list Christopher Columbus's occupation as slaver. -- Zoe

A certain netesq has been similarly rude to me on a couple of occasions. Arno

Guten tag

I hope my latest work on the Guiana stamp is to your approval. It's a pity I got that slogan wrong, I'd copied it directly from a picture of the stamp, but , alas, not accurately.

If you can add anything about that (forged) second stamp or the original allegedly being a faked 4c stamp, then please do. I haven't been able to put a date to the latter controversy, but I remember reading about it.

Auf weidersehn,

Arno 06:30 Mar 29, 2003 (UTC)

PS, do you know where we can get a nice uncopyrighted picture of this stamp? Arno

The article is looking better and better! I have some information, but not everything that you've been able to add, so together we can get something better than anything else out on the web. I still have my copies of Linn's with reporting on the recent controversy, lots of content there.

As for picture, I just need to get my scanner going. :-) But seriously, I don't have a usable pic myself, but a pre-1923 image would be free and clear - one way to cheat would be to take an ancient catalog image and colorize it... 1/2 :-) Stan 17:09 Mar 29, 2003 (UTC)

Ya, atm my scanner is not working. Peter Chamberlain

Stan, as I have already reassured Zoe, I am careful not to uplad pictures with copyright conditions. The pics I upload are all either public, or Nth-hand copies of copies of copies taken from the web. If you are not satisfied with this you are invited to delete anything that is causing you concern.

Uri

It was very kind of you to write on my page. (It's neat that everyone gets their own page.) Being new I excitedly clicked on Henry II on the Recent Changes page and got quite a shock. I can see how vandals might be a big problem. The copyright thing concerns me because I see all these different opinions and one of them might delete my photograph only because they think a certain way. My cousin plays professional baseball (he is the only one in the family with money) and has numerous photos of himself all over the World Wide Web. Some he owns, some the team owns, some the photographer owns, some the advertiser owns and some are posted on the computer sites so fans can copy them. As you can appreciate it all gets confusing because there are many photos on different web sites without any mention of copyright so should I assume the owner has placed it in the public domain. It seems to me that by playing it safe and not using them, then we deprive Wikipedia of a valuable tool. That’s why I think the owner here has made certain the site is protected. I can’t believe they would allow the world to post photos without having consulted a lawyer firsthand. Thank you again. JoanB I really should get back to work!

Hi Stan. Thanks for your query about the use of "IJN" in Japanese ship names. This is something I saw used a long time ago, and it stuck! I've just spent a little time googling, and can't find much to justify the use of the prefix, though I notice that just to muddy the waters www.globalsecurity.org says "Until the end of World War II, Japanse warships were prefixed by HIJMS, which stands for "His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Ship". Following the end of the War, ships were prefixed by JDS (JMSDF Defense Ship).". As far as I'm concerned, I'm not terribly bothered either way whether or not "IJN" is used - fortunately I only put it once on each ship page! :) -- Arwel 01:47 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

In the C-135 family, do you remember which variant it was that was used as an airborne command post during the Cold War? I've been in one, and I seem to remember it having an 'H' in the name, presumably at the end, so I'd think either EC-135H, RC-135H, or OC-135H. Didn't get any pictures of the interior, I'm sorry to say; those would be interesting for an article about the more electronic planes. Probably too interesting; I'd think that would probably violate some security rules, I guess. Anyway, I just wondered if you knew enough about them to clear that up for me. -- John Owens 06:25 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. I've got a "big 'pedia of world aircraft" too, but unfortunately it's in storage right now, along with a lot of other books I'd often like to consult while working on Wikipedia. :( Glad to see I probably remembered that 'H' correctly then, six years or so later (geeze, has it been that long?). -- John Owens 06:59 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing out Wikipedia:WikiProject Military, I didn't know about it before. I'll probably join later on, but I don't have too much time right now. There is an English version of mil.se here if you want to have a look. :) europrobe 09:14 Apr 19, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Stan, Thanks for directing me towards Wikipedia:WikiProject Ships - I hadn't seen it before. Cheers - Jason (Jll) 09:26 Apr 22, 2003 (UTC)

Hey. Note about aircraft naming, we've basically decided to go with manufacturer/model number because that's most universal. For instance, that should be Grumman S-2 Tracker. Yes, I know, some of the US codes are "more real" than the names, but this seemed like a good general solution.

Oops, sorry I missed your comment that you were hunting for a pic for the X-15; feel free to replace of course. - Hephaestos 19:11 May 4, 2003 (UTC)

Looks great! Nice job. - Hephaestos 22:27 May 4, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks, Stan. I was going to add Guy Gavriel Kay, but I forgot to. IMHO, Kay is the best writer in the English language today. I love his work. -- Zoe

HI Stan, thanks for the message. Yeah I know about fact that a pipe isn't needed. I have been using the dd/mm/yy for about a month but I noticed yesterday that someone had revisited pages I had recently added dates to and added in [[mm/dd|dd/mm]]. I was a bit puzzled and thought I had made some mess that they had fixed, but of course it was an unnecessary addition; I took one such pipe out of Sophie, Countess of Wessex. (Though I did screw up some dates in a different way which I am correcting and am mortified at having made the mistake.) I have been trying to remember if I at any stage used date pipes and I can't ever remember doing it that; I changed over cleanly from mm/dd to dd/mm. If I did make the mistake, mea culpa, it was an error. Thanks for checking with me in any case. wikilove, ÉÍREman 14:57 May 7, 2003 (UTC)~

No problem. We all do that sometimes! ÉÍREman 20:03 May 7, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for the Talk:Battle of Tours contribution, I was just about to give up on communicating through summaries and say much the same there myself. :) -- John Owens 19:53 May 8, 2003 (UTC)

If you had to put up with Fred Bauder going from page to page doing this, reverting changes, changing meanings, adding in dodgy links you would see what was happening as naked vandalism. This page is just the last in a line of articles he has done this to. It took twenty reversions by a many people to stop him doing it on communist state the last time. He hid changes as minor, he doctored paragraphs, he changed links and tampered with their content to undermine pages. This is simply the most recent version. Adam's trolls, notably Vera Cruz, were banned for doing this. With the exception of Adam, almost the entire talk page told him to stop, that what he was adding in was not on the right page and was blatently POV. He ignored everyone until some people left the page in disgust. Those that remained got fed up of his behaviour and simply reverted his changes, as others had done on other pages he had tried the same stunt on. Finally he stopped. Until now, when he thought nobody would notice and he tried again to add in his stuff. His behaviour was outrageous then and is outrageous now. I know of one person who has quit over what he tried to do a page they had done extensive work on, very good work, only for FB to screw it up, either deliberately or through incompetence turning a well written article into a heap of right wing propaganda garbage. If you think 172 and I are blunt in our opinions, it is nothing to what that wikis user said about FB in an email - 'arrogant right wing cunt' is one of the tamer descriptions. I could not quote the rest. ÉÍREman 21:31 May 8, 2003 (UTC)

I am not the author of its politics of the article and I certainly do not hold the views you think I hold. My interest is exclusively to do with getting the political science definition right and that has been my main concern; I have not got involved in the practical political issues, not least because this is not my area. My area is exclusively to do with the political science definition. Fred constantly has been adding in either POV stuff or NPOV clumsily written in language that makes it sound POV. Many people (including self declared right wingers) have complained about what he said and how he said it. Not that he pays a blind heed of notice on any of the pages he had written on, annoying left wingers who disagree with his analysis, right wingers to interpret his use of terminology as not following NPOV standards. My principal concern has been to point out over and over again that irrespective of how good bad or indifferent his stuff is, he is putting it onto the wrong page. I have now set up a different page for him to play his political games on and to have all the edit wars he wants, just as long as he leaves the page on the political science definition to deal with the political science definition. There are things on that page I personally would not put in there, but the consensus was to put them there. But the consensus was equally that his stuff was on the wrong page. Hopefully he can play all his agenda games on the other page now, but given the way in which he had hoped from page to page adding in his stuff (even waging an edit war to delete the words communist state from one page - when he lost that he then began trying to rewrite that to follow his agenda. He then added in a link on that page to another page which as usual he wrote, following by maxim of 'by christ I am going to get my version in on some page no matter what anyone else says') the odds are against it. ÉÍREman 23:18 May 8, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for your concern. Please see the talk page of Communist state. 172

I was very tired, with a migrane starting and a computer that was acting up, so I was rather stressed. I should not have said it. I apologise. Wikilove. ÉÍREman 21:23 May 10, 2003 (UTC)

Stan, at the moment Flying gurnard species refers back to the same page, ie the group article. I didn't change this, because there are a number of alternatives;

capitalise the species (like the bird species) as Flying Gurnard
move the group to Flying gurnards
add a identifier, eg Flying gurnard (species)

Hope this helps, jimfbleak

Thanks, I noticed the confusing self-link when I looked at links to the article, and went with the third option you mention. (Capitalization of fish species seems to be very uncommon.) Stan 18:33 19 May 2003 (UTC)

Say, did you notice my two questions about ships at the Wikipedia:Reference desk? You were one of the ones I was kind of hoping might be able to help with one or the other. -- John Owens 07:15 27 May 2003 (UTC)

Sorry if the US centric comments on menhaden and herring were a bit snappy, but you probably realise how many articles just assume you know it's the US. In fairness, the first item on Google gives only the US range, since it is a US association. I know nothing about fish, but that's never stopped me meddling. jimfbleak 07:42 27 May 2003 (UTC)

Dear User Stan Shebs: If I offended you in any way, I'm truly sorry. Unfortunately, I can't find or recall ever communicating with you so I am not sure why you would interfere on my page. Perhaps you have things mixed up. My comments are not offensive by any measure, however, if you had taken the time to examine Ms. JHK's conduct, you would see that I objected to her calling another user, who had made an honest effort to contribute, "obtuse", a "misrepresenter" (of the facts) and a "liar". This contributor, who, if you took the time to check out his contributions, was a valued one but as a result of Ms. JHK's derogatory and demeaning remarks, left Wikipedia months ago and never came back. Since he left, Ms. JHK has driven away others. What bothers me is that, again if you took the time to examine FACTS, is that it is Ms. JHK who deliberately "misrepresents" things, deletes text that disproves her theories (and she wants to write theory at Wikipedia, not fact) and then when caught, she "LIES." She even deletes photos for a second time, even after Mr. Vibber posts the photos validity. And she does not apologize, only tries to lie and excuse inexcusable actions. I will assume that you sir, will want to examine facts as I am sure you never meant to accuse me or be impolite to me, did you? And, I am certain you do not support Ms. JHK deleting factual, important, and valued text or important copyright-free photos from Wikipedia, do you? Plus, I am certain you do not support Ms. JHK humiliating erstwhile contributors by calling them "obtuse", "misrepresenters" and "liars" and driving them away, do you? Thank you Mr. User name Stan Shebs, I appreciate dilligent and valued contributors like you who are concerned about the quality of input at Wikipedia. Triton

Mr.Shebs, sir, I see that on May 26 someone logged in with a number deleted the list of monarchs at Austrasia. I am not qualified to know right from wrong editing on this matter so thought I should advise you as you are a person concerned with quality at Wikipedia and I respect that very much. Thank you sir, may your good efforts be blessed with many rays of sunshine. Triton

Hey - since you're the only Tolkien fan I can find around here (and there doesn't seem to have been much activity in the Tolkien pages since last fall), could I ask you to head on over to talk:Middle-earth? I posted a big bold comment at the top, and nobody's replied to it yet. And since I'm a newbie, I don't want to just blow something away like that.

Regarding your comment on User_talk:Angela: I'm sorry, I just assumed it was a mistake. I should have checked with you first. Angela. May 31 2003.

I probably won't have time right away for a full explanation about How to recognize a Michael edit ;), since I have to leave in 5 or 10 minutes, but one quick question to help me know how to write it: do you know IP CIDR netmask notation? Or in other words, if I write 152.163.128.0/17, would you have an idea what I'm talking about?

If you want a more immediate answer than I'll be able to provide, you might try asking Dante or one of the other folks who does a lot of those reversions. -- John Owens 00:00 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Oh, sorry, I did that. I should have written it here instead of on your page, John. Also, I forgot to mention: he edits from AOL, which you can look by pasting the suspected IP into the field at http://network-tools.com/ . Koyaanis Qatsi