User talk:Ihcoyc/archive 2

Pronounciation guides

Why are you putting in those pronounciation guides? They are unworkable in the content of wikipedia. Such guides work where there is (i) recognition of what they mean, (ii) a broad experience of usage of them, (iii) relevant context. Most people writing international english for a non-academic audience run a mile from these things because they are not widely used in much of the world and so in many cultures completely incomprehensible, and because they pre-suppose a clear shared standard of english, which in Wikipedia's case cannot be guaranteed because while for some users it is a first language, for many it is a second or other language that they are not wholly fluent in. The sensible approach in a cultural context where there isn't the culture, comprehension or experience of these guides is to avoid unduly complex pronounciation formulae and explain the pronounciation in basic english of the sort all readers everywhere can follow. FearÉIREANN 19:28, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Ruhrjung had requested that this be done on Wikipedia:Pages needing attention. I volunteered to carry out his suggestion; it wasn't my idea. His reason for doing so, if I may paraphrase, is that references to English orthography and English "phonetic" renderings are vague and misleading to non-native speakers, and that SAMPA renditions are much less ambiguous. Each of the SAMPA renditions replaces an English "phonetic" spelling. If you think it's a project not worth doing, you may want to take up the cudgel with him, there. -- Smerdis of Tlön 19:39, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't want to remove them from the Irish pages without checking with you as you had done a lot of work on them. I asked some people visiting me here to review the pages (one is a professor) and all couldn't make head or tail of them. I think they are unwise in a wiki context. FearÉIREANN 19:52, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Hello! Please! Do correct me! I know my english spelling is a nightmare and I want to improve! Cheers, Muriel Gottrop

Trolls appreciate your attempt to improve subject-object problem. However, you have obscured the simpler stuff by leaping to the more complex stuff. It's true that Hegel's dialectic etc. generalizes the subject-object problem and sees it everywhere, but linguists see it in such things as the Penan's "we". This is not a problem "primarily or only for Marxists," that's just nonsense. It's probably more basic to feminists and greens, all of whom have different issues with statements made, especially in economics, from "no body" perspectives.

Suggestion: put the simple language and literature stuff up front, and leave the question of how general the problem is to later. And read cognitive bias, and notation bias, to satisfy yourself that these are science problems as well. Anthropic bias has been vandalized again but it is somewhere in User:Cyan's space right now.

I admit that I found the article as I found it pretty unintelligible and assuming a POV, which is why I tried to supply some background for it that explained for whom this was a concern, what the roots of the concept was. This is why I put it on Wikipedia:Cleanup. After looking at a number of sources, I decided that what it needed was an explanation of where it was coming from, for whom it was a concern, and why. I tried to supply that.

You might want to get a user name so that I can write you. I came across the article mostly because I've contributed to a number of linguistics and grammar articles, and thought this was one of them. I have to admit I was pretty baffled at the outset by what was there. We do need a better series of articles about the grammatical concept of person. Many languages have dual numbers, and multiple levels of exclusiveness in person. Most involve including or excluding the speaker or the addressee; and others involve excluding non-members of the clan. There's one South American native language that includes non-members in the "food" noun class. I'm not sure how the cause of universal equality is served by this, but there it stands. };-) -- Smerdis of Tlön 01:08, 2 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Hi, the article on pow-wow the folk magic system has been moved to Pow-wow (folk magic). Please see the Talk page there for the discussion. Thank you, Gentgeen 10:17, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Ihcoyc, always nice to run into you on Wikipedia: I think you and I have similar intentions and modus operandi here. I came across your medieval poetry page (I say "your" as you've invested almost all the time thus far), which I have to say is a very nice complement to the page I've been spending time working on (medieval literature): I had worried that I had given poetry short shrift in what I'd written at ML, so an MP page is wonderful to see. I say all this because I think Wikipedians should spend more time congratulating each other. Also, as a preface to one minor question: you list Dante as a Latin poet. I am not familiar with his minor works...is it only the Divine Comedy that is in Italian, or is all of his work in Italian? I was inclined to move him to a new Italian category, but realized I'm no great expert on Dante, and thought I'd see why you listed him as you did. You can let me know if you like...obviously it's not of huge importance. Best wishes and happy editing, Jwrosenzweig 23:29, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Dante's Latin verse is pretty derivative and insufferable stuff, like most humanistic Latin, but it's out there. He peppers De Monarchia with Latin verse, and wrote a number of Epistles entirely or partly in Latin verse. I can look up some other titles if you are interested. -- Smerdis of Tlön 04:34, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Nominating you for admin

Ihcoyc, I just wanted you to know that, after leaving that note here, for some reason I asked myself if you were an admin. Discovering that you were not, I immediately nominated you here. I feel odd being the one to nominate you, as you've been here twice as long as me, with four times the contributions, and as you were one of the first experienced users to help me during my first month here, but someone has to, in my opinion. You do excellent work! I hope that you will accept, but will of course understand if you don't desire the post: in either case, as per Wikipedia policy I am informing you of the nomination and asking you to reply at the Requests for adminship page regarding your rejection or acceptance of the nomination. Jwrosenzweig 23:43, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Thanks -- will look in and reply there. -- Smerdis of Tlön 04:34, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Too seldom does one stop to say how great someone's work is. Let this be the moment when I stop and say, that article on Alliterative verse is outstanding. Thank you for writing it! OlofE 00:03, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Glad it was enjoyed. That one was rather interesting to write, and describing drottkvætt intelligibly is a challenge I'm not sure I succeeded at. -- Smerdis of Tlön 04:34, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Not to worry, it is very adequate! I can't think of a way to improve it - I did try and could not find a need for improvement! OlofE 08:35, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Tell you what -- some time ago I self-nominated that article on Wikipedia:Brilliant prose candidates. If you like it, I could use a second on that page. -- Smerdis of Tlön 15:11, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

You're now an administrator. -- Tim Starling 02:40, Nov 20, 2003 (UTC)

I just wanted to say I appreciated your very sensible article on Nonsense. Cheers, -- Infrogmation 15:48, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Thanks. I am, of course, an authority on the subject. . . . Smerdis of Tlön 16:36, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Yes, very fine indeed! -- Viajero 21:48, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Alliterative verse

Just read Alliterative verse and enjoyed it a lot, so I thought I'd drop by and say so. Bmills 16:48, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Poetess

Experiencing a Page cannot be displayed nightmare, so I missed your changes to the pare. Fine now, but I'd really like to remove the external link, which is, how shall I put it, unencyclopedic. Ms Rich is a pain, and we have her Irish camp follower, Eavan Boland, but this is not the forum for us to vent this kind of spleen.

By the way, why not join Wikipedia:WikiProject poetry? You're badly needed. Bmills 15:17, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Aw c'mon! That came up fairly early when I Googled on "poetess" when I first made that article. I found it one of the more literate and amusing Web quizzes, so I couldn't resist. . . but I did take it off the poetess article. Will look into the project. -- Smerdis of Tlön 16:11, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for joining up: Some really useful additional links on the poetry page. Bmills 09:19, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Nice work on Kircher additions especially the frontispiece to Oedipus, brilliant downloading work!Norwikian 07:13, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC) You say coffin, he say casket, coffin, casket, coffin, casket, let's call the whole thing off! AS for your describing yourself as more old-fashioned than Hawthorne, surely not, i never had any luck trying to find Hawthorne editing on the web, well thanks again anywayNorwikian 07:17, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Glad you enjoyed it. You might want also to see if you have anything to add to Voynich manuscript -- Smerdis of Tlön 16:37, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Thanks

Thank you for supporting my sysop application. Bmills 13:07, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

No problem -- Smerdis of Tlön 16:37, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

IHCOYC XPICTOC'S IMPERIVM ROMANVM SACRVM

Hello, thanks for voting for me at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship. I saw your nickname (IHCOYC) and I remembered a website with great artistic pictures I had visited years ago, created by a person using this nickname. I wondered whether you are the same person, so I checked your website and I found again the IHCOYC XPICTOC'S IMPERIVM ROMANVM SACRVM! I am impressed! :) Your artistic skills are great. These heroines full of muscles are really very sexy. What program do you use and do you still draw similar pictures? by the way I was also a C64 user. happy to see you in wikipedia! best wishes and Peace Profound, Optim 03:40, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Oh, dear, my dark secret is out. . . . :) I still occasionally draw them, though it seems my time is more scattered anymore. FWIW, I use mostly Corel PhotoPaint to draw with. - Smerdis of Tlön

btw, do u know greek? just wondering. Peace Profound Optim 05:15, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I read some Greek, though it's been a while, and I didn't get much farther than struggling through the Anabasis in college; my Latin is much stronger than my Greek, I'm afraid. I can't follow much of the modern stuff. -- Smerdis of Tlön 05:44, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)