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Happy editing, Isomorphic 09:49, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hello. This is just a polite note to let you know I'm reverting your ISO-9 changes and that I've explained why on Talk:Soviet Union. You might want to see Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(use_English). Note that this is not a complete and total objection to the use of ISO-9 that is causing my reversion, but the obfuscation of names. I would not revert you if the only change had been to change the transliteration of the Russian for 'Soviet Union', though I would still oppose such a thing personally. Morwen 16:26, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)

Hi Cantus, question for you at Image talk:Agassi Graf Son.jpg. Please mention source of the image and permission details. Jay 10:09, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

You've been silent about the questions. I've put up the image at Wikipedia:Possible copyright infringements. Jay 15:10, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hi Cantus. Please do not replace Russian accents with bold letters! The accents made with the U+0301 character are a standard thing, the bold letters are non-standard and ad hoc. Hold to standards! — Monedula 23:29, 25 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hello Cantus -- I've been ignoring your edits to hockey and tennis players, but we do have standards, and altering the Soviet Union article is a bit too much. Thanks, BCorr ¤ Брайен 19:20, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)

If an article needs to be moved to a new title, it is important that you use the "move article" feature. If you just copy and paste the article edit history will be lost. -- Infrogmation 23:58, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Meet me at the Wikipedia:Village pump#Transliterations from Russian. Mikkalai

I've replied to Mikkalai's post above. I've posted a proposal there and created a place for discussion at Wikipedia_talk:Naming_conventions_(places)#Transliteration_of_Russian_place_names. as a place to discuss all this. -- BCorr ¤ Брайен 03:21, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Could you stop changing all those standardized styles for intro paragraphs, births and deaths? Everyking 06:22, 28 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Please take my advice -- read up and slow down a bit

Dear Cantus,

I know that you're pretty new here, and while you are clearly a very knowledgeable person, most of your contributions are changing things to your personal preferences or what you have decided is better. This is causing a good deal of conflict. First, I want to ask that you please use the talk pages for discussions of major changes or removals of content.

For example, removing pictures unilaterally because you've decided it's an "unnecessary pic" is simply not acceptable. Moving important articles such as Raisa Gorbachev or Alexander Lukashenko -- or Luís Inácio Lula da Silva without discussing it on the article's talk page and getting some opinions first is also not acceptable. This is a collaborative project to create an encyclopedia.

While this is a wiki and everyone is encouraged to be bold in editing pages, you've been getting lots of feedback from a number of us that you are being too bold in your edits. I also want to say that I appreciate the fact that you're willing to talk about the naming conventions, etc. for Russian articles and people, and while it's still not clear to me from your comments whether you're willing to work towards a broader consensus, I'm more than willing to work with you to achieve that.

I hope that your apparent overzealousness in editing is due to a lack of familiarity with Wikipedia. In any event, though, I strongly urge you to take a respite from editing to review the following articles:

• Policies and guidelines
• Writers rules of engagement
• Faux pas avoidance
• Wikiquette
• Neutrality
• Civility
• Contributing to Wikipedia
• How to write a great article

You clearly have a lot of knowledge to share, and I hope that you will take my advice in the spirit it's intended, and become a valued contributor, rather than a source of conflict.

Thanks, BCorr ¤ Брайен 06:29, Feb 28, 2004 (UTC)

Cantus, please dont edit other people's contributions on talk pages! I just reverted your corrections to PMA's comment. If you want to clarify that he was incorrect in his comment, do so in you own comment below. This is considered a pretty severe breach of Wikiquette. Again, please take the time to read through the pages I cited above. -- BCorr ¤ Брайен 16:20, Feb 28, 2004 (UTC)

Hey Cantus, when you're reverting a page because of vandalism, it would behoove you to check that the edits you're reverting are in fact ACTUALLY VANDALISM. Which my edits to Duverger's Law were not. I fail to see how applying reverts blindly, with extreme prejudice, is supposed to improve Wikipedia. -- 160.39.246.46 03:59, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)

You removed a link to "two-party system" from Duverger's Law, citing "NPOV issues," yet you kept the text entirely unchanged. What was the point of this? Do you even know what "NPOV" means? -- 160.39.246.46 06:18, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)

You are linking to two-party system in the sentence "not necessarily harmful." This can be seen as if the author is saying that a two-party system is not necessarily harmful, which is a personal opinion, and therefore breaks the neutrality of Wikipedia.

I'm sorry. How exactly does linking to the article two-party system break neutrality? You realize the content of the article is unchanged, right? -- 160.39.193.101 20:26, 29 Feb 2004 (UTC)

User at 160.39.193.101 and 160.39.246.46, it would be really handy if you were to sign up for an account, so that there's a known venue to discuss issues with you. I've put a note on the Talk:Duverger's law page already, but it's not clear if you'll ever read it. Given the fact that you've been in a reversion back-and-forth a number of times on that article, it would be great to discuss before making further changes. -- RobLa 05:43, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Re: Spelling, you might find Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Usage_and_spelling interesting. Morwen 20:18, Mar 8, 2004 (UTC)

Polish spelling of Chernobyl is necessary, since both Russian and Ukrainian are cyrylic. Therefore there are many different English transcriptions. However, Polish name is already Latin and was in use, also in English speaking world, in relation to Ukrainian cities, that have Polish names. Cautious 11:46, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I have no objection to your replacement of the images on the Ampersand page, but I'm curious as to why you think the new illustrations are "better". -- Dominus

They are better. They look much clearer. Perl 03:21, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Well, the previous jaggy (aliased) images were unpleasant. That's all. -- Cantus 05:10, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. I hadn't noticed the jaggies until you pointed them out. -- Dominus 16:56, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your edits at the Madrid 11 attacks article. For us (spaniards) it is quite important. Pfortuny 18:04, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Could you please add to [[Image:MadridBlastMap.jpg]] some information on where the image comes from? It looks very professional; if it's been lifted off a news website I'm afraid it would probably constitute a copyvio. -- ChrisO 23:16, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Yeah. I have put a comment on the discussion page as well, asking from where this image is taken from... --Vikingstad 23:37, 13 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Are there not copyright implications from lifting stuff straight from the Associated Press? Evercat 00:46, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Definitely. The AP are very protective of their stuff. -- ChrisO 01:26, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Salve Cantus, the 911 days question is obsolet now: the video taps claims responsablility for the attack "2.5 years after 911" and someone has removed this part. I have now the experiance that explaining non-informations inside the Wikipedia is not working - or not the way I tried. So thank you for your try to work with this 911 days topic - I was wrong. RobertMichel 02:19, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Me dedico al artículo en inglés por inercia, porque los españoles ya tienen la radio y televisión, y porque se me da bien traducir fuentes originales a la lengua del imperio. Cuando la cosa se estabilice, a lo mejor me pongo y traduzco pacá y pallá. Miguel 03:38, 2004 Mar 14 (UTC)

Hi Cantus, you're doing great work on the Madrid article. Could you just try to put a few words in the edit summary each time please? If you look at the page history, it's very hard to figure out what you and Miguel are working on. Cheers, fabiform | talk 05:48, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC) :)

Hi there. When I do not put anything it's probably some copyediting or some missing comma or something really small. I'll try to put info more often in the future. -- Cantus 05:53, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi.  :) I thought that was what you were doing, but in that case it's even more important to put something in the summary like "typo" or "rm comma" or else anyone following the changes on the page has to check your edit only to discover you did something very small. See Wikipedia:Edit summary - it is recommended that put something in the edit summary every single time.  :) fabiform | talk 16:13, 14 Mar 2004 (UTC)

If you think the article should be at Mariana Trench because that's how Britannica names it, you can't just copy/paste the contents of Marianas Trench into the redirect. Well, you can, but what you've done is a no-no; you've lost the page history of the former article.

Also, why did you replace the intro of the article with one identical to Britannica's? It's two sentences, but it's still plagiarism.

In future, to avoid a mess like this, it is best to ask an admin to do the move for you; we can temporarily delete the page which makes moving the article otherwise impossible using the "Move this page" function (which is the proper way), and combine both pages' edit histories. Thanks for your consideration. -- Hadal 04:54, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi there, Hadal. Thank you for your message. I tried to move the page first, but was unable to do so, and since I have no idea of how to contact an admin, since I haven't found a list of admins on Wikipedia, I copy/pasted the info. Since I believe you are an admin, can you please do the change from 'Marianas Trench' to 'Mariana Trench' and keeping the history? 'Mariana Trench' wins by a margin in Google searches over 'Marianas Trench,' and has the seal of approval by Britannica. --Cantus 05:04, 21 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi there, Cantus. I'm sorry, but your request for me to take a look at the article arrived while I was asleep! I'm glad to see you found another admin to delete the old article for you. Arwel 12:15, 22 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi, welcome to Wikipedia.

Re: Switzerland, please use the summary field to explain your edits. If you want to edit tables in pipe-format, you can use the converter to switch from the <td> format. -- Docu

Hello. I was doing it by hand. Where is this converter? --Cantus 19:51, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Not sure if I should show it to you then. ;-)

It's at [1] and can also be downloaded 2.. You may want to use it to convert the version after I edited it. It looks like you wanted to re-add parts of the table/articles, I had removed/updated. As I haven't tested it, I can't guide you to build versions that don't take up too much space (compared to <td> ).

To debug the result/convert back to the <td>-format, try "View Source"/"Page Source". Personally I find the later easier to maintain.

BTW the official name in the local languages on United Kingdom mentions the language, but the tables in many other countries don't (there is just one language/or just a few). -- User:Docu

I respectfully disagree with you, particularly on the point of full sentences, but I think there are much more important and interesting things to deal with.
regards!
--Ruhrjung 19:09, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Good job on the Pinochet aticle. I just noticed the major overhaul today. It's great to see that you've been very active lately. We're really short of users working on the Latin America-related articles. 172 18:05, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Please take a moment to express your thoughts on this page, if you have the time. 172 00:39, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Hi Cantus, by now you should be aware of the copyright policy since I've left you a message before regarding this issue. There is no such thing as "fair use" without giving proper credit to the source. If the pictures are "fair use" you have to specify where you got them in their description page and then list them here to be voted. Please take the time to do it since it has legal implications for all of us. I've removed your picture of Fidel Castro again and I hope you take the proper steps with all your uploads to amend the situation.

If you need further help please visit Wikipedia:Fair use. Thanks, Ruiz 18:13, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

There is another picture in Fidel Castro that doesn't have copyright information, yet you haven't removed it. Why? Maybe you don't like the image of Castro and the Pope? If you're going to play policeman then at least play by the rules. --Cantus 19:08, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I removed yours because I was tracking your contributions; is not the first time you do it and you had been warned before. But you are right and I am about to do the same with the other pic. This is not personal, I DO think your contributions are quite good actually, but I am encouraging you to play by the rules. Ruiz 19:27, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I have already removed it for you, so go police some other user ;) --Cantus 19:31, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Please see Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions. And before moving articles, please discuss with people. I am inclined to agree with your last move as a good trade-off, but you must talk first. BTW, per Britannica (http://61.1911encyclopedia.org/T/TA/TATARS.htm) the people are called Tatars not Tatar, got it? Mikkalai

Maybe per the 1911 Britannica, but certainly not per the 2004 Britannica, got it? ;-) --Cantus 22:14, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

But 2004 would be copyvio, wouldn't it :-) 68.126.208.25

Besides, even in 2004 EB "tatar" is one person, while "tatars" are people. 68.126.208.25

Why did you remove all references to the Sinti? RickK | Talk 01:08, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Sinti has a separate article. Would you like to have an article English and Americans? Mikkalai 02:48, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Also, when you move a page, you have to fix double redirects. There are lots of them at [2]. Mikkalai 02:48, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

See Talk:Roma_(people) again. Rmhermen 03:30, Apr 4, 2004 (UTC)

Please answer my question at MediaWiki Talk:Asia. --Jiang 05:05, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The empty space above a headline must be larger than the empty space below, I fail to see how you can call it aesthetics when you make it the other way around. :-)))

--Ruhrjung 07:12, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Erm, we already have Mediawiki:Caribbean. WhisperToMe 04:01, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I know, but the correct name for all those groups of Islands is West Indies, not Caribbean. --Cantus 08:20, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Please don't copy any text from other encyclopedias as it is a copyright violation (no matter how small), since Wikipedia is also in the encyclopedia business and thus considered competition. Dori | Talk 05:35, Apr 6, 2004 (UTC)

Can you please show me some evidence of copy violation, please? You don't just throw these accusations like that. --Cantus 05:37, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Sure:

On Serbia and Montenegro:

"federated country situated on the west-central Balkan Peninsula. It is a union of two related states, the republics of Serbia (Srbija) and Montenegro (Crna Gora)."

On Britannica Online:

"federated country situated on the west-central Balkan Peninsula. It is a union of two related states, the republics of Serbia (Srbija) and Montenegro (Crna Gora)."

That's good enough for me to be considered a copyvio. What's your reasoning? Dori | Talk 05:46, Apr 6, 2004 (UTC)

Guilty as charged ;-). I was looking for some authorative info on the country and didn't bother on rewording what I found in Britannica. I should definitely reword it, though. --Cantus 06:06, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I am glad that you are admitting to it. That one has already been reverted, but you should change any copyvios that you might have done, and stop doing that in the future. This can get Wikipedia in trouble, and we simply don't need it. Thanks, Dori | Talk 06:07, Apr 6, 2004 (UTC)

The Arabic word Allah does not just mean "the God Muslims worship", it is used by Arabic-speaking Christians (who form a signifcant portion of Iraq's population) to mean "the God Christians worship". Therefore, translating Iraq's national motto as "Allah is great" is not only inaccurate, but insulting to the sizable Iraqi Christian minority, whose national motto it equally is. Please don't change translations of Arabic unless you know Arabic. - Mustafaa 23:56, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Great explanation, thanks! --Cantus 00:06, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Cantus, you have yet again reverted the New Zealand page to a version which does not follow Wiki style. Is that accidental or are you insisting on not following wiki style.? Moriori 00:19, Apr 7, 2004 (UTC)

It should be OK now. I didn't realize I was at the same time reverting some of your changes. --Cantus 00:31, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Note that membership to the commonwealth is restricted to independent and sovereign states. Please do not add the footer to dependencies. --Jiang 09:43, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

hi cantus. could you please keep the wikitable syntax in various mediawiki msg's, in general we're trying to move away from html syntax. also, i'm trying to reduce the font size for the lists by using <small> (an exception to not using html syntax) for the lists. i think it would be good to reduce the real estate/footprint of these boxes as jiang says they're already getting too big, esp. when you have 5 stacked on a page! ;-) cheers, Clarkk 10:42, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

You reverted 7 times in one day on the USA article. This is far too many. You need to limit yourself to a maximum of three per day or there is a risk you will be subjected to a quickpoll and be blocked for a day. Instead I would suggest you allow all view points to be represented in the article. -- Nunh-huh 08:49, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Your accusation is laughable. I have only reverted 2 times, and at least once I was reverting your reversion of my edits (which means that you have also engaged in reverting). Please use diff in Page History. --Cantus 08:57, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Looks like seven to me. & edits in one day to insist on your own words alone. It doesn't matter WHO you were reverting only that you were reverting someone to achieve your phrase and no other. - Nunh-huh 09:05, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Which doesn't mean anything. You can make any number of edits you desire, unless they are pure reverts, and of those seven edits, the last two are pure reverts. The others have been edits OVER what was previously added by the user, that means editing using what was previously INCLUDED by that user. I told you to use diff to compare my edits to that of the last user. You can compare two edits by clicking in the check boxes. I have only reverted twice, and I remain pretty confident about that. --Cantus 09:25, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Looks like edit warring to maintain your "chosen phrase" to me rather than compromise. The fact that they weren't "exact" reverts is no way to evade the rule. Think of a formulation you do not object to that mentions tha tthe use is proper and we will need to revert no more. Specifically, what do you object o in "* The use of the word America to mean the United States of America is regarded by some people in Latin American countries as inaccurate and even offensive. No known English-language dictionary labels this use as offensive. " - Nunh-huh 09:26, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

No dictionary will ever say that 'x' term is offensive in 'x' language, or to people who speak 'x' language. That is obvious. All I'm adding is a 'did-you-know' kind of note to the term, so that US-citizens are wary not to use the term in front of Latin Americans.

It's late, so I'll go, but I'll be back again...

--Cantus 09:37, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

That's fine, when you get back let me know why you object to "No known English-language dictionary labels this use as offensive? " to balance your point of view that it is offensive. - Nunh-huh 09:40, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I'll change your changes on MediaWiki:SFRY according to these propositions:

• Independent republics of the former {SFRY|Yugoslavia} to:
• Socialist republics of the former Yugoslavia

and:

• Autonomous provinces of Serbia to
• Autonomous republics of the former Yugoslavia

since these republics were named so officially. Is this all right? Best regards. --XJamRastafire 21:27, 9 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. WhisperToMe 03:00, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Some reputed sources:

Mongolia (Britannica 2004)

Khalkha Mongolian Mongol Uls, also called Outer Mongolia country located in north-central Asia.

Central Asia (Britannica 2004)

Central Asia consists of the republics of Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Mongolia (World Book 2002)

Mongolia, pronounced mong GOH lee uh, is a country in east-central Asia. It lies between Russia and China. Ulan Bator is the capital and largest city.

Asia > Way of life in Central Asia (World Book 2002)

Central Asia includes Tibet, Qinghai, and Xinjiang, which lie in western China, and the independent nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Mongolia (CIA World Factbook 2003)

Location: Northern Asia, between China and Russia

So we have, (1) north-central, (1) east-central, (1) central and (1) northern Asia. central is mentioned 3 times, while east only once, in these sources.

--Cantus 07:14, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

That should tell you that Mongolia should be mentioned in East Asia as "Mongolia is sometimes considered as part of this region".

Just because you have more sources that say that Mongolia is in Central Asia doesn't mean that it is "correct" that Mongolia is in Central Asia. Mongolia can be defined as part of both regions. Therefore, both regions should mention Mongolia. WhisperToMe 20:47, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Why are you constantly moving Kosovo and Metohia to Kosovo? Nikola 06:40, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I know Kosovo is not a country (yet), but country pages in Wikipedia are usually titled by their short name. --Cantus 07:18, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

They are titled by their name without official prefix, but rest of the name is fully included: witness Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro and Trinidad and Tobago. Nikola 07:28, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

In my Safari about box it says: 1.2.1 (v125.1). It's the normal OS X 10.3.3 Safari. --Nate Silva 04:57, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

In the Spanish version, it says 1.2. When you switch to English, the About Box says 1.2.1. This is Apple's problem. I have changed it to 1.2.1 in the article. --Cantus 21:34, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

OK, Shnorrer and Schnorrer now redirect to each other and there is no content. RickK 08:48, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia is slow as molasses right now and I can't make the necessary change. --Cantus 08:53, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Why do you insist on having Schnorrer give a link to Karl Schnörrer, an article that doesn't even have any content? --Thorn 05:11, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Cantus has been blocked for 24 hours for violating the three-revert rule on Schnorrer and Shnorrer. RickK 09:09, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Unblocked - requires a quickpoll to block for excessive reverts. No quickpoll taken. Martin 19:30, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

As Danny said, I can do whatever I damn please with my Talk page, including deleting others messages. Using this same criteria is that Danny got away with deleting my messages from Wik's Talk page.

Deleting material such as that just looks sneaky, and is generally considered somewhere between rude and dishonest. It does not help your cause. - Fennec 05:29, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I love double standards -- It doesn't help anybody's cause. --Cantus 05:33, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Their alleged behaviour is independent of yours. I know that Wik, for one, has recieved criticism for various actions of his in the past. I don't know about Danny, but I suspect that if he has done anything truly questionable then he would have been censured as well. In any event, bad behaviour of another user does not justify bad behavior on your part. - Fennec 05:42, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

If bad behavior means reverting a Talk page because the user deleted your comments (which were not in violation of any Wikipedia policy), then, you're right, my bad. The truth is the only real bad behavior from my part was reverting Danny's deletions of my messages too many times (he insisted on deleting my comments), and vandalising Wik's page after he had vandalized mine. --Cantus 05:50, 13 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Cantus - Midway Islands is the old WW II name for what is correctly called Midway Atoll today. It is only one island that is geologically an atoll. I've actually never heard the term "Midway Islands" and I live in Hawaii and have been to Midway - Marshman 06:44, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC).

(wearing hat as arbitrator) Wik has brought up some complaints about your alleged behaviour on wikipedia:requests for arbitration/Wik2. I would be grateful if you could provide a brief statement there, and provide any evidence you may have at wikipedia:requests for arbitration/Wik2/Evidence. Thanks. Martin 21:44, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I will gladly offer my opinion on this issue. Thanks. --Cantus 22:07, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I have create a poll at talk:Augusto Pinochet on how to describe the CIA's role in the coup against Allende. Please vote and/or comment. --Uncle Ed 14:13, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

It's not a mess now that you're voted been changed. Keep the two polls as they are not. This is far less confusing. 172 23:23, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)