Anders Torlind/Talk

Nice work on the mythos, Anders. This is beginning to look like this is going to be the definitive word on the Net about it already... sjc

Thanx Steve! There are a couple of really good sites in Swedish and Norwegian tho, but they lack analysis and extensive history sections. So when we have them, we are on top :-) -- Anders Torlind

Yes, I have struggled with them with my pathetic Danish... sjc

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I really like the entry for Magick, Anders - far and away the best cross-reference we've got! --MichaelTinkler

Thanx...I think. Never really could see the true point of the exotic spelling :-) --Anders Torlind

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I see what you mean, Anders. The Battle of Lutzen won't link because it's got an umlaut.

Yup. Kinda like [[Anders Törlind]], and a host of other personal names and cities outside of the anglo-american language sphere :-)

I don't think I had ever truly appreciated the wonders of English spelling (people whine, but we're the only people able to type with nothing but a shift key since we have no little marks!), but this is an inadequate system for representing world languages. --MichaelTinkler

Or to put it another way, <conspiracy_theory> all the marks that English does need, the Americans placed on the standard typewriter keyboard decades ago just to spite the world! </conspiracy_theory> ((grin))

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You campaign appears in the recent changes comments; I think that is very rude. --drj

Why do you think it is rude? --Anders

I believe others have answered for me by now. Basically, there is a mechanism for debate and suggestions and you are not using it; respect the conventional way of doing things. Obviously you are right, this wiki should change, but your methods are not endearing. To take an extreme anaology, just because you have a right to free speech doesn't give you a right to come round to my house and shout through my letterbox. --drj

It clutters up the page, takes up screen real estate and has a belligerent unpleasant tone to people, largely volunteers, who probably have other things to do. Where do you get the idea that you can say what "must" be done? What will the repercussions be? -- GWO

Have you considered the [[Battle of Lutzen|Battle of Lützen]] form? That's how I've been getting around it in a variety of places....Paul Drye

I can clearly see that it takes up screen real estate, and that is unfortunate. It as also a bit of the point. In order to make the point, people must see the message. I do not to spam for the sake of spamming, note that every aricle has additional content after i've been there. Also: Who am i rude to? I have as far as i know i have accused noone of nothing. I am merely stating an opinion (a strong one, granted). As for "must"...well, i for one am not content with seeing things like the [[Battle of Lützen]] not link properly, and i do think that even this version of Wikipedia must be enabled to handle such things, just as the german version does. As for the Lützen? solution, it is clearly inferior. In this instance, it might work, but umlaut is not just cosmetic (sometimes a hard point to get across): In many instances it will mean two subjects end up in the same article when they are not in any way related. Furthermore, the recent changes page have a low persistence, and all entries with the "(I declare that Wikipedia must support international characters)" text will be gone in one day. See also [Cato the Censor]? and the [Punic War]? for a historical example of successful nagging. Long winded rant, but at least there IS a debate going on now, which i see as a step forward. --Anders Törlind

There is no debate, we're just tellling you that spamming is rude. Yes wiki should support intl. chars, but there are better much better places to make this point (the mailing lists, for example, which will be read by the coders i.e. THOSE PEOPLE WITH THE POWER TO UPGRADE THE SOFTWARE). On Recent Changes, you're just pissing off us powerless volunteers. So quit it.

• The software is being worked on, but it, like everything else here is a voluntary effort. Please look at what is changing (see Wikipedia Announcements for Sept 29 and [1]) and put you comments on the beta software where the developers can sse them. -- mike dill

Excellent! I shall look into it immediately :-) --Anders Törlind

The newest version of UseMod (actually ready since early June or so) does support international character. (Check in any of the non-spanish wikipedia). The problem is, that that version also does other things, like changing the capitalization of links rules (in capitalizes every first letter of a multiword title), so, if we put that version here now, we would lose about half our articles (maybe not that many, but a lot anyway). That happened on the Spanish wikipedia, that was up when the change happened. Fortunately, it only had a few articles ten, so rewriting then was no problem. But, in the case of wikipedia, something must be done before. AN