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Latest comment: 16 years ago3 comments1 person in discussion
Hey JK, thanks for stepping in and saving us from future troubles - it's always easier to change things before they're very large. I posted a reply on the discussion page; let us know what you think.
Heh, that's funny. After moving Biblical Overview to a more specific title, I went over to Salvation to do the same. Found your comment; guess we're thinking along similar lines now. I'm on it
The article is moved, but I have a few reservations about it (the article, not the move). I didn't grab a specific denominational stance, rather I labeled it according to the method of scriptural interpretation I used instead. Thus, it doesn't constitute a summary of an already established position; rather it reflects original research - my own.
The reason I didn't choose a denominational stance is twofold:
I find that denominational biases tend to inhibit unbiased interpretation of scripture, but more importantly
I didn't cite any denominational references in the article. Pegging it onto a specific denomination in its current form would be unscholarly.
So I wanted to ask your advice concerning this article. I had hoped to contain only references to scripture within the actual article, to (as stated above) avoid denominational biases. Because of that the article is original research, and should probably be tagged as such. What is the appropriate method of tagging original research on Wikiversity?
Also, I was reading about Disclosures, and I wonder if using the Disclosures template might help resolve some of the bias issues of using a literal-normal interpretation technique. What do you think about that?
Latest comment: 16 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Hey, JK.
I noticed that you commented on the Wikiversity:Disclosures page (like a year ago), and I wanted to ask - do you know what's going on with that proposed policy? Nobody's commented on it since last year. Was anything ever decided?
Latest comment: 15 years ago6 comments1 person in discussion
Hi. Thanks for your comments about project boxes. The project boxes project is a little bit large. I may have explained some of the points I made elsewhere, but you're not the first to have misunderstood the rather obscure programmatic possibilities behind these things! It's good that I should have to explain them more. The project box thing is also very incomplete - one of a huge number of mega-projects I'm less than halfway through... Nothing worse than a half-finished mega-project! I hope my points made sense. See you on the talk page if they don't. --McCormack11:20, 10 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
OK - I have an initial experiment for you to try out. This is really to see what you like and get some feedback for further changes. The code {{history|subcat=History of Medieval China}} produces the box on the right, using the parameter "subcat". This allows you to change the category to whatever you like, and use the project box as well if you like it. Additionally, a note is added to the template text explaining the subcategorisation. The wording could be changed - for example, one could simple write "this is a [subcat] resource". What do you think? --McCormack06:32, 11 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Thanks for your suggestions. One restriction we need to stay within is that of using "parameter names" - i.e. {{history|subcat=History of Medieval China}} rather than {{history|History of Medieval China}}. The problem with unnamed parameters is that they must be ordered, which becomes impossible on these subject box templates as they have so many options. BTW, the many-options thing is something which responds to earlier criticism of the boxes - earlier on, other people wanted other kinds of flexibility in the boxes. Somehow the project boxes engender strong feelings (rather like user boxes on Wikipedia), so I have to cater for lots of demands. --McCormack06:52, 11 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Template:spy experiments with new features on the category tree system. Place it on category pages with no parameter, or place it on any other page and specify a category using the "cat" parameter. It will display a reverse category tree allowing you to see all the way up the categorisation scheme. Great for category maintenance. --McCormack07:46, 11 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Thanks very much. Well, it seems like what you're doing personally would also be valuable activities to do as a group - I haven't exactly worked out yet how this project will become useful, so your ideas are most welcome. :-) Cormaggiotalk07:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Sure. :-) I've learnt from the ethics project's case studies fiasco that, sometimes, individuals working on separate stories is possibly a good way to start, instead of forcing everyone into a NPOV space. In any case, we're all to some extent individually figuring out the methodology for the learning project as a whole - so I'd like us all to follow and discuss each other's work, without turning the activity into a competition for who's version will 'win'. Cormaggiotalk08:03, 12 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Hello Jade Knight/Archives/2008, we are the Baah and Bahh twins and we'd both like to welcome you to Wikiversity. While you sit back and explore Wikiversity, enjoy some of our fresh goat milk. You can help us learn by creating new learning resources or help us by improving the guided tours and other exploration tools. We look forward to seeing you around. Baaaahbye for now.
Latest comment: 15 years ago4 comments1 person in discussion
I'm trying to keep spirits up, particularly my own.
I just participated in some interesting IRC chat where I learned that one particular Wikiversity participant has felt intimidated by me. I am wondering how you felt after posting this talk page comment. On my talk page it says, "If something I have done upsets you, please let me know." What that means is: please come to my talk page and tell me what I have done wrong. I really do want to know. I really am interesting in changing my behavior when it causes a problem. I need feedback and I do want to talk to people. I just read an email from Hillgentleman in which he said: "a community of volunteers can work only if its members are happy". If you are unhappy about our past interactions, please talk to me about it. --JWSchmidt16:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
"I hope you'll forgive me if I'm terribly straightforward" <-- I might have trouble forgiving you if you were not straightforward!
"you simply view the goals of Wikiversity somewhat differently than I do" <-- I would like to explore this with you in more detail.
"I am bothered by your pointed "learning projects" which are designed to be arguments against certain ideologies." <-- I assume you are making reference to my "pointed" editing that arises from the fact that I think Wikiversity should welcome new contributors and help them learn to edit and that I object to the deletion of under-developed pages that can potentially be improved into useful learning resources. The problem is that when I just politely suggest that we can welcome new editors rather than delete their work, some people ignore me and keep deleting. I believe that it is a valid educational strategy to make silly and unusual learning resources that attract the attention of people who are ignoring me and what I feel are important parts of Wikiversity culture. What does it hurt if I make a silly over-the-top analogy between barbarians and deletionists? I don't mind some of my learning projects being called "parody" because they are parody in the sense that they are intended to broaden understanding of a topic. This kind of parody might also be called "satire" because I hope to make people examine their approach to a topic and decide for themselves if their previous approach was the best one available.
"I am bothered by your explicit and implicit condemnation of individuals" <-- "condemnation" is a rather strong term. I suppose we could say that part of the job of a custodian is to condemn vandals. In other aspects of Wikiversity I do not feel that I have a role to play in condemning editors. I do question and challenge other editors to defend their editing. When I do this in a public forum I do expect other people to notice what is going on and think about the editing that I am challenging. In the case of people who tell me that they will not listen to me, I feel challenged to find "pointed" learning devices that will make them listen to me. In my view, if they do not enjoy my "pointed" learning devices then they should recognize that it would be better for everyone to just talk to me.
"you seem unaware that your concept of Wikiversity is only one of many" <-- I assume you mean that I am a strong advocate for my view of what the WMF-approved mission of Wikiversity includes. When I was helping establish Wikiversity as a WMF project, I worked hard to make its scope very broad. I continue to defend that approach. I do recognize that some people are not interested in having such a broad scope for Wikiversity. I'm sure there are many other differences between my view of Wikiversity and the views of others.
"your use of straw man arguments" <-- I wonder if you are familiar with A Modest Proposal. I suppose you could call "A Modest Proposal" a straw man argument, but doing so would totally miss the point of what is going on. Sometimes I create silly and over-the-top analogies in the hope that people will be stimulated to think and learn. Is this educational strategy dishonest? I think not. Yes, I hope my learning exercises are effective, but they are tools designed to stimulate thought, not trick people.
"I have a very hard time imagining that a good faith user would think dishonesty would be an appropriate tool to support his views." <-- I think we need to examine this in more detail. I have a strong personal commitment to honesty. It troubles me that you think I am dishonest. Maybe you could make a list of things I have said that you think are dishonest and then we can discuss them in detail. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me! --JWSchmidt02:14, 17 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Rude
"I want to apologize if I come across as overly hard. I must say I've been significantly irked by some of these things lately, and so when writing about them I may not appear as calm as I otherwise might wish to. I'm not trying to offend, and I apologize if my tone seems rude." <-- I do not recall ever thinking that you are rude. When you and I were editing collaboratively at Albanian sea port history I was having fun being silly with you. I apologize for any offense I caused. I think of you as a friend and hope you can forgive me for having caused you pain. Causing you distress way not my intention. I did hope you would read the silly page I was making and think about the idea of expanding pages rather than deleting them. My goal was to promote thought, not antagonism.
"what is silly to one may be extremely offensive to others" <-- yes, this is very true! "Respect is important." <-- I have lived most of my life in a culture where it is expected that everyone "show respect" by challenging each person's ideas. I'm sorry if my drive to examine ideas was too aggressive and caused stress. I have learned the need to slow down and be less pushy. Can you forgive me for being aggressively playful to the extent that all you saw was aggression? Maybe you need to wait and see if I do change....I can understand that.
"I am opposed to such parodies being located at major portals." <-- I'm sorry that my approach offended you. I won't do that again. I was trying to deal with a problem I was having and I selected an approach that did not work. I live and learn from my errors...particularly when people talk to me and tell me what is wrong.
If you want people to talk calmly, you're better off using other forms of object lessons (and doing more direct talking to them). <-- Yes, I see this now. Thanks for explaining it to me.
"You may want to reconsider your use of loaded rhetoric in the future, as it is most likely only to offend." <-- I will do so. I hope you understand that my use of "loaded rhetoric" was intended to get people to think.
it is very important that you present your opponent's arguments in as fair and neutral a manner as possible, if you intend to be honest. <-- I got into the habit of expecting others to pitch in and edit so as to correct any problems I was creating. I love to learn by collaborative editing. I spend a large amount of time at another wiki making collaborative fiction. I am in the habit of moving back-and -forth at the boundary between fact and fiction....I find that to be a good way for me to learn.
"you need to be thinking a lot more about how to avoid offending people than you do about ensuring that their contributions* are in line with your vision of Wikiversity." This is where feedback is important. I'm serious about the message at the top of my user page. I need people to give me feedback, particularly when I annoy them.
Thanks for taking the time to explain everything to me. If I again fail to live up to your expectations, please let me know right away. Thanks! --JWSchmidt16:41, 17 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
mess vs. being rude to newcomers issue
I have an idea that I have been thinking about....I do not really like the idea, but it might get a conversation going. The idea is that we could have a "Training:" namespace where I could collect and curate "mess and garbage" pages created by new users. Rather than delete a stub page, we would move it to the "Training:" namespace. If the page gets developed, then we could move it back to the main namespace. What do you think? --JWSchmidt01:09, 18 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
History category
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest comment: 15 years ago2 comments1 person in discussion
I see you aren't a fan of them either [1] :-). This seems to stem from WV:MOS#Article names... but that's never been discussed as official (actually it looks like it was mostly just imported from Wikipedia). Any interest in updating it? --SB_Johnnytalk10:30, 28 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Honestly I'm not even sure where the nails are, but a coffin sounds good :-). I did find the other page this morning (voted), and I really think much less complicated/restricted policies like b:WB:MOS and b:WB:NP would work better (the "grandfather clause" stuff on the WB naming policy is because early on people used a colon instead of a slash, because subpages weren't enabled in the main namespace in the early days). I actually did most of the writing on b:WB:LMOS a while ago (long story why), and I kind of like the idea of each project just coming up with a style that works for the people participating in it. --SB_Johnnytalk11:48, 28 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Talking with John
Latest comment: 15 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Hi Michael, I know that you were, as you say, "beginning to have productive conversation" with John - and I'm very sorry that this block has got in the way of that. However, you can still continue the conversation on his talk page. Personally, I'm finding it very difficult to have a productive conversation with him - see User talk:JWSchmidt#Teamwork - I wonder if you had anything to say to either of us, or any interjections of your own? Cormaggiotalk10:18, 3 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
Moulton, your behavior recently has hardly been respectful and mature; I dare say it has been disrespectful; blocking is not the most heinous action one can take on Wikviersity, I'm afraid. I do hope you read my comment about what goes on at "real universities"? It's not a matter of locking anyone up, see; it's simply a matter of stripping them of their position as professor; they're still welcome to learn like anyone else, or become a professor elsewhere. No one is forcing them to stay in a closet, or gagging them, or kicking them, or binding them, etc. Now, they may not like this, and they're welcome to tell other universities how horrible the university who discharged them was. The Jade Knight(d'viser)03:35, 4 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
Perhaps because language is used by disturbed adolescents? I have seen professors be forced to leave universities, yes. It's not that terribly uncommon for professors lacking tenure, actually—most universities build entire systems designed to make this very easy to do. But realize that these are your disturbing and adolescent metaphors; you appear to be the only one here that feels that there's any kicking and throwing into lockers going on. As to your first question: I actually see failing to respect others as one of the worst things one can do on Wikiversity. Failing to accept consensus comes close. Of course, if someone blocked another user in such away that both a) failed to accept consensus, and b) failed to respect others (per our other discussions), this would be triply bad. You may want to ask why no one apart from yourself (and him) has yet demanded that JWSchmidt be unblocked (though a great many people, myself included, have expressed dissatisfaction with the block). Now, Moulton, would you please stop wasting my time with silly questions (such as why you happen to make the linguistic choices you do)? I, frankly, am not sure why I show you so much courtesy right now, as you seem to have shown little respect to consensus and policy (and, frankly, fairness); there are, I'm sure, at least 3 dozen things I'd much rather be doing at Wikiversity then spend all this time humouring you. I definitely believe I could appreciate interacting with you constructively on Wikiversity. However, I would consider it a show of respect on your part if you would respect Wikiversity policy for a few weeks and come back after these community issues have been resolved and things have calmed down more. Please? The Jade Knight(d'viser)15:11, 4 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 15 years ago3 comments1 person in discussion
I went through and updated the Department of American History. What do you think of the changes? Also, i will be teaching a survey course of US History. Geo.plrd06:22, 6 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Do google rankings really work that way ;-)?
In any case, bear in mind that I volunteered to take the heat, and I'm not deeply offended. I think it's better to take a chance and hope for the best rather than take the "lockdown" approach. Wikiversity itself is an experiment, and while we of course hope for the best, we should also be realistic: experiments often fail. The trick is to not give up on experimenting (or hope) when an experiment fails. Does that make any sense? --SB_Johnnytalk22:07, 8 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
History Departments
Latest comment: 15 years ago4 comments1 person in discussion
I noticed that you made some proposals on mergers. I am considering taking the information at Topic:Philosophy of History and converting it into a course through the department of historiography (Introduction to History). This would kill a dormant department and create a necessary course in one fell swoop. Additionally, I noticed your proposal to convert American History to North American History. I think this is a good idea and will be implementing it shortly. Before I take such radical actions, I want to make sure that you have no objections. Do you? Geo.plrd20:12, 12 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
I will start building a pan-asian department in my userspace. I will also start building the course. I doubt anyone will object to Philosophy of History being canned, but will post there anyway. Geo.plrd05:27, 13 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
The course shall include most of the stuff on the page. I will move the page to a archive of Historiography, if no one objects. Geo.plrd05:34, 13 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
I added my time zone to my entries on the Mentoring page, but I'm not sure where CST is in relation to UTC, so if you could affix that I'd appreciate it. I hope you'll forgive any mistakes I make with any entries; I am new to Wikiversity and just learning as I go (even improvising in some cases).--KirbyPuckettFan20:26, 21 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
US History
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
We have made up our minds! we are revamping the US history book; it doesn't meet its purposes and it is better to severely edit it, than fight against it being in the featured book, with AP US history.
I have always maintained that I am no great writer, So I appreciate any help or advice I could get. Basically after two weeks of intense discussions with everyone; eventually I just needed to 'be bold' and get on with it. Not much will happen over the weekend, but all ready the first many chapters of the book has been quite reorganized, though obviously not rewritten. Topic content has been meticilously defined by the college board, so we'll be lots of 'moving around' of things.
feel free to browse. I'm wondering if I need to archive talk pages that refer to content that will soon be Dramitically different--Jolie19:22, 24 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
On Cormaggio's talk page
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
It's not a huge onus, but since you're often around during hours when none of the other custodians are, you can do wonders watching the RC feed :-). --SB_Johnnytalk11:51, 29 October 2008 (UTC)Reply
The actual courses we have on fr.WV are more like an amount of grammar, and the discussion was about "how to build a way of learning for someone who discovers a language". It were proposed several ways (depending on the preferences of the learner) and an example model was done.
Latest comment: 15 years ago3 comments1 person in discussion
RfA or RfAR? RfAR case was rejected. Durova's 2+ year old RFC against me never got signers. FT2 even demonstrated he didn't have the facts right about the case. I do not accept the harassment I received. Since it was articles with such harassment were deleted, reasonable people aren't able to see the evidence. Reasonable people do notice I was blocked, but also notice the time of the block didn't allow me to respond to the RfAR. I requested oversight of more harassment -- no response.
Any more case studies you want to bring up here at Wikiversity? Should we now say it is acceptable to bring up case studies here on Wikiversity? The word was that it was unacceptable for now, but I see you play the case study card. Did something change since Moulton was blocked? I rather have Cormaggio answer my questions on his RfCU. I noticed you have added, several times, your comments in my sections instead of where it could be asked on my talk page, on the RfCU talk page, or on the community discussion section. If you are familiar with RfAR, then maybe you'll notice that everybody has there own section to make a statement. I guess that concept is confused here when I don't see any principle order being followed. Is there a reason why you never asked anything on my talk page even when requested? Dzonatas17:49, 1 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
The link you provided doesn't show an arb case that has been accepted, it only show 1 accept vote. It appears you don't understand that a case needs more accept votes in order to be accepted. If it was accepted, there would have been a subpage for it. What it seems you want me to do is take the hurtful things that Durova and Hrafn has said and accept them, and I will not. Do you want to become a person that repeats their example? Dzonatas15:21, 2 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
You stated "This RfA was accepted," when it was not accepted by arbcom. What you have attempted to do is to let Durova, Hrafn, and others to harass me and my family, and you also say that I should just let that happen. You are not only being hurtfully unreasonable with your attempt to bring it here, you have also shown to go against the arbcom vote to reject the case when you tried to say it was "accepted." Dzonatas17:13, 4 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
The guy just started it 2 days ago... relax! The line between a wikibook and a wikiversity resource is very fuzzy... wherever people feel more comfortable working is the key IMHO. --SB_Johnnytalk14:52, 22 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
Newcomers? yum!!Don't worry!Well, I wouldn't worry about nipping it in the bud... if something eventually looks like a wikibook, it can always be imported later on :-). The important thing is to encourage new contributors by helping them organize their content, and leave concerns about policy and scope out of it until you've seen where they're going. Meeting a new effort with a "challenge" rather than a "how can I help" could easily make someone wonder if it's going to be a bit of a hassle to work here, if you see what I mean. --SB_Johnnytalk10:39, 23 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 15 years ago7 comments1 person in discussion
Princeof500 here. Sorry for replying at my own talk page XD. Anyway, I have had a little bit of exposure to french. Mind, I said a little bit, as in VERY little. I want to learn French so that I can read more French books :). There's this one problem of communication... how do you propose we do that?
Oh, that. Yeah I knew it. But I don't really know formal French(which I am aiming for). You know, this is really awkward, do you have any other form of communication since I and you are free now? Princeof50013:44, 23 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
No pb, but where I live, Skype doesn't work, so the mentoring would be in a written way. If he is OK with that, let's "talk" :-) Xzapro415:03, 24 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
Malay
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Yes i can read it. Here is the article in English:
Abd Aziz bin Harjan is an lectureer on Islam in Universiti Teknologi Mara Perlis(nm). He was on duty(Lt) from the year 1984 at Institut Teknologi MARA(nm) until that ITM was changed to Universiti Teknologi Mara on the year 2000. He has served(Lt) at ITM Dungun Terengganu from year 1984-1989, moved to ITM Shah Alam on the year 1989-1990 and moved to ITM Sabah and served(Lt) there from 1990-1997 and changed to Universiti Teknologi MARA Perlis(nm) on the year 2008 to now that is 2008. He has given teachings(Lt) to students in Islamic Education(Lt), Islamic culture(Lt) and Islamic Law.
Latest comment: 15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Jade, something seems to have gotten messed up with this edit: [2]. I assume that you didn't mean to delete my comments intentionally, but that this is the result of an edit conflict. Crux has now fixed the edits. StuRat16:08, 28 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 15 years ago2 comments1 person in discussion
Hey JK. I think I know what John is concerned about, so I'll add another "rephrase" section in a couple hours or so (assuming you're going to be at the keyboard later). I know he can be inscrutable, but his concerns are genuine and deserve a reply (even if his approach is unnecessarily confrontational). Will post when I'm done in the barn. --SB_Johnnytalk23:34, 5 December 2008 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 14 years ago7 comments2 people in discussion
Hello Jade Knight,
I have just received your message about French Mentoring and would be glad to participate. What kind of information do you need in order for me to become a mentor?
Thanks for updating me on the new mentor additions. I don't have any specific preferences for a mentor, but I will post a comment on Xionbox's talk page and see if he can help me.
I just started using IRC about a week ago for the first time, and it confuses and annoys me. I lose my chat window when I minimize it, so it is impossible to browse web pages while chatting! I tried to do this and lost the window, had to restart my client and then was connected to the channel under my alias and could not change it nor take back my original ident (which was still displayed as on the channel). I use VisualIRC...perhaps I should try another client.
Well, mentoring Soroush didn't work out so well, mainly because we kept missing each other logging on/off the Net and so were never able to pin down a day/time to connect. Perhaps I should get back in touch with him...or has he found a new mentor? On a side note, Xionbox contacted me shortly after I posted the above note of 8 November; we are now good friends who correspond regularly. KirbyPuckettFan05:21, 30 August 2009 (UTC)Reply