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User talk:Dpbsmith

12,334 bytes added, 01:06, January 18, 2008
/* More about copyright */
== Racist edit summary ==
Mr./Mrs/Miss Smith I object to your offensive and racist comment concerning your edit of [[Stevens Institute of Technology]]. I know there are differences between US and UK usage and it is generally accepted that appropriate spelling be applied depending on the subject matter. While US spelling was appropriate to the article, your edit summary was offensive to many British people. Let us not forget that the UK has been one of the greatest supporters of America in recent years. [[User:Ian St John|Ian St John]] 18:48, 9 May 2007 (EDT) ::(In ''most'' years, except for some unpleasantness in the late 1700s and early 1800s). [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 19:37, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
:Apologies for any offense. It was tongue-in-cheek. I have a streak of Anglophilia and not infrequently use British spellings by accident. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 18:50, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
:''Racist?????'' [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 18:50, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
::"vile Limey" ![[User:Ian St John|Ian St John]] 18:53, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
:::The British consider themselves to constitute a race? I didn't know that... [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 18:55, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
::::Encyclopedias are meant to be educational.[[User:Ian St John|Ian St John]] 18:58, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
Limeophobe... :P --[[User:Robledo|Robledo]] 18:52, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
::Would you call a German a K**** or a Japanese person a J**? Of course not. But for some reason (British TV?) Americans think it's ok to call the British whatever they want. Maybe "racism" is the wrong word, it's more of an ethnic or national slur. I realize many of the people whose "groups" have not been persecuted for a while in the US tend to join in the fun of calling themselves names, and you meant no harm or insult - but, we live and learn, eh? To quote [[South Park|Stan]]: "I get it. I don't get it." Speaking as white straight male, that goes triple for me... [[User:Human|Human]] 19:30, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
:::Noted. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 19:36, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
 
==List of composers==
 
I've got a little [[Liszt]] / He never will be missed.
 
:-) --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 21:55, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
 
:The music-hall singer attends a series
:Of masses and fugues and ‘ops’
:By Bach, interwoven
:With Spohr and Beethoven,
:At classical Monday Pops.
[[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 21:59, 9 May 2007 (EDT)
 
== Sysop? ==
 
Would you be interested in becoming a sysop if you were not expected to spend your time chasing vandals? I think that you could make good use of preveledges like page move, and editing protected pages. Thanks. --[[User:CPAdmin1|Tim <small>(CPAdmin1)</small>]]<sup>[[User talk:CPAdmin1|talk]]</sup> 14:46, 12 May 2007 (EDT)
 
:I'm just not sure. It bothers me to keep turning it down; it seems ungracious. At the same time, I'm not sure what I'd do with sysop privileges. There's really no shortcut to dealing with people patiently, convincing them if you can, and shrugging and letting it go if you can't.
 
:Turning it down feels a little as if I'm pretending to be better than I really am. It doesn't mean I wouldn't ''like'' to swat people with a clue-by-four, and it doesn't mean I can always&mdash;or even often&mdash;get the patient-convincing-thing to work. I like to think I'm getting better with practice, though.
 
:With regard to protected pages: yeah, it's very frustrating, but if I can't convince stubborn sysop XYZ of certain things (and I can't!) then effectively I can't change the page anyway. That is, with sysop status I'd have the power to get into an edit war with sysop XYZ, but I wouldn't have the power to change the page and ''have it stay changed'' unless I can convince XYZ. And if I can convince XYZ, well, then I can "change the page" without sysop status, by convincing XYZ to change it.
 
:Probably best to leave things as they are. If the group wants to call me an "honorary sysop" I'd like that. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 15:31, 12 May 2007 (EDT)
 
:::Also, some sysops have an I'm a sysop you are not so your opinion doesn't matter, and if you were a sysop you wouldn't have to worry about that. --[[User:CPAdmin1|Tim <small>(CPAdmin1)</small>]]<sup>[[User talk:CPAdmin1|talk]]</sup> 16:05, 12 May 2007 (EDT)
 
::I think most of what you just said is exactly why people here would like you to have access to those powers and privileges. It doesn't mean you have to change any of what you do, but I think there is a pretty good consensus, for instance, that you could be implicitly trusted with the 'page move' feature, which is very useful to a diligent and conscientious editor such as yourself. Likewise, the 'revert' button is a great tool in the hands of a trusted and active editor. [[User:Human|Human]] 15:50, 12 May 2007 (EDT)
 
== Moving Averages? ==
 
Are you going to include moving averages as well?
--[[User:SeanTheSheep|SeanTheSheep]] 11:22, 15 May 2007 (EDT)
 
== Fairness Doctrine ==
 
I know that the Fairness doctrine still isn't in effect. I just forgot to put that in the article. This is why wikis are so great. Other people can augment the articles to make them better. Thanks for your help on the article. --'''<font color="DarkGreen">Adrian</font><font color="Yellow">[[User talk:AdrianP|P]]</font>''' 18:35, 16 May 2007 (EDT)
 
== Your reversion of my edit ==
 
Hello, I do disagree that accuracy trumps preferred euphemisms. Specifically, I am referring to your revert [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Anti-Flag&diff=164836&oldid=164792 here]. Could you point me to a policy that says "Courtesy calls for using the names factions prefer to use themselves." Thanks. [[User:HeartOfGold|HeartOfGold]] 23:04, 16 May 2007 (EDT)
:In this case, accuracy would call for "pro-choice", as many who take the "let's keep abortion legal" position are themselves pro-life, would never consider an abortion for themselves or suggest someone else have one, and may even feel that it is immoral, but nonetheless feel that the decision should be made by the individual woman rather than the government. Thus these people are most accurately called pro-choice.--[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]] 17:47, 17 May 2007 (EDT)
 
::[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]], I don't mind your two cents, and oddly enough, half an hour ago I heard Rudy Giuliani on the radio expressing ''precisely'' this position.
 
::Nevertheless, I don't agree with you. Both of the phrases are dishonest. Both try to obfuscate the issue by not saying what the issue is about&mdash;abortion&mdash;and by replacing it with a vague, nice word that nobody could be against. Who could be anti-life? Who could be anti-choice?
 
::It's hard to condense a complex position into a short phrase, but it really seems obvious to me that if one wanted to pick short, simple names for the factions, those names would be "pro-abortion" and "anti-abortion." Now, before you jump all over me ''of course'' "pro-abortion" here "favoring legal abortion," not "encouraging abortion." Very few people would sincerely misunderstand this (although some might pretend to, to score debating points). And, yes, "pro-abortion" does not capture the very important question of whose choice it is. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 19:14, 17 May 2007 (EDT)
::: I hear ya on obfuscate thing. Can't stand it when politicians refer to "a woman's right to choose". Just say it already! I think "pro-legal-abortion" and "anti-legal-abortion", while a teensy bit longer, might be the most accurate. (But I do think quite a lot of people *do* sincerely misunderstand the "pro-legal-abortion + abortion-is-a-bad-thing" position. I think Clinton used "safe, legal, and rare" to express the same idea.) Glad you're here, [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]]. Enjoy talkin' to ya.
 
== DpbZensmith ==
Your patience continues to astound me. *doffs cap* --[[User:Robledo|Robledo]] 16:57, 21 May 2007 (EDT)
 
== Creation Museum ==
 
Could you hold off editing [[Creation Museum]] for a moment; I'm getting repeated edit conflicts with you. [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 05:57, 30 May 2007 (EDT)
:Thanks. I made lots of minor changes and moved sections around, and it was going to be impossible to merge your edits into mine, I thought. I was intending to override your edits then fix it all up afterwards. However, as yours comprised only addition of two paragraphs, I included them in my edit box before submitting. [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 06:04, 30 May 2007 (EDT)
::Oops, one of those paragraphs was already in the version I was editing. Anyway, I've fixed it now. [[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 06:07, 30 May 2007 (EDT)
 
== Pill Splitting ==
Hey, nice article! I re-arranged two paragraphs to make the flow better, but if you think they should go in a different order, that's cool too. I know that drugstores sell devices designed to split pills - there's a "v"-shaped groove to hold the pill, and a hinged side that includes a blade folds over to split the pill. Might be worth adding that info to the article - I'm not sure I can explain it well enough to make sense, though. BTW, love your work. --[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]] 23:36, 5 June 2007 (EDT)
 
== Congratulations ==
 
Congratulations, Dpbsmith! You now have the power to block vandals. Simply click "block" next their name, especially in the "Recent Changes" listing.--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 00:38, 6 June 2007 (EDT)
 
==Trolling==
I noticed you did not place my response to User:Irat at the appropropriate spot. Be advised, wasting the time of Sysops like this is regarded as trolling behavior. [[User:RobS|RobS]] 14:31, 12 June 2007 (EDT)
 
:Not sure what you're referring to, but I could have made a mistake in copying and re-pasting a discussion that had changed while I was in the process of moving it. Apologies. Have you already fixed it? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 14:55, 12 June 2007 (EDT)
 
==Billy Sunday==
(I saw it and added the strike out; nice work.) "Attaboy!" :) [[Image:User Fox.png]] [[User:Fox|Fox]] <small>([[User talk:Fox|talk]]|[[Special:Contributions/Fox|contribs]])</small> 13:13, 18 June 2007 (EDT)
:Thanks! [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 14:03, 18 June 2007 (EDT)
Wow - that's definitely one of your best! You did a great job of choosing quotes - I really feel like I got a flavor of what it would have been like to see him in person! I loved the quote about cigarettes, and the one about unions too. The criticism section rounds out the article nicely - I like the raspberry quote. You must have done some serious research on this one! You'd be great as a writer for a magazine like Smithsonian, or the kind of excellent children's non-fiction books where they take care to be factual and draw from primary sources while still being interesting. (As a homeschooling mom, I read a *lot* of children's non-fiction, some good, some not so much.) I liked your pill-splitting article too - not sure if I said that before - at first, seeing the title, I was kind of "Huh? This topic rates an article?", then I actually read it and found it very interesting and informative. I assume you've written professionally before? If not, perhaps it's time to dip a toe in that stream... --[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]] 23:15, 18 June 2007 (EDT)
 
== Debate Topics ==
 
Sorry, missed your post completely! Opened. --[[User:TK|<small>Sysop-</small>TK]] <sub>[[User_talk:TK|/MyTalk]]</sub> 18:36, 20 June 2007 (EDT)
 
== Contributions ==
 
Please try to make your contribuitions in big blocks.
 
That is better for Sysops patrolling work. OK?
 
--[[User:Joaquín Martínez]], [[User talk:Joaquín Martínez|talk]] 19:32, 28 June 2007 (EDT)
 
*??? That's exactly what I was doing. I'm working on some things in my user space and will not put them into the main namespace until they're reasonably complete. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 21:18, 28 June 2007 (EDT)
 
==Welcome home==
 
Well, well, well, speak of the devil. I was being interviewed tonight and I mentioned you as the Wikipedian who got me over here in the first place - and there you are! :-) --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 19:09, 29 December 2007 (EST)
 
:And apparently, unbeknownst to me, it was a race to see who could put a wing nut onto his scanner first. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 19:10, 29 December 2007 (EST)
 
:: Welcome back!--[[User:Aschlafly|Aschlafly]] 19:49, 29 December 2007 (EST)
 
==More about copyright==
 
You wrote:
*In the early years the United States did not recognize British copyrights. Unauthorized productions of works such as ''Pinafore'' were mounted in the United States almost simultaneously with the first British productions, and were great successes.
 
Didn't [[Edgar Allen Poe]] have a problem with that, too? Drove him to drink, I reckon. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 19:54, 17 January 2008 (EST)
 
:I hadn't known that; but Googling turns up [http://www.law.ucla.edu/docs/khan__copyright_piracy_jle_2007.pdf this paper], which looks interesting but which I don't have time to read now... anyway, it says that "the biographer of Edgar Allan Poe contends that Poe switched to short story format because unfair foreign competition meant he was unable to profit from the market for novel." [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]]
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