Talk:Gaia

Wouldn't a comma be more appropriate to insert between the names of the children of Gaia, instead of two hyphens? Because name lists are exactly what serial commas[?] are used for. The hyphen makes it look like the first listed child give birth to the second, and the third. --Menchi 04:39 14 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Hopefully that'll work; commas tend to make things a bit close together. - Hephaestos 04:46 14 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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Subheading inconsistency

A question of style. The header ==Gaia in mythology== has a preceding "1". But I was always taught that you should never have a numerical heading of you're only going to have one of them. If this header is going to be preceded by a "1", shouldn't there be another header down below preceded by a "2"? Is there a way to remove the numerical prefix? RickK 01:16 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

That's because you personalized your Preferences to make it show #s. Most ppl's broswer show a big bold subheading.

--Menchi 01:37 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Moved from Village Pump

Please see Gaia. A question of style. The header ==Gaia in mythology== has a preceding "1". But I was always taught that you should never have a numerical heading of you're only going to have one of them. If this header is going to be preceded by a "1", shouldn't there be another header down below preceded by a "2"? Is there a way to remove the numerical prefix? RickK 01:17 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Just to clarify, you're talking about a number that's there because you've got "Auto-number headings" turned on in your preferences, yes? If so, no, I don't think there's anyway to get rid of it (apart from switching off that setting, of course, or rewriting a bit of code). --Camembert

Apparently so. When I unchecked it, the numbering went away. But there's no way in the code to check to see if there are any further numbers below to tell whether or not to turn on numbering? On another note, is there some way to explain to newbies like me what the preferences mean? I keep getting confused by what's turned on and turned off. RickK 01:26 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

That's a good question actually - we ought to have such a page if we don't already. I don't know of one. Maybe a friendly soul will see this and decide to write one :) --Camembert

Wikipedia:User preferences help. --Brion

Any chance of linking that from Special:Preferences? (Or maybe it's linked already and I'm missing that as well...) --Camembert

Well, it's linked from the Help link at the top of every page. ;) But I'll see about putting in a specific link. --Brion 18:44 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

End move

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Deity and Ecosystem

I side with Anthere in the edit war. Pizza Puzzle 01:57 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Perhaps we can relocate Gaia as an modern ecosystem personification to Gaïa[?], the spelling that Ant uses and presumably used, though not exclusively, in the modern Gaïan environmentalism? --Menchi 02:03 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

what do you mean ? Please explain. Ant

You used Gaïa frequently when referring to the ecosystem entity (not the Greek goddess), right? So I assume:

• Gaïa = ecosystem entity
• Gaia = Greek goddess

The uses may not be completely exclusive, but they'd make the distinction clear. And we could mention their alternative names in their respective articles: "Gaïa, also knonw as Gaia, is an ecosystem..."

But if this is not the reason why you chose to use Gaïa, then maybe you did it to clarify the pronunciation (Gah-yiah???). Either that or something I can't figure out.

--Menchi 02:18 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

But those are just different spellings of the same thing...This is a concept named for the Greek goddess. Pizza Puzzle

Unfortunately no, Menchi. These are the same name. You may also add Gaea, which is less often used, and never in the ecosystem theory I think. So...that won't help.:-( ant

Gaea is the spelling I am most familiar with; but its all the same thing. Pizza Puzzle

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IMHO Gaia should focus on the mythological meaning of Gaia, since that was obviously the inspiration for Lovelock to name his hypothesis. However, given that Gaia is now primarily associated with the Gaia hypothesis and theory, these should both be briefly discussed in the intro. Perhaps the articles Gaia hypothesis and Gaia theory should also be merged into one. --Eloquence 03:53 29 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Your rephrase of Gaia is ok to me.

However, merging gaia hypothesis with gaia theory will do no good. Gaia theory is no more about science. It is about social, political...aspects

The point in separating things is that if everything is merged in a whole big article, people will get lost between the scientific aspects of the theory (which rather deal with chemestry for Lovelock hypothesis).
There many different theories. It makes sense to have a specific article about the most famous one, under the name it is famous, which is gaia hypothesis. This said, a tip if you all want to drive me out of these articles, merge everything in one big article, which will be unreadable....and above 32ko :-)