User:DW

This space here at the top is where users normally put in some information about themselves, eg. qualifications, experience, or just plain personal data. It would be nice to know more about you, DW. I'd hate to think that there is nothing to know. Best regards, Deb 10:06 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC) P.S. Woof!

Welcome, DW! May I recommend the Welcome, newcomers article to your attention? As well as outlining Wikipedia standards on the neutral point of view, it should point you to the standards and instructions for adding images to articles. Hope you enjoy contributing! -- April 08:40 Aug 9, 2002 (PDT)

Yes, welcome. Do you have a better picture of the Arrow? We don't use BMP here since that's a Microsoft-only format, and anyway it was really badly dithered. Do you know where the original came from? I'm sure we can produce a better picture from the original. --LDC

Actually it's not a Microsoft-only format (GIMP handles it well), but it's not well compressed, nor is it widely supported in web browsers. -phma

Yes, I used GIMP to convert it, but the format itself ws designed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows, and is particularly suited to the Win32 API. Sure, a few folks have nonetheless figured it out and can use them on real computers :-), but it's still primarily a Windows thing, and I don't want to have to repeat that whole last paragraph every time I tell someone not to use it. --LDC

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Welcome, DW. Might I suggest that you also check out the Naming conventions article? And, if you like, tell us a bit about yourself! Enjoy! JHK

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DW -- Regarding linking the Carolingian Dynasty article forward -- it will not be done until there is proper material added to the list for non-French Carolingians and an explanation that they aren't exclusively a part of French History. At present, I believe there is a link in History of France to Carolingians which is much more comprehensive and explains more than a bunch of names. If you are concerned about this, or would like more of an explanation, I suggest you read my extensive comments at Talk:Carolingian Dynasty. Thanks JHK

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DW -- please not the format we use for alternate language names, perhaps by looking at an article on a Holy Roman Emperor or Polish City. You will note that we place the alternate, usually non-English, names in parentheses after the name of the language in italics). Just because you want everybody to use the French names doesn't mean you should go through and write them all in French, except for the article title. If you are truly attempting o expand knowledge, then you should write as if your audience knows very little -- you might think it a natural conclusion for people to see Henri throughout an article on Henry I of France asd figure it out that Henri is Franch for Henry, but it isn't really that way. Many people will just be confused. JHK

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DW -- generally, we respond to people's comments -- is there a problem with the way we've been doing articles? If so, you should perhaps offer alternative ways of doing things. You're putting huge amounts of interesting info in, but it's looking very cribbed from other sources (are they PD) and there is perhaps more genealogical info than is necessary in historical biography. I say this because people often see a list of names and decide they should link to their own articles, which is not always a good idea. We often know so little about younger daughters, etc., that there's no point in an encyclopedia, althought there would be in a dictionary of biography -- but wikipedia is not a dictionary. JHK

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DW, I'm rather confused at what you are attempting to accomplish here at Wikipedia. The project succeeds only because people are willing to work with each other and establish common conventions. Those conventions are certainly open to change, but coming in as a new contributor and unilaterally changing them is not the way to go about it. Why not work with the other contributors here, instead of chnaging things as you alone see fit? If you want to work on Wikipedia, you should take a look at Wikipedia:Neutral point of view and Wikipedia:Naming conventions for a start. --Stephen Gilbert

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Yo, DW. I like a lot of your ideas, and so do others. But please try not to be so antagonistic.

You wrote, to Magnus, "Instead of trying to be a hero and getting people like Zoe to stroke your ego, slow down and do things properly. Looking at a page with your kind of minimal input and poor quality, overwhelming photos, is what turns people away from Wikipedia."

You also wrote, to Zoe, some interesting, if rude, words about marketing expertise.

It occurs to me, and I hope you'll reflect on this and take it to heart, that you might apply some marketing expertise to your presentation of your self. Regard the rest of us as potential customers for your ideas -- and sell those ideas to us in an appealing package, rather than yelling at us.

--Jimbo Wales

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Hey DW!

Thanks so much for being here. You seem so knowledgeable about so many things (so few of us are!). I wish you liked us one-tenth as much as we like you.

Arthur 01:42 Jan 26, 2003 (UTC)

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DW, It is imperative that you stop being mean to people. Your work is generally good, why are you doing this? Please email me: jwales@bomis.com, and let's chat about it. I hate to ban good people, but if you continue to insult people, I'll have no choice. --user:Jimbo Wales

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DW, I thought you made a good point about putting a country of origin next to a person's details. Sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn't. For example, nation-states were born with the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). Prior to that, the concept of countries was quite fluid. City-states were more often the norm (in areas that had advanced beyond tribalism). I'd like to see Zoe explain better whether she wants this to be an iron rule or a guideline to be used as appropriate. Anyway, you've poisoned the well a bit on this one by editing the George Washington page directly rather than by using a Talk: page, which would have been more diplomatic. It's hard to take your side to the extent that you engage in ad hominem attacks. When someone's ideas are mistaken, it is more effective to attack the ideas than to attack the person. Attacking the person here is likely to end in banishment. I hope that doesn't happen, because I like your work. M Carling 21:34 Jan 27, 2003 (UTC)

1. It's not my policy.
2. Of coure it isn't useful in cases where there is no advantage in using an arbitrary nationality. As I've said elsewhere, when I wrote the Laurence Harvey article, I said he was "Latvia-born", not "Latvian". -- Zoe