User talk:Paul G/2003

Hi Paul,

I don't like that you are taking away the regular female and plural forms of the translations. They can also be of interest (having double meanings or meanings in different languages). I like to create a web of interrelated words. I'm not going to be putting them back though, so if you are convinced this is better, you probably should just go on. One day I want to convert all this to a relational database I'm planning to make. And at that point I don't want to have the software need to guess the female, plural or diminutive form will probably be regular, just because it is omitted. My software cannot know this for sure, just like somebody who doesn't know the language can never know that for sure.Polyglot 10:51, 17 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi Polyglot, thanks for your comment. I take them away only because I feel they belong in the foreign-language entry, as is done in most bilingual dictionaries, and because, to my mind, they clutter the entry. I don't want to antagonise and I can understand your point of view, so I shan't take any more away. You might have noticed though that I do include irregular plurals or feminine forms in any new translations that I add. In future I'll try to make it my habit to include regular plurals and feminine forms too.

By the way, what is your name? You are one of the major contributors to this site but you don't seem to be contactable via your user page. Paul G 14:20, 17 Dec 2003 (UTC)

My name is Jo. You can contact me by email through the interface at the bottom on my personal page. (It might not work this month since the receiving mail box has exceeded its transfer limit...). But I will notice if you put something on my talk page. Further, I don't need any (name) recognition for my work. Being able to add stuff here and contribute to a worthy cause, is what gives me satisfaction. This is what I think I'm reasonably good at and what I can do to contribute to the free (software/content) world.

Maybe they do clutter the translations and maybe it is better to add flexed forms to pages dedicated to those words. It takes more effort to instantly create those pages, to be able to add that info though. You shouldn't feel compelled to actually add them if you think it clutters the entries.

If you keep up the pace at which you are revising entries and adding to them, you will easily pass me by as one of the major contributors :-) I'm glad you are taking care of adding italian and correcting the goof ups I made in French. (It's not my language, although I speak/spoke it reasonably well).

By the way: where are you from? France? Switzerland? Italy?Polyglot 14:57, 17 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi Jo. I'm from the UK. My mother tongue is English and I speak French and Italian. My French comes from school and living for a year in France - I have studied it on and off for over 20 years; I taught myself Italian about 15 years ago. I am half-Italian, so Italian is maybe more my second language than French. Paul G 17:13, 17 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Hi Paul, I live in Belgium, so I didn't have to go far for French. I also studied at a French school for a year, which improved my French. but now I lack practice. So I'm afraid I'm making some goofs from time to time. Good to see that you are working so hard on Wiktionary the last few days! I had a period I could do the same back in July. Now there are other priorities fighting for attention...

Would it be possible to remove the links from the titles of the articles you are editing. I see that you are leaving them. They are not functional though and they only mean more load for the server.Polyglot 11:08, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I don't understand - could you explain? -- Paul G 16:07, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Well. The server is being overloaded. So there shouldn't be any extraneous, superfluous links in the entries. The server needs to check whether the links exist in order to color them blue or red, so for every link it needs to do database lookup.

Most people who consult a dictionary know what Nouns, verbs and translations are, so they don't need links for those. So, in fact, I'm asking exactly the same thing as webkid. He calls it wikifying. When I say that I wikified an entry, I usually mean that I made it accord to the 'standard'. Whatever the standard may be, that's not very clear... Don't worry about any inconvenience. You are doing a good job and I hope to see you go on doing it for a long time. Thanks, Polyglot 18:53, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

OK, I understand now. Thanks. There is a lot of work to do here... -- Paul G 07:51, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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Hello, Paul G. Could you please NOT wikify nouns, verbs, translations etc? Thank you in advance! Webkid 15:33, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

OK, no problem. My usual plea here - I've only been doing this because I've seen it done elsewhere. But I'm happy to leave them unwikified as it is less work to do. Sorry if this has caused any problems or inconvenience. -- Paul G 16:07, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)