User talk:Maias

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Capitalized words

Ordinary English nouns (even names of animals) don't start with capital letters. SemperBlotto 11:42, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Hi SemperBlotto. Is that a formal Wiktionary policy? I am used to the convention used by most ornithologists whereby an official species name (for birds anyway) is considered a proper name for that species and is capitalised. So, for example, "Great Figatebird" is capitalised because it is the proper noun for a particular species, whereas "frigatebird", referring to any one of a group of species, or indeed to an individual bird, is not so capitalised. This is certainly the policy on the Wikipedia bird project, as well as by the American Ornithologists Union, other ornithological organisations and many journals and reference works. Maias 11:55, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I think so - surely great frigatebird is a noun, not a proper noun (The name of a particular person, place, organization or other individual entity). Perhaps we should ask the community. SemperBlotto 12:03, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I've started a discussion in the Beer Parlour (but compare lesser anteater and Lesser Antilles) SemperBlotto 12:07, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Formatting

Please take the trouble to properly format your entries. So far I have corrected three, but you should correct your own mistakes. Take a look at your watchlist. DCDuring TALK 17:29, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, DCDuring, for pointing that out. I have only been doing this for a couple of weeks but I learn something new every time I log on. Maias 04:16, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Every other day I find plurals of yours that were defective. They were from Feb 21 and earlier. Please fix them. You can find them using the "my contributions" tab. See pochards. DCDuring TALK 20:22, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

• florikin
• maleos
• secretarybird
• monals
• jungle fowl
• sun-bittern

Hi DCDuring. I have fixed the above, but my impression was this is no longer necessary as the template now provides the link automatically. See Wiktionary:News for editors, December 2008. Cheers. Maias 03:54, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

The formatting problem was not the linking, but rather that things like "alt spelling of" and "plural of" need to be prefixed by the pound sign, so that they are numbered (even if there's only one), and so that bots (and readers) know for sure that they are the defs. I've fixed the words from the list here. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 05:26, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, thanks. Maias 06:16, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Birds

Just wanted to take a moment to note my appreciation for the work your doing. Your entries look excellent. I must admit I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of vernacular names being capitalized, but seeing the BP discussion, it seems that the English language is sort of muddled on the issue, so I won't be contentious about that. A couple of thoughts: First, for etymologies, the Wiktionary best practice is to use {{term}}, so perhaps "From {{term|button|lang=en}} + {{term|quail|lang=en}}". Simple wikilinks are certainly acceptable, though. Also, you may want to consider linking the scientific names, as we do include them here. Then again, we have so few of them, that it may just be a whole lot more ugly red in the entry. Anywho, keep up the good work. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 03:04, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi Atelaes; I appreciate your kind words and constructive comments. I was not aware of the {{term}} template for etymologies, so I will certainly use that in future. I am aware that I am near the bottom of a steep learning curve and such advice is very welcome. With regard to the scientific names, I have no problem with linking them though, as you say, it may be a while before I or someone else gets around to making proper entries for them. Thanks again. Maias 03:24, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

One more very minor thing. When you create a new entry, if you leave the edit summary blank, the MW software automatically leaves the first 100 or so characters of the entry as the edit summary. This is often more useful than "new entry." Again, minor thing, no one will lose sleep if you decide to disregard it. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 06:13, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip; I come here from Wikipedia where not making an edit summary is something of a faux-pas. Maias 06:19, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Charadriidae

Just a few comments- when you use {{etyl}} on taxonomic entries make sure you put in the '|mul' portion so it doesn't get categorized in Latin derivations. Also, don't use {{en-noun}} in Translingual entries since they aren't English. Nadando 01:25, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice, Nadando. Maias 01:30, 5 March 2009 (UTC)