Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki - User contributions [en]

User:Yoshi

2020-02-06T15:42:15Z

Yoshi:

User:Yoshi

2020-02-06T15:39:29Z

Yoshi:

User:Yoshi

2020-02-06T15:39:12Z

Yoshi:

2019-11-23T18:39:52Z

Yoshi:

{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="color:green;">User:Yoshi<span>}}
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''Welcome to my user page!'''</font>
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''''To leave me a message,''''' [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Yoshi&action=edit&section=newclick here].</font>
[[File:No vandalism allowed on this wiki svg.png|200px|right|thumb|Don't be a vandal, be a contributor instead!]]
[[File:Pratchett Head.jpg|right|thumb|200px|In loving memory of my hero, Terry Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) R.I.P.]]
'''Dove Windsor''' also professionally known as '''Mother Nature''' (sometimes known as '''Mother Earth''' or the '''Earth-Mother''') is a British spiritualist and a Greco-Roman personification of nature that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of the mother.

== Early life ==
Windsor grew up in Leicestershire, England. She first went to Ravenhurst Primary School in 2004 until 2010. She then went to a private school in 2011 called Gryphon School. In September 2017, Windsor moved to Leicester College. In September 2018, Windsor went to an education centre, opposite of Leicester's crown court called Soft Touch Arts.

In the summer of August 2016, Windsor went to NCS (national citizen service) for four weeks to improve her CV. The first week she went on a camping trip. In the second week, Windsor went to De-Montfort University to do a range of activities like doing a Master Chef challenge, first-aid challenge, etc.. In the third and final fourth week, Windsor did a charity course. In November 2016, Windsor was awarded a certificate, signed by Teresa May on an awards night. Windsor did a Duke Of Edinburgh expedition course at Gryphon School in February 2017. She was awarded a bronze award at the end of March 2017.

== Career ==
The word "nature" comes from the Latin word, "natura", meaning birth or character (see nature (innate)). In English, its first recorded use (in the sense of the entirety of the phenomena of the world) was in 1266. "Natura" and the personification of Mother Nature were widely popular in the Middle Ages. As a concept, seated between the properly divine and the human, it can be traced to Ancient Greece, though Earth (or "Eorthe" in the Old English period) may have been personified as a goddess. The Norse also had a goddess called Jord (or Erth).

The earliest written usage is in Mycenaean Greek: Ma-ka (transliterated as ma-ga), "Mother Gaia", written in Linear B syllabic script (13th or 12th century BC).[1] The various myths of nature goddesses such as Inanna/Ishtar (myths and hymns attested on Mesopotamian tablets as early as the 3rd millennium BC) show that the personification of the creative and nurturing sides of nature as female deities has deep roots. In Greece, the pre-Socratic philosophers had "invented" nature when they abstracted the entirety of phenomena of the world as singular: physis, and this was inherited by Aristotle. Later medieval Christian thinkers did not see nature as inclusive of everything, but thought that she had been created by God; her place lay on earth, below the unchanging heavens and moon. Nature lay somewhere in the center, with agents above her (angels), and below her (demons and hell). For the medieval mind she was only a personification, not a goddess.

[[Category:Users]]
[[Category:Female users]]
[[Category:Patrollers]]
[[Category:Rollbackers]]
[[Category:Autoconfirmed users]]

2019-11-21T10:44:18Z

Yoshi: /* Wikilibrary */

Thanks for the spelling stuff, as you may know English is not my first language :) --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 00:51, 13 January 2007 (CET)

Hard to tell,usually, but we expect the average Dutchman to speak better English than the average Canadian (never mind Americans.) It occurred to me yesterday, though, that your English seems practically perfect on AF/BP, or here in the internal communication, but you make more mistakes in compositions. Seems odd, but maybe it's just familiarity with a style...--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:38, 13 January 2007 (CET)

I suppose that depends on whether killing Vorbis counts as smiting...--[[User:acgs1|acgs1]]

I would not edit it if it was not mentioned a Polish cuisine. I checked the only word which sounded similar (and describing similar concept) and I've checked its translation by wikipedia. In Polish cuisine I've never met other fat then pork fat as "Smalec" - especially that since recently (i.e. 20 c) chicken was considered rather expensive dish and it wasn't common meat. Either way the information was incorrect (as chicken fat is not the only one and at least in one cuisine from two mentioned not the most popular).

Yiddish origin of English makes little change as Yiddish was a language of Ashkenazi Jewish and originiated as some sort of mixture of Hebrew and German with addition of other languages. Probably thay trasfered the method of using the fat with the exception of pork for well-known religios issues. But [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz wikipedia] is unclear on this issue (it was so german-sounding I haven't check on english wikipedia only checking the translation - which is my error).

According to my knowledge (I used to learn french and I haven't everything forget I hope) ''Laissez-faire'' means literary ''please let us do''. I have met it only in connection with economics and I've never met it in English in any other context. As it is english-language wiki it would imply this conection - however I'm far from being a native speaker so I prefered to ask for clarification. --[[User:uzytkownik|uzytkownik]]

== Pronouns ==

I thought "their" was the correct use when the person is unidentified. Or has political correctness been thrown out of the door and are we going back to "his" instead of "their"? --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 19:45, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

Well, that's a toughie when The Author Himself avoids agreement of number at all costs. I don't think you could call it correct, but everybody's certainly doing it (like greengrocer's apostrophes.) We could make it an internal convention - one never knows, do they?

Is the same thing happening in Dutch? You must have had agreement of number, too. ("Your" didn't fit, anyway.}--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 21:08, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

There is a distinction in number, but considering that there are several houses in [[Empirical Crescent]], "their" seems justified. And yes, it'd be the same issue in Dutch. --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 22:22, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

:Only, you weren't referring to several houses; the subjects were "everybody" and "someone", singular. Nope, you can get away with it because it's PC, or because all the kids are doing it, or (especially here) because Pterry does it, but you can't pretend it makes sense.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:10, 16 May 2007 (CEST)

:Not only does Pterry do it, Shakespeare did it, Dickens did it, Austen did it, Thackeray did it. It's been extant in English as long as modern English has existed--[[User:Attercop|Attercop]] 07:04, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately true. The other day I heard a radio columnist refer first to "managers" (pl) as "he or she" before reverting to singular they for one "manager". Agreement of number is pretty much dead, but "one never knows, do they?" still sounds silly to me. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 13:35, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

== Help??!? ==

this is probably bleedin' obvious, but how do you quickly type the slash that you need to separate, for example, werewolves from werewolf, as you just did? i keep having to open another page and cut and paste it. duh indeed, but i just don't get it! sob! --[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 22:06, 28 May 2007 (CEST)

It's a '''pipe''', (Shift-Backslash, just above Return, usually.) If you don't go back to DOS you may never have used it.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:11, 28 May 2007 (CEST)

==Patrician==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelock_Vetinari
Bibliography section, check it out. From Pratchett himself, it says that originally he was overweight, and then lost weight - i.e., Pratchett became a better writer himself.
:But that refers to earlier books (I provided the quote from {{S}}.) Even The Author seems to have softened his (untenable) position on the single-Patrician theory, anyway. (Remember : Pterry only invented the Discworld; we live there.)--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:47, 31 May 2007 (CEST)

== that was quick ==

you blocked the spammer just as i logged in to todo. :)
:You're up even earlier than I am on a Sunday morning? Get a life! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:59, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

== i.e. [[Piecemaker]] ==
Yeah, I meant that in physical size, it may or may not be larger, but it is a certainly more powerful firearm. [[Special:Contributions/64.231.240.44|64.231.240.44]] 03:30, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

== Featured Articles ==

Just a small question, are featured articlees good articles that deserve recognition (as on wikipedia) or are they bad articles of topics that could be good? Thanks for your time. :) --[[User:Beligaronia|Beligaronia]] 06:37, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Typically, they're fairly good articles on important topics that Sanity or someone thought should be bigger and better. Certainly the idea is to improve them, not praise them. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 15:08, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

== re: Polish Discworld wiki ==

Thanks for your answer. Personally I prefer the layout of the wiki, as here I know ho to edit etc.
Mayby you could tell me how to start a new one? I mean the Polish one. If of course it is not too complicated. Then step by step it could grow up.
[[User:NoychoH|noychoH]] 18:16, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

:You're asking the wrong person, here. I'm not any kind of software developer. This one was set up by our admin, [[User:Sanity|Sanity]]; [[User:Death|Death]] operates the German version (where he's known as Tod), and our sysop [[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] seems to be knowledgeable about the inner workings. Anyone can download the program from [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki/pl MediaWiki], but configuring and providing the support is a job for a professional or a gifted and experienced amateur. I just fill in the pages. Go to the MediaWiki site and see if you feel capable. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 19:01, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

==Career Change==

Thanks old man. Very good of you. And yes: it's an ''awful'' lot better than dealing with 'em at 6!

== They may think it's all over ==

I saw the dedication to the "stenographer" and thought immediatly of {{GO}} where Pterry states (to the effect, I can't remember the exact phrasing) "It's impossible to know what Neil contributed and what I contributed but it was mostly me sitting at the keyboard". The dedication meant for me the first tangible proof of Pterry's illness/embuggerance. Nevertheless the changes of pace and turnings of phrase is, in my mind, not a sharp difference in light of the development over twenty years of writing.

The major weakness of {{UA}}, in my mind, is the appearence of several characters that appears as ''Deus Ex Machina'', Lady Margolotta, Vetinari trusting Glenda Sugarbean because of her grandmother, puhleese. It's too neat.

:I don't think those are really ''dei ex machina''; the god(dess) is Pedestriana, and on Discworld this sort of thing isn't unusual. There really are gods who do affect events. It's more of a problem that she isn't developed much. She crashes in at the beginning and returns at the end but we're not sure why. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:51, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

::By ''Deus ex Machina'' I meant the dramatic principle of concluding a drama by having an all-powerful character appear out of nowhere to settle all impasses. Normaly this implies weakness of the plot; ''Deus ex Machina'' is used as a deragotory term towards the author. There are indeed gods but I wasn't referring to any of those.
::On totally different note, it's been more than twenty years since I had English in school; I feel my grammar and spelling is slipping badly --[[User:Iron Hippo|Iron Hippo]] 18:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

:My point. That's what it means but those characters don't do that, Pedestriana does. The English is pretty good though, apart from some some spelling which isn't worse than many others. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 19:07, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

I'll develop my thoughts on football (soccer as merkins call it) in comparison to merkin sports but I need to think it through a bit more. In the meantime merkins: Do read Nick Hornby: Fever Pitch --[[User:Iron Hippo|Iron Hippo]] 01:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

:Agreed about Glenda Sugarbean. But I liked Unseen Academicals, for the most part, although I did notice some slight differences between it and prior books. Most noticeably: slight character changes and heavy reference to previous books.

:But Death does actually appear... "Death stood by the well-scrubbed slab and looked down. MISTER NUTT? WELL, THIS IS A SURPRISE, said Death, reaching into his robe. LET ME SEE WHAT I HAVE HERE.." He goes on to say that Mr. Nutt will have an interesting life. [[User:TC01|TC01]] 01:38, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

::Someone wants to correct the recent edit to [[Death]]. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:51, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

== May I ask something? ==

I am a rabid Pratchett fan, have read all the books so many times that I'm on my second copy of most of them, etc, etc. you probably hear this a lot in any case. Is there any way to get in touch with one of the mods/site administrators? [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 21:57, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
:The Administrator is [[User:Sanity|Sanity]]. He gives his e-mail address at the top of the page. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:05, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
::Many thanks. [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 23:11, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

== RE: Current revision as of 00:06, 30 November 2009 ==

you misunderstand - I have no sense of humor in the context of jokes, puns, et cetera, in real life. that is to say, I couldn't tell a good joke to save my life. Jokes that can get a round of roaring laughter from any other mouth fall flat when I say them. I in fact possess the approximate joke-telling ability of Mustrum Ridcully on a bad day. That doesn't mean that I can't appreciate Pratchett's humor, wit, and dead-on insights into the core of life around the world. [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 00:44, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
:Then I suggest you misstated. You mean you have no talent as a comic. Perhaps even Pterry couldn't make it as a joculator. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:00, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
::point well taken. However, I stick by my previous statement. I have no sense of humor. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate it.

Oh, and as a different note, I have a slight change that could be made to the fandom page: I've created a Pratchett Fanon wikia at http://pterryfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Discworld_Fanon_Wiki in case anyone wants to add their fanon to it. I also direct them to the Lspace wiki main page for a decent Pratchett wiki instead of the half-assed Wikia version. Think you could add my fledgeling fanon Wikia to the Fandom page? [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 01:23, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
:I'm pretty confused as to whether it's a fanfic collection or a wiki or what, but you could list it in "Fandom" yourself (maybe including a one-line explanation). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:44, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

== Death caption ==

An easier way to do what? The caption was properly specified in the previous version. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 22:15, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
:...to caption something without creating the white spaces, or generally put text where you want it without a lot of experimental colons? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:56, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

::are you wanting to caption something other then an image? --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 00:57, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
:Mostly it's to avoid the white borders ([[User:JaffaCakeLover|JaffaCakeLover]] was just suggesting a solution available only to Sanity but I wouldn't be able to judge that - there might be a down side). Some other idea might require placing a block of text to the right, just for interesting composition. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:23, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

:: Oh, hold on. I may be able to fix that depending on the theme's security. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 07:31, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

::: Nope, not something I can fix. The issue is with a CSS rule in the "/skins/lspace/main.css?207" file. The border rules need to be removed from div.thumb on line 443. Typically, you can override these rules via special pages within the wiki. However, the lspace skin doesn't respect these overrides. Therefore, Sanity would have to update the CSS file or update the skin to properly respect the overrides. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 07:53, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
:Bugger. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 03:51, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

::We'll see. I sent the info onto Sanity. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:15, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

::Looks like it's now fixed. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 01:19, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

And all the rest at the same time: nifty! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:54, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

== Power Cables ==

OK, so there could be also be a Power Cable, Alberta, a Power Cable, New South Wales or even an Elektriese Kabel in the Transvaal... but they'd still only get one page.

I will delete the lesser of the two. --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 20:04, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
:Why not add your second paragraph? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:27, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

== careers ==

To be more specific, I spent seven years developing web applications based upon the ColdFusion language ( think PHP, .net or java but cooler ). Next month I'm moving over to become an Oracle DBA. All this at a Dow component company. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:08, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

== About TC01 ==

Well, from what I've read of AgProv's and IronHippo's biographies, I think I could agree that I'm the youngest of the sysops/admins mentioned- not sure about other contributors with usernames or unregistered, of course. The Tiffany Aching series are written for people younger than me, though.

I spell, or rather type, words like an American, which is almost certaintly because I am one. The only possible exception to that might be when I type out {{COM}}, but I usually don't because I let the <nowiki>{{COM}}</nowiki> template do it for me.

I suppose I'll also mention that I do most of my reading these days on an Amazon Kindle, which is not actually that different from reading a real book (other than the inability to open it up to a random page and start reading). There are a few Pratchett books which I have only on the Kindle- which makes it handy when searching them for some obscure red link on the book articles.

And that's all I'm saying for now... Other than the fact that I reply to people on their talk pages rather than their user pages, unlike some people. [[User:TC01|TC01]] 22:43, 15 July 2010 (UTC) [[User:TC01|TC01]] 22:51, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

== [[Photographer]] ==

You reverted my edit to that page, where I explained Pratchett's joke (his definition of ''photus'' is clearly derived from the true meaning of the acronym POTUS). Where do you think I should have put the annotation instead? [[User:WLior|WLior]] 07:21, 1 September 2010 (CEST)

== Warning - British travel termini are bad for your financial health ==
We should have warned you.

It seems to be a universal thing about travelling in Britain that the moment you step into the precincts of an airport, a railway station, or even a large coach interchange (Victoria Coach Station in London, or Chorlton Street in Manchester), the prices you pay for sundry items go through the roof. It's as if the very act of stepping in through the front door causes the prices of even the most trivial items to soar by 25-40% or more, where they can get away with it. You are entering a parellel universe or a time portal where, given the usual operation of inflation, the world around you may be that of 2010 but you are being given a chance to experience a very specific aspect of the future - ie, what you might expect to be paying for goods and services in 2030.

A small bottle of coke which might cost 90p outside in the real world suddenly becomes £1.35; a packet of cigarettes which you might expect to get for £5.35 suddenly costs £6.80 (this was at the tobacconists' concession in WH Smiths at Manchester Picadilly - let's name the guilty party here!)and coffee at Tarbucks or Necros adds another 70p to the cost of a cup, or more... and as for buying food...

The sensible answer is - ''if going on a long journey by public transport in Britain, buy it before getting on the train or coach and get it from outside the station.''

The seasoned traveller will know where to look within a block or two of the station complex, and a service industry exists to fill this void. For instance, there is a very good and very cheap cafe just opposite Norwich Station, which capitalises on the obscene prices charged within the rail station, by serving great food very cheaply. There are quite a few around Picadilly and Chorlton Street stations in Manchester. No doubt the London stations have their satellites - there's said to be a great cheap cafe just behind Euston station that makes a bomb through the novel and revolutionary act of selling good food cheaply.

Nobody knows why this should be in Britain.

Arriving in Berlin, we found a very cheap eatery and cafe within the precincts of Tegel airport. This was not unique. comparing the euro price to what Manchester airport expected us to pay for a cappucino and a cake - it was nearly half as expensive.

Oh, and duty-free at British airports is hardly worth the while, as so much profit margin is loaded on the items that you are efectively paying the store owners what you would in tax, anyway. But at German airports...

Methinks we are being riped off, but at least you have a copy of {{ISWM}}.

Enjoy!--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 10:40, 11 October 2010 (CEST)

== A word please ==

You and AgProv were here before that <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[template:welcome|welcome]]}} was created. So was BOZZ but he hadn't had yet any talkpage messages, his talkpage had yet to be created, so I thought I,d do something about that. If he already had talkpage messages, I would have not welcomed him. Please excuse me if I had a mistake. [[user:Myrtone|Myr]][[User talk:Myrtone|'''tone''']][[special:emailuser/Myrtone|@]] 00:12, 25 December 2010 (CET)

These things happen. Don't worry! I'm glad somebody's consistently doing the meeting-and-greeting, anyway. AgProv, writing as --[[Special:Contributions/86.179.84.80|86.179.84.80]] 22:52, 10 January 2011 (CET)
Did you forget to login? [[user:Myrtone|Myr]][[User talk:Myrtone|'''tone''']][[special:emailuser/Myrtone|@]] 00:18, 11 January 2011 (CET)
Alas, yes. A bit of computer bother means I'm having to continually delete the internet cache and cookies, (virus-slaying) including the one that preserves my logon info for this site... --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 23:59, 13 January 2011 (CET)

== History ==

*''As far as I can recall, you were the first British member here, after a number of continental, American, Australian and Canadian contributors (Shadeofblue was here long before but never contributed anything). How do you suppose that came down? --Old Dickens 03:55, 11 April 2011 (CEST)''

Sounds like an accusation...Thinking back... I discovered the Wiki as part of a general exploration of the L-Space Web and I thought "I can do things here". My first two or three entries weren't strictly within the rules - I opened general articles on Douglas Adams and Michael Moorcock as authors who either influenced Pratchett or were spoofed by him in the first few books, only to be gently reminded this sort of thing really belonged under "Reading Suggestions". As I was very heavily influenced by mr Beobaart and Mr Kew in the Annotated Pratchett File, and was a bit frustrated they didn't seem to be in a position to accept updated entries. So my ideas as to all those sly nudges and digs and references in the books had to go somewhere! Then I discovered that 50% of the time, the entry to go with the annotation hadn't yet been written, so - ah well - roll your sleeves up and craft it...

I do wonder why so many contributors here are people to whom English is not a first language - although some of them, I suspect, speak it better than I do. Better than my French or Dutch/Afrikaans or German, I think! Perhaps it's that urge, fairly indefiniable but an urge nonetheless, to get past the necessary restrictions of reading a book in translation, and to get to grips with it in the original language? (I'm reliably told there have been at least four Dutch translators of Pratchett, for instance, who range from "excellent" to "appalling".) This is a big thing on the French VadeMecum site, although readers of Pratchett in French whose English is also good enough to tackle the originals do tend to speak well of their translator. And English humour, the quirkier the better, does seem to travel well... (look at the way Monty Python and its descendents are a cult thing in the USA)

As well as annotations, for me, there's also an urge to mention all those little leaps of logic that connect otherwise unrelated facts mentioned in different books - inferring that because Lady Sybil and Serafine von Überwald went to the same school {{T5E}}, and Lady Sybil's school, named in {{T!}} as [[Quirm College for Young Ladies|QAYL]], therefore Serafine must also have attended QAYL. (Which leads to ''speculation'' - as opposed to known fact - that Angua may also have attended QAYL.)

Getting the entries as accurate and as complete as possible gets to be a bug after a while...
--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 10:18, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

:What accusation? The question was why there didn't seem to be any British input before you came along, Britain obviously being the home of the books and the most fan activity. (Daibhid C was also a faqmaintainer early on but we never got any of his considerable insight, either.)

:The amazing ability of a series so strongly based in British folklore, history and humor to sell in many foreign languages is another interesting topic, though. P.G. Wodehouse and Monty Python did manage to penetrate the U.S., but I don't think they required the background Pratchett does (and I'm not sure Wodehouse would play in Power Cable any more.) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:32, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

Heh... should have said "sounds ''almost'' like an accusation... ("you are accused of being British with malice aforethought and lurking in a built-up area of the Internet after the hours of darkness, with intent to perpetuate a Wiki...")

I suspect, to build on a thought, that we English-fluent native Brits have it too easy, and do not appreciate the treasure we have in Pratchett. This only becomes beautifully clear to those who have learnt English the hard way as a second language, or who have to assemble the necessary mental tool-kit to approach the intricacies of British English language and custom. Who is it who said a prophet is never honoured in his own country?--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 17:12, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

:Jesus of Nazareth, I believe, but Sir T.P. OBE doesn't seem to suffer that way. Possibly it's just that English people already had a number of fan activities and we foreigners were more excited to have access to one. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 18:35, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

Jesus seems to been right about himself though there... -Marmosetpower

== On Vandalism ==

I don't know if this is the right place to suggest it, but maybe you should close down the registration for a while, fix things and put all articles under protection. That spammer seems to be a bot/malware cause thing, seeing the multiple IP-Addresses.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 19:34, 13 April 2011 (CEST)
:Mmm. I'm only a lieutenant, though, no keys to the missiles. Thanks for pitching in. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)

It kept me busy for an hour before bedtime. I'm guessing that once O.D. recognised how deep it actually went, it took a few hours of his life that he's never going to get back.So maybe we need to ask Sanity how to install deeper protection? --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 13:03, 14 April 2011 (CEST)
:About four hours, but then what else do I do of an evening? There wasn't even a ball game until too late. I know you've killed longer evenings writing stuff. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)... Apr. 30, now, was a full day. Oy. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 06:20, 1 May 2011 (CEST)
:I sent him an email last night --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 20:22, 14 April 2011 (CEST)
::So did I. He's investigating, but I don't know what could be done apart from general protection and that's never been popular. You only need the roof fixed when it's raining. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)
:::Not to be negative, but this rain could easily be washing away the foundation--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 19:09, 15 April 2011 (CEST)

Well done Dickens old man. You're fighting a valiant vanguard action! Good egg.--[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 21:59, 30 April 2011 (CEST)
:Funny, I thought I replied to that before (saying I thought it was ''rearguard''), but it's not here. I was busy. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 02:19, 1 May 2011 (CEST)
::As you are leading the way in this fight against these A-holes, you're certainly in the van. I salute your endeavours!--[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 11:07, 1 May 2011 (CEST)

Ref apparent new attack of bots - not what it seems. Hi. I went into the Special: New Pages list to look back through all recent changes that were highlighted in yellow - ie, unpatrolled by a sysops - and patrolled them all (twenty or so entries). Three of them appeared to be hangovers from the recent spamming problem that had been overlooked, although I discovered the perpetrating bots had all been blocked. So this is historic stuff - it's certainly not a resurgence of the old problem! --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 02:49, 8 May 2011 (CEST)
:Not new, obviously;, I just wondered how they were missed, but there were likely to be some oversights out of hundreds. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 03:09, 8 May 2011 (CEST)

== Quotes ==

Yeah, I think [[User:XEverettBlaked|XEverettBlaked]], [[User:NLoreenPetersm|NLoreenPetersm]] and [[User:AOscarEricksonw|AOscarEricksonw]] are spambots. They all seem to be going on about dating (hard to tell with AOscar, seems to be using a different language) and all fail at using spaces.

Also, I've suggested using the idea of [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum#Quotes|using quotes]] at the start of articles. I'd appreciate it if you commented, because otherwise I'm not sure anyone will comment. – [[User:Harry Blue5|Harry Blue5]] <small>([[User talk:Harry Blue5|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Harry Blue5|contribs]])</small> 11:43, 19 August 2011 (CEST)

:taken care of until the next batch comes in. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 19:33, 19 August 2011 (CEST)

==Very belated reply to your question==
So you may remember you asked me a question five years ago, at which point I promptly forgot the wiki existed...

Anyway, while I may have an ability to remember odd Discworld facts (I'd hesitate to call myself an "expert"), one look at my name should tell you never to trust me on spelling 8-). A flick through ''Equal Rites'' and ''Moving Pictures'' confirms that everyone else has it right: ''Necrotelicomnicon'' it is, making the pun a bit subtler than I thought. [[User:Daibhid C|Daibhid C]] 00:32, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

:Er, I've just read the [[Necrotelicomnicon]] talk page, and learnt a) Terry spells it inconsistantly and b) I've already weighed in on this. I swear, when it comes to things ''other'' than trivia from the books I've a memory like ... one of them things you drain rice in... [[User:Daibhid C|Daibhid C]] 00:45, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

Long time no see, indeed. It seems to me you're considered an expert around AFP, which is a distinguished panel of judges (beside a few jerks, of course). Coincidentally, I mentioned you recently in discussion as one of the few British originals here and for not hanging around afterward. I think we established ''Necrotelicomnicon'' as the correct spelling, despite a typo or a bit of TP trying to confuse us again. Don't talk to me about memory loss: I'm a lot older than you.
--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:50, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

== Game namespace ==

I've noticed there's a book and game namespace, but none of the games (e.g. ''[[Discworld Noir]]'') are actually in the Game namespace. Are the games supposed to be in that namespace and no one's gotten round to moving them, or is it that there needs to be more discussion about whether to use it? – [[User:Harry Blue5|Harry Blue5]] <small>([[User talk:Harry Blue5|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Harry Blue5|contribs]])</small> 02:03, 3 October 2011 (CEST)
:I'd never noticed there was such a namespace. There may not be enough games to justify it, but obviously it's an option. I guess discussion is what's needed. (You ask a lot: I was still mulling capitalisation of book titles.) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 02:35, 3 October 2011 (CEST)

== Carrot ==

I'm confused by your comment on Carrot. Either he is a fully rounded character or he is a cliche. He could be a parody on a fighter or a dwarf or something. But if he is, what kind of parody is he? [[User:Marmosetpower|Marmosetpower]] 15:09, 18 December 2011 (CET)
:Several things, as usual: Superman, Dudley Do-Right and all the too-good-to-be-true cartoon heroes as well as the rustic lad with an old sword who turns out to be the 'once and future king'. These are typically stiff, two-dimensional characters, often played as a bit (or very) dim. TP melts them down into a very tall Dwarf who starts out over-zealous and ingenuous and develops into the clever and capable Captain who knows everybody and everything that's going on while maintaining the outward persona. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 15:55, 18 December 2011 (CET)

If he is a parody of so much, is he still a parody though? I can't help feeling that this 'once and future king' stuff is a backstory, rather than a characteristic. If he did show a characteristic it would be denial of his 'once and future King' status. Being a King is not a character trait in itself. [[User:Marmosetpower|Marmosetpower]] 16:23, 20 December 2011 (CET)

== Threshold of evidence ==

Although I never posted to ABP, I used to read it a bit. I know "speculation" is a scary thing, because while The Man himself tolerates and encourages fandom, fans who inadvertently post one of His nascent ideas might cause the waveform to collapse in an entirely different direction while pissing Him off a bit at the same time. I also see that random unsupported annotations of the type "hey, Granny's hat is just like the one my aunt gave me for my 10th birthday, my aunt is from England, that's gotta be an obvious reference" shouldn't be tolerated.

Nevertheless, where does this wiki draw the line in terms of thoughts and annotations? Do you want textual references and footnotes? I do see lots of ideas in some articles which are, well, reaching. How far can we or should we reach?

Understand that I am taking no position here. I just want to know the rules, which I will attempt to follow faithfully. [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] 19:41, 23 December 2011 (CET)
:Ah. Rules! Well, erm...I mean, uh, we don't actually seem to have any ''rules'', as such (except against spam; we're definitely down on spam, but it doesn't stop the spammers either). Now I thought of the wiki as an encyclopedia with a pretty relaxed attitude but no room for unsupported opinions, whether called "annotations" or not; most people seem to like annotations better than anything. It seems to me that there's a fair consensus against annotation, speculation or fantasy in the body of the articles. At the same time, though, I've tried a couple of times to stir up opposition to the most outrageous blather and self-gratification (see pages of discussion in the Mended Drum and elsewhere) but most of us seem to hate ''rules'' more. I don't know, can you suggest some?

:TP doesn't come into it of course. He won't be reading this as he avoids all other such sites; no one ever objected to speculation in discussion pages or user pages. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 24 December 2011 (CET)

== The great spam flood of 2012 ==

Have you spoken with Sanity lately? He hardly ever responds to my emails. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:01, 8 February 2012 (CET)
:No, not since he put in the sign-up restriction after the last flood. I was wondering if I might suggest the site-specific test but I don't know if it's reasonable or possible. Have you any suggestions? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:55, 8 February 2012 (CET)

:: There's nothing you or I can do without access to the server and code. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 19:27, 9 February 2012 (CET)

::: Sadly. But may I suggest that new accounts have to be enabled by mods/admins to make new pages/edits. I tihnk that should be possible.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 20:07, 9 February 2012 (CET)

: Unfortunately, that's something that needs to be done by Sanity. Old Dickens and I don't have access to modify that. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 22:36, 9 February 2012 (CET)

:: Damn. I hope one of you reaches him soon. This is getting ridiculous.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 02:47, 10 February 2012 (CET)

Someone's been upgrading stuff, did you get ahold of Sanity? --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:18, 13 February 2012 (CET)
:Yea, he updated the wiki, ConfirmEdit and Bad Behavior and is looking into QuestyCaptcha or similar. I see it didn't stop them today. The Java buttons are gone from the edit panel, too. (four tildes) [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:33, 13 February 2012 (CET) ...and the categories now come with bullets! [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:38, 13 February 2012 (CET)

::He's still got some style fixes to make. Like the checkbox labels.--[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:04, 14 February 2012 (CET)

::And today's attempts were different. It really looked more like a person. Some things were inconsistent. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:04, 14 February 2012 (CET)

:::I'm starting to get rather pissed at our absentee owner. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 17:49, 28 February 2012 (CET)
:It's tiresome, especially if you're supposed to be working, I guess. I have no web access at work any more, so I'm no use weekdays. Sanity is suffering with Real Life too, unfortunately. Whaddya gonna do? I sent him a complaining email. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:19, 29 February 2012 (CET)

:Folks, we just had an attack on the MainPage. Undid it, but someone still needs to ban that bloke. On a further note: As nice as it is to see Discworld related questions for verification...'What is the first name of Sam Vimes' is not really going to do the trick...[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 07:56, 16 March 2012 (CET)
We noticed. Sanity managed to fix it quicker than he thought he could, but of course it wasn't like the average spammer who could be blocked. The question could probably be a little tougher, but the the thing is that it's a program written to circumvent arithmetic and character-recognition captchas, so it's confused by any other challenge to artificial intelligence. (The humanoids behind it don't even speak English, very often, but they're not looking anyway.) It seems to be working so far. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:43, 16 March 2012 (CET)...Oh, you meant the other Turk: Fhh98 got that. What is it with Turks lately? [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:49, 16 March 2012 (CET)
::Also not every user has actually read Discworld novels. If the question is to hard then real users might be scared off. Besides any spammers now have to register manually which would be a pain. --[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] 04:56, 17 March 2012 (CET)
I'm not sure we want input from anyone who couldn't come up with, say, ''Commander'' Vimes's given name. "Every user" is free to read but I'd prefer some minimum qualification to edit. Anyway, yes, the point is to baffle the program. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 05:33, 17 March 2012 (CET)
:What about in a case like [http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Talk:Reverse_Annotations#Cartoons.3F this], the person hasn't ever read discworld but offered some helpfull advice. Besides there are people out there who might only have read the Diggers books or Nation for example.

Perhaps what Sanity was thinking, and a good point, but it does ease the way for manual spammers and vandals. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:50, 17 March 2012 (CET)
:Well it seems to be working.--[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] 05:50, 18 March 2012 (CET)

As of tonight there are six very suspicious new names in red, that look as if they've been created by spambots. None of posted yet. But bearing in mind that most genuine new members of the Wiki community are only too keen to get stuck in straight away doing legitimate things, and these new names have been up for hours with no movement, would we be justified in delivering pre-emptive blocks? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 22:25, 29 June 2012 (CEST)
Just pre-emptively struck at a bunch of suspicious new usernames and blocked the lot. I'm working on intuition and experience - people with usernames consisting of random letters and numbers are not likely to be people at all but bots. [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 23:36, 29 June 2012 (CEST)

Or maybe even somebody called Vintagegown, which kind of suggests somebody's read this note and thought creatively. This could go one of two ways - maybe spamming a site for vintage clothing? Or she (?) might even be genuine, in which case - make a valid new entry and welcome! [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 00:13, 30 June 2012 (CEST)
:I waver between waiting for them to do something and blocking for 3 days or so as "unacceptable username": feel-of-the-moment thing. Fhh98's note to the Mexican pharmaceutical people didn't work for long. I see. See also the clever-dick TeddyAv. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:02, 30 June 2012 (CEST) (Oh yeah. The other thing is that I'm pretty sure they're not reading anything in their discussion pages.) [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:17, 30 June 2012 (CEST)

==(Here begins a new administration)==
You should be able to delete users now by going to the users page and selecting the Delete tab from the dropdown in the upper right. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 18:24, 5 November 2012 (PST)
:Kowabunga! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:29, 5 November 2012 (PST)...but I can't: I don't see the dropdown either in the '''User''''s page or in the '''User list'''. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:48, 5 November 2012 (PST)
::Try Again. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 19:05, 5 November 2012 (PST)
:::Aha. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 14:40, 6 November 2012 (PST)

== Interesting event ==

WikiShaper334 - I can't fathom this one out either.... on the face of it a legitimate entry, which is why the user remains, for now, unmerged. But the entry itself is fairly banal and unoriginal; the sort of thing that can be quickly deduced from a skimming of the rest of the article. The thought has occured to me that this could be a new tactic from somebody behind the spambots, to establish a legitimate presence here that will enable them to launch new spam attacks through the opening. Or am I being paranoid? I did a bit of Googling and a''traffic shaper'' is apparently a person, or automated software, seeking to order traffic onto a website so as to manipulate data - one use is to bump preferred links up a search engine. "Link-shaping" or "link-blogging" specifically targets blogs and Wikis so as to insert links that push favoured sites up a search engine listing. And adding a number after the name.... could be coincidence. But how can we prove or rule this out for certain? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 20:01, 3 February 2013 (GMT)
:Of course we can't, just now. It's hard to believe an SEO parasite keen enough to go through that, but also hard to believe the username. Either we'll delete him when he gets down to business or he'll fade away. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 20:31, 3 February 2013 (GMT)

00:14 GMT. Is it me, or have we had no spammers since 17:21 - nearly nine hours ago. I don't like it, sergeant. It's far too quiet. They're up to something out there...[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 00:16, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
:They will come in bunches, but then Osiris could be tinkering... --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:21, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
::(The next one arrived two hours later. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 02:07, 4 February 2013 (GMT))
:::I'm tinkering.... I put in a blacklist of words and phrases. For example, try to make an edit using that Justin guy's last name and you'll see it's not allowed. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 05:16, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
::::Is there a way to make it so that known users can use the blacklisted words/know what they are?--[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] ([[User talk:Zdm|talk]]) 06:01, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
:::::when you hit one it tells you what it was. It's based upon this example though. [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgSpamRegex $wgSpamRegex]

==Re: Johnny Maxwell==
Oh, sorry. Should I get rid of it? [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 16:57, 13 May 2013 (GMT)
:I did already. Twice, actually. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 21:33, 13 May 2013 (GMT)
I've replaced it with a less guesswork-dependant one. Is it okay this time? [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 18:39, 2 July 2013 (GMT)

Thanks. Rest assured, Yo-less definitely did say it. Of course, this being a Terry Pratchett book, it lost under accusations of Satanism and how Yo-less's mother wouldn't approve. [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 05:37, 3 July 2013 (GMT)

==Junk page==

Apologies if there is a better place for this, but this seems a bit out of place. [[Girls Dont Abide By The Rules]]. I did try blanking it, but alas I can't make it disappear. [[User:Aldibibable|Aldibibable]] ([[User talk:Aldibibable|talk]]) 22:53, 31 May 2013 (GMT)

== Create page permissions ==
There seems to be an issue with permissions regarding creating pages as I don't seem to have that option today. Yesterday I had the option but not today. Is there an issue with permissions? Is it just me being a newbie here or are there times when things work only when they feel like it? It seems quite sporadic and most peculiar. --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 22:48, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
:I've also had trouble with permissions for the last few days, as I mentioned in the [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum#I'm locked out!|Mended Drum]]. Have you tried going back and trying again? I've found that the error messages aren't necessarily final. Otherwise you'd have to ask the [[User talk:Osiris|man behind the curtain]]. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:28, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
::I noticed your comment the other day. Yes, I have tried several times but with no luck. When trying to create an additional user subpage I get the generic response: <pre>There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page.</pre>
::Yesterday, it didn't say this. When trying to create a page in the main namespace there's no create page tab and I get the generic search response when there are no results: <pre>There were no results matching the query.</pre>
::A curious case that I hope is resolved soon. Out of curiosity what roles do the different admins serve on this site just so I know for future reference? --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 23:44, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
:[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] is the owner/operator, I'm the ''Editor Quia Nemo Vult'' (housekeeper?) and [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] has been the major content provider for many years. (Also, your sig really fills up the edit box!) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:56, 9 June 2013 (GMT)
::Ok, thanks. I was curious as you are shown as the creator in the active user list. Regarding the signature, methinks that is a hint to change it. I actually still need to create another sig page for transclusion that should fix this but I still can't create new pages. If it doesn't work when the permissions are fixed I will change the signature if you prefer. --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 08:34, 9 June 2013 (GMT)
:::[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] changed the permissions for me so now everything seems to be working at the moment. Also, I have changed my signature, takes up less much space in the editor and made it less distracting. --{{User:CelticWanderer/sig}} 21:58, 9 June 2013 (GMT)

==Mass Deletions - a double-edged sword==
There's got to be a better way... I'm ashamed to say while I've deleted a thousand spam accounts, two legitimate users have been deleted in error too, in the last week. And in the last month three thousand spam accounts have been created and are yet to be dealt with. That error rate is just too high (I've left fulsome apologies where I hope they'll be seen. Wish I had their email addresses so I could apologise in person. are these stored anywhere?) While I've cleared out all the spam accounts beginning with "A" and a good few of the "B"'s - as well as routine demolition of new ones as they pop up - I'm now hideously aware that mistakes will inevitably happen and I do not want to make any more. So tonight I've just identified a few known legitimate users who still have to make an entry on their user pages and left temporary messages there, so they show up blue in the user list and are less likely to be deleted in error. but there has to be a better way around this. Otherwise I'd keep on zapping through the B's...
:It ain't that bad, really. [[User:Sharlee|Sharlee]] figured it out immediately; if [[User:Aldibibable|Aldibibable]] is also on Wikipedia he(?) is probably capable too. Generally, though, I'd rather prod [[User:Osiris|Osiris]] (after a decent interval to recover from his shock) to execute his script to remove all the dormant accounts at computer speed. A problem with your valiant efforts at doing it manually is that the rest of us (especially me) can't see what else has happened in "Recent changes", even at 500 lines. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:37, 22 June 2013 (GMT)

== List of Characters ==

Not done, just for the day. Can change back if need be, have saved original on my computer. [[User:Rictus|Rictus]]

==Finally...==
Enjoy! I'll try not to post too many jaw-dropping spoilers.[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 23:10, 14 November 2013 (GMT)

== User: Netterku, possible spammer ==

Please check out User:Netterku, as I suspect he may be a spammer who has got through the net. Inept, as it's in Indonesian, which I speak as fluently as Vimes speaks Dwarfish (in fact, Vimes is native fluent compared to me). But interesting, in that the spamming sems to be arranged differently and not to the old well-known pattern. If you agree, and the user has not responded to my yellow card warning, shall we block? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 08:26, 25 November 2013 (GMT)
:No need for discussion: I did. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:41, 25 November 2013 (GMT)

== User:AgustinSnider‎; ==

[[User:AgustinSnider]]‎;Spambot? Noted this user made an account on 31st August but has only "introduced themself" now. The wording of the introduction is also horribly familiar, although the declared location checks out. But no actual spam, as yet? Shall I delete, or will you? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 10:11, 6 December 2013 (GMT)
:Yes, I seemed to remember the "Agustin" and the mismatched name and poor spelling are depressingly familiar, but I don't see actual grounds for merging. Inquire, if you like, but it can wait for an actual offence. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 14:42, 6 December 2013 (GMT)
::offense committed. Goodbye! --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 04:00, 9 December 2013 (GMT)
:::Good shot,sir! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:39, 10 December 2013 (GMT)

== Mine's a Boy ==

Congratulations to you and your family. Mine's a boy and he's coming today! Don't expect to see me much for a while. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 12:14, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
:Good on ya, mate (or more so the wife)! No, you'll be busy for a few years as I recall. I hope we can raise you in an emergency. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 13:53, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

== BS, regarding your userpage post... ==
Old Dickens, thanks for the Independence Day wishes from this American. I'm hoping that recent developments in GB remind American rationalists not to take anything for granted re the man with Orange Hair.

On that note, a few days ago Rhianna Pratchett retweeted someone's suggestion to her that henceforth, in honor of Terry, Boris Johnson shall be known as "Bloody Stupid" Johnson. -- [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 22:54, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
:Hee Hee. I should have thought of that one myself. Good luck in November; we're at least as interested as the Mexicans here in the Great White North. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:43, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

== Reply from new user Wonderful Fanny ==
Thank you, Old Dickens. I will learn to avoid becoming historical. I do not see how to remove a page, but Ramkin House may be deleted. Before adding the page, I did look for Ramkin House under the Locations page listed in the Navigation bar to the left, but I didn't see it there. I now know that this is not the same page as your footer category link Locations, where Ramkin Residence is clearly listed, and which I found much easier to use. The two different locations pages are confusing. Anyway, I have added a few points to Ramkin Residence, as you suggested. I also edited the {{SN}} section on ACCOoDD, to clarify.

== Article on The Keep? ==
Hey, Old Dickens... hope you and Canada are doing well. I just reread (okay, re-listened-to) Monstrous Regiment, and I don’t see an article on The Keep in here. I’m ready to write something up, but first I want to be sure I’m not missing the article under a different title; and also to ask your opinion on what the title of that article should be. “The Keep”? “The Borogravian Keep”? “Keep”? Thanks! [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 13:24, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
:I see no article or even link to the Keep. An officer refers to it at one point as "Kneck Keep", which sounds useful although a redirect or two would be wanted in any case. A problem with audio books is bookmarking or searching or generally finding anything in particular. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:30, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

== Hello! ==

Hello. I'm here for anti-vandalism work. Do you have the ability to make me an admin here? I'm pretty sure that you have bureaucrat privelleges. My main goal around here is to ensure that this wiki is what it should be, a user-made encyclopedia, and not a playground for vandals. --'''[[User:DCool1|<span style="color:magenta">DCool1</span>]]''' ([[User talk:DCool1|Talk to me!]]) 15:18, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

== Novelpedia ==
Hello, Old Dickens! I am starting a new wiki project called Novelpedia. Novelpedia will become the largest encyclopedia in the world because there are more books in the world than of all Wikipedia articles. There are actually over 129,864,880 books, that means 129,864,880 articles. http://editthis.info/Novelpedia. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 10:39, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

User talk:Old Dickens

2019-11-21T10:41:57Z

Yoshi: /* Wikibooks */

Thanks for the spelling stuff, as you may know English is not my first language :) --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 00:51, 13 January 2007 (CET)

Hard to tell,usually, but we expect the average Dutchman to speak better English than the average Canadian (never mind Americans.) It occurred to me yesterday, though, that your English seems practically perfect on AF/BP, or here in the internal communication, but you make more mistakes in compositions. Seems odd, but maybe it's just familiarity with a style...--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:38, 13 January 2007 (CET)

I suppose that depends on whether killing Vorbis counts as smiting...--[[User:acgs1|acgs1]]

I would not edit it if it was not mentioned a Polish cuisine. I checked the only word which sounded similar (and describing similar concept) and I've checked its translation by wikipedia. In Polish cuisine I've never met other fat then pork fat as "Smalec" - especially that since recently (i.e. 20 c) chicken was considered rather expensive dish and it wasn't common meat. Either way the information was incorrect (as chicken fat is not the only one and at least in one cuisine from two mentioned not the most popular).

Yiddish origin of English makes little change as Yiddish was a language of Ashkenazi Jewish and originiated as some sort of mixture of Hebrew and German with addition of other languages. Probably thay trasfered the method of using the fat with the exception of pork for well-known religios issues. But [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz wikipedia] is unclear on this issue (it was so german-sounding I haven't check on english wikipedia only checking the translation - which is my error).

According to my knowledge (I used to learn french and I haven't everything forget I hope) ''Laissez-faire'' means literary ''please let us do''. I have met it only in connection with economics and I've never met it in English in any other context. As it is english-language wiki it would imply this conection - however I'm far from being a native speaker so I prefered to ask for clarification. --[[User:uzytkownik|uzytkownik]]

== Pronouns ==

I thought "their" was the correct use when the person is unidentified. Or has political correctness been thrown out of the door and are we going back to "his" instead of "their"? --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 19:45, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

Well, that's a toughie when The Author Himself avoids agreement of number at all costs. I don't think you could call it correct, but everybody's certainly doing it (like greengrocer's apostrophes.) We could make it an internal convention - one never knows, do they?

Is the same thing happening in Dutch? You must have had agreement of number, too. ("Your" didn't fit, anyway.}--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 21:08, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

There is a distinction in number, but considering that there are several houses in [[Empirical Crescent]], "their" seems justified. And yes, it'd be the same issue in Dutch. --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 22:22, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

:Only, you weren't referring to several houses; the subjects were "everybody" and "someone", singular. Nope, you can get away with it because it's PC, or because all the kids are doing it, or (especially here) because Pterry does it, but you can't pretend it makes sense.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:10, 16 May 2007 (CEST)

:Not only does Pterry do it, Shakespeare did it, Dickens did it, Austen did it, Thackeray did it. It's been extant in English as long as modern English has existed--[[User:Attercop|Attercop]] 07:04, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately true. The other day I heard a radio columnist refer first to "managers" (pl) as "he or she" before reverting to singular they for one "manager". Agreement of number is pretty much dead, but "one never knows, do they?" still sounds silly to me. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 13:35, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

== Help??!? ==

this is probably bleedin' obvious, but how do you quickly type the slash that you need to separate, for example, werewolves from werewolf, as you just did? i keep having to open another page and cut and paste it. duh indeed, but i just don't get it! sob! --[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 22:06, 28 May 2007 (CEST)

It's a '''pipe''', (Shift-Backslash, just above Return, usually.) If you don't go back to DOS you may never have used it.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:11, 28 May 2007 (CEST)

==Patrician==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelock_Vetinari
Bibliography section, check it out. From Pratchett himself, it says that originally he was overweight, and then lost weight - i.e., Pratchett became a better writer himself.
:But that refers to earlier books (I provided the quote from {{S}}.) Even The Author seems to have softened his (untenable) position on the single-Patrician theory, anyway. (Remember : Pterry only invented the Discworld; we live there.)--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:47, 31 May 2007 (CEST)

== that was quick ==

you blocked the spammer just as i logged in to todo. :)
:You're up even earlier than I am on a Sunday morning? Get a life! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:59, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

== i.e. [[Piecemaker]] ==
Yeah, I meant that in physical size, it may or may not be larger, but it is a certainly more powerful firearm. [[Special:Contributions/64.231.240.44|64.231.240.44]] 03:30, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

== Featured Articles ==

Just a small question, are featured articlees good articles that deserve recognition (as on wikipedia) or are they bad articles of topics that could be good? Thanks for your time. :) --[[User:Beligaronia|Beligaronia]] 06:37, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Typically, they're fairly good articles on important topics that Sanity or someone thought should be bigger and better. Certainly the idea is to improve them, not praise them. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 15:08, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

== re: Polish Discworld wiki ==

Thanks for your answer. Personally I prefer the layout of the wiki, as here I know ho to edit etc.
Mayby you could tell me how to start a new one? I mean the Polish one. If of course it is not too complicated. Then step by step it could grow up.
[[User:NoychoH|noychoH]] 18:16, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

:You're asking the wrong person, here. I'm not any kind of software developer. This one was set up by our admin, [[User:Sanity|Sanity]]; [[User:Death|Death]] operates the German version (where he's known as Tod), and our sysop [[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] seems to be knowledgeable about the inner workings. Anyone can download the program from [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki/pl MediaWiki], but configuring and providing the support is a job for a professional or a gifted and experienced amateur. I just fill in the pages. Go to the MediaWiki site and see if you feel capable. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 19:01, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

==Career Change==

Thanks old man. Very good of you. And yes: it's an ''awful'' lot better than dealing with 'em at 6!

== They may think it's all over ==

I saw the dedication to the "stenographer" and thought immediatly of {{GO}} where Pterry states (to the effect, I can't remember the exact phrasing) "It's impossible to know what Neil contributed and what I contributed but it was mostly me sitting at the keyboard". The dedication meant for me the first tangible proof of Pterry's illness/embuggerance. Nevertheless the changes of pace and turnings of phrase is, in my mind, not a sharp difference in light of the development over twenty years of writing.

The major weakness of {{UA}}, in my mind, is the appearence of several characters that appears as ''Deus Ex Machina'', Lady Margolotta, Vetinari trusting Glenda Sugarbean because of her grandmother, puhleese. It's too neat.

:I don't think those are really ''dei ex machina''; the god(dess) is Pedestriana, and on Discworld this sort of thing isn't unusual. There really are gods who do affect events. It's more of a problem that she isn't developed much. She crashes in at the beginning and returns at the end but we're not sure why. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:51, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

::By ''Deus ex Machina'' I meant the dramatic principle of concluding a drama by having an all-powerful character appear out of nowhere to settle all impasses. Normaly this implies weakness of the plot; ''Deus ex Machina'' is used as a deragotory term towards the author. There are indeed gods but I wasn't referring to any of those.
::On totally different note, it's been more than twenty years since I had English in school; I feel my grammar and spelling is slipping badly --[[User:Iron Hippo|Iron Hippo]] 18:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

:My point. That's what it means but those characters don't do that, Pedestriana does. The English is pretty good though, apart from some some spelling which isn't worse than many others. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 19:07, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

I'll develop my thoughts on football (soccer as merkins call it) in comparison to merkin sports but I need to think it through a bit more. In the meantime merkins: Do read Nick Hornby: Fever Pitch --[[User:Iron Hippo|Iron Hippo]] 01:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

:Agreed about Glenda Sugarbean. But I liked Unseen Academicals, for the most part, although I did notice some slight differences between it and prior books. Most noticeably: slight character changes and heavy reference to previous books.

:But Death does actually appear... "Death stood by the well-scrubbed slab and looked down. MISTER NUTT? WELL, THIS IS A SURPRISE, said Death, reaching into his robe. LET ME SEE WHAT I HAVE HERE.." He goes on to say that Mr. Nutt will have an interesting life. [[User:TC01|TC01]] 01:38, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

::Someone wants to correct the recent edit to [[Death]]. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:51, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

== May I ask something? ==

I am a rabid Pratchett fan, have read all the books so many times that I'm on my second copy of most of them, etc, etc. you probably hear this a lot in any case. Is there any way to get in touch with one of the mods/site administrators? [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 21:57, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
:The Administrator is [[User:Sanity|Sanity]]. He gives his e-mail address at the top of the page. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:05, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
::Many thanks. [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 23:11, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

== RE: Current revision as of 00:06, 30 November 2009 ==

you misunderstand - I have no sense of humor in the context of jokes, puns, et cetera, in real life. that is to say, I couldn't tell a good joke to save my life. Jokes that can get a round of roaring laughter from any other mouth fall flat when I say them. I in fact possess the approximate joke-telling ability of Mustrum Ridcully on a bad day. That doesn't mean that I can't appreciate Pratchett's humor, wit, and dead-on insights into the core of life around the world. [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 00:44, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
:Then I suggest you misstated. You mean you have no talent as a comic. Perhaps even Pterry couldn't make it as a joculator. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:00, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
::point well taken. However, I stick by my previous statement. I have no sense of humor. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate it.

Oh, and as a different note, I have a slight change that could be made to the fandom page: I've created a Pratchett Fanon wikia at http://pterryfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Discworld_Fanon_Wiki in case anyone wants to add their fanon to it. I also direct them to the Lspace wiki main page for a decent Pratchett wiki instead of the half-assed Wikia version. Think you could add my fledgeling fanon Wikia to the Fandom page? [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 01:23, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
:I'm pretty confused as to whether it's a fanfic collection or a wiki or what, but you could list it in "Fandom" yourself (maybe including a one-line explanation). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:44, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

== Death caption ==

An easier way to do what? The caption was properly specified in the previous version. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 22:15, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
:...to caption something without creating the white spaces, or generally put text where you want it without a lot of experimental colons? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:56, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

::are you wanting to caption something other then an image? --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 00:57, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
:Mostly it's to avoid the white borders ([[User:JaffaCakeLover|JaffaCakeLover]] was just suggesting a solution available only to Sanity but I wouldn't be able to judge that - there might be a down side). Some other idea might require placing a block of text to the right, just for interesting composition. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:23, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

:: Oh, hold on. I may be able to fix that depending on the theme's security. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 07:31, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

::: Nope, not something I can fix. The issue is with a CSS rule in the "/skins/lspace/main.css?207" file. The border rules need to be removed from div.thumb on line 443. Typically, you can override these rules via special pages within the wiki. However, the lspace skin doesn't respect these overrides. Therefore, Sanity would have to update the CSS file or update the skin to properly respect the overrides. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 07:53, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
:Bugger. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 03:51, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

::We'll see. I sent the info onto Sanity. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:15, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

::Looks like it's now fixed. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 01:19, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

And all the rest at the same time: nifty! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:54, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

== Power Cables ==

OK, so there could be also be a Power Cable, Alberta, a Power Cable, New South Wales or even an Elektriese Kabel in the Transvaal... but they'd still only get one page.

I will delete the lesser of the two. --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 20:04, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
:Why not add your second paragraph? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:27, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

== careers ==

To be more specific, I spent seven years developing web applications based upon the ColdFusion language ( think PHP, .net or java but cooler ). Next month I'm moving over to become an Oracle DBA. All this at a Dow component company. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:08, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

== About TC01 ==

Well, from what I've read of AgProv's and IronHippo's biographies, I think I could agree that I'm the youngest of the sysops/admins mentioned- not sure about other contributors with usernames or unregistered, of course. The Tiffany Aching series are written for people younger than me, though.

I spell, or rather type, words like an American, which is almost certaintly because I am one. The only possible exception to that might be when I type out {{COM}}, but I usually don't because I let the <nowiki>{{COM}}</nowiki> template do it for me.

I suppose I'll also mention that I do most of my reading these days on an Amazon Kindle, which is not actually that different from reading a real book (other than the inability to open it up to a random page and start reading). There are a few Pratchett books which I have only on the Kindle- which makes it handy when searching them for some obscure red link on the book articles.

And that's all I'm saying for now... Other than the fact that I reply to people on their talk pages rather than their user pages, unlike some people. [[User:TC01|TC01]] 22:43, 15 July 2010 (UTC) [[User:TC01|TC01]] 22:51, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

== [[Photographer]] ==

You reverted my edit to that page, where I explained Pratchett's joke (his definition of ''photus'' is clearly derived from the true meaning of the acronym POTUS). Where do you think I should have put the annotation instead? [[User:WLior|WLior]] 07:21, 1 September 2010 (CEST)

== Warning - British travel termini are bad for your financial health ==
We should have warned you.

It seems to be a universal thing about travelling in Britain that the moment you step into the precincts of an airport, a railway station, or even a large coach interchange (Victoria Coach Station in London, or Chorlton Street in Manchester), the prices you pay for sundry items go through the roof. It's as if the very act of stepping in through the front door causes the prices of even the most trivial items to soar by 25-40% or more, where they can get away with it. You are entering a parellel universe or a time portal where, given the usual operation of inflation, the world around you may be that of 2010 but you are being given a chance to experience a very specific aspect of the future - ie, what you might expect to be paying for goods and services in 2030.

A small bottle of coke which might cost 90p outside in the real world suddenly becomes £1.35; a packet of cigarettes which you might expect to get for £5.35 suddenly costs £6.80 (this was at the tobacconists' concession in WH Smiths at Manchester Picadilly - let's name the guilty party here!)and coffee at Tarbucks or Necros adds another 70p to the cost of a cup, or more... and as for buying food...

The sensible answer is - ''if going on a long journey by public transport in Britain, buy it before getting on the train or coach and get it from outside the station.''

The seasoned traveller will know where to look within a block or two of the station complex, and a service industry exists to fill this void. For instance, there is a very good and very cheap cafe just opposite Norwich Station, which capitalises on the obscene prices charged within the rail station, by serving great food very cheaply. There are quite a few around Picadilly and Chorlton Street stations in Manchester. No doubt the London stations have their satellites - there's said to be a great cheap cafe just behind Euston station that makes a bomb through the novel and revolutionary act of selling good food cheaply.

Nobody knows why this should be in Britain.

Arriving in Berlin, we found a very cheap eatery and cafe within the precincts of Tegel airport. This was not unique. comparing the euro price to what Manchester airport expected us to pay for a cappucino and a cake - it was nearly half as expensive.

Oh, and duty-free at British airports is hardly worth the while, as so much profit margin is loaded on the items that you are efectively paying the store owners what you would in tax, anyway. But at German airports...

Methinks we are being riped off, but at least you have a copy of {{ISWM}}.

Enjoy!--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 10:40, 11 October 2010 (CEST)

== A word please ==

You and AgProv were here before that <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[template:welcome|welcome]]}} was created. So was BOZZ but he hadn't had yet any talkpage messages, his talkpage had yet to be created, so I thought I,d do something about that. If he already had talkpage messages, I would have not welcomed him. Please excuse me if I had a mistake. [[user:Myrtone|Myr]][[User talk:Myrtone|'''tone''']][[special:emailuser/Myrtone|@]] 00:12, 25 December 2010 (CET)

These things happen. Don't worry! I'm glad somebody's consistently doing the meeting-and-greeting, anyway. AgProv, writing as --[[Special:Contributions/86.179.84.80|86.179.84.80]] 22:52, 10 January 2011 (CET)
Did you forget to login? [[user:Myrtone|Myr]][[User talk:Myrtone|'''tone''']][[special:emailuser/Myrtone|@]] 00:18, 11 January 2011 (CET)
Alas, yes. A bit of computer bother means I'm having to continually delete the internet cache and cookies, (virus-slaying) including the one that preserves my logon info for this site... --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 23:59, 13 January 2011 (CET)

== History ==

*''As far as I can recall, you were the first British member here, after a number of continental, American, Australian and Canadian contributors (Shadeofblue was here long before but never contributed anything). How do you suppose that came down? --Old Dickens 03:55, 11 April 2011 (CEST)''

Sounds like an accusation...Thinking back... I discovered the Wiki as part of a general exploration of the L-Space Web and I thought "I can do things here". My first two or three entries weren't strictly within the rules - I opened general articles on Douglas Adams and Michael Moorcock as authors who either influenced Pratchett or were spoofed by him in the first few books, only to be gently reminded this sort of thing really belonged under "Reading Suggestions". As I was very heavily influenced by mr Beobaart and Mr Kew in the Annotated Pratchett File, and was a bit frustrated they didn't seem to be in a position to accept updated entries. So my ideas as to all those sly nudges and digs and references in the books had to go somewhere! Then I discovered that 50% of the time, the entry to go with the annotation hadn't yet been written, so - ah well - roll your sleeves up and craft it...

I do wonder why so many contributors here are people to whom English is not a first language - although some of them, I suspect, speak it better than I do. Better than my French or Dutch/Afrikaans or German, I think! Perhaps it's that urge, fairly indefiniable but an urge nonetheless, to get past the necessary restrictions of reading a book in translation, and to get to grips with it in the original language? (I'm reliably told there have been at least four Dutch translators of Pratchett, for instance, who range from "excellent" to "appalling".) This is a big thing on the French VadeMecum site, although readers of Pratchett in French whose English is also good enough to tackle the originals do tend to speak well of their translator. And English humour, the quirkier the better, does seem to travel well... (look at the way Monty Python and its descendents are a cult thing in the USA)

As well as annotations, for me, there's also an urge to mention all those little leaps of logic that connect otherwise unrelated facts mentioned in different books - inferring that because Lady Sybil and Serafine von Überwald went to the same school {{T5E}}, and Lady Sybil's school, named in {{T!}} as [[Quirm College for Young Ladies|QAYL]], therefore Serafine must also have attended QAYL. (Which leads to ''speculation'' - as opposed to known fact - that Angua may also have attended QAYL.)

Getting the entries as accurate and as complete as possible gets to be a bug after a while...
--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 10:18, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

:What accusation? The question was why there didn't seem to be any British input before you came along, Britain obviously being the home of the books and the most fan activity. (Daibhid C was also a faqmaintainer early on but we never got any of his considerable insight, either.)

:The amazing ability of a series so strongly based in British folklore, history and humor to sell in many foreign languages is another interesting topic, though. P.G. Wodehouse and Monty Python did manage to penetrate the U.S., but I don't think they required the background Pratchett does (and I'm not sure Wodehouse would play in Power Cable any more.) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:32, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

Heh... should have said "sounds ''almost'' like an accusation... ("you are accused of being British with malice aforethought and lurking in a built-up area of the Internet after the hours of darkness, with intent to perpetuate a Wiki...")

I suspect, to build on a thought, that we English-fluent native Brits have it too easy, and do not appreciate the treasure we have in Pratchett. This only becomes beautifully clear to those who have learnt English the hard way as a second language, or who have to assemble the necessary mental tool-kit to approach the intricacies of British English language and custom. Who is it who said a prophet is never honoured in his own country?--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 17:12, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

:Jesus of Nazareth, I believe, but Sir T.P. OBE doesn't seem to suffer that way. Possibly it's just that English people already had a number of fan activities and we foreigners were more excited to have access to one. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 18:35, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

Jesus seems to been right about himself though there... -Marmosetpower

== On Vandalism ==

I don't know if this is the right place to suggest it, but maybe you should close down the registration for a while, fix things and put all articles under protection. That spammer seems to be a bot/malware cause thing, seeing the multiple IP-Addresses.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 19:34, 13 April 2011 (CEST)
:Mmm. I'm only a lieutenant, though, no keys to the missiles. Thanks for pitching in. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)

It kept me busy for an hour before bedtime. I'm guessing that once O.D. recognised how deep it actually went, it took a few hours of his life that he's never going to get back.So maybe we need to ask Sanity how to install deeper protection? --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 13:03, 14 April 2011 (CEST)
:About four hours, but then what else do I do of an evening? There wasn't even a ball game until too late. I know you've killed longer evenings writing stuff. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)... Apr. 30, now, was a full day. Oy. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 06:20, 1 May 2011 (CEST)
:I sent him an email last night --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 20:22, 14 April 2011 (CEST)
::So did I. He's investigating, but I don't know what could be done apart from general protection and that's never been popular. You only need the roof fixed when it's raining. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)
:::Not to be negative, but this rain could easily be washing away the foundation--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 19:09, 15 April 2011 (CEST)

Well done Dickens old man. You're fighting a valiant vanguard action! Good egg.--[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 21:59, 30 April 2011 (CEST)
:Funny, I thought I replied to that before (saying I thought it was ''rearguard''), but it's not here. I was busy. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 02:19, 1 May 2011 (CEST)
::As you are leading the way in this fight against these A-holes, you're certainly in the van. I salute your endeavours!--[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 11:07, 1 May 2011 (CEST)

Ref apparent new attack of bots - not what it seems. Hi. I went into the Special: New Pages list to look back through all recent changes that were highlighted in yellow - ie, unpatrolled by a sysops - and patrolled them all (twenty or so entries). Three of them appeared to be hangovers from the recent spamming problem that had been overlooked, although I discovered the perpetrating bots had all been blocked. So this is historic stuff - it's certainly not a resurgence of the old problem! --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 02:49, 8 May 2011 (CEST)
:Not new, obviously;, I just wondered how they were missed, but there were likely to be some oversights out of hundreds. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 03:09, 8 May 2011 (CEST)

== Quotes ==

Yeah, I think [[User:XEverettBlaked|XEverettBlaked]], [[User:NLoreenPetersm|NLoreenPetersm]] and [[User:AOscarEricksonw|AOscarEricksonw]] are spambots. They all seem to be going on about dating (hard to tell with AOscar, seems to be using a different language) and all fail at using spaces.

Also, I've suggested using the idea of [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum#Quotes|using quotes]] at the start of articles. I'd appreciate it if you commented, because otherwise I'm not sure anyone will comment. – [[User:Harry Blue5|Harry Blue5]] <small>([[User talk:Harry Blue5|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Harry Blue5|contribs]])</small> 11:43, 19 August 2011 (CEST)

:taken care of until the next batch comes in. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 19:33, 19 August 2011 (CEST)

==Very belated reply to your question==
So you may remember you asked me a question five years ago, at which point I promptly forgot the wiki existed...

Anyway, while I may have an ability to remember odd Discworld facts (I'd hesitate to call myself an "expert"), one look at my name should tell you never to trust me on spelling 8-). A flick through ''Equal Rites'' and ''Moving Pictures'' confirms that everyone else has it right: ''Necrotelicomnicon'' it is, making the pun a bit subtler than I thought. [[User:Daibhid C|Daibhid C]] 00:32, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

:Er, I've just read the [[Necrotelicomnicon]] talk page, and learnt a) Terry spells it inconsistantly and b) I've already weighed in on this. I swear, when it comes to things ''other'' than trivia from the books I've a memory like ... one of them things you drain rice in... [[User:Daibhid C|Daibhid C]] 00:45, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

Long time no see, indeed. It seems to me you're considered an expert around AFP, which is a distinguished panel of judges (beside a few jerks, of course). Coincidentally, I mentioned you recently in discussion as one of the few British originals here and for not hanging around afterward. I think we established ''Necrotelicomnicon'' as the correct spelling, despite a typo or a bit of TP trying to confuse us again. Don't talk to me about memory loss: I'm a lot older than you.
--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:50, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

== Game namespace ==

I've noticed there's a book and game namespace, but none of the games (e.g. ''[[Discworld Noir]]'') are actually in the Game namespace. Are the games supposed to be in that namespace and no one's gotten round to moving them, or is it that there needs to be more discussion about whether to use it? – [[User:Harry Blue5|Harry Blue5]] <small>([[User talk:Harry Blue5|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Harry Blue5|contribs]])</small> 02:03, 3 October 2011 (CEST)
:I'd never noticed there was such a namespace. There may not be enough games to justify it, but obviously it's an option. I guess discussion is what's needed. (You ask a lot: I was still mulling capitalisation of book titles.) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 02:35, 3 October 2011 (CEST)

== Carrot ==

I'm confused by your comment on Carrot. Either he is a fully rounded character or he is a cliche. He could be a parody on a fighter or a dwarf or something. But if he is, what kind of parody is he? [[User:Marmosetpower|Marmosetpower]] 15:09, 18 December 2011 (CET)
:Several things, as usual: Superman, Dudley Do-Right and all the too-good-to-be-true cartoon heroes as well as the rustic lad with an old sword who turns out to be the 'once and future king'. These are typically stiff, two-dimensional characters, often played as a bit (or very) dim. TP melts them down into a very tall Dwarf who starts out over-zealous and ingenuous and develops into the clever and capable Captain who knows everybody and everything that's going on while maintaining the outward persona. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 15:55, 18 December 2011 (CET)

If he is a parody of so much, is he still a parody though? I can't help feeling that this 'once and future king' stuff is a backstory, rather than a characteristic. If he did show a characteristic it would be denial of his 'once and future King' status. Being a King is not a character trait in itself. [[User:Marmosetpower|Marmosetpower]] 16:23, 20 December 2011 (CET)

== Threshold of evidence ==

Although I never posted to ABP, I used to read it a bit. I know "speculation" is a scary thing, because while The Man himself tolerates and encourages fandom, fans who inadvertently post one of His nascent ideas might cause the waveform to collapse in an entirely different direction while pissing Him off a bit at the same time. I also see that random unsupported annotations of the type "hey, Granny's hat is just like the one my aunt gave me for my 10th birthday, my aunt is from England, that's gotta be an obvious reference" shouldn't be tolerated.

Nevertheless, where does this wiki draw the line in terms of thoughts and annotations? Do you want textual references and footnotes? I do see lots of ideas in some articles which are, well, reaching. How far can we or should we reach?

Understand that I am taking no position here. I just want to know the rules, which I will attempt to follow faithfully. [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] 19:41, 23 December 2011 (CET)
:Ah. Rules! Well, erm...I mean, uh, we don't actually seem to have any ''rules'', as such (except against spam; we're definitely down on spam, but it doesn't stop the spammers either). Now I thought of the wiki as an encyclopedia with a pretty relaxed attitude but no room for unsupported opinions, whether called "annotations" or not; most people seem to like annotations better than anything. It seems to me that there's a fair consensus against annotation, speculation or fantasy in the body of the articles. At the same time, though, I've tried a couple of times to stir up opposition to the most outrageous blather and self-gratification (see pages of discussion in the Mended Drum and elsewhere) but most of us seem to hate ''rules'' more. I don't know, can you suggest some?

:TP doesn't come into it of course. He won't be reading this as he avoids all other such sites; no one ever objected to speculation in discussion pages or user pages. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 24 December 2011 (CET)

== The great spam flood of 2012 ==

Have you spoken with Sanity lately? He hardly ever responds to my emails. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:01, 8 February 2012 (CET)
:No, not since he put in the sign-up restriction after the last flood. I was wondering if I might suggest the site-specific test but I don't know if it's reasonable or possible. Have you any suggestions? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:55, 8 February 2012 (CET)

:: There's nothing you or I can do without access to the server and code. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 19:27, 9 February 2012 (CET)

::: Sadly. But may I suggest that new accounts have to be enabled by mods/admins to make new pages/edits. I tihnk that should be possible.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 20:07, 9 February 2012 (CET)

: Unfortunately, that's something that needs to be done by Sanity. Old Dickens and I don't have access to modify that. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 22:36, 9 February 2012 (CET)

:: Damn. I hope one of you reaches him soon. This is getting ridiculous.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 02:47, 10 February 2012 (CET)

Someone's been upgrading stuff, did you get ahold of Sanity? --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:18, 13 February 2012 (CET)
:Yea, he updated the wiki, ConfirmEdit and Bad Behavior and is looking into QuestyCaptcha or similar. I see it didn't stop them today. The Java buttons are gone from the edit panel, too. (four tildes) [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:33, 13 February 2012 (CET) ...and the categories now come with bullets! [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:38, 13 February 2012 (CET)

::He's still got some style fixes to make. Like the checkbox labels.--[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:04, 14 February 2012 (CET)

::And today's attempts were different. It really looked more like a person. Some things were inconsistent. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:04, 14 February 2012 (CET)

:::I'm starting to get rather pissed at our absentee owner. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 17:49, 28 February 2012 (CET)
:It's tiresome, especially if you're supposed to be working, I guess. I have no web access at work any more, so I'm no use weekdays. Sanity is suffering with Real Life too, unfortunately. Whaddya gonna do? I sent him a complaining email. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:19, 29 February 2012 (CET)

:Folks, we just had an attack on the MainPage. Undid it, but someone still needs to ban that bloke. On a further note: As nice as it is to see Discworld related questions for verification...'What is the first name of Sam Vimes' is not really going to do the trick...[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 07:56, 16 March 2012 (CET)
We noticed. Sanity managed to fix it quicker than he thought he could, but of course it wasn't like the average spammer who could be blocked. The question could probably be a little tougher, but the the thing is that it's a program written to circumvent arithmetic and character-recognition captchas, so it's confused by any other challenge to artificial intelligence. (The humanoids behind it don't even speak English, very often, but they're not looking anyway.) It seems to be working so far. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:43, 16 March 2012 (CET)...Oh, you meant the other Turk: Fhh98 got that. What is it with Turks lately? [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:49, 16 March 2012 (CET)
::Also not every user has actually read Discworld novels. If the question is to hard then real users might be scared off. Besides any spammers now have to register manually which would be a pain. --[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] 04:56, 17 March 2012 (CET)
I'm not sure we want input from anyone who couldn't come up with, say, ''Commander'' Vimes's given name. "Every user" is free to read but I'd prefer some minimum qualification to edit. Anyway, yes, the point is to baffle the program. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 05:33, 17 March 2012 (CET)
:What about in a case like [http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Talk:Reverse_Annotations#Cartoons.3F this], the person hasn't ever read discworld but offered some helpfull advice. Besides there are people out there who might only have read the Diggers books or Nation for example.

Perhaps what Sanity was thinking, and a good point, but it does ease the way for manual spammers and vandals. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:50, 17 March 2012 (CET)
:Well it seems to be working.--[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] 05:50, 18 March 2012 (CET)

As of tonight there are six very suspicious new names in red, that look as if they've been created by spambots. None of posted yet. But bearing in mind that most genuine new members of the Wiki community are only too keen to get stuck in straight away doing legitimate things, and these new names have been up for hours with no movement, would we be justified in delivering pre-emptive blocks? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 22:25, 29 June 2012 (CEST)
Just pre-emptively struck at a bunch of suspicious new usernames and blocked the lot. I'm working on intuition and experience - people with usernames consisting of random letters and numbers are not likely to be people at all but bots. [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 23:36, 29 June 2012 (CEST)

Or maybe even somebody called Vintagegown, which kind of suggests somebody's read this note and thought creatively. This could go one of two ways - maybe spamming a site for vintage clothing? Or she (?) might even be genuine, in which case - make a valid new entry and welcome! [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 00:13, 30 June 2012 (CEST)
:I waver between waiting for them to do something and blocking for 3 days or so as "unacceptable username": feel-of-the-moment thing. Fhh98's note to the Mexican pharmaceutical people didn't work for long. I see. See also the clever-dick TeddyAv. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:02, 30 June 2012 (CEST) (Oh yeah. The other thing is that I'm pretty sure they're not reading anything in their discussion pages.) [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:17, 30 June 2012 (CEST)

==(Here begins a new administration)==
You should be able to delete users now by going to the users page and selecting the Delete tab from the dropdown in the upper right. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 18:24, 5 November 2012 (PST)
:Kowabunga! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:29, 5 November 2012 (PST)...but I can't: I don't see the dropdown either in the '''User''''s page or in the '''User list'''. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:48, 5 November 2012 (PST)
::Try Again. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 19:05, 5 November 2012 (PST)
:::Aha. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 14:40, 6 November 2012 (PST)

== Interesting event ==

WikiShaper334 - I can't fathom this one out either.... on the face of it a legitimate entry, which is why the user remains, for now, unmerged. But the entry itself is fairly banal and unoriginal; the sort of thing that can be quickly deduced from a skimming of the rest of the article. The thought has occured to me that this could be a new tactic from somebody behind the spambots, to establish a legitimate presence here that will enable them to launch new spam attacks through the opening. Or am I being paranoid? I did a bit of Googling and a''traffic shaper'' is apparently a person, or automated software, seeking to order traffic onto a website so as to manipulate data - one use is to bump preferred links up a search engine. "Link-shaping" or "link-blogging" specifically targets blogs and Wikis so as to insert links that push favoured sites up a search engine listing. And adding a number after the name.... could be coincidence. But how can we prove or rule this out for certain? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 20:01, 3 February 2013 (GMT)
:Of course we can't, just now. It's hard to believe an SEO parasite keen enough to go through that, but also hard to believe the username. Either we'll delete him when he gets down to business or he'll fade away. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 20:31, 3 February 2013 (GMT)

00:14 GMT. Is it me, or have we had no spammers since 17:21 - nearly nine hours ago. I don't like it, sergeant. It's far too quiet. They're up to something out there...[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 00:16, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
:They will come in bunches, but then Osiris could be tinkering... --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:21, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
::(The next one arrived two hours later. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 02:07, 4 February 2013 (GMT))
:::I'm tinkering.... I put in a blacklist of words and phrases. For example, try to make an edit using that Justin guy's last name and you'll see it's not allowed. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 05:16, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
::::Is there a way to make it so that known users can use the blacklisted words/know what they are?--[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] ([[User talk:Zdm|talk]]) 06:01, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
:::::when you hit one it tells you what it was. It's based upon this example though. [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgSpamRegex $wgSpamRegex]

==Re: Johnny Maxwell==
Oh, sorry. Should I get rid of it? [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 16:57, 13 May 2013 (GMT)
:I did already. Twice, actually. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 21:33, 13 May 2013 (GMT)
I've replaced it with a less guesswork-dependant one. Is it okay this time? [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 18:39, 2 July 2013 (GMT)

Thanks. Rest assured, Yo-less definitely did say it. Of course, this being a Terry Pratchett book, it lost under accusations of Satanism and how Yo-less's mother wouldn't approve. [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 05:37, 3 July 2013 (GMT)

==Junk page==

Apologies if there is a better place for this, but this seems a bit out of place. [[Girls Dont Abide By The Rules]]. I did try blanking it, but alas I can't make it disappear. [[User:Aldibibable|Aldibibable]] ([[User talk:Aldibibable|talk]]) 22:53, 31 May 2013 (GMT)

== Create page permissions ==
There seems to be an issue with permissions regarding creating pages as I don't seem to have that option today. Yesterday I had the option but not today. Is there an issue with permissions? Is it just me being a newbie here or are there times when things work only when they feel like it? It seems quite sporadic and most peculiar. --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 22:48, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
:I've also had trouble with permissions for the last few days, as I mentioned in the [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum#I'm locked out!|Mended Drum]]. Have you tried going back and trying again? I've found that the error messages aren't necessarily final. Otherwise you'd have to ask the [[User talk:Osiris|man behind the curtain]]. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:28, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
::I noticed your comment the other day. Yes, I have tried several times but with no luck. When trying to create an additional user subpage I get the generic response: <pre>There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page.</pre>
::Yesterday, it didn't say this. When trying to create a page in the main namespace there's no create page tab and I get the generic search response when there are no results: <pre>There were no results matching the query.</pre>
::A curious case that I hope is resolved soon. Out of curiosity what roles do the different admins serve on this site just so I know for future reference? --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 23:44, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
:[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] is the owner/operator, I'm the ''Editor Quia Nemo Vult'' (housekeeper?) and [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] has been the major content provider for many years. (Also, your sig really fills up the edit box!) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:56, 9 June 2013 (GMT)
::Ok, thanks. I was curious as you are shown as the creator in the active user list. Regarding the signature, methinks that is a hint to change it. I actually still need to create another sig page for transclusion that should fix this but I still can't create new pages. If it doesn't work when the permissions are fixed I will change the signature if you prefer. --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 08:34, 9 June 2013 (GMT)
:::[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] changed the permissions for me so now everything seems to be working at the moment. Also, I have changed my signature, takes up less much space in the editor and made it less distracting. --{{User:CelticWanderer/sig}} 21:58, 9 June 2013 (GMT)

==Mass Deletions - a double-edged sword==
There's got to be a better way... I'm ashamed to say while I've deleted a thousand spam accounts, two legitimate users have been deleted in error too, in the last week. And in the last month three thousand spam accounts have been created and are yet to be dealt with. That error rate is just too high (I've left fulsome apologies where I hope they'll be seen. Wish I had their email addresses so I could apologise in person. are these stored anywhere?) While I've cleared out all the spam accounts beginning with "A" and a good few of the "B"'s - as well as routine demolition of new ones as they pop up - I'm now hideously aware that mistakes will inevitably happen and I do not want to make any more. So tonight I've just identified a few known legitimate users who still have to make an entry on their user pages and left temporary messages there, so they show up blue in the user list and are less likely to be deleted in error. but there has to be a better way around this. Otherwise I'd keep on zapping through the B's...
:It ain't that bad, really. [[User:Sharlee|Sharlee]] figured it out immediately; if [[User:Aldibibable|Aldibibable]] is also on Wikipedia he(?) is probably capable too. Generally, though, I'd rather prod [[User:Osiris|Osiris]] (after a decent interval to recover from his shock) to execute his script to remove all the dormant accounts at computer speed. A problem with your valiant efforts at doing it manually is that the rest of us (especially me) can't see what else has happened in "Recent changes", even at 500 lines. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:37, 22 June 2013 (GMT)

== List of Characters ==

Not done, just for the day. Can change back if need be, have saved original on my computer. [[User:Rictus|Rictus]]

==Finally...==
Enjoy! I'll try not to post too many jaw-dropping spoilers.[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 23:10, 14 November 2013 (GMT)

== User: Netterku, possible spammer ==

Please check out User:Netterku, as I suspect he may be a spammer who has got through the net. Inept, as it's in Indonesian, which I speak as fluently as Vimes speaks Dwarfish (in fact, Vimes is native fluent compared to me). But interesting, in that the spamming sems to be arranged differently and not to the old well-known pattern. If you agree, and the user has not responded to my yellow card warning, shall we block? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 08:26, 25 November 2013 (GMT)
:No need for discussion: I did. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:41, 25 November 2013 (GMT)

== User:AgustinSnider‎; ==

[[User:AgustinSnider]]‎;Spambot? Noted this user made an account on 31st August but has only "introduced themself" now. The wording of the introduction is also horribly familiar, although the declared location checks out. But no actual spam, as yet? Shall I delete, or will you? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 10:11, 6 December 2013 (GMT)
:Yes, I seemed to remember the "Agustin" and the mismatched name and poor spelling are depressingly familiar, but I don't see actual grounds for merging. Inquire, if you like, but it can wait for an actual offence. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 14:42, 6 December 2013 (GMT)
::offense committed. Goodbye! --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 04:00, 9 December 2013 (GMT)
:::Good shot,sir! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:39, 10 December 2013 (GMT)

== Mine's a Boy ==

Congratulations to you and your family. Mine's a boy and he's coming today! Don't expect to see me much for a while. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 12:14, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
:Good on ya, mate (or more so the wife)! No, you'll be busy for a few years as I recall. I hope we can raise you in an emergency. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 13:53, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

== BS, regarding your userpage post... ==
Old Dickens, thanks for the Independence Day wishes from this American. I'm hoping that recent developments in GB remind American rationalists not to take anything for granted re the man with Orange Hair.

On that note, a few days ago Rhianna Pratchett retweeted someone's suggestion to her that henceforth, in honor of Terry, Boris Johnson shall be known as "Bloody Stupid" Johnson. -- [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 22:54, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
:Hee Hee. I should have thought of that one myself. Good luck in November; we're at least as interested as the Mexicans here in the Great White North. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:43, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

== Reply from new user Wonderful Fanny ==
Thank you, Old Dickens. I will learn to avoid becoming historical. I do not see how to remove a page, but Ramkin House may be deleted. Before adding the page, I did look for Ramkin House under the Locations page listed in the Navigation bar to the left, but I didn't see it there. I now know that this is not the same page as your footer category link Locations, where Ramkin Residence is clearly listed, and which I found much easier to use. The two different locations pages are confusing. Anyway, I have added a few points to Ramkin Residence, as you suggested. I also edited the {{SN}} section on ACCOoDD, to clarify.

== Article on The Keep? ==
Hey, Old Dickens... hope you and Canada are doing well. I just reread (okay, re-listened-to) Monstrous Regiment, and I don’t see an article on The Keep in here. I’m ready to write something up, but first I want to be sure I’m not missing the article under a different title; and also to ask your opinion on what the title of that article should be. “The Keep”? “The Borogravian Keep”? “Keep”? Thanks! [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 13:24, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
:I see no article or even link to the Keep. An officer refers to it at one point as "Kneck Keep", which sounds useful although a redirect or two would be wanted in any case. A problem with audio books is bookmarking or searching or generally finding anything in particular. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:30, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

== Hello! ==

Hello. I'm here for anti-vandalism work. Do you have the ability to make me an admin here? I'm pretty sure that you have bureaucrat privelleges. My main goal around here is to ensure that this wiki is what it should be, a user-made encyclopedia, and not a playground for vandals. --'''[[User:DCool1|<span style="color:magenta">DCool1</span>]]''' ([[User talk:DCool1|Talk to me!]]) 15:18, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

== Wikilibrary ==
Hello, Old Dickens! I am starting a new wiki project called Wikilibrary. Wikilibrary will become the largest encyclopedia in the world because there are more books in the world than of all Wikipedia articles. There are actually over 129,864,880 books, that means 129,864,880 articles. http://editthis.info/wikilibrary. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 10:39, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

User talk:Old Dickens

2019-11-21T10:39:32Z

Yoshi: /* Wikibooks */ new section

Thanks for the spelling stuff, as you may know English is not my first language :) --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 00:51, 13 January 2007 (CET)

Hard to tell,usually, but we expect the average Dutchman to speak better English than the average Canadian (never mind Americans.) It occurred to me yesterday, though, that your English seems practically perfect on AF/BP, or here in the internal communication, but you make more mistakes in compositions. Seems odd, but maybe it's just familiarity with a style...--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:38, 13 January 2007 (CET)

I suppose that depends on whether killing Vorbis counts as smiting...--[[User:acgs1|acgs1]]

I would not edit it if it was not mentioned a Polish cuisine. I checked the only word which sounded similar (and describing similar concept) and I've checked its translation by wikipedia. In Polish cuisine I've never met other fat then pork fat as "Smalec" - especially that since recently (i.e. 20 c) chicken was considered rather expensive dish and it wasn't common meat. Either way the information was incorrect (as chicken fat is not the only one and at least in one cuisine from two mentioned not the most popular).

Yiddish origin of English makes little change as Yiddish was a language of Ashkenazi Jewish and originiated as some sort of mixture of Hebrew and German with addition of other languages. Probably thay trasfered the method of using the fat with the exception of pork for well-known religios issues. But [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmaltz wikipedia] is unclear on this issue (it was so german-sounding I haven't check on english wikipedia only checking the translation - which is my error).

According to my knowledge (I used to learn french and I haven't everything forget I hope) ''Laissez-faire'' means literary ''please let us do''. I have met it only in connection with economics and I've never met it in English in any other context. As it is english-language wiki it would imply this conection - however I'm far from being a native speaker so I prefered to ask for clarification. --[[User:uzytkownik|uzytkownik]]

== Pronouns ==

I thought "their" was the correct use when the person is unidentified. Or has political correctness been thrown out of the door and are we going back to "his" instead of "their"? --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 19:45, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

Well, that's a toughie when The Author Himself avoids agreement of number at all costs. I don't think you could call it correct, but everybody's certainly doing it (like greengrocer's apostrophes.) We could make it an internal convention - one never knows, do they?

Is the same thing happening in Dutch? You must have had agreement of number, too. ("Your" didn't fit, anyway.}--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 21:08, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

There is a distinction in number, but considering that there are several houses in [[Empirical Crescent]], "their" seems justified. And yes, it'd be the same issue in Dutch. --[[User:Sanity|Sanity]] 22:22, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

:Only, you weren't referring to several houses; the subjects were "everybody" and "someone", singular. Nope, you can get away with it because it's PC, or because all the kids are doing it, or (especially here) because Pterry does it, but you can't pretend it makes sense.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:10, 16 May 2007 (CEST)

:Not only does Pterry do it, Shakespeare did it, Dickens did it, Austen did it, Thackeray did it. It's been extant in English as long as modern English has existed--[[User:Attercop|Attercop]] 07:04, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately true. The other day I heard a radio columnist refer first to "managers" (pl) as "he or she" before reverting to singular they for one "manager". Agreement of number is pretty much dead, but "one never knows, do they?" still sounds silly to me. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 13:35, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

== Help??!? ==

this is probably bleedin' obvious, but how do you quickly type the slash that you need to separate, for example, werewolves from werewolf, as you just did? i keep having to open another page and cut and paste it. duh indeed, but i just don't get it! sob! --[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 22:06, 28 May 2007 (CEST)

It's a '''pipe''', (Shift-Backslash, just above Return, usually.) If you don't go back to DOS you may never have used it.--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:11, 28 May 2007 (CEST)

==Patrician==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelock_Vetinari
Bibliography section, check it out. From Pratchett himself, it says that originally he was overweight, and then lost weight - i.e., Pratchett became a better writer himself.
:But that refers to earlier books (I provided the quote from {{S}}.) Even The Author seems to have softened his (untenable) position on the single-Patrician theory, anyway. (Remember : Pterry only invented the Discworld; we live there.)--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:47, 31 May 2007 (CEST)

== that was quick ==

you blocked the spammer just as i logged in to todo. :)
:You're up even earlier than I am on a Sunday morning? Get a life! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:59, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

== i.e. [[Piecemaker]] ==
Yeah, I meant that in physical size, it may or may not be larger, but it is a certainly more powerful firearm. [[Special:Contributions/64.231.240.44|64.231.240.44]] 03:30, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

== Featured Articles ==

Just a small question, are featured articlees good articles that deserve recognition (as on wikipedia) or are they bad articles of topics that could be good? Thanks for your time. :) --[[User:Beligaronia|Beligaronia]] 06:37, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

Typically, they're fairly good articles on important topics that Sanity or someone thought should be bigger and better. Certainly the idea is to improve them, not praise them. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 15:08, 1 December 2008 (UTC)

== re: Polish Discworld wiki ==

Thanks for your answer. Personally I prefer the layout of the wiki, as here I know ho to edit etc.
Mayby you could tell me how to start a new one? I mean the Polish one. If of course it is not too complicated. Then step by step it could grow up.
[[User:NoychoH|noychoH]] 18:16, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

:You're asking the wrong person, here. I'm not any kind of software developer. This one was set up by our admin, [[User:Sanity|Sanity]]; [[User:Death|Death]] operates the German version (where he's known as Tod), and our sysop [[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] seems to be knowledgeable about the inner workings. Anyone can download the program from [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki/pl MediaWiki], but configuring and providing the support is a job for a professional or a gifted and experienced amateur. I just fill in the pages. Go to the MediaWiki site and see if you feel capable. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 19:01, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

==Career Change==

Thanks old man. Very good of you. And yes: it's an ''awful'' lot better than dealing with 'em at 6!

== They may think it's all over ==

I saw the dedication to the "stenographer" and thought immediatly of {{GO}} where Pterry states (to the effect, I can't remember the exact phrasing) "It's impossible to know what Neil contributed and what I contributed but it was mostly me sitting at the keyboard". The dedication meant for me the first tangible proof of Pterry's illness/embuggerance. Nevertheless the changes of pace and turnings of phrase is, in my mind, not a sharp difference in light of the development over twenty years of writing.

The major weakness of {{UA}}, in my mind, is the appearence of several characters that appears as ''Deus Ex Machina'', Lady Margolotta, Vetinari trusting Glenda Sugarbean because of her grandmother, puhleese. It's too neat.

:I don't think those are really ''dei ex machina''; the god(dess) is Pedestriana, and on Discworld this sort of thing isn't unusual. There really are gods who do affect events. It's more of a problem that she isn't developed much. She crashes in at the beginning and returns at the end but we're not sure why. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:51, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

::By ''Deus ex Machina'' I meant the dramatic principle of concluding a drama by having an all-powerful character appear out of nowhere to settle all impasses. Normaly this implies weakness of the plot; ''Deus ex Machina'' is used as a deragotory term towards the author. There are indeed gods but I wasn't referring to any of those.
::On totally different note, it's been more than twenty years since I had English in school; I feel my grammar and spelling is slipping badly --[[User:Iron Hippo|Iron Hippo]] 18:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

:My point. That's what it means but those characters don't do that, Pedestriana does. The English is pretty good though, apart from some some spelling which isn't worse than many others. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 19:07, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

I'll develop my thoughts on football (soccer as merkins call it) in comparison to merkin sports but I need to think it through a bit more. In the meantime merkins: Do read Nick Hornby: Fever Pitch --[[User:Iron Hippo|Iron Hippo]] 01:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

:Agreed about Glenda Sugarbean. But I liked Unseen Academicals, for the most part, although I did notice some slight differences between it and prior books. Most noticeably: slight character changes and heavy reference to previous books.

:But Death does actually appear... "Death stood by the well-scrubbed slab and looked down. MISTER NUTT? WELL, THIS IS A SURPRISE, said Death, reaching into his robe. LET ME SEE WHAT I HAVE HERE.." He goes on to say that Mr. Nutt will have an interesting life. [[User:TC01|TC01]] 01:38, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

::Someone wants to correct the recent edit to [[Death]]. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:51, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

== May I ask something? ==

I am a rabid Pratchett fan, have read all the books so many times that I'm on my second copy of most of them, etc, etc. you probably hear this a lot in any case. Is there any way to get in touch with one of the mods/site administrators? [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 21:57, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
:The Administrator is [[User:Sanity|Sanity]]. He gives his e-mail address at the top of the page. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:05, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
::Many thanks. [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 23:11, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

== RE: Current revision as of 00:06, 30 November 2009 ==

you misunderstand - I have no sense of humor in the context of jokes, puns, et cetera, in real life. that is to say, I couldn't tell a good joke to save my life. Jokes that can get a round of roaring laughter from any other mouth fall flat when I say them. I in fact possess the approximate joke-telling ability of Mustrum Ridcully on a bad day. That doesn't mean that I can't appreciate Pratchett's humor, wit, and dead-on insights into the core of life around the world. [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 00:44, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
:Then I suggest you misstated. You mean you have no talent as a comic. Perhaps even Pterry couldn't make it as a joculator. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:00, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
::point well taken. However, I stick by my previous statement. I have no sense of humor. That doesn't mean I can't appreciate it.

Oh, and as a different note, I have a slight change that could be made to the fandom page: I've created a Pratchett Fanon wikia at http://pterryfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Discworld_Fanon_Wiki in case anyone wants to add their fanon to it. I also direct them to the Lspace wiki main page for a decent Pratchett wiki instead of the half-assed Wikia version. Think you could add my fledgeling fanon Wikia to the Fandom page? [[User:Doctor Whiteface|Doctor Whiteface]] 01:23, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
:I'm pretty confused as to whether it's a fanfic collection or a wiki or what, but you could list it in "Fandom" yourself (maybe including a one-line explanation). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:44, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

== Death caption ==

An easier way to do what? The caption was properly specified in the previous version. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 22:15, 26 February 2010 (UTC)
:...to caption something without creating the white spaces, or generally put text where you want it without a lot of experimental colons? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:56, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

::are you wanting to caption something other then an image? --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 00:57, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
:Mostly it's to avoid the white borders ([[User:JaffaCakeLover|JaffaCakeLover]] was just suggesting a solution available only to Sanity but I wouldn't be able to judge that - there might be a down side). Some other idea might require placing a block of text to the right, just for interesting composition. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:23, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

:: Oh, hold on. I may be able to fix that depending on the theme's security. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 07:31, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

::: Nope, not something I can fix. The issue is with a CSS rule in the "/skins/lspace/main.css?207" file. The border rules need to be removed from div.thumb on line 443. Typically, you can override these rules via special pages within the wiki. However, the lspace skin doesn't respect these overrides. Therefore, Sanity would have to update the CSS file or update the skin to properly respect the overrides. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 07:53, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
:Bugger. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 03:51, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

::We'll see. I sent the info onto Sanity. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:15, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

::Looks like it's now fixed. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 01:19, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

And all the rest at the same time: nifty! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:54, 12 March 2010 (UTC)

== Power Cables ==

OK, so there could be also be a Power Cable, Alberta, a Power Cable, New South Wales or even an Elektriese Kabel in the Transvaal... but they'd still only get one page.

I will delete the lesser of the two. --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 20:04, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
:Why not add your second paragraph? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 22:27, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

== careers ==

To be more specific, I spent seven years developing web applications based upon the ColdFusion language ( think PHP, .net or java but cooler ). Next month I'm moving over to become an Oracle DBA. All this at a Dow component company. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:08, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

== About TC01 ==

Well, from what I've read of AgProv's and IronHippo's biographies, I think I could agree that I'm the youngest of the sysops/admins mentioned- not sure about other contributors with usernames or unregistered, of course. The Tiffany Aching series are written for people younger than me, though.

I spell, or rather type, words like an American, which is almost certaintly because I am one. The only possible exception to that might be when I type out {{COM}}, but I usually don't because I let the <nowiki>{{COM}}</nowiki> template do it for me.

I suppose I'll also mention that I do most of my reading these days on an Amazon Kindle, which is not actually that different from reading a real book (other than the inability to open it up to a random page and start reading). There are a few Pratchett books which I have only on the Kindle- which makes it handy when searching them for some obscure red link on the book articles.

And that's all I'm saying for now... Other than the fact that I reply to people on their talk pages rather than their user pages, unlike some people. [[User:TC01|TC01]] 22:43, 15 July 2010 (UTC) [[User:TC01|TC01]] 22:51, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

== [[Photographer]] ==

You reverted my edit to that page, where I explained Pratchett's joke (his definition of ''photus'' is clearly derived from the true meaning of the acronym POTUS). Where do you think I should have put the annotation instead? [[User:WLior|WLior]] 07:21, 1 September 2010 (CEST)

== Warning - British travel termini are bad for your financial health ==
We should have warned you.

It seems to be a universal thing about travelling in Britain that the moment you step into the precincts of an airport, a railway station, or even a large coach interchange (Victoria Coach Station in London, or Chorlton Street in Manchester), the prices you pay for sundry items go through the roof. It's as if the very act of stepping in through the front door causes the prices of even the most trivial items to soar by 25-40% or more, where they can get away with it. You are entering a parellel universe or a time portal where, given the usual operation of inflation, the world around you may be that of 2010 but you are being given a chance to experience a very specific aspect of the future - ie, what you might expect to be paying for goods and services in 2030.

A small bottle of coke which might cost 90p outside in the real world suddenly becomes £1.35; a packet of cigarettes which you might expect to get for £5.35 suddenly costs £6.80 (this was at the tobacconists' concession in WH Smiths at Manchester Picadilly - let's name the guilty party here!)and coffee at Tarbucks or Necros adds another 70p to the cost of a cup, or more... and as for buying food...

The sensible answer is - ''if going on a long journey by public transport in Britain, buy it before getting on the train or coach and get it from outside the station.''

The seasoned traveller will know where to look within a block or two of the station complex, and a service industry exists to fill this void. For instance, there is a very good and very cheap cafe just opposite Norwich Station, which capitalises on the obscene prices charged within the rail station, by serving great food very cheaply. There are quite a few around Picadilly and Chorlton Street stations in Manchester. No doubt the London stations have their satellites - there's said to be a great cheap cafe just behind Euston station that makes a bomb through the novel and revolutionary act of selling good food cheaply.

Nobody knows why this should be in Britain.

Arriving in Berlin, we found a very cheap eatery and cafe within the precincts of Tegel airport. This was not unique. comparing the euro price to what Manchester airport expected us to pay for a cappucino and a cake - it was nearly half as expensive.

Oh, and duty-free at British airports is hardly worth the while, as so much profit margin is loaded on the items that you are efectively paying the store owners what you would in tax, anyway. But at German airports...

Methinks we are being riped off, but at least you have a copy of {{ISWM}}.

Enjoy!--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 10:40, 11 October 2010 (CEST)

== A word please ==

You and AgProv were here before that <nowiki>{{</nowiki>[[template:welcome|welcome]]}} was created. So was BOZZ but he hadn't had yet any talkpage messages, his talkpage had yet to be created, so I thought I,d do something about that. If he already had talkpage messages, I would have not welcomed him. Please excuse me if I had a mistake. [[user:Myrtone|Myr]][[User talk:Myrtone|'''tone''']][[special:emailuser/Myrtone|@]] 00:12, 25 December 2010 (CET)

These things happen. Don't worry! I'm glad somebody's consistently doing the meeting-and-greeting, anyway. AgProv, writing as --[[Special:Contributions/86.179.84.80|86.179.84.80]] 22:52, 10 January 2011 (CET)
Did you forget to login? [[user:Myrtone|Myr]][[User talk:Myrtone|'''tone''']][[special:emailuser/Myrtone|@]] 00:18, 11 January 2011 (CET)
Alas, yes. A bit of computer bother means I'm having to continually delete the internet cache and cookies, (virus-slaying) including the one that preserves my logon info for this site... --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 23:59, 13 January 2011 (CET)

== History ==

*''As far as I can recall, you were the first British member here, after a number of continental, American, Australian and Canadian contributors (Shadeofblue was here long before but never contributed anything). How do you suppose that came down? --Old Dickens 03:55, 11 April 2011 (CEST)''

Sounds like an accusation...Thinking back... I discovered the Wiki as part of a general exploration of the L-Space Web and I thought "I can do things here". My first two or three entries weren't strictly within the rules - I opened general articles on Douglas Adams and Michael Moorcock as authors who either influenced Pratchett or were spoofed by him in the first few books, only to be gently reminded this sort of thing really belonged under "Reading Suggestions". As I was very heavily influenced by mr Beobaart and Mr Kew in the Annotated Pratchett File, and was a bit frustrated they didn't seem to be in a position to accept updated entries. So my ideas as to all those sly nudges and digs and references in the books had to go somewhere! Then I discovered that 50% of the time, the entry to go with the annotation hadn't yet been written, so - ah well - roll your sleeves up and craft it...

I do wonder why so many contributors here are people to whom English is not a first language - although some of them, I suspect, speak it better than I do. Better than my French or Dutch/Afrikaans or German, I think! Perhaps it's that urge, fairly indefiniable but an urge nonetheless, to get past the necessary restrictions of reading a book in translation, and to get to grips with it in the original language? (I'm reliably told there have been at least four Dutch translators of Pratchett, for instance, who range from "excellent" to "appalling".) This is a big thing on the French VadeMecum site, although readers of Pratchett in French whose English is also good enough to tackle the originals do tend to speak well of their translator. And English humour, the quirkier the better, does seem to travel well... (look at the way Monty Python and its descendents are a cult thing in the USA)

As well as annotations, for me, there's also an urge to mention all those little leaps of logic that connect otherwise unrelated facts mentioned in different books - inferring that because Lady Sybil and Serafine von Überwald went to the same school {{T5E}}, and Lady Sybil's school, named in {{T!}} as [[Quirm College for Young Ladies|QAYL]], therefore Serafine must also have attended QAYL. (Which leads to ''speculation'' - as opposed to known fact - that Angua may also have attended QAYL.)

Getting the entries as accurate and as complete as possible gets to be a bug after a while...
--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 10:18, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

:What accusation? The question was why there didn't seem to be any British input before you came along, Britain obviously being the home of the books and the most fan activity. (Daibhid C was also a faqmaintainer early on but we never got any of his considerable insight, either.)

:The amazing ability of a series so strongly based in British folklore, history and humor to sell in many foreign languages is another interesting topic, though. P.G. Wodehouse and Monty Python did manage to penetrate the U.S., but I don't think they required the background Pratchett does (and I'm not sure Wodehouse would play in Power Cable any more.) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 16:32, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

Heh... should have said "sounds ''almost'' like an accusation... ("you are accused of being British with malice aforethought and lurking in a built-up area of the Internet after the hours of darkness, with intent to perpetuate a Wiki...")

I suspect, to build on a thought, that we English-fluent native Brits have it too easy, and do not appreciate the treasure we have in Pratchett. This only becomes beautifully clear to those who have learnt English the hard way as a second language, or who have to assemble the necessary mental tool-kit to approach the intricacies of British English language and custom. Who is it who said a prophet is never honoured in his own country?--[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 17:12, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

:Jesus of Nazareth, I believe, but Sir T.P. OBE doesn't seem to suffer that way. Possibly it's just that English people already had a number of fan activities and we foreigners were more excited to have access to one. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 18:35, 11 April 2011 (CEST)

Jesus seems to been right about himself though there... -Marmosetpower

== On Vandalism ==

I don't know if this is the right place to suggest it, but maybe you should close down the registration for a while, fix things and put all articles under protection. That spammer seems to be a bot/malware cause thing, seeing the multiple IP-Addresses.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 19:34, 13 April 2011 (CEST)
:Mmm. I'm only a lieutenant, though, no keys to the missiles. Thanks for pitching in. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)

It kept me busy for an hour before bedtime. I'm guessing that once O.D. recognised how deep it actually went, it took a few hours of his life that he's never going to get back.So maybe we need to ask Sanity how to install deeper protection? --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 13:03, 14 April 2011 (CEST)
:About four hours, but then what else do I do of an evening? There wasn't even a ball game until too late. I know you've killed longer evenings writing stuff. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)... Apr. 30, now, was a full day. Oy. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 06:20, 1 May 2011 (CEST)
:I sent him an email last night --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 20:22, 14 April 2011 (CEST)
::So did I. He's investigating, but I don't know what could be done apart from general protection and that's never been popular. You only need the roof fixed when it's raining. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 15 April 2011 (CEST)
:::Not to be negative, but this rain could easily be washing away the foundation--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 19:09, 15 April 2011 (CEST)

Well done Dickens old man. You're fighting a valiant vanguard action! Good egg.--[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 21:59, 30 April 2011 (CEST)
:Funny, I thought I replied to that before (saying I thought it was ''rearguard''), but it's not here. I was busy. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 02:19, 1 May 2011 (CEST)
::As you are leading the way in this fight against these A-holes, you're certainly in the van. I salute your endeavours!--[[User:Knmatt|Knmatt]] 11:07, 1 May 2011 (CEST)

Ref apparent new attack of bots - not what it seems. Hi. I went into the Special: New Pages list to look back through all recent changes that were highlighted in yellow - ie, unpatrolled by a sysops - and patrolled them all (twenty or so entries). Three of them appeared to be hangovers from the recent spamming problem that had been overlooked, although I discovered the perpetrating bots had all been blocked. So this is historic stuff - it's certainly not a resurgence of the old problem! --[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 02:49, 8 May 2011 (CEST)
:Not new, obviously;, I just wondered how they were missed, but there were likely to be some oversights out of hundreds. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 03:09, 8 May 2011 (CEST)

== Quotes ==

Yeah, I think [[User:XEverettBlaked|XEverettBlaked]], [[User:NLoreenPetersm|NLoreenPetersm]] and [[User:AOscarEricksonw|AOscarEricksonw]] are spambots. They all seem to be going on about dating (hard to tell with AOscar, seems to be using a different language) and all fail at using spaces.

Also, I've suggested using the idea of [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum#Quotes|using quotes]] at the start of articles. I'd appreciate it if you commented, because otherwise I'm not sure anyone will comment. – [[User:Harry Blue5|Harry Blue5]] <small>([[User talk:Harry Blue5|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Harry Blue5|contribs]])</small> 11:43, 19 August 2011 (CEST)

:taken care of until the next batch comes in. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 19:33, 19 August 2011 (CEST)

==Very belated reply to your question==
So you may remember you asked me a question five years ago, at which point I promptly forgot the wiki existed...

Anyway, while I may have an ability to remember odd Discworld facts (I'd hesitate to call myself an "expert"), one look at my name should tell you never to trust me on spelling 8-). A flick through ''Equal Rites'' and ''Moving Pictures'' confirms that everyone else has it right: ''Necrotelicomnicon'' it is, making the pun a bit subtler than I thought. [[User:Daibhid C|Daibhid C]] 00:32, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

:Er, I've just read the [[Necrotelicomnicon]] talk page, and learnt a) Terry spells it inconsistantly and b) I've already weighed in on this. I swear, when it comes to things ''other'' than trivia from the books I've a memory like ... one of them things you drain rice in... [[User:Daibhid C|Daibhid C]] 00:45, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

Long time no see, indeed. It seems to me you're considered an expert around AFP, which is a distinguished panel of judges (beside a few jerks, of course). Coincidentally, I mentioned you recently in discussion as one of the few British originals here and for not hanging around afterward. I think we established ''Necrotelicomnicon'' as the correct spelling, despite a typo or a bit of TP trying to confuse us again. Don't talk to me about memory loss: I'm a lot older than you.
--[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:50, 21 August 2011 (CEST)

== Game namespace ==

I've noticed there's a book and game namespace, but none of the games (e.g. ''[[Discworld Noir]]'') are actually in the Game namespace. Are the games supposed to be in that namespace and no one's gotten round to moving them, or is it that there needs to be more discussion about whether to use it? – [[User:Harry Blue5|Harry Blue5]] <small>([[User talk:Harry Blue5|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Harry Blue5|contribs]])</small> 02:03, 3 October 2011 (CEST)
:I'd never noticed there was such a namespace. There may not be enough games to justify it, but obviously it's an option. I guess discussion is what's needed. (You ask a lot: I was still mulling capitalisation of book titles.) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 02:35, 3 October 2011 (CEST)

== Carrot ==

I'm confused by your comment on Carrot. Either he is a fully rounded character or he is a cliche. He could be a parody on a fighter or a dwarf or something. But if he is, what kind of parody is he? [[User:Marmosetpower|Marmosetpower]] 15:09, 18 December 2011 (CET)
:Several things, as usual: Superman, Dudley Do-Right and all the too-good-to-be-true cartoon heroes as well as the rustic lad with an old sword who turns out to be the 'once and future king'. These are typically stiff, two-dimensional characters, often played as a bit (or very) dim. TP melts them down into a very tall Dwarf who starts out over-zealous and ingenuous and develops into the clever and capable Captain who knows everybody and everything that's going on while maintaining the outward persona. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 15:55, 18 December 2011 (CET)

If he is a parody of so much, is he still a parody though? I can't help feeling that this 'once and future king' stuff is a backstory, rather than a characteristic. If he did show a characteristic it would be denial of his 'once and future King' status. Being a King is not a character trait in itself. [[User:Marmosetpower|Marmosetpower]] 16:23, 20 December 2011 (CET)

== Threshold of evidence ==

Although I never posted to ABP, I used to read it a bit. I know "speculation" is a scary thing, because while The Man himself tolerates and encourages fandom, fans who inadvertently post one of His nascent ideas might cause the waveform to collapse in an entirely different direction while pissing Him off a bit at the same time. I also see that random unsupported annotations of the type "hey, Granny's hat is just like the one my aunt gave me for my 10th birthday, my aunt is from England, that's gotta be an obvious reference" shouldn't be tolerated.

Nevertheless, where does this wiki draw the line in terms of thoughts and annotations? Do you want textual references and footnotes? I do see lots of ideas in some articles which are, well, reaching. How far can we or should we reach?

Understand that I am taking no position here. I just want to know the rules, which I will attempt to follow faithfully. [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] 19:41, 23 December 2011 (CET)
:Ah. Rules! Well, erm...I mean, uh, we don't actually seem to have any ''rules'', as such (except against spam; we're definitely down on spam, but it doesn't stop the spammers either). Now I thought of the wiki as an encyclopedia with a pretty relaxed attitude but no room for unsupported opinions, whether called "annotations" or not; most people seem to like annotations better than anything. It seems to me that there's a fair consensus against annotation, speculation or fantasy in the body of the articles. At the same time, though, I've tried a couple of times to stir up opposition to the most outrageous blather and self-gratification (see pages of discussion in the Mended Drum and elsewhere) but most of us seem to hate ''rules'' more. I don't know, can you suggest some?

:TP doesn't come into it of course. He won't be reading this as he avoids all other such sites; no one ever objected to speculation in discussion pages or user pages. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 00:13, 24 December 2011 (CET)

== The great spam flood of 2012 ==

Have you spoken with Sanity lately? He hardly ever responds to my emails. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:01, 8 February 2012 (CET)
:No, not since he put in the sign-up restriction after the last flood. I was wondering if I might suggest the site-specific test but I don't know if it's reasonable or possible. Have you any suggestions? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:55, 8 February 2012 (CET)

:: There's nothing you or I can do without access to the server and code. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 19:27, 9 February 2012 (CET)

::: Sadly. But may I suggest that new accounts have to be enabled by mods/admins to make new pages/edits. I tihnk that should be possible.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 20:07, 9 February 2012 (CET)

: Unfortunately, that's something that needs to be done by Sanity. Old Dickens and I don't have access to modify that. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 22:36, 9 February 2012 (CET)

:: Damn. I hope one of you reaches him soon. This is getting ridiculous.--[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 02:47, 10 February 2012 (CET)

Someone's been upgrading stuff, did you get ahold of Sanity? --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 16:18, 13 February 2012 (CET)
:Yea, he updated the wiki, ConfirmEdit and Bad Behavior and is looking into QuestyCaptcha or similar. I see it didn't stop them today. The Java buttons are gone from the edit panel, too. (four tildes) [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:33, 13 February 2012 (CET) ...and the categories now come with bullets! [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 23:38, 13 February 2012 (CET)

::He's still got some style fixes to make. Like the checkbox labels.--[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:04, 14 February 2012 (CET)

::And today's attempts were different. It really looked more like a person. Some things were inconsistent. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 03:04, 14 February 2012 (CET)

:::I'm starting to get rather pissed at our absentee owner. --[[User:Fhh98|Fhh98]] 17:49, 28 February 2012 (CET)
:It's tiresome, especially if you're supposed to be working, I guess. I have no web access at work any more, so I'm no use weekdays. Sanity is suffering with Real Life too, unfortunately. Whaddya gonna do? I sent him a complaining email. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:19, 29 February 2012 (CET)

:Folks, we just had an attack on the MainPage. Undid it, but someone still needs to ban that bloke. On a further note: As nice as it is to see Discworld related questions for verification...'What is the first name of Sam Vimes' is not really going to do the trick...[[User:LilMaibe|LilMaibe]] 07:56, 16 March 2012 (CET)
We noticed. Sanity managed to fix it quicker than he thought he could, but of course it wasn't like the average spammer who could be blocked. The question could probably be a little tougher, but the the thing is that it's a program written to circumvent arithmetic and character-recognition captchas, so it's confused by any other challenge to artificial intelligence. (The humanoids behind it don't even speak English, very often, but they're not looking anyway.) It seems to be working so far. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:43, 16 March 2012 (CET)...Oh, you meant the other Turk: Fhh98 got that. What is it with Turks lately? [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 20:49, 16 March 2012 (CET)
::Also not every user has actually read Discworld novels. If the question is to hard then real users might be scared off. Besides any spammers now have to register manually which would be a pain. --[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] 04:56, 17 March 2012 (CET)
I'm not sure we want input from anyone who couldn't come up with, say, ''Commander'' Vimes's given name. "Every user" is free to read but I'd prefer some minimum qualification to edit. Anyway, yes, the point is to baffle the program. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 05:33, 17 March 2012 (CET)
:What about in a case like [http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Talk:Reverse_Annotations#Cartoons.3F this], the person hasn't ever read discworld but offered some helpfull advice. Besides there are people out there who might only have read the Diggers books or Nation for example.

Perhaps what Sanity was thinking, and a good point, but it does ease the way for manual spammers and vandals. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 14:50, 17 March 2012 (CET)
:Well it seems to be working.--[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] 05:50, 18 March 2012 (CET)

As of tonight there are six very suspicious new names in red, that look as if they've been created by spambots. None of posted yet. But bearing in mind that most genuine new members of the Wiki community are only too keen to get stuck in straight away doing legitimate things, and these new names have been up for hours with no movement, would we be justified in delivering pre-emptive blocks? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 22:25, 29 June 2012 (CEST)
Just pre-emptively struck at a bunch of suspicious new usernames and blocked the lot. I'm working on intuition and experience - people with usernames consisting of random letters and numbers are not likely to be people at all but bots. [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 23:36, 29 June 2012 (CEST)

Or maybe even somebody called Vintagegown, which kind of suggests somebody's read this note and thought creatively. This could go one of two ways - maybe spamming a site for vintage clothing? Or she (?) might even be genuine, in which case - make a valid new entry and welcome! [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] 00:13, 30 June 2012 (CEST)
:I waver between waiting for them to do something and blocking for 3 days or so as "unacceptable username": feel-of-the-moment thing. Fhh98's note to the Mexican pharmaceutical people didn't work for long. I see. See also the clever-dick TeddyAv. [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:02, 30 June 2012 (CEST) (Oh yeah. The other thing is that I'm pretty sure they're not reading anything in their discussion pages.) [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] 01:17, 30 June 2012 (CEST)

==(Here begins a new administration)==
You should be able to delete users now by going to the users page and selecting the Delete tab from the dropdown in the upper right. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 18:24, 5 November 2012 (PST)
:Kowabunga! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:29, 5 November 2012 (PST)...but I can't: I don't see the dropdown either in the '''User''''s page or in the '''User list'''. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:48, 5 November 2012 (PST)
::Try Again. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 19:05, 5 November 2012 (PST)
:::Aha. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 14:40, 6 November 2012 (PST)

== Interesting event ==

WikiShaper334 - I can't fathom this one out either.... on the face of it a legitimate entry, which is why the user remains, for now, unmerged. But the entry itself is fairly banal and unoriginal; the sort of thing that can be quickly deduced from a skimming of the rest of the article. The thought has occured to me that this could be a new tactic from somebody behind the spambots, to establish a legitimate presence here that will enable them to launch new spam attacks through the opening. Or am I being paranoid? I did a bit of Googling and a''traffic shaper'' is apparently a person, or automated software, seeking to order traffic onto a website so as to manipulate data - one use is to bump preferred links up a search engine. "Link-shaping" or "link-blogging" specifically targets blogs and Wikis so as to insert links that push favoured sites up a search engine listing. And adding a number after the name.... could be coincidence. But how can we prove or rule this out for certain? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 20:01, 3 February 2013 (GMT)
:Of course we can't, just now. It's hard to believe an SEO parasite keen enough to go through that, but also hard to believe the username. Either we'll delete him when he gets down to business or he'll fade away. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 20:31, 3 February 2013 (GMT)

00:14 GMT. Is it me, or have we had no spammers since 17:21 - nearly nine hours ago. I don't like it, sergeant. It's far too quiet. They're up to something out there...[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 00:16, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
:They will come in bunches, but then Osiris could be tinkering... --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:21, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
::(The next one arrived two hours later. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 02:07, 4 February 2013 (GMT))
:::I'm tinkering.... I put in a blacklist of words and phrases. For example, try to make an edit using that Justin guy's last name and you'll see it's not allowed. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 05:16, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
::::Is there a way to make it so that known users can use the blacklisted words/know what they are?--[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] ([[User talk:Zdm|talk]]) 06:01, 4 February 2013 (GMT)
:::::when you hit one it tells you what it was. It's based upon this example though. [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgSpamRegex $wgSpamRegex]

==Re: Johnny Maxwell==
Oh, sorry. Should I get rid of it? [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 16:57, 13 May 2013 (GMT)
:I did already. Twice, actually. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 21:33, 13 May 2013 (GMT)
I've replaced it with a less guesswork-dependant one. Is it okay this time? [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 18:39, 2 July 2013 (GMT)

Thanks. Rest assured, Yo-less definitely did say it. Of course, this being a Terry Pratchett book, it lost under accusations of Satanism and how Yo-less's mother wouldn't approve. [[User:Drakon467|Drakon467]] ([[User talk:Drakon467|talk]]) 05:37, 3 July 2013 (GMT)

==Junk page==

Apologies if there is a better place for this, but this seems a bit out of place. [[Girls Dont Abide By The Rules]]. I did try blanking it, but alas I can't make it disappear. [[User:Aldibibable|Aldibibable]] ([[User talk:Aldibibable|talk]]) 22:53, 31 May 2013 (GMT)

== Create page permissions ==
There seems to be an issue with permissions regarding creating pages as I don't seem to have that option today. Yesterday I had the option but not today. Is there an issue with permissions? Is it just me being a newbie here or are there times when things work only when they feel like it? It seems quite sporadic and most peculiar. --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 22:48, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
:I've also had trouble with permissions for the last few days, as I mentioned in the [[Discworld & Pratchett Wiki:Mended Drum#I'm locked out!|Mended Drum]]. Have you tried going back and trying again? I've found that the error messages aren't necessarily final. Otherwise you'd have to ask the [[User talk:Osiris|man behind the curtain]]. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 23:28, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
::I noticed your comment the other day. Yes, I have tried several times but with no luck. When trying to create an additional user subpage I get the generic response: <pre>There is currently no text in this page. You can search for this page title in other pages, or search the related logs, but you do not have permission to create this page.</pre>
::Yesterday, it didn't say this. When trying to create a page in the main namespace there's no create page tab and I get the generic search response when there are no results: <pre>There were no results matching the query.</pre>
::A curious case that I hope is resolved soon. Out of curiosity what roles do the different admins serve on this site just so I know for future reference? --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 23:44, 8 June 2013 (GMT)
:[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] is the owner/operator, I'm the ''Editor Quia Nemo Vult'' (housekeeper?) and [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] has been the major content provider for many years. (Also, your sig really fills up the edit box!) --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:56, 9 June 2013 (GMT)
::Ok, thanks. I was curious as you are shown as the creator in the active user list. Regarding the signature, methinks that is a hint to change it. I actually still need to create another sig page for transclusion that should fix this but I still can't create new pages. If it doesn't work when the permissions are fixed I will change the signature if you prefer. --{{User:CelticWanderer/autosig}} 08:34, 9 June 2013 (GMT)
:::[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] changed the permissions for me so now everything seems to be working at the moment. Also, I have changed my signature, takes up less much space in the editor and made it less distracting. --{{User:CelticWanderer/sig}} 21:58, 9 June 2013 (GMT)

==Mass Deletions - a double-edged sword==
There's got to be a better way... I'm ashamed to say while I've deleted a thousand spam accounts, two legitimate users have been deleted in error too, in the last week. And in the last month three thousand spam accounts have been created and are yet to be dealt with. That error rate is just too high (I've left fulsome apologies where I hope they'll be seen. Wish I had their email addresses so I could apologise in person. are these stored anywhere?) While I've cleared out all the spam accounts beginning with "A" and a good few of the "B"'s - as well as routine demolition of new ones as they pop up - I'm now hideously aware that mistakes will inevitably happen and I do not want to make any more. So tonight I've just identified a few known legitimate users who still have to make an entry on their user pages and left temporary messages there, so they show up blue in the user list and are less likely to be deleted in error. but there has to be a better way around this. Otherwise I'd keep on zapping through the B's...
:It ain't that bad, really. [[User:Sharlee|Sharlee]] figured it out immediately; if [[User:Aldibibable|Aldibibable]] is also on Wikipedia he(?) is probably capable too. Generally, though, I'd rather prod [[User:Osiris|Osiris]] (after a decent interval to recover from his shock) to execute his script to remove all the dormant accounts at computer speed. A problem with your valiant efforts at doing it manually is that the rest of us (especially me) can't see what else has happened in "Recent changes", even at 500 lines. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:37, 22 June 2013 (GMT)

== List of Characters ==

Not done, just for the day. Can change back if need be, have saved original on my computer. [[User:Rictus|Rictus]]

==Finally...==
Enjoy! I'll try not to post too many jaw-dropping spoilers.[[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 23:10, 14 November 2013 (GMT)

== User: Netterku, possible spammer ==

Please check out User:Netterku, as I suspect he may be a spammer who has got through the net. Inept, as it's in Indonesian, which I speak as fluently as Vimes speaks Dwarfish (in fact, Vimes is native fluent compared to me). But interesting, in that the spamming sems to be arranged differently and not to the old well-known pattern. If you agree, and the user has not responded to my yellow card warning, shall we block? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 08:26, 25 November 2013 (GMT)
:No need for discussion: I did. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:41, 25 November 2013 (GMT)

== User:AgustinSnider‎; ==

[[User:AgustinSnider]]‎;Spambot? Noted this user made an account on 31st August but has only "introduced themself" now. The wording of the introduction is also horribly familiar, although the declared location checks out. But no actual spam, as yet? Shall I delete, or will you? [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 10:11, 6 December 2013 (GMT)
:Yes, I seemed to remember the "Agustin" and the mismatched name and poor spelling are depressingly familiar, but I don't see actual grounds for merging. Inquire, if you like, but it can wait for an actual offence. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 14:42, 6 December 2013 (GMT)
::offense committed. Goodbye! --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 04:00, 9 December 2013 (GMT)
:::Good shot,sir! --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:39, 10 December 2013 (GMT)

== Mine's a Boy ==

Congratulations to you and your family. Mine's a boy and he's coming today! Don't expect to see me much for a while. --[[User:Osiris|Osiris]] ([[User talk:Osiris|talk]]) 12:14, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
:Good on ya, mate (or more so the wife)! No, you'll be busy for a few years as I recall. I hope we can raise you in an emergency. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 13:53, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

== BS, regarding your userpage post... ==
Old Dickens, thanks for the Independence Day wishes from this American. I'm hoping that recent developments in GB remind American rationalists not to take anything for granted re the man with Orange Hair.

On that note, a few days ago Rhianna Pratchett retweeted someone's suggestion to her that henceforth, in honor of Terry, Boris Johnson shall be known as "Bloody Stupid" Johnson. -- [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 22:54, 4 July 2016 (UTC)
:Hee Hee. I should have thought of that one myself. Good luck in November; we're at least as interested as the Mexicans here in the Great White North. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:43, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

== Reply from new user Wonderful Fanny ==
Thank you, Old Dickens. I will learn to avoid becoming historical. I do not see how to remove a page, but Ramkin House may be deleted. Before adding the page, I did look for Ramkin House under the Locations page listed in the Navigation bar to the left, but I didn't see it there. I now know that this is not the same page as your footer category link Locations, where Ramkin Residence is clearly listed, and which I found much easier to use. The two different locations pages are confusing. Anyway, I have added a few points to Ramkin Residence, as you suggested. I also edited the {{SN}} section on ACCOoDD, to clarify.

== Article on The Keep? ==
Hey, Old Dickens... hope you and Canada are doing well. I just reread (okay, re-listened-to) Monstrous Regiment, and I don’t see an article on The Keep in here. I’m ready to write something up, but first I want to be sure I’m not missing the article under a different title; and also to ask your opinion on what the title of that article should be. “The Keep”? “The Borogravian Keep”? “Keep”? Thanks! [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 13:24, 30 July 2018 (UTC)
:I see no article or even link to the Keep. An officer refers to it at one point as "Kneck Keep", which sounds useful although a redirect or two would be wanted in any case. A problem with audio books is bookmarking or searching or generally finding anything in particular. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:30, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

== Hello! ==

Hello. I'm here for anti-vandalism work. Do you have the ability to make me an admin here? I'm pretty sure that you have bureaucrat privelleges. My main goal around here is to ensure that this wiki is what it should be, a user-made encyclopedia, and not a playground for vandals. --'''[[User:DCool1|<span style="color:magenta">DCool1</span>]]''' ([[User talk:DCool1|Talk to me!]]) 15:18, 22 July 2019 (UTC)

== Wikibooks ==

Hello, Old Dickens! I am starting a new wiki project called Wikibooks. Wikibooks will become the largest encyclopedia in the world because there are more books in the world than of all Wikipedia articles. There are actually over 129,864,880 books, that means 129,864,880 articles. http://editthis.info/wikibooks. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 10:39, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

Golem Trust

2019-11-21T10:16:15Z

Yoshi: Simplifying page

The '''Golem Trust''' buys [[Golems]] from their owners, and the bought Golems then buy their freedom from the Trust at cost. The freed Golems then work to contribute money to the Trust to buy other owned Golems. [[Adora Belle Dearheart]] runs the Golem Trust office, located in a particularly run-down section of town about a quarter mile from the [[Ankh-Morpork Post Office]].

The location of the trust, given in {{CAM}}, is Prentice Spaw* (G2), in [[Dolly Sisters]].

Their motto (translated): ''By Our Own Hand, Or None''. This organization first appears in ''[[Book:Going Postal|Going Postal]]'', and has so far freed a few dozen Golems, extracting them from all sorts of deep holes underground or walled-off rooms.

A previous attempt by the Golems to free themselves was chronicled in ''[[Book:Feet of Clay|Feet of Clay]]'', which only resulted in the freedom of [[Dorfl]], who now works for the Watch as a result of [[Carrot]] giving him to himself. However, in {{GP}} we learn that Dorfl was successful, and he bought at least two other Golems, which was the start of the Golem trust.

In {{MM}} we learn that Adora Belle Dearheart along with a number of golems from the Trust has been sent on a mission by the Golem Trust to help unearth a great number of the original golems from the ancient civilization [[Umnian Golems|Um]], now buried underground, although she originally believed she was looking for 4 gold golems. These golems contain no chem and thus cannot technically be freed, however.

[[Category:Ankh-Morpork Businesses]]
[[de:Golem-Stiftung]]

Talk:Draft:Dove Windsor

2019-11-21T10:02:19Z

Yoshi: Reply

This page is a draft. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 11:34, 16 November 2019 (UTC)
== ==
Dear Contributor:
Do you intend to change your username again soon? Otherwise, this page will be irrelevant at best and SEO at worst (and subject to deletion). Sorry, we only get one User page each. Please fix it one way or the other. (A "draft" could just as well be kept in your own files.)<BR>
I do admire your taste in music, mind you. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:57, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
:Thank you! I am a fan of Celine Dion and Johnny Mathis. And no, I will not change my username anytime soon. In fact, I love the username Yoshi, because he or she is the cutest dinosaur in Super Mario. Yoshi is actually a green hermaphodite dinosuar because he/she lays eggs. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 10:02, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

University Brown

2019-11-18T14:15:39Z

Yoshi: Simplifying page. Fixing grammatical errors

This prestigious award was given for representing the [[Unseen University]] at a high-level sporting event. Both [[Mustrum Ridcully]] and the previous [[Dean]] were awarded Browns for Rowing in their younger days. As the river [[Ankh (river)|Ankh]] is no limpid sweet-flowing Isis, the award of a Brown to members of the university's boating team is ''entirely'' appropriate.

Actually, the [[Boat Race]] itself is a running race across the crust of the Ankh ''carrying'' the boat...

The Ankh being what it is, the boots generally corrode rather badly, another reason for their brown-ness... Ridcully still displays a pair of moldering brown boots on the walls of his study in recognition of his meritorious holding of a Brown.

It is possible that the qualifier of "representing the [[Unseen University]] at a high-level sporting event" would also apply to sports such as Foot-The-Ball. In which case all members of the university's team in {{UA}} received an official Brown, including [[Ponder Stibbons]], the [[Librarian]], and [[Trevor Likely]].

== Annotation ==
A parody of the [[wikipedia:Blue_%28university_sport%29|"Blues"]] awarded at British and Australian Universities on [[Roundworld]]. A Blue is an award earned by sportsmen and women at a university for competition at the highest level. The awarding of Blues began at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the late 1830s.

[[Category:Discworld culture]]
[[Category:Discworld concepts]]
[[de:Braun (Auszeichnung)]]

-2564 UC

2019-11-18T14:11:33Z

Yoshi: Simplifying page

The founding of [[Ankh-Morpork]]. This is the year 1 of the old Ankh-Morporkian [[Discworld calendar|calendar]].

[[Category:Discworld Timeline]]

{{stub}}

User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum

2019-11-18T14:10:25Z

Yoshi: /* Moishe */ new section

Hi. Weren't you here before? Certainly I remember a similar handle doing a bit of good work, probably before the restart nearly three years ago.

You'll find quite a lot of material in 3760 articles here, particularly the [[Bibliography|Book]] and [[:Category:Annotations|Annotations]] pages, as well as in [http://www.lspace.org The L-Space Web] and other sites listed in [[Fandom]]. Whenever our [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] shows up again he'll likely have ideas - a few off the top of my head:

*Comparison to Jonathan Swift, Miguel de Cervantes, discussion of parody in general; parody vs satire.

*Comparison to modern observational comics: I've always thought that George Carlin did much the same kind of work in a short, punchy stand-up format without the plotting and character development.

*Probably my favorite device of Pterry's (your wife might have a name for it) was his knack of telling a story without action words, just describing the resulting scene so that you knew what happened without explanation.
Good luck spreading the word. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:11, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

:Hi, Old Dickens... You're right that I worked here a bit one summer, in the Time When Things Were Otherwise And The Moon Was Different, I suppose. Good to be back. I never thought of the Carlin comparison, but it seems apt. Thanks for the welcome, and the comments.[[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 19:53, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

A football legend called Moishe Rosenbaum.... I can see the humour here. Apparently one member of England's 1966 World Cup squad was ambiguously Jewish, and Liverpool's world dominating squad of the late 1980's boasted Israeli international Ronnie Rosenthal, whilst Tottenham Hotspur are based in the most Jewish part of North London and are nicknamed '''The Yids''' (by ''their own fans''... they take pride in a Jewish identity of club and area) .. but that's pretty much it.... welcome back to our fellowship. The only idea that occurs off the top of my head:

* Charting the evolution of the standard "monster" types through the history of the Discworld novels. From their roots in folklore, other peoples' fantasy fiction, and perhaps in tabletop gaming. How the vampire evolves in Discworld, for instance, from versions recognisable by Bram Stoker and F.W. Murnau through Hammer Horror films (Christopher Lee), to Anne Rice's navel-gazing angst-ridden creation, to Whitley Streiber's, and on to 1990's film interpretations such as Gary Oldman's 1992 film version. The way the legend is universal and vampires are in virtually everyone's folklore - but methods for despatching them vary wildly and ridiculously, as do the powers the individual vampire can call upon. (Count Notfaratou v the Count de Magpyr v Otto Chriek v Sally von Humpeding). The idea that the blood-lust is a craving and one addiction can replace another.... and how, if taken past absurdity, everything is fair game for humour.
* You could do similar exercises for trolls, elves, golems, werewolves, et c, as presented in the Discworld. How trolls finesse the sunlight thing in a civilization which has evolved deep-freezes and barrier cream. In our world, people of different ''races'' find it hard to get along. How would a world with a dozen different sentient ''species'' work - how do they all coexist? --(Unsigned comment by [[User:AgProv|AgProv]], who has been away a few days and forgotten the drill, 19 Jul 2015)

:Thanks, AgProv! I really like the idea of using the theme of species evolution, from trope to modern Ankh-Morporian. That would give me an excuse to dig into the folklore a bit. That's something I know a wee bit about, but not really a whole lot.

:I've used this wiki to look at annotations, especially of the recent books. The old APF seemed reasonably comprehensive for older books; there seems to be plenty of room in this wiki for expansion of annotations beyond APF and what's here already. That's probably what I'll work on when I have a chance. Of course, annotations are really, really tough -- every time I dig into what seems to be a straightforward reference, I get what could be an entire research paper. So there's an idea for a course right there. Sure, the Beverly Hills Cop scene in Men at Arms couldn't be more obvious, but what if anything is the historical basis for Moist von Lipwig? And who are all the roundworld characters amalgamated into William de Worde? Usually, the simplistic answer is too simplistic.

:I got myself a hard copy of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which Sir Terry said he used extensively. He wrote the introduction to the edition I have. Between that, The Folklore of Discworld, this wiki, and just the general internet, there seems to be all sorts of background information on the Discworld species, and how Pratchett uses and references them. Do youall know of any other specific sources I should be aware of?

:And Moishe owns a fantasy *american* football team, i.e. Robot Rugby. That said, I'm spending August in London with my family on sabbatical. I'm going to spend a good bit of time digging into (English) football culture, attending games, touring grounds, etc. When I broadcast baseball and american football, I'm drawing on three-plus decades of experience listening to and watching games. I've only been following association football carefully since 2011 -- haven't missed watching more than a couple Arsenal games in that time. So I think Moishe is going to have to deal this season with a new co-owner, one who doesn't understand why the referee is dressed like a Newcastle supporter, and why he doesn't hand out red cards for some of those bone-crunching tackles. Thanks for the comments and ideas![[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 16:57, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Hi Moishe! In agreement on Annotations. I've been re-reading {{MR}} and found a couple of obvious ones that I'd missed the last time I picked the book up - every time I come back with a fresh eye, there's always more. Which is a tribute to the depth of Terry Pratchett's original vision. I realised with the thing about "the barefoot army" that there's a lot to be mined from historical accounts of armies pushed past the point of desperation, but still fighting - when a country is running on empty, but still refuses to give up. The thing about the Confederacy (no boots, but they were potentially in ample supply let down by inter-State bickering and bad supply) was just the beginning of it and I could have gone on for paragraphs more - an example of one little throwaway line opening up a thesis. Which is also part of the Pratchett genius - how he must have read thousands of words on a fringe topic but condenses it all down into six or seven words of telling detail. Some of my annotations make the association, then waffle on in proving it and adding detail.... the thesis is there, in IKEA self-assembly form.

Taking the "barefoot army" throwaway line - on the surface it concisely describes an Army at its last gasp which has run out of everything but is still adamant in refusing to surrender. But that's not all there is to it, when you read about one state in the Confederacy that easily made enough footwear for ''every'' Confederate soldier and then some over - but ''refused to issue them beyond their own State''. And about a chaotic supply system incapable of getting kit where it was needed - the Confederacy also had ample artillery that was just parked up doing nothing a long way from the front lines. Things have a surface level, then a level beneath that, then a third stratum of reference... There's a story about the British Army general who read {{MR}}, and demanded to know how somebody who has never been in the Army could write such an accurate book, full of all the little telling details only squaddies are supposed to know. Terry replied that to his best knowledge, Homer had never been a hoplite or gone to war with a Greek army - he just did his research, and asked people who ''had''. Then wrote the ''Iliad''.

On characters and monsters: take a look at British Isles folk music. Steeleye Span, for instance, one of Terry's great musical influences. You could discuss the philosophical and gender differences between witches and wizards - then play them the Span's take on the old ballad, ''The Two Magicians''. This one song runs right through {{ER}} and fuels one climactic scene. ''Seven Hundred Elves'' is about Elves as they really were and are seen in {{LL}}. (touches iron). ''Long Lankin'' is a ballad about a mediaeval psychopathic killer. When you listen to it, you ''know'' why one Elf gets called Lankin. The Span do Scottish stuff too as well as English. ''Parcel of Rogues'' is tinged with Feegle-speak. And, more crucially, with Feegle-''think''.

Remembering to sign off with my name - I'm too used to tvtropes formatting, it's spoiling me for here! [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 00:02, 20 July 2015 (UTC)
:Cool... I'm American, and I never made the Confederate connection. But it seems dead on. I just read this morning the annotation about Snuff and Samwise's scouring. Never occurred to me, clear once it's pointed out.

:The school where I teach performed the musical "Catch me if you can", which is based on a 2002 movie of the same name. The whole time I could think of nothing but that I was watching the prequel to Going Postal. Frank Abagnale *is* Moist von Lipwig, at least to me. I know that Moist is an amalgamation of an archetypical character, of course, not based on any one person; this wiki postulates several historical Moists, and I've no doubt Sir Terry was aware of all of them. As you say, one character / line / event leads to a long thesis.

:Keep the thoughts, annotations, and ideas coming, please, AgProv and others. I'm headed to London on sabbatical during the month of August. Among the many goals for the month is some in-country background on some of the books. (I'm also umpiring a bit for the London Mets; I'm trying to get in touch with soccer radio broadcasters to talk shop and learn about their craft. And we'll do all the typical touristy things, like walk across the Bridge of Size.)[[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 12:41, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

'''''[[Moist von Lipwig]]'''''. Now there isn't just a thesis, there's a full scholarly treatise. My very first search threw up all the people listed as Annotations, especially the guy who sold the Eiffel Tower for scrap. Twice. And that's just scratching the surface... My suggestion here is to become acquainted with Harry Harrison's sci-fi comedy series, ''The Stainless Steel Rat''. In which there is a con-man, one of the last criminals left in the galaxy, thirty thousand years in the future. He refuses to kill people, only applies corrective violence if there is no alternative, and prefers separating people and their money in some very inventive non-confrontational ways. Jim di Griz has a ball as he cons and buncos his way between planets, until the day he is picked up by a Macchiavellian schemer called Inskipp who offers him an Angel. Either join the Galactic Special Corps and use your skills for good, or get something like a frontal lobotomy (only nastier) to burn the criminal tendencies out of your brain. No pressure, your choice. In the series, he gets a girlfriend, later wife, with serious anger management issues. ("Slippery Jim" and the spiky Angelina go on to have twin sons, but Pratchett, alas, did not get this far with Moist and Adora Belle.) Narrating the novels, Jim diGriz describes the tricks he uses and how they work and an extremely moist-like voice emerges. I have a distinct feeling Terry Pratchett had read the Stainless Steel Rat books, as Moist von Lipwig is pretty much a Jim diGriz in a different setting. Harrison could be on the summer reading list alongside "Going Postal". [[User:AgProv|AgProv]] ([[User talk:AgProv|talk]]) 20:47, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

:This is more a discussion of Harry Harrison, of course, but it leads in to the Discworld idea that writers and readers come and go but stories and characters persist, wandering the multiverse like the Music and showing up everywhere like Dibblers. TP borrowed unabashedly from myth and folklore and pop culture and other writers, realising that there aren't any new stories, just new and occasionally better ways of telling them. Shakespeare did the same, with more limited resources.

:All of which reminds me of an idea I had a while ago for a section (category?) of literary discussion and criticism of the works focussing on the style and techniques rather than the bare elements of the books. I didn't know how to pitch it or organise it in a wiki format and still don't. Probably it would need [[User:Osiris|Osiris]] to create a new namespace, at least. This page threatens to become a version of the theme and we should probably come up with some alternative before poor Moishe needs an archive. I attach my original thoughts and invite suggestions on where this might be moved from his user page.

:(December 21, 2012) ''New Category?''

:''We have often dealt in literary criticism and meta-analysis of the stories in various discussion pages. An idea occurs to me for a category of articles in this vein describing and analysing The Author's style, devices, influences, strengths and foibles.''

:''I worry, though, about the danger of ill-thought-out, half-baked opinion (which I have decried for years in the general pages) but we have some competent critics (many more on the old roster) who can provide some insight. The old discussion pages have been installed in the new wiki and these could be scavenged for ideas. I would suggest that these articles be required to provide paragraphs of reasoning and examples, one-or-two-sentence statements of opinion disqualified. Then there's the problem of enforcing that rule: annotation was once to be restricted to annotation pages as well.''

:''Should these be organised as conventional pages, where topics can be modified and expanded with discussion in Talk pages or as individual essays like critiques in other media? Should it be tried at all?'' --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:06, 24 July 2015 (UTC)

:...cricket sounds. No, I couldn't come up with a plan either. Anyway, although it may be late for the school year, we forgot [http://www.lspace.org/books/analysis/index.html this]. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 19:06, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
::I like the idea I just don't have a good idea on how it would be set up which would be rather important. I feel that it could get messy very quickly if not set up well. --[[User:Zdm|Zdm]] ([[User talk:Zdm|talk]]) 00:07, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
:That's the problem. It needs something more moderated than the wiki format. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 00:35, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

== Thanks for link to old newsgroup discussions! ==
Hey, [[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]], thanks for that link above! I was a lurker on the old alt.books.pratchett for a while in the first years of the Century of the Anchovy, so I remember a few of these. I was especially interested in the "Nasty Carrot" thread, and the reevaluation of Jingo showing that perhaps Vetinari's "little package" was originally intended to be quite a bit more potent... fantastic analysis. Thanks for the link; I'll spend some time today reading through these old friends.[[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 21:02, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

== Trip to London in August ==
As mentioned above, I spent the month of August in London on sabbatical. Much of what I did involved football -- I went to Arsenal and Fulham games, toured Wembley and the Emirates, toured Wimbledon and Lord's Cricket Ground (okay, the last two aren't football, I suppose.)

But two discoveries were enormous fun for this Pratchett fan, though probably they're old news to those who live in London. Both the Greenwich Observatory and the British Museum include a full room on the history of clockmaking. I felt like I was in Jeremy Clockson's workshop! And then when I saw the atomic clock, well... it took a lot for me not to smash it, though at least it wasn't in a glass case.

The other discovery was at London's otherwise rather pitiful science museum. I teach physics, and I have rather high and exacting standards for a science museum. Most of the place made me retch. However, one room was exquisite... on the top floor, well removed from the main displays, I found the history of calculation machines. This physicist was enthralled. (It helped that in every other room of the museum you couldn't move for tourists and their strollers, but I only saw about four other folks in this room, as if it were the Dwarf Bread Museum.

The display included small slide rules from the 1200s, "difference engines" that did basic calculus, but took up a cube two meters on a side, early mechanical calculators and cash registers... I spent 90 minutes in this room, without my wife, who chose instead to bury herself in a fire ant mound.

But the best, best part is... they had The Glooper. Really. An authentic water-based economic simulator with oddly-shaped valves representing taxes, interest rates, etc. Just like in the book. I know that the Master himself must have stood where I stood, watching it gloop, imagining the Hubert who created it, salting it away in his mind for use in a future book... now THAT's a religious experience. :-) [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 21:01, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

==Real editing==
It's great to see someone actually participating in the wiki, with discussion of reasons and references, rather than just posting graffiti. It takes me back to the old days; I wish we had a hundred more editors working for the wiki rather than their own gratification. As an administrator, I'm reluctant to reject the blather out of hand because, with the minimal staff and participation, it would be my blog rather than a wiki. I hope for some consensus from the community, but since ''The Long Drive'' graffiti artists have outnumbered serious students. Do keep up the good work. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 03:13, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

:Thank you kindly... much appreciated. My Pratchett course isn't happening anytime soon, 'cause I'm co-teaching a new journalism course this year. I suspect that _The Truth_ will be involved somewhere -- I just re-read it (again). This is a great site, one that I use regularly for reference; I'm happy to help out. Keep up your own good work. :-) [[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 12:18, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

==The good ole spam filter==
Your edit wasn't the problem in [[Talk:Book:Snuff/Annotations]]; the dreaded "outlöök" was there already. I patched it. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 22:35, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

==Speciesism==
Why this intermittent campaign against the [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/dwarves?s=t Dwarves]?
I never liked the Disney version myself. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 03:55, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
:Agreed on the Down with Disney Dwarfs position. Hi Ho.

:I'm under the impression that Pratchett always spelled Dwarfs with an f, while Tolkien used "Dwarves". The wikipedia lead makes a point of this; I don't recall any exceptions from the Discworld text offhand. A bit of further googling comes up with some language blogs citing Tolkien saying that his use of Dwarves rather than Dwarfs was somewhat of a mistake; I can't tell how reliable that statement is, but it shows up several places; interesting.

:Anyway, I've been changing when I see the v-spelling not due to personal preference, but to -- as I understand -- accurately represent what TP wrote. I'll look through a few of my books to verify what's in the text. I'm certainly not on a Lord Rust-style campaign to rid the D&TPW of the word "drarves"... let me know if youall disagree with my reasoning, and I'll quit changing things.[[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 20:01, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

If the text is a quote of something TP wrote, of course, it should follow the original as with other variations. If the original contributor here preferred "Dwarves" or "aluminium" or "theater" we have the convention that later edits should follow the original and spelling is not edited for personal preference. (See [[Help:Editing#Language]], which I notice doesn't get a link atop a Talk page.)

The first three books used "Dwarves" (see {{ER}}) then there was a hiatus and when they came up again they were "Dwarfs". I was asking in [[Talk:Dwarfs]] if anyone ever heard why it changed. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 01:06, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

:Fair enough. I'm not very knowledgable about the early books. Originally used spelling it is. Thanks![[User:Moishe Rosenbaum|Moishe Rosenbaum]] ([[User talk:Moishe Rosenbaum|talk]]) 02:48, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

== Moishe ==

I have some well intentional advice for you. I have to admit, you produce some fantastic edits and exceptional hard work around here. Keep up the good work and keep moving forward! --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 14:10, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

Talk:Draft:Dove Windsor

2019-11-16T11:34:57Z

Yoshi: Created page with "This page is a draft. --~~~~"

This page is a draft. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 11:34, 16 November 2019 (UTC)

User:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:51:57Z

Yoshi:

User:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:50:29Z

Yoshi:

User:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:50:06Z

Yoshi:

User talk:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:49:48Z

Yoshi:

{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="color:green;">User talk:Yoshi<span>}}
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''Welcome to my user talk page!'''</font>
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''''To leave me a message,''''' [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Yoshi&action=edit&section=new click here].</font>
== Welcome! ==
Hi. Sorry for the latency, but you raised several points and...stuff happens. We're always short of female contributors, so doubly welcome.<BR>
Yes, I do have the authority to create administrators, because I'm not likely to use it capriciously. Lately, we're not suffering much from vandal attacks, I see only five vandals blocked this year. (There was a time I could spend an hour or more daily cleaning them out.) There may be a path to administratorship, however: contribute usefully to content and discussion and demonstrate that you're around regularly. Given my advanced age and [[User:AgProv|AgProv]]'s Welsh ladness, there may be need of a replacement before long. Of course, if Osiris goes, we'll all have to accompany him to the other world, but he seems pretty fit.<BR>
About your categorisation: You may see a value in a category for female users, but I wonder how many would sign up for it. The Main page is more serious. Jagra, I believe, created the Wiki Data category to collect these meta pages, which was reasonable if not very valuable. What is the point of a category with only one eponymous member, and why remove the page from [[:Category:Wiki Data|Wiki Data]]? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 03:08, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

== Main Page ==
@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] Yeah, I believe that using the Wikidata category is an option, but most wikis that I come across have the main page category on their main pages. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 16:24, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
*First, messing with other peoples' user pages is really rude and really not done. Really.<BR>
*I don't know if other wikis have created a single-occupancy category for their talk pages, but it still doesn't answer the question of what possible use it could be.
*You're not likely to get a response from [[User:Confusion|Confusion]] (we haven't heard from him in five years) and you won't be deleting any pages.
*What's a "rollbacker"? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 19:49, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
:@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] A rollbacker is a person who reverts an edit that classes as vandalism. You rollback their edit to that last current revision. And sorry about messing with your user page. Users can have user categories too. Users will then know that you are an admin, so that's why I added those categories. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 14:43, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
::Yes, I'm familiar with the operation, but there's no such permission as "rollbacker": just Users (you), Administrators (me), and gods of life and death (Osiris). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:24, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
:::@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] I don't know what gods of life and death means or what it is meant to be. Can I become an admin? --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 16:49, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::{{wp|Osiris|Osiris}} was the Egyptian god of practically everything. No, as mentioned before, no one becomes an administrator that quickly, and there's no immediate need for one. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 17:21, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::::@[[User:Old Dickens]] Okay, what do I have to do to become an admin? How long does it have to take? I will do everything positive to make you proud as well as the community. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 17:23, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

User talk:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:49:33Z

Yoshi:

{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="color:green;">User talk:Yoshi<span>}}
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''Welcome to my user talk page!'''</font>
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''''To leave me a message,''''' [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Yoshi&action=edit&section=new click here].</font>
'''Welcome to my talk page.'''

== Welcome! ==
Hi. Sorry for the latency, but you raised several points and...stuff happens. We're always short of female contributors, so doubly welcome.<BR>
Yes, I do have the authority to create administrators, because I'm not likely to use it capriciously. Lately, we're not suffering much from vandal attacks, I see only five vandals blocked this year. (There was a time I could spend an hour or more daily cleaning them out.) There may be a path to administratorship, however: contribute usefully to content and discussion and demonstrate that you're around regularly. Given my advanced age and [[User:AgProv|AgProv]]'s Welsh ladness, there may be need of a replacement before long. Of course, if Osiris goes, we'll all have to accompany him to the other world, but he seems pretty fit.<BR>
About your categorisation: You may see a value in a category for female users, but I wonder how many would sign up for it. The Main page is more serious. Jagra, I believe, created the Wiki Data category to collect these meta pages, which was reasonable if not very valuable. What is the point of a category with only one eponymous member, and why remove the page from [[:Category:Wiki Data|Wiki Data]]? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 03:08, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

== Main Page ==
@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] Yeah, I believe that using the Wikidata category is an option, but most wikis that I come across have the main page category on their main pages. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 16:24, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
*First, messing with other peoples' user pages is really rude and really not done. Really.<BR>
*I don't know if other wikis have created a single-occupancy category for their talk pages, but it still doesn't answer the question of what possible use it could be.
*You're not likely to get a response from [[User:Confusion|Confusion]] (we haven't heard from him in five years) and you won't be deleting any pages.
*What's a "rollbacker"? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 19:49, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
:@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] A rollbacker is a person who reverts an edit that classes as vandalism. You rollback their edit to that last current revision. And sorry about messing with your user page. Users can have user categories too. Users will then know that you are an admin, so that's why I added those categories. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 14:43, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
::Yes, I'm familiar with the operation, but there's no such permission as "rollbacker": just Users (you), Administrators (me), and gods of life and death (Osiris). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:24, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
:::@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] I don't know what gods of life and death means or what it is meant to be. Can I become an admin? --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 16:49, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::{{wp|Osiris|Osiris}} was the Egyptian god of practically everything. No, as mentioned before, no one becomes an administrator that quickly, and there's no immediate need for one. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 17:21, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::::@[[User:Old Dickens]] Okay, what do I have to do to become an admin? How long does it have to take? I will do everything positive to make you proud as well as the community. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 17:23, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

User talk:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:48:44Z

Yoshi: /* Main Page */

{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="color:green;">User talk:Yoshi<span>}}
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''Welcome to my user talk page!'''</font>
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''''To leave me a message,''''' [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=User_talk:DCool1&action=edit&section=new click here].</font>
'''Welcome to my talk page.'''

== Welcome! ==
Hi. Sorry for the latency, but you raised several points and...stuff happens. We're always short of female contributors, so doubly welcome.<BR>
Yes, I do have the authority to create administrators, because I'm not likely to use it capriciously. Lately, we're not suffering much from vandal attacks, I see only five vandals blocked this year. (There was a time I could spend an hour or more daily cleaning them out.) There may be a path to administratorship, however: contribute usefully to content and discussion and demonstrate that you're around regularly. Given my advanced age and [[User:AgProv|AgProv]]'s Welsh ladness, there may be need of a replacement before long. Of course, if Osiris goes, we'll all have to accompany him to the other world, but he seems pretty fit.<BR>
About your categorisation: You may see a value in a category for female users, but I wonder how many would sign up for it. The Main page is more serious. Jagra, I believe, created the Wiki Data category to collect these meta pages, which was reasonable if not very valuable. What is the point of a category with only one eponymous member, and why remove the page from [[:Category:Wiki Data|Wiki Data]]? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 03:08, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

== Main Page ==
@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] Yeah, I believe that using the Wikidata category is an option, but most wikis that I come across have the main page category on their main pages. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 16:24, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
*First, messing with other peoples' user pages is really rude and really not done. Really.<BR>
*I don't know if other wikis have created a single-occupancy category for their talk pages, but it still doesn't answer the question of what possible use it could be.
*You're not likely to get a response from [[User:Confusion|Confusion]] (we haven't heard from him in five years) and you won't be deleting any pages.
*What's a "rollbacker"? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 19:49, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
:@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] A rollbacker is a person who reverts an edit that classes as vandalism. You rollback their edit to that last current revision. And sorry about messing with your user page. Users can have user categories too. Users will then know that you are an admin, so that's why I added those categories. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 14:43, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
::Yes, I'm familiar with the operation, but there's no such permission as "rollbacker": just Users (you), Administrators (me), and gods of life and death (Osiris). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:24, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
:::@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] I don't know what gods of life and death means or what it is meant to be. Can I become an admin? --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 16:49, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::{{wp|Osiris|Osiris}} was the Egyptian god of practically everything. No, as mentioned before, no one becomes an administrator that quickly, and there's no immediate need for one. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 17:21, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::::@[[User:Old Dickens]] Okay, what do I have to do to become an admin? How long does it have to take? I will do everything positive to make you proud as well as the community. --'''[[User:Yoshi|<span style="color:green">Yoshi</span>]]''' ([[User talk:Yoshi|Talk to me!]]) 17:23, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

User talk:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:44:22Z

Yoshi: Created page with "{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="color:green;">User talk:Yoshi<span>}} <font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''Welcome to my user talk page!'''</font> <font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">..."

{{DISPLAYTITLE:<span style="color:green;">User talk:Yoshi<span>}}
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''Welcome to my user talk page!'''</font>
<font face="5.0" color="fuchsia">'''''To leave me a message,''''' [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=User_talk:DCool1&action=edit&section=new click here].</font>
'''Welcome to my talk page.'''

== Welcome! ==
Hi. Sorry for the latency, but you raised several points and...stuff happens. We're always short of female contributors, so doubly welcome.<BR>
Yes, I do have the authority to create administrators, because I'm not likely to use it capriciously. Lately, we're not suffering much from vandal attacks, I see only five vandals blocked this year. (There was a time I could spend an hour or more daily cleaning them out.) There may be a path to administratorship, however: contribute usefully to content and discussion and demonstrate that you're around regularly. Given my advanced age and [[User:AgProv|AgProv]]'s Welsh ladness, there may be need of a replacement before long. Of course, if Osiris goes, we'll all have to accompany him to the other world, but he seems pretty fit.<BR>
About your categorisation: You may see a value in a category for female users, but I wonder how many would sign up for it. The Main page is more serious. Jagra, I believe, created the Wiki Data category to collect these meta pages, which was reasonable if not very valuable. What is the point of a category with only one eponymous member, and why remove the page from [[:Category:Wiki Data|Wiki Data]]? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 03:08, 26 July 2019 (UTC)

== Main Page ==
@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] Yeah, I believe that using the Wikidata category is an option, but most wikis that I come across have the main page category on their main pages. --'''[[User:DCool1|<span style="color:magenta">DCool1</span>]]''' ([[User talk:DCool1|Talk to me!]]) 16:24, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
*First, messing with other peoples' user pages is really rude and really not done. Really.<BR>
*I don't know if other wikis have created a single-occupancy category for their talk pages, but it still doesn't answer the question of what possible use it could be.
*You're not likely to get a response from [[User:Confusion|Confusion]] (we haven't heard from him in five years) and you won't be deleting any pages.
*What's a "rollbacker"? --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 19:49, 29 July 2019 (UTC)
:@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] A rollbacker is a person who reverts an edit that classes as vandalism. You rollback their edit to that last current revision. And sorry about messing with your user page. Users can have user categories too. Users will then know that you are an admin, so that's why I added those categories. --'''[[User:DCool1|<span style="color:magenta">DCool1</span>]]''' ([[User talk:DCool1|Talk to me!]]) 14:43, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
::Yes, I'm familiar with the operation, but there's no such permission as "rollbacker": just Users (you), Administrators (me), and gods of life and death (Osiris). --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 18:24, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
:::@[[User talk:Old Dickens]] I don't know what gods of life and death means or what it is meant to be. Can I become an admin? --'''[[User:DCool1|<span style="color:magenta">DCool1</span>]]''' ([[User talk:DCool1|Talk to me!]]) 16:49, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::{{wp|Osiris|Osiris}} was the Egyptian god of practically everything. No, as mentioned before, no one becomes an administrator that quickly, and there's no immediate need for one. --[[User:Old Dickens|Old Dickens]] ([[User talk:Old Dickens|talk]]) 17:21, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
::::@[[User:Old Dickens]] Okay, what do I have to do to become an admin? How long does it have to take? I will do everything positive to make you proud as well as the community. --'''[[User:DCool1|<span style="color:magenta">DCool1</span>]]''' ([[User talk:DCool1|Talk to me!]]) 17:23, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

User:Yoshi

2019-11-13T14:40:05Z

Yoshi: