User talk:Elf-friend/Archive 1

Hello Elf-friend, welcome to Wikipedia. I just noticed your recent edits to various South African topics. As you can see, there is plenty to do here.

Here are some useful links if you need any help:

You can sign posts on talk pages by entering four tildes (~~~~~); the system automatically inserts your username with a datestamp. If you have any questions, see Wikipedia:Help, post a question to the Village pump, or leave a message on my Talk page. Enjoy, -- Viajero 12:26, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Elf-friend is presented this Africa Award for his excellent contributions to Africa-related articles, particularly his thorough work on South Africa-related coverage. Presented by Jcw69 from the Africa-related regional notice board

Hi Elf-friend - since you seem to be adding articles about South African military subjects, I wonder if you'd help Wikiproject:Aircraft out with one on the Atlas Cheetah? --Rlandmann 21:54, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Agree that the material under Mirage III should be moved out... I actually want to do the same for the IAI Kfir info that's still stuck in that article too.... Cheers --Rlandmann 22:55, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hi again - lots more choppers :) Just a small request for help - when you add a new aircraft, could you please make sure it gets included on the list of aircraft if it's not already? Makes it a lot easier for everyone to keep track of where we're up to! Thanks --Rlandmann 21:54, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Elf-friend - help ! I notice there are two pages on king Cetshwayo, (which I believe is the correct spelling) - but I have discovered Cetewayo, which you have contributed to. Can you merge the two pages, under Cetshwayo? I do not know enough about wikipedia to do it without breaking things.

If you need fixups after the merge, let me know.

Wikiwizzy

You write :- I have a suspicion that the other spellings may be more archaic. I believe you are right - these are turn-of-the-century spellings. I do not know where 168.209.98.35 got the original copy for Cetewayo page from, but it looks quite 'scholarly'. Maybe the spelling points to it being past copyright protection - but maybe I am being uncharitable and it is original work. It is a nice page. I am British, living in SA for last 5 years, but very interested in Zulu history, and have been working on those pages. Thanks for your help - looks great now. Wikiwizzy

Elf-friend - help needed again ! This time a bit more difficult - we need to merge Zulu War and Anglo-Zulu War. I prefer the latter. What should I do ? Shall I stick stuff not mentioned in Anglo-Zulu War but mentioned in Zulu War back into Zulu War ? Histories ? Wikiwizzy

OK - I am going to try to do this myself - as per Wikipedia:Duplicate_articles - wish me luck ! Wikiwizzy

Elf-friend - Finished the Anglo-Zulu War merge, thanks, and put in a redirect. I am afraid I do not know any more than you do about early Zulu kings. Wikiwizzy

I find that http://www.encyclopedia4u.com/a/anglo-zulu-war.html is identical to Anglo-Zulu War - is this a copyvio, or the reverse ? There is a tell-tale mis-spelling of Mpande as Panda.

The encyclopedia4u site is a copy from Wikipedia I am still very new at wikipedia. I am planning on doing the same - but complete duplicates, put down in South African computer labs - just because you can .. you can see more about the project at Wizzy Digital Courier. So - we copy because we cannot be online all the time. I plan on taking snapshots during holidays, currently running just over 220Mbytes compressed.

Wikiwizzy

Thank You![edit]

I want to thank you DEEPLY for your support in the vote to promote me to a sysop. I promise to do my best to be as helpful, sensible, and neutral as possible. Your friend, Ryan.

Hi again - just letting you know that there's a new improved data table for aircraft. You can find it at Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft. Also take a look at the page footer, which you might like to use as well. Cheers --Rlandmann 23:59, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

von vans ofs des dus, de las, and van ders[edit]

It was my understanding that the essentially meaningless words but mean "of" should be ignored when categorising. So Fritz van Heerden is under H not V. Has Wikipedia an official policy on this? Dunc_Harris|☺ 15:18, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Rooivalk[edit]

Hi Elf-friend

It was a replacement. I replaced the V3C with the Mistral Atam, as the V3C is not used on the Rooivalk fleet, in fact it's only kept as an AAM for the Impala MkIIs, as the Cheetah fleet now uses the more advanced U/Darter.
Two V3C mockups were fitted to the Rooivalk prototype so as to demonstrate the chopper's air to air capability, but they were never ordered for the production version. In 1998 the SAAF announced it had selected the Mistral to equip the Rooivalk, and as such it could only be the Mistral Atam, which is the air-to-air version of the Mistral as fitted to the Tigre. What's more, if you look at the weaponry section of the official Denel website on the Rooivalk, you will find the Mistral as the only listing under air-to-air weaponry.
Lastly, if you look at pictures of the Rooivalk, or even at a real Rooivalk if you have the chance, you'll see quite distinctly that it's carrying Mistrals and not V3Cs. This is obvious because the Mistrals come in two small pods on the outermost pylon on each wing, whereas the V3C is a far bigger missile with large fins that was envisaged as going on the wingtips.
Btw, awesome work you're doing with the SA military pages. Impi 22:12, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Ok, in addition to this, I'd like to suggest two more things. First, as I wrote on the Atlas Oryx talk page, the armament section for the Oryx is slightly misleading, as no Oryx has ever been fitted with either the nose gun or the armaments wings. In fact, those were only fitted to a modified Puma which became the XTP-1, and was used to test those weapons systems for the Rooivalk program. The only armament known to be offered on the Oryx appears to be a door-mounted machine gun, though there are no details on precisely what type they consider. The second thing is the numbering system for the SAAF squadrons. Although it is technically accurate to say "No. 2 Squadron" for instance, the SAAF squadrons have always been referred to as such: "2 Squadron, 28 Squadron, 21 Squadron, 35 Squadron" etc. Perhaps we could consider changing it to the latter, which is also easier in terms of pages, as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._2_Squadron_SAAF (for eg) would become 2_Squadron_SAAF, which is simpler.

Cheers

Impi 20:37, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hi Elf-friend

Ok, I'll modify the Oryx article sometime in the coming week, as I'm still trying to get some more info on that door-mounted machine gun, and whether any have ever been fitted for operational usage. The official SA Navy site says the Oryx is capable of packing a "Armscor 300mm Rattler", which is obviously inaccurate and probably refers to the GA-1 20mm Rattler, which was the turreted gun fitted to the XTP-1 and therefore the Rooivalk prototype (the production Rooivalk uses a 20mm from GIAT fitted to a South African IST Dynamics turret).
I'll also gather up my info on the Rooivalk's ancestors as it were, to work them into the article, also within the coming week, if possible.

As for the squadron numbering format, I still have to disagree with you on the format, but I do agree with you that it's not worth the time and effort to modify now, with so many other important pages needing work or needing to be created.
The reason for my disagreement is this:
Though you're entirely right with some Commonwealth air forces in that while colloquially the squadrons are referred to as "3 Squadron, 4 Squadron etc", they are officially referred to as "No.3 Squadron, No.4 Squadron etc". I've found this to be true with the RAF, RAAF, RNZAF and RCAF, but not with the SAAF. In the SAAF, the squadrons are known officially and colloquially as "3 Squadron" and not "No.3 Squadron", though there is evidence the latter designation was used during WW2.
The only explanation I can find for this difference is that when the National Party came to power in 1948 (and especially after the creation of the Republic in 1960), they set upon a policy of removing as much British influence from the country as possible, and a lot of this kind of attention fell on the SADF. Some of the changes introduced by this policy included the changing of the rank structure, by substituting some British ranks (Wing Commander, Squadron Leader etc) with their American counterparts, and, it seems, changing the squadron naming structure from the British style to a more American style which omitted the "No." in front. However, what remained was a bit of a mis-match, keeping nothing between the number and the name squadron, as with the British and Dominion (those with the Queen still as head of state, might be incorrect term), but losing the "No." in front as the Americans do, yet their squadron names are in this format: "42nd Squadron". So pretty unique.

So, in short, the RAF is not the senior air force for the SAAF, and can be said has not been since 1960, whereas Australia, Canada and New Zealand still have far stronger ties to the UK and therefore the RAF. Therefore, the SAAF's own standard comes into play, which in all official documents and publicans is in the "2 Squadron format", which is thus the way it should be represented.
However, I must reiterate that I agree completely with you that this is not an issue requiring immediate fixing, but it's something to keep in the back of our minds for the future, when we go back over everything we've done to fix minor things so as to be as accurate as humanly possible. I mean, I know I don't have to get your permission to start fixing this, it's just that I prefer explaining my reasons before doing so, as I think that's best for this type of co-operative project.

Cheers

Impi 23:36, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

No problem with the Squadrons, I'm using Mozilla Firefox as a web browser so I can update a number of articles at a time. This is really only useful when updating a number of similar articles, such as the squadrons. Besides, I was able to use your style for the page, which works perfectly. As for the squadron name format, I'll change the rest when I can, and as you may have noticed, I've made two versions of each page. In the case of my pages, there are duplicate pages with the "No." format which merely redirect to mine, and vice versa with all the ones you created, so it should not be too time-consuming for me to convert the rest. Merely a matter of a cut-paste switch.
Btw, nice work on the PC-7, but there's a bit of an issue with this one in terms of the PC-7 MkII. The thing is, I'm undecided as to whether it should be part of the PC-7 article or a page on its own, as on the Pilatus website. The reason I say this is because the PC-7 MkII is actually a brand-new aircraft conceived as a model between the PC-7 and PC-9 for those wanting higher performance than the PC-7 but not quite the price and capability of the PC-9. Thus the PC-7 MkII is effectively a mixture of the two, as parts and ideas from both aircraft were taken where necessary to form this entirely new aircraft. Not sure why they didn't just name it the PC-8, but then I guess they decided it had enough commonality with the PC-7 to call it the Mk.II, despite everything it shares with the PC-9 (for ex. the cockpit design, note the stepped cockpit as opposed to the PC-7's flat one), and that's where my dilemma lies. Is it worth its own page?
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this one.
Cheers, Impi 19:25, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Re: PC-7.
Ok, sounds good and makes sense.
Cheers, Impi 20:32, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hello Elf-friend, I've replied to your comments. But they're not on my personal talk page anymore — I've moved everything to the Afrikaans talk page, so everybody who's interested can read the discussion. Cwoyte 08:31, 26 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hi there...just so you know, you didn't have to list Three-legged bush pig on VfD. When an entry is that obviously irredeemable crap, a sysop can just delete the page without a vote. I've already done so. You can read Wikipedia:Candidates for speedy deletion for further info. Bearcat 19:09, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

---

FYI: You put a VfD on Kris Holm as I was cleaning it up. I think he's a legitimate topic, so I removed the VfD notice. - DavidWBrooks 20:07, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC)

South African Liberal Party[edit]

Hi, Do you know when the South African Liberal party of Alan Paton was founded. Gangulf 13:19, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, I added the date to Alan Paton, South African Liberal Party and the Schematic history of liberal parties around the world Gangulf 13:30, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

vfd =[edit]

Please add a reason and sign your vfd entry for Community of Peace Academy on the vfd page, otherwise it is not a valid vfd nomination. Elf-friend 19:16, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the heads up. Blue Mask|Talk 19:32, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Re: Category:South African people :Overlap of categories[edit]

Hi, You have started Category:Notable South Africans but there are already some categories in this regard that have already been started, see Category:South African people for example. One must try to avoid overlap/s of categories that create redundancies. Such as also when a South African leader is in Category:South African Prime Ministers that person is obviosuly a "Notable South African" and the latter category is not required for him to be placed in. Please look into this matter. Good luck with the rest of your South African work. IZAK 10:18, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hi. The VfD page was deleted at th request of Anthony, who first placed it there, and Raul, whose page it was, as part of a mediated compromise between them. Anthony explained his reasoning on the mailing list. Danny 08:54, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

New sqn page format[edit]

Hi Elf-friend,

I just saw an interesting concept being tried out on No. 1 Squadron RAF in terms of using a table with a photo for each squadron page. I thought it was pretty interested, so applied a suitably modified version to the 2 Squadron page along with a prelim history write-up.
What do you think, so far?
Impi 14:49, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Insignia is for both the plural and singular forms. Sort of like the word sheep.

Thanks for the comments on the new format, I'll be trying to apply it to all the other sqn pages, but I'm delaying at the moment while I await permission (or not, depending on the case) to use the squadron and possibly also the base crests/badges. I converted the 2Sqn one mainly as an example for the person who holds the copyright on the insignia to have a look and see how it would be implemented.

I think the likelihood of permission being granted is fairly high, but if it's not we can always try another direction. Impi 13:53, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Aircraft tables[edit]

Hi again Elf-friend! After much discussion, WikiProject Aircraft switched away from the old table format to using a text specifications section a couple of weeks ago. You can find a write-up of the new format here. My apologies - I should have dropped you a note when I updated your nice new articles :) You should find the new format a lot quicker and easier to work with. Cheers --Rlandmann 14:07, 22 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Opera[edit]

No offense meant, regarding Don Giovanni, but I don't think operas (or centuries old works in general) need spoiler warnings...a heading of "Plot" does nicely. Discussion is underway at Template talk:Spoiler if you think otherwise. - Nunh-huh 03:40, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Coolness[edit]

I like your type... I posted that "spam" to test Wikipedia's program. I mean to see if their staff would see it and remove it.

Yet It isn't a bad thing to have active members... I wish I had more of them at my site... gfcom.org

Well - GFC 00:08, 23 Aug 2004 (EST)

tragedy[edit]

Hi Elf-friend, I just wondered why you had amended judo player to competitor on the tragedy comment I put on the 2004 Summer Olympics page. Judo player is the most commonly used term for participants in the sport by those who do not take part and generally the term used in news reports, though to be precise they are actually called Judoka by persons of more knowledge of the sport. I chose the former, judo player, so as not confuse those who don't know the latter term.Scraggy4 23:10, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Atlas Cheetah[edit]

Hi, this is a bit of a warning about the Vectorsite, it's not always accurate. In the case of the Atlas Cheetah page, it was far off, and most of the info was incorrect. I've rewritten the article with the correct info, but it still needs a bit of work and some copyediting to get rid of some of the clumsy writing, but I'll get around to both those things. I'll incorporate the HMCS stuff into its own article sometime when I have a little more time, as that's something too good to waste, but even in that one there are a number of errors. For instance, the Rooivalk does not use the S.African HMCS, it uses the TopOwl from Thales which uses electromagnetic sensors rather than LEDs. Another blatant flaw is that it says the Cheetah's radar cannot support BVR weapons, when the SAAF has had a BVR weapon, the R-Darter (comparable to the Israeli Derby), in service for a number of years. So, take the Vectorsite with a pinch of salt from now on, that's what I'm doing. Impi 15:53, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Westland Lynx Photograph[edit]

The image was listed as a suspected copyright violation on WP:CP since Sep 1, 2004. When I got around to cleaning up, I checked http://www.whl.co.uk/disclaimer.html , and based on the statements there plus the fact that no fair use claim was made, I deleted the image as a copyvio. Lupo 13:49, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

CSB Template[edit]

Sorry for not making things clearer. There is discussion at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias#Template and at the Village Pump that CSB templates are innappropirate in any article. Until this issue is resolved the templates should be removed. - SimonP 15:56, Oct 21, 2004 (UTC)

Stunning job on Cyril Ramaphosa. I guess you are working down List of South Africans. Wizzy 18:37, Oct 22, 2004 (UTC)

Date format[edit]

You do not (or rather, should not) have to change the way that dates are written within articles, because there is a setting in your preferences that you can change to offer dates in the format you choose. See Help:Preferences#Date format for the predicted results. I haven't tried this, so can't guarantee that it works. Noisy | Talk 17:18, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Tokyo Sexwale[edit]

Hehe, just as I finished writing an article on Tokyo and about to upload it I see that you have just done the article. :-) --Jcw69 13:12, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Noon gun[edit]

Figured Jacob Zuma needed a page too. Hey, see Noon gun ! Wizzy 22:36, Nov 7, 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedians[edit]

Hey Elf, I decided to work my way up the Top 100 list. So not to clash with you. See you in the middle somewhere :-)(Oh I already done Leon Schuster and found Eugene Terre'blance aready on but different spelling). Why don't you put your name down on Wikipedia:Wikipedians/South Africa. Anyway keep up the good work and I enjoyed watching the debate between you and impi about the corvettes or were they frigates. --Jcw69 17:12, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

SAS Amatola[edit]

Hey thanks! I had browsed the Wikiproject:Ships page a bit earlier, and added the SAN ensign, so I was just itching to do a SAN ship article. So I cobbled together some info on the Amatola and wrote a quick article, using the project's ship template. Unfortunately, it's a bit messy, I'm writing exams at the moment so I'm short of time. By the end of November life should be back to normal and I should be able to finally complete the SAAF squadron pages, flesh out some of the other SANDF pages (especially create an article on the SANDF), and make pages on the SAS Isandlwana, Spioenkop and Mendi. By the way, I've been taking a look at some of the articles you've created since you returned, and I've just got to say: Excellent work! I could never hope to reach that kind of work rate, and it's really filling up the SA part of Wikipedia, which has been pretty under-represented. Plus the articles are more than just the usual three or four line stubs many other contributors submit.
I'm just glad we can work together on this, despite the occasional disagreement. --Impi 16:23, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Internet Haganah[edit]

I've moved that page to a more appropriate title, and expanded it. I got all the information from the company's website, so unfortunately, this might make it sound a bit like an advertisement :(. I don't think it's a speedy or a VFD anymore. If you can add to it, or make it sound less like an advertisement, please do! Thanks. -Frazzydee|✍ 15:50, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, now that I look at Alexa's ranking for the site, I too am beginning to doubt whether it's notable or not. But on the other hand, the site would only appeal to very few people (company executives, IT specialists, etc.), and I doubt that companies would have Alexa's toolbar installed. Only 176 websites link to it. I still think that it deserves an entry here, seing as it's a subsidiary of a company with soon-to-be publically traded stock, and it seems like a legitimate company. If you think it's not notable, I would guess that some people on VFD would agree with you, but personally, I think that it's an informative article that could help people. Google's directory doesn't list it too far down. We have articles for all sorts of topics that might not seem notable, but could be expanded, and could be of use to some; But you are free to send it to VFD if you feel it meets the criteria. -Frazzydee|✍ 16:35, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC) (edited a few seconds later to fix link)

Candidate[edit]

Yikes - thanks! ClockworkTroll 17:00, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Goeiendag[edit]

Was jy al ooit betrokke by die Afrikaanse wikipedia? Indien nie, wil ek jou graag soontoe nooi ek dink jy kan 'n sinvolle bydra maak.

Dankie. --Renier Maritz 08:40, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

A quick note to say thanks[edit]

I just wanted to drop you a quick note to thank you for your support in my request for adminship. It was certainly a wild ride, and I really appreciate you taking some time out to contribute. ClockworkSoul 16:13, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

South African Collaboration of the Week![edit]

Hello, this is just a brief, friendly announcement to let you know that there is now a South African Collaboration of the Week where we vote every two weeks to select an article about South Africa that is either a stub or nonexistent and attempt make it featured article quality by the end of the week. Your comments, voting, and participation would be very welcome! PZFUN 17:39, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

SA Army WWII[edit]

Hi, thanks for making those additions to the SA Army article. I had left the comment as much as a note to self as anything else, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the additions put in so quickly. Keep up the great work! Impi 23:07, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Official languages in Italy[edit]

Hello! You have just edited the article about Italy, writing this summary: German and French are regional languages and NOT OFFICIAL languages of Italy. I believe German and French are official languages. After your edit, I indicated the legal documents that make me think so on the discussion page Talk:Italy. I'd like to invite you to the discussion page, if you want to discuss the matter. Boraczek 10:32, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

vfd[edit]

Hello, I noticed you're a frequent Wikipedia contributor and have experience with vfd. There's a question whether or not a particular song is encyclopedic on vfd. Can you please vote on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/La La. Cheers. .:. 03:32, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

La La and the 'B' Ark[edit]

You write in Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/La_La

I dunno, maybe there should be a "cooling off period" of a year or so for articles regarding popular culture in order to ensure that Wikipedia isn't deluged by such articles.

This sounds very sensible to me. In fact I've been thinking about something like this quite a lot lately. I think all this trivia is very valuable stuff, who knows what use it will be to historians in future decades if it should survive. But it isn't really encyclopedia material, and I can foresee a time when trivia from bygone crazes will substantially outweigh the encyclopedia entries, making maintenance of the encyclopedia more difficult.

My idea, which in honor of Douglas Adams I call the 'B' Ark option, would be to have a separate (and probably rather busy) fan site. Into this would go all the lists of characters in everything from Star Trek to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, from Pokemon to Yu-Gi-Oh. Frame-by-frame analysis of every single episode of every single TV-show-within-a-TV-show in The Simpsons. Laborious essays extracting the references to Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Full dissections of Kylie's latest single. The biography of her manicurist, a list of telephone numbers of everybody who worked on the latest Christina Aguilera video. A list of what Madonna had for lunch on Wednesday, October 6, 2004.

Into the other site, the encyclopedia, would go the other stuff. No references to pop songs, light entertainment, cartoons, comics, or novels published in the past 24 months.

I'm pretty new to Wikipedia, so I'm just beginning to think about it as an organic, growing entity and I don't know whether these particular things have been discussed before. You've been around longer by the looks of things. Is the idea of a cooling-off period a suggestion that comes up often? --Tony Sidaway|Talk 12:14, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Article Licensing[edit]

Hi, I've started a drive to get users to multi-license all of their contributions that they've made to either (1) all U.S. state, county, and city articles or (2) all articles, using the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-by-sa) v1.0 and v2.0 Licenses or into the public domain if they prefer. The CC-by-sa license is a true free documentation license that is similar to Wikipedia's license, the GFDL, but it allows other projects, such as WikiTravel, to use our articles. Since you are among the top 1000 Wikipedians by edits, I was wondering if you would be willing to multi-license all of your contributions or at minimum those on the geographic articles. Over 90% of people asked have agreed. For More Information:

Multi-Licensing FAQ - Lots of questions answered
Multi-Licensing Guide
Free the Rambot Articles Project

To allow us to track those users who muli-license their contributions, many users copy and paste the "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" template into their user page, but there are other options at Template messages/User namespace. The following examples could also copied and pasted into your user page:

Option 1

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions, with the exception of my user pages, as described below:

OR

Option 2

I agree to [[Wikipedia:Multi-licensing|multi-license]] all my contributions to any [[U.S. state]], county, or city article as described below:

Or if you wanted to place your work into the public domain, you could replace "{{DualLicenseWithCC-BySA-Dual}}" with "{{MultiLicensePD}}". If you only prefer using the GFDL, I would like to know that too. Please let me know what you think at my talk page. It's important to know either way so no one keeps asking. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk)

Battle of Cassinga[edit]

Hi,

I stumbled on your article for Operation Reindeer, which inspired me to expand more upon the entire Cassinga raid. So I expanded your article somewhat, and created a new article, Battle of Cassinga, to describe that portion of the operation. Seeing as you evidently know quite a bit about the SA Army, and its actions in the Border War, I was wondering if you'd be willing to just give the Cassinga article a quick look-over and see if there's anything you think needs to be improved. Thanks, Impi 19:59, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Thank you[edit]

Thank you Elf-friend, the Barnstar of National Merit is most unexpected and welcomed (speechless -->)--Jcw69 16:34, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thank you, Elf-friend. Wizzy 18:30, Mar 4, 2005 (UTC)

Wow, thank you Elf-friend, this is a truly welcome surprise, and I'm honoured that you thought my contributions sufficient to deserve this award. Impi 06:39, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Hi, why did you delete the link to Bukkake.com on wiki page "Bukkake"?[edit]

Hi-

I see that you removed the link to bukkake.com from the wikipedia topic "bukkake".

Can you please explain your rationale for doing this?

I added an entry to the "Talk" page for this topic a couple weeks ago explaining my position (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bukkake)

Basically, I don't understand why you would delete a link to this site when:

-there are over 100 pages of bukkake content on it - it is totally appropriate related information for that wiki page

-a lot of the information in the wikipedia article was almost certainly drawn from content on Bukkake.com

-Bukkake.com PREDATES the wiki page for bukkake

-No attempts have been made to add the site to ANY other wiki page, only the one for bukkake

-The advertisers on the Bukkake.com site are the same advertisers who appear on Google's search results pages for bukkake (yes they are adult ads, but bukkake's primary connotation is sexual; why is it okay for Google to accept ad money from these advertisers but not me?)

Really, it seems very strange to publish a page in wikipedia on this topic but then cut off all links to additional information. I mean the whole point of the web is that it's easy to link related information. Is wikipedia a next-generation encyclopedia that changes and evolves and allows users to easily browse disparate sets of information or is it a traditional hidebound one that only offers a fixed, limited set of information?

Isn't the whole point of wikipedia that you delegate the administration of content to an infinite number of topic experts? Isn't that supposed to result in better information since the guy who is an expert on PEZ dispensers knows so much about them that the wikipedia page he maintains on them is outstanding? I would venture to say that when it comes to bukkake, I am probably one of the world's experts since I have a 100-page site on it :-)

My going in and adding a link to Bukkake.com is an example of the wikipedia model WORKING. A single external link is not intrusive, but for someone who is genuinely curious about bukkake and wants find out more, my site is (I think) the best next step. Yes, there advertisements of an adult nature on the site, but honestly, what do you think someone wanting to find out more about bukkake wants to see?

What are your thoughts?

Parochialism[edit]

Most of the exchange which you read on my talk page (under Parochialism), had nothing to do with Talk:Battle of Spion Kop and everything to do with Talk:Battle of Hurtgen Forest. Noel and I are from different sides of the Pond (Atlantic). I am sure that our accents would sound a funny to each other as mine would be to you. (Although in the two years I spent living and working in SA, neither my Irish wife or I had no problem with people understanding our accents and they did not seem to find them particularly funny either). I would not (and I am fairly sure nor would he) argue that South African English was anything but a fully legitimate dialect/accent of English. We were talking about a person insisting that only German spelling was correct in an English article. If you look at the history of Talk:Battle of Hurtgen Forest you will see that when Noel pointed out my spelling mistake, I fixed it in the talk page. I hope that clears up. No offence was intended and I hope, now that an explanation has been given that none was taken. Philip Baird Shearer 17:16, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Bukkake spam[edit]

Hi Elf-friend. Sorry it's taken a while to reply to your message on my talk page - I'm not around all that often these days.

I wouldn't exactly claim to be an "expert" on external links, though when I was a more regular contributor, I used to patrol for spam a lot more than I do now. In some ways, I think it's harder to deal with someone who's prepared to discuss things than just an anonymous poster. I agree with you that the link to bukkake dot com (no point giving them any more publicity) is inappropriate, and I agree with the reasons given on Talk:Bukkake. Hopefully they'll get bored eventually, but if someone persists, against the clear wishes of the community, eventually you'd have to get into official Wikipedia:Conflict resolution procedures - but you might want to talk to a more active current user (perhaps Anome, who has also been in discussion with this spammer) about how they would deal with this. Sorry not to be more help. --ALargeElk | Talk 09:39, 23 Mar 2005 (UTC)

South African Municipal Structures[edit]

I've started an Article on South African Municipal Structures. Could you please have a glance over and correct errors etc ... At the moment it seems like a good idea to link this article to your article on the South African Geographical Names Council although Im not certain wether or not an article containing various statutory councils does not make more sense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Municipalities

Could you also please have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List_of_cities_in_South_Africa#Cities_and_Municipalities_making_the_distinction

Pretoria Meetup[edit]

Hello. I noticed you're listed at Wikipedia:Wikipedians/South Africa#Pretoria so wanted to make sure you know about the meetup in Pretoria next week. Hope you can make it. :) Angela . 03:08, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

Barnstar[edit]

I am giving you this barnstar to let you knwo that I too feel your Wikistress. Take care, D. J. Bracey (talk) 00:36, 7 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations on being in the top 1,000, too. D. J. Bracey (talk) 00:36, 7 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Support[edit]

Hi Elf-friend, sorry to see your stress level soooo high. When you get a chance, Banes is interested in nominating me as an admin tomorrow evening, I would appreciate your support. Thank you --Jcw69 19:47, 11 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, if Jcw69 makes it youre next! Ban e s 17:08, 12 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome back![edit]

Great to have you back, your valuable contribution has been sorely missed. Hope you enjoyed your wiki-holiday, that sort of thing is sorely needed sometimes if you want to stay sane in this place. My remedy has been to withdraw from the contentious articles for a while, so far it has been working, I need my wikistress meter in the green. :P Imp i 15:34, 19 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It is good to have you back. Quite a few of us missed you, so from all of them Welcome Back --Jcw69 16:34, 19 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Like they said .. Wizzy…☎ 09:30, 21 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Dankie[edit]

Dankie vir jou ondersteuning vir my aansoek as administrateur. Dit was suksesvol tedanke aan u ondersteuning. Ek sal poog om ‘n goeie en deurslaggewende administrateur.--Jcw69 19:54, 21 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Re:Elf-friend[edit]

Its good to take a break when one gets too stressed. Although your break started before I even joined this place, I can say that you have certainly made some impressive contributions to this site. My stress is sadly work related, in the real world. By the way, I dont konw if you saw my note saying "youre next in line for admin nom.." at the time I was unaware that you were on holiday. Anyway, after you've been back a month or two would you be interested at all in becoming an admin? Cheers Ban e s 12:58, 25 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It most definitely would be held against you. If I were to nominate you now, it could be quite a close rfa. So, I think that after a month or so of hard editing after your return, it will be quite safe to nominate you. If its fine, I think I'll do it late November/early December. See you Ban e s 15:29, 25 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thats fine. Remind me around then in case I forget. And, Welcome to Esperanza! Ban e s 13:32, 26 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thats exactly what Esperanza was formed for, stress relief. Sadly, it was only started at the beginning of September. Ban e s 13:46, 26 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

User:Elf-friend/Babel[edit]

I took the liberty of wrapping the boxes that have categories associated with them in <includeonly> tags. This will stop your user sub-page from showing up in the categories, while still adding the categories to your user page where it is transcluded. This has the negative side effect of making the boxes invisible on the sub-page (they still show up on your main user page). Feel free to revert my changes if I was too presumptive. --GraemeL ^(talk) 18:41, 1 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

SA-mil-stub[edit]

Hi, I just wanted to tell you that I created a new stub, {{SA-mil-stub}}, for all the new SANDF and SA-mil related stubs that need to be done. I thought it would be a better way to track our progress on this topic, as it means all the SA mil stubs are categorized in the same place. Cheers, — Imp i 12:10, 2 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It appears the stub's title wasn't in line with some of the new policies, so it has been renamed to {{SouthAfrica-mil-stub}}. Btw, excellent work with your newest articles. — Imp i 09:55, 7 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks[edit]

Thank you for your work on Media in South Africa. I was trying to help it along, but I just don't know enough about it to help. It looks much better now. Broken S 21:07, 11 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Great work![edit]

See http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=256607&area=/insight/insight__national/ - Ta bu shi da yu 03:25, 18 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yes[edit]

Thank you for leaving message in my talk page. I will probably try to write the things more neutrally if it seems that the current way is not neutral. An explaination of the usage of word "kaffir": http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Wood-NuttallEncyclopaedia/k/kaffirs.html . Take care. Alcatel 18:15, 25 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Barnstar of National Merit[edit]

Your work, both recent and past, relating to SA has been superb, and your contributions (especially on mil and bio articles) have really expanded Wikipedia's coverage of SA significantly. So I wish to award you (belatedly, you deserved it long ago) the Barnstar of National Merit — Imp i 20:01, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

For your incredible contribution to creating and expanding quality articles about South Africa, I hereby award you *The Barnstar of National Merit*. Excellent work! *Imp i* 20:01, 28 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Seconded. Wizzy…☎ 06:58, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Agriculture in South Africa[edit]

Hiya! :) I was wondering if you could look at the section I created on the SA article and tell me what you think? :) XYaAsehShalomX 21:54, 2 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Meetup[edit]

I'm going to be back in South Africa from 26 December to 25 January. Would be great to meet up with all my fellow South African editors that I have been working with from afar. Want to try to arrange a meet-up of some sorts? User:PZFUN/signature 08:15, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Esperanza elections[edit]

File:Voting box clipart.gif

Hi Elf-friend/Archive 1: This is a quick note just to let you know that there's an election under way at Esperanza. If you'd like to become a candidate for Administrator General or the Advisory Council, just add your name here by 15 December 2005.

Voting begins at 12:00UTC on 16 December and all Esperanza members are encouraged to join in.

This message was delivered to all Esperanza members. If you do not wish to receive further messages, please contact Flcelloguy. Thank you.

➨ ❝R E DVERS❞ 09:47, 14 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

News from Esperanza[edit]

Hello, fellow Esperanzians! This is just a friendly reminder that elections for Administrator General and two advisory council positions have just begun. Voting will last until Friday, December 30, so make sure you exercise your right to vote! Also, I'm pleased to announce the creation of the Esperanza mailing list. I urge all members to join; see Wikipedia:Esperanza/Contact for more information. All you need to do is email me and I will activate your account. This will be a great way to relax, stay in touch, and hear important announcements. Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?)

This message was delivered to all Esperanza members by our acting messenger, Redvers. If you do not wish to receive further messages, please list yourself at WP:ESP/S. Thanks.

'n Barnstar[edit]

Ek, Greatgavini, gee jou 'n ,,Barnstar" want jy het baie in Wikipedia gedoen.

Happy Crimbo![edit]

Have a Proper and Merry Crimbo. File:Pressie.gif, in fact here is a pressie from the Doctor to you. Ho. Ho. Ho! File:Unclecrimbo.gif Dr. McCrimbo 23:28, 23 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Adminship[edit]

Howzit Elf-friend! I hope you've had a Merry Christmas. Many months ago (when Jcw was up for admin) I asked you if you'd be interested in running. You said something like "around new years". Well, are you still interested? If so the how does Saturday evening suit you? Cheers Ban e s 17:23, 28 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

And why should a wedding keep you away from wikipedia??? :) My congratulations! Regarding adminship, how does the 6th of Feb suit you? That is two weeks or so away. Banez 07:39, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Great, I'll see you then. By the way, you may want to do some vandal fighting in that time...Anyway, 6th Feb it is. Cheers Banez 08:00, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Meeting[edit]

Well, I'm finally back in SA now! I'm going to be in Gauteng (Pretoria specifically) until Wednesday, and then I'm going on. Will be back for a few days after that on the 25th. If you have any ideas for a meetup, could you ring me or send me an SMS on 076/304.9761? User:PZFUN/signature 10:47, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

What a wedding, where?[edit]

Oh boy, you're lucky that you didn't let me know before hand, or else I would have gate crashed the wedding. Anyway congratulations on your wedding and may the blessings of a thousand wikipedians be upon you and your lovely wife.--Jcw69 15:49, 20 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Congrats from me too. Wizzy…☎ 11:47, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I always seem to be the latest to pick up on the news. So, though it's belated, congratulations! — Imp i 19:15, 26 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Straight borders of Africa[edit]

Hi Elf-friend, I noticed you removed reference to borders of Africa in Anton Rupert. That is fine because discussion of that aspect of Africa's history belongs on another page. I can see you are very experienced and prolific. I am also proudly South African. Regards Greg --Gregorydavid 10:05, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Game fences in Africa and elsewhere[edit]

Hi Elf-friend, thank you for your reply to my response.. I had a look at the Africa page and I see the range of topics is so wide that I passed.. I suppose any border defined by a game fence is straight from an animals point of veiw. Some fences are there to control disease and others are related to having power.. The colonialists did dish out parts of Africa to themselves like a pack of cards.. I think it helps planting flags here and there to create and focus interes in topics.. See Stellenbosch. Do you like the use of the word settlement? Regards Gregorydavid 06:57, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Redirecting Johann[edit]

Hi Elf-friend, the page Johann existed and now it is linked or redirected to Johann Rupert, search no longer finds Johann. Can you fix and explain. Thanks Gregorydavid 07:48, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Elf-friend, Thank you for reminding me to say please.. We need to remember that this is not SMS Chat! ie there is space to be polite. Thanks too for fixing what I was responsible for. Here is an original qoute of mine: De-bug before you duplicate.. So you know I have not done it anywhere else.. Regards Gregorydavid 10:29, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

New article Elisabeth Eybers[edit]

Hi Elf-friend, I see you have started a new article on one of my redlinks, thank you. I think you will find her ex husband Dr. Albert Wessels (snr) under famous South Africa businessmen.. I think redlinks are usefull..

Regards, Gregorydavid 14:05, 27 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Elf-friend Thank you for the feedback again, I would have picked up the spelling mistake on Elisabeth Eybers when I eventually got to contributing to the content. I incedentally came across the article on the internet from which most of the content was drawn prior to adding her name. I did not realise that the particular list was one for living people only.. That is a bit of a moving target. A list for each year ranking living individuals from one to one hundred may make sense, but then there would be a massive backlog for years gone by. I noticed when working on politicians that there is another list somewhere. In line with my philosophy to de-bug before I duplicate I shall refrain from adding to lists in the wrong context..

I think there should be a data base for people with appropriate fields so that duplication and maintenance is simplified. This applies to different languages too. Please be patient with me as a beginner, because sometimes I may not be aware of certain functuality that already exists.. Regards Gregorydavid 17:41, 28 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

An Esperanzial note[edit]

As I remember, the last spam that was handed out was on the 20th of December last year, so I think it's time for another update. First and foremost, the new Advisory Council and Administrator General have been elected. They consist of myself as Admin General and FireFox, Titoxd, Flcelloguy and Karmafist as the Advisory Council. We as a group met formally for the first time on the 31st of Decembe. The minutes of this meeting can be found at WP:ESP/ACM. The next one is planned for tonight (Sunday 29 January) at 20:30 UTC and the agenda can be found at WP:ESP/ACM2.

In other news, Karmafist has set up a discussion about a new personal attack policy, which it can be found here. Other new pages include an introductory page on what to do when you sign up, So you've joined Esperanza... and a welcome template: {{EA-welcome}} (courtesy of Bratsche). Some of our old hands may like to make sure they do everything on the list as well ;) Additionally, the userpage award program proposal has become official is operational: see Wikipedia:Esperanza/User Page Award to nominate a userpage or volunteer as a judge. Also see the proposed programs page for many new proposals and old ones that need more discussion ;)

Other than that, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you an Esperanzially good new WikiYear :D Thank you! --Cel e stianpower ^háblame 16:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Message delivered by Rune.welsh using AWB. If you wish to recieve no further messages of this ilk, please sign your name here.

Knowing "how to Wiki"[edit]

Hi Elf-friend, Sometimes I have to go back again and read carefully what was said, I see you said existing articles and not existing people for the List of South Africans. Did you see all the red links under South African Writers? See Paul Roos where someone has reverted. I now know about three persons with the name Paul Roos. What does it mean to "know how to Wiki" Regards, Greg Gregorydavid 08:50, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

giving the benefit of doubt[edit]

I suppose being able to Wiki is almost like letting a kid play with matches, one never knows what they may get up to. Then it may be like being able to build beautiful sandcastles on the beach.. only to be wrecked or modified when one turns ones back..

Having enough time to Wiki is a key factor..

Then for others it might be like the difference between rugby and football, mate..

Regards, Greg Gregorydavid 09:06, 31 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you[edit]

For your kind support of my Rfa, which passed. If you should ever have any complaints about my admin actions, please let me know. Also, should you ever need my help with anything, please do not hesitate to ask! Thanks again! All the best Banez 17:06, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. Looking foward to your rfa?