User talk:Michael T. Richter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hello there, welcome to the 'pedia! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. If you need pointers on how we title pages visit Wikipedia:Naming conventions or how to format them visit our manual of style. If you have any other questions about the project then check out Wikipedia:Help or add a question to the Village pump. Cheers! --maveric149
I've been a reader of this site for about a year now, so I think I'm definitely here to stay. :-) -- Michael
With regards to your quest for feedback on the village pump, in some respects I think "no news is good news" - AFAICT, your contributions are good work.
Perhaps one of the reasons why your work isn't receiving much feedback is the topics you're concentrating on - perhaps China isn't an area that too many other Wikipedians are expert on, and so they're happy to leave well enough alone. --Robert Merkel 02:15 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- Thanks for the kind words, Robert. I was sort of hoping that "no news was good news" but needed to be sure. I wasn't asking for compliments, though, to prop up a fragile ego. ;-) I just wanted to make sure that my style of writing, organisation, etc. were all up to scratch for the Wikipedia, and I know that the subjects I write on are obscure enough that there won't be a lot of readers and even fewer knowledgable ones. I'm looking to improve my contributions, however, so some kind of feedback was necessary.
- Do you have any criticisms to levy? Style issues? Places where I'm using more POV-oriented wording whose NPOV levels could be improved? --MTR (严加华) 02:43 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)
-
- Just skimming your (pretty good, though obviously incomplete) article on porcelain, I did have a few comments. Maybe these are indicative of things to look for in other parts of your writing:
- A little better synthesis between the "Chinese porcelain" and "European" sections would be good. I gather from reading the article that porcelain first appeared in China, but it's not clear whether it was invented independently in Europe or the techniques were directly copied.
- A lot of people, including myself, are ignorant of Chinese history, and so when you mention various dynasties that doesn't give us much indication of the timescale. I could follow the wiki links, but in this case I think the really relevant information (the time period) could be added directly to the article.
- When you say that the "Sui and Tang dynasties introduced..." it implies to me that the emperors had something to do with it. Maybe "Sui and Tang dynasties saw the introduction of", or something similar, would be more appropriate.
- "The Europeans used a soft paste..." sounds jarring. Maybe it should be "European potters used a soft paste...". I realise that such ethnic references, particularly to "less developed" cultures, in much European writing, but to me it sounds patronising.
Hope these help. --Robert Merkel 05:55 25 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- It helps a lot, although I can't do much on the European porcelain side (that material wasn't my own). Thanks for the feedback.
Some changes were made today to the Indus Valley civilization article that look to me as if they are POV. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about the current state of research on this topic & since your version appears to be the last one that was balanced, could you take a look & see if these changes were reasonable? (And I hope I'm not starting another edit war.) -- llywrch 23:56, 29 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- I'm on the job. I'm not really up-to-date on current research, but I am very good at spotting obvious POV editing like the deletion of possibly embarrassing links.
Thanks. I should have restored that link myself since it was a clear give-away. -- llywrch 05:31, 30 Jul 2003 (UTC)
Hi and welcome to visit my user page --Vipuser 04:00, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Contents |
[edit] Porcelain
Michael -- working a little on the Pottery/Porcelain page you started, along with work I'm doing on the whole pottery tree. I have a note on the discussion page about expanding and redefining this article. I've been a potter for over 25 years and have worked a little with porcelain. Also have a background in history -- but no Chinese. Maybe we can refine this together. Please look my note over and give me any ideas. Thanks. -W. (currently an anon.)
- Hi again. The Porcelain page is receiving a little more attention again. I've started playing with the clay/technique side and "Nick" is providing historical information. If you would like to stop by and read a little, your contribution would be valuable. Hope to see you on the "talk" page. WBardwin 03:10, 11 November 2005 (UTC) formerly -W.
[edit] User Categorization
You were listed on the Wikipedia:Wikipedians/China page as living in or being associated with Jiangxi. As part of the Wikipedia:User categorisation project, these lists are being replaced with user categories. If you would like to add yourself to the category that is replacing the page, please visit Category:Wikipedians in Jiangxi for instructions. Rmky87 16:31, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
- I'm no longer in Jiangxi, I'm in Hubei. And there doesn't seem to be a "Wikipedians in Hubei" category.
- Um, yes there is.→ Category:Wikipedians in Hubei On with the notice:
You were listed on the Wikipedia:Wikipedians/Canada page as living in or being associated with Canada. As part of the Wikipedia:User categorisation project, these lists are being replaced with user categories. If you would like to add yourself to the category that is replacing the page, please visit Category:Canadian Wikipedian Expatriates for instructions.--Rmky87 01:09, 12 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] 元/yuan/dollar
The word "yuan", like any Chinese word, has multiple meanings. The word "元" was not created for the meaning of dollar, it was just adopted for that purpose.
After the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese have been using a dual currency system. For large amounts, the unit was silver tales (銀兩). The Chinese did not have the habit of minting gold or silver into coins like the Europeans. The silver was rather minted into bars and were always measured by weight. 兩 means tale is a weight unit. While the currency for smaller trades was copper coins minted by the royal government, and the unit was by enumeration rather than weight. But one single copper coin is counted as one chin "錢"。 "圓" was NOT the unit for counting the indigenous coins minted locally by the Chinesea. At the same time, trades with the foreign nations was carried out with Spanish dollars, silver coins which were called 銀圓 。
The use of 元 or 圓 as a unit of currency in China did not happen until 1866, when the Hong Kong government at that time minted silver coins carrying the same amount of silver as the Spanish dollars and called them "Hong Kong One Dollar" 香港壹圓. It was also the first time when the word "圓" or "元" was used as unit of currency. And this "yuan" means exactly "dollar". In China, the first basic national currency adopted in 1914 was a silver coin equivalent to a Spanish dollar, and that was also called "壹圓" or "one yuan".
I think the original article had it correct. There's more history on the word 圓 and currencies in China than you are aware of. 24.205.90.226 23:38, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Wikimedia Canada
Hi there! I'd like to invite you to explore Wikimedia Canada, and create a list of people interested in forming a local chapter for our nation. A local chapter will help promote and improve the organization, within our great nation. We'd also like to encourage everyone to suggest projects for our national chapter to participate in. Hope to see you there!--DarkEvil 17:11, 20 January 2006 (UTC)
