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FAC in need of comments

Since you were the WP:GOCE reviewer at Emily Ratajkowski, I thought you might consider commenting at Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Emily Ratajkowski/archive1, which was opened on December 26 and has had no comments yet.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 13:59, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

Hi, stranger!

Good to see you're still taking a peek now and then, and I hope you're enjoying your wikibreak. All the best, Miniapolis 19:53, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Hiya Miniapolis, i hope all's well wth you; I hope you're keeping warm over there. I'm just catching up on the office gossip, i log in briefly every few days. That's an interesting article, it's great to see the Guild and WP getting some positive outside coverage. Hopefully it will bring more copy-editors to our door. I must admit i hadn't heard about the great hyphen war... it sounds bizarre. Take care, see you soon. ;-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:03, 21 February 2015 (UTC)

Kill the Irishman

Thank you for the edits you've made to the article Kill the Irishman. I greatly appreciate your help and I think that the edits you have made to the article are great!. Thank you and all the best. Metal121 (talk) 21:34, 5 April, 2015 (GMT).

No worries, good luck with your GA nom. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 13:11, 6 April 2015 (UTC)

Steve Zakuani

Thank you or looking at it and please be as tough as possible.Cptnono (talk) 05:33, 7 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks, I hope to make a decent job of it. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 19:42, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
Nice work. Kind of amazing how much better. Thanks!Cptnono (talk) 00:49, 8 April 2015 (UTC)
No worries; happy to help. Good luck with your FA nom. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:04, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

The article which you kindly offered to copyedit for me is now at GAN, and we're in the process of getting it all nice for promotion to Good Article. Since you were an integral part of it, I consider you my writing partner, and so wanted to show you how the review is progressing so far. Perhaps you have some thoughts? Talk:Carmen Sandiego's Great Chase Through Time/GA1. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Coin945 (talkcontribs) 13:50, 12 April 2015

Hi Coin, I'm glad you're still active on-wiki and are trying to get this article to GA standard. This goes back two-and-a-third years, so it's difficult for me to remeber all the threads of discussions. Thank heavens for archives; we discussed this article in December 2012, when I did a major copy-edit and clean-up. I can't find a relevant talk page discussion at the GOCE, thogh there's a quick post-c/e discussion in my talk archives.
After taking a very brief look at the article, I think it's much improved over the version I remember; it looks much more focussed and relevant to the subject. Well done for all the work you've put in; it's really getting there. However, I think the prose could certainly do with some tightening up, and assuming the article uses US English (I think it should), I spotted a few WP:ENGVAR issues and typos scattered around, and it's quite waffly in places. I'm not going to go through the article point-by-point because that would take forever. GA-standard prose isn't required to be perfect anyway, and I've seen worse GA's than this one.
I no longer take direct copy-edit requests, but feel free to add a request to the GOCE Requests page, bearing in mind the current three-month backlog. That said, I might dip into it and fix a few bits as time permits over the next few days. I'm actually working on another c/e at the moment. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 18:39, 12 April 2015 (UTC)
Thank you very much for your kind words. As this is my first GAC, I am really looking forward to seeing this article (one in a genre which WP:VG said was practically untouched - edutainment games) thrive, and I 100% know that it wouldn't have gotten anywhere near this quality without your help. So I just wanted to thank you. I wish you all the best with your other copyediting tasks, and perhaps we'll find ourselves working together on here some day. :)--Coin945 (talk) 09:36, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

GOCE thanks!

Thank you so much for your through copy editing of "Bill Cosby in advertising", it's a very pleasant surprise how extensive your copy editing was. I'm extremely appreciative of a fresh set of eyes going through the article, improving the readability. I've been messing around with the article for so long, lots of quirks have popped up, so it's good to have them nixed. -- Zanimum (talk) 21:30, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

No worries; and thanks for your comments. It's an interesting article to work on. Good luck with your FAC nomination. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:42, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
Thank you for copy-editing Selena, it was a big task to do and you came in and helped out. Thank you, jona(talk) 14:14, 15 April 2015 (UTC)
No probs Jona; good luck with your planned FA nom. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:11, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

Regarding this, I'm not sure what you want. Your concerns about WP:V and BLP violations are commendable, but we're the Guild of Copy Editors, not the Guild of Article Perfectors. People request copyedits from us; if that's not feasible due to other serious problems with an article I think it should be declined, not left hanging on the vine. What do you want to do with this one? Also, I think leaving {{not done}} tags around the requests page discourages other copyeditors from picking up an article; when I started, that tag wasn't used on WP:GOCE/REQ. All the best, Miniapolis 20:27, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I did poor work on those articles; please check the articles' histories for confirmation. I'll return them to the list. I thought 'not done' tag was useful to show others someone's tried to c/e the article; in this case it's a self-critique. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:46, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
 Done. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:48, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
(talk page stalker) If I do a bit of improvement work on a Request (I like to clean up references or do simple find-and-replace cleanup), I don't put any notes on the Requests page unless I see (and do not fix) something that a copy editor might not notice, like a torrid edit history or some relevant discussion on the article's Talk page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:31, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
Noted, thanks, at least i'll know for next time. Baffle gab1978 (talk) 22:42, 17 April 2015 (UTC)
No apology needed, Baffle; you never do poor work, and we're sure glad you're back. {{Partly done}} may convey a similar message without that big red X implying "bad article" :-). Jonesey, I agree that the less clutter on the requests page the better; hopefully, it'll be a bit shorter by the end of next week. I've vetted January 2014 for the backlog drive, and am plowing through February. All the best, Miniapolis 23:58, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

() Thanks and noted; I'll know better next time. I'm glad you've vetted the Blitz articles, it'll make copy-editing more focussed and enjoyable. I'm not sure whether I'll take part though, it depends on RL stuff, etc. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 04:56, 18 April 2015 (UTC)

Second Bulgarian Empire

Hello, Baffle gab1978! First of all, I would like to thank you for putting so much effort on the article. Your work is indeed a major improvement of the article because most importantly the text is now much more readable (not to mention the correction of grammatical and other errors). My only point of concern is regarding the American English orthography and date format - February 11, 1211 look very unnatural to me, and while most differences between AE and BE don't bother me, spelling -o- instead of -ou-, like honour, is quite odd. But this, of course, is only a personal opinion. Once again, I deeply appreciate your work - I submit an article in the Guild of Copy Editors for the first time and the quality leap is indeed remarkable. Best regards, --Gligan (talk) 16:53, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Hi Gligan, thanks for your note, and no worries. :-) It's obvious we're dealing with the work of multiple editors, who have left inconsistencies in the article text. As I began the c/e, I saw at first instances of American orthography, but as I worked down the article I started running into British spellings. Since the article's subject has strong links to neither country, I took the first variant, AmEng, as the dominant variant in use there. There's no note on the talk page and I'm not perpared to trawl the archive to discover the first historical variant.
The date format mm dd, yyyy. is the one most commonly used with AmEng, per WP:MOSNUM. All my changes are for the sake of consistency. For the same reason, I've been adding Oxford commas and changing 'ise' to 'ize'; both are permitted in BrEng (Oxford uses 'ize').
Like yourself I'm not too fussed about which English variety or date format is used, and as a Brit I prefer to see British spellings ('center', 'traveling' and 'honor' look odd to me too!).
It won't be difficult to change things back to BrEng; I can do that in Word. I'll leave it until the end of the c/e; I'll be taking out repeated wikilinks too. Meanwhile I'll put a note on the talk page asking if anyone objects to the change. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:07, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
A discussion is open on the talk page. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:40, 27 April 2015 (UTC)
Thank you very much for the response :-) I am sure that I actually have a significant share in the inconsistencies... I should have thought of placing the BrEng template in the article's talk page. From now on I will have this in mind which makes this discussion a very useful and positive experience for me. Best, --Gligan (talk) 17:02, 29 April 2015 (UTC)
No worries; it's a well-researched, interesting article and should pass a GAN easily. FA criteria are much more demanding and that's where consistency is more important. Good luck with your planned nomination; I'm glad the c/e has been positive. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:12, 29 April 2015 (UTC)

Thank you!

The Copyeditor's Barnstar
Baffle gab1978, it is with much appreciation and gratitude that I hereby award you The Copyeditor's Barnstar for your thorough and comprehensive copyedit of James Caudy. Thank you for your continued efforts in improving the quality of Wikipedia's articles. -- West Virginian (talk) 10:23, 2 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks; no worries ;-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 06:54, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Thank you for the copyedit. May I ask why you removed many of the non-breaking spaces? I was told by another editor that they were needed between numbers and the words that they count. Also, if you can think of anything that is lacking in the article, now that you have read it, please comment at Wikipedia:Peer review/Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge/archive1. BollyJeff | talk 01:45, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Hi Bollyjeff; I've just finished the c/e. I removed the nbsps because they're only needed where breaking the line will make the sentence difficult to follow. I can see a point for stopping dates breaking, but I've never found that necessary. I don't think they're necessary in something like "5,000 pies were stored in the warehouse", because we're expecting a noun or noun phrase to follow the number. Usually I add them in elided quotations because breaking an ellipsis can look confusing, but otherwise they just tend to clutter the code. I can't help with the PR really, I'm not an expert on FA film articles and my reviewing skills are lacking. Besides, many folk will have differeing opinions and I prefer not to wrestle with others. ;-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:23, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
There's a guideline about non-breaking spaces in the Manual of style here. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:35, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
Okay, well thank you so much; you did a great job! BollyJeff | talk 02:37, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
No worries; good luck with your planned FA nom. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:49, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks

All-American meal
For copy editing the article Christina Marie Williams I would like to present you this meal from In-N-Out Burger. May it fuel you continued copy editing of Wikipedia. RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 19:55, 17 May 2015 (UTC)

Thanks

Thank you very much for the copyedit of Timeline of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370!! AHeneen (talk) 06:27, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

No worries; good luck with your FLC nom. Cheers, 23:42, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

I had to add an additional section to this article in response to its FL nomination. Would you please copyedit the Disappearance (8 March 2014) section? It would be greatly appreciated. AHeneen (talk) 10:05, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

No worries, it's  Done. Good luck and cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:12, 21 May 2015 (UTC)
Thank you very much! AHeneen (talk) 22:56, 21 May 2015 (UTC)

Can you please copy-edit this article which i am trying to take to GA status? Reply within a reasonable period at your talk page. And, no talk back templates please, i am watching your talk page. Pavanjandhyala (talk) 06:23, 29 May 2015 (UTC)

A gentle reminder. :) Pavanjandhyala (talk) 02:59, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your work on this GOCE request. You pinpointed some issues that I had wondered about, as well as some things that I'd completely overlooked. Thanks again! EricEnfermero (Talk) 04:05, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

No worries; it's not required for GA status, but you might want to convert all references to one system; the {{cite web}} format appears to be the most commonly-used one in the article. I hope you get the article re-promoted to GA status. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 04:20, 27 May 2015 (UTC)

GOCE elections

I love your page notice :-). Would you be interested in standing for coordinator (lead would be great, but coordinator would be fine too)? We could really use your help; it's pretty much Jonesey and me, and I'm trying to encourage self-noms. All the best, Miniapolis 17:39, 29 May 2015 (UTC)

Hiya boss; I'll consider returning as a coordinator; it seems i do more around the place than at least one, invisible incumbent whom I hoped would have brought some much-needed administrator-based experience. Let's see if anyone else steps forward by 7th of June... I won't hold my breath... ;-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:05, 29 May 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, Baffle; I really appreciate it, since I've seen neither hide nor hair of Phil at the GOCE since the last election and Biblioworm is well-intentioned but busy. Keep encouraging those self-noms ... :-) All the best, Miniapolis 13:41, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
A few sentences on the next newsletter would be a good idea, and there's the Ombox to get the message out there... Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:57, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
Support and agree with all of the above. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:02, 1 June 2015 (UTC)
The thing is, i'll be a little busy IRL over the summer and autumn months, what with gardening and personal projects, but should have more time for WP over the winter (we're all temperate northern hemispereians here). And I've been trying to increase the percentage of my edits in article space. But an hour or so's work per day wouldn't kill me... Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 14:33, 1 June 2015 (UTC)
I encourage you stand for the position again. From what I can see, you did a very good job during your last term, and you would be a good lead coordinator. I likely won't be standing again this time, since Miniapolis is correct; I'd like to participate more, but I am rather busy, both on- and often off-wiki. I might try again this December, but that's not a guarantee, since I'm planning to work on some articles after I finish reading about the subjects. (By the way, your page notice gave me a good laugh. ;)) Regards, --Biblioworm 23:18, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

Response

Thanks for your note. I've responded on my talk page. -User:nwbeeson


User_talk:Nwbeeson#Completing_GOCE_copy-editing_requests

Help! How do I respond to a note, such as yours, so that you can one-click and get to my response? I read the documentation for the Response tag, and this is the best I can figure out.

Nick Beeson (talk) 12:02, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Hi Nick, just leave a message on your talk page, or leave one on mine (this page), and I'll see it. If in doubt, you can use place {{Talkback}} on my page to ensure I get the message. Just click the word "talkback" above and you'll see the template's documentation page. I have disabled the {{ping}} system in my account because I find it annoying. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:42, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

Colross

Baffle gab1978, thank you for taking the time to engage in a thorough copyedit of Colross. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns in the meantime. Your guidance is very appreciated! -- West Virginian (talk) 23:07, 3 June 2015 (UTC)

No worries; I'm wondering whether the first paragraph of the lead might be simplified but I don't want to remove important details. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:21, 3 June 2015 (UTC)
I prefer that the details remain in the lede, but since I am the one that requested the copyedit, I am definitely open to other alternatives and suggestions. Please feel free to make the corrections you see fit. Thank you tremendously for taking on this copyedit! You'll have to take a look at my GOCE request for Hebron Church (Intermont, West Virginia) since you've done a stellar job with Colross! Thanks again! -- West Virginian (talk) 00:29, 5 June 2015 (UTC)
No worries, and thanks; I'm not here to dictate the contents of the leader; I don't usually do that unless it's off-topic or drifting that way. I do somethimes rearrange things as I've done here. I'll have a look at the other one if/when it reaches the top of the requests page. I'll be going offline in a bit, just going to finish the current c/e. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:51, 5 June 2015 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar
Baffle gab1978, I hereby award you The Copyeditor's Barnstar for your exceptional copyedit of Colross. Thank you for continuing to improve the quality of Wikipedia, one article at a time! -- West Virginian (talk) 01:56, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi. I came to know that you are a GOCE member and hence am requesting you help me in this issue. I currently have two requests at the GOCE/REQ page. First one is Drushyam, which i am planning to take to GA status. The other one is Mayabazar which is currently being peer reviewd and is attempted for FA class. Because of my poor English skills, i wanted these two articles to be thoroughly copy-edited. Work on neither of them has been commenced. Meanwhile work on another GA attempt of mine, the 1955 Indian film Missamma, is completed and i want to get it thoroughly copy-edited before nominating it for GA class. GOCE notice states that one list up to two requests at any one time. Now that i want to get Missamma copy-edited, suggest me how to proceed further. Yours sincerely, Pavanjandhyala (talk) 16:11, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) If you want to list the third article, you can either wait until one of your articles has been copy edited, or remove one of the articles. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:52, 13 June 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Jonesey. :-) @Pavanjandhyala:, you can place the template {{copy edit}} at the top of the article to attract help from other editors, though you should remove this if you later list the article on the Requests page. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:20, 13 June 2015 (UTC)
I've added the copy edit template on the top of the article. Thanks for your valuable suggestion. :) Pavanjandhyala (talk) 06:04, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

Thanks

Hi there, Baffle gab1978. Thanks for taking your time and copyediting the article in question. Your work was great and much appreciated.--R8R (talk) 09:16, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

No worries; good luck with your FA nom. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:33, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

Malaysia–Vietnam relations

Thank you for the copy-edit! (: ~ Muffin Wizard ;) 01:39, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

No worries; good luck with your planned G.A. nom. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:42, 25 June 2015 (UTC)

Hi

Yes I guess I became too trigger-happy :) Lol.--BabbaQ (talk) 21:40, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

No probs, Babba ;-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 22:49, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

Midnight UMT

Midnight to you is only 20:00 EDST for me. This means Hakim Meysari is recognized in the progress chart of the new day we are in, even though I tagged it before the end of yesterday. Of course, this does not matter much now, but it will matter on 31 July 2015, as some of us may try to squeeze something into the July Blitz. Cheers!--DThomsen8 (talk) 01:06, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Hi DThomsen8, thanks for your message. The Drive progress chart is officially updated at 0:00 (midnight) UTC (GMT); exact times of updates can vary. Likewise, drives finish at 23:59 UTC, which is 19:59 EDST. I think its fine to update the chart within 30 minutes each way. Its true the final update is more time-critical, but an early update can always be amended if needed. Feel free to fix any inaccuracies you find in my updates; I often make mistakes and I'm happy for them to be corrected. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:01, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

Fall of Mosul

Hi, recently you copyedited Rajiv Gandhi which I requested. Can you please copyedit Fall of Mosul? It has only one problem that it uses different varieties of English. RRD13 দেবজ্যোতি (talk) 07:48, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

Hi Royroydeb; I don't accept direct c/e requests. It's on the GOCE Requests page, so I'll do it if / when it reaches the top before someone else accepts the request. Have you thought about fixing the WP:ENGVAR errors yourself? Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:49, 25 July 2015 (UTC)

Wolfmother

Thanks for your recent copy edits - much appreciated. Dan arndt (talk) 00:41, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

No worries; good luck with your planned FLC nom. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:49, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
I'd like to back Dan's comments: thank you very much.shaidar cuebiyar (talk) 04:16, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Kill the Irishman

Hi Baffle gab1978, I'm sorry for any problems I've caused regarding Kill the Irishman and the copy-edit requests I've made. I didn't mean to be rude when I asked for a third copy-edit request, but I understand how it can be seen as disrespectful. I only made the third request because of the information recently added to the article. I've now read through the article a number of times and made a lot of changes to the grammar. So I was wondering if you could remove the copy-edit request on behalf of myself?, as I wouldn't want to waste anyone's time. Thanks. -- Metal121 (talk) 19:55, July 31, 2015 (GMT).

Thanks, Metal, and I'm sorry i was a bit of an arsehole. I've put the request on hold for a whils as you were still working on it as of my timestamp on the Requests page; we do ask that articles are stable before a full c/e occurs. It's only a timewaste if the c/e quickly gets wiped out by further editing. I'm happy to leave the request there, and I'll take it off hold once it's stable again; if you still want it remove let me know and I'll be happy to do that. Sorry again for making a fuss. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 18:36, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Barnstar script

Hi, Baffle, and thanks again for a much-needed chuckle from that page notice. I've pinged Jonesey and Torchiest after spending all afternoon (with the help of my better half, who's a lot more conputer-savvy than I am) trying to run the barnstar script. It hung up twice and I could only revive it once; I'm sure there are fine points I'm missing, but I'm damned if I can find them. Have you gotten the script from Torchiest and if so, would you please run it? Giving out the barnstars is the easy part :-). All the best, Miniapolis 23:51, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi Miniapolis, I'm sorry I can't help there; I don't have a copy of the script. I can complete the table manually if we need to do that; it probably wouldn't take *too* long... (famous last words?) I'm thinking of selling the editnotice on E-bay... ;-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:29, 3 August 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, but no need for that (yet :-)). Before Torchiest wrote his script the table was done manually, so it's not the end of the world if we have to do it that way but let's give him and Jonesey a few more days. Thanks for the quick reply and all the best from pen-paper-and-calculator (if not abacus) Luddite Miniapolis 02:29, 3 August 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for starting the barnstars page, but Torchiest said he'll run the script ASAP and Jonesey said he'll have a go if he gets there first. All the best, Miniapolis 23:38, 3 August 2015 (UTC)
Ok, well I've added the names and raw totals; whoever runs the script can revert if necessary, or we can continue later if the script won't play ball. Meanwhile I'm wondering (but not offering - yet) whether it might be worth making a template to make setting up the table a little easier. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:06, 4 August 2015 (UTC)
Jonesey might be able to help with that. For me, the best thing about the script is that it does the extra-credit (old articles and requests) math; the rest is grunt work, but not brain-busting :-). All the best, Miniapolis 13:06, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Copyeditor's Barnstar
Thanks for your superb c/e of Good for You (song)! Abi-Maria (talk) 16:07, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

WP:GOCE/REQ hijinks

Thanks for this. IMO they're working too fast (being slow of wit myself :-)), but no complaints so far...All the best, Miniapolis 00:27, 6 August 2015 (UTC)

No worries; hopefully they'll focus their enthusiasm into copy-editing. I also popped a note on the talk page here. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:06, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

The Copyeditor's Barnstar
Thank you for your copy-edit on the 2010 Korean Grand Prix! Z105space (talk) 05:45, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Murder of Selena

Hello: I notice this article Murder of Selena has appeared again on the GOCE request list of articles for copy edit asking that grammar be checked. I finished a substantive copy edit of this article at the end of May and there has been virtually no change to the article since then. In my humble opinion the grammar as it stands is fine. Is there any "rule" about how many times an author can ask an article be copy edited? Another edit under these circumstances seems like a waste of time to me. Just curious. Kind regards. Twofingered Typist (talk) 20:37, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi TfT; there's no 'rule' about these things, and I noticed it was back in the list too. I haven't read through it (I'm busy closing the Blitz) but I just checked its history and I see someone's started copy-editing the article, though s/he might not be aware of the Guild or the Request page. The requester wants to take the article to FA, so he probably wants a final polish. FA reviewers are particularly picky, and of course we all have different ideas on 'correct' grammar, so please don't take it as a criticism of your copy-editing work here. There seems to have been some IP vandalism/edit-warring, so some subtle changes could have occurred. Finally, three months is a reasonable wait; look what happened when I questioned the return of an article after three weeks! Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 06:15, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
Yikes! Thanks for this Baffle gab. Cheers.Twofingered Typist (talk) 13:48, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Indian National Congress

I'm glad to see that you have taken on the copy editing of Indian National Congress. I've looked at your edits with interest. Your edits are so good it makes me feel like I didn't do a good job (about a week ago), but maybe it was because it was so bad before that I was just struggling to make sense of it. I was just wondering why you changed no-break space + en-dash to the ampersand-no-break space + the ampersand en-dash + ampersand # 32.

(a) What is the ampersand #32?

(b) What does that combination accomplish that the no-break space + endash does not?

(c) Of course if that combination accomplishes something important I would consider beginning to use it, but when looking at the revision history, it does make it a little harder to read the actual text.

Just curious. - Corinne (talk) 02:49, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

Hi Corinne; thanks for your comments; I'm sure you did a fine job and helped clarify the article as best you could. I think problems like POV text, waffle, puffery and generally poor grammar aren't always easy to spot. Usually, if something reads slightly awkwardly there's a reason (like divided subjects e.g; an inquest was opened into the road accident) and spotting them becomes habitual, and almost instinctual. You'll soon pick up the habit if you c/e enough Wikipedia articles! :-D
Thanks for asking about the codes; I've been substituting the template{{spaced ndash}}, which as you've seen gives &-nbsp;&-ndash;&-#32; (minus the hyphens to stop the code from hiding!); I'm not sure why this gives a different result to {{mdash}}, which I ususally subst to give "—". I might bother to fix that one day. I started using mdash here but then I realised the article uses spaced endashes consistently. ";&#32 is a normal space, as given by pressing the space bar, so there's no operational difference between the codes. It's probably a bit pointless, and it does make the text more difficult to read in the edit window, but some editors use hyphens or dashes incorrectly and inconsistently and it's just quicker to use the templates than to check the dash lengths. Mea culpa; I'm lazy! :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 04:01, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

True Detective (season 1)

Thank you very much for taking up the task of polishing the article! Apologies if I did not reply back as swiftly as you liked, but I am very grateful for your work and hopeful I'll have this article pass the FAC in no time. Cheers! DAP388 (talk) 21:25, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

No worries; good luck with your nomination. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:30, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

A big thank you for copy-editing this article, it's greatly appreciated. I wonder if you think it should be split into two articles, say 1908–80 and 1980–present? It's 96kb long, and will of course only get longer in time. Thanks, Mattythewhite (talk) 21:31, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Hi Matty, no worries, it's what I do. :-) I think a split might be worthwhile; it's quite a long article (over 8,000 words) and as you say it will only grow in time. I've no idea how you'd handle the split; you might like to see how other FA- or GA-quality football club histories are dealt with and take it from there, or seek a consensus on the article's talk page (you should probably do that anyway, there seem to be quite a few editors working there). Best of luck with it, and your planned FA nom. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:51, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

GOCE

I just saw that you copyedited John and Sarah Makin in September last year. Could you please add the GOCE tag to the articles talk page. Appreciated.--BabbaQ (talk) 22:24, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Ok, since it means so much to you. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 22:31, 21 September 2015 (UTC)
Oh, yeah. I will not be able to live on without it ;). Cheers.--BabbaQ (talk) 22:38, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

A cheeseburger for you!

Thanks for copy-editing Murder of Selena! I know the article was lengthy, but you did it, so here is a treat for you. Best, jona(talk) 14:57, 26 September 2015 (UTC)
No worries, AJona; it's an interesting read, good luck with your planned FA nom. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 19:25, 26 September 2015 (UTC)
Glad you enjoyed it and are still part of the GOCE family. All the best, jona(talk) 00:17, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

Hassan Hasanzadeh Amoli

I've just finished copy-editing the short article Hassan Hasanzadeh Amoli. I wonder if you could tell me how the titles in the list of works at the end of the article should be formatted. They are all translations from (I assume) Persian/Farsi. Should they be italicized? I read somewhere in MOS that if an English translation follows a foreign language title in the text, it should not be italicized nor be in quotation marks, but I don't know about translated titles in a list. Would it make sense for the writer of this article to include titles in the original language, followed by the translation, or is it better to have just the English translation? Also, I see two dates early in the article given in non-Western calendar years. Do you think the equivalent year in the Western calendar should be given for each of those? Corinne (talk) 02:18, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi @Corinne:, thanks for asking. I wouldn't normally italicise titles translated from foreign languages, whether or not they're in a list like these are. I think it would make sense to have the original titles listed, particularly because people interested in the subject are likely to understand some degree of Persian. As for the dates, yes I think the Western Common Era year should be included. Thank you for copy-editing the article; in this case I wouldn't worry because it's a very new article and the creator isn't sending it for GA or FA review. Copy-editing doesn't mean we have to fix every little problem with articles; there's only so much we can accomplish—although you're free to do as much as you wish, of course. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 06:05, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Lionel Luthor copyedit

Thank you for the copy edit. It was much appreciated. :D  BIGNOLE  (Contact me) 16:58, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

No worries, Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:36, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

Misspellings

Thanks again for your expert copy edit assistance at the Germanwings article! I am stopping by for two reasons: To thank you, as I truly am grateful for the objective viewpoint, and to let you know as an FYI that you left around ten misspelled words in that article that we had to correct. Cheers, Prhartcom (talk) 01:08, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Cadet Nurse Corps article c/e

Thanks!

Pendright (talk) 20:37, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Good one on Belgium NFT

Hi, great thanks for all your edits at Belgium national football team! The smoothening up of the sentences and the omission of many wikilinks and all those nicknames improved the readability, without any doubt. Soon I will add more of Miniapolis' work, and ask another experienced copyeditor (who is quite into football-related articles) to take a look. Keep up the good work, Kareldorado (talk) 19:15, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

No worries, happy to help. Good luck with your planned FA nom. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 19:37, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Thanks!

Just wanted to say thanks for looking over Adventure Time. Looks great!--Gen. Quon (Talk) 04:33, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

No worries; glad to help. Good luck with your planned FA nom. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:08, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

Although this was moved to WT:GOCE/REQ, it was never archived; any reason why? Also, IMO it's not necessary to move discussions from WP:GOCE/REQ to the talk page; we've never done it before, and I have enough trouble keeping up with archiving requests as it is :-). All the best, Miniapolis 23:39, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Oh? I usually move request discussions over REQ/Talk, and where there's a decline discusssion. I thought that was an established procedure which I've frequently done in the past; but I can stop doing it if you'd prefer. The lack of archiving is clearly my oversight which I shall fix - thanks for the heads-up. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:53, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
I archived the request here. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:03, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
Thanks; the reason I didn't see it was that the page name and requesting editor were transposed and I fixed that. Do what you like about moving discussions; we have no formal guideline, and as long as the stuff gets archived it's all good :-). Miniapolis 14:03, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Miniapolis; I was probably quite tired when I archived the request but I should have spotted the reversal! :-) Thanks for the fix. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:06, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

Raúl Alfonsín

Baffle gab1978, I've just finished my first run-through copy-editing Raúl Alfonsín. Then I noticed that another editor had made a few edits in between mine, including this one: [1]. I know that what is written in WP articles must reflect what the sources say, not "what everyone knows". Would you mind checking the source to see what is written there? Some of the other changes are all right, but I'm now looking at the labor secretary appointment one. I want to be sure it didn't introduce an error. I also see British and American English spellings and date formats throughout the article. I've got to figure out which style was there first and then make the necessary changes for consistency. Can you help me determine that? Corinne (talk) 01:57, 31 October 2015 (UTC) I was right. It had introduced at least two errors. I fixed it. Corinne (talk) 02:02, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Hi Corrine; I tried to check the source by Google Books wouldn't allow me access, I'm sorry. Yes the article should reflect the source, and not what "everybody in Argentina knows"; if the source isn't accessible we have to take things on trust. With date formats and WP:ENGVAR issues, it's generally accepted that unless there's a major reason to do so, you should follow the English variety of the first version of the article. The subject is an Argentinian-born person with no apparent links to any English-speaking nation. The first variant is British or Commonwealth English ("labour") used here. "Labour" was still there as the only differentiated spelling in December 2006 here, so I'd say go with British /Commonwealth English unless there's consensus (no talk page discussion seems to have occurred) to do otherwise. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:33, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
O.K. I don't know what you mean by "we have to take things on trust". Should the version that was there when I started editing remain there, or do we accept the change made by the editor who wrote, "Everybody in Argentina knows"? Corinne (talk) 02:39, 31 October 2015 (UTC) (I'm referring to that specific edit regarding the use or non-use of the word "unconditional".) Corinne (talk) 02:40, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
I think in that instance, where I couldn't check the given source, I'd assume the good faith of editor who changed the text; his talk page doesn't indicate any reason to doubt the accuracy of his edits. I know that sounds dismissive but we can't fix everything. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:55, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
I have updated the date formats and as many spellings as I could find. (Is there a template one can use to check honor/honour, organize/organise, etc., to save time?) I wanted to know whether I should change the date format in some of the notes at the end of the article, particularly in the notes numbered in the 60s and 70s. Corinne (talk) 12:55, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
You could use your browser's search function (CTRL+F on Windows; I don't know about Mac or Linux); search for "or" or a target word. Of course that takes far longer with AmEng spellings than BrEng! There's a conversion script at [[2]], which you can install by editing your page but please note the limitations etc. If you wish to fix the dates feel free, but since the request doesn't specify it's heading for FA, GA or A-Class review it's not mandatory (well nothing is mandatory anyway, per WP:VOLUNTEER! :-) ) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:32, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

The Fourteen Infallibles

Thanks for copy editing this article. You're doing very well. By the way, I would like to comment on one of your edit histories, "... These people didn't have much luck avoiding poison, did they? :-/)." In fact that was not the matter of luck or chance, and we'd better say that their enemies (rulers of their times) were cruel and at the same time they knew how people like their Imams. So, they used to do that by asking their agents to perform the poisoning. Some of them were poisoned by their wives!!! Mhhossein (talk) 04:48, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

I thought it might have been politically-motivated; thanks for the interesting info. I don't think I'd want to upset those Caliphs either. :-) Good luck with your FL nomination. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:04, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
Do you think the article is ready for nomination now? Btw, biographies of those characters are full of ethical, social, political and etc lessons. Anyway, thank you again for copy editings. Mhhossein (talk) 04:36, 1 November 2015 (UTC)
No worries; I'm not an FL reviewer so I can't comment on its suitability for FL status, but the reference problems I mentioned earlier are fixed and I can't see anything obviously wrong with the list or the prose, so it's probably worth another go. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 19:21, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

Grand Duchy of Baden

Baffle gab, I'm in the middle of copy-editing Grand Duchy of Baden. I figured out by looking at the first stub that British English should be used, so I've made dates and spelling consistent. In the section Grand Duchy of Baden#Population, I see square miles are given first in the conversion template, and square kilometres are given second. In the section Grand Duchy of Baden#Geography, square kilometres are given first and square miles second. Shall I put square kilometres first and square miles second, or vice versa? What do the British use? Corinne (talk) 22:15, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Also, should the section Grand Duchy of Baden#Industries be "Industry"?

If you're interested, see the questions I posted on the article's talk page. Corinne (talk) 23:11, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

P.S. I've never seen birth and death dates formatted the way they are in Grand Duchy of Baden#Grand Dukes of Baden. Is that correct? Corinne (talk) 23:13, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi Corinne, the UK officially uses mostly metric measures, but miles are used in in road distances. I'm not sure what the official unit of area in the UK is. Germany, which occupies the former territory of Baden, is fully metric so I would standardise the article using square kilometres and convert to square miles or acres if appropriate. The birth and death dates are incorrectly marked; they should be styled "1806–1811: Charles Frederick (1728–1811)", per WP:MOSNUM. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:12, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Killing of Margaret Martin

Baffle gab, I just finished copy-editing Killing of Margaret Martin. I wanted to ask your opinion about an edit I made. In the last paragraph of the section Killing of Margaret Martin#Initial investigations, is the following sentence:

  • Two men who had attempted to attack a 16-year-old girl from Hanover Township, Luzerne County, were also questioned.

You'll see in the revision history that I changed "investigated" to "questioned". I did that to avoid having "investigated" and "investigators" in close proximity ("investigators" is at the beginning of the next sentence). I figured that, while they may have looked into things a little more, they definitely must have questioned the two men. Do you think "questioned" is close enough in meaning to "investigated" that the substitution does not make the sentence inaccurate? (I didn't bother to read the article in the source.) Corinne (talk) 02:27, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

P.S. Why don't you have a user page? Corinne (talk) 02:29, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

I think you should have left the word 'investigated' in the sentence. 'Questioned' and 'investigated' have different meanings; someone can be investigated without being directly questioned. The source says: "Another report turned state police attention to Philadelphia as Major William A. Clark, directing the investigation, disclosed he was checking on two men he said lured a 16-year-old Hanover township girl to a hotel room and attempted to attack her." source. If in doubt, always check sources if possible.
I used to maintain a userpage but I can't be bothered anymore; anything vital (and a little humour) can be said above this one, and in the page notice. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:43, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
O.K. Thanks. Corinne (talk) 02:57, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

WCW International

Thank you very much for the copy-edit. If you don't mind giving a drop of feedback, I just wanted to ask if you found the text easy enough to understand without relying too much on jargon, and if it seemed to adequately skirt the line of acknowledging what is scripted without being too condescending. (I'm making the assumption you're a lay reader in the field, grab a headlock and call the finish if you're not). Thanks again for your time. GRAPPLE X 23:54, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi Grapple X, no worries. I found the article fairly easy to read and not too jargon-filled; once I'd checked what the terms mean I found it a lot easier. The wikilinks make things easy to check if a reader is unsure. I've done lots of technical and specialist articles and it's expected that readers will have some knowledge of that specialism. So I think this has about the right balance. I didn't find it condescending either. You're correct that I'm not a wrestling fan. Good luck with your planned FL nom. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:12, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Requests page

Just wanted to let you know I do not feel inclined to accept any more articles for copy-editing from the requesting editor on Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman. See Talk:Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman/Archive 1#Chief, or chiefess. Corinne (talk) 16:11, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Corinne, thanks for your copious copy edits over the past few months.
As for the article, editor, and discussion in question, if you do not feel that you can get along with a particular editor, the best choice is to stay away if possible, so I support your decision. There are five million other articles to work on. Nobody forces you to do anything. All of that said, I read the talk page linked, and it looked like a productive discussion with a clear resolution. I learned a new word. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:50, 13 November 2015 (UTC)
Hi Corrine; having encountered ownership behavour myself (which this isn't) I understand your decision. I agree with Jonesey's comments above, and there are always plenty more requests to choose from. Don't allow a small thing like word choice get you down though. If the choice between 'chief' and 'chiefess' is the only issue, I'd let it go and move on; imo something that minor isn't worth getting upset about. I'd be more concerned if your efforts were reverted wholesale and without consideration. Thanks for your copy-editing work, you do a great job and it's most appreciated. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 21:53, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Accessibility work

Yeoman's task
A hearty breakfast for the brave soul tackling a massive clean up project to make List of Tamil films of 2009 more Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility! -- TRPoD aka The Red Pen of Doom 00:43, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

João Sousa

I would like to thank you for the time and effort you put in the last couple of days on João Sousa's article. It was a joy following your work and seeing the final result. The Guild has found a new fan :) Best regards, SOAD KoRn (talk) 03:06, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

PS: I have one doubt here. What is the purpose of using "blockquote" feature in an article? I never saw it before. SOAD KoRn (talk) 03:06, 17 November 2015 (UTC)
No worries; the blockquote tags were my error; I was using a different browser to my usual one, and I accidentally hit a button at the top of the edit window. I've removed the tags; thanks for spotting them. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 03:17, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Murder of Helen McCourt

I just finished copy-editing the article Murder of Helen McCourt. Of course, I focused mainly on the text. When I went back to the original requests at WP:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Requests, I saw BabbaQ's statement that the article needed improvement in its structure. I looked at the article again and saw that it basically has only two sections: a short lead and Overview. I suppose "Overview" should be broken up, but I'm not exactly sure how. Perhaps "DNA evidence" could be one sub-heading because this was the first time DNA evidence had been used to convict someone of murder in England; perhaps "Family efforts". Can I leave the formation of additional sections to you, or would you rather I work on it? If you will do this, can I still put the "Done" template at the Requests page? Corinne (talk) 15:57, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi Corinne; After a brief look at the article, I think sections could be 'Background', 'Evidence', 'Trial' and 'Aftermath', as I've seen in other 'Murder of...' articles. Some text might need juggling around to place it in the correct section. You can place 'Done' if you feel the requested c/e is completed, otherwise feel fee to continue if you wish. I'm currently copy-editing another, quite lengthy article (tennis player = yawn!) but I should be finished with that by tomorrow (16th), after which I'll be happy to restructure the article if you don't want to continue. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 19:14, 16 November 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'd like to try. It will be good experience. I may not get to it until tomorrow, though. Hope that's all right. Corinne (talk) 19:22, 16 November 2015 (UTC)
No problems, and thanks. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 19:23, 16 November 2015 (UTC)
I've added the new section headings and moved a few sentences. What do you think of it now? I moved two sentences that were at the beginning of the "Aftermath" section to the end of the "Trial" section. The first sentence gives the verdict of the trial, and the second sentence is about his never telling the location of the body, which is the reason why his appeals have always been denied. I thought the sentences kind of belonged together, and were better at the end of the Trial section than the beginning of the Aftermath section. What do you think? I'm going to add the "Done" template now at the Requests page. Corinne (talk) 00:47, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
I think you've sectioned the article nicely Corinne, it looks a lot better and easier to read now. You've done a fine job with the article, thank you. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:13, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
Thank you, Baffle gab1978. On another issue, I just left a comment and question at User talk:Jonesey95#Sonam Kapoor. I didn't know whether to leave them for you or for Jonesey. The sooner I get a reply, the sooner I can start work on another article. I can't accept another assignment until I write "Done" at the Sonam Kapoor request. Corinne (talk) 01:24, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
I've replied there; this is one reason we archive requests. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:57, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Michael Lauke

At the request of another editor, I am copy-editing the article on Michael Laucke. I've gotten down to the section on Michael Lauke#Style and influences. I wonder if you would mind taking a look at that section. (I haven't made any edits yet in that section.) Do you see the two block quotes? Do you see right after each paragraph the phrase "English translation"? I'd like to know

(a) if that phrase needs to be there,

(b) if so, does it need to be there twice?, and

(c) is the phrase in the right place? Corinne (talk) 02:51, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

I think the phrase might be better hidden as a note as part of the references; it anyone wants to check they'll find it in the refs section. If they're from a single ref just add it once. The first blockquote could be integrated into text since there are fewer than 40 words. I see there's a lot of puffery and waffle in the article, it looks like a lot of work. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 03:10, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Jumping Flash

Thank you for your copyedit on Jumping Flash!. I was going to send you a barnstar but I know you don't like receiving them, so I think a brief 'thanks' is in order! I'll send it to FAC soon. Regards JAGUAR  22:32, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

No worries; thanks for the non-barnstar. :-) Good luck with your planned FA nom. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:30, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Tagging

I just removed two "Copy-edit needed" tags, one from History of Baden-Württemberg and the other from Grand Duchy of Baden. These are two articles I had thoroughly copy-edited in the last two weeks. However, I had forgotten to put the GOCE template on the talk page of each, so I added those. However, I wonder about the coincidence of those tags being placed on the same day. On the History of Baden-Württemberg article, the editor who had placed the tag also changed the size of an image, so I left a note about that on the talk page of User talk:Bender235#History of Baden-Württemberg, an editor who I saw had made some edits to the article. Corinne (talk) 01:20, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

That's weird, perhaps you have a stalker. The tags were added here by Caresider and here by Platine Croaker, both of which are the first edits from these accounts. That's a bit suspicious having two new accounts doing the same action nine minutes apart, but there's always a chance of a monkey-typewriter coincidence, but it might be worthwhile keeping an eye open in case there needs to be a Sockpuppet report made. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:57, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
Weird indeed. Similar edits happened at Duchy of Luxemburg and County of Luxemburg, both edits by new accounts with only one edit. It seems reasonable to assume that the edits have a single origin. Strange. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:46, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
And another one today: History of Luxembourg. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:30, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
(edit conflict) Do you think an SPI is needed Jonesey? I think four accounts is beyond coincidence, though it could be a class of school pupils etc. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:42, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
I wouldn't bother. I don't see any harm being done. If the articles don't need copy-editing, we can just remove the tags. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:55, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Belgium NFT nomination for FA

Hi, I wanted to inform you I just nominated Belgium national football team as featured article candidate; this probably would not have been the case yet without the prose improvements you provided. You can follow the review process here, leave comments whenever you like. Regards, Kareldorado (talk) 11:18, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the notification and invitation to comment, but I prefer not to comment on reviews for artices I've copy-edited. Good luck woth the review process, I hope it goes smoothly for you. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:27, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
Indeed, better not. The purpose was mainly to indicate your work pulled the article enough forward. Cheers, Kareldorado (talk) 20:58, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

I feel very happy to inform that Pelli Chesi Choodu, an article you copy-edited upon a request at WP:GOCE/REQ, has become a GA today. Considering your preferences, i 'thank' you for the c/e. Happy editing! Pavanjandhyala (talk) 16:22, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know, and congratulations. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 22:53, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

GOCE Archived Request

Thanks for that Baffles. I was just about to do it myself, but you beat me to it. Got called away yesterday before I could archive the request. Thanks again; Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 00:44, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Battle of Jajau

I just saw Battle of Jajau as a request at Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Requests, and it looked familiar. I remembered copy-editing the article fairly recently. I looked at the talk page Talk:Battle of Jajau and saw that I had completed a copy-edit on November 10, 2015. I also saw that there have been only a few edits to the article after that. I'm wondering why another request was placed. Corinne (talk) 19:44, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) It's usually best to ask the editor who placed the request.
I have copy-edited the article. Another pair of eyes often helps. Feel free to check the article for any typos I may have left behind. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:23, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Dewani

Yes, sadly the edit warring and plenty of editings has started all over again after my nomination. Do your best. But I support your decision whatever it is. Regards,--BabbaQ (talk) 21:22, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks BabbaQ, I'm at least glad it's semi-protected so there'll be no IPs popping in. Hopefully the c/e will go on without problems. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:05, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Bhale Bhale Magadivoy

I just finished copy-editing Bhale Bhale Magadivoy. I tried to add the GOCE template to the article's talk page at Talk:Bhale Bhale Magadivoy, but when I clicked on "Preview" I saw that the template was not only slightly indented from the left margin but had a "bullet" to the left. This happened whether I added it after the other template that is there or within the final double curly brackets of the other template. I had never seen that happen with any other article, but this may be the first "Start" class article that I've copy-edited. I didn't save the edit because I didn't want it to come out looking wrong. What shall I do? Corinne (talk) 23:50, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Are you adding the copy/paste example from the template's documentation? That always works perfectly for me. I tried it on that talk page, and it looks fine in Preview. – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:25, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Jonesey; Corinne I don't know why that would happen, but indents are usually done with colons (as with discussion threading) and bullets are done with asterisks. Wikicode can do odd things if it's not done correctly, template-nesting etc. I've added the template to the talk page for you Corinne, if you do further work you can adjust the date and version link as required. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:31, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, Jonesey95. I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean by "adding the copy/paste example from the template's documentation". I just copy and paste the template Baffle gab1978 gave me a while ago. It's near the top of my talk page, at the right. It worked on every other talk page I've added it to. I'll take a look at it now and see if it looks different from what I was trying to add. I have a few questions about the Meredith Kercher article, for either or both of you, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. It's late, and I'm tired now. Corinne (talk) 04:00, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
I just looked at the template (in edit mode) on the talk page of the Bhale Bhale article, and it doesn't look the same as what I usually add. Why is there an external link in the middle of it? Corinne (talk) 04:02, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
I don't know what you did, but you should be copying and pasting this:
{{GOCE|user={{subst:REVISIONUSER}}|date={{subst:date}}}}
Just that, with nothing else, on a line all by itself, should work. – Jonesey95 (talk) 04:17, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

() Corinne, the external link was a link to the version of the page at the finish of your copy-edit. I add these so users can check the c/e'd version easily. I was just trying to be helpful. Baffle gab1978 (talk) 05:12, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

That's what I was trying to copy and paste, but it was ending up with an indent and a bullet at the left margin. Baffle gab1978, thank you. I had not looked at what the link led to (I guess I should have). It's just that I had never seen an external link in a GOCE template before. That's fine, and thank you for doing that. Corinne (talk) 16:21, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

Mayabazar

I was just looking at the latest edit to Talk:Mayabazar when I realized that I had copyedited this article a few weeks ago. I didn't see my GOCE template on the talk page, so I guess I forgot to add it. Does it make any sense to add it now? I see a hidden GOCE notice there. Most of my edits were done here: [3], with a few isolated edits in the subsequent weeks. Corinne (talk) 16:18, 3 December 2015 (UTC)

No worries; yes, you can replace the extant template code with the following (remove the nowiki tags if copying from the edit window, otherwise it won't work!):
{{GOCE|user=Corinne|date=17:28, 4 November 2015 (UTC) |old-user-1=Miniapolis|old-date-1=04:38, 7 July 2015 (UTC)}}

You don't have to link old versions directly btw, I just do it to save editors trawling through the history! Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:43, 3 December 2015 (UTC).

Thanks! Corinne (talk) 04:05, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Murder of Meredith Kercher

I've finished copyediting Murder of Meredith Kercher. I have a question about just one sentence. It's this sentence, which appears in the section Murder of Meredith Kercher#Alarm raised:

  • Subsequently, the Polizia Postale arrived, having already traced two mobile phones found in a garden near to Via della Pergola 7.

There's something wrong with this sentence. It's definitely not clear. Did the police trace the two phones to residents of Via della Pergola 7? Or is the sentence not saying to what address the phones were traced, and just saying that the garden was near Via della Pergola 7? I read in another section that those mobile phones belonged to Meredith Kercher, so perhaps they did trace the phones to Kercher's address. Which one do you think it should be --

A. Subsequently, the Polizia Postale arrived, having already traced two mobile phones found in a nearby garden to Via della Pergola 7. [ = traced the phones to that address]

B. Subsequently, the Polizia Postale arrived, having already traced two mobile phones that had been found in a garden located near Via della Pergola 7. [ = the garden was near that address]

If the second version is correct, it's a little odd to say the police traced the phones but not say to whom or to what address the phones were traced. I think it should probably be Version A., but I thought I'd ask you.

- Corinne (talk) 04:13, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi Corinne, technically and gramatically, either example could be correct, but the meaning is different. In A, the phones are traced to the address, whereas in B, the phones have been traced (to where?) and were found in a garden near the address. In cases like these, check and see what the source says. If it's an Italian source, don't rely on a machine translation for accuracy; either find a source in English or mark the text with {{clarify}}, and either add your concerns in hidden text or post on the article's talk page, or maybe ask the requester. And it it's unsourced, either remove it or add {{citation needed}} after the sentence.
Thank you for the advice on what to do about it. I thought I had made it clear that I knew what meaning each version conveyed, but thank you anyway. Corinne (talk) 16:37, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
I've just finished Murder of Anni Dewani and I checked lots of sources, ony to find they didn't say what the article says. In these cases add {{Not in source}} before the citation. Remember that in most of these cases, people who were accused or involved are still alive, so we must be very careful to attribute material to sources, per WP:BLP. It slows down the c/e for sure, but there's no hurry and no deadline. I'm glad you've picked the text out though, it shows how important it is to be accurate. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 05:20, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

For my benefit

2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Baffle gab1978 (talk) 05:44, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
Nope, those are red-herrings Baffles. Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 05:54, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
As the header says, these links are for me. Stay tuned and watch as they turn blue. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 06:01, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

John Philip Newell

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.


Baffle gab1978, I was just reading the article on John Philip Newell, and I made a few copy-edits as I went along. I formatted three quotes as block quotes. The fourth one, with each line indented, I didn't know what to do with. I also noticed that in the section John Philip Newell#Published works, the titles are formatted as external links. I didn't know if that was appropriate or not. If you have time, could you take a look at these things? Thank you. Corinne (talk) 04:42, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

a) The fourth quotation is a prayer poem, so use {{poem}} template (done). ;b) Yes it's inappropriate to use ELs outside the EL section; these should be formatted as references using <ref></ref> tags, per ponit 2 of WP:EL. I'm going offline in a bit and I'm not going to fix the article unless it comes up on the Requests page; life's too short and icba. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 05:41, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
What's "icba"? Enjoy your mini-wiki-break. Corinne (talk) 16:33, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
"I can't be arsed, or some other similarly used "a"- word, is my guess Corinne. Have a good break Baffles; Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 22:19, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
Drcrazy Thank you! I get the general idea of the expression, but it is one I have not heard before. Americans would say, "I can't be bothered". Corinne (talk) 00:35, 5 December 2015 (UTC)
So would I if I'm being formal or polite; "I can't be fagged" (icbf) is another variant. I'm not on a wiki-break, I just like to sleep sometimes. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 23:17, 6 December 2015 (UTC)
Eh, I usually use the ICBF as well, but with a different word. Oh yeah, I checked out the Sleep article; Why would you do that to yourself? Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 05:53, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
I think your version of icbf means something very different to mine, DrCrazy. Sleep, oh yeh, that biological function is so unnecessary these days... :-D Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 06:09, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
Ouch! I'd find a proper {{Trout}} but ICBA, LMAO though, that difference between Aussies and everyone else's use of words. Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 06:38, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
We don't use any of those variations of "I can't be --". They're all new to me. What's "LMAO"? Corinne (talk) 15:14, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
That's why you love wikipedia, Corinne, you learn all about exotic cultures in foreign parts. :-D LMAO = Laughing my arse/ass off. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:08, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
(I can't be stuffed to put in that many colons); Now I'm thinking of Corinne as Muriel or Evelyn from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Oh boy, I know this probably violates some aspect of WP:ELNO but [www.urbandictionary.com/ Urban Dictionary.com] may be helpful for many of the internet slang words/phrases. Drcrazy102 (talk) 2:17, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
I'm saying nothing here, DrCrazy, except there's no need to dupe the section and don't forget those four tildes next time... ;-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:46, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
Sorry about that, was fiddling with my settings and I copied the text in case I closed the tab ... didn't realise I copied all the text. BTW, what in the seven pits of Hell is behind the "Bing Bong" box at the top of your page? I looked at it by accident, and it looked back. Fixed the tildes. Sorry; Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 03:00, 8 December 2015 (UTC) (I didn't forget this time)
Thanks for fixing; no worries. :-) The 'bing bong' box is just to make you wonder what in the seven pits of hell is behind it. Behind it is me, Baffle gab1978, staring back at you from halfway across the globe. I'm glad you appreciate the subtlety of my humour; I've been here a long time and I needed something to amuse myself. Je suis désolé. :-D Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 03:23, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
Baffle gab1978, I like the way you indent with four colons following a section indented with two; almost looks as if you are trying to make Drcrazy102 have to indent with a lot of colons. Re your user page, now that it's been brought up, I have to say that it looks weird. It looks kind of unfriendly, which doesn't match your personality. Corinne (talk) 16:47, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
Oh come on Corinne, what's a colon or two between friends? :-D Indentations fixed. I think my talk page is quite succinct and to-the-point with a little self-deprecating humour thrown in... there's no pleasing some folk is there? :-D Actually that icon the best/daftest one I could find on Commons without looking too much. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 20:13, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
(Whew, getting a work out with those colons ) {{subst:The Barnstar of Good Humor|message= For such humourous self-deprecation that "there's no pleasing some folks" anymore|alt}} - I couldn't help myself, so I compromised and only gave you the bare bones of a barnstar.
Definitely more succinct than my own talk page headers, and my edit notice. Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 05:17, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

() Christ on a bike DrCrazy, your edit notice requires me to scroll down three screens before reaching the edit window, and all the text is shuffled to the extreme right of my screen, and that's before we reach a full-screen image of a dog in some hydrangeas! There's surely an error in the formatting code somewhere... you wouldn't purposely do that to my eyeballs, would you? (Seriously you should fix that, lest you be accused by less-tolerant parties as being deliberately disruptive). Egads and suchlike things. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 06:59, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

*Writes down "Christ on a bike" for future use* (cough) What?!? I just did an update to some of the code, for random, sophisticated but (mostly) civil insulting names, but the notice shouldn't be more than a screen's length long! Unless you're on a mobile device, which is gonna suck serious gobsmackers since I used a "Wikitable" code to format the notice. I'll check it now, but that is very odd. Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 07:10, 9 December 2015 (UTC); update; Seems good to me Baffle gab1978. I've seen some longer notices, plus it draws attention to what I want editors to do when contacting me. I'll try to reduce the picture size though, it is a tad large. Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 07:14, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
Okay, I figured out why the puppy was so friggin large and why upright = [x] did diddly-squat ... I had the code as imagesize = upright = [x], so that wasn't going to do anything no matter how small or large I made my upright value. Time to go fix the userpage edit notice as well now, but thanks for picking up on something being wrong Baffle gab1978. Cheers from trout Self-trout Village, Drcrazy102 (talk) 07:35, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
No worries; and it's looking much better now, thanks for the fix. It's time to close this behemoth thread and get on with some more copy-editing before my reputation as a mainspace editor gets torn to shreads! :-D Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 08:03, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

An Ember in the Ashes

Baffle gab1978, would you mind taking a look at An Ember in the Ashes? I just finished copy-editing the article. (I had asked a few questions of the requester at User talk:Dawniniceland#An Ember in the Ashes, but his/her responses didn't help much.) In particular, would you look at the last paragraph in the section An Ember in the Ashes#Development? You'll see in the original request that the editor asked that the article be reviewed for correct American grammar. This particular paragraph sounds like perfect English, unlike the rest of the article before I copy-edited it. I wonder whether it is copied from the source. Also, in this particular sentence from that paragraph:

  • Film rights were optioned by Paramount Pictures in a seven-figure deal in 2014, well before the book's publication, and Mark Johnson is attached to produce.

"is attached to produce" sounds like film industry jargon (or a translation by a non-native speaker of English). In all the movie articles I've copy-edited, I had never seen that phrase. I think it should be put into more accessible language, perhaps "has agreed to produce the film", "has been signed to produce the film", "has been lined up to produce the film", "has been hired to produce the film". What do you think? Corinne (talk) 03:50, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Yes, "attached" is film industry jargon; i've usually seen it in reations to actors, writers and directors being "attached to the project". I think your alternatives except "lined up" (makes it sound like he's going before a firing squad) would be an improvement; you could also use "has been engaged / contracted", or similar. "Out-of-the-gate success" is awful too; try "instant success", "quick success" or similar. See Jonesey below.
Susupected copyvios can normally be picked up by an internet search (take a short sample of text, sandwich it with quotation marks and search) but back-copying (wikipedia to external site, then back to wikipedia) can occur and this is allowed by WP's licence. Well done for picking out that sentence though; the clause naming the producer is very similar to the source but it's only a few words and rewriting it would avoid problems. Cases where whole blocks of text have been copied verbatim from a copyrighted source are much more of a problem. One develops an instinct for these after a while. Nice work. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 05:39, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
(talk page stalker) "Attached" is film jargon indeed, but it has a meaning, like most jargon. It basically means that the person is in the "maybe, if things work out" status as opposed to either the "no way" status or the "hired, under contract, and being paid to do stuff" status.
I found an interesting essay about the term. In this case, the cited source uses the word "attached", which has a specific meaning, so the suggestions of "hired" and "signed" would be inaccurate. If you wanted to de-jargon that sentence, you would need to get to the plain English meaning of "attached", something like "Mark Johnson has been reported as a possible producer for the film." – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:52, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
Thanks Jonesey; I didn't realise it had such a specific meaning, I've struck my suggestions above in favour of yours. I shall now wear my dunce's hat and stand in the corner. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 06:06, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
No, no, come over here and sit with us at the nerd table! Until I read the essay, I would have said that "signed" was a synonym of "attached", but Hollywood is a slippery creature. We all learned something today. – Jonesey95 (talk) 07:14, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
*collapses into seat at table* Oh yes, sometimes you have such high hopes and then Hollywood dashes them. Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 07:28, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
I'll join you at the table. I guess I'm old-fashioned, but to me, attached means attached. This Hollywood meaning is more like "attached with velcro", so they can separate you easily if they need to. But thanks, both of you, for your thoughts. I'm still confused though – Baffle gab1978 suggested re-writing the sentence because it's too similar to the source, but Jonesey95 didn't say anything about that, so I don't know what to do (on top of which I know so little about filmmaking; the little I know I've learned from copy-editing Indian film articles). Corinne (talk) 02:14, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Hasta la Raíz

Hello, Baffle gab1978 -- I just finished copy-editing Hasta la Raíz. I have a few questions for you:

1) Since the article is about a recent song album, it frequently refers to spots on music charts. I saw quite a variety of styles:

  • number five
  • number 5
  • number-one

Just for consistency, I changed the words (like "five") to numbers (and added a no-break space between "number" and the number). I don't really know whether it should be "number five" or "number 5". I also saw "number-one" (and not as an adjective), but I hesitated to change that because it sounded like an expression. What do you think is the best format for the many versions of this, and should the hyphen come out of "number-one"?

2) If you have time, would you look at the section Hasta la Raíz#Credits and personnel. In that section you'll see three separate lists. Will you take a look at how the list items are formatted? I see a semi-colon followed by a hyphen, which kind of looks like a punctuation smiley, like ;). That might be a combination common in Latin America, but I don't think it is the right punctuation on WP. Shall I change them all to en-dashes?

3) On this one I'll ask the writer of the article, just so you can see his response. Jaespinoza, first, let me say that this is a very nice article. It makes me want to buy her CD! However, I noticed that in the many quotes in the article, mostly from the singer Lafourcade, there are mistakes in grammar and word usage. Are these direct quotes? That is, did Lafourcade say these things in English? Or did you translate her Spanish statements into English? (Or is it some of each?) If you translated Lafourcade's Spanish statements into English, then I can correct the errors. However, if the quotes are direct quotes, and Lafourcade was speaking in English, then I can't really correct the errors. Corinne (talk) 02:00, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

4) Also, this sentence, which appears in the first paragraph in Hasta la Raíz#Critical reception, is not very clear, especially the part after "but":

  • Luis Romero of the website Coffee and Saturday said that the album is one of the best pop releases of the year, praising Lafourcade's evolution as a musician, but was critical about Lafourcade's extending "her comfort zone", since she is in a very early stage of her career to be consolidated as a songwriter, "and the proof is that the best album tracks are those where she is helped by Leonel García, Torreblanca and María Daniela".

The part,

  • but was critical about Lafourcade's extending "her comfort zone"

does not match the sentence in the lead (which, admittedly, I re-wrote, thinking I understood what was meant, and if I got that sentence right, this one doesn't go with it).

The part,

  • since she is in a very early stage of her career to be consolidated as a songwriter

I kind of understand, but I think it could be made even clearer. Any help from Baffle gab1978 or Jonesey95 is welcome. Corinne (talk) 02:30, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Note: I re-worded this sentence to express what I think Jaespinoza was trying to say. Jaespinoza, feel free to modify the words that I chose. Corinne (talk) 18:03, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
1) For chart positions, normally follow MOSNUM but with caveats; those being a) be consistent throughout the article and b) use either numbers or words consistently; "number 23" and "number 7" or "number twenty-three" and "number seven". Numbers relating to chart positions shouldn't be hyphenated; "number-one" except as an adjective ("it was his second number-one single") is incorrect—use "number one" or "number 1". I normally use the style that sems most common in the article; per WP:RETAIN.
2) I normally use a colon to separate role from actor; "Dave Thomas: bass guitar". Normally I'd put the role on the left; "Bass guitar: Dave Thomas". It makes more sense to me, but WP:RETAIN. I'd certainly remove the hyphens and leave the semi-colons.
3) If quotations aren't demarked properly, I'd assume they were indirect ones, but if in doubt, don't change the quotations.
4) That's long mouthful of a sentence; you can break it into two at the "but". I'd remove "to be consolidated as a songwriter" because it makes no sense and is probably a mis-translation or just waffle.
Other thorts: you could usefully break up some of the long paragraphs in "Critical reception" and "Writing and recording"; presenting the reader with huge blocks of text isn't good style. I certainly wouldn't struggle through it unless I had to. Opinions may vary on that last point. Thanks for your post; your attention to detail does you credit. :-) Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 04:32, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for your thorts, er, thoughts, Baffle gab1978 ;). I'll make the needed changes now. Corinne (talk) 17:19, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
I broke up Hasta la Raíz#Writing and recording and did a little re-arranging. As for Hasta la Raíz#Critical reception, I see that it needs breaking up, but I don't know where, other than an arbitrary break in the middle. I notice that all the reviews are positive except for two mixed reviews scattered in the middle of the paragraph, those by Luis Romero and "An editor from Televisa Espectáculos". Jaespinoza What do you think of separating those two reviews from the others and grouping them in one small paragraph after all the positive reviews? Also, please respond to my question about the very long sentence, above. I don't think "extending her comfort zone" is right. It should be about "not extending her comfort zone". Corinne (talk) 17:58, 12 December 2015 (UTC) (See my additional comment above, right after that overly long sentence I quoted.) Corinne (talk) 18:03, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Keith White (yachtsman)

I just copy-edited Keith White (yachtsman). I left a few questions and concerns on the article's talk page. I also added the "Done" template to the Requests page. I don't know whether to place the GOCE template on the article's talk page now, or wait until I receive replies to my questions and make any necessary further edits. Please let me know which you think I should do. Corinne (talk) 03:37, 13 December 2015 (UTC)

I think that's your choice, though I certainly wouldn't object to you adding it now; as fas as I'm concerned if you've done the work to improve the article, you deserve the credit for it. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 07:59, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
O.K. I'll add it, using the date of my last group of edits to the article. I want to ask you about something else. A few edits after I finished copy-editing the article (on 13 December), I saw that another editor had reverted all the no-break spaces I had added to the article [4]. When I asked him why, on the talk page of the article, at Talk:Keith White (yachtsman)#Recent edits, he replied that he saw no need for them, even though I had explained why I use them. [5] (Also, he is not the editor who requested the copy-edit.) It's not that important, and I have no vested interest in this particular article, but I thought:
(a) No-break spaces help improve the appearance of the article, so that numbers, particularly one- and two-digit ones, do not end up at the end of a line or the beginning of a line, separated from the word that accompanies them, and
(b) Adding no-break spaces does not detract from the article, as far as I can see, so I think another editor's opinion that they are not needed is not a very strong reason for reverting the work of a copy-editor, do you? What do you think? Corinne (talk) 23:58, 13 December 2015 (UTC)
(talk page stalker) Hey Corinne, just show the editor (no name, too lazy to check, sorry) what the difference can look like:
Top
5 (broken)
Top 5 (nbsp)
Top 5 (normal text)
The (nbsp) simply helps to improve readability on things that are number listed such as placements, year-dated things, etc. But it also really isn't something that is a big deal, however it is always nice and can help on improving the article quality if used properly. Just depends on whether you feel the effort is worth the improvement and care enough. Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 00:39, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
Drcrazy102 Thank you for your comment. I hadn't thought to give an example, but perhaps I should. I also found two places in MoS that specifically treat this topic. (I've added them to the discussion on the article's talk page.) Corinne (talk) 00:58, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
Corinne, that's rather frustrating after making the effort to add nbsps; I've restored them to the article. The removal was needless, they're doing no harm. I do sometimes remove them from text where they're not needed, say between two words where they clutter the code, but normally i leave them alone. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 08:35, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
Thank you. I do the same. Corinne (talk) 16:00, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

A question

I wonder if you would mind looking at this edit to my talk page: User talk:Corinne#Brizola. I am flattered by the request, but I'm wondering whether I should ask him/her to post a request at GOCE, or just go ahead and do the copy-edit. Corinne (talk) 01:15, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) It's up to you, but all of the current active GOCE coordinators always refer people to the Requests page, for many reasons. It's fairer to everyone involved, doesn't allow people to pick favorite editors, and allows copy editors to take a break now and then without necessarily announcing it. Those are my reasons, anyway. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:58, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
I agree with Jonesey here; it's your choice but don't feel obliged to accept requests. I used to accept c/e requests but found the same people kept asking and they took too much time from me. I think some folk don't appreciate the effort that goes into copy-editing (especially lengthy, poorly-written articles). YMMV. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 11:14, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
Thank you both. (What's "YMMV"?) Corinne (talk) 01:00, 18 December 2015 (UTC)
Your Mileage May Vary. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 01:04, 18 December 2015 (UTC)

Marie-Cessette Dumas

Baffle gab, I saw the short discussion regarding Marie-Cessette Dumas on the GOCE Requests page, and, out of curiosity, read the article. As I was reading, I made a few copy-edits. Besides the fact that I hadn't put a "Working" template on the Requests page, and in fact neglected to even look to see whether another editor had already done so – sorry 'bout that – (and I don't care whether or not I get credit), I wanted to ask you about something. In the lead, it gives her date of birth, then place of birth. Then there is an en-dash, followed by her date of death and place of death. I'll let you or others decide whether the places of birth and death should be included like that, but I wondered whether there should be a space either side of the en-dash between the place of birth and the date of death.

I noticed some repetition in the article, but didn't know whether I should trim it or leave it to the posting editor to work on the article a bit more. Again, I apologize if I've usurped someone's copy-editing assignment. Corinne (talk) 01:49, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your work there; I did a basic clean-up of this one last week (see the request). According to the article and the first source, her birth and death dates are unknown (this was 18th-century colonial Haiti); the dates and places (in continental France) in the lead are those of Marquis Thingymabob, who owned her as a slave (those in French Wikipedia, linked, concur).

All we know about Marie-Cesette is that she seemed to have died of dysentery when Thomas-Alexandre was twelve years old. Nevertheless Alexandre Dumas (son) tried in vain to find her roots in Haiti. (sourcehttp://www.guinguinbali.com/index.php?lang=en&mod=news&task=view_news&cat=4&id=63}

One of our problems here is that the article relies mainly on offline sources and French-language sources, so we have to take a lot of this on trust. I'd use a spaced ndash here; per WP:MOSDASH. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 12:07, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
O.K. Thanks. Corinne (talk) 02:24, 18 December 2015 (UTC)

Bangladesh

Baffle gab1978 (or Jonesey), I accepted the assignment to copy-edit Bangladesh a few days ago. I made a few edits, but have been busy, so had not yet finished. I just looked and saw that:

(a) There is on-going discussion on the article's talk page right up to today, and

(b) there have been quite a few edits to the page since I made those copy-edits. One editor seems to have undone a lot of edits at once, then another attempted to restore "most of the valid edits"; another, before that, "fixed" the conversion template (I thought I had added a hyphen in order to make it an adjective, but maybe not). But now I can't figure out whether all my edits were restored or not. I'm wondering whether the article is in too much of a state of flux to be ready for a copy-edit. Can you advise me how to proceed? Corinne (talk) 00:48, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your post Corinne, articles on countries often attract controversial edits, edit wars, etc. It's been busy the last few days, but the latest series of edits appear to be good-faith additions. If you want to continue your c/e, you might like to inform the requester with {{GOCEstartce}} on his/her talk page and use {{GOCEinuse}} on the article whilst editing (I normally place in in the 2nd-level section I'm working on); then at least s/he can't say s/he wasn't informed. If you feel you can't continue because your edits are being reverted, and/or you get edit conflicts while working, or the article is undergoing rapid deveopment likely to wipe out your c/e, you can either abandon your c/e by posting '''Abandoned''' and a short note about the reason(s), or post on the Requests talk page to the same effect. Please note though that lengthy posts on the Requests page itself aren't encouraged, and discussions about the article's content, style etc. should be on the article's talk page. We can decline the request if activity is likely to null a c/e, or put it on hold for a short while as it settles down. Repeated disruptive editing behaviour should be reported at WP:EWN. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 02:33, 19 December 2015 (UTC)
Oh, wow. A lot of good information and advice. Thank you. Corinne (talk) 03:13, 19 December 2015 (UTC)
Explain on the article's talk page that a copy edit has been requested and ask if editors would be willing to take a break for a day or two while you copy-edit the article. And the convert template option that you were looking for is |adj=on. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:31, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for copy editing the Janrain article. I made a few fixes to your changes, which I hope you can review and make sure are appropriate. Thanks again for your help! ---Another Believer (Talk) 20:20, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

Egads, I left some typos there didn't I? I'm clearly wearing the juice at the moment! Thanks for fixing them; I did steam through the c/e quite quickly—d'oh! The only thing I'll pick up on is the citation change; "|author=Spencer, Malia" is a shorter equivalent to "|last=Spencer|first=Malia" and produces the same result; but it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Thanks again! :-D Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 00:16, 20 December 2015 (UTC)