User talk:Shyamal/archive12

old chatter

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Your Rfa

No problem. Cheers!--Sir James Paul 03:17, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Sir James Paul has smiled at you! Smiles promote WikiLove and hopefully this one has made your day better. Spread the WikiLove by smiling at someone else, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend. Happy editing!
Smile at others by adding {{subst:Smile}} to their talk page with a friendly message.

Success!

Congratulations Shyamal! I'm sure you will do well as an administrator, and I wish you all the best. ;) –Sebi ~ 03:23, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Well Done Shyamal..Congratulations..Now use those extra tabs well.. ..--Cometstyles 04:55, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Congrats on the well deserved mop! I am on a wikibreak and just logged on to see recent happenings and realised that your rfa has opened and closed too. Judging by your work on Indian wildlife related articles, I am sure you will use the tools wisely — Lost^(talk) 05:01, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Congrats! I was out of contact (and in serious Wikipedia withdrawal) while in the boonies of Alaska this week, and so missed the chance to recommend you. Glad to hear you've made it! MeegsC | Talk 07:13, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Congrats! Your adminship was long overdue :) utcursch | talk 08:04, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Congrats! Get back to work!!! :) Jmlk17 08:37, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Ah, no problem! I have to say I would have been quite crestfallen if that RfA didn't pass, so I'm really glad it did =) Good luck! - Zeibura^(talk) 08:45, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Hey Shyamal, congratulations! All the best with the tools :) Riana ⁂ 12:55, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Very many congratulations, I know that you will do well.--Anthony.bradbury^"talk" 15:56, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Well done! Jimfbleak 17:19, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Congratulations. It is really bad that I missed to participate in your RfA :-( --Bhadani (talk) 17:31, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

• It was my great pleasure to support your RfA Shyamal - thank you for your courtesy.--VS ^talk 01:50, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Congratulations. Here are what pass for words of wisdom from the puppy:

Remember you will always protect the wrong version. Remember you must always follow the rules, except for when you ignore them. You will always pick the wrong one to do. (See #5) Remember to assume good faith and not bite. Remember that when you are applying these principles most diligently, you are probably dealing with a troll. Use the block ability sparingly. Enjoy the insults you receive when you do block. Remember when you make these errors, someone will be more than happy to point them out to you in dazzling clarity and descriptive terminology. and finally, Remember to contact me if you ever need assistance, and I will do what I am able. KillerChihuahua?!?

DISCLAIMER: This humor does not reflect the official humor of Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, or Jimbo Wales. All rights released under GFDL.

Your concerns

Hi Jc37, you had very serious concerns about me at the RfA. I replied while it was being closed and I did not get an edit conflict. Now I can see that you have thought a lot about wikipedia and its policies and have been extremely active on that front. Our views will doubtless differ in many ways although we both appreciate the best that wikipedia has to offer. I concur with User:Ragesoss that a candidate should not be judged by any of the answers to the RfA questions. The idea of using the answers to judge can lead to either newbies spending all their time on practicing answers or oldies like me giving loose replies that one hardly expects to be dissected in casual conversation. I am sorry if any of my comments sounded offensive to you. Let me know your explicit concerns and I will be happy to discuss them. Cheers. Shyamal 04:44, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

I think that if the latter was/is the case, all you would have had to do was say something like: "Oh, I misspoke, let me try to clarify." And proceed to clarify. It's what I honestly expected, especially considering the comments of all your supporters. But you apparently immediately stylised it as a "debate" (per your edit summary). My follow-up response was merely to re-affirm that what you just said was what I presumed, and then offered a follow-up question which I hoped would help further clarify. Among other things, obviously talking about "their" work and "their" pages, may ring alarum bells of concern. Now all questions are optional in an RfA, and if you didn't respond, so be it. But what followed was, as you may tell from my response to it, well, it was surprising to say the least.

However, in hindsight, I think I can understand presuming contentious debate from someone offering an "oppose" comment, even if none was intended at all. (I wouldn't seek to debate with you on what you believe to be true. - "I believe in the tooth fairy" - "No you don't" - seems ridiculously pointless to me : ) - What I would do is request clarification on what you believe, to more accurately understand what that is.

I'm more than willing to accept that what we had was a severe mis-communication of some kind. Especially due to your taking the moment to drop me a note on my talk page, when you most assuredly didn't have to. If your RfA was still open, I'd right now be changing from Oppose to Neutral, with the hope of further clarification of the initial question (in the hopes of switching to support). But as there is a time limit, and that time has expired. C'est la vie : )

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to drop me a note, and I hope you're having a great day : ) - jc37 12:36, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. I did indeed realize that the wording was incorrect and that was indeed why I did add the WP:OWN. Now the spirit that I had behind the words was that I valued expertise and that I would try to aid users who are offering their expertise to improve articles. Not that it meant that I would aid a so-called expert add contentious material. Fortunately the subject areas that I stick too are not that contentious. I had already changed my wording several times, that having to spend time to declare a personal manifesto seemed pointless. Thanks again for being forgiving. Shyamal 12:56, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Switched to Support : )

(Sigh @ time limits) - jc37 13:07, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, the above commentary allays my rather mild concerns too. The idea of using the answers to judge can lead to either newbies spending all their time on practicing answers or oldies like me giving loose replies that one hardly expects to be dissected in casual conversation I totally agree with that which was why I was not really concerned enough to oppose :). I am really happy to see you become an admin because I was initially afraid your RfA will fail because of some incredibly stupid reasons (like what almost happened to another candidate); thankfully sanity prevailed :). Anyway keep up the good work. - TwoOars 17:29, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

You're welcome

You're very welcome for the support. I note that as you've been here since 2002, your account has to be one of the oldest here. :) Acalamari 22:15, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Commas or parentheses for scientific name in opening sentence and elsewhere

(Now that was a long header wasn't it?) There's a debate here about commas versus parentheses for scientific names for organisms (well in this case birds). I'm not sure whether this has been raised elsewhere but would be good to establish once and for all here and could apply as MOS across all biology articles.cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 21:36, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

new environmental task force

You are being recruited by the Environmental Record Task Force, a collaborative project committed to accurately and consistently representing the environmental impact of policymakers, corporations, and institutions throughout the encyclopedia. Join us!

Hi Shyamal,
I'm hoping you'll have a look at this project--the combination of your interests in India and in biodiversity would be a big asset for us. Cyrusc 00:10, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the note, Shyamal.
Regarding Bhopal: check this out. Come by and help out when you can!
cheers,
Cyrusc 02:14, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Killing work

Hi Shyamal, long time no speak, but the stubs are killing me. Its very difficult considering the fact that the classification is nowhere near stable. See Marrku's page on Chrysozephyrus genus. But I see no way of avoiding the dreary slog. It gets me down sometimes. Regards, AshLin 17:21, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Hi Ashwin, given the state of taxonomy, it may be best to just stick to one form and give synonyms as found, but to leave things to be moved around until stability is reached. That will happen only when there is a large amount of work done on molecular phylogenies at different taxa levels. Little point arranging species when the higher level taxa themselves are shifting about at the moment. Shyamal 05:30, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Help

I added an AfD on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/!dea Star Singer using Twinkle but I think I have missed some step as it does not transclude into the AfD page, I did not find that one on the instructions !. Shyamal 11:10, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

If you go to Wikipedia:Articles for deletion, scroll down to around 2/3rd of the way down the page and follow instruction III. You basically need to add {{tl|subst:afd3 | pg=PageName}} (replacing PageName with !Idea Star Singer to the top of this page Nick 11:43, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Nick, I have already added it. Better list AFDs the old fashioned way next time, due to TWINKLE problems. Miranda 11:44, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. It can't be simpler :) Shyamal 11:47, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Image creation

The next time you decide to create a bird image Crab Plover might be a good candidate. There are no free ones that I am aware of. Sabine's Sunbird talk 22:53, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Oh, that should be easy, very striking. And I have Hayman, Marchant n Prater as a guide ! Shyamal 02:14, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Done :) Shyamal 03:55, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Wing image

Hi Shyamal: Thanks for the new wing image -- but I thought your last one was great! I think the one you already did shows more of the bone detail... I'll ask others in WP:BIRD to have a look at the possibilites (Sunbird likes the one you did of the wing for the Bird Anatomy article) and indicate which they think does the best job of illustrating what we need to illustrate. I'm working hard trying to bring the article up to "Good Article" status! MeegsC | Talk 21:57, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Migration, bird etc

I've been neglecting bird too, or rather, I've been procrastinating even though it is fairly close to done. Sabine's Sunbird talk 03:24, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

image

Hi, is this Kingfisher.gif a juvenile Black-capped Kingfisher? Jimfbleak 07:38, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, that was my second guess. Jimfbleak 12:36, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Your pictures

Hi, I just want to let you know that I nominated your picture, Image:BirdBeaks.svg, as a featured picture, because I believe it is encyclopedic and high quality. Very nice work! You can comment or vote on the nomination page. I just want to give you one suggestion when making gradients in images: replace the alpha with white, because currently, parts of the birds (in many of your bird drawings) are see-through. Althepal 19:37, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that information. I am yet to figure out many features of Inkscape. Thanks also for the appreciation but really I wouldn't have dared to nominate something like that for featured picture though ! Shyamal 03:14, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Why not? It's excellent!! Even non-excellent pictures get nominated all the time (but the non-excellent ones usually aren't promoted). Vote on the picture (you are allowed, I think), because right now it has half support and half oppose. If it gets 2/3 majority support after one week, you get featured picture! Even if you don't get featured, the discussion surrounding the picture will have great critical information about how to improve your work in the future! About Inkscape, check out the tutorials from the help menu. That helped me learn a lot about vector graphics and inkscape! Althepal 17:42, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Hey, about white instead of transparency, I want to give you another example, Image:Birdmorphology.svg. It is very good (and perhaps should also be featured; it for sure shows that you are an excellent vector artist!), but the belly of the bird should not be see-through. You need to have a solid white fill the stomach. I'll give an example of an improvement, if I could. Althepal 17:47, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Here are the two pictures. I edited it in the following ways: Remove transparency from bird, add transparency to shadow. Shadows should be transparent, so you would replace the white with alpha.Althepal 18:06, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Your beautiful illustration of the bird.

My edit with correct transparency for bird and shadow.

Dont worry if the colours have changed. I realized that most wrong of it was the colour itself !Shyamal 13:14, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

All right. There is still a little transparency in the picture, but it's better. By the way, are you going to vote on the nomination? It currently has four supports and two opposes.Althepal 17:44, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Very nice now! Althepal 17:22, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

---

hi Shyamal, thanks for your greeting

well, this wiki thing is a fascinating perverse seething jungle aint it? but i think it might be good practice writing here. Wikiskimmer 18:56, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

GA

Thanks for the best wishes. Yes, Glossary of Lepidopteran terms really looks good. It'll be a long haul, though. Requires refernces. Also we're butterfly-centric right now, need more stuff about moths. Definitely a worthwhile project. We'll need a diagram for a pupa too. Also an image for the egg, if it has parts. Then images of sexual characterustics for each family etc....This is firing up my josh. Thanks, AshLin 08:41, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Your edit to Wikipedia talk:Notability

I happened to notice your question on WT:N since it's on my watchlist. Your question wasn't a foolish one at all, it was actually a good one. In answer to it, we actually use a similar system! In our case, Wikinews is a Wikimedia wiki specifically designed to cover news-type events. If such an event becomes historically notable, we also cover it here in Wikipedia. If you would like to report on "in the news" type events, Wikinews would love to have your help! :) Seraphimblade ^{Talk to me} 10:44, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks ! I am aware of wikinews, but the kind of material that I had in mind was not so much "news" either. But I removed it because I guess something that stands would ideally get covered elsewhere and will, if notable, get recorded somewhere even if wikipedia considers it non-notable. I just decided that I was being too wiki-centric when there are so many other media as well. Thanks for the kind note all the same. Shyamal 10:51, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Bugun liocichla

Why not place a tag, category and/or link to list of Indian birds. It needs to be taken into our national fold.AshLin 05:00, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Could do. Actually the Indian bird list is now in the same state as the butterfly list. The list is based on the avibase database and is full of errors. May get to work on it. There is also some ongoing talk on creating an updated India master list for other uses as well and that may need to be published. There is no end to the amount of work, hands and heads needed here ! Shyamal 05:06, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Rename your gallery in Wikimedia

Hi,

Would you consider renaming 'Hampson, Fauna of British India' to 'Hampson's Fauna of British India (Moths)' to match the syntax of Bingham. See ((Category:Lepidoptera books)) in WM Commons. AshLin 17:09, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

This category was done by someone else. I am not very keen on touching categorization on commons. Shyamal 01:06, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Re: History ?

There was a vandal on a dynamic IP who was blanking the userpages of everyone who came in contact with him/her. I semi'd your page for a bit as a precaution, but the potential threat is long gone now. I'm sorry for not explaining the reasoning at the time, it was a bit hectic. ˉˉ^anetode╦╩ 20:16, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

The Amphibians and Reptiles Portal (P:AAR)

The Amphibians and Reptiles Portal I'm glad to announce that The Amphibians and reptiles portal (P:AAR) has been created and is ready for you to use. This portal covers any subjects related to amphibians, reptiles, herpetology, as well as WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles. Purposes of the portal to act as the "main page" for editors interested in amphibians and reptiles. The portal page should contain all the common and useful links to relevant articles, lists, categories, as well as the project tasklist. As this portal is your tool, please feel free to organize, modify, or expand the Topics, Categories, Lists, and Tasklist sections of the portal as you see fit. to lead potential AAR editors to WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles as well as to educate general readers. Feel free to add more items for the "Did you know..." section. Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, please leave them on the portal talk page or my user talk page. --Melanochromis

--Melanochromis 06:18, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm glad you like the portal. Feel free to add or expand it if you like. --Melanochromis 09:04, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

Editor review

Hi there, I was wondering if you might have any comments at Wikipedia:Editor review/TimVickers. Thanks, if you have time. Tim Vickers 22:43, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

AFD subst & Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History

Re: the templare, I don't know, I'm afraid. Re: the bulletin, I'd suggest it could be included, with a note to explain that it covers other taxa as well besides insects. SP-KP 17:05, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

Ok got the template. it is {{tfdend|date=date of nomination|result=result}} Shyamal 04:08, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Reply to query related to Etawah

Pls see User_talk:Vjdchauhan#Etawah. Vjdchauhan 15:15, 7 July 2007 (UTC).

Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/BirdBeaks

An image uploaded by you has been promoted to featured picture status Your image, Image:BirdBeaksA.svg, was nominated on Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates, gained a consensus of support, and has been promoted. If you would like to nominate an image, please do so at Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates. Thank you for your contribution! MER-C 04:47, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Great work, Shyamal and a very well done! Regards, AshLin 19:19, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Congrats, Shyamal! This was very nice work, and it's great to see it become a featured picture... MeegsC | Talk 15:58, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. It was a learning exercise. Shyamal 16:02, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

Congrats from me too! It's evolved into an excellent image. I wished I'd known it was nominated, but I guess that wasn't needed. Sabine's Sunbird talk 08:01, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

A spin-off of the Bird improvement drive for which you deserve credit too ! Shyamal 08:11, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Mapping

Note to self...

Bangalore

Mysore

Shyamal/archive12 (India)

Ok, here come editable point distribution maps ! Shyamal 10:10, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

thanks

Thanks for looking after my userpage. Cheers, Pete.Hurd 19:01, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Old species articles

I see that you started a lot of species articles a while ago, but some of them were rather poorly formatted and haven't been improved. Would you be interested in improving the ones you wrote that don't conform to wikipedia's standards for species articles? The one I found on Special:Random was Laticauda colubrina.

I would be happy to do it, but have no background in science whatsoever, so I was at a loss as to what that particular article was trying to say. Atropos 22:14, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Let me know if it still makes no sense. Shyamal 01:18, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

Capitalization

Please see my posts on Talk:Snow Leopard#Recent Changes and Talk:Lion on capitalization. Thanks. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 16:27, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Lepidoptera policy - Assessment of importance of articles

Hi,

I've brought up a policy issue for discussion on WikiProject Lepidoptera. May I request your valuable contribution and counsel, as a member of WikiProject Lepidoptera, in this regard. AshLin 21:54, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Atrina

Dear Shyamal Many thanks.I added this interesting species since a freind and colleague has just found it here in Ireland http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6228058.stm Best wishes Very cold and wet here.Wettest month ever in June.Best regards Robert

Signing thread to trigger archival. Shyamal 14:27, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Flower

Thank you for the note; the frontis pic of Flower is a bit stuffy. However, I like the photo of him as a young man in his uniform. It would go well in the Crimean section. Also there is a good one opp p202. If you have the time you might pop them on the page.

I don't think I will do much more to Flower; he was a fine man, but not very exciting. I'd give him a B if I had to mark him as a scientist; but he was an A at human relations: no-one had a bad word to say about him. Macdonald-ross 16:22, 28 July 2007 (UTC)

Re discussion on policy at WP:LEPID

Hi Shyamal,

The discussion on WP Lepidoptera hasnt generated muach participation despite the fact that I had posted a message on talk page of every project member. Can such a small quorum be adequate to finalise the proposal? Where do I go from here? AshLin 05:09, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

My RfA

Hi, Shyamal, and thanks for your participation in my RfA. I've withdrawn it, and will be writing up an "analysis" of it, which will soon be available at User:Giggy/RfA/Giggy when it's done. Please come around when you get the chance, and give me feedback on how I can improve. Thanks again, Giggy _U^CP 04:48, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

paper

Sorry a bit vague about my gmail account. I'll do it later today. Sabine's Sunbird talk 19:47, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Hesperiidae stub

Hi Shyamal,

I've proposed a hesperiidae stub. Please put in a word! Regards, AshLin 15:31, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Nothing to do. You got it! Shyamal 16:11, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Lepidoptera policy - Draft categorisation guidelines & Common vs scientific names

Hi Shyamal/archive12,

I've brought up two policy issues for discussion on WikiProject Lepidoptera here . May I request your valuable contribution and counsel, as a member of WikiProject Lepidoptera, in this regard. AshLin 18:06, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Bird

Do you hate the idea of calling a bird a dinosaur? And it is a fact that most paleontologist want people to know that birds are dinosaurs! Todays science is about bology grouped together and not apart. And some birds today are very dinosaur-like, and some dinosaurs that are bird-like, so some scientist want to reclassifiy the dinosaur-like birds as dinosaurs or reclassifiy the bird-like dinosaurs as birds.-westvoja

Responded at User_talk:Westvoja. Signing for bot archival. Shyamal 15:34, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

re: IW

Hi Shyamal. I didn't quite understand your request. Do you want me to add the Tamil transcription of the name? Or do you want to translate the complete article into Tamil? Sorry if I'm missing the obvious. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 09:50, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Sure, it's a good candidate. Will translate the article in a few days. Thanks for lettin me know. :-) -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 12:16, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Horsfieldia

Yep, I moved it there because there is a plant genus of the same name; look like I don't need to worry about that now since the butterfly isn't Horsfieldia after all. --Peta 23:55, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Ploceus megarhynchus

To quote Beolens and Watkins: Hume first described the weaver from a specimen collected by [Frank] Finn at Kaladoongi in India, and [Eugene William] Oates gave it its vernacular name in 1889 or 1890." Obviously the first part of this sentence is incorrect, but the second half seems reasonable, and I think Frank Finn is the right man, as he was in India at that time. I have no idea if Hume gave the bird a common name in 1866 or just the scientific name, and no idea who did collect the bird in Kaladoongi. Smallweed 13:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Science Collaboration of the Month

You voted for Biology and this article is now the current Science Collaboration of the Month! Please help to improve it to match the quality of an ideal Wikipedia science article.

NCurse _work 07:19, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Halfbeak

Thanks for adding the cladogram. I didn't know there was a template for those. My only query is whether the template is easier to read and understand than my diagram? I'm not convinced that it is. Thoughts? Neale Neale Monks 15:45, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Georg Friedrich Treitschke

Georg Friedrich Treitschke Yes same man.Try the German page which is excellent and includes a portrait and lists his publications.I am just back from Rome where I used a digital camera for the frst time ouside work-a Ricoh Caplio So some images for the Rome page and some info on the Rome natural history museum. Soon I hope to get back to the India material here and the rest of your wants list. Best regards. More soon Robert —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 08:31, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Sri Lankan Elephant

Pics in Rome were difficult but I got a goodish image of a baby "Ceylon Elephant" Which I will put on Commons soon Robert —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 08:36, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Archive

Very many thanks for the Archive.A qustion now. How do I transfer Commons pictures from German Wikipedia ? These don't always appear in the English Wikipedia and are prefixed "Bild" so I can't copy and paste as is possible from the French site.Robert —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 08:54, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Have you seen these images from DEI (German Entomological Society) ? http://www.zalf.de/home_zalf/institute/dei/php_e/archiv/bilder.php —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 11:08, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Tamil Nadu

-Marcus 19:32, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Heinrich Harder

Thanks Shyamal but I rewrote H.H. anyway. There were some text violations. I tried the Art Department here but there was little on this amazing and hugely popular artist. Now there is a link you can see his paintings. I really put this together because of the Commons pics though.See that too. Sliante Robert —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 11:00, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes, very beautiful artistic impressions indeed. Shyamal 11:24, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

WP:NOR?

Hi,

Shyamal, dont Vijay Barve's distribution of map without refs for posn data in Chliaria othona constitute original research?

AshLin 08:32, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

I have discussed this about birds and the suggestion was that WP:OR is to prevent POV pushing, if these are facts that can in theory be verified, it should be fine. The presence of a species is close to "commonplace knowledge" and if possible there should be refs. Calling it OR may be going too far. What if someone posts a photograph of a bird or butterfly claiming it was taken in some "location" - it is un-verifiable - so do we consider it OR ? I think not and there is a need for flexibility and should be based on the ultimate objective. Shyamal 08:39, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks

Thats given me a cheer today! Im on cytolytic therapy now and next week, they start Imatinib. Regards, AshLin 09:26, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject History of Science newsletter : Issue III - September 2007

The September 2007 issue of the WikiProject History of Science newsletter has been published. You're receiving this because you are a participant in the History of Science WikiProject. You may read the newsletter or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. Yours in discourse--ragesoss 01:00, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

adzebill

Looks good. Unfortunately all the images I have that might answer your question are in books not the web. Sabine's Sunbird talk 21:28, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Will put in a slightly better illustration later. If you see some material that may help make the illustration more technically correct, feel free to mail me scans/pix from books or elsewhere. Shyamal 03:42, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Pythons

Hi Shyamal! After a lot of work on the python articles, which have apparently been ignored for a while, I was wondering if you could help me fix some things. It concerns the articles Python, Pythonidae and Python (disambiguation). I propose that three things be done. First, Python should be moved to Pythonidae, since it is the correct title for the article in this series. Second, Python (disambiguation) needs to be moved to Python, since a substantial number of articles that link to Python have nothing to do with snakes (e.g. Python (programming language)). Third, Python (disambiguation) should redirect to Python. Do you think you can help? Cheers! --Jwinius 00:33, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Seems fine, go ahead and let me know if any specific help is needed. A little busy and have an internet outage. Shyamal 03:41, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Excellent! Only, I can't do this myself due to the edits histories of the articles involved. However, as an administrator, it shouldn't be a problem for you. :-) --Jwinius 11:29, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

See if all is well. Shyamal 11:51, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Perfect. I did some more disambiguation work and it looks okay now. Thanks! --Jwinius 16:47, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Help identifying a bird and another request

Yet to be identified bird
Video of a bird found in IIM, Bangalore

Hi Shyamal. Can you help me identify the bird seen in Image:UnidentifiedBird.jpg and the Video shown along side? -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 05:49, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

By the way, can you get me the Tamil transcription of anathaan? I couldn't find that word in any of the online dictionaries. Will write the article asap. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 05:49, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

That was super fast and complete! Promise you that article by tonight. :-) -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:44, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

By the way, please add a more specific name and category to this moth photo if you know. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 09:54, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Cannot really put a name beyond its family Noctuidae. (These with eyes are sometimes referred to as owl moths) If you have a closeup, you could ask on the yahoo discussion group IndianMoths [in.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/Indianmoths]. Shyamal 10:00, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm an amateur in both photo shooting and animal watching. :D -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 10:18, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

I've sort of started the article at ta:மூங்கில் அணத்தான், but yet to complete the translation. Will work on it tomorrow, if it's not already translated by someone then. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 16:41, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

bird

I am in the final stages of cleaning the article now, actually, I am trying to find stuff to take out. The article has attracted critisism in the peer review for being too long. Personally I don't see how this can be avoided much, but there is some stuff that can go. I hadn't thought of thermoregulation but if we include it we need to do so in a way that identifies ways birds do it differently. Sabine's Sunbird talk 21:17, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Kay, I think you're right. It can get squeezed into anatomy maybe? Sabine's Sunbird talk 01:09, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. Sabine's Sunbird talk 01:29, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

The Nigger needs to be buried

Hi Shyamal,

Added available material to the Niggger, less Wynter-Blyth. I think as an admin, you should close the discussion, and as per norms move the page to Orsotriaena. I'd do it but its under Afd and has a long revert history. AshLin 14:40, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi Ashwin, as a participant (although it really is a non-AfD), I need to stay out of it. I will help with the move if needed. Shyamal 02:46, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Discussion result was keep, could you carry out the move please. AshLin 14:40, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, treatment successfully going on. AshLin 14:55, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Nehrams2020 RfA Thanks

Thank you for your participation in my RfA, which closed successfully with unanimous support. I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and vote and I can't wait to learn the new tools and further immerse myself into Wikipedia! Please don't hesitate to point out any errors I make so I can prevent them from occurring again. I'm always here to help, so if you ever need anything, just let me know. Also, thanks to Wizardman for nominating me and for guiding many other editors to become admins. Again, thank you and happy editing! --Nehrams2020 07:11, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Need your support

Hi Shyamal! After I recently fixed up the entire python section, renaming a few articles in the process (thanks also to a certain admin I know), I currently find myself in a conflict with someone who seems to be much more WP savvy then his edit history suggests. His problem is that I renamed "Ball Python" to Python regius and he wants it changed back, having requested a move from the administrators and a third opinion. Unfortunately, that last one went badly for me (even though the person liked my reasoning). Therefore, I would be grateful if you could spare a few kind words here in support of my efforts. However, if you'd rather not get involved due to your position, I want you to know that I would fully understand that. Cheers! --Jwinius 22:50, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! :-) --Jwinius 09:35, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

tigers

thanks for the heads up on tiger stuff. cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 06:30, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Heath Fritillary

Dear Shyamal,

I am a little reluctant to embark upon this message, as it is going to sound a little too much like "keep your hands off my article!" Like any other editor and writer, I find criticism of my work hard, and changes to it harder. However, conscious of this potential viewpoint, please accept the following in the spirit of trying to make the article the best it can be.

• References: User:AshLin already asked me to consider using the footnote style of referencing. A consideration which I rejected. I have previously changed articles from Harvard to footnote style, only to discover that both are accepted Wikipedia style. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter to me which is used, but I will continue using Harvard. The current version of the Heath Fritillary article uses a bizarre mixture of the two, which I consider messy and unhelpful. If you feel so strongly about the footnote system, please go ahead and change the referencing system for the article completely. Thanks.
• Images: again, discussed with AshLin, who gave me some good pointers. There are some guidelines that he wrote here. For the Heath Fritillary article, my decisions were guided by (1) need for good natural pose in taxobox; (2) use of an underside view of the imago; (3) use of a gallery to show the other images available on Wikipedia (although I have suggested removing these and replacing them with a link to the species' page on WikiCommons); (4) lack of images of caterpillars, pupa and eggs. The random placement of images throughout the article runs contrary to AshLin's guidelines, as images should be placed to best effect with respect to the article's sections—I personally see no value in having "Egg" illustrated by wing sclaes, and "caterpillar" by an imago... (that juxtaposition may, however, be unique to my computer browser setup).
• Terminology: the style chosen for Lepidoptera articles is "imago" rather than "adult", therefore the plural is "imagines".

As I say, please accept these comments in the spirit they are intended, and by no means as any form of "attack" on your work. Thank you—GRM 16:43, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Double redirects

If you move articles, such as Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, please be sure to check for double redirects. Also, "Friedrich" was not that individual's surname, but part of his given name. He was a member of the House of Mecklenburg and part of the German nobility. Olessi 16:49, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I knew that, but was a bit lazy and was waiting for the bots to fix them. Thanks for the name convention information. Shyamal 01:55, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Mimicry article

Hi Shyamal. What are your thoughts on the mimicry article; is the classification section getting a bit too lengthy? I think we should have a more technical daughter article that goes into detail on the classification. I think a full discussion would overwhelm the general reader, both in terms of difficulty and length. The review by Pasteur is an excellent model for such an article. If we split it off though, which forms should we mention? Perhaps something along the lines of Wickler (1998) - the Britannica article? Do you have any general thoughts on dividing the article up? Richard001 03:56, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I got the same response from User:Dyanega, though I'm not sure either of you realize how much longer the article would have to be to extensively discuss the classification. For a start we'd need to add a even more technical terms, like disjunct, conjunct and bipolar. We'd also need to add the symbolic representation (e.g. S₁S₂/R; do you even know what that means?) and discuss many more aspects so far omitted. This goes without mentioning the evolution section, which could be stocked with far more theoretical discussion than at present, including mathematical models of various systems. My idea is to have more detailed classification and evolution articles that can be useful to students and researchers, without alienating the lay reader. Richard001 04:51, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

broken arm

dear shyamal i have broken my right arm so progress is very slow here - I AM RIGHT HANDED- in my local library.the good news is i will soon have broadband at home.best regards ROBERT —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 13:48, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Description ex Watson

Hi Shyamal,

• The description added ex Watson in respect of Bibasis sena appears incomplete. Perhaps the description of the female got left out inadvertantly?
• Description for Hasora schoenherr?

AshLin 19:51, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Just back to civilization. Will look over it soon. Shyamal 16:18, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

POTD notification

POTD

Hi Shyamal,

Just to let you know that the Featured Picture Image:BirdBeaksA.svg is due to make an appearance as Picture of the Day on November 3, 2007. If you get a chance, you can check and improve the caption at Template:POTD/2007-11-03. howcheng {chat} 19:06, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, cannot think of any changes to the caption. Shyamal 01:18, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Ant page protection

Thanks for doing that - I was not aware that you had administrative privileges. I had been going through standard channels to request page protection (see Bee, Beetle, and Coccinellidae). If I might, I'd like to ask you to take a look at Insect, Fly, Bumblebee, and Solifugae - those are also pretty commonly _targeted by IP vandals, and it seems like 80% of my edits these days are vandalism reverts. Peace, Dyanega 17:27, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

The policies for protection give greater priority to mature articles, particularly GA or FA quality. So perhaps we should try and work up more of these articles to higher quality so that requests for protection are easier to grant. Right now following the administrative policy would help deny protection if some of the IP contributions were shown to be positive. Shyamal 01:29, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Intermediate Parakeet

Might be worth contacting Pamela C. Rasmussen Jimfbleak 13:34, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Found the reference on the net [1] along with several other interesting works here http://www.nigelcollar.net/ ! Shyamal 04:57, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Aerodramus

I've been working up this genus article, but there is no image for any of the swiftlets in this genus. Any chance of doing a pic for, say Indian Swiftlet? Thanks, Jimfbleak 06:30, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Sure, will look over it on the weekend. Rather non-descript colours, hopefully I can reflect the shape carefully enough. Cheers. Shyamal 07:10, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks, nice images and shape looks pretty good compared with the pics in Chantler, Paul and {{Aut|Driessens)), Gerald, Swifts. I think we have all fallen foul of the dreaded keyboard coffee syndrome at some stage! Jimfbleak 12:12, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

BNHS Pictures

Thanks for the pointers. Will try again today. I didn't use the flash (or actually I did, once, and, upon viewing the disastrous bleached result, promptly went back to non-flash option). There was also another kind of curvature (than the one you alluded to) of the pages themselves on account of the volume being a thick one.

But now, armed with good photographic advice from you, and the aid of a helper, who will likely get corralled into holding down the volume while I take the picture, I hope to have better luck. Also, I'll use a slightly higher-resolution camera (a 6.1 MP, instead of the 4.1 I had yesterday), which, I just checked, does have the close-up option. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 06:11, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

PS Unfortunately, even with all the advice and help, I couldn't get the right images. So, I ended up scanning them. Scanning has its own set of problems, especially with thick volumes. One side of the image that couldn't be pressed flush against the scanning glass has come out darker. Do you recommend digital SLRs for this? If so, is there a not too expensive one that you can recommend? I'm guessing a company like Nikon (whose analog cameras I have aplenty from the glory days of youth) probably makes close-up cameras with special stands etc. Any thoughts? Regards, Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:08, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

I have heard of photographic rigs meant for scanning books without damaging the binding, perhaps the discussion forum on www.archive.org may be a good place to obtain professional advice. I however use my compact digital Nikon CoolPix extensively for library work and feel that it is still good enough for getting page pictures. (See for instance Image:Jerdon_dedication.jpg Some good folks have managed to privately obtain the entire BNHS set and have scanned the material and even OCR-ed all the content. The release of that material is however held up because the folks at the BNHS have not managed to understand or debate the matter of open-access science publishing or issues of copyrights. Shyamal 15:33, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, maybe I will post on archive.org. Meanwhile, I took some pictures both with my old analog Nikon and my compact digital, both on stands, and am awaiting the CD of the finished film to compare the results. Yes, one would need some kind of a rig, at least a frame would hold down the page with equal pressure along its perimeter (and not with two thumbs and two fingers that I had for help). Fowler&fowler«Talk» 08:15, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

johann wilhelm meigen difficulty

dear shyamal this am. i accessed this via johann wilhelm meigen -german version-

https://dlib.stanford.edu:6521/text1/dd-ill/insekten7.pdf

on my daughters computer a nice new sony vaio i only get as a special favour. ihave been waiting for a digital version of zweiflugen for ages.it appeared on the german version -a translation of my own page- and i got the pdf with ease. i just pasted the links over to the english page but they dont work on this computer a library one which tells me the port is invalid.what is wrong.also could you be very kind and copy a page of zweiflgen text and two pages of illustration for commons from the pdf if you get it cant do e-mail at the moment.very many thanks robert arm improving but it will take a long time i think robet —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 12:36, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

The port block is probably due to a firewall setting on the computer. I am able to access the link and I will pick some page images soon. Shyamal 17:20, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Crane

Thanks for removing that photo of cattle egret. I was thinking they were cranes!--Anoopkn 12:37, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Welcome, would suggest you upload images and make them known via a gallery on your page. Place images on articles only if you are sure about the identity. The other image you added to beetle was actually a bug. Shyamal 13:22, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

THANKS

shyamal many thanks glad this seminal work can be accessed by all -except it seems in this library-not their fault they have been very kind there are som security problems- i will write to stanford to thank them and ask for the next volumes. as a return i am working through some lepidopterists starting with the stub for Nikolaj Grigor'jevitsch Erschov of skipper fame.robert my arm is a real annoyance since i wanted to photograph some indian butterflies now th collection is moved after xmas now it seems robert —Preceding unsigned comment added by Notafly (talk • contribs) 13:56, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Country lists

I saw you've adopted India, and since there is a fair overlap with list of birds of Thailand, you might like to take a look at the headings I used and see if we can get consistency between these two Asian articles - change any of the ones I've used if you have better suggested headings. Jimfbleak 08:05, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Ok, will look over that as well. May also be delayed due to species additions such as Andaman Nightjar. Shyamal 08:10, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Yellow-headed Vulture Drawings

Shyamal-

Jude and myself have been working recently on bringing the series of articles on the New World Vultures to a Featured Topic. Jude has done a great job in writing about the two species of Yellow-headed Vulture (Greater and Lesser) up to speed (Greater is a GA, Lesser is a GAC). However, neither of these species have free images to go with their article. I was wondering if you could draw these two species to help the articles out. Each species has some external links at the bottom of the pages to some non-free pictures, and Howell and Webb, if you have it, has a good sketch of the Lesser. Any help you could supply would be great. Thanks. Rufous-crowned Sparrow 16:34, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Sure, will attempt it. Shyamal 03:27, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Rufous-crowned Sparrow 05:06, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Just got your drawing of the Greater. It looked good to me, so I went ahead and plugged it in. I'll look tomorrow and see if I can find some good head shots for the Y-hVs. Thanks. Rufous-crowned Sparrow 00:20, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry about the delay- it took me a while to find my Howell and Webb. Acording to their drawing, the Lesser should have a blue crown. Also, the skin at the base of the beak appears to be more purple. However, looking at the photos of the birds I have to agree with your sketch. Hmmm. Anyways, thanks for making the drawings- I think they helped the Lesser pass its GA. Thanks. Rufous-crowned Sparrow 02:43, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Feel free to mail me or point me links to any accurate illustrations and I will make the amends. I have little experience in the birds of that hemisphere (except for seeing Turkey Vultures in California), and do not have any reference other than Chandler Robbins et al. Birds of N A. Shyamal 02:48, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

apology

Sorry about that - there was no explanation behind the edit, all I saw was "FA in ca" which looked like shorthand for "Fire Ants in California" - editors might not want to assume that all other editors know what a couple of acronyms stand for. Peace, Dyanega 16:19, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Not a problem... hadn't thought of the context of fire and california ! Shyamal 03:29, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Madras treeshrew

Hi Shyamal, the Madras treeshrew article is almost completely translated into Tamil. But, I need a clarification for the following sentence in order to complete it.

“ When on trees, they have the habit of climbing down the tree head first.[5] ”

Is this a remarkable trait for some reason? Because, I think squirrels too do this and it seems to be the most natural way of coming down. Or does the sentence mean to say, they climb down for no apparent reason and thereby bring an implication that they do this for scent marking? Please clarify.

Btw, I've added a Tamil article for Indian threadfish too. Will try to get a photo this weekend. By the way, the Tamil name is actually "paarai" related to the Malayalam "paara". Fishbase however uses the Sinhalese name under Tamil common names too while the Malayalam name is listed correctly. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 03:49, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm, actually they carefully walk down the tree head down. I think squirrels scurry downwards at best. Will get back to you on this. Shyamal 04:23, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Bird collections GA Review

Hi, just dropping a note to tell you that I've just reviewed Bird collections, and passed it. Great work. Cheers, heyjude. 01:59, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

User:Parula wrote most of it and provided the key illustration. Credit should go there. Shyamal 02:10, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Need some help with Kachuga Tecta

Shyamal,

I have a pair of juvenile Kachuga tecta and would like to have a good reference to taking care as well as sexing them.

Thanks, Keyur —Preceding unsigned comment added by Keyurkarnik (talk • contribs) 10:28, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Have answered your email. Shyamal 10:38, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Rat flea

Hello,

I have a little problem with the latin name. For me, the rat flea is Xenopsylla cheopis (PDF like here on the Institut Pasteur web site and like other sources) and not Xenopsylla cheopsis like on english Wikipedia.

Best regards.--Valérie75 17:08, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

cheopis seems to be correct - http://www.catalogueoflife.org/show_species_details.php?record_id=560657, making the changes. Shyamal 01:02, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

Bengalia species list

Hi. That list of species you just posted is incomplete (filling it out is going to require a fair bit of effort to obtain a copy of Lehrer's revision). You might want to add a statement to that effect. Peace, Dyanega 18:33, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Done ! Shyamal 00:52, 15 November 2007 (UTC)

About SVG images made by you!

		The Fauna Barnstar
		To thank you, Shyamal, for your contributions to bird wikis by creating such a variety of beautiful SVG images. A unique and valuable contribution. Keep it up! AshLin (talk) 13:29, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I wish I could enthuse more people into taking up illustration with Inkscape - that fantastic tool. In fact it has really got me considering the idea of investing in a Wacom tablet. I discovered today that Inkscape is also a very convenient tool for isolating objects from photographs - as simple as drawing the outline and setting a clip region. I find it more controllable even than the magic ("magnetic") outlining tools available in Photoshop that allow cutting out the boundaries of objects from their backgrounds. Shyamal (talk) 13:56, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Sandbox

Dear Shyamal My attempts to make a subpage sandbox proved futile.Will you be very kind again and fix this for me.My arm is much improved.This was a real annoyance I was just about to go Paris to photograph the Johann Wilhem Meigen collection and some very rare butterflies.A pleasure though was that a photo I took in Rome is on the Vittorio Emmanuel Monument page Best wishes Robert Notafly (talk) 10:32, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Bad spelling

Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II I put the (top left) chariga horse photo into commons.Gratifyingly it was used shortly afterwards R Notafly (talk) 10:40, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Could be India

Roma Termini station go to the Commons Termini link at page bottom.Then find my gipsy pic.You must join us in Rome as a guest R Notafly (talk) 10:49, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

re: Madras treeshrew

Thanks for that Shyamal. Now I can complete the Tamil translation of the article. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 06:38, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your vote

Thank you for participating in my RfA, which passed with a vote of (53/0/1). As a token of my appreciation, please accept this bowl of tzatziki. I feel honored to be trusted by so many of you. Wikipedia is such a large community, that my acceptance in the face of such large numbers truly is humbling. I will use my new tools to continue the tasks for which you entrusted them to me. Gratefully, EncycloPetey (talk) 18:34, 21 November 2007 (UTC)