User talk:Buddhipriya/Archive 1: Difference between revisions

Please add new sections at the bottom of the page in chronological order to make it easier to see what is new. Also, please sign your comments by typing ~~~~ at the end. That will automatically insert links back to your user page along with a date stamp. If you ask me a question here I will probably answer it here. Buddhipriya 18:45, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

My first contact with someone on Wikipedia!

Welcome!

Hello, Buddhipriya, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help pages
• Tutorial
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and ask your question there. Again, welcome! 

I've seen that you edit Hinduism articles. You may consider joining WikiProject Hinduism. Thanks Gizza^{Chat ©} 07:07, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

SAntoshi Ma

DO v really need 2 write abt a 'goddess', who has 'no Puranic evidence' in the Ganesha article????

- Redtigerxyz

Thank you so much for opening a dialog about this! I see from your edits that you have an interest in Ganesha, and your help in improving his page is very welcome. Because the question pertains to an edit for that page, it may be better for me to reply in detail on the talk page for Ganesha so we can exchange views with other editors who may miss it if they are here. I will raise your very valid question there and try to answer, so please take a look and we can continue this dialog there. Thanks again for the direct communication! ॐ गं गणपतये नमः Buddhipriya 19:20, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Re:Vairagya

Namaskar Buddhipriya! I fixed your edits on the Vairagya page so that is follow Wikipedia's conventions. To understand some important Wiki-policies please read WP:MOS and WP:CITE#HOW. Also may you read the main Hinduism page on Wikipedia (here - Hinduism). Many of us here want to make the main Hinduism article and other articles into Feature articles, which in short mean they are up to the highest standard of quality and quantity on Wikipedia. If you think the article has too much detail on particular topics, has very little information on more important areas, or something isn't explained well, please provide feedback on Talk:Hinduism. Thank you very much and keep up the good work! Gizza^{Chat ©} 10:37, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Welcome

I noticed that you have made several good edits, and insightful and civil comments on Hinduism related pages. Such editing is always welcome here and I hope you'll continue to contribute to this (and other) projects !

I read your comments regarding the use of IAST with interest and general agreement. A couple of points in that regard:

• I think it is a good idea to provide the IAST transliteration for a Sanskrit term at the first or main page where the term is defined so that an interested reader can learn to pronounce the term correctly if he/she so chooses.
• However I think repeated usage of IAST in every occurrence of a term reduces readability for an average reader who is more likely to be interested in learning about the term rather than its phonetic pronunciation alone (of course, as stated above, the latter information should be available)

I am curious to know your opinion on the above points. A side note: when adding an IAST transliteration it is useful to use the IAST template {{IAST| }} ; similarly consider using the language template, e.g. {{lang|sa|}} for sanskrit.

Welcome again. Feel free to leave any questions/comments on my talk page. Abecedare 21:39, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

I like your curry analogy, but on wikipedia (with 1000s of editors) it is also important to follow the policies, guidelines and the manual of style WP:MOS so that too many cooks do not spoil the broth. :-)

A couple of tips:

• To start a new topic on a talk page, you can click on the "+" sign (next to the "edit this page" in the top toolbar).
• You correctly sign your name on talk page messages. However note that wikipedia articles should not contain signatures !
• Don't be afraid to make (unintentional) editing mistakes on wikipedia; at the same time don't mind if other editors edit your additions (or even revert your changes) or offer you advice (mea culpa).

In my experience, a useful way to learn to format content on wikipedia is to open a page, like say Hinduism in editing mode (although be careful not to save your changes, unless you intend to) , and see how the various items (sections, subsections, wikilinks, external links etc) are coded. Learning thus through examples is often easier that learning through formal instructions provided by welcome links above (although, just like IAST transliteration, it is useful to have the links to fall back on for definitive answers). Abecedare 22:42, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I am new to Wikipedia and need your help to learn correct methods of working. I will try to make use of the two templates you suggest. Regarding IAST, I like your point that it should be available to the reader but not necessarily forced upon them all the time. Always we must try to build people up rather than make them feel limited. Because I am used to IAST and work with it a lot, my reflex is to put everything in IAST but I agree with you that the article must keep the needs of the reader in first place. Perhaps over time there will develop some tiered system for Indic content, in which a reader could choose to read a topic either with or without the source language details. Eventually these systems will probably dynamically adjust to the reading preferences of each reader, delivering a customized version of each article. Our children will look back on these discussions as quaint. But today we need to think it all through in a collaborative and respectful manner. Buddhipriya 22:40, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Ganesha Purana

You must have noticed that I moved the article you created to Ganesha Purana as per Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English). The main reason for this guideline is that the if a user searches for Ganesha Purana (and surely he won't type IAST in google or wikipedia search :-) ) and the article title is in IAST, he will not find it ! I have also made an attempt to wikify the article and add the standard nuts and bolts to the content you had typed earlier. I hope you agree with the advisability of the edits.

I think the article as it stands is a reasonable stub. However content needs to be added to discuss (based on reliable sources) the contents of the purana and what commentators have said about it. Ideally we don't want to simply say that there are 3 books written about the purana (although even that is better than saying nothing), but rather what the books say about the purana itself. But it is a good start - good job! Abecedare 23:37, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for the excellent improvements you have made so quickly. I will be able to learn much about Wiki formats by studying your changes. I am unsure how much detail to provide on this and other topics until I get a better sense of how stable Wiki articles are. For example my remark that "no critical edition" had been issued was deleted, perhaps because the term "critical edition" was not recognized. A critical edition of these sources means that many alternative readings have been reviewed and reconciled by scholars to produce a consensus text. If there is no critical edition, it means that individual editions may show significant variations from one another. This is indeed the case with the Ganesha Purana, so the 1993 edition by Sharma and the Bailey version are not quite the same text. It is fascinating seeing what elements of the text "stick" in Wiki and which fall away quickly. ") Buddhipriya 23:45, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually that was my mistake. What I meant to delete was the word "unfortunately" (which is an editorial, rather than factual or informative comment; we should state the facts and let the user decide if it is to be celebrated or bemoaned. The exception being, if we quote/cite someone saying that Fact A is unfortunate) , but deleted the whole sentence in error. I have added back the info.

I have also created an article talk page at Talk: Ganesha Purana where future discussion about the article content can occur. Abecedare 23:57, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Just curious

What Hindu denomination do you follow? I think you are either a Shaiva or Ganapatya. Best wishes Gizza^{Chat ©} 09:24, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

"God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole." - p. 191, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, tr. Swami Nikhilananda.

"It is not good to feel that my religion alone is true and other religions are false. The correct attitude is this: My religion is right, but I do not know whether other religions are right or wrong, true or false. I say this because one cannot know the true nature of God unless one realizes Him." - pp. 558-559

"God has made different religions and creeds to suit different aspirants. By no means all are fit for the knowledge of Brahman. Therefore the worship of God with form is provided." - p. 486

ॐ गं गणपतये नमः

Buddhipriya 18:15, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Explanation of my name

Hello again. It seems to me that you are not from North India or at least you do not know Hindi. The Hindi pronunciation (and many othe Indian languages) of Devanagari is different from Sanskrit. Firstly, the virama is not needed on Hindi words. This is why in most modern Hindu Indians, North or South, have names like Shiv, Ganesh, Ram, Govind instead of Shiva, Ganesha, Rama, Govinda etc. Secondly, अह् is really pronounced like एह् for non-Sanskrit derived Hindi words. That means Taj Mahal is pronounced as Taj Mehal. This is because of Persian/Muslim/Urdu influences on the language. Often, the "a"s (अ) in the middle of North Indian language words aren't pronounced too if the vowel isn't stressed, expecially in informal usage, like the word tyaar तयार (which means ready). If you see the Sehgal page on Wikipedia, you may notice alternative spellings though the pronunciation is still the same as mine. Of course Sanskrit derived words with अह् are pronouned properly like Maharaj (Great king/emperor) महाराज. Another common pronunciation difference between modern Indian languages and Sanskrit is the "ai" ऐ and "au" औ. Now they are pronounced as ē and ō in all modern Indian languages apart from a few Southern ones like Tamil and maybe some Eastern ones like Bengali. Gizza^{Chat ©} 05:47, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Wonderful education for me, thank you! You are correct that I do not know Hindi. Can you comment on regional variations in how the vowel ऋ is pronounced in Hindi? It is my impression that the "trilling" is more pronounced in Northern India but I am not sure if this is correct. By the way, once questions like this have been answered is it OK to delete them from talk pages? I am unclear on Wiki protocol for these exchanges. Is it best to answer on your talk page or keep both questions and replies on the same talk page?Buddhipriya 06:01, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

ऋ in Hindi tends to be pronounced as "ri" except at the end where it is "ra". Example - ऋषि is rishi but पितृ is "pitr" or "pitra." so it is slightly trilled at the end of words. In Gujarati, ऋ is pronounced as "ru" which is why they say rushi and Sanskrut!

For your talk pages, it is best to keep all messages unless they are very bad (offesive material, swearing, attacks but hopesfully this won't happen). Of course, after awhile your talk page becomes too big but we don't delete the old discusion. Instead we archive it. Please read WP:ARCHIVE on how to do that. Don't worry, at the moment your talk page isn't very big. Gizza^{Chat ©} 06:17, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

An award !

		The Exceptional Newcomer Award
		Here is an award both for your significant contributions to wikipedia as a knowledge repository, particularly the articles Ganesh Purana and Mudgala Purana that you brought up almost single-handedly, as well as the manner in which you comport yourself and interact with other users. Keep it up ! Abecedare 06:11, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Vandalism

I noticed that you already correctly dealt with vandalism on the Ganesh Chaturthi page. For future reference, here are somethings you can do about obvious vandalism:

• Revert the changes either manually or using popups, such as WP:POPUP.
• Leave a message on the user's talk page. You can use one of the user warning templates for this purpose.
• In cases of persistent vandalism you can file a report at WP:AIV or WP:ANI as appropriate (see further notes on those pages) to draw an admin's attention. The page may need to be protected/ semi-protected or the editor blocked - although for obvious reasons these steps are not taken lightly.

If you are not certain that the edit is vandalism, assume good faith and leave at least an edit summary informing the editors (and others) the reason why you have reverted the changes. You can request editors to discuss disputed changes on the article's talk page. In such cases also be aware of the three revert rule !
Finally, my personal advice is that while you should undo vandalism whenever you can, don't get emotionally involved even when you see persistent vandals attacking pages you have devoted time and attention to. As you continue to edit on wikipedia it is inevitable that you will run into persons whose mindset will appear alien to you - rather than let that upset you, it is more fruitful to take some time off, or move to other pages, or get help from admins and the wikipedia community. Above all remember the original reasons you started editing here, which are likely to be out of an desire to contribute to this incredible knowledgebase while having fun and gaining personal satisfaction.. Abecedare 07:26, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

An article which you started, or significantly expanded, Ganesha Purana, was selected for DYK!

On February 9, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Ganesha Purana, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

Thanks for your contributions! Nishkid64 22:48, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks so much for the barnstar!

You have done tremendous work on Wikipedia so far and I hope you continue to do so! Gizza^{Chat ©} 08:09, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks from me too, and congrats on the DYK ! Hope you keep working on new + existing wikipedia article; let me know if I can be of any help. Thanks. Abecedare 18:58, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I honestly have not done much with Hinduism-related, or Indian-related topics, as far as I know. Anyway, thanks again, and keep up the good work on Wikipedia. =) Nishkid64 14:40, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Spam links

Thank you for removing the commercial spam links from Japa related pages. Appreciated. Regards, Gouranga(UK) 11:51, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Jai Santoshi Ma

Nice work ! By the way, IMDB spells the movie name as Jai Santoshi Maa (the simplified transliteration; see [1]), so it may be good to move the page to that spelling. (I can do that, if you agree to the move) By the way, I too have never created a Hindi movie page and so cannot offer many pointers. I have added a film infobox to the page, although I was too lazy to fill in all the fields :-) Abecedare 22:48, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

You are right, IMDb does use "Maa" -- so that is what I think we should go with. I have done the move and normalized the links to use "Maa". Thank you also for your guidance on how to build more consensus on some of the complex topics. The ability of anyone to change anything is a mysterious and chaotic process. Any suggestions on what to do with the issue of the history section for the Ganesha page?Buddhipriya 22:59, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Kak and Twin Paradox

Dear Buddhipriya, I noticed that you replaced 'meaningless' in the twin paradox section with 'unclear', asserting that 'meaningless' is harse (sic: harsh?), and that you are not qualified to assess the claim. I sincerely recommend that we discuss this, and that 'meaningless' be re-inserted into that section. Firstly, I am qualified to assess the claim, as special relativity (being part of any undergraduate level course on modern physics) was taught to me in college, and understanding it doesn't even require you to be a physics major. Moreover, the person who inserted the word 'meaningless' is Lumidek, a physics professor at Harvard. I hope this clarifies things a bit; if not, please discuss with me or other Wikipedians who can comment on this topic. Thanks and with best wishes, Gajamukhu 23:43, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Dear Gajamukhu, I have self-reverted that edit. Thank you for your communication about it. My intent was only to look for things that seemed POV to me as a non-specialist. Buddhipriya 23:57, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! Gajamukhu 00:17, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Quick tip

An easy way to link to wikipedia policies, guidelines etc is to use shortcuts, instead of typing the whole URL. For example here are five options for pointing to the reliable source guideline:

1. "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reliable_sources"
2. "[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reliable_sources]" which appears as [2]
3. "[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reliable_sources reliable sources]" which appears as reliable sources
4. " [[WP:RS]] ", which appear as WP:RS; and
5. "[[WP:RS|reliable sources]]" which appears as reliable sources

Typically, options (4) and (5) are preferred (depending upon the context), since they are easier to remember, type and read. Over time, you will have memorized the more common acronyms anyway. Cheers! Abecedare 23:50, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your continued coaching! Buddhipriya 00:23, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

appropriate external links

Hello, I am writing in regards to your removing the external link I have placed under Ganehsa. You indicated that it is not a suitable link but did not say why you believe so. Please see the link if you have not already. The site is from Sahaja Yoga (Canada) which is a universal religious organization that holds Shri Ganesha in the highest of regard. [3] The information from the link is from scripture. Please see Dnyaneshwari as reference. Dnyanshwari (aka Jnanadev) expounded on kundalini and the chakras in a most lucid and poetic way. I would like to add the link again and see that it can remain as an appropriate external link.Workie77 20:28, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Namaste, thank you for your message. According to Wiki policy on reliable sources the issue is that anyone can put anything on a web site, so in assessing web links one must look for quality of primary source references. There are none on that web site, and the site adds nothing to what is in the article. The Wiki policy also points out that web sites operated by religious groups are to be used with particular caution. If you want to add material of a general nature about chakras, perhaps you could give it a try on the talk pages for chakra. The Ganesha page currently contains a lot of unreferenced material which we are trying to clean up. Wiki articles that reference other wiki articles as sources can be circular in nature, by the way, and at some point a verifiable resource such as a book needs to be cited. I have no question that your organization holds Ganesha in high regard. The issue is that the content does not meet tests for verifiability.Buddhipriya 20:33, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

deletion of content

Thank you for wisiting may talk page:

Please do not delete content from articles on Wikipedia, as you did to Sarmatians. It may be considered vandalism. If you would like to experiment, please use the sandbox. Thank you. Buddhipriya 01:50, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

here is my answer. The map is false. Nasz 02:08, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

sory

i was very mistaken, plese forgive me that i talked to you

Nasz 05:01, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Template test

Test 1

This is test 1 of a template that is under development at Template_talk:DisplayTranslations. This test does not use the IAST template.

Test 2

This is test 2 of the template and includes an IAST template embedded within the main template. This test shows the embedding of an IAST template within the DisplayTranslations template causes a parsing error.

Test 3

This is test 3 of the template. It omits the IAST template but shows what happens if a user omits one of the two required arguments for a language pair. The language Klingonese has been added with no paired word, creating a malformed structure.

Test 4

This is test 4, omitting the use of italics but otherwise using the template as designed. Italics make the words harder to read on some displays. I dislike italics.

Buddhipriya 21:46, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Test 2a

Hi Buddhipriya -

Thanks again for all your excellent experimentation, guidance and encouragement. If I may just provide a slightly modified test 2, this test shows the embedding of an IAST template within the DisplayTranslations template works correctly if the pipe-escape ({{!}}) is used instead of the standard pipe (|). (I've added some text to Template:DisplayTranslations' introductory text to attempt to further explain this.) Hope you find this encouraging :-)

With metta, Larry Rosenfeld (talk) 05:15, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Another template test with the new IAST imbedding

ur:گنیش

Thanks for the template

Thanks for the vandalism template. I'll be sure to use it in future. GrimGary 06:51, 23 February 2007 (UTC)